Sunday Scoop: A Day Late

I know this is a little late, but I still wanted to share my Sunday Scoop with all of you.  We are coming down to the end of the school year, and things just keep getting busier and busier.  Anyway...here's a peek at what's going on for me this week.

Have to Do...

Our school has our Family & Friends Night this Thursday.  It's basically our version of an open house.  The elementary kids do a program, science projects, and we display tons of student work all around our classrooms.  It's a ton of prep work for us all, but it's always a fun night too.

This year, we are also putting up a huge elementary art display.  We saved all of the drawings and art projects that the students completed in art class throughout the year.  We are going to hang many of them up in our lobby.  I can't wait to see how awesome it looks, but I am a little overwhelmed with the thought of hanging all of them up!

And of course I washed what seemed like 100 loads of laundry this weekend.  Most of that is still in laundry baskets waiting to be put away. 

Hope to Do...

I know this week will be busy, but I am loving all the Spring clipart and papers that I have been downloading.  So I am hoping to get at least one Spring product completed this week during all the madness.

I also have been trying to eat healthier.  I have been trying to eat less carbs and more fruits and veggies.  I have also been more mindful of portion control when snacking.  I am hoping to be able to keep that up this week.

Happy to Do...

We have our end of the year field trip this Friday.  Normally we take our kids to the Roger Williams Zoo in Rhode Island.  This year we are going to a local state park instead.  I know the kids are going to have a blast!

I hope you all have a great week! Don't forget to stop by the Teaching Trio and see what everyone else has going on.

Art Class: Value

We had our next to last art class last Thursday.  Paul Halferty {Lilyworktile.com} has been coming into our school on the first Thursday of every month to teach our students the basics of art. We have learned all about line, shape, form, color, texture, and perspective. 

This week, Mr. Halferty taught us about value.  Value in an artistic sense is the amount of light or dark in a color.  

This strip of paint samples is a perfect example of value.  It is essentially the same basic color.  Just the amount of light included in the paint gets less and less as you move down the strip.

Mr. Halferty showed the students examples of value in different paintings.  Then the students made their own value chart using only a pencil and ruler.

 Students traced around a ruler to make the box.  Then they divided it into 6 sections.  Each section was shaded a little bit darker then the section before until the last section was as dark as they could get it.

Next, Mr. Halferty talked about using value to create shading in a picture.  He set up a cardboard box and a light for the students to sketch and shade.

Even in the picture you can see that the light made one side of the box much lighter than the other side. This made is an excellent subject to practice sketching value with.

 It has been amazing to see my students develop as artists throughout the year.  Learning about specific techniques and rules of art has helped them become better artists even at this young age!

Teaching about Folktales

Last week, my 3rd grade spent a whole week focusing on folktales.  It was such a blast that I wanted to share just a little of what we did with you.

Our school library is relatively small so our selection of folktales is small as well.  I stopped by my local library and checked out close to 20 different books for my students to read throughout the week. 

Then I set them all up on the counter in my classrooom.

 The new display was the first thing my students noticed when they walked in on Monday morning.  It immediately got them excited about our reading lesson later on.

We started our reading lesson each day by defining a type of folktale in our reading notebooks.  Then we took some time to read several books of that type.  Because we wrote our notes first, we could then talk about what made the story we read a tall tale or a fairy tale.  It was great to hear the students talking about different aspects of the stories as we read.

We discussed four different types of folktales so Friday was a free read day.  I let the students have the entire reading class time to independently read the books I had brought in.  

It was a fun week - perfect for the week before Spring Break!

Spring in Our Step Giveaway Winners

I am so thankful to have been a part of this fun giveaway!  I hope you all got to stop by and read what put a spring in all our steps.

I am so glad to be able to announce our winners: 

Cassie M., Kylie A., and Amy D.

Congratulations!!

 

Thank you to everyone who entered!

It is finally feeling like Spring at my house, and I have been in a springy creative mood.  If you are still celebrating Spring in your classrooms, your kids will enjoy practicing their multiplication with these spring task cards.  They are a great deal at only $2.00 right now in my store.

You Oughta Know About Readworks

I am excited to share with you all something that has helped me immensely this year as a teacher.  It is definitely something that I think all teachers should know about.

If you are like me, you are constantly looking for new things to use with your class. This year, I have started using a site called Readworks. Readworks is a free resource for teaching reading in your classroom.  Because it is a nonprofit website, everything is free.  And you wouldn't believe how many resources they offer!

The aspect I have used the most this year is the leveled reading passages.  Each passage is 3 to 4 pages long at the higher levels.  The passages also include a set of both multiple choice and short answer questions for students to answer.

The fiction stories are engaging and interesting, but you can also find informational texts on just about any subject or holiday to use as well.

 Although I haven't used this much this year, Readworks also offers complete novel study units, skill study unit lessons, and paired texts with question sets.  They have sets of lessons for just about every reading skill you can think of.  Plus every lesson and text is sorted by both grade and Lexile level making it easy to decide which passages to use with your class or small group.

