Sunday TPT Share 3 + 1

Are you ready? Tomorrow is the beginning of you-know-what... the event we wait for all summer long!

My store is all set and waiting for shoppers. EVERY ITEM (including already deeply discounted bundles) is on sale for 20%. TPT adds another 10% at checkout if you remember to use the special promo code...

BTS14

I've been hopping around the bloggy world, seeing so many great teaching products. I'm glad that bloggers share particular items on their blogs prior to the sale. It helps me find some items I might not with just a search through TPT.

I thought I'd highlight three items and one category from my store to help you with your shopping.

BEST SELLER: Poetry Task Cards.
This set of twenty cards is perfect for early finishers or students needing a challenge. They introduce over a dozen poems to students while encouraging them to be creative. Included also in the pack is a set of pencil toppers, an INB foldable, and a wordsearch puzzle. Additionally, this pack is part of a special adoption fundraiser that you can read about HERE. One dollar of every pack purchased during the month of August is donated to the fundraiser.

MOST WISHLISTED: Homework Management System.
In this packet you will find a complete homework management system consisting of three parts: punch cards, brag tags, and no homework coupons, Together the system will encourage homework responsibility in your students. Easy to set-up and implement, this system will soon have you and your students bragging about their good work!

MY FAVORITE: 3-2-1 ELA Bundle.
Are you looking for FUN and ENGAGING Back to School themed ELA activities to review or introduce key language arts concepts? Look no further! This bundle contains SIX products to help your intermediate students practice identifying parts of speech and kinds of sentences, as well as recognizing fragments, sentences, and run-ons. Included are THREE Zap! games, TWO Mystery Pictures, and ONE pack of Scoot cards. Each item is available separately in my TpT store...

Back to School Zap! Fragments, Run-ons, and Sentences
Back to School Zap! Kinds of Sentences 
Back to School Zap! Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs
Mystery Picture Schoolhouse
Mystery Picture Apple
Back to School Scoot Revising Sentences

... and if purchased individually would be much more costly. Add the discount from the sale... and WOWZA! By purchasing the bundle, you save a considerable amount!!!

A category of products that I am most proud of is my religion materials. 

I teach in a Catholic school and try to incorporate our faith in every subject throughout the day whether it be Language Arts, Science, or just school in general. Currently there are twenty-three religious based items in my store (I have MANY more planned so check back often). You can view them HERE. 

If you are on Instagram you can see more TPT-er's best sellers, most wishlisted, and favorite products by searching #tptshare3. Come on over and add your own!

Have a grand time with the Back to School Blast Off Sale on Monday and Tuesday! For Throwback Thursday this week I'll be sharing what I purchased, a throwback of only a few days but still a throwback. What are you planning on sharing for TBT this week?

CURRENTLY Lots Going On!

I almost missed the first of August! I think it's actually denial. Once August rolls around, I know that I must begin to think about school. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE teaching! However, I don't like alarm clocks and strict schedules. Anyway there is CURRENTLY a lot going on here on my blog.

First up is the ever popular monthly linky hosted by Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade called... CURRENTLY! Here is what I've got currently going on...

Be sure to stop by Farley's blog to check out more CURRENTLY pages.

Before you leave, please check out these other activities happening at The Teacher's Desk 6

*Support for the Journey Blog Hop and Giveaway...

Consider helping out blogger Jen Engel with her adoption fund. You can read more about this beautifully inspiring teacher and her family HERE and enter a terrific giveaway.

*2014 Back to School Blogger Product Swap...

Are you in the market for some new teaching materials to spruce up your lessons or jumpstart your classroom learning environment? Be sure to check out all the products featured in the annual blogger product swap. Over 30 products have been reviewed and are featured HERE.

* Finally, are you ready for the Back to School Sale being held on Aug. 4-5th at Teacher's Pay Teachers? TpT is offering a 10% discount on ALL purchases and MANY sellers are holding sales of their own (me included). You'll be able to save up to 28% off your total purchase if you use the special promo code when you checkout. You've got a couple of days to DO SOME BROWSING and fill-up your wishlist!

Support for the Journey Blog Hop/Giveaway

We teachers know all about journeys.  Many of us are getting ready to journey back to our classrooms to prepare for the new school year.  Each school year becomes a journey of sorts, with its own set of students, challenges, and rewards.

We teachers also know all about support.   Year after year, we give so much of ourselves to help our students learn, build confidence in their abilities, and empower them to become the future our world needs.  We also support our fellow teachers, our families, our communities.  In the midst of it all, it becomes easy to forget that, simply put, teachers touch lives.

Every. Single. Day.

Graphics credit to Melonheadz;  Font credits to Hello Literacy, Miss Tiina, and DJ Inkers.  Thanks to Joey Udovich for designing!

While many of us are thinking of back-to-school, Jen Bengel and her family have been preparing for a journey of another kind.  They will soon be traveling to Uganda to adopt a child!  Check out Jen’s blog post HERE! (Prepare to be inspired!)

A number of fellow teacher-bloggers have joined forces to offer a measure of support to Jen and her family as they prepare for their special journey.  Each of us has chosen a resource from our store that, between now and August 31, a portion of each sale’s proceeds will be donated to Jen’s adoption fund!

