July Currently

WOW!!!!  I can't believe it is already July!  JULY!!!!  And the fourth is just around the corner, which then means that back to school stuff will already be filling the shelves (sigh).  Sooooooo, here is my July Currently that I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade!

If you have been reading my blog you know that we are SOOOOO excited be home since last summer we couldn't come because Baby B was in the NICU.  I am also SUPER excited because due to this thing called LIFE (medical reasons), my parents haven't seen Baby B since this:

This was while he was still in the NICU, so I am SUPER excited for them to see him today!!  YAY!!!!!!!!!

TWO for TUESDAY 50% off items!!!

It's Tuesday, and you know what that means---it's...

Today I am putting these two item up for 50% off in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

The first item is my Fractions of a Set Task cards:

Click the above picture to take you to this item. :)

It contains 24 fractions of a set task cards which are word problems (most of them multi-step), a recording sheet and answer key.  It's a great resource for letting your students practice how to find fractions of a set in real world scenarios.

The second item is:

This a GREAT resource to reinforce with students how to plot, read, and interpret fractions on a line plot! In my experience this is a tough concept for students to grasp.

It's a 7 page printable resource can be used as guided or individual practice, as a guided math center game, homework, etc.! The possibilities are endless!
There are 2 independent practice pages which rely on students to plot fractions on a line plot, add and subtract fractions and mixed numbers, multiply a fraction by a whole number, find equivalent fractions, and simplify fractions.1 line plot recording sheet (you can print multiple times on card stock in color, then put it in a clear plastic sleeve to be used with dry erase markers over and over again).12 task cards for students to play “The Early Bird Gets the Worm!”1 worksheet that goes along with the task cards.
This game can EASILY be played more than once with a group since each time the task cards will be dispersed differently.

I hope that you enjoy these items!  :)

Monday Meet Me: What I am Thankful for

It's Monday again, and time for the Monday Meet Me with The Teaching Tribune!!! :)
I have SOOOOO much fun with this on Monday because I LOVE meeting new bloggers!!! :)  Also, thank you yesterday to all of those who follow me!  As soon as I posted my flash freebie I had 6 downloads INSTANTLY! :)  If you don't already follow me on my FB page, please do!  ANY new products I put on TPT will be a flash freebie! :)

So, this week it is three things that we are thankful for.  I am pretty sure that mine are pretty generic, but I can't help that it is what I am thankful for. :)

So, the first thing that I am thankful for is my family. :)  I LOVE my family a WHOLE lot, and it makes it VERY hard to live in another state sometimes!!

The second thing that I am thankful for is the ability to be visiting my family in Michigan right now (see number 1).  Last summer we were not able to go home because our son was in the NICU, so it is VERY special for us to be home this year AND bring our son. What a difference a year makes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

The third thing that I am thankful for is that I have worked in two schools where I have worked with some AMAZING people!!!!!!!!  I have learned SOOOOO much from them, and am a better teacher because of it!  We are in Michigan right now, and got together with the staff from one of those schools.  It's closed now because its charter was not renewed, but this was a school where I met a LOT of amazing teachers (including my husband!!  ha ha).  Even after 6 years, we still remain close!

Our reunion party from Friday!! :)

As some of you may know, I left my second school (in NC) this year to try my hand at middle school.  I know that this school is AMAZING, and I already LOVE my new team, but I also left a great school to take a chance on this, so I really hope that I love it JUST as much! :)

Can't wait to do some blog hopping today to meet some new bloggers, and visit some that I am following.

FLASH FREEBIE TIME! :)

I had a little downtime today, so I finally put the finishing touches on my fractions of a set task cards!!! :)

I made these this past school year in worksheet form for my students because they really struggled with the concept.  I just took the time today to make them all cute and pretty! :)  

As a thank you to everyone that has been kind enough to follow me so far, please go to my TPT site for the next hour to get the entire set for FREE!!! At 6:00 p.m. EST they will become a paid product.  So, please click HERE to get it while you can!  All I ask is that you leave a little feedback love in return!:)

If you happen to have missed out on the flash freebie, they will be available this Tuesday, too in my Two for Tuesday 50% off sale with The Teaching Tribune!

So, thank you again to anyone that has taken the time to follow me.  It means a lot to me that you take the time to read what I have to say. :)

Peek-a-Who: My Tried and True Teaching Tip

Happy Thursday!!!
I'm sorry for not blogging yesterday...now that we're safely in Michigan, I'm going to try to unplug a bit to spend more time with family, but I will be on here from time to time still. :)
I am excited to write about one of my tried and true teaching tips today with The Teaching Tribune.

So..with back to school only a few months away (kinda scary!  wahhhhhhhh) I wanted to share one of my FAVORITE back-to-school ice breaker activities.  When I worked at a summer camp for 3 summers in a row we always played this, and it was so fun (even for adults!!!), but I LOVE playing it with my students.  I'm not sure how it will work with 6th graders, and I may need to find something else.  However if anyone reading this is a middle school teacher, I'm open to your suggestion on if you think that it will work. :)

Here is how you play:

• You split your class into two teams.
• You stand in the middle with another student and hold up a sheet so both sides CANNOT see each other.  
• Then you motion for one student to come up to the sheet on both sides.
• You count to three and then drop the sheet.
• The first person to say the other persons name captures them to the other team.
• If the students do not know the other students' name, then they introduce each other and stay on the same team.

