Two for Tuesday linky!!!!

Woohoo!!  I am finally participating in my very first link up!!! This is a BIG deal for me and I couldn't be more excited to begin then by offering two of my products for 50% off!  Let's hope I do this right because I am not a tech expert by any means :/

The 2 products i chose to mark down are two of my favorites!!!!

Product #1 

Click the picture below to be taken to my shop!

This planner is filled with 32 pages of organizational heaven!  it's perfect for a teacher who like to keeps herself/himself organized as well as their students and parents organized! 

What's Included...

   

Not everything is shown here but this is the main gist!  If you like what you see go click the student planner picture above and check it out!! 50% off so it is $3.00 TODAY!!

Product #2

Click the picture below to be taken to my shop!

This pack is 68 pages long and filled with 5 different center activities.  It is regularly listed for $5.00 but is on sale today for $2.50!!! 

Here is a sneak peak at some of the centers included...

Super human subtraction task cards

Subtraction Boom Game Boards

(there are 10 boards)

The Same As Categories

(Here, students have flashcards that they must solve and place in the proper categories like you see below)

Kaboom

(here students play the game along the same lines as "WAR."  They flip the cards over and whoever solves the problem first gets the card.  If someone flips a kaboom card over they must put their entire pile of cards back on the deck.)

Memory

(this game is just like the regular game of memory where you need to match the problem with the correct answer) 

I am so thrilled that the teaching Tribune is doing these wonderful linky's!  They are such a fabulous way for all of us to keep in touch and build up our repertoire of ideas! If you haven't participated yet I strongly recommend that you do!  I  really enjoyed it!  head on over to their website by clicking the blog button at the top of this post!  I hope you enjoy these two products!! I certainly enjoy providing them to you at a discounted price!!! if you do end up making a purchase leave me some feedback!  I always love to hear from fellow bloggers!!  Have a terrific Tuesday and  enjoy the beautiful sun!!

Behavior Coupon Organization

Soooooo... i don't know about all of my fellow teachers/bloggers out there, but I had been having quite a difficult time with behavior coupon organization!! i am OBSESSED with behavior coupons and even that might be an understatement haha!  I think I have bought every possible set on TPT and have now begun to make my own.  I think they are so versatile and positive.  I love rewarding good behavior!  Now, I am normally CRAZY about organization but for some reason I just could not find a system of storing my behavior coupons that worked for me. I looked high and low and all around my town in search of something that would work, and low and behold I was introduced to  a miraculous store sent down from Heaven above!!! The store is called Garden Ridge and I was recently introduced to it by my mom when looking for a classroom carpet and outdoor patio furniture!  I live in Pittsburgh and I am unfortunately not sure how far those stores stretch. 

Anyway.... I have recently noticed many other bloggers asking for advice on how to organize their coupons, so i decided to make a little blog post on my system!  So here it goes!  

I don't know about everyone else, but this was my so called original organization system which basically consisted of paper clipping like coupons together and throwing them in a drawer.  This in no way, shape, or form helped me.  In fact in drove me CRAZY knowing they were sitting in a drawer like that.  It was like a nagging itch that i just had to scratch!! But I am weird like that so this feeling may only be known to me haha!  Anyway i couldn't stand this anymore so as i mentioned before I found the answer to my prayers at a store called Garden Ridge... Here is the amazing contraption....

Isn't she a beauty!!! Not too big not too small...just the right size!  And look at how organized it is!! A spot for everything!  There are 18 small compartments within the big one!  That's A LOT of compartments!!!! Let's see how I organize it even more, shall we?!

As im sure most of you will agree, labels are a teachers best friend!! I am a label fanatic and so they were a must have for my coupon organization!  On each individual compartment I made a label to place on top of it that showed the 2 different sets of task card that were held inside of it.  The one on the bottom is placed in the bottom of the container and the label at the top is the coupon that is placed on the top inside the container.  

Lets take a little peak inside!

I laminate and cut out all my coupons and they ALL FIT PERFECTLY inside these containers!

The best part is that they are durable and very easy to open in order to access!  BUT... no worries the clasp on each of the containers is top notch and it closes nice and tight!  I even did my own drop test and it withstood my brutal toss to the ground!

So there ya have it... That is my amazing behavior coupon storage device!  i know it's silly, but it was probably the most exciting purchase I have made in quite some time!! It was totally worth the $, which wasn't much at all ($20 i think).  I feel calm, cool, and collected now and I hope I have given you an idea for your organization along with maybe a little giggle here and there while reading my post!  Now it's off to bed for this tired girl!  j

Creative Writing Story Task Card

Hello my dear blogging friends.... I have been a little out of the blogging loop for the past month and I hate myself for it :/  I have missed it so much but I have been so caught up in wedding planning and grad school.  However.... the good news is that I have realized that in order to keep myself sane I HAVE TO HAVE MY BLOGGING TIME!! It's my "me time" and the time that helps me relax and calm down.  So because of that revelation I have again got back into the groove and I am very excited about my latest creation!  I am a huge proponent of writing.  i think it is extremely important, and I have noticed that it is not focused on as much as it should be in a lot of classrooms.  I wanted to make something to help teachers incorporate writing into their every day or ta least every week routine with little to no instruction.  I made creative writing task cards and I think they will be extremely helpful to many teachers, not to mention just plain fun!! So, without any further adieu  I will show you what this pack consists of and how you can use it in your classroom!

