What's Happenin' Wednesday?

Not much! Another snow cold day, and it looks like more of them in sight. Not tomorrow... the temperature's supposed to hit a whopping 12 degrees Fahrenheit by daybreak with no wind chills so we'll be off and running early in the morning. However, Friday is another story... wind chills return and a temperature of only 1 degree at dawn is forecast. AND THEN there's next week... BRR, BRR, BRR!

So what's a teacher supposed to do on a cold January day when there is no school? Watch T.V., do laundry, play with the girls (fur babies), and make fun things to use in my classroom, that's what! I had been wanting to create something football related since the Super Bowl is fast approaching. I also wanted it to be something that my fifth graders could use as well as my eighth graders. Here's what I came up with...

It's a combination SCOOT and ZAP! pack, containing 30 task cards, that provides students practice with alphabetizing football related words. My fifth graders need practice with this skill, especially with words that begin with similar letters. Some of the words in this pack require students to look beyond the seven or eighth letter to determine the order. A round of SCOOT for them will be perfect. Plus I can have them practice writing the words in cursive, another skill needing practice.

My eighth graders can use practice with alphabetizing, too. However, I want them to practice fluency and speed with this skill. Therefore, they will play a round of ZAP! using the same cards. Included in the pack is a set of three ZAP! cards.

I included an answer key that allows for quick checking by the teacher during a game of ZAP! or can be displayed on an interactive whiteboard for student self-checking after a round of SCOOT.

The cute graphics come from Ashley Hughes of The School Supply Addict and Oodles of Doodles at Joy of Kindergarten. They were PERFECT for what I wanted!

I can't wait to share this item with my kiddos, and I can't wait to share it with you also! 

If you'd like a copy of Super Football Scoot it is available in my TpT Store for purchase. However, if you pin the product in my TpT Store and leave the pin URL in a comment below, I'll send you a FREEBIE copy. Just be sure that you include an email address if you are a "no reply blogger" so that you can receive your copy.

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Tried It Tuesday... ReadWorks.Org

It's Tuesday so it's time to link up with my blogging friend Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for...

I don't have a text book for my fifth and sixth grade  Language Arts classes, and the one that I do have for  my eighth grade... well, let's just say that it's a BEAR!!!!! I've always used picture books to introduce literary elements and techniques and novels to support reading skills. For non-fiction material I've turned to classroom periodicals such as Scholastic News, Time for Kids, or Weekly Reader. However, we've always had to charge each student the subscription fee for them. This year I wanted something else, something FREE! AND I found it!!!

It's a website called ReadWorks.Org. Perhaps you're already familiar with it. I discovered this handy website early in the school year and am THRILLED with it! When you reach the site, you'll see this.

Notice the variety of information stored at this site... skill units, novel units, passages. WOW! I've primarily been using the Reading Passages. You can search them using lexile, domain, skill, or grade level. Below you see a search I made for grade eight passages. You only see a small portion of the nearly 100 search results in the graphic.

From here you  are able to browse the passages, finding just the perfect one that you need. For our purposes here, I randomly selected "A Brave New Climate." I was intrigued by the title.

Once you click on a title, the next window opens. You will need to set-up an account in order to access and download the materials. It's free, really, and only takes a moment to complete.

You'll notice that you can share the article via all the popular social media networks as well as email it to yourself or anyone. Additionally, you are able to create a binder and store all your selections for easy retrieval when you return to the site, a handy organizational tool. I haven't done this YET.

When you click on the title of the article, the blue link, you'll see this. It's actually a preview screen.

You can browse the article, and like Goldilocks, discover if it is just right for you and your students. If you decide to utilize this article, you can print it directly to your printer by clicking the appropriate icon, or you can download it to your computer. I download the articles that I use and save them to my Google Drive so that I can access them both at home and at school.

Besides the article there are comprehension questions provided to assess your students' understanding of the information. Some of the questions are multiple choice, some are fill in the blank, some are short answer, and a few are extended response. They range in complexity from literal to evaluative, a perfect blend, IMHO.

I've utilized the passages with all three of the classes that I teach. The kiddos enjoy the articles and find the assessment materials challenging but reachable. I've been able to find topics to correspond with all their content area and holidays. I've yet to try the comprehension or novel units and I'm still working my way through the reading passages.

