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!

New Year Writing FREEBIE

As part of my New Year resolution, I decided to sort through some of the older files on my computer, those files that started out on another computer, got copied onto this one, and I haven't touched since who knows when. Sometimes when you do peek into these ancient archives you discover a treasure.

I created this writing activity about five years ago, used it with great success with my sixers, then promptly forgot about it until today while I was sifting and sorting the old, neglected e-files. With a quick update to the years, it's ready to be used with this year's crop of students. If you'd like a copy to use with your students, just click HERE.

Celebrate the New Year with Print and Go ELA Activities

New Year Plurals ZAP (some assembly required)

New Year ZAP Nouns, Verbs, or Adjective? (some assembly required)

New Year Mystery Picture Parts of Speech (freebie)

New Year Nouns Task Cards and Interactive Notebook Foldables

New Year Prepositional Phrases I Have, Who Has Game

New Year Brag Tags (freebie)

Black Friday Dollar Deals

It just wouldn't be Black Friday without a few deals! In celebration of Black Friday, you can find loads of dollar deals on TpT. Organized by Ashley from Ashley's Brainy Centers, sellers have been encouraged to mark down terrific teaching products to just one dollar for this busiest shopping day of the year. Instead of braving the crowded stores and bustling shoppers, shop from your arm chair at home on TpT. Visit TpT and use the #blackfridaydollardeals tag in the search box to find the sale products or just click HERE.

HAPPY SHOPPING!

Here are two brand new items that I am offering in my TpT Store for just one dollar each. Both are holiday related, perfect for those high energy days during the wait-for-the-holiday break, and ready for you and your students to use... just print and go! Click on the link provided for each item to learn more about it and see more images.

Holiday Nouns and Adjectives ZAP!

a two-in-one game to engage your students in practicing ELA skills

Holiday Sentence Structure ZAP!

contains extra cards for additional playing fun

April Pinterest Pick 3 Linky

Woot! Woot! It's time for my favorite linky!

Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22nd. I am always looking for fun and engaging ways to include this holiday in my lessons. I hit the mother lode with this pin!

April is National Poetry Month! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE using poetry with my students, not only in my ELA classes but also in my Science and Religion classes. This idea for a PoeTREE sounds like so much fun!

I just can't let a month go by without a pin for a STEM activity. STEM activities are this year's crop of sixers' FAVORITE classroom activity! And I have to admit, mine as well.

An InLinkz Link-up

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.

Five for Friday 2.12.16

Once school starts for the year I rarely find time to join one of my favorite linkies. You ALL know how busy a teacher's life really is. However, today is a Friday off, a comp day for our parent conferences a few weeks ago. My fur girls woke me EARLY today and being wide awake I thought, "Do it!" So here I am, joining Doodle Bugs Teaching with Five for Friday.

FIRST... My favorite television show returns this Sunday. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting since LONG before Christmas for season six to continue. Its return is my Valentine's Day present.

I am so happy at its return that I am celebrating by offering all of my TpT cute zombie items at a discounted price. There's even a FREEBIE tucked away in the group. Grab them HERE until the start of the show when they will return to their regular price.

SECOND... We had the most wonderful Valentine's party at school! My homeroom mothers are THE BEST that I've had in over 35 years of teaching. From tasty treats to awesome Minute-to-Win-It games the party was a hit from start to finish!

THIRD... I was a bit crafty this week! I actually fashioned a wreath for my Religion bulletin board and transformed it from New Year, New You to Lent. I also made my sixers' Valentines this year based on a wonderful idea that I found on Pinterest. The finished product allowed me to do a Religion lesson while my sixers had a sweet treat.

FOURTH... My seventh grade English students participate in our schools one-to-one laptop program. As a result we do nearly all of our lessons, practice, writing, etc. on the computer. One of our favorite uses is practicing our weekly vocabulary words before we take our weekly test. If you have never used Quizizz with your class, check it out! It's well worth the effort FUN!

