The Julian Chapter - MMI!

I am super excited to be sharing my Monday Made It from 4th Grade Frolics with all of you! 

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with the book Wonder by RJ Palacio. It's amazing, and if you haven't taken the time to read it yet...what are you waiting for?!

If you're not obsessed like me, then you might not be aware that RJ Palacio has written a companion novel titled The Julian Chapter. It's available pretty cheaply and only as ebook or an audiobook. It is definitely worth the read. 

If you're familiar with Wonder, then you know that Julian's perspective was missing from the original storyline. Now Julian has his chance to tell his side of the story. Even better than that, Julian's story continues past the ending of Wonder and gives us a chance to see what happens next! I don't want to ruin anything, but I'll leave it at saying that you have to read this wonderful redemption story.

And...OF COURSE I had to make a novel unit for it too! I spent a lot of time giving this book my usual detailed treatment, and in the process fell back in love with all of the characters from Wonder...this time that includes Julian. The Julian Chapters Novel Study Unit includes my usual chapter by chapter break downs, and also 7 more activities to use with this book and Wonder. I just put the finishing touches on it, and I hope you'll grab it up in my store for just $3.00!  A steal, right?!

I also took this as an opportunity to freshen up my original Wonder by RJ Palacio Novel Study Unit. I added the Symbolism with Wonder Activity and my Picture Vocabulary Sheets, so now this 174 page unit is even more of a steal!

My lovely wife took lots of pictures
while we visited Sapelo Island.

So grabbing up my new unit would certainly help motivate me during my second Monday Made It. I guess this one would have to be considered a work in progress at the moment because I am currently doing it. Killer B and I have been in GA vacationing and visiting family for the summer. 

But it is finally time to make the long drive home. 14 hours to be exact! Visiting with family has been nice, but It'll be great to get home and start focusing on getting things ready for next school year, getting my home improvement projects done, etc. 

So, wish me luck on my long drive with a cranky-while-driving wife and two very restless German Shepherds! I'll be counting down the miles!

Time to do some shopping! - TpT Sitewide Sale

So if you're an avid blog reader like myself then you can't have missed the news...TpT's throwing another big sitewide sale! The sale is Thursday, February 27th through Friday the 28th! Everything in my store that is $2 and up will be marked 20% off! Throw in the promo code TPT3 after that and get a total of 28% off! This is a great chance to grab up some things on the cheap!

To make your shopping a little easier I thought I'd highlight a few things from my store, and show you a few things I have on my own shopping list! 

 By far the number 1 most wish listed item in my store is my best-selling novel study unit for the book Wonder by RJ Palacio. I've written a few posts before about how truly awesome this book is. If you haven't read it, take my word for it and go ahead and buy it now. Then go grab up this 170 page novel unit too! 

I've broken down the chapters and done all the work for you! Tons of great activities to do whole class or in small groups are included as well!

One of my other highly wish listed items is The Book of Awesome Tasks. This is a unique solution for the problem of "too much indoor recess." Simply print double-sided and fold in half to make each student a booklet with 45 highly engaging activities. 

My kids love working in these as a brain break, and it keeps them nice and quiet during indoor recess! Check it out!

I feel like I'd be letting you down if I didn't remind you that this is a great chance to grab up my two newest novel units while the discount is in effect!

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is an excellent choice for historical fiction. This unit includes a chapter by chapter breakdown like my other units, several whole group and small group activities, and lots more unique activities to complement the novel or a study of Japan!

Don't miss out on your chance to grab my newest (and probably favorite) unit on the Newbery Award winning book The One and Only Ivan. This is a great piece of fiction that is based on the true story of a gorilla who was kept in a tiny cage in a shopping mall for nearly 30 years. 

The chapter by chapter break down and standard whole and small group activities are complimented by a slew of unique activities for this book, AND a set of lapbook activities. This is an excellent book to use with your kids, and the lapbook is a great addition to a student portfolio or evidence to send home with a kid to show all their learning this year.

I've got some things I'd love to have from other sellers too! Check them out:

I love using task cards with my kids, and I end up making a lot of them for different things. But when someone else has already put together a 50 card set...why do the work when they've done it for you?! These Main Idea task cards from Pinkadots look like they could come in handy!

