Currently June 2015

I am linking up with a fellow fourth grade teacher Farley over at Oh Boy 4th Grade. Love her spunk, her blog, and her passion to help the fur babies of the world.

• I am currently listening to Dateline (my favorite show) on my DVR and listening to the neighbor water her lawn.
• I am currently loving that today marks exactly one week until I marry my best friend.
• I am currently thinking I have a lot to get accomplished this week like planning our honeymoon!
• I am currently wanting to go to the gym today.
• I am currently needing to go by the school and set up my new classroom since I moved across the hall.
• I am currently summer lovin workout clothes, bathing suits, flip flops, and lemonade. 

Now go visit Farley's blog here!

 

Also she is doing a donation to help out the furry friends in Wimberly, Texas please go and donate to help. 

June Pinterest Pick 3: Summer Inspiration

I am a little late linking up for this Pinterest pick, but better late than never. I have been so busy on my first week off of summer break finalizing wedding plans. I made my list and checked it twice. Yes I have only been out of school for a week, but I am already thinking about next school year. The following are different ideas I plan to utilize next year. 

First off I love the idea of interactive notebooks. Have I successfully used them throughout a whole school year no, but I do wish to implement them next year a stick to them. I like this post because it gives the teacher ways to successfully use them without losing your mind and keeping your sanity.

I don't know about you, but in Georgia we implemented a new standardized test this year that had a TON of writing. My students were basically expected to write like high school students and use evidence based reasoning to support their ideas. My students were not familiar with the words cite, evidence, support, etc. coming from a home where English is not their first language is difficult in setting the bar so high that it is almost unreachable. I did what any teacher would do and had to train the students to write to the test. Shhhh I didn't say that, but yes I did. Writing in my opinion should be creative and expressive, but that is not what the test clearly wants. They want research, evidence based logic. 

I have created tons of standards based task cards on TPT and I love these ten ways to use them effectively. Go check it out!!

Follow me on Pinterest below!

Monday Made It

Boy oh boy it is time for another link up with the wonderful 4th Grade Frolics!! This is by far one of my most favorite link up blog posts. Today was my official first day off from work for summer vacation and I sure got a lot accomplished. I am going to share some of the new thing-a-ma-jigs that I have made recently and some oldie but goodies. 

Numero uno- I am going to showcase some math task cards that my students love. I typically use them as a review tool after I have already taught the lesson, or I use them to help with differentiation. The first one is a sponsor freebie currently, so grab it while you can. The other two are just ones that I am choosing to highlight this month. 

Numero-dos (not sure why I am attempting to speak Spanish. I guess because I have had three years of it and still cannot speak a lick to communicate effectively. Anyways, I am highlighting for number two a few of my science task cards. Another set of students favorites I might add. 

Numero tres- might as well keep with the Spanish theme. These are my newest products for 5th grade social studies. They are great support material to use while teaching, after the lesson has been taught, or just review. 

Surprise!!!

I am absolutely thrilled to announce my new adventure. I was asked by Karen over at Hadasa Designs to be a part of a blog to offer free products for teachers. Come on you know you deserve it!! And who doesn't love FREE!!!! The blog is called Fabulous Freebies for Teachers go check it out. Basically every week there will be a different group of grade level teachers to offer free products. All you have to do is sign up for the rafflecopter to win and BAM freebies delivered to your email, after the drawing has been completed. This week on June 5th I am offering one of my best selling products up for grabs Maps and Globes Task Cards. Take a gander at them below. Don't forget to go sign up on Friday!!

Some examples from the freebie:

     

TPT Sale Link Up

Welcome to 4th Grade Funky Town's May Teacher Appreciation sale!! 

A lot of different teacher bloggers are having a sale on May 5th-6th for 28% off. Stop what you are doing now and go fill your shopping cart with tons of goodies from a variety of sellers. The sale begins on Cinco de Mayo which is tomorrow!! Make sure that you don't forget the promo code THANKYOU to get the discount 

This little linky is hosted by Second Grade Nest, Flying into First Grade, Miss Decarbo, and Mrs. Silly Firstie. Thank you lovely ladies for the link up idea!

Click below to find my store to select some wonderful products.

Stop, Swap & Roll

I am so excited to be teaming up with Melissa for this Stop, Swap & Roll blog link up. Swapping products with fellow teacher bloggers is an excellent way to learn more about other teachers, students, and get a change to "try out" products for one another. 

I had the pleasure of linking up with Heather, of Mrs. Renz Class. She really helped me out with reviewing my product and even helping me with blog trouble shooting. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to meet a fellow veteran 4th grade teacher, whom I can learn a lot from. 

Heather is wonderful. She sent me her latest figurative language interactive poetry notebook set. This set includes a variety of figurative language words, there meanings, and examples for each. My students were able to learn the use and meaning of alliteration, hyperbole, idiom, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, and simile. They also loved getting to cut out, color, and glue the sets in their reader's notebooks. 

Her set also included a PPT presentation that I was able to pull up on my smart board and go over with the students while they were working on their projects in their notebooks. Below you will get an inside look at my students working on this notebook set. 

Please excuse the layout of my room during this. We just finished our Georgia Milestones testing the day before. 

This product was very easy for my students to follow along with. They were able to work page by page as I was instructing them on the word, definition, and example.

They love anything where they have the chance to make something. At our school we have a high ELL population. This product really help to give my ELL students a concrete example of each word and its meaning. 

Also more than half of my class is EIP, this set was very user friendly for them to be able to work at their own pace and still be able to learn the challenging information presented to them. 

These are a few examples of the PowerPoint included that I used to teach the lesson. 

Last, but certainly not least, I let me students cut and glue their pages in anyway that they chose. They were also allow to draw a picture to show an example for each. Here is what I received:

Side note: my students didn't glue them in the flap style like the directions said to, but think they still used them effectively. 

Overall I think this project is an excellent resource for figurative language, which can be a challenging standard for students to learn. They loved having independence to work, cut, draw, and glue all while learning. Thank you Heather!!

Heather is also putting on sale all of her poetry items 20% off in her store this week. You can find them here:

Also don't forget to hop on over to Mrs. Renz Class to check out my Real World Word Problems set. I will also be putting my entire math homework sets on sale 20% off. They are sold in sets of nine weeks at a time. You can find them here. 

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