Made it Monday (And a FREEBIE!)

I'm finally linking up with Tara from Fourth Grade Frolics for my first Made it Monday of the summer.

Is it just me or is the summer flying by???? I have a feeling that teaching summer school has something to do with my feelings! But now summer school is now officially over. I t was a fast and furious three weeks! I really had a sweet, sweet class though, and we were busy every hour of the day.

Now that it is over, I am finally getting a chance to pretty-up some of my activities from our quick three weeks. Although I have about 3 million products in the works, I only finished one in time for this linky and its FREE!!! :) 

Clickity-Clack on the image and download a way! 

I hope you can enjoy using it in the fall! 

Until then enjoy your summer, teacher friends! 

PS Don't forget to link up with Tara, too!  

St Patrick's Day and A FREEBIE

Is it just me or did St. Patrick's Day sneak up on us?!?!? I feel like I was just prepping for Valentines Day. Now it's out with the red and pink and up with the green...although if I was really on top of it the color scheme switch would have been made weeks ago.

In preperation for the big GREEN day (or in preperation for March 15th since St Patty's Day lands on a Sunday), I've been scouring pintrest to find some ideas. This is what I've found:



I've seen these floating around pintrest. They look yummy and easy!

Click HERE for the recipe. 

Since we can't just eat all day (unfortunately!), I've ben scouring for some academic St. Patty's fun too. 

First up, Shading Shamrocks  from Collaborative Cuties. Click on  HERE to get this fun freebie. 

I also found this great packet in Claire Somerville's store. 

I can't wait to use it!

Finally, I made these cute bookmarks for my kiddos. You can download your own FREE copy HERE. 

I teach in our school's after school program on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I have K-1 kiddos. 

This week during after school class we will be making these EASY crafts. (After teaching all day my after school crafts are always super simple! :) ) 

Leprechaun Faces from Parent Teach Play

(SOURCE) 

Rainbow Macaroni Necklaces from My Name is Snickerdoodle 

(SOURCE) 

We'll also be using Teri's Craftivity, How to Catch a Leprechaun.  

What do you have planned for the week? 

How will you celebrate St. Patty's Day? 

The important things about a blog is that...

you can share lots of ideas.

Some are old and some are new.

You meet new people and collaborate.

You become a better teacher.

But the important thing about a blog is that you can share lots of ideas.

Now I know that this idea would fall into the "old idea" category but I had forgotten about using the Important Book  and thought that you might have forgotten about it, too....or  maybe it is even new to you.

Anyway, the basic premise of the idea is to use Margaret Wise Brown's classic, The Important Book, as a model for your students' writing. I love using important books in my classroom. 

Here are some ways that we've used in our class: 

-Summarizing chapters in a novel 

"The important thing about Chapter Three is that Nana comes to visit....." 

-Writing our own nonfiction texts in content areas
"The important thing about your heart is that it pumps blood to your body...."
-Writing special books about classmates 
"The important thing about Stephanie is that she is a great friend...."

This is a great template to use when you want your students to work on main idea and detail.  It is a great tool to use when you are working with struggling writers. The format is structured so that everybody is successful. Whenever we write an Important Book we always have an author's read aloud. The best part is that my kiddos are always so darn proud of their important books. Love it! 

For your free Important book template click HERE.

Also, don't forget about my 100 Follower Giveaway!!!!

I will be giving away a $30 Target gift card. Think about all of the damage you could do at the dollar spot with $30 dollars. :)

I really hope they have the gift card in the image above available! It is so cute! 

To Enter: 
-Follow my blog and leave a comment w/your email address saying that you are a follower....
-If you are already a follower, you can play, too!  Just leave me comment telling me that you already follow my blog.
-Don't forget to leave your email address so that I can contact you if you are the winner.

Drawing ends  next Tuesday (Feb. 26th)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway Thanks so much for entering! :)

Well, I am off to school now! Nothing like a little early morning blogging. :)
Happy Wednesday! 

Pintrest & a Halloween Freebie

Last week was all kinds of crazy. Assessments.  Staff meetings. Professional development. Enough said.

This week looks super busy too, so I am procrastinating preparing the best way I know how.

 I started by reorganizing my pintrest boards. If you don't already follow me click HERE.

I am still so obsessed with pintrest ... the novelty hasn't worn off for me. Pretty much 80% of my pins are school related (the other 20% are clothes I can't afford or food I shouldn't eat) so I promise there are lots of lots of good ideas on these boards! I seriously don't know how I lesson planned before pintrest! :)

My kiddos start assessments this week which means by lunchtime they are in need of a serious brain break.


So I  came up with this little pack:

It comes with 5 Halloween/Fall word activities. You can download it for free HERE.

Words within Words has quickly become one of my kiddos fave games. You know the game where you write out a long word (i.e. environment) and then they look for smaller words that they can make with the letters in the big word (i.e. mint, iron, never).

 Anyway, I usually just write a word on the whiteboard and they find the smaller words on a piece of scratch paper but I decided to fancy it up a bit this week. Each sheet also has adorable clipart from my new fave My Cute Graphics. Love the site and I am so thankful it is F-R-E-E. If you haven't already, go check it out! :)

I am also planning a little somethin' somethin' since I just reached  50 followers so stay tuned...although with the crazy week ahead, there are no promises that it will be up anytime soon! Such is the life of a teacher during assessment time!  Oh well!

What do you all have planned for the week ahead?