Destiny's Gift

Have you read Destiny's Gift?
It's a simple story about the power a child can have when she wants to help someone with a problem.
The illustrations are beautiful.
It's a great story to use for the Common Core standards on character traits. If you've never seen the book, click on the link below for more info.

Here is a compound sentence activity based on the story. You can use it even if you don't have the book.

Click on the pic above to get the file.

Go to my TpT Store quickly! I put everything on sale for the Labor Day weekend.  Click {HERE} to visit! Today is the last day for the sale.

Rock On! -- Freebie!

Have you ever noticed that if you give your kiddos a timer, any activity turns into a game?

I have timers all over my room. I don't buy the fancy "teacher timers," just the cheap ones. This is similar to the ones I use.

Click above to check it out.

Once you get a timer, run off this center and adapt it for your kiddos' needs.

The directions are easy. Draw a letter card and a word card. Set the timer for three minutes and write as many words as you can that fit the word category AND start with the assigned letter.

Requiring the kiddos to use a certain letter makes them think a little more. If you are just starting a review, you might want to leave the letter card off and just let them write any word that fits the category. Categories include the basic parts of speech, common nouns, proper nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, contractions, compound words, words with prefixes, words with suffixes, multi syllable words, and more! I also included a few blank cards so you can add the skills you need. 

Once the three minutes is up, students compare their lists with the other players. If a word is used on anyone's list, it is marked off. The winner is the one with the most words that are not marked off.

Be sure to have a dictionary handy so that they can answer their own questions about spelling.

Click on the pic above to get the game.

Go to my TpT Store quickly! I put everything on sale for the Labor Day weekend.  Click {HERE} to visit!

Main Idea Butterflies

Main Idea...Main Idea...Main Idea

No matter what grade level you teach, you have to work on finding the main idea of a passage.

ReadWorks.org is a great site for finding informational passages on lots of topics. The passages are Lexile leveled. You might want to run them through a text complexity analyzer, because all of the passages are not complex, even though they might be of a higher Lexile level.

Click on the image above to visit the site. There's lots of good info.

My third graders read one of the passages from the site, Insects on the Move.

 One of the topics of our State Department's Common Core training this past summer was giving the students the main idea and letting them determine the details that back it up. I gave them the main idea, and they found the details. 

They wrote the main idea I gave them on the body of a butterfly and a detail on each of the spots. Doing this in small groups gave me a lot of insight because I had the chance to actually hear them as they worked through the passage aloud. One of my kiddos said the work was easy because the details were really the main ideas of each paragraph. Don't you love it when they get it?

Go to my TpT Store quickly! I put everything on sale for the Labor Day weekend.  Click {HERE} to visit!

Be sure to check out my Teachers Notebook Shop. If you follow my shop, you can enter my giveaway for a chance to win a copy of "My Teacher Likes to Say," my packet on figurative language and quotation marks. Click {HERE} to visit.

And speaking of giveaways......stay tuned because as soon as I reach 1300 followers, I will be giving away everything I have in my Teachers Pay Teachers store! Lots of my blogging friends have joined in and are offering unbelievable prizes, too!

Over in the Meadow Freebie

I know you've heard the children's rhyme, "Over in the Meadow." Ever since we used it last week, it's been playing over and over and OVER in my head! It's the perfect poem to use to introduce setting in poetry. First, I sketched out the bare bones of a meadow.

Then, we gave groups of our first graders a different verse of the poem and asked them to illustrate it.

They loved drawing the pictures and talking about the different animals. It was a simple, fun way to review setting. Click on the pic below to get a copy of the poem. Cut apart the verses and you are ready to go! 

I'm having a giveaway in my Teachers Notebook Shop. Click {HERE} to follow my shop and enter. You could win a copy of "My Teacher Likes to Say" activities on punctuating dialogue and figurative language.

Happy Friday!

It's Our Fall Break!

We started school on August 5 and are officially on what YOU would call Fall Break, but what we here in Shelbyville call "Out for the Horse Show!"

Our town is the Walking Horse Capital of the World and home of the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration. Schools are out during the run of the show. This is the first year in my entire life that I'm not going to the show at all. 

I'm heading to the beach for some R & R on a girls' trip. 

Before I leave, I wanted to pass on an offer from EAI.

Exploragons are a hands-on tool that lets students explore geometric concepts. Students snap the flexible sticks together to explore polygons and plane geometry. The kit includes the coolest protractor I have ever seen. The sticks snap right on to the protractor so your kiddos can measure angles. There are dry erase task cards that are perfect for small group and math station work AND a deck of Quick Check cards. These cards are perfect for a self-checking formative assessment for your kiddos. The kits are great for helping your students meet the Common Core geometry standards.

EAI is offering free shipping on all Expoloragon orders of at least $30.00 through September 30 if you use the code PPFREESHP13 when you order. 

I am taking a complete break from blogging and all things school-related until I get back from the beach. Have a wonderful week. I'll be thinking of you while I'm sitting with my toes in the sand and a book in my hand!

What a Great Idea!

I came across this idea on Pinterest this morning and loved, loved, loved it! 

It's so simple, yet can make such an impact.

Ms. Fultz at Ms. Fultz's Corner had the brilliant idea that if every follower on her blog donated just one dollar to a Donor's Choose project, then we would have an impact on many, many teachers, and many, many kids!

If all my followers donated, that would be almost $1300 helping our fellow teachers!

Such a simple, easy thing we can do to help other teachers. 

I'm heading over to Donors Choose to donate to a special friend of mine. She has three literacy projects she has designed. I know her personally and have seen first hand what an engaging, caring teacher she is. If you are inspired by Ms. Fultz's post, please drop by Mrs. Aymett's site and give your dollar today!

Setting of a Poem -- Freebie

Try introducing poetry early this year.

I love this simple poem by Walt Whitman. 

Give it to your kiddos and let them discuss the way the words make a picture in their minds. I love listening in on their conversations.

After their discussions, ask them to illustrate the setting of the poem and write at least three sentences of seven words in length that tell why they drew the picture.

Click {HERE} to get the activity.

This addresses the following third grade Common Core standards, but will apply to other grade levels, as well.

RL 3.5  Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stance; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.

L 3.1.i  Produce simple, compound, and complex sentences.

L 3.2 Demonstrate command of the capitalization, punctuate, and spelling when writing.

Today is the last day of the big Teachers Pay Teachers Sale. 

Click on the pic above to visit my store.