Read Works really works! If you haven't tried it yet, Tried It Tuesday is a good day to start! Be sure to stop by Holly's blog to read more Tried It Tuesday ideas! There are always great items posted each week.

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

Six for Saturday and a SNOW Freebie

Well, I missed it again... Friday! I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for her weekly Five for Friday(Saturday) linky party!

This week I missed Friday for a good reason. I was really busy all week, a fun busy. I was working with my student teacher, Ms. Murphy. I first introduced her last week in this blog post. Most of my free time/planning time is now spent with her, talking over what I do/did, completing forms, planning her activities, etc. All of my students are really enjoying having her join us and are very motivated to help her learn to become a good teacher. I just love it! And her! So I'm also linking up with my blogging friend Joanne for her weekly Spark Student Motivation linky party.

Here you see Ms. Murphy presenting a two day lesson to our eighth graders. I asked her to introduce a non-fiction text to the students.

Her lesson centered around an article taken from K12Reader, a fantastic source of FREE reading/language arts materials for parents and teachers. The article was about cell phone usage by students in school and presented the pro's and con's. The kiddos were REALLY motivated by this topic since it is near and dear to their hearts. Ms. Murphy had a wonderful discussion with the students and structured her lesson to include whole group, small group, and individual activities. She provided follow-up with a writing prompt and concluded with a comprehension quiz (provided with the article). For a first time working with eighth grade English, she did a TERRIFIC job!


My sixers were really motivated this past week while we were studying the scientific method. I used two freebies that I found on TpT to help me. The first was a foldable and explanatory text offered by More Time 2 Teach and the second a water drop/coin experiment offered by Making It Teacher. My sixers were engaged and "silent" as they worked through the steps of the activity, truly self-motivated.

I was also very busy this week completing grades from the second quarter of the school year. EGADS! The year is half over!!!! I closed the books on the second quarter, finalized grades, and input all the necessary data in our online grading system. Report cards go out Tuesday morning. The secretaries were staying a little later on Friday to run the cards, put them in envelopes, and ready them for the mail on Tuesday (no mail on Monday due to MLK, Jr. Day).


Speaking of holidays... I was also quite busy this week making some new ZAP! games and literacy centers for upcoming holidays and special days. My kiddos love playing this fun, fast paced game that helps them practice rather ho-hum language arts skills. Even my eighth graders enjoy ZAP!

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...  Identifying Sentences, Fragments, and Run-ons.

For Groundhog Day... Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs

For Valentine's Day... Red Hot Synonym Hearts (a literacy center)

For Presidents' Day/George Washington's Birthday... Identifying Independent and Dependent Clauses

There are MANY more ZAP! games available in my TpT Store. There are even a few Math ZAP! games. Stop by and check them all out. Maybe there's one perfect for you and your students.


Finally, an update on the girls. It's been a bit more quiet in the house, a little less tension filled. Daisy occasionally chases Lulie, and Lulie still occasionally growls at Daisy, but they do manage to coexist in the same room. I did have to lose my cool with Daisy. She repeatedly was chasing Lulie up the stairs earlier in the week. I finally couldn't stand her bullying anymore so I actually chased her all over the house, yelling at her at the top of my lungs. What was I thinking! It's a good thing that it's winter and the doors and windows are closed. My neighbors would've thought I had lost my mind. Whatever... the outcome is that Daisy now totally ignores Lulie. It's like the little one doesn't exist... sigh. I've tried all week to get them in a photo together... double sigh. Will they ever get along?

One last item before I go... Maybe this should've been SIX for SATURDAY instead of Five for Friday. LOL! One of my blogging resolutions was to make sure I included more freebies with my posts. Like many of you I've been using some fun snow themed books in my Language Arts classes to teach skills and develop lessons. One of the books that I used with my fifth graders recently was "The Snow Globe Family" by Jane O'Connor, a cute story about two families who live a parallel life, one outside the snow globe and one inside.

