Tried It Tuesday - Acrostic Poems with a Twist

Today I'm linking up with Holly from Fourth Grade Flippers for Tried It Tuesday!  I promise the posts about testing will end soon but it's going on for two weeks and I'm just trying to incorporate as many "fun" (or at least different) things to do with it as possible.  I snagged this idea from Heather at Working 4 the Classroom.  This was one of my infamous 1 A.M. finds that I HAD to try the next day so forgive the not so overly creative but I really liked how they turned out.  What did we make you might be asking???

Acrostic Poems for testing strategies using our names!!!  Since it is National Poetry Month and we did have the big test coming up, this was the perfect culmination :o)  I really like how Heather's turned out and maybe next year I will be more prepared to decorate ours a little more fancy like, but I couldn't have asked for more from my kiddos.  They had so much fun trying to come up with different strategies that fit for the letters of their name.

First we brainstormed different testing strategies by doing an AllWrite Round Robin with our table groups.  The strategies didn't have to begin with their name, it just had to be something that would help them on the test.  The first student wrote down what their strategy was and then the next student clockwise wrote down their strategy and this continued until the time was up.  Everyone put their idea in the center so it was visible and no one would repeat.  At the end of the time every group had about 15-20 different strategies.

Then they began to brainstorm for their name by rewriting those ideas their group came up with into sentences.  Once they were done I showed them my example and gave them construction paper, markers, and a few simple rules: your name had to be fun and colorful - get creative! and it had to take up the whole page.  This is what they came up with!

 

We hung them up outside in our hallway so they could see them every morning before testing and so the third graders who share our hallway with us would get some good ideas they might not have thought of.  I hope you enjoyed the idea and don't forget to head over to Holly's blog for other great ideas from some amazing bloggers!

Valentine's FREEBIES and Birthday SALE!

In honor of Valentine's Day and my birthday I'm giving some goodies away!  This week's 52 Weeks of Pinterest creation is a gift for my kiddos.  I'm sure you have seen these cute glowing valentine's all around Pinterest and they are from the wonderful Lindsey at The Teacher Wife (she has super cute stuff if you haven't checked her out yet!). I just recreated them with my fonts (partially because I didn't realize that clicking on her picture would take me to a google doc until it was too late, haha).  If you click on the picture below it will take you to a google doc where you can download it for FREE!!!

Or if you want to sign your own name, click here for a blank valentine.

Also in honor of the duel holiday (for me anyway, lol) I am giving away my newest product for free and since I'm turning 27, the rest of my store will be 27% off !  My only birthday wish is that you please leave feedback and let me know what you think :o)  Here is a sneak peek at my newest product: Tricabulary - Fractions!

 

It's a new twist on your classic matching game.  Along with having to match a term to its definition, you will add a third category and match an example to the two as well.  Now the example card can be a challenge so feel free to use it as an enrichment.  This game works great in my TIMER tubs for math centers and depending on which groups are playing this game I take away or add certain cards to differentiate for review or enrichment.  Click on the picture above to take you to my TN store for your free download!  If you don't have a Teacher's Notebook account the same freebies and sales are going on at my TPT store.

Remember all this fun free stuff and sale is only available on February 14, 2013!

Happy Valentine's Day y'all!
Sabra

52 W.O.P. & Pinspired: Week 4 - Author's Purpose Writing

I'm doubling up here today folks!  Not only am I going to tell you about my 4th week in the 52 weeks of Pinterest, I'm also linking up with Learning in Wonderland's Pinspired Linky.  Might as well get two birds with one stone!  This week we are finishing up our Author's Purpose and Perspective unit and I wanted to end with a fun twist!  I saw this lesson on Pinterest (obviously) and loved the idea!  I tweaked it a little bit to fit the older students but it worked out just great and I got to make a big fish to decorate our hallway, so all is well :o).

