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.

I Survived Various Verbs

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

Popular ELA Print and Go Holiday Resource...FREEBIE

I hate to be the bearer of bad news! I know that most teachers have just begun their holiday break, but looking ahead... School does resume after the holidays are over. If you're like me, you're anxious to return to your kiddos, but the thought of preparing lessons and activities and a return to the paperwork can be disheartening. Here's a fun, engaging, print and go ELA activity that will help you get back into the swing of things. It's the first thing that I present to my sixers on the first day back after holiday break.

New Year Mystery Picture Parts of Speech

Following a key, students match a word's part of speech with its representative color. They then color squares to reveal a mystery picture. The parts of speech practiced in this mystery picture are nouns (singular and plural) and verbs (past, present, and future tense). The coloring sheet can be projected on a whiteboard for whole or small group instruction/participation instead of printing individual paper copies. 

With over 11,000 downloads, this popular FOREVER FREEBIE has been shared and used with numerous students and has been widely reviewed by teachers.

Buyer: I think this is a wonderful idea for kids to do and have fun at the same time
Sunflowers and Smiles: Thank you for providing this activity! The kids loved practicing their grammar skills.
Megan W.: Great for review and to ease back into the swing of things after break.
Buyer: Great for a warm-up or homework assignment.
Christina R.: This was great as an independent center last week! Thanks for sharing!
Lorraine C.: Great review for morning work! Thanks!
Jennifer G.: Great way to start the new year and review parts of speech. Thank you!
Buyer said: This is so AWESOME! I used it in my home school group and they loved it!
Martine C.: Great activity to help review the parts of speech while students are getting settled back into the routine of school.
Michelle B.: Thanks! Great idea for reviewing parts of speech, and easing into the new year next week.
Louise C.: I love that they are coloring and applying knowledge at the same time!
Buyer: This is such a novel idea and kids love mysteries so it will keep them engaged too, thanks very much!

To read more about this product or download a copy for yourself, please click HERE. If you like this product and would like more like it, click HERE. There are over 75 Mystery Picture products in my TpT Store!

Advent: Season of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love (freebies)

It's that time again! It's the beginning of the Liturgical Year, our New Year! The Season of Advent begins this coming Sunday, Nov. 27, 2016. Advent is one of my favorite times of the year- it is the season of hope, peace, joy, and love that reminds us of the coming of  Light into our world of darkness.

To help you celebrate this wondrous time of the year I have many freebies for you and your students...

First, if you are using brag tags in your classroom, HERE is a set for you.

Next is a packet of materials: spelling list, graphic organizer, editing activitiy, and more. You can download it HERE.

HERE is a simple Advent Take Three. This is a great pre-writing activity!

Speaking of Writing Activity, HERE is a prompt from the original Paragraph a Week program just for Advent.

Are you and your students keeping Interactive ELA Notebooks? Here are three foldables perfect for integrating religion with Language Arts. One for ADJECTIVES, one for VERBS, and one for ADVERBS.

Need a quick, yet attractive Advent decoration for your classroom? HERE is a banner for your students to construct that combines research, writing, and fun!

Working with older students? HERE is an activity that integrates Language Arts skills with Music. Students must scavenge the lyrics of the familiar Advent hymn "On Jordan's Bank" for poetry, literary, and grammatical elements.

Just for fun or for a writing center HERE is a list of Would You Rather's tailored for Advent.

Interested in STILL MORE Advent/ELA activities? Just click HERE.

Earth Day Freebie and Giveaway

No foolin'! Earth Day is fast approaching, April 22nd, just three weeks from today! Are you prepared to celebrate with your students? For a quick, no fuss, print-and-go way to include a little Earth Day in your grs. 3-7 ELA classes, here's a fun and engaging ZAP game.

Students are reminded of the importance of this celebration while they determine the part of speech for Earth Day related vocabulary words. You can grab your Earth Day freebie HERE.

Would you like to spread your Earth Day celebration over more than one day? Here are two ELA Scoot activities to get your students thinking about this seasonal holiday.

On each of the 32 task cards in this first activity are four Earth Day related words. Students must determine which word would come first in alphabetical order. Perfect for a game of Scoot, these cards are also useful in a literacy center, as exit tickets, or as part of an Interactive Notebook. You can read more about them and download them HERE.

This set of 24 Scoot cards is especially designed for older elementary students. Beside providing engaging practice with revising skills, the sentences on the cards are full of background information about Earth Day. You can read more about them and download them HERE.

How do you celebrate Earth Day in your classroom?

Leave your response below in the comments section, and I will select one or two at random on April 15th to receive both sets of my Earth Day Scoot cards... in time to use on Earth Day. Be sure to include your email address in your response that I may email you your cards.

Springing into Learning Blog Hop: Three ELA Freebies

It feels wonderful to be able to start a blog title with the word SPRING! It has been a loooooong winter, my friends. It's even more wonderful to be participating in this terrific blog hop hosted by Kim from Elementary Antics.

After a long, hard winter it is enjoyable to turn our attention to spring; to turn our classroom environment to a fresh look; and to fill our work sheets, anchor charts, and foldables with chicks, butterflies. and flowers instead of penguins and snowflakes.