I Love My Classroom has a great set of figurative language cards as well! The kids can always use practice with this, and I like that the questions are multiple choice. No kid wants to have to write our onomatopoeia as an answer to a task card! ;)

We are just about to begin our Energy and Electricity unit of study, and interactive notebooks are a great way to have kids take notes, store useful information, and stay engaged! This set from I Heart Recess looks like it comes with a lot of great stuff (even a set of task cards!)

Don't forget to go through and leave feedback on any of your old purchases so you can earn that TpT credit and use it along with all the other discounts! 

I'm linking up with a bunch of other teachers involved in the sale! Be sure to check them out! And thanks to Theresa from Pinkadots Elementary for hosting the linky! Also, check out another linky on Mrs. Beattie's Classroom!

An InLinkz Link-up

What's on your TpT Wishlist?

It's here, it's here! Well, it will be here this Sunday and Monday! (August 18th-19th)

As we are all prepping our classrooms, going through professional development, or in survival beginning of the school year mode we have been anxiously waiting to hear when our favorite and most wish-listed products will go on sale at TpT.

Well friends, I am happy to announce it is finally time!

In celebration of this momentous event, myself and a group of wonderful bloggers came together to create a fun linky to showcase our shopping carts and our favorite products.

If there's one thing we teachers love to do, it's shop for our classrooms, right?

Join us by linking up with 2 of the top wish-listed products in your store and 1 product on your wish-list you just have to purchase! *If you're not a blogger or TPTer, still feel free to comment with your most wish-listed item! Use the graphics below if you'd like!

My MOST wishlisted item is also one of my favorite and most dear to my heart. It's my Novel Study Unit for Wonder by RJ Palacio! I put a lot of work into this product, and it was worth it. Now would be a great time to snap it up if you haven't already!

This unit is 170 pages long and includes vocabulary, comprehension and inferring questions for every chapter, as well as a big packet of activities for the kids to do with the book. If you haven't read Wonder yet, please do. In my opinion it's one of the best books published in the last several years. The thing I have to tell everyone I meet about this book is that it had my kids alternating between crying openly and cheering loudly. 

My second most wishlisted item is tricky because I had a tie! So I'm kind of cheating, but I couldn't pick just one when they both had the same number of wishlisters!

The first of the two is my packet of helpful materials for Reading Response Journals! I use these with my kids as part of my Daily 5 system. It counts as their "Write about Reading" or "Response to Literature." I like it because it has a lot of variety for them to choose from, but keeps their responses in a similar format week to week which makes it easy to grade using the included rubric. 

The second item is another one that I'm really proud of. I wish I rubbed elbows with book publishers, because if I did I'd try to get this one in Barnes & Noble. It's my Book of Awesome Tasks! This is a printable book that has a bunch of activities for fast finishers, indoor recess, etc. It has kids thinking critically and writing, all while flexing their creative muscles! I've actually had kids beg me to stay indoor for recess because of these activities!

I'm looking forward to buying a few things during the sale, but one thing that I'll be buying and putting to use right away is Jivey's Numbers and Operations Bundle. Not JUST because she's one of BBB's either! I've bought her Mentor Sentences and love them, so I know she makes quality products. And I was using her Lucky Leftovers division game in my classroom before I even knew about her blog! 

I hope I was able to beef up your wishlist before the big sale! Take a gander through the rest of my store if you get a chance! This is a great opportunity to get a bunch of great stuff for some ridiculously good prices!

Everything over $2 in my store will be on sale for 20% off! PLUS, don't forget to enter the promo code BTS13 to get another 10% off after my 20%. Weird math, but that adds up to 28% off the normal price! 

Now, join us with a post about your items!

An InLinkz Link-up

Fabulous Feedback and Favorite Pins Friday!

Wait, it's Friday?! It's funny how I lose all sense of time over the summer. The days of the week really don't affect me at all!

I'm linking up for the first time with Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge for her Fabulous Feedback linky!

I've received a lot of feedback over time (much more than on any other product in my store in fact) on one of my favorite products ever, which is my 170-page Wonder by RJ Palacio Novel Unit. This book is amazing, and I loved reading it over and over again while writing this unit.

I really appreciated that this buyer took the time to write a thoughtful comment, so if you're reading this aplowe, please feel free to e-mail me your choice of any other product from my store to receive for free! 