If you are looking for a way to add to your reading lessons for FREE, you really oughta check out Readworks.  

Now follow the links below to find out what other teachers think we oughta know.  I know you will get some other great new ideas for your classroom!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday with Sale and 2 Giveaways!

I am so excited about this Friday because we have today off for Good Friday.  It feels so relaxing to not have to get up and ready quite as early as normal.

So I am linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for their Five for Friday fun to share with you some of the exciting things that have happened this week in my life!

After at least 2 months straight of being stuck inside for recess, my kids finally got to play outside this week.  We were all pretty excited {including me}.  The temp was only up to 39 degrees, but the snow had mostly all melted away and the ground was dry.  So outside we went.

 Being outside meant I had to deal with more arguments than normal as kids tried to remember the rules for games like dodgeball. Hopefully they will get used to these games again, and next week will be better,

Our school had 2 days of standardized testing this week.  I know that is shorter than many other schools and classes, but it still isn't fun for the students.  I was inspired by all the other caring teachers whose blogs I read, and I tried to inspire my kids a little better this year.  

 I used fun task cards to review on Monday and promised them brownies and ice cream for putting forth their best effort. {Last year I had a lot of obvious guessing through whole tests.}

You could really tell that the kids were thinking and trying this year.  I was proud of how hard they all worked for 2 straight days!

 Thursday afternoon, we had brownies and ice cream as a reward!

Sunday is Easter, and I am looking forward to remembering Christ's resurrection in our church service.  Because Sunday is such a busy day already, my family has decided to hold our Easter celebration on Saturday.  We are doing an Easter egg hunt, my sister-in-law has a special Easter dessert for the kids to help with, and we will be eating a huge meal.

{Doesn't this treat look delicious? The kids will fill the macaroon nests with Nutella and chocolate eggs. Click on the picture for more info.}

If you want to continue celebrating Easter next week with your class, I have some cute Easter themed story problem task cards.  Each card features a 2 step story problem dealing with Easter related topics like candy, eggs, or Easter baskets.

 

 These cards are an easy way to review simple math operations while having some Easter fun!

Some blogger friends and I got together to offer our readers an amazing giveaway!  You can win one of 3 prizes - $100 to Amazon, $75 to TPT, or $50 to TPT.  Who wouldn't want to win a prize that big?!  Today is the last day to enter so make sure you click on the picture below.  It will take you to my blog post with the rafflecopter.

Probably by now most of you have heard about the launch of Educents new marketplace.  You can now buy many of my teaching products here.  For the grand opening of this new feature, Educents has given several groups of sellers $50 to give away for lucky winners to spend at the new stores!  You can enter my group's giveaway by clicking on the picture below.

 

When you click on the picture and head over to the giveaway, you can also pick up 2 sets of my grammar task cards FREE!  I am also holding a sale in my new store.  You can read about how to grab the freebies and get even more items free in this post.

As you can see, my week has been eventful.  I hope your upcoming week is just as exciting as last week was for me. {Maybe you will win an amazing giveaway!}

Educents Launch

 I am sure you have been seeing pictures like these all over social media this week.

Well...April 2nd has arrived which means I can finally share my exciting news with you! 

Educents is opening up a marketplace! 
 That means that individual sellers can now offer their products on Educents giving you even more of the great products and deals that you are already used to seeing from Educents.  I have opened a storefront, and I would love for you to stop by and check it out!

One of my favorite types of products to make and sell are grammar task cards.  I love seeing my upper elementary students enjoy practicing the skills they are learning in class.  Task cards are just another way to make the learning process more fun. 

In order to give you a chance to try out my task cards, I have made 2 of my task card sets free in my Educents store.

Freebie #1 is a fun task card set full of sentences about the life of Leonardo da Vinci for your students to work with.  Not only will they learn about a famous artist, but they will be practicing changing sentences from one type to another.

Freebie #2 asks your students to find specific types of sentences in the books you already have in your classroom.  Students will choose a book from your class library and look through it for the four types of sentences.  They will also find sentences with prepositions and conjunctions.

To further celebrate the opening of my new store, I am throwing a Buy 1 Get 1 Free sale.  Simply follow my store by clicking on the red heart at the top of the page. Purchase a product of your choice from my store.  Then send me an email {crystallevig@gmail.com} telling me what you purchased and which item of equal or lesser value you would like free.  I will email you the free item!

But that's not even all the exciting news!!  In addition to freebies and a great sale, Educents is allowing several of us sellers to host a $50 Educents giveaway.  That's right!! $50.  Imagine how many amazing classroom products you could purchase with $50.  
All you have to do is complete the entries below and you are entered!  

Remember the giveaway AND my sale end on April 12th so don't forget to enter below and email me with your choice of a second product free!

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #9 - 5th & 6th Grade Stores