8 Days of Giveways Day 1!



Today one of my BBBs Jivey, from Ideas by Jivey, is starting her 8 Days of Giveaways on Facebook!  She'll be giving away back to school items from eight different amazing bloggers and I am your host for Day 1!  Every day there will be a different seller and the Rafflecopter will open at 7 AM and close at midnight.  For those of you counting at home, that's 8 DIFFERENT GOODIES TO WIN!  Make sure you get over there and enter for your chance to win!  Now, I'm not going to tell you what you will win from my store... You'll just have to head on over to Jivey's Facebook and find out! ;o)  Good luck!

Behavior Management Scale (BTS FLASH FREEBIE!!!)

As some of you saw on yesterday's Monday Made It, I have a new behavior management system for my classroom this year!  Our county has been big into Marzano the past couple of years so my team and I decided we wanted our new behavior management system to align with that.  Now we will be using a scale for the students to measure and track their behavior throughout the day!

 

I would say the biggest difference in this behavior management scale versus all other clip charts is that it uses numbers and general behavior descriptions, not colors and phrases.  There are four coordinating designs in this bundle: Big Kids, Little Kids, Bunting Banners, and Numbers!  They all say the exact same thing but you have four different designs to choose from (that way both primary and intermediate can enjoy!).  The Big Kids and Little Kids designs have children showing the different emotions one might feel if they are on a particular number.  This works great for your ELL students or maybe your ASD kiddos who aren't always aware that their behavior is upsetting others.

I've also included two editable versions (portrait and landscape) of rewards, consequences, and ways to move on the scale posters.  As you can see the descriptions DO NOT include consequences.  They are just general behavior descriptions :o)  My favorite part about this whole thing is that the students are taking responsibility and tracking their behavior as the days and weeks go on!

 

THE FLASH FREEBIE IS NOW OVER! I APPRECIATE ALL THE WONDERFUL FEEDBACK AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY!

Since it is Back to School time and we are all feeling that time dwindle away I will be giving away this Behavior Management Scale as a FLASH FREEBIE for ONE HOUR (July 30, 2013 11:00AM-12:00 PM)!  All I ask is that you leave love!  Click on any of the pictures above to get your copy!

Must Have Monday Made It (LOTS of goodies!)

Happy Monday y'all!  As you are reading this I am finally in my classroom trying to get my room together before we move into our house on Wednesday.  YAY!!!  I wanted to let y'all know that Must Have Mondays will change to the LAST MONDAY of every month now that we are all getting back into our classrooms.  So the next time you will link up will be August 26 and  I want to know what was a must have for the month of August or just anything you couldn't live without!

I asked my husband what was something that I couldn't live without and he instantly laughed and said, "Bins."  Dead serious, no joke, bins.  And if you're a teacher, you know the obsession well.  I have had bins from Really Good Stuff for the past five years and they have served me well.  They are just now starting to crack under the strain of kids handling them and heavy books like Harry Potter.  The ones that hold the smaller chapter books are still going strong though!  That being said, I HAD to get more bins ;o)

I bought a few from the Dollar Tree (the mecca) but I will also be buying a set of the skinny book bins for individual students and as much as I have loved my RGS bins, they are not the same price they were 5 years ago... by like A LOT.  So this poor teacher had to go a hunting and found this wonderful post from Ms. Fultz's Corner.  She compares the book bins from Steps to Literacy vs. Really Good Stuff (literally side by side) and I now know which one I'll be buying.  DEFINITELY WORTH THE READ!

 

Today I'm also linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  I have been a busy little worker bee this week trying to get everything done for my classroom.  Literally.  I mean, I put the sticky squares on the back of the Word Wall blocks already so that all I have to do when I get to school is peel and stick! HAHA!  I just want as much time in my room as possible before I have to leave early to move into the house.