It's a GREAT get to know you activity, and my students have always loved it!!! :)  They even ask to play when it's NOT the first day of school.  I hope that you like this activity, too!!

Two for TUESDAY! 50% off TPT items!

Happy Tuesday!!

I had so much fun yesterday checking out all of the Monday Made Its and Meet Me's!!   This is a blast!!!

Today I'm linking up again with The Teaching Tribune!  

That means TWO items in my TPT store are 50% off!!

This week I am putting the ENTIRE The Best Christmas Pageant Ever unit and my Bud, Not Buddy poster set on sale!

I loved using the Bud, Not Buddy posters this year!  I have always thought that teaching reading was my weakness, so this year I spent a LOT of time and energy doing different things to get my kids thinking BEYOND the text and using text based evidence to support their thinking.  These posters do just that.  It's a set of 5 different posters that you can print on LEGAL sized paper (it makes a prettier poster), but you can also scale them to be letter in the printer settings.  4 posters focus on main characters in the story, and the students need to identify character traits of that character AND give an example from the book to support their thinking.  The other poster is a comparison of two situations in the book.  For those of you that have read it, an underlying theme in part of it is segregation and the depression.  There are two situations in this book that I felt could be compared using higher order thinking skills.  The poster Bud sees when he eats breakfast at the mission depicting a rich white family in a fancy car to what he sees in real life when he gets to Hooverville.  My students did a GREAT job with this and coming up with comparisons and differences it was great!

I wish I would have taken pictures of how they turned out, but they looked really nice, and they were PERFECT for the hallway bulletin board!  I was also happy because they also showed that my students were using higher order thinking when they created them.

The second item I am putting up at half off is my The Best Christmas Pageant Ever unit.  It contains questions for all 7 chapters, discussion cards for all 7 chapters that can be used in literature circles, guided reading, or even in the classroom in place of the worksheets, a biopoem activity, and a final test.  I know it's June, but I guess you can never start thinking about Christmas too early. :)

I will also be having a FLASH FREEBIE one day this week, which I will announce to my Facebook followers!  So, if you haven't followed yet, please do! :)

Meet Me Monday & I Made it Linkies

HAPPY MONDAY!!!!!!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend! Today is one of my FAVORITE blogging days of the week.  First, I am linking with The Teaching Tribune for their Summer Bloggin' Series.  

1.  Yes, I HATE watermelon.  I can't even stand ANY type of melon!  I always feel like an outcast at BBQ's because people will offer it to me, and I say "no thank you, I don't like watermelon" and I get shocked faces.

2.  If you have read my blog a little, you know that I am the proud parent of a preemie!!! :)  He is a 25 weeker who was born at 1 pound 9 ounces last May.  It was a rough road to say the least.  98 days in the NICU, 5 surgeries, and one SUPER close call,  but now when you look at him you would NEVER know he was born that early...actually, when you see him you WOULD know he was born that early because he is EVERYWHERE!!!!  There is no way he would have stayed in until 40 weeks!  You can see pictures of him on my "About Me" page.

3.  I have never, ever, EVER seen the movie Star Wars (insert gasp here).  I know that I should watch it sometime.  I'm not a big movie watcher, though. I can only watch a movie one time, and I am not one of those people that have a HUGE collection of DVD's because I literally will only watch a movie once, unless it's in my top 5.

I can't wait to hop on over and meet the rest of you today!!!! :)

I am also linking today with Tara from Fourth Grade Frolics and her

We have been a little busy getting ready for our trip to Michigan, and I also have been still in school up until Thursday, but here is what I've got. :)  It's also my FIRST middle school thing that I have made!

SO, my friend Mallory and I right now taught at the same school last year, and this year we are both taking a leap to middle school (different middle schools).  We have been talking during our work days about what different things would look like as far as processes and procedures.  She was talking about how her school did exit tickets, so I made this for the both of us.  

Essentially, before our students will leave math class, they will solve one last multiple choice problem on a sticky note.  They MUST show their work (we're both math teachers) and put their name on it.  As they walk out the door, they will stick their note up under the matching letter.  A quick little "exit ticket", and honestly, what kid doesn't like a post-it note. :)  The students that have the question wrong, we plan to save their sticky note until the next day and they will can try it again as past of their morning work, or get help from a classmate to coach them on the problem

Ok, well I don't have a picture of this YET, but I will today, and I will post on my Facebook page, so if you aren't follower yet, come on over for a visit. :)  So, I should say that this should be I HOPE I make it.  We leave for Michigan today, and with the advice of some sweet bloggers last week, we are taking the advice and leaving this evening and driving overnight (I have't done that for about 10 years!).  The thing is we are traveling with an energetic 1 year old, 2 dogs, 2 kayaks, ALL of the things that the said 1 year old will need for 4 weeks, everything WE will need for 4 weeks, and the trip is about 13.5 hours!!  Yikes.  Wish us luck!!!  ha ha