After two weeks of studying author's purpose in every form of media we could find, and I mean every form, I wanted to have the students write their own author's purpose.  I started off by walking around and telling students they were going to pick a letter out of the bag and hold it.  Don't ask any questions and you can't trade.  I didn't say anything the whole time I was walking around but by the time everyone got a letter they were starting to catch on.  Once everyone had a letter I asked them what they thought those letters represented.  All hands went up and they knew it was PIE: Persuade, Inform, Entertain (so proud!).  Next, I told them I was going to give them a mystery object and they would become the author and write about the purpose that they chose for that mystery object.  Needless to say they got VERY excited waiting to find out what they had to write about.

At this point in the year my kids know that I LOVE enjoy food and love like incorporating food into our lessons, but bless their little hearts they still act surprised for me when I pull out the mystery object = goldfish!  I go on to tell them that I want creative, inventive, surprising, fifth grade stories and essays.  Some asked what they write about and I said, "Whatever you want.  As long as it has the mystery object and it fits your purpose."

These are some of the best papers I've ever had turned in to me!  I had some students try to persuade you NOT to eat the goldfish because they were unhealthy for you (that didn't stop me though, lol) and some leaning the other way.  A boy trying to persuade a girl to switch his snack pack for her goldfish at lunch.  The stories ranged from goldfish trying to escape the bag to goldfish in the ocean.  For informative, kids used the information on the bag, commercials they had seen, their website and more!  I was beyond impressed and they loved it, it was evident in their writing.  I also got to make a sweet gold fish for outside our classroom to display their work.  Meet Gold E. Fish!

This activity was definitely worth it!  The kids loved it and I loved what they produced.  It was a wonderful way for my kids to really apply their author's purpose skills outside of reading comprehension passages.  Happy pinning!

Sabra

52 Weeks of Pinterest: Week 3 - Loaded Potato Casserole

Sorry it's a week late, I completely forgot that I didn't post it, lol!  That does not look promising for the next 49 weeks but here's to hoping!  This week we made a recipe: Loaded Potato Casserole.  It is an AMAZING side dish that we had with steak and green beans that I had found on Pinterest (obviously).  Luckily for me the lovely little recipe (who doesn't love recipes that are 5 ingredients or less) was in the comment box because when you click on the picture to take you to its origin site, Pinterest has blocked it because of spam.  This recipe is beyond delicious and easy and definitely worth putting in your own personal recipe binder. Without further adieu, I give you Loaded Potato Casserole!

Loaded Potato Casserole

• 1 container (16oz) sour cream
• 1 cup cheddar cheese
• 1 bag (3oz) real bacon bits
• 1 package ranch dip mix
• 1/2 bag frozen hash brown potatoes

Combine all the ingredient in a bowl and spread into an 8x8 (sprayed) casserole dish.  Put all in the oven at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes and voila!  Deliciousness!

Happy eating!

Sabra

52 Weeks of Pinterest: Week 2 Personal Organizer

Last week's Pinterest creation, the Family Organization Binder, had me thinking that I wanted a little mini binder for myself!  There were some cute ideas on Pinterest and Crystal Wilkerson had some really cute ideas and printables but you have to buy them.  Right now we are trying to save for a house (every little bit helps, right) so I decided to give a shot at making some things I needed myself.  Here is a picture of the cover of my planner, I made it with my new Silhouette Cameo (thank you best husband ever!).

I love this Avery 8" x 5.5" binder!  It's got this little pocket on the inside that holds my pens, highlighters, post its, etc.  AND it also doesn't seem to bulge out and get in the way of closing it.  I know that seems a little silly to care about but I do ;o)  Oh life's little things!

Yeah, that's our kitchen floor and oven, but it was the best lighting with no shadow at this time of night! Don't judge, haha!

Inside there is a pack of paper, which I noticed with more and more meetings going on (especially with FCAT rapidly approaching) I needed more writing space than my last planner was able to hold so this was the perfect solution!  I bought the pocket folder dividers from Avery but they did not have tabs on them so I also bought little sticky tabs and stuck them where I wanted the tabs to go.  My five dividers are as follows: Calendar, To Do, Notes, Lesson Plans, and Blog.  All pretty self explanatory :o)

Here are the links to the calendar sheets.  I'm sorry I couldn't get them all on one file, for some reason the computer program was being wonky (yes, wonky) and this was the easiest solution.  You will see there is a very light dotted line going down the center of the page.  That is your cut line.  If you cut along that edge it will cut perfectly in half and fit into your binder.  Now since I'm not patient talented enough to change how my three hole punch lines up, I just put a piece of the notebook paper on top of the calendar and used my single hole punch to create the holes where they needed to be and voila!  It worked out just great!  And much quicker than I anticipated.