Editable Back to School Packet
I finally got all my Meet the Teacher/Open House and First Week of School goodies compiled into one packet!  Can I just say that I am in love!  It has EVERYTHING that I need and all in one place.  Instead of a bunch of random worksheets in random files and folders I've now got it all in one spot and with super cute fonts, borders, and clip art.  The good thing about blogging and TPT is that is has finally made me look at all my creations and "cute them up."  I know some people don't care about that and that's okay, but I like color in my classroom and this does the job!  If you would like to see what is all included and what others have to say or even to get your own copy click on the image below.

Classroom Supplies Labels
In my classroom I have these plain, beige bins that sit on my rolly cart and house our community supplies.  I wanted to find some cute labels to put on them and then just decided, why not make them myself along with everything else I'm making?  I also wanted to make some for my math centers and supplies but have to wait until I'm in the classroom and see what I have!  To get your set of these 15 premade supplies labels click on the image below.

Blog Binder
I totally stole this idea from Katie at Teacher to the Core!  I mean, how could you not?!  She vamped up her regular binders by putting in fancy scrapbook paper!  Now, usually I just make something on the computer, print it off and slip it in the front, but for my Blogging Binder and TPT Binder I liked this idea a lot better.  She uses fancy transparency paper but I found this really pretty teal/blue cut-out paper that matched my bins and baskets in my soon-to-be craft room.  It came as a 12x12 sheet and I just cut it down to size and slipped it in the front and back pockets and the spine!

Inside is a fantastic blogging calendar made by Gina from Third Grade Tidbits!  I just wish that I had found this before July but it could not have come at a more perfect time!  I have lots of giveaways and collaborative blog and boards happening right now and it has been a LIFESAVER!  Click on the image below to see what all is included in this item.

Word Wall
For the past couple of years I just used a bulletin board with punch out letters as my prefix/suffix word wall.  Now that I am teaching all of the subject though, I need that board!  I have decided to move my word wall to below my white board in the front of the room.  It's perfect because it is such an used space and that area of the floor is where we have our class meetings and mini-lessons so the kids will ALWAYS be looking at it :o)

I made these alphabet squares with 12x12 colored cardstock and trimmed down a 12x12 piece of white cardstock to fit in the middle.  I did trim the edge of the white paper with a black sharpie to help it pop more and match with the letters that had a black trim as well.  Then I created these polka dot letters, printed, cut and glued it all together.  Once I had all 26 done I went to our local Lakeshore and got them laminated!  Might I add that a hurricane was happening outside and I was so terrified that all my hard work would get ruined by water spots and color bleeding but all ended well!

Behavior Management Scale

My last creation of the week was our class Behavior Management Scale.  Our county is big into Marzano these past two years and we wanted to include some sort of scale/clip chart but not necessarily how they do the colors in the primary grades.  So we did numbers, lol!  I know not much of a stretch but the kids use this same scale for their academics so it will be really nice for them to transfer that knowledge and experience into their behavior.  I have it printed, laminated, and rings in place ready to hang today, so I will update this post with a picture when I get it!  There are four different design styles (Big Kids, Little Kids, Bunting Banner, and Numbers) along with editable posters for your rewards, consequences, and ways to move on the scale (all in portrait and landscape).

WHEW!  You made it to the end and deserve a little treat!  Since it is back to school time, I have been giving away some BTS Freebies each day but only for an hour!  If you are not a fan on Facebook DO SO NOW so you can get flash freebie updates.  Check back tomorrow because one of these Back to School items might be up for grabs... HINT! HINT!

Don't forget to link up your last "must have" for the summer and leave some comment love on other's posts!

Back to School Bundle! (FLASH FREEBIE!)

Hey y'all!  Well I "unofficially" go back to school on Monday!  We really don't have to be back until August 6th but since we're signing on the house on Wednesday I wanted to get in the room ASAP and get as much done in there before the craziness starts on the home front.  Our Meet the Teacher/Open House night isn't for another two weeks but I know some of you are creeping up on the date so I wanted to share this with y'all now!  My Back to School Bundle is made up of two sections, Open House and Getting to Know You, and has lots of goodies that will help you survive Meet the Teacher/Open House night and the first week of school!

