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

Lenten Linky

Teaching in a Catholic School/homeschool poses a few unique curricular issues. We are required to include all of the curricula that our public schools do while being encouraged to integrate our faith within all content areas without adding any extra time to our already packed school day. In my particular teaching area of concentration, English Language Arts, it is a fun challenge to create activities centered on faith and content. With the help of some terrific clip artists on TpT, I've been able to make games and task cards for many of the liturgical seasons and holy days that incorporate grammar, reading, and writing skills. My kids LOVE them!

I know that I'm not the only Catholic school/homeschool teacher who creates fun, faith-filled classroom activities. I would REALLY LIKE to see what kinds of items are being shared by talented, creative Catholic school teachers and homeschoolers so I've set-up a little linky dedicated to the liturgical season at hand: LENT. I've added a few of my Lenten ELA activities and invite anyone who has Lenten items to link them up as well.

An InLinkz Link-up

Show and Tell Tuesday

I just loved Show and Tell days when I was in school. I would spend time each week thinking of something that I could bring to school to share with my classmates, and I waited eagerly to see what my friends chose to share. That's why I jumped on the chance to join this BRAND NEW linky hosted by Stephanie from Forever in Fifth Grade.

I have always wanted a document camera. I had begged and begged for one and FINALLY over the summer my school purchased one for me that I was to share with the teacher across the hallway. PROBLEM... I was moved more than six classrooms away over the summer. SIGH... I left the document camera with the other teacher (who has yet to use it... double SIGH).

 BUT... in mid-September we were invited to peruse materials that were being rehoused by a school that had recently closed. JACKPOT... I found a SMART Document Camera in the materials and grabbed it. PROBLEM... There was no power cord. After a long, exhaustive search, one of my parents came through, finding a special adaptor that allowed me to use a power cord that I already had. This past Friday I was able to have a working document camera! YAY! Please ignore the messy desk. I just shoved everything out of the way I was that excited!!!

We LOVE to do STEM activities in Science class. I try to incorporate a STEM activity every other Friday. This is our latest: building a tower with just 15 pipe cleaners. Although the original activity was designed for younger students, a STEM activity is easily adapted for any age. This particular STEM activity introduced constraints, additional problems, as the students were constructing. WHAT FUN! BTW, I had this lesson be my annual observation/evaluation. My principal was quite impressed with the entire process and the learning involved...SCORE!

I made THE BEST dinner the other night! I had some leftover fried chicken that I did not want to go to waste. I also had some sweet potatoes, red potatoes, yellow potatoes, turnips, and carrots that someone had given me. I peeled and chunked the veggies and spread them on a cookie sheet next to the chicken. I drizzled some olive oil on the veggies, then sprinkled some herbs and seasonings (rosemary, garlic powder, black pepper, salt, parsley) on them and popped the whole tray into the oven. An hour later... YUM!

It was SOOOOOO good that I decided to make it again this week, ONLY BETTER! I added onions and green peppers... DOUBLE YUM! If you haven't made veggies like this yet, give it a try!

My Show and Tell just would not be complete without a picture of at least one of my fuzz girls.

Miss Daisy, my nearly 17 year old Tabby, is thoroughly spoiled. Here she has appropriated my BRAND NEW throw (I happened to drop it when I went out to check how dinner was cooking). Daisy NEVER sits on the floor. She is the princess of the house who always sits regally on the couch, in my chair, or on my lap. So, why is she on the floor for the FIRST time? Not just because of the new throw, oh no! What you can't see is that she is directly in front of the couch. I recently purchased a furnace vent extender that allows the hot air to pass under the couch and out into the room. Smarty Miss Daisy discovered the heat and has now claimed this spot as HERS. Her poor sissy, LuluBelle, is not permitted to sit there. BTW, the new throw is permanently in front of the couch on the floor always ready for Miss Daisy.

Be sure to stop by Forever in Fifth Grade to see more Show and Tell posts.

Better yet, why not join in the party and do a little Show and Tell yourself!

Something else to stop by is my TpT Store tomorrow and Thursday where everything (yes, even my already low priced bundles) will be on sale. Start Your Year Inspired! Just be sure to use the special promo code START16 during checkout to earn those extra special savings!

Markdown Monday

I just discovered this fabulous linky where TpT Sellers offer a great teaching product at a significant savings for one week only! WOW!

I decided to join in the fun and am offering my Winter ZAP Bundle of Three ELA Games at a 50% discount until next Monday. With this product your whole class remains engaged and having fun while practicing alphabetical order, parts of speech, or identifying sentences, fragments, and run-ons. You can read more about it HERE.

