Motivation Monday and a Nov. Newsletter Freebie!

I LOVE Maya Angelou, her books, and her words of wisdom. 

Here's one of her quotes that I wanted to share with you guys as well as my students:

 It's so true!  Most of my kids try their best and work really hard, but some struggle.  I'm going to print and laminate this and hang it in our classroom.  It could be a great reminder for all of us!  :)

Also, I'm working on the November newsletter and there's a pretty sweet freebie included!  Click the picture to sign up for the newsletter (if you haven't already).  It will hit inboxes Thursday morning!

Friday Freebies - Fact Frenzy and Election Fun!

We made it!  It's FRIDAY!!!  Hope everyone had a great week and is ready for a relaxing weekend!  :)

I'm actually off the vet.  My little Maggie has something jammed in her gums right next to one of her front teeth.  She won't let me get it out and I would hate for it to get infected or turn into something worse.  So we've been at the vet since 5:30.  Didn't really want to spend my Friday evening at the vet, but I'll do anything for my fur baby!

On to the good stuff....the freebies!

The first is called Fact Frenzy!  I made this as another way for my kids to practice their math facts!  Being fluent with our facts is always a skill we're striving for!

Click the picture to download!

The second freebie is an Election 2012 activity!  We're having a mock election at school next week and I want my kids to be informed.  Many of them are choosing a candidate completely based on what their parents think.  I'm not saying their parents are wrong, but the kids should come to this conclusion through research and a sound understanding of each candidate.  When I made the activity, I purposely left out the candidates' names.  I wanted my kids to vote completely based on the issues...not any other factors.

Click the picture to download!

I hope everyone has a fabulous Friday night and a relaxing weekend!!!

Types of Sentences...Freebies, Center, and Assessment!

Good gracious.  What a week so far!  Testing is really throwing some of my kids off!  At least there's only two more days and then we're back to normal (at least "our" normal).  :)

First things first - here are the giveaway winners for the Rocks and Minerals Mini-Unit!

Congrats to Jen D., Katie Smith, and Leslie Davidson!

Check your email!

And now for the center and freebies!

Most of my kids can tell you the correct punctuation to go at the end of a sentence, but struggle at times identifying the actual type of sentence it is.  I'm talking about imperative, declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative.  

Here's a freebie anchor chart I created to help my students keep track of the different types:

Here's a center that my kids did to help master the different types:

Here's an assessment freebie that can wrap up your types of sentences unit!

Enjoy!

Motivation Monday: Comfort Food!

Mondays...they're not always pretty.  But even with ITBS and some not so respectful "friends" today, it turned out great!  I think it was because I knew I was coming home to my comfort food:  

Spicy Sausage and Pepper Stew!
(click either pic for the recipe)

 I did the prep work last night.  Then I got up early this morning to cook the sausage, pepper, and celery and then throw everything together in the crockpot.  All day long I kept picturing this:

And now the time has come...to chow down!

I hope all of you had a great Monday.  And if not, just make yourself your comfort food!  Sit back and eat the Monday blues away!  :)

What is your comfort food?!  Feel free to leave the recipe!

I also joined a fun a linky party about food!  Click HERE to check it out!

Rocks and Minerals Mini-Unit GIVEAWAY!!!

Hellooooooo, Saturday!  Football and gorgeous weather?!  

Don't mind if I do!  :)

I wanted to share my latest product with you guys!  It's a rocks and minerals mini-unit!  It's full of vocabulary activities, graphic organizers, Mohs Hardness Scale and center activity, mini-booklet, and assessments!  You can click on the picture below to check it out in full detail.  

But come back after you check it out because...

I'M GIVING AWAY THREE OF THESE UNITS TO YOU!!!

Three lucky winners will get their very own copy!!!  

Check out the Rafflecopter below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway ends Tuesday night at midnight EST.

GOOD LUCK!

Friday Freebie - Halloween Arrays!

Happy Friday, friends!  

I wanted to share a math activity that my kids did last week.  

They absolutely LOVED it!  It's an array activity with a Halloween twist!  :)

I used black and white clip art from KPM Doodles (so my kids could color the pics to own liking) and had the kids create arrays.  They also had to write out the repeated addition sentences and multiplication sentence that matched their picture.  

Click below to snag the activity!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

What Went RIGHT Today!

Oh, Wednesday!  You're one of my favorites.  :)  Once you hit Wednesday, the rest of the week slides by pretty quickly!

I've been in a little funk lately and realized I needed to snap by butt out of it!  So I'm bustin' out with a "What Went Right" post!

Click HERE to visit the original "What Went Right" post.
It's part of an awesome, positive thinking linky party!

And now I'm off to the park for a quick walk with the hubby and Maggie.  Then it's back home for popcorn and "The Lorax!"  Woohoo!

What went right for you today?!

Another Verb Freebie!

What a beautiful and productive day it's been!
My Saturday accomplishments:

- finished three loads of laundry

- cleaned up around the house

- bought a new Falcons/Breast Cancer Awareness shirt 

($30 from Sports Authority)

- bought a new microwave ($85 from Walmart) - our other one finally bit the dust

- bought some new boots ($32 from Dots)

- made the verb freebie below!!!

After making the past tense verb freebie earlier this week, I had a request for this one.  So here it is!  

This anchor chart and center cover the helping verbs - has, had, and have.

Click either picture to snag it!

Past Tense Verb FREEBIE!

Happy Thursday, friends!  I want to apologize for not posting as much as I used to.  :(  My classroom has to be my number one priority (even though I LOVE blogging as well).  I had to squeeze in a little bloggy time before this busy weekend gets started.  

So here's a freebie for you!  

My kids have had issues with knowing which verb to use.  So I thought I'd create an anchor chart and activity to help them out!  Click the picture to snag it for yourself!

Hope everyone has a FABULOUS Friday!

Motivation Monday: Who Said Glasses Weren't Cool?!

Maybe you've experienced this.  Maybe you've had students who have experienced this.  The teasing that can come along with wearing glasses.  The feeling of self-consciousness and insecurity one may feel when wearing glasses.  

I've had this happen to me.  I've also had it happen to my students.  It's something that I want to do my best to get rid of.  I've had students hide their glasses in their desks or bookbags, too embarrassed to wear them during class for fear of teasing and ridicule.

I created this craftivity to help my students feel better about wearing glasses.  I also created it for the ones who don't wear glasses.  I wanted to open up the "floor" for healthy discussion.  In this activity, each child's creativity can be expressed.

Here's the final page of the craftivity:

Anything to help stop another form of bullying.

Friday Freebie!!! (on Wednesday!)

Not trying to confuse anyone, but we're going to Columbia this weekend for the UGA-USC game.  So I won't be around to post share a Friday Freebie.  So I figured I'd go ahead and share something I'm doing with my kids!  :)

We've been working on multiplication and arrays.  

So one of my small group activities was this:

We used the index cards with problems and square inch color tiles.  The kids did REALLY well with it!  And it was a great way for me to simply observe and be able to tell who was getting it and who wasn't.  

I want to share this idea/activity with you and your kids!  

Click the picture below to snag this freebie!

And please feel free to comment/leave feedback on how it goes!!!  I LOVE to hear from you guys!