FIFTH... This coming Monday, President's Day, we have no school. However, we do have a special day of learning planned for our young scholars (grs. 1-3). I have the reputation for being a geeky, Science teacher so my parents nominated me to host a Magic of Science day. With the help of my long time Science Coach, Dr. Ann Abraham, a chemistry professor at a local university branch we have planned a day full of COOL science activities. Dr. Ann has enlisted the aid of her chemistry students and I've enlisted my sixth graders to help make the day run smoothly. There was a lot of prep work to do. 

My sixth graders helped me organize, sort, and pre-package the materials for a Send Home Science Kit, an idea I borrowed from Teach-a-Roo.

I am REALLY looking forward to Monday's science fun; we've never done anything like it. There are about 30 students signed up to participate in the learning fun. I plan to blog more about the Magic of Science Day next week so please check back for more information and photos of the experience.

I had the BEST week this week! The best of all is that I was able to share it with you! Be sure to stop by Doodle Bugs for Teaching to read more Five for Friday posts by teacher bloggers.

February Pinterest Pick 3 Linky

It's time! It's time! It's time for a little Pinterest fun!

February is designated as Black History month. I found this wonderfully interesting video to share with my sixth grade Science students that integrates a little history with their Science content.

February is a month to celebrate American Presidents. What better way than with a fun, engaging, collaborative art activity. I can't wait to do this with my class this year!

Finally, February wouldn't be complete without something about Valentine's Day. I teach in a parochial school so this day is celebrated as a holy day, a saint's feast day, as well as a fun holiday. I found something that combined the two perfectly. I can't wait to make these valentines for my kiddos.

I had several requests last month regarding how I was able to include actual pins within my Pinterest Pick 3 blog post. Pinterest offers what they call Developer Tools for its users, among them a Widget Builder. You can check it out HERE.

An InLinkz Link-up

Let the Countdown Begin: Top Ten Posts of 2015

The end of the old year and the beginning of the new is a great time to take stock, stock of habits (both good and bad), stock of health, stock of career, and even stock of one's blog. With that in mind I decided to look at the top ten posts here on The Teacher's Desk 6. This should help me focus on the topics that my followers most like to read. So then, what posts received the most visitors? Let the countdown begin...

TEN... Published on July 2, 2015
Make Your Masterpiece was the third in a series of TpT Seller Challenges that was hosted by Ashley of Teach Create Motivate. Sellers were encouraged to create a "masterpiece" product to offer in their stores. This was my masterpiece.

NINE...Published on Jan. 20, 2015
Tuesday Writing P.A.W.S. FREEBIE was the initial post of a weekly series. The Paragraph a Week Program is near and dear to my heart as I explain in this post.  Each week a writing prompt is offered free to followers. It's print and go ready!

EIGHT... Published on July 27, 2015
Teacher Faves was part of a series of posts hosted by Ramona from Ramona Recommends, Layla from Fancy Free in 4th, and Jamie from a Not so Wimpy Teacher.

SEVEN... Published on Nov. 27, 2015
Here's to Advent, A HUGE Collection of Activities featured ideas, activities, and all things Advent, free and paid.

SIX... Published on Nov. 10, 2015
Teaching Tuesday: Thankful for the Tuesday Writing P.A.W.S. featured another topic from my Paragraph a Week Program, one with a Thanksgiving theme, and was part of a linky hosted by HoJo's Teaching Adventures.

FIVE... Published on Aug. 6, 2015
Favorite Things: Three Terrific Techie Teaching Tools was part of a linky hosted by the Teaching Trio wherein participants were asked to blog about their favorite teaching things. Here're mine.

FOUR... Published on June 6, 2015
Monday Made It: I Have, Who Has How-to was part of the ever popular linky hosted by 4th Grade Frolics. In this popular post I explain how I make an I Have, Who Has activity. Not sure what that is? All I will say here is that it is one of, if not THE favorite classroom activity in all my classes. Be sure to read this post for more information.