 The first section (Open House) contains items you will need to run a smooth and successful Open House!  We all know how crazy it can get in there ;o)  One of the things I always notice about Open House night is that the kids want to explore and the parents want to talk to you.  Which is understandable but sometimes the kids are getting into things you don't want them to quite yet and there is a long line of parents trying to talk to you and you're not able to greet the new ones coming in.  To help alleviate that from happening (or at least keep the flow going) I have included Student Information Sheets, Parent Volunteer Sign Up Sheets, Transportation Logs, a Classroom Scavenger Hunt and more!  These items usually keep the parents busy filling out their information while their kids explore the room in a controlled environment and other parents, who have already filled out their packets, are now talking to you.  Life saver I tell ya!


In the second section (Getting to Know You) there are oodles of activities to help you and your students get to know each other throughout the first week of school!  This is such a big deal to me because this classroom is really our second home and we should feel as comfortable here as we do on our couch with our family.  I spend the entire first week doing different "getting to know you" activities, that way the kids become more familiar with each other and they are working on their social skills in different settings.  I've been to some places where they do an activity one day and then that's it.  Well that might work for some, especially adults who are more outgoing and willing to engage in conversation with others, but not for kids.

I have activities for whole group, small groups, and individuals!  Some of them are the old classics like "Classmate BINGO" (with a twist of course) and others, like "Dice to Meet You," will be brand new and engaging to the students!  Dice to Meet You is my favorite by the way!  There are also art activities that allow students a creative outlet to show you who they really are.  By the end of the week they will know each other VERY well and there is even a game/challenge included to see how well they have been paying attention.

Since you made it through this LONG post I feel you deserve a freebie!  I have done this Getting Know You Glyph for the past couple of years and my kids LOVE it!  It also looks really good in the hallway for when parents visit.  Click on the image below to download your copy!

THE FLASH FREEBIE IS OVER BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR WONDERFUL COMMENTS!  I APPRECIATE IT MORE THAN YOU WILL KNOW :O)

Also for being so patient and reading through ALL of that I will be giving away my Back to School Bundle as a FLASH FREEBIE for the next hour (July 27, 2013 1:00 - 2:00 EST)!  Click on the image at the top of the post or here to access the Back to School Bundle!  All I ask is that you leave me some feedback love!  It wouldn't hurt my feelings either if you wanted to pin it! ;o)

Don't forget to hop on over to our Pinterest Scavenger Hunt Contest for your chance to win a $50 TPT gift card!  I hope y'all have a fantastic summer weekend!  Enjoy it, there aren't many more left?!?!

Pinterest Scavenger Hunt Contest

We know that you're thinking about all of the items on your TpT wishlist as you are switching into back-to-school mode. Wouldn't it be nice if you had a TpT gift certificate to use? Well, it's your lucky day! These upper elementary bloggers are going to help foot the bill!

Here is what you need to do to enter for a chance to win a $50 TpT gift certificate:

• Click the picture above or {here} to take you to our collaborative board.
• Follow the board.
• Find the pin description that contains the special code.
• Enter the code in the Rafflecopter.
• Easy-peasy!!
• Contest ends Sunday, July 28th at midnight.

Good luck to you (I'm very jealous by the way, lol)!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Word Nerds Ch. 7: Spreading Vocabulary Wings

The authors open the chapter with morphology and immediately introduce the Crystal Ball activity.  I. AM. IN. LOVE.  When you check out our host's posts you'll get a more in depth look at this activity but I will try and sum it up.  All the students are doing is breaking down a word into prefix, root, and suffix.  From there they find the definition of those three parts and then come up with as many words as they can think of that include those specific parts (use that schema!).  What began as breaking down the meaning of one word, essentially turned into the students learning 41 more words!  I always taught morphology in my class but I don't think my kids ever "got it" like these guys did in the book.  Definitely reevaluating how I will be teaching that next year!  And I have to add in that I also adore the Pirate vs. Rascal talk!  I will also be incorporating that into most of my vocab lessons, not just after I read the book!  I'll go into my detail on that topic later, whenever I try it in my class, but I know these ladies are going to tell you all about it and I don't want to spoil it ;o)

Our lovely hosts for this chapter are Shannon from I Run Read Teach and Allison from Eberopolis (who started back to school today!?).

