Valentine's Day FREEBIE and SALE!!!!

Don't forget that everything in my store will be 27% off and my newest product, Tricabulary - Fractions, will be FREE but for Valentine's Day only!  I will say that for some reason (that I can't figure out) I cannot turn Tricabulary on Teacher's Notebook into a free item without deleting it and creating a whole new item.  So sadly you can only get the FREE Tricabulary - Fractions on TPT but the sale is on both sites!  All I ask is that you leave feedback and let me know what you think :o)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Sabra

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

Idioms: Literal vs. Figurative

We recently finished our unit on Figurative Language and Poetry and my kids voted this as one of their favorite activities!  Each of my students picked an idiom that they wanted to illustrate and as they chose they had to tell me what their idiom meant.  If they didn't know we got to "poll the audience" (ask the class if they know) or we looked up the definition in Scholastic's Idiom Dictionary.  That is a must if you don't have it already!  So many great idioms, definitions, and examples in context.

Once everyone had their idiom they began coloring their pictures (no white space, they had to take up the whole box) and writing the meaning for each version.  I created the template with an area for both the literal meaning and one for the figurative.  When they were all done we hung them up in the hall.   The final product was amazing!  The kids did such a wonderful job showing how ridiculous the literal meaning could be and perfect visuals to explain the figurative meaning.  Here are just a few examples:

Click here to get this activity at my TPT store!  It includes the directions sheet, possible idioms list, and the "Literally vs. Figuratively" template.  I hope y'all enjoy it as much as my kiddos did!

Sabra

Valentine's Day Postcards

In celebration of the upcoming Valentine's day (and my birthday) I am bringing you last year's Valentine's Day "craft"!  It is not as easy to come up with fun holiday crafts in fifth grade.  Either they have already done them or most of the ideas are a little too cheesy, but the kids still LOVE doing stuff.  So we decided to make a Valentine's Day craft/memento.  Did you know that you could send your prepackaged valentine to Loveland, Colorado, and they will send it off to your loved one with their yearly art work/poem stamp?  Who wouldn't love to get a valentine from the Sweetheart City?!  I have also heard that other cities like Kissimee, Florida and places with themed names like that will do this but Loveland is the most famous.  I always tell the kids it's like getting a letter from Halloweentown for Halloween!  I know it seems a little redundant to send them all the way to Colorado and then have Colorado send them back but it's something different and fun :o)

This past year I created a postcard template and my students spent about a week designing the front of their postcard and writing a special message on the back to their parents.  I liked this project a lot more than I thought I would and the kids did too!  It helped them with their letter writing and envelope labeling skills and showed me that sometimes we really take the little things for granted (like kids not knowing they need to put the recipient's name above the address).  And who doesn't love to get a piece of mail that isn't a bill?  Even the kids were excited to receive the postcard at home and it wasn't even for them!

The template with a note to my old coworker

Once our final product was finished I sent the postcards off to Loveland, CO, they stamped them and sent them back to us.  The neat thing about this is that every year the city holds a contest for the artwork of that year's stamp.  So every year you can expect something new!  Here are a few of their masterpieces and what it looked like when it was returned.

 

Yes, I am aware that this student wrote Valentime's Day... (agh, one of my biggest pet peeves!)  Even after editing it is apparently still ingrained in her head, lol.  What can you do?  I liked that this was a new twist on the ordinary Valentine craft and hope that you enjoy it just as much!

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