Tuesday Writing PaWs: A Change of Setting

This week's writing PaW (Paragraph a Week) is a companion piece to last week's PaW. This topic is a fun way to introduce the concept of setting and what happens to the plot of a story when the setting changes. Hey, doesn't that sound a bit like a Common Core Standard?

You can download your FREE PaW topic sheet HERE.

Other PaW (Paragraph a Week) FREEBIES currently available can be downloaded below. This list is arranged in no particular manner and contains single and multi-paragraph topics.

Leprechauns
Earth Day
Mother's Day
Finish the Phrase
Nice
National Pencil Month
Favorite Valentine Memory
Bird's Eye View of Spring
Abe and George
Journey of a Snowflake
Color
A Tribute to Johnny Appleseed
School Uniforms
Chocolate Rain
Good Substitute Teacher
Favorite Relative
Allowance
Best Teacher
Signs of Fall
Making Sense of an Apple
Do You or Don't You Halloween?
Favorite Halloween Activity
Pumpkin Contest Part 1
Pumpkin Contest Part 2


I'm adding this blog post to a brand new linky hosted by one of my favorite bloggers.

Be sure to check out the wide variety of terrific teaching ideas at HoJo's Teaching Adventures.

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.

 

 



 

Are You Ready...

This October gal loves Halloween, but she doesn't like to be tricked! That's why I have a special treat prepared for you for Oct. 24-26th.  Be sure to stop by to collect your treat!

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Focus on Fall

The original Paragraph a Week (PaW) Program was a set of approximately 30 single topic paragraph prompts that were developed by a cadre of 5/6th grade teachers around the globe. Although the original program is no longer available LIVE online (I closed down my website where it was housed), you can still access it via the web archive Way Back Machine.

After using the PaWprogram for a year, I clearly saw the growth and maturation of my students' writing. Because of this, I asked my connected teacher friends to help me continue growing the topics. Soon we had another 30 plus topics, many that required students to now write multiple paragraphs, as part of PaW. Some of these year two prompts even required students to write a second/companion piece. This week and next week's PaW FREEBIE is a set of coordinating prompts about a pumpkin contest. You can download the information sheet HERE.

Other PaW (Paragraph a Week) FREEBIES currently available can be downloaded below. This list is arranged in no particular manner and contains single and multi-paragraph topics.

Leprechauns
Earth Day
Mother's Day
Finish the Phrase
Nice
National Pencil Month
Favorite Valentine Memory
Bird's Eye View of Spring
Abe and George
Journey of a Snowflake
Color
A Tribute to Johnny Appleseed
School Uniforms
Chocolate Rain
Good Substitute Teacher
Favorite Relative
Allowance
Best Teacher
Signs of Fall
Making Sense of an Apple
Do You or Don't You Halloween?
Favorite Halloween Activity

Mind Boggling Monday Is Back

It's been a looooonnnnngggggg time since we've had a Mind-Boggling Monday here at my desk. I definitely need one, er have one, uh want to play one.... Ah gee, see what I mean. It doesn't matter! Here's a fun Boggle board to use with your students to help them focus on learning when the Halloween fidgets hit. Just download the pic, then project it on your interactive whiteboard or large screen TV for your students to see and play.

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.

Sunday Scoop 10.18.15

Since it's Sunday, it's time to join the Teaching Trio for their fun, weekly linky...

 

 

Here's the scoop for my Sunday:

 

 



Have a great week!

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Favorite Halloween Activity

When the original Paragraph a Week (PaW) Program was developing we teachers had such fun writing topics. However, there was no rhyme nor reason to them. Knowing that students retain and grow in learning when material is presented in logical ways, we decided to rearrange and design the writing topics to follow the school year events, holidays, and seasons. The last few weeks and the next two take advantage of the autumn season and beloved holiday of Halloween.

Last week students were asked to take a position about celebrating Halloween. This week they are asked to describe a favorite Halloween activity. You can download the FREE direction sheet HERE.

Other PaW (Paragraph a Week) FREEBIES currently available can be downloaded below. This list is arranged in no particular manner and contains single and multi-paragraph topics.