 Another first for me, is this Favorite Pins Friday linky from The First Grade Parade! I always love reading people's posts for this linky, and usually find a few pins to add. It was hard finding pins for this one that I haven't seen others pin recently! But I think I might have found a couple. Click the images to be taken to the pin.

 

First, I really like the idea of this "Speeding ticket" to hand to students when they try to hand in work way too fast. I could of used this this past year for sure!

I might change the Fine to say something like "Do over!" or something though.

I love these DIY pennants made from old maps, but I love the idea they gave me even more, which is to die cut bulletin board letters and borders from old maps. I just happen to have a ton of those saved up, and they go perfect with my new theme! (More on that later!)

Don't forget to sign up for Tunes Tuesday! It's coming!

Throwback Thursday!

I figured I'd join in on the fun for a Throwback Thursday. Even though I haven't been blogging for very long, I DO have literally ten times as many followers now as when I first posted this post!  ;) I picked this one because of all the activities I did with my kids this year, this is the one that I think my kids' parents appreciated the most.


Originally posted March 22nd, 2013:

As part of our class reading of Wonder, we have been really thinking about character traits and how we should think about and treat others.

So to help take advantage of the wonderful community building opportunities presented by this novel, we begin each reading by having one of the kids in the class sit in a chair in front of our marker board. The rest of the kids think about this person's positive character traits and write them around the head of the featured kiddo. You should see the smiles on the students' faces when they get to turn around and read what their classmates think about them. I make sure to e-mail the picture to the kiddo's parents that evening too. I pinned this idea on pinterest a long time ago and have been waiting for a reason to use it. 

Here's an example:

This is just one of the extension ideas I included in the novel unit I wrote for this awesome book. If you're planning to read this book with your kids, I hope you'll check out my 170 page unit on my TpT Store! Just 9 smackeroos for the rest of March!

So, earlier this week I played 2 Truths and a Lie as part of Flying into First Grade's "Let's get Acquainted" Linky party. Lots of people guessed my lie, so maybe I made it too easy!

1) I really did give up a full ride to West Point, as well as a few other colleges in order to become a teacher. 

2) I really am a double gold medalist in the Jr. Olympics. This ties directly into #1! My gold medals are in marksmanship, one team medal and one individual medal. My shooting ability is what almost determined my future. Luckily I received a number of academic scholarships to non-military colleges that allowed me to go that route, which is why I'm a teacher today and not a professional marksman! Whew! I really dodged a bullet there! :groan:  ;)

3) So that makes my lie that I've taught every elementary grade level. I have taught Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 1st/2nd multi-age, and 5th grade. I've never taught 3rd or 4th grade, though I would be interested in doing that one day!

Finally, I figured I'd share a "fun" event from today. We were in the middle of taking our spelling test when suddenly one of my kid's desks is soaking wet. Turns out there was a crack in the water pipes running through the ceiling above his desk. I love how my kids completely ignored the repairmen and just kept taking their test!

The funny thing is that my lie #3 isn't a lie anymore! I was granted my request and will in fact be teaching 3rd and 4th grade next year! Awesome!

Check out all of the other great Throwback Thursday links too!

Quick Check In and End of the Year Awards

Man, it has been a busy few days! We have a lot going on at school in my classroom right now. All the usual stuff plus the extra Earth Day seed planting, a guest teacher coming to do some Close Reading with my kiddos tomorrow, our Westward Expansion Simulation is about halfway done, and we're gearing up to start teaching the Human Body science unit next!

We're about halfway through reading Wonder and my kids keep begging me to read another chapter, then another one, and another one. I want to give in and just keep reading, but we have so much else to do that I've been resisting the urge. The kids just LOVE this book, and it has so many moments in it that really affect them. I know I've talked about it too many times, but maybe if you haven't bought it yet, you'll finally do it! And my Wonder Novel Unit makes teaching it even easier and more meaningful!  ;) 

It's at that time in the year where my intern is taking over the lead planning and teaching of most of the school day (though I won't let her read Wonder with the kids because I want to!) so my evenings have opened up a bit as far as planning and prep is concerned. I believe in co-teaching, and constant observation/participation when my intern is teaching (I don't believe in the "leave the room and let them solo teach" thing), but it is still nice to have a little less on my plate in the evenings. We're lucky to be partnered with Penn State, and have yearlong interns rather than typical student teachers. They start full time on the first day of pre-planning and come to work every day, all day, for the entire school year, all the way until the last day of school. Usually by this point in the year the interns are essentially teachers with a year of experience. I wish they had a program like this when I was in school!

