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)

ZAP-tastic After Christmas Sale!

Everyone loves a sale! 

And what better time to have a sale than at the end of the year? Are you in search of some fun and engaging, print and go activities to implement in the coming new year? Perhaps you received some TpT gift certificates as Christmas presents and are looking to spend them.Then you are in the right place.

Not sure what ZAP is? It's THE BEST review and practice game there is! 

This blog post tells much more about this versatile and engaging game. There's even a link to a free ZAP game. You can download it and determine if ZAP would be a ZAP-tastic fit for you and your kiddos. 

Are you ready to be ZAPped? Click HERE to discover more than 100 ZAP games in stock in my TpT Store and save 20% on all your ZAP purchases. Be sure to not hesitate; these savings are only good now through Dec. 27, 2016. 

December Show and Tell Tuesday

What with all the holiday excitement, coming down with the flu, snow days, and just the typical teacher hustle and bustle, this month's Show and Tell snuck up on me!

THREE FOUR snow days in the past week and a half and winter is just getting started! 

Goodness, our first snowfall wasn't even until December 6th.

One terrific way to keep students engaged and learning during weeks full of Christmas program practice, snow days, and looming vacation is to involve them in a STEM activity. This is probably THE MOST FAVORITE of all STEM activites that we do each year, designing a marble run.

Another way of keeping kids engaged at this hectic time of the year is reading via chromebooks. Are you familiar with Epic? If not, please check it out. It's well worth your time... free, full sized books for students to read online. Just add a graphic organizer and BOOM, a ready made lesson. My principal walked past my classroom on Friday afternoon, and then doubled back, and came in. He was enthralled that my kids were quiet and actively engaged 15 minutes before the end of the day before the weekend! SCORE for this teacher and Epic!

Merry Christmas to me! I have had an Amazon Echo since they were first available and LOVE it! I decided I wanted one of the Echo Dots for my classroom and finally ordered it on Thanksgiving break. After a bit of a delay and a delivery of an empty box, my Dot arrived last week. Because of snow days and sick days (yuck! the flu struck  me hard), I was finally able to install it last Friday afternoon. During our reading time, we all enjoyed holiday instrumental music (and a few holiday jokes).

And it just wouldn't be Show and Tell here at The Teacher's Desk 6 without at least one photo of my fuzz girls. This month I'm sharing a pic of my Lulubelle. Would you just look at her! She stole my chair and wouldn't let me sit down. I had to move over to the couch! Lulie actually sat like that for nearly an hour before relinquishing my chair back to me. Silly girl!

Be sure to stop by Forever in 5th Grade to read more December Show and Tell posts. It's a great way to keep up with what's going on in the teaching blogging world.