Pencil Topper... FREEBIE for Poetry Month

Are you familiar with pencil toppers? I use them with my sixers all the time. They are fun, handy little learning aids that the kids attach to the tops of their pencils. They can refer to the toppers as they might refer to an anchor chart hung in the room. I've most recently done toppers for parts of speech, classification of living organisms, "hamburger" paragraph, traits of good writing, and layers of the atmosphere.

I found the pencil topper template at Vicki Blackwell's Teacher Templates site years ago while searching for something else (flip flap chart templates). I downloaded the topper file, opened it in Microsoft PowerPoint, and began designing toppers for all my subjects, adding graphics and text as I needed. I was hooked!

This week while on Spring Break, I've been working on all kinds of teaching projects, among them a mini-unit for Poetry Month. I'll use a pencil topper to kick it off. On one side is the dictionary definition for the word POETRY and on the other a word cloud of various poetic forms. Maybe some of you would like to give these poetry pencil toppers a try. You can download the file HERE or by clicking on the link below the graphic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoALUpSVVRIMWdyTUE/edit?usp=sharing

Print off the toppers on colored paper, cut them apart, and distribute to your students. Have each student write his/her name in the space provided, then glue the topper around their pencil. Your kiddos will need a bit of patience since they will need to hold the topper together while it dries. Once it's dry they've got a reference tool right in hand.

http://peanutgallery19.blogspot.com/2013/04/my-first-linky-party-celebrating-poetry.html

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6
teachersdesk@yahoo.com

It's That Time Again... Manic Monday FREEBIE!

I think I'm beginning to like Mondays! Well, maybe a little! Only because it's Manic Monday! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE seeing all the freebies and surfing through all the blogs! I collect such great ideas that I'll have to teach another 32 years so that I can use them all.

Here's my FREEBIE to share this week in honor of April Fools' Day- Senseless Sentences.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAbkI1TzVSRGw5QUE/edit?usp=sharing

This is a literacy activity that gives students practice fooling around with proofreading skills. Someone has written sentences with foolish mistakes. Your students will need to carefully read the sentences to determine the mistake in spelling. This is also a good activity to point out the foolishness of depending on a word processor's spell check, for the mistakes made in these sentences would never be indicated with spell check. Here's how it works:
Given a sentence such as Be careful of the name dog. Students would use context to determine that the correct sentence should be Be careful of the mean dog. I've used this activity as a warm-up for Language Arts class, as a small group mini-lesson, and even as a literacy center. It's quite versatile and provides great practice with proofreading without a worksheet.


I've recently uploaded some new materials to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store that also focus on literacy in a unique way. Stop by my store and check out items similar to Senseless Sentences. I'm holding a sale now through April 2nd. All items are 10% off.

Then scoot on over to Classroom Freebie's Manic Monday for great freebies to use in your classroom.

Happy Teaching, Angela  The Teacher's Desk 6 teachersdesk@yahoo.com

Spring Cleaning the Desk...SALE

I'm Spring cleaning the Teacher's Desk 6 and to celebrate I'm throwing a sale! Everything in my Teachers Pay Teachers store is 10% off starting March 30th and ending April 2nd.

Stop by the Teacher's Desk 6 for unique literacy items for your intermediate aged students.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Teachers-Desk-6

Happy Spring Cleaning!
Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6
teachersdesk@yahoo.com

Two More Alarms and the Round-up

Only two more days until Easter break... I AM READY! I love teaching, I love my sixers, but I am in need of some down time... with NO alarm clock! Enough whining!

We've had some great learning time this week, especially in Language Arts class. The POS Round-up that I wrote about a few days was quite the success today (take a peek further down the blog to read more about it). At least that's what my class thought. You can see my sixers in action during the activities.

We didn't quite have time to get through all six stations so we'll complete it on Wednesday, along with Quiet Journals again (something else they have been begging to do), and they can finalize all their paperwork prior to turning it in to me. They've asked to do it again after break. I don't think I want to focus on parts of speech  for a second time. I'm thinking perhaps of creating a round-up for poetry. Isn't April Poetry Month? This will be a good project to plan over break.

Happy Teaching,
Angela
The Teacher's Desk 6
teachersdesk@yahoo.com

The Push to Break and Manic Monday FREEBIE

This is the big week, the push to the finish… yes, Easter break is in sight! And the best part of it: I do not have to deal with April Fools’ Day since it is during break! YIPPEE!  I DO HAVE to deal with off-year writing proficiency testing this coming Tuesday and Wednesday with my fifth graders, just what one wants to do during the last few days prior to a vacation. Ah well, we will make the best of it!

But first... MANIC MONDAY'S FREEBIE!

Here’s something that I will have the fifth graders do as they complete the sections on the writing test- Easter Take Three. It’s a great brainstorming activity and will serve as pre-writing for some Easter poems we will compose on Thursday. I posted a similar activity last month for St. Patrick’s Day; the kiddos enjoyed it, and I heard from several of you that you used it with your classes with success! This Take Three has a bit of a religious flavor to it (I teach at a Catholic School) so I am offering this in Word format. That way anyone who is interested in the Easter Take Three can snag it, then edit it to remove the religious material. You can download it HERE, or by clicking on the link below the picture.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAOXY0QnJ3X2JNcGM/edit?usp=sharing

Happy Easter! Happy Teaching, Angela The Teacher's Desk 6 teachersdesk@yahoo.com

POS Round-up

As I posted earlier in the week, my sixers have been hitting the parts of speech pretty hard lately, at least the identification part. They do very well when each part of speech is worked in isolation, they do well when two or three are practiced at one time, but when we look at all of them together... uh oh! Some of my kiddos have even been staying after school- voluntarily- to get in extra practice. They've done worksheets, quizzes, lessons galore and are getting a bit ho-hum with the practice. 