This is the resource I have chosen:

Between now and August 31, I pledge to donate $1 of each sale of this resource (my best seller!) to Jen’s adoption fund.

Hop around to the blogs featured below to see what my friends are pledging!

Apple Slices

Apples & ABC's
Beyond the Worksheet
Crafting Connections
Create Teach Share
Flapjack Education
Learning with Mrs. S
Miss V's Busy Bees
One Stop Teacher Shop
Tales of a Teacher
Teaching Trio
The Teacher Desk 6

We hope you will find this to be a win-win opportunity, where you can purchase some great resources for the upcoming school year, knowing that you are supporting a meaningful cause at the same time!

Note that Jen also has a fundraising bundle available at her store. Don’t miss checking this out, too! 

Finally, to make it worth your time to check out all the resources, we are also hosting a raffle giveaway!  The winner of the giveaway will score a great prize package, full of resources from our team – just in time for BTS!

From me, the giveaway winner will receive:

Homework Management System

So, hop around, check out some fantastic resources, support a cause, touch a life!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

B2S Blogger Product Swap

I am super excited to be participating in this year's...

Special thanks to Cara from Creative Playground for
organizing this year's product swap!

I was even MORE excited to learn that I was paired with my super, sweet blogging buddy Jessica from Joy in the Journey. Jessica is a dedicated and faith-filled, fifth-grade teacher who is passionate about teaching, her students, and the products that she creates. Jessica invited me to "shop" her TpT store and select the product that I would like as a swap. Oh my! She has so many wonderful items, it was not an easy task. Here is what I finally chose, an activity to help my 5th and 6th grade kiddos with their study of figurative language.

The Horsing Around with Hyperbole packet includes:

• Hyperbole Poster

Great to use as the skill is introduced or as an anchor chart.
It could be miniaturized and placed in an interactive notebook for reference.

• Hyperbole Student Note Sheet

Perfect for use in an interactive notebook
and to aid students in listening skills during a lesson,
focusing on the main ideas and important points.

• Hyperbole Task Cards (20)

Attractive and easy to read, each contains a kid familiar example.
The cards can be used in a literacy center, for a scavenger hunt, or for a game of Scoot.

• Student Tracking Sheet

Convenient for students to use, especially as part of a literacy center
since Jessica provides a place for a score and reference to self-checking using the answer key.

• Answer Key

Easy to read and a perfect addition for a self-checking literacy center.
The answer key is identical to the tracking sheet, making it super simple for students to
check their work with ease.

• Heaping Hyperbole Poem Activity

Students are asked to read Shel Silverstein's poem "Sarah Cynthia Slyvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out" which is RICH in hyperbole. They are then asked to explain why this poem relates to hyperbole, requiring them to use application skills.

• Heaping Hyperbole Visualization and Re-call activity

Related to the Shel Silverstein poem activity, students are required to demonstrate
recall of material they have read, taking this from a figurative language activity,
into a basic comprehension skill practice. As a teacher, I appreciate integration of multiple skills
in a singular product... more bang for your buck!

• Hyperbole or Not? Worksheet

Jessica provides further practice with more examples of hyperbole
for students to identify, this time with a little coloring involved. This page is perfect
for individual assessment as an in class paper or for simple review for homework.

• Answer Key

Jessica conveniently includes an answer key for the independent practice activity as well.
This addition allows the activity to be part of a literacy center as well.

Horsing Around with Hyperbole is chock-full of great activities that provide whole class, small group, and individual learning experiences for third through sixth graders especially. It can be used for practicing multiple skills besides simply identifying hyperbole: note taking, reading comprehension, writing, and listening. I can NOT wait to try this out with my Language Arts classes this coming school year. I think you should try it, too!

Please be sure to stop over at Jessica's blog, Joy in the Journey, where she will be describing and reviewing my item for the blogger product swap: Fall Scoot Prepositional Phrases. If you like what you read, hop over to my TpT store where you will be able to download this fun and engaging Scoot game for half-price now through Aug. 3, 2014. 

Then make sure that you visit all the other blogs below for more great products to use throughout your school year.

An InLinkz Link-up

While you're hopping around to all the great teacher blogs and checking out all the terrific teacher products available in their TpT Stores, you might want to build up your TpT wishlist. The Back to School Teachers Pay Teachers Sale is coming soon. Now is the time to grab all those TpT items that you've been wanting for a substantial savings, up to 28% off when you use the special promo code at checkout! WOW! Just in time for a brand new school year.

Let's SCOOT into Throwback Thursday

Are you ready? Let's SCOOT on into...

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. 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!

Scoot is one of my students' all-time favorite classroom activities. One year ago I had NEVER heard of this "game" which is technically not a game but rather a method of practicing academic skills. Scoot is SO much fun, students think of it as a game. If you are not familiar with Scoot, HERE is a great explanation from Task Card Corner.

Here is my TBT offering for this week, originally appearing on The Teacher's Desk 6 on October 29, 2013...

