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June 29, 2018

Independence Day Giveaway

Happy Independence Day! 


A team of amazing international teachers and I have joined together to award an awesome teacher a 150 dollar Teachers Pay Teachers gift card to show them how appreciative we are for their service as a teacher! Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to receive this terrific TpT gift card. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



June 26, 2018

Fantastic Favorite Freebies Collection

Everybody LOVES freebies! Especially teachers, right? I have a brand new freebie and an invitation that I would like to share with all of my bloggy friends.


Task Cards and ZAP!

Task cards are VERY popular in many elementary and middle school classrooms. I think that I use task cards at least three out of the five school days each week. Easily adapted to any content area and grade level, they make for a welcome change from just completing a worksheet for skill practice. This pack of 42 task cards (40 skill cards and two ZAP cards) may be used in a literacy center, as part of a scavenger hunt, or for a game of scoot or ZAP. Each card requires a student to read a sentence and identify its verb. The cards contain sentences taken from Lauren Tarshis’s popular I Survived Series books, my students' favorite books overall. This pack of cards can be used by an individual student, for small group instruction, or with an entire class. They are extremely versatile, easy to implement, and best of all...reusable.



To prepare this set of task cards…
1.Print the Playing Cards found on pages 4-10.
2.Laminate the pages for durability if you choose.
3.Cut apart the cards.
4.Print the cover page and glue it onto a large envelope.
5.Print a copy of the Answer Sheet found on page 11.
6.Place the Playing Cards, ZAP cards, and Answer Sheet in the envelope for safe storage.


To play a game of Scoot…
1. Place the cards (minus the ZAP cards) around the room face down in front of each student. Use as many cards as you like. If you wish to use all the cards, simply double-up cards in front of some students if necessary.
2. Have each student number a sheet of paper from 1-40 (or however many cards you choose to use). You might consider playing two separate rounds, using cards 1-20 for round one and cards 21-40 for the second round.
3. Students begin by answering the card(s) in front of them, writing their answer(s) on their paper next to the matching number.
4. After an appropriate amount of time, call “SCOOT!” and students turn the card(s) face down and move to the next place where they answer the question on that card.
5. Play continues in this manner until all items have been answered or time runs out.
6. Collect the student papers to assess yourself or check them together in class.





To Play a Game of ZAP (My students' FAVORITE game):
•Divide your class into several teams depending on the number of students.
•Determine how long you will play or how many rounds you will complete.
•Place the task cards and the two ZAP cards in a container (coffee can, paper bag, etc.).
•Have a student draw a card from the container without looking inside
•The team should read the words on the card, then confer to determine the answer.
•If the team answers correctly, it keeps the card. If it answers incorrectly the card is returned to the container.
•Teams take turns drawing/collecting the cards. However, there is a twist. If a team draws a ZAP card, it must return ALL of its cards to the container. Return the ZAP card to the container after each turn.
•The winner is the team that collects the most strips. You may want to award them with a simple prize such as a piece of candy, bonus points on an upcoming quiz/test, 5 minutes of free time, etc.

To Use as a Scatter (Scavenger Hunt) Activity:
•Distribute the task cards around the classroom, hiding some in plain sight while others place out of sight.
•Have students number a paper from 1-40 or however many cards you have decided to use.
•Students should meander around the classroom in search of hidden task cards. As they locate a card, they should read it and record its answer.

•You can have the entire class scattering around the room or just a few students at a time. This can be a station activity, small group enrichment, or whole class assessment. Anyway you present Scatter is great for students since they are able to get up and get moving around the room a bit.

You can download your free set of I Survived Various Verbs HERE or by visiting my TpT Store and downloading the featured free product.

Looking for MORE freebies? I've listed several more below.

And now for the INVITATION...

TpT friends, I invite you to include your favorite freebies in the list below. We can create a tremendous warehouse of fantastic products that are easy to locate. In the process, we can share our talents with each other and with blog visitors who might not have been able to find us before.

