Inspired by Spike Lee's School Daze, Homecoming Szn highlights the various elements of an HBCU Homecoming Game!

Expanding Sentences Anchor Chart and Mini-Lesson

I recently just finished my first set of Middle School Mentor Sentences to teach grammar. As I’ve started talking about and posting about Mentor Sentences, I’ve realized that most teachers fall into the following categories when it comes to implementing mentor sentences: I have no idea what mentor sentences are, but I am intrigued now. I ... Read more

Introducing our new “Rainbow Daze” Clip Art Collection! This vibrant assortment of 16 high-quality designs is perfect for adding a fresh touch to your creative projects. The collection features a range of file formats, including SVG, AI, EPS and PNG, ensuring compatibility with various design software. These files are ideal for scrapbooking, card making, apparel, digital designs, party invitations, and so much more! ✿ INCLUDED Zip files will include: PNG files (300dpi) with transparent backgrounds JPG files (300dpi) with white backgrounds SVG files EPS file AI file ✿ ACCEPTABLE USAGE ► Personal Use Clip art MAY be used for personal use! ► Commercial Use Clip art MAY be used in commercial products, up to 500 sales. If you intend to sell more than 500 units, an extended license MUST be purchased. Please message me for extended license information! You may NOT sell or redistribute any product as clip art, part of a clip art set, a digital paper pack, or digital collage sheet. You may NOT upload individual elements to print on demand websites. If you would like to sell products, whether digital or physical, then your completed design should consist of several different elements, for example different graphics and text. You may NOT redistribute the original files to any third parties in a manner that allows for the extraction of the original item. By purchasing, you confirm that you have read, understood, and accepted the terms and conditions of use. ✿ USING YOUR FILES PNG - photo file with a transparent background SVG - can be used with: Canva, Cricut Design Space, Silhouette Designer Edition, Silhouette Studio, Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) and Brother Scan EPS - can be used with: CorelDraw, Inkscape, and Adobe Illustrator AI - can be used with Adobe Illustrator ✿ IMPORTANT This is a digital file and no physical item will be shipped. Computer monitors vary in the way they display colors, meaning printed colors may not match your monitor's display exactly. Copyright © Always Sunny Co Items are for personal use only. Designs may not be copied, redistributed, resold or republished.

Outlawing the words "I'm done" changed my classroom! Find out how to reform fast finishers and improve the quality of work in your room!

Tic Tac Booyah is a fun and engaging review game!

Odds and ends from a First Grade classroom and more...including teacher tips, activities, and downloads!

Corkboard Connections is a blog written by Laura Candler who enjoys connecting terrific teachers with amazing resources!

I really wish that I would have taken more pictures throughout our geometry unit. There are so many creative ideas out there to help solidify these concepts for kids. A few of the activities we did included: building various 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks modeling various types of lines using pretzels (for the lines), M&Ms (for points and to create line segments), and candy corn (to show how the lines go on endlessly) creating foldables to remember different types of angles using the idea from Fabulous Fourth Grade! we also talked about transformations, using gross motor actions, and creating an interactive foldable. and my students' favorite activity: the symmetry activity! This center was pretty simple. Having 4th and 5th graders, it took just a few minutes of reviewing for the students to remember what symmetry is and for them to get the hang of creating a symmetric pattern. Students used their rulers to create the line of symmetry. We also added to a new interactive bulletin board, I will have to post pictures of that soon! Hope your having a wonderful fall, Mrs. Whitehair

Here are some of the things we did this week for our Fairy Tale/Storybook Character Unit: We talked about what a fairy tale is and wha...

The figurative language anchor chart shared in this blog post includes a cooperative activity. Visit this post to download the FREE materials and replicate this interactive lesson in your upper elementary classroom!

me encanta escribir es un sitio para que mis alumnos puedan aprender y revisar en casa el español.