The teacher who teaches fourth grade Language Arts also happens to teach fifth grade Science. She needed the fifth graders for an extended time today so they could do some hands-on science stations about animal adaptations. The only time in the schedule that we could conjure up was when I normally had the fifth graders for Language Arts. However, my sixth graders were with another teacher who was administering a social studies test to them soooooo...... I took the fourth graders for Language Arts.

What to do at the last minute? SCOOT, of course! The fourth graders had been studying nouns and verbs, particularly as subjects and predicates. I decided to ramp it up a bit for them and add adjectives into the mix.

I started by sharing one of my new favorite books: Bats at the Library by Brian Lies.

With the predictable rhyming text, the fourth graders were quickly chiming in and helping me to read. After the first reading, we went back, extracting nouns and matching words that described them... ADJECTIVES. Next we brainstormed all the adjectives that we could think of to describe HALLOWEEN NIGHT, and what a list it was! We then used the words in sentences, noting nouns and verbs as well as adjectives. Then finally we played SCOOT wherein they practiced identifying nouns, verbs, and adjectives in sentences.

They caught on quickly and really enjoyed the activity! So much so that they asked to come back again SOON! I think it might have had something to do with the cool orange paper that I gave them to write on... LOL!

If you haven't tried Scoot yet with your students, this school year is a time to give it a whirl. Grab some flashcards, a set of task cards, or stop by my TpT Store for a pre-made set and get your kiddos SCOOT-ing into some fun skills practice!

Now it's your turn to throwback!

First a  throwback, now let's Blast Off for a TpT sale! Just in time for Back to School. Spend the next few days shopping and building your wishlists. You'll be able to stock up on terrific teaching items while saving up to 28% off your entire bill when you use the special promo code at checkout.

Wordless Wednesday

Guess what? It's time for...

Can you guess what back-to-school item I am crazy about? 

Do you have a particular favorite?

Be sure to stop by Sugar and Spice to see all the fun Wordless Wednesday posts. I look forward to this linky each week, spending time during the day visiting various bloggers and leaving messages on their posts. It's a great way to spend a lazy summer day.

Are you ready for tomorrow?

Two for Tuesday

Time to join The Teaching Tribune for...

This week I've chosen two products that are perfect for setting up a homework or behavior management system in your classroom.

Contained in this packet are 5 pre-programmed punch cards and 5 editable punch cards with 7, 14, or 20 punches. Use the punch cards to track student behavior and provide rewards. When a student performs the behavior you are seeking, punch a space on his/her card. When the student earns a particular number of punches he/she receives a reward.

These punch cards are larger in size than typical ones. They easily fit in a pencil pouch or toolbox and are harder to lose or misplace. 

The brag tags referred to on the pre-programmed punch cards are simply small cards with positive messages. Brags tags are a little like trading cards; they are sometimes called behavior beads. Students collect them and store them on a metal ring, cord, or thin chain. They are a visible/concrete symbol of student success and achievement, something a student can brag about. There are several styles of these available on Teachers Pay Teachers. A simple search using “brag tag” or “behavior beads” will lead you to them. A few are even free. I have MANY sets available in my TpT store, some which even coordinate with these punch cards. You can read more about brag tags HERE.

The blank punch cards are editable. You are able to add your own text and graphics and determine your own goals and rewards. Simply use the “insert” feature. Then select “text box” or “picture or clip art.” I have included text boxes on each blank card for you to begin with. You are free to use your choice of font(s) and graphics. However, please be respectful of copyright. To purchase these punch cards TODAY for only one dollar, please click HERE.

Similar to the above product is this.

Contained in this packet are 10 pre-programmed homework punch cards and 10 editable (any subject) punch cards each containing spaces for 20 punches. The cards contained are for Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Spring, Patriotic, and Summer. These are available TODAY for only $1.50 by clicking HERE.

Be sure to stop by The Teaching Tribune for more great Two For Tuesday deals on terrific teaching items.

Also, don't forget what happens in two days. Be sure to come back and share your PURR-fect posts, pics, and pins.

Monday Made It Double Take

Another Monday has rolled around so it is time for...

I titled this post "Double Take" since I  made not one but TWO of the same item. It started out looking like this, plain gray...

... to which I added some colorful paint that adheres to plastic.

I made some labels in a matching color scheme. This took a little bit of doing, trial and error, for the correct sizing, but it wasn't long before I had them completed...

... and ready to put on the drawers. I used double sided tape and placed the labels on the outside of the drawers. This will allow for easy removal and replacement.

When I was finished I had not one but two custom teacher toolkits, one for my supplies and one for all of my brag tags, punch cards, tickets, and coupons.

Be sure to stop by Tara's blog, 4th Grade Frolics, to see all the other great Monday Made Its created by crafty teacher bloggers.

BUT WAIT!!!! Speaking of Made Its... My sweet bloggy friend Lisa from Mrs. Spangler in the Middle has made it to her first blogiversary! CONGRATULATIONS! In celebration she is throwing a wingding of a giveaway from today through August 1, 2014, with prizes furnished by these teacher bloggers.

Be sure to stop by Lisa's blog to enter to win one (or all) of the four prize packages!!!