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

September Winner Wednesday, All About Johnny

The first Wedenesday of every month is set aside as Winner Wednesday. What's that you might ask! It's a fabulous linky where participating bloggers select one of their best teaching products and offer it as a one day only giveaway.

So, are you ready to  win a fun, engaging, and totally useful bundle of three ELA activities for older elementary students just in time for Johnny Appleseed Day on September 26th? Just enter the Rafflecopter at the bottom of this post and if your name is pulled, you will receive this...

Johnny Appleseed ELA Bundle of Three Activities

Here's what you will find inside this bundle. You do have to supply a container, and there is some assembly, mostly cutting and taping.

Let's look at each activity a little closer.

First the Mystery Picture...

The mystery picture consists of a grid of 121 squares in which is written a word(s). Your students follow the coloring key at the bottom of the paper to color in each square. This particular mystery pictures provides students practice with six of the eight parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions. As they color the picture is revealed. This happens to be a picture of Johnny Appleseed with his tin pot hat, standing next to an apple tree.

The ZAP Game...

ZAP is such a fun game to begin with that no matter what skill you practice your students are engaged and learning! If you are not familiar with how to play ZAP, please visit this blog post to learn more. This ZAP game asks your students to distinguish between fact and opinion statements. Don't want to play a game? Use the game cards as task cards in a literacy center. QR Code answers are included on each strip, making them self-checking in a center.

The last item is a set of Task Cards...

Task cards are my go-to activity. I could probably use them every day for every skill if I could. They are so versatile... from a literacy center to a game of Scoot, from a game to an assessment tool... task cards will go the mile for you! This set is designed to give your students practice writing sentences correctly. Intentional  mistakes in grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation have been placed in each card's sentence. Students are asked to revise and edit the sentences until they are free of mistakes. Once again these cards may be used in a literacy center and since they also contain QR Code answers they are self-checking. A traditional answer key is also provided. Don't forget task cards can be used in many ways... try a Scatter or Scavenger Hunt! Students LOVE to get out of their seats to do work.

Sound like a bundle that you would enjoy adding to your classroom? Just enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to receive it FREE! Don't delay! The giveaway lasts only for today, Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2016.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to stop by A Dab of Glue Will Do You or Sara J Creations for more Winner Wednesday blog posts. From there you will be able to enter additional Winner Wednesday giveaways. Good luck!

Task Card Giveaway

The days are winding down for my sixth graders, but learning isn't. We will be working this week to strengthen our ELA skills, particularly distinguishing the kinds of objects in sentences. To help my kiddos with this skill I created a pack of 24 task cards.

We will be using them to play a game of Bingo, a fun way to utilize task cards as a learning tool that I just learned about. Perhaps, you'd like to use this pack of cards with your middle school students as well. Visit my Facebook Page. Locate the post about the task cards and share how you use task cards with your students in a comment on the post before the evening of May 25th. I'll choose a name at random and send you a complimentary pack of cards. Easy-peasy! Good luck!

Let's Celebrate Sale

Happy BD2 me!

Happy BD2 me!

Happy BD!

Happy BD!

Happy BD2 me!

My birthday is fast approaching (no. 49 for the 8th year) on the 26th. To celebrate, I am throwing a huge sale in my TpT Store from Oct. 24th-26th. EVERTHING is marked 20% off!  With Halloween just a week away, it would be a great time to stock up on some fun and engaging Language Arts activities for your middle school classroom. Just click on the pics below to read more about each of them.

Mystery Pictures are a favorite with my students. These holiday themed puzzles make practicing parts of speech actually FUN!

 

Playing a game of SCOOT is always a great activity around holiday time. Getting your students up and moving about the room is guaranteed to help keep them focused on skills. With this bundle there is a new game for each day until Halloween.

If you haven't played ZAP! with your middle school students yet, this Halloween themed game designed to help students practice identifying prepositional phrases is sure to please!

Task cards are a versatile item to add to your Halloween bag of treats. You can involve your students in playing SCOOT, engage them with a round of SCATTER, or have them do a SCAVENGER HUNT while practicing BOO-tiful synonyms. This set is even self-checking with the addition of QR Codes, making it ideal for placement in a literacy center.