 





 

Head on over to their blogs to learn more about morphology, using children's literature (they name specific books!) as a way to teach different forms of vocabulary, and so much more!  Don't forget to link up your thoughts and ideas below as well!

 

 

Meet the Teacher Magnets (FREE Template)

Hey y'all!  It's about that time... You all know what I'm talking about.  Back to School.  Next week I can finally go back into my classroom but that is also the week we start moving into our new house!  Needless to say it will be a little hectic and I am trying to get the majority of my teaching to-do list done before the move.

One of my items was new business cards (since I have a new name now).  I was hesitant to buy 100+ business cards with my school contact information when I could be in a whole new room next year with a new phone number and have to waste all those cards, but I knew I wanted to give the parents something.  The answer you might ask?  Business card MAGNETS!  I bought 50 of them and at checkout they were half off!  Love it when a surprise deal/coupon comes my way.  I also love the idea that they are magnets and parents won't lose them as easily!  Here is my final product!  Now it looks much prettier without my contact information scratched out, lol, but you get the idea.

We all know how OCD I am (I mean, did you see my Intsagram post today with the sketch????) and I could not find a business card magnet design that I loved so I made my own and uploaded it.  I wanted to share the love with y'all in case you too wanted to make some magnets in the last, final, glorious days of summer ;o)  Consider it a Back to School gift from me to you!

Click on the image below to download the editable PowerPoint to create your own.  I know that it looks like a lot of extra space left on the bottom of the document but leave it as it is!  When you save it as a PNG file after you enter all your contact info and then upload it into Vistaprint, you will be able to crop it perfectly!

 

Here are the two fonts that I used on the card:

 

"Mrs. Sanjurjo's Class" = MTF Jumpin' Jack (with the Glow Text Effect)

"Contact Information" (the rest of the card) = LL Elementary

I hope you enjoy the freebie and the rest of your summer!

Must Have Monday Made It

I appreciate all of y'all hanging in there with me through this summer.  I know it has not been that great (no, really).  We've had so much going on that at the end of the day I'm just too tired to get out a post or haven't done ANYTHING that I felt was post worthy.  I think I'm still in summer mode and the thought of school, team leaders, moving into a home, working on a new home before we move in as I prepare my classroom makes me twitch a little, haha, but I am choosing to ignore all of it like it's not happening and doing one thing at a time ;o)

So this week's Must Have Monday is y'all!  Thank you all so much for sticking with me through the bad/boring/busy times, thanks for thinking of me when coordinating collaborative blogs and what not when I've been slightly MIA sans Must Have Mondays and the Book Studies and thanks for all your wonderful ideas that have helped me wrap my mind around teaching all the subjects next year!  Y'all are there for me when I have questions and concerns, given me amazing ideas that I'm so excited to use in the class next year, have become instant friends that I chat with daily and so much more!  I would not be the teacher I am without y'all and that makes you my "must have" this Monday!

I'm also finally linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!  Last summer I was ON when it came to this linky party, this summer not so much.  I have been laminating like a mad woman and have lots of unfinished projects that will hopefully (fingers crossed) be done by the time school starts, lol.  I did finish my Parent Communication Log though!  I posted about this earlier this summer (click here to view and get your own for free!) but now it is all printed, laminated, and bound!  And very cheaply I might add.  I have never bound anything at Office Max before but it was very affordable and then with my teacher discount even better!  It was under $2!?  This might not be a surprise to some of you but was a pleasant surprise to me :o)

Don't forget to check out everyone else's Monday Made It's and link up your Must Have Monday down below!

Word Nerds Ch. 6 - Celebrate to Validate!