Leprechauns
Earth Day
Mother's Day
Finish the Phrase
Nice
National Pencil Month
Favorite Valentine Memory
Bird's Eye View of Spring
Abe and George
Journey of a Snowflake
Color
A Tribute to Johnny Appleseed
School Uniforms
Chocolate Rain
Good Substitute Teacher
Favorite Relative
Allowance
Best Teacher
Signs of Fall
Making Sense of an Apple
Do You or Don't You Halloween?

Sunday Scoop

I'm joining the Teaching Trio for...

Here's my scoop for the week...

What's your Scoop? Visit the Teaching Trio to join me in linking up for the Sunday Scoop!

Color Chemistry Part 2

Earlier in the week I had shared what a great time my students had when Dr. Ann came and presented several lessons about the Colors of Chemistry. I also had my students do a colorful chemical investigation this week...

Color Changing Milk from Steve Spangler Science

bipolarity of molecules

(hydrophilic vs. hydrophobic properties)

I just LOVE these simple yet powerful activities that demonstrate complex science concepts. While the colorful milk explosion activity is simply fun and intriguing for much younger students, my sixers were able to connect the information Dr. Ann and I have been teaching about atomic structure, electrical charge, and physical vs. chemical properties to what they saw happen in their dish of milk.

Oh, and remember from my previous post mentioning the sweet, colorful treat Dr. Ann provided for my kiddos as also a part of the Colors of Chemistry? We enjoyed that this week also... colorful, tasty snow cones (the chemistry part... colors of dyes in the sweet syrup).

... and while my sixers happily shared their colorful tongues with each other and me, they would NOT pose for my camera so I could share them with you! Silly kids!

Tuesday Writing PaWs: Do You or Don't You Halloween?

One of the things that all of the contributors to the original Paragraph a Week program tried to do was provide our student writers with a wide variety of writing topics and genre. This week's PaW Freebie is a position paragraph about a favorite holiday soon approaching. I know my sixers are already planning costumes and thinking about our classroom party. However, not everyone is as excited about Halloween as we are!

Just click HERE to download your PaW instruction sheet.

Other PaW (Paragraph a Week) FREEBIES currently available can be downloaded below. This list is arranged in no particular manner and contains single and multi-paragraph topics.

Leprechauns
Earth Day
Mother's Day
Finish the Phrase
Nice
National Pencil Month
Favorite Valentine Memory
Bird's Eye View of Spring
Abe and George
Journey of a Snowflake
Color
A Tribute to Johnny Appleseed
School Uniforms
Chocolate Rain
Good Substitute Teacher
Favorite Relative
Allowance
Best Teacher
Signs of Fall
Making Sense of an Apple

Just Had to Share...

what a fun time we had when Dr. Ann came to work with us this past week. Dr. Ann Abraham is the chemistry professor at a local university who visits my sixers several times a year sharing AWESOME chemistry demonstrations with us!

This year she is sharing with us the colors of chemistry. She had my students testing objects for fluorescence and phosophoresence using a UV light and testing common household items for ph levels.


...and we're not done yet. Dr. Ann left a snow cone machine for us so we can have a colorful sweet treat sometime this week! THANK YOU, Dr. Ann! And THANKS to the parents who came to help us during our investigations.

October Pinterest Pick 3

I look forward to the third of each month since that means it's time for...

I teach sixth grade science (LOVE, LOVE, LOVE) and am blessed to have a Science coach who is the Chemistry Professor at a nearby university. Dr. Ann is terrific and teaches my students chemistry skills far beyond their years. I came across these awesome chemistry cookies and immediately pinned them. The recipe is a standard sugar cookie recipe; it's the cutters that are the star. I purchased them on Amazon and am planning on making the cookies for our upcoming Halloween party. Can't wait!

Click on the pic to be taken to the original pinned site.

Anyone else have a TALKATIVE class? I'm ready to scream on some days! I am one to not waste precious learning time; there is just not enough of it. My fifth and sixth graders take so long to get quiet and hardly remain quiet long enough to listen... sigh! Here are some ideas to possibly help with this problem.

Just click on the pic for some great advice!

Although I don't teach art per se, I love to do art with my kiddos, especially fall art projects. There are some awesome activities here!

Just click on the pic to pick a perfect fall project!

These were just three picks for October. If you visit the sites below, you'll find loads more to help you plan great lessons for your kiddos during this month!

An InLinkz Link-up