Let the Games Begin

The Winter Games are beginning soon! If you are like me, I like to include current events and holidays in my classroom lessons, but if you're like me you struggle with time. There is so much that needs to be included in daily lessons that special themes and activities often get shut out. I've found that one of the best ways to include current events is via fun and engaging practice activities like mystery pictures or games of SCOOT or ZAP (my students' favorite). I can squeeze these into morning work, literacy centers, or as time-fillers.

Here are a few that I will be using with my fifth/sixth graders when the Winter Games begin. The activities require little to no prep and are perfect to just pop into your already busy classroom agenda. To read more about each activity or download a copy for use in your classroom, simply click on the link provided below each graphic.

Winter Games Mystery Pictures
Parts of Speech

There's no mystery about it! One of the most fun and engaging ways for students to practice identifying parts of speech is by coloring a mystery picture! This set of mystery pictures adds an additional element of fun in that students can celebrate the Winter Olympic games while doing their English work.

Winter Games ZAP!
Alphabetical Order

ZAP! is a fun and engaging way to have students practice any kind of skill from adding and subtracting to identifying fact and opinion statements. This ZAP! game requires students to alphabetize four Winter Olympics related words per card.

Winter Games SCOOT
Multiplying Fractions

Scoot is a popular game played in many elementary school classrooms. Easily adapted to any content area and grade level, Scoot makes for a welcome change from just completing a worksheet for skill practice. Scoot cards may also be used as task cards in a math center.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

#celebrate2018 TpT Sale

Some awesome TpT sellers and I have teamed up to #celebrate2018. You're invited to join us! Visit Teachers Pay Teachers and search using #celebrate2018 to discover terrific teaching items priced at just ONE DOLLAR! But HURRY, this celebration only lasts through New Year's Day 2018!

Here's what I've added to the celebration sale. Just click on the link to read more about the product and to download your own copy.

New Year's Nouns

New Year Zap

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Remember to #celebrate2018

Popular ELA Print and Go Holiday Resource...FREEBIE

I hate to be the bearer of bad news! I know that most teachers have just begun their holiday break, but looking ahead... School does resume after the holidays are over. If you're like me, you're anxious to return to your kiddos, but the thought of preparing lessons and activities and a return to the paperwork can be disheartening. Here's a fun, engaging, print and go ELA activity that will help you get back into the swing of things. It's the first thing that I present to my sixers on the first day back after holiday break.

New Year Mystery Picture Parts of Speech

Following a key, students match a word's part of speech with its representative color. They then color squares to reveal a mystery picture. The parts of speech practiced in this mystery picture are nouns (singular and plural) and verbs (past, present, and future tense). The coloring sheet can be projected on a whiteboard for whole or small group instruction/participation instead of printing individual paper copies. 

With over 11,000 downloads, this popular FOREVER FREEBIE has been shared and used with numerous students and has been widely reviewed by teachers.

Buyer: I think this is a wonderful idea for kids to do and have fun at the same time
Sunflowers and Smiles: Thank you for providing this activity! The kids loved practicing their grammar skills.
Megan W.: Great for review and to ease back into the swing of things after break.
Buyer: Great for a warm-up or homework assignment.
Christina R.: This was great as an independent center last week! Thanks for sharing!
Lorraine C.: Great review for morning work! Thanks!
Jennifer G.: Great way to start the new year and review parts of speech. Thank you!
Buyer said: This is so AWESOME! I used it in my home school group and they loved it!
Martine C.: Great activity to help review the parts of speech while students are getting settled back into the routine of school.
Michelle B.: Thanks! Great idea for reviewing parts of speech, and easing into the new year next week.
Louise C.: I love that they are coloring and applying knowledge at the same time!
Buyer: This is such a novel idea and kids love mysteries so it will keep them engaged too, thanks very much!

To read more about this product or download a copy for yourself, please click HERE. If you like this product and would like more like it, click HERE. There are over 75 Mystery Picture products in my TpT Store!

TpT Super Cyber Sale 2017

Shop on TpT on Nov. 27th and 28th and save BIG!

Everything in my store (and MANY others) is priced 20% off. Add to that a 5% discount offered by TpT on EVERY purchase and you've scored MAJOR SAVINGS!

'Tis the Season to shop on TpT!

Win a $10 Gift Certificate

'Tis the season for giving!