Y'all I cannot get over how many good ideas are in this book!  I can't wait to do them all!  As I read I try and go back to past classes and think, "Oh yea, they would have LOVED that one."  or "They would have done so much better had I done this with them."  Anyone else do that???

Our lovely host for this chapter is Jen from Teaching, Life, and Everything in Between!

 

Here are some goodies (and of course my thoughts) from this chapter!  There are a lot of good party ideas and I thought to myself what a party means to my class.  Usually we have a compliment party (After they receive a certain amount of compliments from people around the school as a whole class) and it is a movie and popcorn, or maybe an ice cream party.  We also have a dance party if everyone brought their homework in on Friday!  Just a quick 4 minute song and the kids just rock out.  Occasionally I will let them pick the song and find the edited version, lol.  We also play "Sparkle Bang" right before a spelling test (it's kind of like Around the World) and the kids beg for it every Friday.

As I was reading I could only think of how motivating these "parties" would be for my kids to study more at home.  It is 5th grade and being "cool" is in full effect.  They don't want to be embarrassed by not knowing something and if they know there will be a party at the end where they can show off their stuff, they're going to work really hard all week!  Can you say LIGHTBULB???  If it works for homework and spelling, how have I never thought to do it for vocabulary?!  So while reading this I had a moment of epic failure and then turned it around real quick because now I have a huge source of good ideas that I will implement this coming year!  Here are some of the goodies they mention:

Block Party/Welcome, Words! (You get cookies!)

Toasting Party

Celebrating Velcro Words

Jeopardy! Party

Deal or No Deal Party (loving the game shows!)

Charades or Show Me Party

Dance Party

Luau Party

American Idol Party

Art Show Party

Holiday Parties (Fall Festival, Thanksgiving, Winter Holiday, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day)

 

 

If you want to get in depth detail of each party, don't forget you can look at the book free online at the publisher's website!  Also, head on over to Jen's blog and check out her summary and thoughts and ideas!  Don't forget to link up your thought as well down below!

Follower Only Freebie Pack and $50 GIVEAWAY!!!

Hey y'all!  As you know I have joined a collaboration blog called "A Class-y Collaboration" and I told y'all about the Follower Freebie pack we would be giving away soon.  Well... IT'S HERE!!!  From now until July 30 we will be giving away a big bundle of goodies from all the authors at A Class-y Collaboration and there is also a raffle for a $50 gift card to your choice of Amazon, TPT, or Target!  Talk about a hard choice!?

All you have to do is click on the image above and it will take you A Class-y Collaboration where you can enter the giveaway and follow us on Bloglovin/fill out the raffle form to get your free pack!  If you're already following us on Bloglovin, you can still get the pack as long as you fill out the form so we know where to send it :o)  Good luck to you all!

Must Have Mondays: Crafting Coupons

Hey y'all!  It's Monday and that means another round of "must haves."  I absolutely could not do what I do without my crafty coupons.  I buy so much cardstock, ribbon, paint, buttons, etc. and I NEVER BUY THEM FULL PRICE.  There's no way I could afford it, lol.

Not only do I have JoAnn's and Michael's apps on my phone that give you all the coupons, I'm also on their mailing list (so double the goods).  Add in Hobby Lobby's 40% off coupon and you're all set!   

Now, some tricks of the trade I have learned...

*  YOUR CRAFT STORES MIGHT BE DIFFERENT SO CHECK OUT THEIR POLICY BEFORE PURCHASING!!!!  *



• At JoAnn's you can use as many coupons as you want and from as many competitors (Michael's and Hobby Lobby) but then you CANNOT use your teacher card of 15% off as well.  You have to decide between all the single coupons combining or using your teacher card off the whole purchase. It really just depends what is already on sale and what coupons you have.
• Michael's (at least the one by me who changes their mind with every different person at the register) will accept only one coupon (theirs or JoAnn's) AND your teacher card.

Without couponing in the crafts stores my room would not be able to look and run the way it does!  Now my couponing goes beyond craft stores and I have a lot left to learn in general but it's a step and it helps A LOT!  What is your "must have" this Monday?  Link up down below and don't forget to leave some comment love for someone else!