January 2013                              May 2013                          September 2013

February 2013                            June 2013                          October 2013

March 2013                                July 2013                           November 2013

April 2013                                  August 2013                      December 2013

If you decide to take on your own mini personal binder I hope you enjoy the creating of it as much as you do the using of it!  If you have pictures of your own personal planners I would love to see them and get more ideas!  Happy organizing y'all!

Sabra

New Year's Resolution: 52 Weeks of Pinterest #1

Two years ago my New Year's resolution was to cook a new meal every week and my husband was in heaven!  It was really nice to get away from our everyday ordinary and ever since I have been more willing to try cooking new things just because.  And thank goodness otherwise we're eating spaghetti Monday, taco Tuesday, chicken something Wednesday, left over Thursday, and pizza Friday EVERY week, lol.  Now for some that might be okay but my husband grew up with an amazing cook for a mom so I had to step my game up!

This year my husband has requested the same resolution, but I wanted to put my own twist on it.  My New Year's resolution for 2013 is to create something new from Pinterest every week.  Now I know you're thinking, "Holy cow!  That's going to get pricey."  In reality this will probably be a lot of new recipes we try out but I did want to throw in some DIY and crafty things for the house and classroom.  My first new Pinterest creation was a family organizational binder! (Sorry for the photo quality, had to use my phone for the pictures since my camera battery was dead)

I did this for a number of reasons. 1.)  I just love to organize, lol. 2.) We just began our own family as husband and wife and I wanted to have all of our combined information in one place. 3.)  Ever since the wedding and holidays I have felt very UNORGANIZED and what better way to start the year than getting it all together!

There were hundreds of different blogs with some great ideas on how to organize the binder and really, for me, when it came to deciding what to put in it, it just boiled down to what OUR needs were.  Here are the tabs in our family binder:

Calendar - List of Birthdays and Anniversaries, 2012-2013 Monthly Calendars, and (thank you Martha) Weekly, Monthly, and Seasonal Cleaning Checklists.  I put the cleaning checklists in sheet protectors and use wipe-off markers to check off as I go so I can reuse them.  In the pocket of the divider I place birthday cards just waiting to be sent.

Meal Planning - The Eat Sheet (a weekly menu planner/grocery list), Family Favorites Cards so I can always go back to a crowd pleaser when I can't think of anything else, and menus to our favorite take out and delivery places reside in the divider pocket.

Budget - Annual Bill Schedule (this has to be my favorite because I am forever forgetting if I paid a bill or not) and our family budget.

Contacts - Our Neighbors contact list, Our Family contact list, Our Friends contact list, Medical and Health Insurance contact list, Insurance Policies contact list, Utilities and Services contact list, and Website Usernames and Passwords (these are the sign-ins that if they fell into the wrong hands we would still be okay).

Family Info - Here we have copies of all the essential documents for both me, my husband, and our dog, Bailey.

Emergency - Here we have copies of the cards in our wallets (front and back) in case we should lose them, we now have the numbers to call and cancel our cards, emergency phone numbers (fire department, hospital, etc.), doggie CPR (I know, I know, but she's like my child so why not!)

A big THANK YOU to Ginny from Organizing Homelife for all the wonderful printables and she has many more that I didn't even mention!!!  If you also have the organizing bug and want to make a binder of your own here is what I used:

• 1" binder (it is enough for the two of us but if you have a growing family you might want larger)
• 8 pocket tabs (I have two left over)
• large zippered pencil pocket
• sheet protectors

Simple as that!  If you have created your own Family Organization Binder I would love to see it!  Of course this project has led me to create my own personal mini binder and that will be my next post :o)

Sabra