Shhhhhh.........It's A Secret (CTP Style)!

You have stumbled upon some secret inside information!

Yep - that's right!

The new school year is months away but Creative Teaching Press is ready to release new products to inspire and invigorate teachers everywhere!

 I am thrilled to be one of a group of exclusive bloggers privy to the newest products yet to be released by Creative Teaching Press. And we are allowing all of you to get a sneak peek 

at these amazing, trend-setting items! 

First up - I love this poster that I plan to use to introduce my traditional literature unit on Fables!

I love the colors and patterns in the artsy poster, and the quote will set the stage for our reading of 

The Lion and the Mouse.

My intent is to share the poster at the beginning of the unit, and have a variety of Aesop's Fables available for students to read.

I want them to infer on their own which fable is being referred to in the quote.

This poster will also fit in nicely with our PBIS lessons on kindness and generosity!

Next - like many of you I am big fan of all things chevron!

Remember last summer when we all wanted the hottest chevron borders in our classroom?

I remember having to wait while my border was on back-order because it was so popular.

Don't let that happen to you this summer!

Order your chevron letters as soon as they are available!

Hop on over to Jennifer's blog at First Grade Blue Skies for a sneak peek at more innovative products from Creative Teaching Press.

 

And stop back to my blog for information about other unique items (and a GIVEAWAY) from CTP!

Stay tuned!!!

Peek At My Week First Timer!

Hi All -

I've been absent from the blogging world because I moved about two weeks ago.

I love my new place, and am still organizing, buying, and rearranging, but wanted to jump back into blogging by joining up with my fellow Wisconsinite, Mrs. Laffin, for for her Peek at My Week linky.

We are starting a unit on Social Issues.

This is our second year of teaching this unit during the last month of the year.

It seemed to make an impact on the students last year, and I'm hoping the same happens with my current class.

We start by looking up the words "social" and "issue" in the dictionary to give the third graders an idea of what this topic involves.

Then I use this fantastic book as a mentor text:

After hearing the story, I ask the students to list the social issues that were addressed in the book.

Last year I found the ebook version of the story on our district's Mackin list.

I was able to show the story on my Interactive Whiteboard, and we referred to the text for multiple lessons.

I have put together "I can....." statements for each of the lessons in the unit, and will post them on TpT soon.

It really is an eye-opening unit for the students, and encourages lots of higher level thinking.

I hope you'll stop back to my blog tomorrow for some EXCITING news from a major teacher supply company!!

You don't want to miss it!  

Have a great Monday!

Monday Made It

It almost feels like summer when I think of Monday Made It!

I love seeing all of the ideas that people share on Tara's site.

Mother's Day is about a month away, and if you're like me, you're always on the lookout for new ideas for student projects.

We have made these Treasures and Trinkets boxes, and they turned out really cute.

The boxes can be purchased at Michaels or JoAnn Fabric and Crafts, and we decorated them with sticker flowers and border.

My students put coupons for Mother's Day in the box, but you could put any treasure or trinket inside.

We've also created envelopes from scrapbook paper for the coupons, too.

I've created a template for the envelopes, and then ran the scrapbook paper through our school copier (shhhh).

Students can fold and glue the scrapbook paper into the envelope shape and add sticker embellishments.

These ideas (and more) are part of the Mother's Day Craft/Gift Ideas and Writing Activities packet available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Hope you're all having a good week!

April Currently and Tried It Tuesday - Earth Day Activities

No foolin'!  It's April!

Time for Farley's Currently Link-Up!

I am on Spring Break this week, and love watching all 4 hours of the Today Show while I'm doing this and that.  Today I saw some funny photos about why kids cry, that have gone viral.

On that same note, I love having no time parameters this week.  I can stay up and read and not worry about being a zombie the next day.

It's another day of cold here in WI.  Usually I go away somewhere warm during Spring Break, but have a big move coming up next week so needed to spend the time (and money) on that.

Sure would be nice to have a warm, sunny day here, though.

I'm looking into washers and dryers - any suggestions???

Teachers in my district have what's called "Professional Hours".

This means we can arrive and leave around the student hours. 

So, I am not a morning person and arrive around 8:05, but don't leave each day until about 5:15.

They're called "Professional Hours" because our district assumes you'll be a professional - deciding which time frame works for you.  We do have to attend scheduled morning or after school meetings, though.

I'm also hooking up with Holly for her Tried It Tuesday linky.

I've been working on organizing my series books. In third grade we do a whole unit on series books, and I wanted them to stand out in my classroom library.

I got green boxes (which match my gray chevron/green/black color scheme) from Steps to Literacy.

The cute labels are from Creative Teaching Press!

I just ran the book series titles on sticky back paper, and attached them to the CTP stickers.

Are you looking for some fun standards-based Earth Day activities for your literacy groups?

I created this packet with skits, scrambled sentences, cause-effect sheets, and more!

My kids love acting and skits, so I knew I wanted to include a planning sheet for that.

The packet includes 24 Earth Day tips that students use as a theme for their skits.

The goal in the skit is to persuade others to observe that Earth Day tip.

Hope you'll check it out in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Happy April!