Monthly $75 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway - October 2017

It is time for our monthly giveaway!  You have a chance to win a $75 Teachers pay Teachers gift every single month, and today is the day!

Once you have entered, be sure to click on my Giveaway tab to enter all of the other giveaways this month!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $75 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, Kelly McCown, Sandra Naufal, Teacher Jeanell, The Literacy Garden, A Plus Kids, It's a Teacher Thing, Jackie Crews, Reading and Writing Redhead, LIVIN' IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER, MMBilingual, Mrs Hansens Helpfuls, TeachKidLearn, Ms. K, 180 Days of Reading, The Best Days, Katie Roltgen, Catch My Products, PreK Kristin, Carrie Comincioli, Teaching Where You're Called, Heart 2 Heart Teaching, Cathy's Cool Creations, The Chocolate Teacher, Leah Popinski, Walk with Me a Second, Kamp Kindergarten, Mickey's Place, Teaching Second Grade, Teach with Hope, Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten, Peas In A Pod, A Library and Garden, and KB3Teach.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 10/13/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

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Take a Photo Walk With Your Students To Fire Up Their Writing

Have you ever been on an Apple Photo Walk? It's a free class offered at Apple stores where an Apple employee guides you through a scenic walk while providing tips and tricks for getting the best photos from your iPhone.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

My sons, Luke and Cody are super into photography and making videos, so they wanted to take the class.  As I took the class along with them - I realized a ton of possibilities for using this in the classroom! Here are a few of my ideas for using this practice for writing.

The Apple Creative met us in the store and gave us a quick run-down of how the photo walk would go.  

She really emphasized telling a story with your pictures.  This got me thinking of how this technique could be used to help your students write a story.

I decided my story for my photos would be this blog post with pictures of my boys telling their own stories.  

The boys had a harder time focusing on their own story as they were taking the pictures, but when they went back and looked through them, they were able to group pictures into themes and had several story ideas.

One of the suggestions she gave us was to find things that looked out of place - like these purple flowers with a burst of random orange color.

Another suggestion was to take pictures at different angles.  Cody was able to take a picture of this rock and make it look like a mountain!

I LOVE his dedication to this shot!  The boys were 100% engaged the whole hour and I know students will be as well when I try this out with my class!

The Photo Walk ended with an editing and share session inside the store.  The boys were able to talk about each picture with story ideas - this verbal story telling is great practice for students before they begin writing as well!

I will share how this activity goes with my class in a later post (as well as a few other ideas that were sparked during our Photo Walk for other subjects)! 

You can sign up for your own Photo Walk here.

They also have Teacher Tuesday classes with several different topics you can sign up for.

7 Things I Learned in September

I ran into this blog post from Emily Freeman where she shared the things she had learned, and I decided it might be fun to create a monthly post of the things I learned in the past month. At the end of the post you're invited to link up your own list of things you learned this month.

September is always a crazy month for teachers, and this one was no exception for me! Here are the 7 things I learned in September in no particular order:

1. Tomato Horn worms grow really fast!

A few years ago, one of my students brought in a tomato horn worm and my class was obsessed! The same student asked if I would like another one for my classroom, and I agreed to take it.  The students have loved watching him eat and grow!  They definitely do damage to a tomato plant!

2. The Record of Reading App makes running records so much easier!

I recently downloaded the Record of Running App after seeing a post on Facebook and it is so much easier to take a running record now!  The best part? The app is free!  It only is available for iPads though.

3. My students are pretty good at self-assessing!

I often have my students self-assess themselves as they finish tasks.  One way I do this is by having a group of folders numbered 1- 4.  

1 - I can't do this even with help.
2 - I can do this with help.
3 - I can do this on my own.
4 - I can do this so well, I could teach someone else.

The students file their work in the appropriate file.  It helps me to form small groups for re-teach or enrichment, and the students are usually pretty honest about where they fall.

4. My boys and I LOVE photography!

Cody, Luke, and I took a photography class at the Apple store and we have all fallen in love with photography!  I will be posting a blog post on Wednesday about how to use what we learned in your classroom!