The extra time in the evenings is handy because I'm still going strong with the "Biggest Loser" contest going on in my school! I have lost a wife-infuriating grand total of 7 pounds since I started about 2 and half weeks ago! She complains about how easy it is for men to lose weight, but I think it's fair considering she's a waif and I weigh nearly twice what she does! I walked over 20 miles last week too! This little fitbit gadget is addictive.

I've also been working on a few different items for my TpT store, one is about 50% done and the other is around 80% done. I took a break from them though to spiff up my End of Year Award Certificates. I give these out to the kids at the end of year to both celebrate their strengths and poke a little light hearted fun at some of their...other qualities. I have made 48 certificates, and I usually end up giving 2-3 to each student. Sometimes I have to create a new certificate for a special kiddo, and I'll definitely be updating the product on TpT with those when that happens.

I am drawn to the Victorian/Vintage style stuff, and I know my kids for the last few years have been obsessed with things like mustaches, steampunk, bowler hat type stuff, so I made them in that style. I also stuck to black and white simply because I end up printing 60-90 of these every year! Here's an example of what they look like:

The certificates come in a powerpoint file that is completely editable. All 48 certificates (with potential new ones added each year) are just $4.00! I have three more preview images on the product page. Check them out!

We still have over 30 days of school, but I am beginning preparations for a lot of our end of year activities. I'll hand out the awards at our classroom award celebration at the end of the year. We also have a secret party planned to thank my intern for her service, where we'll present a big basket full of teacher goodies. Leading up to the last day of school we'll be hanging and popping 20 balloons with a special "reward" inside each one. The 5th graders get to enjoy a fun afternoon during the 5th grade picnic/carnival that is put together by the PTO. And finally on the very last day of school we have a gathering of the whole school and "graduate" the 5th graders by watching a video of their experiences from the year. Many tears will be shed!

What traditions do you celebrate at the end of the year? 

"Wonder"ful activity, 2 Truths and a Lie reveal, and burst pipes!

As part of our class reading of Wonder, we have been really thinking about character traits and how we should think about and treat others.

So to help take advantage of the wonderful community building opportunities presented by this novel, we begin each reading by having one of the kids in the class sit in a chair in front of our marker board. The rest of the kids think about this person's positive character traits and write them around the head of the featured kiddo. You should see the smiles on the students' faces when they get to turn around and read what their classmates think about them. I make sure to e-mail the picture to the kiddo's parents that evening too. I pinned this idea on pinterest a long time ago and have been waiting for a reason to use it. 

Here's an example:

This is just one of the extension ideas I included in the novel unit I wrote for this awesome book. If you're planning to read this book with your kids, I hope you'll check out my 170 page unit on my TpT Store! Just 9 smackeroos for the rest of March!

So, earlier this week I played 2 Truths and a Lie as part of Flying into First Grade's "Let's get Acquainted" Linky party. Lots of people guessed my lie, so maybe I made it too easy!

1) I really did give up a full ride to West Point, as well as a few other colleges in order to become a teacher. 

2) I really am a double gold medalist in the Jr. Olympics. This ties directly into #1! My gold medals are in marksmanship, one team medal and one individual medal. My shooting ability is what almost determined my future. Luckily I received a number of academic scholarships to non-military colleges that allowed me to go that route, which is why I'm a teacher today and not a professional marksman! Whew! I really dodged a bullet there! :groan:  ;)

3) So that makes my lie that I've taught every elementary grade level. I have taught Pre-K, Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 1st/2nd multi-age, and 5th grade. I've never taught 3rd or 4th grade, though I would be interested in doing that one day!

Finally, I figured I'd share a "fun" event from today. We were in the middle of taking our spelling test when suddenly one of my kid's desks is soaking wet. Turns out there was a crack in the water pipes running through the ceiling above his desk. I love how my kids completely ignored the repairmen and just kept taking their test!