One ELA activity that I like to do with my class each season and/or holiday is called a Take Three. This is a brainstorming/fluency of thinking activity that can be used as a pre-writing or stand alone assignment. Given a particular broad topic (in our case: spring), students add three details or supporting ideas for six sub-topics. Take Three's are easy to implement, need little instruction, and virtually no preparation. You can copy the worksheet so that each student has a copy, display the Take Three on a screen or board for students to work together, or have students copy the topic/sub-topics onto their own pieces of paper to save printing costs. Ready to give Take Three a try? You can download a freebie Spring Take Three HERE.

Another ELA Spring activity that I enjoy having my students do is adding spring foldables to their Language Arts Interactive Notebooks. INB's are just plain fun to begin with and remove the sting of having to take notes. In our Language Arts Notebooks we frequently look at how words work within a text: How do nouns name? What are the verbs and how do they display the time of the piece? How do the adjectives and adverbs lend to the description and imagery of the text?

Would you like a fun, little Spring foldable to use in your student interactive notebooks or just as a fun ELA activity? Download your freebie HERE.

When thoughts turn to Spring, it's often hard to keep students focused on work at hand. Let's face it- we would rather be outside in the fresh air and sunshine and so would they! So what's a teacher to do? Play a game, of course. One fun game to add to an ELA class is Boggle. Besides the obvious fun factor, Boggle is a super tool for practicing spelling and word recognition.

Here's a Boggle board decked out for Spring. Just download the pic and display it for your students to use. While you're at it, make sure you play along with them... it will help you quell your own Spring Fever!

Not sure how to play Boggle? Click HERE for the original game rules.

Need a Boggle board that you can edit yourself? Click HERE for a free editable board.

Want a blank boggle board template for your students to use with classroom boggle? Click HERE.

How about a variety of editable boards to change with the seasons? Click HERE for a bundle of fifteen boggle boards that you can program yourself.

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Be sure to hop on over to all of these great bloggers where you will find more Spring freebies and tips. Hoppy Spring!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Advent Traditions

This week's Paragraph a Week topic draws our attention to Advent, the beginning of the Church year and the time of preparation for the coming of our Lord. I am including a little extra freebie for you and your students that might serve as a brainstorming or preparatory piece prior to assigning the PaW for the week.

Called a Take Three, students are given a topic (in our case ADVENT) and six subtopics for which they must supply three details. Take Threes are terrific pre-writing activities as well as time-fillers, morning work, or just those few minutes left at the end of a class. Here's an Advent Take Three that you can download HERE.

Now for the PaW topic for this week. Please download your free instruction sheet HERE.

Mind Boggling Monday: Immaculate Conception

Tomorrow, Dec. 8th,  we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception by attending Mass together as a school. This is an often confusing feast day for y students. Many Catholics associate this feast with the event wherein the Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will become the mother of our Lord. That is actually placed on the Church calendar on March 25th (the Annunciation). Just do your math a little and it makes complete sense. Count forward nine months (the human gestation period) from March 25th and what do you have? Christmas, Dec. 25th.

Now do the same from Dec. 8th and what do you have? Sept. 8th. Don't recognize that date? Check your Church calendar and you should see "The Nativity of Mary" listed there. Sept. 8th is Mary's birthday. So then Dec. 8th is the day that Mary's mother Anne conceived her daughter without sin... Immaculate Conception. Ah!

I will be doing a lesson to help my sixers understand this Church holyday. They will be taking a few notes in their Religion notebooks, using this foldable. It's yours for the downloading if you like. Just click HERE.

Here's this week's boggle board. Just download the image for you and your students to use. Can you find the Immaculate Conception words? Mary, feast, babe, pray.

Sunday Scoop: Happy St. Nicholas Day

Today is one of my favorite days during Advent. I just adore the tradition of St. Nicholas, the kindly third century bishop from Turkey. It is from this religious figure that we derive our Santa Claus. St. Nicholas came to visit our school on Friday and he left treats in our students' shoes.

You can read more about this legendary figure HERE. Meanwhile here's a little freebie in honor of St. Nicholas Day, a set of brag tags made just for this special day. You can download your set HERE.

It's not only St. Nicholas Day, it's also Sunday Scoop day. I'm joining the bloggers of the Teaching Trio for this fun weekly linky.

Here's my scoop for this great day week...

Have a great Sunday! Happy St. Nicholas Day!

Here's to Advent, a HUGE Collection of Activities

Advent begins this coming Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015. It is a time of the year that I eagerly await. The hushed expectation of commemorating the coming of our Savior and the special preparations involved speak volumes to me of the traditions and the people involved. Although we celebrate many of the Church holydays and holidays throughout the year in my classroom, Advent is special to me. It is the New Year season and Salvation History rolled into one. It is giving birth to love and joy. I have blogged about Advent each of the past three years and shared many of the projects and activities that I do with  my students. This post is a compilation of ALL the Advent activities that have been posted here at my desk along with a new freebie at the end.

Happy New Year! Happy Advent!

This post originally appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 on Nov. 28, 2013.