5. My students LOVE 4th grade so far!

I love when I get notes and letters from my students like this one!

6. My students have lots of strengths in Reading and Writing!

I love to use these surveys for Reading and Writing from Jennifer Serravallo to help my students set reading and writing goals for themselves.

What Can I Work on as a Reader?

What Can I Work on as a Writer?

7. You can use Tangrams to help your students develop a growth mindset.

We had a Professional Development session on Growth Mindset this past week.  The trainer had us try to put together Tangram puzzles.  She said it would be a great task to give your students to help introduce the idea of having a growth mindset.

Possible Questions to ask students:

1. What did you try first?
2. Did you wish you had additional information?
3. Did you collaborate with others?
4. Did you peek at someone else's work?
5. What did you learn from this activity that you could apply to other challenges you face?

Now it's your turn! What did YOU learn in September? 

Link up below, and comment on at least 2 other posts.

An InLinkz Link-up

Using a Pill Box and Dice to Practice Place Value

One of our first math units of the year is Place Value, and I know that is true for many of you!  I wanted to share one of my favorite tools for practicing many place value concepts.

This post contains affiliate links. I earn a small commission each time someone makes a purchase using one of my links, which helps to support the blog.  All opinions are my own and I only promote brands and products that I have used myself and truly love.  

These are just the daily pill organizers from Dollar Tree. I took the letters off by soaking them in rubbing alcohol and then wiping them off with a washcloth.  Now how do I use them?

Reading Numbers 

Students often struggle to say big numbers in the hundred thousands or millions.  I have students practice by shaking the box and then practice saying the number that they roll.  The number above would be one million, two hundred fifty-two thousand, five hundred sixty-five.

You can easily differentiate for students by changing the number of dice you use.  You can also differentiate by changing the type of dice you use.  

Writing Numbers

Students can also use the same process to practice writing numbers as well.

Expanded Form 

I also have my students use the pill boxes to practice expanded form.  They shake the box to get a number and I have them ask each other questions such as how many tens, or what is the value of the digit in the thousands place?

They can build the number using place value blocks or place value disks. Then they can write the number out in expanded form.

Again, you can differentiate by changing the number of dice in the box.

Comparing Numbers 

You can use two different boxes to have students practice comparing numbers.

Rounding Numbers 

Students can practice rounding numbers by shaking the dice and then asking themselves, what is this number rounded to the greatest place (or tens place, hundreds place, thousands place, etc).

Adding and Subtracting Numbers With Regrouping 

Use two containers to have students practice adding and subtracting numbers with regrouping.

Check out this YouTube video of an old Periscope recording where I shared some other ideas for using these:

What other uses for these simple boxes can you think of?  Have you used these Place Value Boxes in your classroom? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below or tag me on Twitter or Instagram.

And before you leave, head on over to our Giveaway page to enter our current giveaway!

Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway - October 2, 2017

Every week we give away a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card to one very lucky teacher! Enter below to treat yourself to a few goodies!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card 

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher and Mrs Hansens Helpfuls.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 10/9/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

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Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway September 25, 2017

 Every week we give away a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card to one very lucky teacher! Don't miss out on your chance to be the lucky winner!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, It's a Teacher Thing, LIVIN' IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER, Southern Drawl, and Mrs. Hansen's Helpfuls.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 10/2/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

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Weekly $25 Teachers pay Teachers Gift Card Giveaway September 18, 2017 - With a Bonus Prize!

It is time for our weekly giveaway and this week we have a Bonus Prize for the winner!  Every week we give away a $25 Teachers pay Teachers gift card to one very lucky teacher! And... this week, that lucky winner will ALSO get a laminator!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: $25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card and a Scotch Laminator!

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher, The Craft of Teaching, It's Kinder Time, Teach with Hope, Teacher Gameroom, LIVIN' IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER, KB3Teach, Southern Drawl, Glistening Gems, Mrs. Hansen's Helpfuls.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter.  Giveaway ends 9/25/17 and is open worldwide.

Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media?  Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers! 

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