This collection includes cutting files that can be used to create this wonderful school craft project (shown “finished” in preview) – a red apple with "A Is For Apple" word art. This collection includes the following formats: SVG, AI, DXF, EPS, PDF, JPG, and PNG. These cutting files can be used in their original format, or converted into formats compatible with die cutting machines such as: Black Cat, Craft ROBO, Pazzles, Wishblade, Sizzix, Gazelle, Cricut, Silhouette, Klic-N-Kut, ScanNCut, and others. Please be sure that the cutting file formats sold at DCS are compatible with your specific software program and/or cutting machine. You will receive several cutting file formats (SVG, AI, EPS, and DXF) which will allow you to create a finished product using a die cutting machine, in conjunction with a software program that supports cutting files, such as SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot), MTC (Make The Cut), eCAL, Cricut Design Space, or Silhouette Studio Designer Edition. You will also receive JPG, PNG, and PDF file formats, if you prefer to print and cut the craft project by hand, in lieu of using a die cutting machine. This set includes a “finished example,” in JPG and PNG, to aid in placement of the various pieces. This “finished example” image (like the one in the preview) can also be used as a graphic / clip art image for craft projects, scrapbooking, web use, etc. Please read our Terms of Use before making any purchases. Original Artwork by Trina Walker Digital Craft Supplies is a Licensed Reseller for Digi Scrap Kits

This resource includes everything you need to teach students how to interpret figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification, and hyperbole) in context. What’s Included: PowerPoint Lesson (Monday) Practice Printable – Digital Version Included (Tuesday) 30 Task Cards – Digital Version Included (Wednesday) Sketch Notes (Thursday) Assessment – Digital Version Included (Friday) BONUS: Interactive Notebook Activity Download the preview for a detailed overview of the resource. NOTE: This resource was written based on fifth-grade content standards. However, none of the student materials are labeled with a grade level. This will allow teachers to use this resource across grade levels. CLICK HERE for the entire Fifth-Grade Grammar Bundle! Other Fifth Grade Grammar Units: Parts of Speech Review Subject and Predicate Coordinating Conjunctions Compound Sentences Subordinating Conjunctions Complex Sentences Simple, Compound, or Complex Sentences Prepositions Prepositional Phrases Interjections Perfect Verb Tenses Using Verb Tenses Shifts in Verb Tense Correlative Conjunctions Commas in a Series Commas and Introductory Elements Commas for Yes/No, Tag Questions & Direct Address Titles of Works: Quotations, Underlines & Italics Expand Sentences Combine Sentences Reduce Sentences Compare Registers and Dialects Context Clues Roots and Affixes Use Reference Materials Figurative Language Idioms, Adages, and Proverbs Signal Words BYOB! Build Your Own Bundle Pick and choose the grammar units you want and receive a bundle discount. You can select grammar units from any grade level! The more you buy, the more you save. The discount will appear in your cart for all qualifying quantities. Grade level bundles are not included. 5+ units = 10% off 10+ units = 15% off 15+ units = 20% off 20+ units = 25% off 25+ units = 30% off 30+ units  = 35% off Stay Connected with Teacher Thrive! ➜SIGN UP for my email newsletters. ➜VISIT me on TeacherThrive.com. ➜FOLLOW me on Facebook. ➜FOLLOW me on Pinterest. ➜FOLLOW me on Instagram. Please read: This is a nonrefundable digital download. Please read the description carefully and examine the preview file before purchasing. © Copyright 2018 M. Tallman. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to copy pages specifically designed for student or teacher use by the original purchaser or licensee. This is intended to be used by one teacher unless additional licenses have been purchased. The reproduction of any other part of this product is strictly prohibited. Copying any part of this product and placing it on the Internet in any form (even a personal/classroom website) is strictly forbidden. Doing so makes it possible for an Internet search to make the document available on the Internet, free of charge, and is a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

What are the Elements of a Story? Elements of a Story include the following: 1. Characters - the people, animals or things who act...

Interpreting history can seem like a daunting task for students, but with a few creative tools and ideas, teachers can bring historical events and people to life. I love providing students with an interconnection to the people who shaped our country. Our history is on-going and by studying our past, we can hopefully learn

This past school year was a great one. With every school year that passes, I like to take a moment and reflect on activities that were successful in the