Advent, from the Latin "ad-venire" meaning "to come to", is the first season of the Church year. For Christians, New Year's Day then is this Sunday, Dec. 1st. Advent is the time leading up to Christmas, a time that is oft neglected in our consumer oriented world. In the rush to BUY, BUY, BUY for Christmas, we neglect to prepare for the sacredness of the holiday... the real reason for the season. This is what the season of Advent is for.

Because I teach in a Catholic school, I have the luxury of celebrating the Advent season, a time of expectant waiting. Santa is kept to a minimum and only in the guise of St. Nicholas, the actual man- a bishop in Turkey long, long ago- who eventually becomes our modern Santa. Christmas songs are overlooked in favor of Advent songs. Instead of reds and greens festooning everything, our halls are decked with purple and pink, the colors of Advent.

We have a Christmas tree in our gathering space at school on which hangs holy ornaments, and the wreath in our hallway is an Advent wreath. It won't be until the last few days prior to Christmas break, starting with our school Christmas program that our attention will focus more on Christmas. Until then, we must remain patient, waiting in joyful hope, preparing our hearts for the coming of Jesus on Christmas.

Even my lessons and activities next week will focus on Advent rather than on Christmas.

Next week's Spelling words...

... an editing practice lesson...

... and two graphic organizers...

... all have an Advent theme.

If you would like any of these Advent items to use in your classroom or homeschool, you can purchase the Scoot pack and Zap game HERE or by clicking on the pictures above. The spelling list, revising paper, and graphic organizers are a FREEBIE, and can be downloaded HERE or by clicking on the picture below.

I've continued adding Advent items to my store for Advent 2014. Just click on the pictures to read more about each product.

FREEBIE

FREE BRAG TAGS

The following post originally appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 on Dec. 13, 2013.

We are still celebrating Advent, or trying to! It's hard to contain the Christmas spirit, what with all the commercials, TV specials, carols on the radio, and shopping expeditions,  but to wait in patient hope is wonderful! The anticipation of Christmas is tremendous, so to maintain a bit of calm while focusing on the reason for the season is indeed awesome. It is humbling to engage my sixers in conversations about the Advent season. They see its simple beauty and purpose and can talk about their struggles with keeping Christ in Christmas. To help them along, I really try to keep Santa, the elves, and all those kinds of Christmasy things to a bare minimum and focus on Adventish items. Here are a few things I've used this past week. They are yours for the taking just by clicking on each graphic.

Advent Notebook Foldables: The fifth graders and I used these with the popular Christmas novel "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson. It's a great book to accompany our pageant practice time. First we created an anchor chart that helped us focus on how the author used particular words in her writing (verbs and their tense, adjectives, and adverbs). We used post-it notes to record our ideas as a group, then the foldables to record our individual ideas.

Integrated Language Arts/Religion/Music Activity... I used this with my sixers and my eighth graders. The quintessential Advent song is "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." I used the lyrics to create a language arts worksheet to help my kiddos practice some grammar skills and become a bit more familiar with the hymn.

Each year I add a few new items to my cadre of Advent activities. Advent 2014 is no different. I recently whipped up two new SCOOT games to accompany the skills we have been learning and practicing in our Language Arts classes and added them to my TpT Store.

First up is an Advent SCOOT game to help students practice Central Idea.

With this set of Scoot cards students will identify which Advent related word/phrase does not belong in the group of four words/phrases (determining a central idea). These 16 cards may also be used as task cards in a literacy center or for a Scatter/Scavenger Hunt activity.

QR codes are provided for self-checking. Two response sheets are provided for differentiation. The first sheet asks only for the word that does not belong, while the second asks for the word and the reason why the word does not belong.

The second Advent SCOOT activity uses the titles of Advent hymns to provide capitalization practice for students.

These 24 cards may also be used as task cards in a literacy center or for a Scatter/Scavenger Hunt activity. QR codes are provided for self-checking with these cards as well. 

Lastly, here is another song to use as a Language Arts practice activity..."Mary, Did You Know?" This is a great song to practice the comma of address. You can download the FREE lyric sheet HERE or by clicking on the pic below.

Advent 2015 finds me adding two new activities to my warehouse of this season's activities. The first is a brand new ZAP! game for practicing identification of clauses while focusing on the tradition of the Advent Wreath.

A second brand new activity is a sheet of free WOULD YOU RATHER's. Each morning of the school year I ask my kiddos a "Would You Rather" question while taking attendance. Instead of saying "HERE" when I call each student's name, the response is the answer to the "Would You Rather" question of the day. This is a fun way to get to know your students a little better. I first came upon these kinds of questions on Rachel Lynette's blog Minds in Bloom. She has MANY sets of "Would You Rather" questions for various seasons of the year. Additionally, a quick search out on the internet will lead you to more sets of these types of questions.

However, I could find no Advent "Would You Rather" questions anywhere. There were plenty of Christmas ones, but no true Advent questions, so I tried my hand at creating a set. There are only 16 questions in the set. I only needed 14 (the number of days in school during the Advent season this year), but I included a few more for longer seasons in the years to come. Download your freebie HERE.