THREE... Published on Jan. 27, 2015
Tuesday Writing P.A.W.S. 1.27.15 featured yet another Paragraph a Week topic; this one about what it means to be nice. It also featured information about assessing the writing topics and incorporating writing skills, such as the 6+1 Traits of Good Writing within the program. Readers were able to download a free Interactive Notebook Foldable to help students learn the traits.

TWO... Published on July 20, 2015
Monday Made It: Oh So Simple, Oh So Cute... and a gift was another post that was part of weekly linky over at 4th Grade Frolics. In this post I showed how I made really cute bathroom passes and shared some Christmas (in July) gift coupons.

THE TOP POST AT THE TEACHER'S DESK 6 FOR 2015... Published on July 13, 2015

Monday Made It: Another Kind of TPT was also part of the weekly linky over at 4th Grade Frolics. In this post I reviewed the book Total Participation Techniques (TPT, for short) by Persidea and William Himmele. I was inspired to create a formative assessment tool based on what I learned about in the book.

These top posts give me something to think about regarding blogging. The most popular posts are either part of a linky or part of a weekly series. Two of my New Year blogging resolutions are...

1. to participate in more linky parties

2. to be very consistent in blogging my weekly series posts.

Let's hope I have the resolve to follow through!

Have you made any resolutions for this coming year? I'd love to hear yours.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I'm adding this post to a fun linky hosted by Years That Ask Questions. Be sure to stop by and check out all of the favorite, best of the best blogger posts of 2015.

Mind Boggling Monday: New Year ELA Ideas

Well, my mind was certainly boggled! What was I thinking? To not have Mind Boggling Monday until mid-January? EEK! A game of boggle is perfect to start the mind juices flowing again after a long holiday break. It's perfect for morning work on that first day back, allowing the teacher to catch a breath and get those housekeeping chores completed. Here's a fun, sparkly New Year boggle board for you and your students. Just download the image and project it for you to have some fun! But don't just stop with a game of boggle. Keep reading for loads of ELA activities to fill your morning back after break.

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.

Speaking of New Year... here's another fun little freebie that you can also use to motivate your students in those opening moments of the first day back from break. Sneak in a mystery picture and sneak in some Language Arts review with identifying parts of speech. My kiddos clamor for mystery pictures! I don't think they recognize that it's school WORK. They think of mystery pictures as just FUN! You can download your New Year mystery picture HERE. And if you like this mystery picture, check out this link for a WHOLE PASSEL of mystery pictures for all the seasons and holidays.

And if a game of boggle and a mystery picture aren't enough, here's a fun game of ZAP! that also focuses on parts of speech. Click HERE to get your own copy.

What? Not sure what ZAP! is?

For those of you who don't know how to play ZAP, here's a quick run down. The game consists of playing cards in a container (generally a Pringle's can). The cards focus on a particular skill (in this case, identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives).

1. 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. 
2. Have a student draw a strip from the container without looking inside. 
3. The team should read the words on the strip, then confer to determine the answer.
4. If the team answers correctly, it keeps the strip. If it answers incorrectly the strip is returned to the container.
5. Teams take turns drawing/collecting the strips. However, there is a twist. If a team draws a ZAP! card, it must return ALL of its strips to the container. 
6. The winner is the team that collects the most strips. You may want to award them with a simple prize such as a treat, bonus points on an upcoming quiz/test, 5 minutes of free time, etc.

Now, doesn't that sound like a fun activity to include in your first day back after break?

Still need a few more ELA activities to fill your morning back after break? High energy or focused study? How about a game of scoot or doing an interactive notebook lesson? This set of noun task cards might be just what you need. You can read more about them HERE.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope that your return back to classes after break is smooth and wonderful and that you might have found an idea or two here that helped make it that way!

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!