I have so much to share with you about writing interventions, but first things first: WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW BLOG DESIGN?!?!? Please share your thoughts! Every year, I meet lots of middle schoolers who struggle with writing. And every year, I play around with lots of different interventions to meet their needs. Last year, I made establishing sound writing interventions one of my big goals. I spent lots of time (and money!!) on resources that I could use, and by about March, I had something that I thought I was pretty happy with. This year, I'm starting off with those interventions that worked so well last year and I couldn't be happier with the results! In fact, I'm so pleased with how they are working, I feel confident enough to share my practice with my blog readers. I can say that these are definitely KID TESTED, TEACHER APPROVED!! Creating a Time and Space for Intervention within your Classroom I teach by myself. There are no aides, special ed teachers, BSI teachers... just little, ol' me! So, when I want to create and manage small groups, I'm on my own. This is hard. It would be so much easier if there was another adult in the room to help, but there is not, so I just have to deal! It's work, but it absolutely can be done! A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Power of Bell-Ringers. Establishing a quiet and smooth transition into writing class is a great way to get started, but it also provides me with a window of time where I can pull a small group! By mid-October, my bell-ringer time gets extended to 15 minutes. The kids get started immediately and are clear on the expectations during this time. Now the environment for working with small groups is set: the room is quiet and engaged, allowing me to focus my time on the handful of kids in my group. I pull my kids to a table that I have set up in front of our classroom library. I have a "teacher station" at one end where I do my instruction. I usually stream some jazz or piano music during this time so my group doesn't distract the rest of the class. Establishing Interventions In my district, by middle school, there are no longer district-mandated interventions in place. There are no clear resources for teachers to use or personnel to help. So, when we have a struggling reader or writer in 7th or 8th grade, it's the job of the classroom teacher to meet their needs. In my tenure of working with middle schoolers, I've found that there are two types of students who need more support than my writing curriculum provides (and please remember... I am not a researcher/specialist/writer of books/etc. I'm just a teacher, like you, who loves my job, tries to do the best by my kids, and is compulsively reflective about what I see happening... to me, teachers are the best EXPERTS, but I know that we are hesitant these days to trust a "lowly" teacher and rather find ourselves relying on big publishers and educational researchers to show us best practices... I don't have lots of "data" to support what I'm sharing with you... just my actual observations I've made while working with real, live kids in an average classroom setting!!). Type One: Students Who Struggle with Structure The first type of students who need intervention are those who struggle with structure. These are the kids that can't organize their thoughts in a way a reader could follow. They simply write whatever their brain thinks at the time. They can generally stick with a broad topic, but because they are just writing whatever pops into their head at the time, there are lots of places where their writing veers off track and becomes confusing. Here is an example written by a former student struggling with structure: My dog Henry is my most special treasure. He is always there for me whenever I need him in sad times and happy. In many ways, he's my best friend. He has brown fur and a white chest. He is such a good dog to have around when you are sad because he always knows just how to cheer you up. His eyes are brown, like a Hersey bar. His favorite toy is a yellow tennis ball. Once he almost got hit by a car chasing the ball down the street. I have loved him ever since he was a puppy and we first got him. I was only 4-years old when that little ball of fluff was brought home by my parents to be best friends. His soft fur is always so smooth and warm when you pet him while watching TV on a cold night. He is my best friend and that is why he is my special treasure [sic]. This student is clear about his topic - his dog, Henry - but he cannot organize his thoughts. He is thinking about his dog and writes down everything he knows about his buddy exactly as it comes to his mind. Clearly, he has mechanical and conventional skills, and you can see evidence of where he is practicing what we learned in our mini-lessons and from studying our mentor pieces. But, because there is no organization, it is too difficult to follow and all of the skills he has are lost to the untrained, teacher-eye. Kids who write like this need an intervention that focuses on structure and organization. Typically, I LOATHE teaching step-by-step process writing, but in cases like this, I'm left with little choice. The lessons that I put together for kids in need of this intervention consist of learning how to write a well-organized paragraph. Together, we will work on writing topic sentences, creating strong and clear supporting sentences, and finish up with writing a closing that sticks with our reader. My favorite plans for this type of writing come from Michael Friermood. His Fact-Based Opinion Writing products are geared toward teaching elementary students (grades 3-5) how to write a good opinion paragraph, and they are PERFECT for my struggling 7th graders. They also lack a lot of the "cutesy" images that you find with products for this age group, so my big kids don't feel like I'm making them do "baby stuff." (I do not use the stationary he provides for the final writing piece... it's adorable, but it would be pushing in with my kids! So, we just do our paragraph writing in our intervention notebooks!) My plan is to pull the intervention group for one week (at 15 minutes a pop, this comes to 1 1/4 hours of learning). Long before I ever pull a group, I work hard to make sure that my lesson is broken down into five succinct 15-minute increments. Since time is so precious, you need to make sure not one minute is wasted! I can say that it takes me much longer to plan for a small-group lesson than a 50-minute whole-class lesson because efficiency is so crucial. The first few times you plan a small-group lesson, don't be surprised if your timing is mess. It definitely takes practice to be an effective small-group instructor! After their week is up, then I send them back to completing the bell-ringer at the start of class. I will watch them closely and conference with them lots to make sure that I am seeing a transfer of skills. If I don't, then it is likely that I will put them back in an intervention group in a few weeks to practice again. This intervention model will continue all year. Right now, I have 8 intervention students in one writing class, and 6 in another. By the end of the year, those number should reduce to 3-4 and 2-3. Never in all my years of working with small groups, have I had 100% of my intervention students "graduate" from small group. Don't be frustrated if this is the case! If you can improve 50-60% of those kids, then consider that a huge success!! Type Two: Students Who Struggle with Motivation The next group of kids that I work with are those who struggle with motivation. These are the students who complain a lot about not having anything to write about, spend more time doodling or coloring in their notebook than writing, and who will write the absolute bare minimum for any writing assignment. Many times, these kids produce too little for me to gauge whether or not they also need help with structure. But typically, once I can get them writing, they will likely find themselves in a small group for structure work :) Come October, after we've spent lots of lots of time list writing, the kids who are still struggling to get their pencils moving find themselves using a very special Interactive Writer's Notebook called "Musings from a Middle Schooler." This product contains loads of interactive writing pages that will motivate even the most reluctant writers. The pages can be printed out and glued into a marble notebook. (Most often, I'll have the kids create their own... I don't always have them use all the pages, rather I let them pick and choose the ones they like!). Cover Table of Contents page Table of Contents cont. and an "All About Me" page "My Life Story in Two Pages" My Favorite Thing Comics I created this project just last school year and it's been an absolute smash! The kids (especially my boys!) LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it! In absolutely no time, they are writing like crazy. And once I can get their pencils moving it doesn't take me long to get them producing some actual pieces. I don't necessarily pull these kids and work with them in a small group. The first few days, we will assemble our books all together at the back table, but then they go right back to the big group. Rather than do the bell-ringer with the rest of the class at the start of the period, they will work in their "Musings" notebooks. Fifteen minutes of that is usually enough to get them into writing mode for the rest of class. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * So, that's how I make writing intervention work in my classroom. Phew!! That was long, folks!! I apologize for my wordiness and I am grateful if you stuck it out until the end! Also, I'm sure that I've left out some crucial details of my practice, so please do not hesitate to ask me any questions you still have! Do you have any good intervention tips or strategies that work for you? I'd love to hear about them. Drop me a comment and share! Happy Teaching!!