As part of the lesson I had my fifth graders complete these four foldables for their notebook. I introduced the term "synopsis" as they continued working with "theme" which I introduced in December. After coloring the flaps and gluing them in order in their notebooks, they responded to the topic on the flap by PQA'ing... putting the question in their answers, writing in complete sentences, and citing something from the text to support their answer. Perhaps you might like to use these for your interactive notebooks as you read some snow stories. Just click HERE or on the pic for your copy.

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6

A Day in the Life...

Amelia from Where the Wild Things Learn has a really fun schedule linky going on...

It never fails to amaze me how similar yet how VERY different teachers' schedules are, especially teachers who teach the same level or subjects that I do. I have really enjoyed reading all the blog posts shared during this linky party, so I decided to join in and share mine.

I teach at a preK-12 Catholic School. Because I am "in the middle" my schedule is tied into the high school schedule. That's why you see the goofy time slots. Some of my eighth graders are enrolled in high school classes, and my sixth graders' Math teacher teaches junior high and ninth grade math classes. Since I teach fifth grade as well, the fifth grade then is also tied into the high school schedule... it trickles down and down... so even third grade is tied into the high school schedule... sigh! It can get to be a nightmare, but I won't go into all that at. I'm just happy that I don't have to figure this all out. LOL!

Here's my schedule; I actually LOVE it! It's streamlined and easy to remember, sort of! I say sort of since there are those wacky times to try and remember. I'm generally so busy teaching that I don't clock watch (our bell system is currently inactive... power failure and the subsequent return surge knocked it out) and just wait for the next class to be outside my door.

Happy Teaching,
Angela,
The Teacher's Desk 6

A Peek at My Week and a Lit. Circle FREEBIE

Well, where did last week go? Thanks to the polar vortex I was without internet for several days and stuck home for three days. I was so looking forward to returning to school and celebrating my favorite part of the Christmas season with my kiddos (see this post). No internet + no school = unhappy teacher. All's well, however, now. I'm linking up with my bloggy friend, Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly A Peek at My Week party.

This coming week is a full week of learning and fun. The fun part is really for me! You see, I have a student teacher working with me for the next 15 weeks who just happens to be one of our school graduates and a former student of mine. Her university suggested she just observe and do small jobs in the classroom like grade papers, work one-on-one with a student, etc. for the first four weeks. Bah humbug! I'll have several photos next week of Ms. Murphy in action! She's going to do a Language Arts lesson with my eighth graders at the end of the week. Here she is timing the Wise Men SCOOT activity for my eighth graders. She is grading their papers this weekend also, bless her heart!

Meanwhile I'll be finishing up this Citing Text Evidence lesson from Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit with my eighth graders on Monday and Tuesday. It comes from her Interactive Writing Notebook product. However, this Citing Text Evidence lesson is offered as a FREEBIE. She explains it well on her blog at this post.

My sixth graders will be finishing up My Side of the Mountain... hopefully! We have had so many interruptions what with Christmas programs and parties and snow/cold days (four already) that we got far behind. This was their first full-fledged novel done completely with Literature Circles so it was a tad slow going. I'm going to speed them through the last one-third of the book  lickety split so Miss Murphy can take over afresh in two weeks.

My fifth graders will just be introduced to Literature Circles this week. On Monday, I'll teach them the six jobs as outlined by Harvey Daniels in his book, Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student Centered Classroom, a book I've used since 1998. We'll also watch a brief video of a small Literature Circle in action.

On Tuesday, the fifth graders will create this interactive notebook foldable to help them remember the six jobs they will be completing as they work in Literature Circle groups. If you would like a copy just click HERE or on the graphic below.

We'll practice these jobs on Wednesday through Friday with some winter/snow related picture books, and be all set to start our first novel the following week. That's my school week in a nutshell. On the homefront... I have been on cat patrol for six weeks! You might recall that I brought a sweet, young feline (Lulie) into my home six weeks ago. 

 My incorrigible old queen, Daisy did NOT like her at all!!!!

After numerous chases, hissing and growling matches, calming treats and spray, and brandishings of the squirt bottle, progress is being made... I think... I hope! Where once the two could not bear to be in the same room, we now have the old queen coaxing the young feline to play, I think. Lulie does not trust Daisy and will not respond to the coaxing. Lulie knows that Daisy might just be coaxing her to come closer for a good thrashing! LOL! 

