Critical Thinking Bulletin Board
Here is just a quick bulletin board I put up at the beginning of the year. All you need is some construction paper and tissue paper to make this one work. I kind of think I should have added more fire towards the top. What do you think? What do you think this rebus says? Ideas?
If I had more time to make this board at the beginning of the year, I would have added white Christmas lights behind the tissue paper to add a flickering effect to the fire.
Have you figured out what the board says yet?
SET THE WORLD ON FIRE–great back to school theme!
Win 30 FREE iKnowit Memberships for your classroom!
Did you know the maker of Super Teacher Worksheets also owns a new website called iKnowit.com? This phenomenal website lets you select differentiated lessons for your students and gather data! What a great way to take an easy grade and provide support for your struggling learners or even to advance your high achievers!
On IKnowit.com you will find this information about their site…take a look before you enter to win this amazing prize!
iKnow it is a comprehensive, interactive math practice site for students in Kindergarten to fifth grade. This online resource can be used during class or at home for independent practice, remediation, assessment, or homework. The site enables teachers and parents to differentiate assignments for students allowing them to work at their own level and pace towards mastery of concepts and skills aligned with common core.I Know It is very user friendly, and allows teachers and parents to customize a program to meet the specific needs of each student. It’s never been easier to monitor individual progress or track performance data! Math concepts are sorted by grade level, and each skill has a wide variety of question types and graphics to keep students actively engaged throughout each skill they complete.While your students are building math comprehension and fluency they will also be having fun with our unique characters and animations. Your students will be challenged to achieve, while utilizing features of the site, like question hints and explanations, along with receiving instant feedback.You’ll never teach math the same way once your students have tried iknowit!
We are giving away an absolutely fabulous prize here! 30 FREE Memberships for students to use iKnowit for an entire Year! Just enter the rafflecopter to win!
a Rafflecopter giveawayWin a FREE Super Teacher Worksheets Year Long Membership!
I do sell on Teachers Pay Teachers, and I buy items from there also. One resource I use in addition is Super Teacher Worksheets! This is such a great investment for your classroom ! Why you ask?
- I can easily find a resource for any elementary math skill I need.
- STW has fun puzzles for students or other review items if I have a sub. I don’t have to dig something out of a book. I can just click, download, and print.
- I can find maps and reviews for when I teach geography skill or hold a geography bee.
- There are other great resources for literacy and science.
- It’s quick and easy!
- For an entire year, the cost is only $24.95/year! You could easily spend that much in a week on TPT or on teacher books. What a bargain!!!
- Even middle school resources are available.
- New resources are being added all the time!
According to the Super Teacher Worksheets website…
“Members have unlimited access to thousands of worksheets and printable materials on Super Teacher Worksheets. We offer math worksheets, reading comprehension stories, spelling lists, handwriting practice sheets, grammar worksheets, holiday printables, and much more!
While we do have hundreds of free worksheets on our website, our members have full access to all of our printables. Experience all the benefits of membership today!”
Now for the good part! We are offering a Super Teacher Worksheets membership FREE for an entire year! What an amazing deal!!! Just enter the rafflecopter below.
P.S….Did you know the owner of Super Teacher Worksheets is a teacher just like you? (no longer in the classroom, but he totally understands teachers.)
a Rafflecopter giveaway3 Ways to Create Learning by Osmosis in Your Classroom
While I was a classroom teacher, I always tried to cover the walls with helpful tools, because every child will zone out for a little while at some point. To take advantage of the fact that my students are most likely going to be staring at the wall at some point, while not listening to me very carefully I post items I want them to absorb on the walls. Here are some of my most popular tools for that purpose. Try some of them out in your own classroom!
- If you teach 1st and 2nd, this base 10 classroom wall number line will be great for your classroom to familiarize students with the size of numbers. ( or you may prefer the bundle which has the number line, word cards, and expanded form cards at a 30% savings.
2. If you teach 3rd or 4th grade you may prefer to decorate with this classroom fraction wall number line. This is an interactive number line in which students can place equivalent fractions over or under the existing fractions so that they can not only absorb fractional understanding, but critically think about fractions as well.
3. If you have more advanced students in 4th or 5th grades, you can take the number line a step further and have a decimal number line. Both tenths and a hundredths version are available.
Check these out here so you can decorate your room and help your students to begin learning by osmosis :).
How Do You Engage Everyone in a Lesson
- Allow children to use their imagination especially through role play.
- Add challenge.
- Add secrecy.
- Include some mysterious searching.
These are some things I did recently with my students at the end of the school year. I gave them some background on World War II, told them they were secret spies, and that their spy skills were going to save millions of lives.
I further explained about the enigma machine in which Nazis used to send secret messages which we call cryptograms or ciphers. This set the stage for them to stay actively engaged enough to finish a cryptogram. Even students who normally struggle to figure out normal assignments had a renewed interest in solving a puzzle! For the second lesson, the solving of their second puzzle led them to find a location for their next clue. I have never had a more engaged group of students!
Even the teachers of these classrooms I taught were engaged with figuring out the cryptogram. I included the school secretary as one of the clue givers, and students enjoyed leaving the classroom for a moment to find the next clue. When proud students returned from the secretary with their “Secret Agent” badge, this encouraged others to keep working to figure out the puzzle.
