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.

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

There's a Spring In My Step!

Well Spring has arrived, but unfortunately it still feels like winter up here in the Northeast.  We still have snow on the ground, and we are happy if the temperature gets up to 45 during the day.  Thankfully, the weather doesn't have to be the only reason to have a spring in my step!  A few of us have joined together to celebrate spring with you.  We have linked up to bring you spring ideas, spring freebies, and a huge spring giveaway!

My favorite spring celebration is definitely Easter!  I love taking a day or more to celebrate and remember the miracle of Christ's resurrection.  Of course, I enjoy the beautiful decorations and dinner with family, but even more than that I love being reminded of the great gift that God gave us through his Son.  

I like what Paul says in I Corinthians 15:17, 19 - "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." 

 

I have to admit that spring is always the time when I start to think about next year.  I am in a small school which means that I usually know the students who will be in my grade next year.  I know what they struggle with and what they excel at.  My compulsive need to plan everything kicks in, and I start to focus on next year.

It takes work, but I try to stay focused on the remainder of this year.  One way I do that is to look back at the goals that I wrote out for my students this year.  I start the year by writing out specific areas that I want my students to improve in throughout the year. {For example, this year I had one student that I wanted to be able to write a complete paragraph with topic sentence and details.}

  I reread my goals and reflect on whether I have helped my students meet those goals.  If they haven't, I make a concentrated effort to work on those topics for the rest of the year.  And if they have reached the goals, then we have a reason to celebrate!

Since Easter is my favorite spring celebration, I have decided to share my newest Easter product with you.  This is a paid product in my TPT store, but I am letting you have it for free!

These 2 step story problem task cards will hold your students interest with stories about Easter eggs, candy, and egg hunts.  Each story problem used simple numbers so that the focus is on determining what steps to use, not struggling with the actual math work.

You can pick up this fun task card set by clicking on the link above.  Don't forget to enter the giveaway and follow the links to pick up some other great spring freebies and ideas!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday: 2/20/2015

Woohoo!  Friday is finally here!  Why does it always seem like short school weeks feel longer than normal weeks?  Thankfully, Friday has arrived which means it is time for Five for Friday with Doodlebugs Teaching!

 We had a snowstorm on Sunday, more snow on Tuesday, another dusting late Wednesday night, and even more expected this Saturday.  I don't know about anyone else, but I am sick of snow!

We sent home our March calendars to our students today.  Thinking about March has me dreaming about springtime.  I can only hope that it is right around the corner!

I teach several different English classes, and our curriculum has us alternate between writing units and grammar units. {However, I try to add in lots of writing during the grammar units too.}  Anyway, my 6th grade English class is in the middle of writing research reports on historical places. 

We used library books to do research on note cards, wrote an outline, and are currently working on writing our rough drafts.  {This has to be my least favorite unit that I have to teach. Hopefully we will be done soon.}

On the other hand, my 3rd grade class just finished writing Compare/Contrast essays.  This is a unit that I always enjoy.  We have been reading Roald Dahl books recently so we wrote about characters from his stories.  Not only did they turn out great, but I feel like using information from books we have read made the writing process even easier.  {I am going to write more about our Compare and Contrast essays tomorrow so check back then to find out more!}

I don't know if all of you have heard, but Educents has decided to let teachers open storefronts similar to TeacherspayTeachers.  It is a completely new program they are rolling out soon. I have been busy setting up my store and uploading products for sale. If you haven't signed up for Educents yet, they are also offering a free $10 credit right now. {That's like $10 worth of free teaching products!!}  You can get your $10 coupon by clicking here: Educents coupon. 

Also feel free to stop by and check out my new storefront!

My friend Kristin over at My Carolina Classroom is having a huge giveaway for her blogiversary!!

 She is giving away over $180 worth of teaching products {including some TPT gift certificates}!  The giveaway is only open until Saturday, so don't forget to stop by and enter.  In fact, you may want to go there right now!

Throwback Thursday: Silly Stories

I am linking up with The Teacher's Desk 6 for Throwback Thursday. 

 In this post, I talk about one of my favorite writing lessons that I have done with my kiddos.  I thought I would take this opportunity to share it with you again today.

 

I used my new Silly Story Cards with my students today for the first time! 

 Each student got to choose one card from four different card types.  Each card has a different story element on it - main character, time, place, and problem.  The students then recorded their four story elements on the top of a recording page.  After that, the writing fun began.  Each story came out different because they all had different combinations of story elements to begin with.  

After we finished our stories {and yes, I wrote one too},  the students that wanted to were allowed to read them out loud to the class.  We had lots of fun giggling at the silly stories about things like farmers in outer space, cowboys on the beach, and talking dogs.

The kids had so much fun, but even more importantly, they spent about 20 - 30 minutes actually writing.  True, I didn't get everything taught that I had scheduled for today.  But it is worth it to put a few things off until tomorrow so that kids can have fun practicing such an important skill!

The great news is that you can win a copy of my Silly Story Cards to use in your own classroom.  Kristin over at My Carolina Classroom is having a huge giveaway right now.  My Silly Story pack is just one of the amazing products that you can win!  Head on over her blog to enter.

Five for Friday - We Have a Winner!!

Another beautiful Friday is here, and I am once again linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for...

 My first and most important announcement is that my giveaway has officially ended!  So CONGRATULATIONS to Becky B. who was the winner of a $10 TeachersPayTeachers gift certificate!

Thanks to everyone that entered!  Make sure to keep following my blog to find out when the next giveaway is happening.

My 1st grade Phonics class has been learning all about cowboys for the past few weeks.  We have talked about what cowboys do, where they live, cattle, ranches, and rodeos.  We even watched some neat videos of rodeo events yesterday.  The students were amazed by the ability of the cowboys to stay on a bull for 8 seconds or rope a calf  in under 7 seconds.  So I whipped up some cowboy themed memory games to help my kids practice what we have been learning.  I let them play Cowboy Contractions today, and they had lots of fun.  I like the fact that they were reading a contraction on every turn.

 My 3rd grade reading class and I finished James and the Giant Peach this week.  One of my students said that out of 5 stars, he would give it "infinity." I guess they liked it!  Now we are working on finishing our mobiles and folder displays to go with it.  So far they are coming out great!

My 6th grade reading class is reading a favorite book of mine - A Father's Promise.  We studied four story devices before we started the novel, and now we are watching for those story devices while we read.  The story focuses on a Jewish boy in Poland during World War II.  It is definitely full of suspense, cliffhangers, and foreshadowing!

Even though we are supposed to get a big snowstorm here in New England tomorrow, today has been beautiful.  The temperature is 32 degrees which means we took the kids out for recess.  {If it's above freezing and dry, we go outside!}  The kids don't even seem to notice the cold though.  They are constantly asking to take their coats off despite the fact that it is barely above freezing!

Feel free to link up Doodlebugs Teaching and let us know how your week has been!