You may have seen this week on my Instagram that we did Contraction Surgery! This has always been one of my favorite lessons to participate in! A few people have asked me for my lesson plan and how exactly I went about this: so here it is! First things first: buy yourself some scrubs. I fully believe in transforming ANY lesson into an experience, so to make it REAL and believable, you've got to be all in. I bought my scrubs from Walmart for about 11-12$ for both the top and pants. Next: buy

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Wonder - Choose Kind Free Action Cards #kindnessmatters Have your students CHOOSE KIND! Promote kindness in your classroom by using a “Choose Kind" Jar! 20 unique take action cards - each card also has a book quote from R.J. Palacio's Wonder! Print and cut out the task cards and label. Wrap the label around a jar and place the laminated task cards inside. Place the jar somewhere in the classroom where students can easily access the cards. Encourage students to read the task cards to promote kindness in the classroom! ______________________________________________________________________ You May Also Enjoy: Wonder Novel Study Ratings on Freebies are greatly appreciated! ;) ______________________________________________________________________ Tips for Savvy TpT Shoppers: How to receive credit on TpT to use for future purchases: • Go to your My Purchases page. Under each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button. Simply click it and you will be taken to a page where you can give a quick rating and leave a short comment for the product. I value your feedback greatly as it helps me determine which products are most valuable for your classroom so I can create more for you. Be the first to know about my new discounts, FREEBIES, and products: • Look for a green star near the top of any page within my store and click it to become a follower. You will now be able to see FREEBIES and customized emails from my store! ©2015StudentSavvy All rights reserved by author. Permission to copy for single classroom use only. Electronic distribution limited to single classroom use only. (unless you purchase the multiple license)

So the other day, I was looking at bathing suits for my kids at Target online. I put a few in my virtual cart, but then decided on buying from Lands End instead. Well, since

10 Literacy Ideas for Emergent Readers to use in the classroom today! Find resources from amazing authors all over the world!