I've got a gift for you that I can't wait to give away.

Would you like a gift card to spend on TpT?

Just enter the Rafflecopter below before Monday, November 27, 2017 Midnight EST.

One lucky entrant will snag the gift card to spend on TpT.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Show and Tell Tuesday November Edition

It's that time...

I CAN NOT BAKE! I do not have the patience nor the grit to follow a recipe, see it through, and clean up all the mess! NOPE! However, I do enjoy the results, so you know all those recipes you see on Facebook? They really do work. I found a series of recipes over the summer that used refrigerator biscuits as the basis for pastry. Check out the mini pot pies made with country style jumbo biscuits as the crust... yummy easy! And that pie down below... oh yeah! DELISH and super easy peasy! Made with cinnamon rolls as the crust. Ha, I really can bake after all!

Those of you who have followed me for a while might recall how I work with a local branch of Kent State's chemistry professor. She invited my students and me to participate in the regional National Chemistry Day science fair. What fun! My students and I hauled our toaster ovens (science tools extrordinaire), rocks, and old crayons 40 miles to the metroparks nature center. There we demonstrated how chemistry rocks by involving visitors in painting hot rocks with wax crayons... super fun and super pretty. Our area of NE Ohio is BIG into the hiding painted rocks craze so this was the perfect exhibit for the day.

And speaking of our mentor chemistry teacher... here she is teaching a lesson about physical properties, chemical changes, and heat.

Normally, I do not dress up for Halloween at school. I do NOT like to dress up, never have, never will. However, I could not resist what our elementary staff decided to wear this year... emojis!!!! I am all the way at the top wearing the MEH emoji. My kiddos said that is the look that I give them when they are trying to make excuses or when they make poor choices. LOL!

I always end the monthly Show and Tell with a snap of my fuzz girls. Here's Lulubelle getting into mischief as usual. My nephew volunteered to assemble my brand new light. She made it a bit more difficult than it should've been. She just couldn't resist the pieces, styrofoam, and plastic bags. SIGH... life with cats is never dull.

 Be sure to stop by Forever in 5th Grade to read more Show and Tell posts by teacher bloggers. It's a great way to keep up with what's happening in the bloggy world of education.

Happy Hashtag Sale

Don't look now, but there's a GREAT hashtag sale happening SOON NOW!

Click HERE to be taken to all of the sale items. Happy shopping!

Happy Hashtag Halloween TWO You

A group of wonderful teachers and I have joined to offer you a special Halloween hashtag sale on TpT. This sale is for TWO days only and everything offered is priced at TWO dollars. Don't delay or you'll miss out on this special teachers' treat. 

Click HERE to see all the sale items.

October Show and Tell Tuesday

It's time for another month of...

 This month I'm featuring photos of all things SCIENCE!

Something new that I just started is an after school robotics club for my  kids in the middle. Any students in fifth through eighth grade who enjoy computers and coding and all things tech were invited to participate. Thirteen students signed up with more interested once fall sports are concluded. Here you see two fifth graders building their Lego robot. We meet again in two weeks when we will start coding programs to make the robots move! Such fun!

 STEM challenge No. 2 for my sixth graders: build the tallest free-standing tower on a foundation of wooden bricks and sticks. Oh my, the struggle... it's REAL!

Dr. Ann, the chemistry teacher from our local branch university, paid her first visit to ALL of my science classes. She presented a lesson on using scientific glassware, measuring, and Archimedes' principle.

AND finally, as I end all monthly Show and Tell posts, a pic of my two fuzz girls. They are actually sitting together again after a two month hiatus. It's definitely not sisterly love that draws them together this month, but rather a brand new blanket that's supposed to be my blanket. Each of the girls has claimed that warm, fuzzy patch as her own and won't relinquish to the other. They LOVE the new blanket more than they dislike each other... LOL!

Be sure to stop by Forever in 5th Grade for more October Show and Tell posts. It's a great way to keep up with terrific teachers in the education bloggy world!

#SPOOKYSALE

Don't be scared but a group of fabulous TpTer's and I have joined to offer you a special two day only hashtag sale just in time for Halloween. 

On Oct. 12-13th you will find frighteningly terrific teaching products priced at a deep discount. Visit TpT on those two days and search using #SpookySale to locate the sale items.

Happy Shopping!