Have you ever played I HAVE, WHO HAS? Not only is this type of game terrific for reviewing specific grammar skills, it is AWESOME for practicing much needed listening skills!

 



 

If you still haven't found a HALLOWEEN treat for your kiddos, why not check out a CREEPY, yet cute, zombie activity, like this one that requires your students to practice proofreading skills.

 

 



These are just a few of the holiday activities on sale Oct. 24-26th during my birthday sale! Stop by my TpT Store to check out more Halloween items, zombie activities, and MORE!

 

A birthday celebration just wouldn't be a birthday without a gift.

 

For everyone who replies with a favorite TRICK or TREAT in the comments below (please include your email address in your comment if you are NO REPLY Blogger) during my birthday celebration, I will send you your choice of Halloween or Zombie Grouping Cards.

 

 



 

Makeover Madness #tptsellerchallenge Week 1

Have you heard about the #tptsellerchallengebeing hosted by Ashley from Teach, Create, Motivate and some of her blogging buddies? It lasts for four weeks and I decided to join them. Here's a little more about the challenge.

WEEK 1 Here we go...

The first product I chose to makeover is the VERY FIRST product that I uploaded and offered on Teachers Pay Teachers: Newbery Award Book Report Craftivity..

This was basically all that was to the original product... dull, strictly to the point, no cover, and the directions were at the end! What was I thinking?

Here it is now, all spiffed up! The added cover is attractive (don'tcha just love the Tween clip art by Educlips?), the directions are right up front, and I added some additional pages for extra writing and illustrations. So MUCH BETTER! In celebration of its makeover, my Newbery Book Report Craftivity will be available for only $1.00 for the remainder of Makeover Madness (it ends on June 21st).

The second product that I decided to makeover is my bestest seller: Poetry Task Cards Bonus Pack.

Originally created in Word, the margins, fonts, and sizing were slightly off! Egads!

More colorful and cleaned up, here is how the product now appears! I even updated the bonus files. LOVE IT! You can check out my Poetry Task Cards and Bonus Files in my TpT Store and snag them for 50% off through the Makeover Madness, June 21st.

I am SOOOOO very happy that I accepted this #tptsellerchallenge! I can't wait to check out all the other participants' product makeovers (you'll find quite a collection at Teach, Create, Motivate), find new sellers to follow, and maybe purchase some teaching things for the upcoming school year along the way!

Five for Friday... and it's still Friday!

I can NOT remember the last time I made it to Doodle Bug's linky Five for Friday. I have good intentions, but what's that old adage?

The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!

Yep, that's it! That's me on Fridays. Perhaps it's the thought of the impending Easter break that has me pumped up: I am full of pep this Friday and ready to blog. Of course, it could've been that hour nap I just awoke from.

For the first time in I don't remember how many years, our students participated in the annual English Festival held at the local branch of Kent State University. Open to all 7/8th graders in the county who choose to participate, the day is full of fun learning activities that celebrate reading, writing, and all things language arts. Students must read six pre-selected novels in order to join the day's activities. Some teachers require all their students to attend the day; however, I chose to make the festival completely voluntary. I am so glad that I did! My five seventh graders read all the books and were so excited to join in whole-heartedly. I am sad to say that there were many students who hadn't read a single book. Needless to say, the day was not a success for them. The above photo is of the session about writing, reading and the internet connection that I presented to the students.

Many of  you are familiar with one of my favorite bloggers (and all around sweetheart) Deb Hanson of Crafting Connections. Deb is the queen of craftivities for students. My fifth graders recently were studying visualizing as a strategy for improving reading comprehension. It was as if Deb knew exactly what I needed, for she added a new product to her store: To Read Is to Visualize Craftivity. The craftivity turned out so nice and really hammered the concept home with a terrific hands-on product. THANKS, Deb, for another great lesson!