Ok...to begin with, i include a directions/idea page in the beginning that explains the following:

The way I use these is to put them in a writing center, daily 5 center, or task card center for early finishers in your room.  Students can participate in this activity during center time.  

Preparation

You would need to print out the task cards (there are 28 total i believe) and place them on a ring or in a basket in your center area.  Then you would need to print out all the matching writing sheets that go with each card.  Here are examples of both:

Writing Task Cards

Matching Writing Pages 

How to Use:

During Center time students will go and grab a task card randomly from the basket (whatever they get is what they get)  They will then grab the matching writing paper.  They will have 15-20 minutes (however long you allow for each center) to basically let their imagination wonder.  This is meant for students to have uninterrupted time to free write and be creative.  This is obviously a center that would be used after instruction in writing has occurred during the year.  The only rule that the students must follow is that their writing must go along with the card that they grabbed.  For example, if they grab the superhero card then their story must have something to do with superheros.  They also must try their best to follow the correct writing procedures. Other than that this is all FUN!  You can then take their writing and use it for conference purposes with parents or have a conference with the student and point out positives and negatives of their writing and how they can improve.  

I hope this appeals to many of you and if it does it is in my TPT store for $3.00!  I feel like I am back in the creating game and I cant wait to create my next project!  I hope you all are enjoying your summer so far!

Time For Kids

Time For Kids!!

 

Hello everyone!  Today is Friday, and it's a 3 day weekend for most of us because of the Holiday!  I can't wait for the end of the day because then I head up to my cabin on the river for the entire weekend!! I hope everyone else also has lovely plans for the 3 day weekend ahead! 

Anyway, I'm blogging today to talk about my new TFK pack I made and placed on TPT.  I don't know about everyone else, but I LOVE TFK!!! I have loved it since I was a little kid.  I think it is a wonderful resource for teachers to use in the classroom.  However, I have noticed recently that many teacher to not get the chance to get to the TFK in their classroom with everything else they have to get done (myself included).  I think this is a shame because the kids enjoy them as well, and it keeps them updated on the world around them.  Soooooo.... I decided what better way to incorporate these then TASK CARDS!!! If you know me at all you know that I am obsessed with task cards.  I think they are amazing and so time efficient.  Therefore I made this pack of TFK into task cards for students to use when they are early finishers or there is some down time.   The colored pages are the pages that I cut and laminate, and the other pages are the recording sheets. I will explain to you each task card and what I do with them in my classroom.  I also include recording sheets for each!  Here we go!!  I hope you enjoy!

 

MAIN IDEA

This task card focuses on the concept of the main idea.  Here, students will chose 3 articles from the magazine to read.  While they read they will need to find the main idea of each article as well as three supporting details. 

They will record their findings on this recording sheet. 

 

Power Words

Each TFK has a section of "Power Words" is many of the articles.  These words are essentially vocabulary words.  For this, the students will need to choose many of the words to look up the definition for, write the sentence they found it in in the article, find a synonym and antonym for the word and create their own sentence using the word properly.

Here is the recording sheet, and they can use as many as they need/want.  I usually just keep a large pile of these in a file that they can grab from.

 

CAUSE AND EFFECT

Cause and Effect is a concept that many kiddos struggle with.  This is something that they can do to help them practice the skill.  The students will read through the magazine, paying attention to any cause and effect relationships within certain articles. Once they read through the magazine they will choose an article that had good cause and effect relationships in it.  They will write down 2 causes and 2 effects from the article.  You can have them do this on as many articles as you wish!

 

 

 

FACT AND OPINION

Fact and opinion seems to be another topic that can be a little tricky for the younger kids.  So again, I thought why not practice it here!  It's a great place for this, because many of the articles in TFK are political which would give the kids a chance to look for fact and opinion or create their own.  So, for this task card the students will read an article and figure out which information in that article is fact and which is opinion.  If they cant find that much fact or that much opinion in just one article they can go on to read another. 

 

 

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

 

For this task card, students will need to read at least 2-3 of the articles within the magazine.  Once they read 2 or 3 of them, they will have to compare each article to the others.  They will fill out the graphic organizer that has them write down similarities between the articles as well as differences. 