So to perk things up a bit this week, that LOOOOOONG week just before a break, we are going to have a Parts of Speech (POS) Round-up on Tuesday morning.  I've been gathering the materials and organizing everything for the past few days. Today it's all ready, except for the laminating (that's Monday morning). 

Here's how it will work. Instead of a regular Language Arts class I'll be setting up six stations, one per table, around the room. Each table will house one activity for practicing the parts of speech. Students will rotate every fifteen minutes until they have visited each station and completed the activity. 

The stations are as follows:

1. POST... a card game for up to six players in which each player brainstorms a list of words for randomly selected part of speech beginning with a particular letter

2. Mystery Pictures based on the fowl tempered friends with whom my sixers love playing

3. Egg-cellent Verbs and Egg-citing Sentences... identifying verb tenses and writing sentences with randomly selected verbs that are hidden inside of Easter eggs

4. Parts of Speech Dice... purchased from Amazon, that require students to write sentences using particular parts of speech

5. MadLibs... Easter stories, collected from across the internet, to be completed by providing missing parts of speech

6. Parts of Speech Computer Battleship... the familiar board game turned digital at Quia Quiz site

Tuesday's Round-up should make it a little more fun when practicing the parts of speech. It should also help to make the day pass more quickly... ONE MORE DAY CLOSER TO EASTER BREAK! Can you tell I'm ready?

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

teachersdesk@yahoo.com

Spring into a Good Book ... Again!

A few weeks ago I blogged about an item that I was working on: Spring into a Good Book and shared a FREEBIE from it. Today, I just had to share a couple of photos of our finished display. It's just in time for our Spring Open House this Sunday. Our visitors will be greeted by our mini-book reports as they climb to the second floor.

It's still not too late for you and your students to Spring into a Good Book! 

Download the FREEBIE (flower) HERE. The complete packet (four springtime patterns) is available in my TpT Store HERE.

The students and teachers enjoyed this so much that they came to me with ideas for our next book report wall display: something warm and beach-y they said with beach balls, sun umbrellas, surboards, and flipflops!  This sounds like a great Spring Break project... ONE WEEK and counting!

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

teachersdesk@yahoo.com

Egg-citing Verbs and Egg-cellent Sentences... Easter FREEBIE

We've been hitting the parts of speech pretty hard lately in Language Arts class. My sixers have a hard time remembering the function of the words or getting prepositions and adverbs mixed-up, not to mention the difference between present tense and present progressive tense. They can use the parts of speech correctly in their writing but to identify them... ugh! Mystery Pictures have been a big help taking the drudge out of the work but I don't want to overdo them. BTW, my Spring Frog Mystery Picture is finished. You can get it HERE or by clicking on the link below the graphic.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Frog-Mystery-Picture-Parts-of-Speech

To give my sixers varied practice with identifying verb tenses and using them in sentences, I created Egg-citing Verbs and Egg-cellent Sentences (my class goes wild for silly puns), I'll be using this with them next Monday as we wind down the third quarter and get ready for our Spring Break. Maybe some of you would like to use this activity as well. You can download this FREEBIE HERE, or by clicking on the link below the graphic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAYVRNYnlzVnFzS2s/edit?usp=sharing

Happy Easter!

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

teachersdesk@yahoo.com

New Mystery Pic for Spring... Any Ideas?

I get started on these mystery pictures and then can't stop. I've been creating Spring themed parts of speech pictures. First it was a flower, then a chick, now I finished this cute spring butterfly last night and immediately started on a frog. She should be done later tonight. Watch for her debut tomorrow.

What else would be a good mystery pic for parts of speech for the spring? Post a suggestion and I'll send you a Spring Mystery Picture of your choice as a THANK YOU for your idea.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Butterfly-Mystery-Picture-Parts-of-Speech

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Flower-Mystery-Picture-Parts-of-Speech

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spring-Chick-Mystery-Picture-Parts-of-Speech-Verbs

Can't wait to hear your ideas!

Happy Teaching,

Angela

The Teacher's Desk 6

teachersdesk@yahoo.com

It's Manic Monday Again... Vocabulary Freebie

Love, love, love Manic Monday! It's one of the things that I look forward to each week on this dreaded day. Last week was the first time that I tried my hand at offering a freebie for MM. I also made plans for future MM's. What could I post?

I've been poking around in my original Teacher's Desk, cleaning and sorting. I specifically was looking for vocabulary ideas and activities what with the CCSS's heavier emphasis on this skill for our students. I used to use a lot of vocabulary centers in my language arts classes, but over the years and the many building moves I've made, things got packed away and forgotten.

This week for Manic Monday I'm offering Nursery Rhyme Rhetoric. This activity can be used as a literacy center or a whole group filler activity. It's a little like the typical Christmas Carol brain busters during holiday time. Presented with a convoluted nursery rhyme title, students must determine a familiar nursery rhyme's title,  while focusing on the unique wording and synonyms. You can download the freebie HERE or by clicking the link below the pic.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Q14Z2f7SoAMmQzaEhTRHpGX28/edit?usp=sharing

Don't forget to visit the Manic Monday blog post this week for LOADS more freebies for your classroom. There are some TERRIFIC ideas and activities there.

Happy Teaching, Angela The Teacher's Desk 6 teachersdesk@yahoo.com