These lessons were some of the highlights of my year, and I hope you enjoy them, too. Here is a link to this critical thinking resource on TPT.
Make These Items This Summer to Support Math Instruction {Giveaway}
Here are a few items that you may want to have to spruce up your classroom this fall. You may need a number line that adds images to support student’s understanding of numbers with base ten blocks. This number line is over 40 feet long and will serve as a vital support tool all year long–great decoration above your white board. This would be great for 1st through 2nd grades!
Maybe you teach third or fourth grade and need more fraction visual support. Why not have a fraction number line with visual supports?
You know you will have someone who doesn’t know their addition facts or multiplication facts. Why not spend some time making a set of flashcards while you are relaxing this summer. Both of these come with printable backs! What could be better?!
Now for a giveaway!
Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy
| Kelly MalloyBrowse over 140 educational resources created by Kelly Malloy in the official Teachers Pay Teachers store. |
(An Apple for the Teacher)
Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, The Fun Factory, 180 Days of Reading, Kelly McCown, It’s a Teacher Thing, Mickey’s Place, LIVIN’ IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER, A Plus Kids, Sandra Naufal, TeachingLife, The Chocolate Teacher, Star Kids, Paula’s Primary Classroom, Ms. K, Roots and Wings, Mrs Wenning’s Classroom, Kamp Kindergarten, Samson’s Shoppe, The Monkey Market, Jackie Crews, TheBeezyTeacher, Priscilla Woodard – Tasked 2 Teach, Kathryn Watts, AR Tech Star – Eva Griffin, Pint Size Learners, and The Froggy Factory.
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 7/13/19 and is open worldwide.
Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media? Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!
| Giveaways To Grow Your BlogClassroom tips,teaching ideas, and resources for the upper elementary classroom. Teacher Giveaways |
Stop by later this month because there will be MORE GIVEAWAYS!!!
Hanitizer That Doesn’t Dry Out Your Hands?
Hanitizer is affectionately called so for students’ simple naming convention. A few years ago I tried out this hand sanitizer I’m about to tell you about and absolutely loved it. Now, of course, I have used all of the different types of hand sanitizer…Germ-X, the Kroger Brand, the deliciously wonderfully smelling Bath and Body Works brands, but they all left my hands feeling dry and cracked especially in the winter since they have alcohol in them…Well, enter the best hand sanitizer ever which fixed that problem. Thieves hand sanitizer made by Young Living. I have small ones for my purse and a large one at school.
After you use the hand sanitizer, it keeps your hands feeling soft and pleasantly scented. When I buy the large one, I use it to fill up my small bottles for my purse so that it is more cost effective. Pictured above is a small purse sized one. Also, even better is that it only takes a very small amount–smaller than a dime size to sanitize your whole hands. This sanitizer is made with essential oils, which is what naturally kills all the yucky germs, and it doesn’t have any harmful chemicals in it like normal hand sanitizers. Give it a try! You will LOVE it!
To get this hand sanitizer, just go here to YoungLiving.com and order. My sponsor and enroller number are 2600343.
Small Acts of Kindness Make a BIG Difference
Sometimes, when you’re a teacher, you have a really bad week. Such as the last week of school for me. I thought I had broken my toe when I hit it against a rock on the playground. I found out I was going to have to share my room next year with another teacher–not that I mind sharing with her at all..it’s just that I like to have space to teach. Also, a few other things happened throughout the week that made the week less than pleasant. And once in a very little while, you have a precious student that you have poured your heart into for the last several years bring you a note that expresses all you meant to her, and suddenly all the kinks you have to work through in a school year seem worth it just to be able to touch the life of a single child. Happy end of the school year to you!
The good news–I didn’t actually break my toe! The doctor said I just had badly jammed and bruised it. (for your sake, I will not include a picture of my bruised toe.)
I hope you, too, know how much of a difference you make in the life of a child. Congratulations on making it to the end of another year of making a difference!
GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Prize: $100 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card
Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy
| Kelly Malloy Browse over 140 educational resources created by Kelly Malloy in the official Teachers Pay Teachers store. |
(An Apple for the Teacher)
Co-hosts: An Apple for the Teacher, Kelly McCown, The Cozy Crafty Classroom, Chocolate 4 Teachers, Jackie Crews, Star Kids, The Fun Factory, The Best Days by Julie Santello, Roots and Wings, Mrs Wenning’s Classroom, Globe Trottin’ Kids, 1stgradefireworks, Priscilla Woodard – Tasked 2 Teach, Ms. K, A Plus Kids, Josie’s Place, Mickey’s Place, TheBeezyTeacher, LIVIN’ IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER, The Chocolate Teacher, Teacher Gameroom, The Butterfly Room- Stacy Ryan, and Kamp Kindergarten.
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 6/13/19 and is open worldwide.
Are you a Teacher Blogger or Teachers pay Teachers seller who wants to participate in giveaways like these to grow your store and social media? Click here to find out how you can join our totally awesome group of bloggers!
| Giveaways To Grow Your Blog Classroom tips,teaching ideas, and resources for the upper elementary classroom. Teacher Giveaways |
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!
Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Did you know? I am sure you did– that this Tuesday and Wednesday there is a SALE on TPT! Many stores are offering BIG discounts! Mine is! Stop on by my store to see the sale!