 

 

COVER PAGE PREDICTOR

I really like this task card!  I love to see where students minds travel when they have to predict.  I think it's fascinating the things they come up with.  So, for this card students will need to deeply analyze the front cover of the magazine.  They will need to look at the photo's and the text.  once they have analyzed each inch of the cover, they will write down 3 detailed descriptions of what they think they will be reading about throughout the magazine and why.

 

 

MAKING CONNECTIONS

Students always connect better with a story or piece of writing when they can connect with it.  therefore, for this card students will have to read 2-3 articles within the magazine.  They will then choose which one of those articles they would like to work with.  Once they decide, they will then create a text to text connection, a text to self connection, and a text to the world connection.  They need to write a detailed description of their connection to make it make sense with the article.

 

 

YOU"VE GOT SKILLS

In each and every TFK there is a "You've Got Skills" section on the very back of the magazine.  Students will use this task card and recording sheet to solve all the puzzles, answer all the questions, and so on. 

 

 

REFLECTION

I again LOVE to see what my students are thinking in their brains when the read.  So for this, I have the students focus on the main article of the magazine.  I want them to read the article at least twice, really reading for detail and comprehension.  Once they have read it twice, I give them this task to write a reflection about the article.  Give me a little synopsis about it, and then tell me how they felt about the article and why.  This reflection should be detailed and in Paragraph form.

 

 

CONTRIBUTION CREATOR

Last, but certainly not least, I added a contribution creator task card for this TFK.  For this card, the students will again be focusing on the Cover story of the magazine.  Once they read it through twice and really get a grasp of it, I have them brainstorm and think of how they could possible contribute to anything in the article.  For example, if the article discusses a tsunami in another country...how could they help that crisis?    They will need to write a section describing the main idea of the article, and then they can give me a paragraph on how they can contribute.

 

 

So....there ya have it!  Those are my TFK task cards that can work for many different grades.  I have posted them in my TPT store (The Magic of Teaching)  If your interested head on over and check them out!  I hope you enjoy them!

 

 

HAVE A WONDERFUL MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND!!!!!

 

 

 



Subtraction Superhero

Subtraction Superheros

Hello everyone!! It has been a crazy past few weeks for me and the craziness will only continue because we are coming close to the end of another school year!!!  I have been working away on a few new projects that i have recently posted on TPT.  I wanted to take some time to discuss my "Subtraction Superhero" pack with everyone!  It's one of my favorite packs so far!    So without further adieu here we go!!!!

The first center in this pack is a task card/scoot center for the kiddos.  I created 32 of the task cards that you see above.  Each task card has a different subtraction problem.  Some of the problems require regrouping and some do not.  I also included recording sheets for these.  These can be placed around the room for students to look for and solve.  

"THE SAME AS" Center

This center has two parts.  First, the second picture shows two different pictures.  There are actually 8 of these ranging from the #4-11.  The students will lay these out away from each other.  Now, The picture on the top shows many different "flashcards'  with subtraction problems on them.  There are 16 pages of these.  All of those problems answers fit into one of the "same as" categories.  Students are to flip the flashcard over one at a time, solve them, then place them in the proper pile/category.  They will record their answers on the recording sheets provided. 

This center helps shows students the different ways to get the same difference.

SUBTRACTION BOOM

This center is self explanatory to many of you!  It is exactly the same as "bump"  I made 9 different boards for this center.  Students are given 2 dice.  Each student takes a turn and rolls both dice.  They add those two dice together.  They take that # and subtract it from the # on the game board.  If they get an answer that is on the board they cover it with their colored chip.  Students play until entire board is covered.  Whomever has the most chips on the board wins!!

KABOOM

Students will get into groups of 2-3.  They will shuffle the playing cards and place them in a pile.  The pile must all be facing down.  Each student takes a turn flipping one card over.  Whomever figures out the problem first must slam their hand on their mat then say the answer.  If they have the correct answer they keep the card.  If not the other player gets it (if there are only 2 players).  If there are 3 players the other 2 would fight for it.  If a player flips over a “kaboom” card they must put their entire pile of cards back in the middle deck.    The teacher can decide how many kaboom cards to include during the game.  Whoever has all (most) of the card in the end wins!!

There are 11 pages like the one above for the playing cards.  There are also three KABOOM mats included.  

MEMORY

Students will need to flip all cards over face down on the floor in front of them in an array.  They will take turns flipping 2 cards over at a time.  One card has an answer and once has a subtraction problem.  They have to get a match between the subtraction problem and the answer. 

Ex:  They can flip a card that has 12-3 and then they must find the card with the answer or 10. 

If they do not have a match they simply flip the cards back over in the position they were found and continue playing.  The game is over once they entire board is cleared.  Whomever has more matches wins!

There are 4 pages of playing cards for the memory game.  2 pages have the subtraction problems and the other 2 pages have the answers.  

I cant wait to use this with my kiddos!  If you are interested head on over to my TPT shop "The Magic of Teaching" to pick up a copy!!! Thanks for reading!