Be sure to stop by Kellie and Kim's Kindergarten Kreations to see more Markdown Monday products.

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.

Wishlist Linky TpT Sale

It's that time again... time for a sitewide sale at Teachers Pay Teachers. These huge sales only happen a few times a year so it's a great thing to take advantage of! You can save up to 28% on terrific teaching products just by using the special promo code SMILE while shopping at TpT on Nov. 30th and Dec. 1st.

To get the old shopping cart rolling, I'm joining in a fun linky hosted by Teaching in the Tongass to share three of the top wishlisted items in my store. There are loads of great teaching products shared in this linky, so be sure to stop by before you head over to TpT to shop.

Here are the top three most wishlisted items in my store! Please click on the name of the item below the picture to read more about the individual teaching product.

Poetry Task Cards

Editable Punch Cards

General Use Brag Tags

I can't wait to do some shopping myself this coming Monday and Tuesday. Here is one item on my own personal wishlist. Created by I'm Lovin' Lit, it is a set of fun, engaging ELA Christmas activities for middle school students, the perfect thing for these few weeks before the holidays.

Christmas Activities

I'm spending some time this weekend loading up my shopping cart so it's all ready to go for the sale.

Happy Shopping, everyone! Just be sure to use the promo code SMILE during the checkout process so you earn all the great savings that you can!

Meet the Teacher Monday

I'm joining Trina over at The Ordinary to Extraordinary Classroom for a weekly linky she's trying to get started. I just LOVE linky parties, especially those where we get to meet teacher bloggers. Trina's linky is entitled Meet the Teacher Monday. For this installment she asks that we share five things we like about fall.

I enjoy colorful fall foliage and where I live in NE Ohio there is never a shortage of it! Fall ushers in cooler temperatures so I can enjoy my favorite food-- soup, especially chicken soup and chili... YUM! I love the pumpkin and cranberry flavors that are everywhere and in everything during the fall. I gobbled down a pumpkin and a cranberry English muffin for breakfast just this morning, and my Scentsy pot is churning out spiced pumpkin bread right now! With fall school is in full swing; the first grading period is over, parent conferences have been completed, and we are learning GOOD STUFF!!!! Fall even has great holidays: Halloween, All Saints' Day, Veterans Day, my birthday, and my favorite: Thanksgiving. I just LOVE fall!

What are your five favorites for fall? Hop on over to Trina's blog and add your own to Meet the Teacher Monday!

Favorite Things: Three Terrific Techie Teaching Tools

I'm joining the Teaching Trio for their monthly Favorite Things Linky.

I took a professional development college class this week on Monday and Tuesday. It was all about how teachers can utilize Google apps and other corresponding sites in their classrooms. OH MY GOSH! BEST STUFF I'VE LEARNED IN A LONG TIME! I'm sharing two websites and a Smartphone app that I just LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! How I didn't know about them before, I'm stymied! Investigate these, please. I guarantee you'll LOVE them, too!

Assess Me Week 2: This or That and Then Some

Rachel from The Tattooed Teacher has a fun little linky going on to help us get to know each other a little better. This week we're sharing a little of THIS and a little of THAT. Be sure to stop by her blog to check out all the assessments. I've had a great time reading them and learning so much more about you all!

And speaking of assessments...

For us TpT Sellers, assessment comes in the form of feedback from our customers. Not only do we sellers benefit from the constructive criticism, but so do the buyers. By leaving feedback (would that be formative or summative assessment?) our buyers earn TpT credits that they can use toward future purchases.

Because of the current TpT Back to School Sale (it ends at midnight tonght, BTW) I have received a larger than usual amount of feedback; buyers are accumulating credits to spend on their sale purchases. Each comment encourages me to continue creating teaching items, something I truly enjoy. I try to take the advice and suggestions to help me improve as well as to please my customers.

Every once-in-a-while I receive feedback that touches me most deeply. This happened yesterday. I work hard on all of my teaching products, but I put extra effort into my Catholic items. These are near and dear to my heart. Marge H. took the time to leave this assessment of my work. God bless  you, Marge, for your kindness and encouragement.

God certainly directed me to your store today. I used most of my budget to purchase your games. I taught 6th grade in a Catholic school for 30 years, and would have loved these for my students. At least now, I can use them with my grandchildren. THANK YOU. 

Thank you, Marge! Thank you, Lord, for the gift of teaching, for teachers who offer support and encouragement, for ways to collaborate and communicate, for the talent to create, and the willingness to share. I am blessed indeed!