Happy Monday y'all!

A Class-y Collaboration!

Well folks, I have been sitting on this exciting news for a few weeks and I officially get to announce it!  I am part of a new collaborative blog called A Class-y Collaboration with ten other amazing bloggers!  We range from all grade levels and will be sharing lots of ideas and freebies for all the subjects, organization techniques, classroom designs, and more!  I'm very excited and you should jump on over and check it out by clicking on the button below :o)

Once you are there make sure that you like us on Bloglovin so you can stay up to date on what everyone is sharing!  We are also giving away a special Freebie Pack to all of our followers (each author contributed an amazing item), so don't miss out on the blogging goodness!

Word Nerds Ch. 5: Active Vocabulary Practice

Oh my gosh!  This book is a glorious wealth of ideas and information and is such a find!  Chapter 5 alone has so many goodies!  I'm at the point now where I'm trying to figure out how to fit all the ideas I've been writing down in my Teaching Ideas Journal into my vocabulary instruction.  I need to just slow down and realize I can't do EVERYTHING EVERYDAY, lol, no matter how fun it seems.  I'm also really excited to transfer all of these ideas to Science, Social Studies, and Math!

This week the lovely ladies Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper and Jen from Diving into Learning will be your hosts for the chapter!  Click on their buttons below to find out what they have to say about active vocabulary practice in the classroom.  Holly is an intermediate teacher and Jen is a primary teacher :o)

 

 

 

Chapter 5 was all about practice!  You know when your kids practice their multiplication facts or spelling words.  It obvious when it comes time for their test and they still don't know any more than what you taught them the first day.  They have to practice!  Usually we have SO much to do that we rely on parent involvement to help with this.  For the most part that works but not always and not necessarily because parents don't care but because life happens, three jobs happens, going back to school themselves happens, etc.

This chapter includes numerous ways to practice in your classroom as a whole group, small group, or as individuals.  Because there are so many great ones and we have two fabulous hosts, I'm just going to tell you my favorite from each!

Whole Group: Chain Link
We have something very similar in our Word Work station as a worksheet and I can't believe I never thought to put it to kinesthetic use!  Every student has a vocabulary word (lanyard).  The teacher will call up one student and they will stand at the front of the room.  Now all the other kids are trying to figure out a connection from their word to the word up front.  Say the student standing up front has the word port, well another student with reflection raises their hand.  They would say, "My word is reflection and at a port, you can see the reflection of boats in the water."  That child will then go up and link arms with port.  Now students have the opportunity to think if they can come up with a connection to port OR reflection (they can link up on either side).  This is a very higher order thinking game and should be done at the end of your vocabulary cycle after lots and lots of practice.  This is one of the only times we do not let them use their vocabulary journals to reference back to because this isn't supposed to be the literal definition but the application.

Small Group: Vocabulary Board Games
Pretty self explanatory but on edhelper.com they have board game templates that she used and she printed them off, glued them on file folders and laminated!  You can reuse these with any vocab cycle!  I would probably have one group of cards that are my vocabulary words and another that is a task (eg. come up with a 7up sentence, what is a synonym for this word?, etc.).  If you get it right (your teammates will let you know) then move ahead however many pieces the dice tell you, if not stay where you are and try again with your same cards.

Individual: Word Illustrations
Essentially for this activity, students will illustrate their vocabulary words by combining the word and the meaning into a drawing.  One of my favorite examples was a little girl who had the word era and drew three women, one for each letter.  The e was a picture of a woman wearing a long dress and big puffy hair, the r into a woman wearing a shorter dress and high heels, and the a into a girl wearing her hair in a ponytail with jeans and a T-shirt.  She explained that this shows how clothes and hairstyles have changed in different eras... LOVE!!!

Those are just a FEW of the goodies that are found in this book!  Link up below with your thoughts and ideas from chapter 5 and don't forget to check out Holly's and Jen's blogs for their summaries!