I was thoroughly shocked that my sixers had never experienced one of the simple joys of my childhood: tin can phones. We had been studying wave theory in science and learning about many kinds of waves. Using slinkies, yarn, videos, interactive notebook folders, etc. we learned the concepts of sound, light, electromagnetic waves... you know!  I'm not sure how the tin can phones came up in the class discussion, but they did. With that a mini-S.T.E.M. activity was born. Students brought in clean tin cans and I provided the hammer, nail, and yarn. I explained the simple premise and turned the kiddos loose. From a private line (two cans, one on each end of a length of yarn) to a multi-canned party line, which you see above my sixers learned how sound traveled in a practical, fun way! Who needs modern technology and all those gadgets anyway?

Look closely! Can you see it?

Yep, crocuses and daffodils!

Spring at last!

I've been working on a lot of new sets of task cards, chiefly for my fifth graders. They seem to have a difficult time with retaining skills. They do really well learning the material and doing immediate practice and assessment. Return two weeks later and it's like starting over. Every Friday now, right after Flashlight Friday/silent reading time, we Scoot or Scatter our way through reinforcement and practice of previously learned skills. I think I've made seven or eight new sets of cards in the past few weeks. Here's one that I just added to my TpT Store for practicing progressive verb tense. My kids LOVED the task cards and performed well with them. I think part of the reason was that I used their names in the card sentences. You can read more about  the cards HERE.

Be sure to hope on over to Doodle Bugs for Teaching to read more Five for Friday's!

Throwback Thursday: Groundhog Day

Welcome to...

What is Throwback Thursday? How does it work, you might ask? Simply look through your PURR-fect Previous Posts, perhaps a particular favorite of yours, and re-post it! Then add the TBT badge to your post and include your link below! Purr-fectly easy and simple! Your post doesn't have to be from LOOOONNNGGG ago; it can be from last month or even earlier this week. And if you don't have a post to share, perhaps an old photo or two from WAY BACK will do! Even a favorite pin is PURR-fect! Just join in the Throwback fun!

This post first appeared on The Teacher's Desk 6 on Jan. 29, 2014 Introducing a brand new teaching tool just in time for the upcoming fun holiday: Groundhog Day.

What's Happenin' Wednesday? Not a whole lot... YET! We were still out of school today due to the frigid temps, but it looks like we MIGHT make it back for Thursday and Friday! MIGHT because a new, unexpected, wind chill advisory has JUST been issued for tonight into tomorrow morning... sigh! The air temp. is ONLY supposed to reach a low of zero and the wind chills are ONLY going to be -15 degrees... nothing compared to the past two days! That's why I say we MIGHT be back in school on Thursday.

I've kept busy these last four school days off, plus two weekend days, doing a whole host of things from practicing piano to doing dishes and everything in between. I've even had great fun creating some new products to add to my TpT Store. One that I have had great fun making is a SCOOT/SCATTER game for Groundhog Day.

I designed this for my fifth and sixth graders to use whenever we get back to the classroom. It'll be a fun way to get them thinking Language Arts again. There are various skills highlighted on the task cards: synonyms/antonyms, recognizing parts of speech, captilization/punctuation.

As they move about the room my students can simply write their responses on a sheet of loose leaf paper; however, it's much more fun to have a cute recording sheet to work on. 

I can even use these cards in a literacy center. I've included an answer key so that my students can check their own work, making the cards perfect for independent work.

With just the task cards, my students can "play" SCOOT. However, I included special answer cards so we could also opt to "play" SCATTER. 

I can select specific task cards to hand to half of my class and the matching answer cards to the other half. The kiddos must SCATTER about finding the classmate that has the match to their card.

I have a small group of students in both grades that work with intervention tutors and often leave the room, missing out on Scoot and Scatter. For them, I created this gameboard.

I'll send the gameboard and a second set of cards and answer key with them to their tutor. They can review the same material in the small group setting while still having some fun! The tutor will enjoy this also.

If you would like this fun product for use in your own classroom it is available for download HERE or by clicking on any of the graphics above.

Come on out of your burrow; it's time for your own THROWBACK!

An InLinkz Link-up