FANTASTIC FAVORITE FREEBIES COLLECTION




June 25, 2018

May the Force Be With You: Maker Lab Star Wars

There is no doubt that the Maker Lab series of books published by DK Books are among my favorite nonfiction materials for my sixth grade science students. I've blogged about these books on three separate occasions, celebrating each new addition to the Maker Lab series:

     Maker Lab, the original book
     Maker Lab Outdoors
     Maker Lab Out of the Box

Today's blog post is featuring another Maker Lab book, one that I predict might become the most popular thus far.

by Liz Heinecke and Cole Horton

Containing the perfect amount of science, science fiction, and movie lore, this edition enables readers to create wonderfully futuristic, fun projects. While this book is not available until July 3, 2018, Amazon already has it listed in anticipation of its popularity, and says this about Maker Lab Star Wars:

Ever wanted to move things without touching them like a Jedi can? Or grow your own kyber crystal? Or maybe explode a balloon with a beam of energy, just like the Death Star? Now you can! 
With 20 amazing projects, Star Wars™ Maker Lab teaches your budding Padawan how to become a Master of science, in both the real world and the Star Wars galaxy. Using clear step-by-step instructions, the book guides home scientists and makers through each exciting experiment–from making Jabba's gooey slime or a hovering landspeeder, to an Ewok catapult and a glowing Gungan Globe of Peace. Each experiment has fact-filled panels to explain the real-world science as well as the Star Wars science fiction from the movies. 
With projects that are out of this world, this fantastic Star Wars book can keep children entertained for hours, making use of many household items such as cardboard tubes, baking soda, cornstarch, straws, balloons, and food coloring. There is also plenty to keep more adventurous scientists enthralled, with instructions to make your own bristlebot mouse droid, lightsaber duel, and Mustafar volcano. Star Wars Maker Lab supports STREAM topics and helps children to learn the basics of science by traveling through the Star Wars galaxy. May the (static) Force be with you!... Amazon.com
Among those 20 fun, futuristic projects are:




Each project's difficulty level is represented by a series of Yoda heads, ranging from simple to most challenging. Full color photos describe the household materials needed to complete a compete and illustrates the step-by-step instructions. Movie scenes spark the interest of the Star Wars fanatic and draws them into that galaxy far, far away! 

If you already own the Maker Lab series, you will definitely want to add this volume, and if you haven't added a Maker Lab book to your library, this is one to start with! May the Force be with you!





June 20, 2018

It's Time to SWITCH #2sale

Isn't is time for you to SWITCH how your students practice ELA skill work?

There is no more engaging way to practice ELA skills than by playing a game! SWITCH is a card game played similarly to Uno. Every version of SWITCH requires students to practice a particular ELA skill before they can play a card. Mixing fun with needed skills practice is definitely a WINNING combination! 

Each SWITCH game contains 72 cards (four of which are programmable by you) and is appropriate for 2-8 middle school aged players. An answer key and detailed directions are included with every game. 

There currently are seven SWITCH games available in my TpT Store: Pronouns, Sentence Structure, Sentence Type, Prepositional Phrases, Verbs, Direct Objects, and a Make Your Own SWITCH game

I've joined Nikki from Oceanview Resources and several other talented TpT teacher-creators to offer you a special hashtag sale of awesome TpT products each priced at just two dollars. Six of my SWITCH games are featured in our #2sale occurring now through this coming Sunday, June 24th. That's a 33% savings on each game. Stock up now for the next school year and grab some terrific teaching products in the process.

Click HERE to see all of the sale products, or simply visit Teachers Pay Teachers and search using the hashtag #2sale.





June 15, 2018

Father's Day Giveaway and Hashtag Sale

Happy Father's Day! 
A team of amazing teachers and I have come together to give an awesome teacher a TPT gift card to show him/her how appreciative we are for his/her support!


Just enter the Rafflecopter below before midnight June 23, 2018, for your chance to receive a $200 gift card from Teachers Pay Teachers!


a Rafflecopter giveaway


Once you've entered our Rafflecopter, hop on over to TpT to check out the special hashtag sale being offered for the next few days, from now through June 18th. Click HERE or visit TpT and use #celebratedeals as your search term.