Anyway... I will still be on cat patrol this week as well! Soon, I hope, this job will fade away. I hope everyone has a great week! Be sure to stop by Jennifer's blog to read more A Peek at My Week blog posts. Happy Teaching, Angela The Teacher's Desk 6

My Favorite Holiday (Holy Day)... Merry Little Christmas! FREEBIES Galore!

I don't know what it is about Epiphany, the Feast of the Three Kings, Little Christmas that I LOVE so much. There is a great informational article HERE that explains the historical and traditional background of this holyday (holiday). For me, perhaps it is the thought that three non-Jewish uber-knowledgeable royals put such faith in ancient Jewish prophecies and traveled across a treacherous desert to a mysterious place by the light of some star carrying precious gifts for a lowly unknown king that peaks my interest and touches a chord in my heart. Talk about faith and trust! Whatever it is, Epiphany is the day during the Christmas season that I await each year, and the day that I will give my gift (a coupon book full of student friendly prizes) to my sixers just as the magi gave their gifts to the infant in the manger.

Epiphany is celebrated on January 5th this year, and we return to school on January 6th, perfect timing for an Epiphany celebration in our classroom. I have several items prepared to help us with our celebration throughout the coming week.

First up... sharing the book The Other Wise Man by Henry Van Dyke, retold by Pamela Kennedy. This is one of my all-time favorite stories and is always enjoyed by my fifth-grade Language Arts students. Kennedy's book is told in child friendly language as compared to the original Van Dyke story. I'm also providing a FREE Kindle link to the original story HERE since Kennedy's book is not easy to procure. Barnes and Noble does have used copies available.

Henry Van Dyke wrote The Other Wise Man in 1896, and since that time, this enduring classic has woven its mystical appeal for countless children and adults. Here Pamela Kennedy retells the story for the young reader, making it easy to understand, while retaining the magic of Van Dyke's words. Because he is helping others, a fourth Wise Man delays journeying with the other Magi to see the newborn Jesus, but thirty-three years later he has an unusual opportunity to meet his Savior.... BarnesandNoble.com

I'm linking this book up with Collaboration Cuties weekly Must Read Mentor Text. The first weekend of the month is for Language Arts texts, and even though this is a holiday text, I am using it as a Language Arts lesson. Because I teach in a Catholic school my students are well-versed in the Nativity story and the story of the magi. This book provides a bit of a twist to the familiar, allowing them to wonder, predict, infer, and compare as the story unfolds, skills addressed in the CCSS. I will be using an interactive notebook foldable Venn diagram with my students to help them comprehend the story and see the similarities and differences. Once they complete the foldable and we've had time to talk about their findings, they will write a brief paragraph about the similarities and differences in these stories.

As the week continues more lessons will be centered around my favorite holy day/holiday. Our spelling list for the week will have an Epiphany theme.

I made a wordsearch to go along with the spelling list.

We will complete an Epiphany themed revise, rewrite activity. The cute clipart is from Charlotte's Clips. I just LOVE her faith-based artwork. I use it a LOT!!!!

I have an Epiphany mystery picture waiting for my kiddos. BTW, the picture is supposed to be the three gifts brought by the magi: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

We will do the Wise Men SCOOT activity that is available in my TpT Store. It will help my kiddos review many of the Language Arts skills we have already learned this year. Again you see Charlotte's Clips artwork. This item is normally a paid item, but for the next week it will be available as a free download.

I even created a Wise Men ZAP! game for our Math teacher. Just before Christmas break I had to cover one of the sixth grade math lessons because the math teacher was administering an eighth grade mid-term. My sixers were playing a game she had left for them and were stumped by divisiblity rules, especially the rule for three. So I, the English teacher, taught my sixers a brief math lesson. My ZAP! game will help them remember the rule for divisiblity by three.

Finally, sometime during the week, we will sing and examine (search for parts of speech and analyze as a poem) my favorite holiday song... We Three Kings.

ALL of the items discussed in this blog post are FREEBIES for you! 

Just click on the pic of the item(s) that you'd like to have. Please, if you download anything from my TpT Store, leave feedback. TIA!

Merry Little Christmas,

Happy Epiphany,

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6