Free Goodies for Teachers!

I just wanted to give a friendly reminder that you should be sure to go and sign up for a free gift on redditgifts! Every year they host an event where people from all over the place sign up to send teachers a box of goodies. 

I have actually received some pretty cool stuff in the past. It's totally free, you just have to sign up.  Here's some of the stuff I've gotten:

Click here to head on over there now and sign up!

Mentor Sentence Freebie for The Name Jar

I made this week of mentor sentence materials for The Name Jar to use in my 4th grade class last year. It's a great book to use at the beginning of the year, and this is a great freebie to give you a chance to see if mentor sentences are right for you and your kids! Click the image on the right to grab the freebie. Enjoy! 

Monster Math Freebie!

Ever wanted to try out my super cool Monster Math Battle tournaments...but weren't quite sure about it? Well, I made this little freebie just for you. This is a collection of three of my math battles so you can give it a try. 

Not sure what I'm talking about?! Well, you should definitely check these out. I've made several different tournaments where classic movie monster are dueling it out in a math battle! The kids love it, and don't even realize they are getting much needed practice. I also have a couple of different varieties of shorter Ninja vs. Samurai battles!

The tournaments are very reasonably priced, but whether you're ready to purchase a whole tournament or not, I hope you at least enjoy the freebie! 

Happy Birthday to Me, and a Freebie for You!

Today's my birthday, so I thought it'd be fun to make a day long freebie of one of my products to celebrate.

For today only, I'm sharing my Gratitude Journal for free. It can be printed to make a booklet that includes 20 prompts and quotes to get kids thinking about gratitude. They say it takes 20 times to make something a habit. This would be a great activity to begin around the week of Thanksgiving. I hope you can use it, and positive feedback is always appreciated!


Also, today is the final day to go and buy the best blogging buddy bundle ever! 19 products for just $25! And just like all of my other TpT proceeds...the money goes straight into our adoption fund! 

Quick Idea for a Reader's Workshop Strategy Group

After talking with my kiddos at their reading conferences over the last few weeks I've started to notice that a good portion of them have trouble pointing out the main idea for a piece of non-fiction writing. I have to admit, this surprised me. A lot of the time I noticed they would latch on to one of the first details mentioned in the piece, and not take in the information from the entire piece to make their claim about what the main idea actually was. 

Even my strongest students needed practice with citing evidence from the text to back up why they had made their claim about what the main idea was for the piece they were reading. They could usually find one piece of evidence, but that was it. But again, they would often get hung up on one small detail that was mentioned in the piece. 

I was already aware of this Freebie my friend Jivey has in her store, and it seemed like a great resource to use to address the strategy of drawing conclusions about main idea by citing evidence. I figured I'd also be able to throw in a little "comparing information from different texts" and the idea of footnotes (text feature) while I was at it. 

One thing I liked about this freebie is that one of the passages is actually about epidemics, but begins by engaging the kids with talk about a zombie outbreak. I figured it'd be perfect to see if kids latch on to the zombies or if they get the overall ideas of epidemics and preparedness. 

I chose to copy the passages side by side, half-sized, to save paper and to make it easier for the kids to look between them. I wish I had flipped them because I wanted to do "Are You Prepared?" second! Aargh! But the size was perfect.

So, after doing a close read of the "Germs" passage, I asked my kids if they were familiar with the concept of hashtags. They were, but I reviewed briefly by showing them a picture on my phone, and asking them if different words/phrases would be appropriate hashtags for that image. Once we were all definitely on board...and the kids were thoroughly confused as to why I was showing them a beach vacation photo and talking about instagram... I asked them to hashtag the passage they had just read. It was funny to see the kids' faces go "Aaaaaah...Mr. Reitz wasn't just being off task..."

Here are the hashtags on one of my kids' "Germs" passage:

The kids came up with clever hashtags that were totally on point! After sharing a couple of their hashtags as a group, we talked about how we could boil down their hashtags to make a claim about what the main idea of any passage might be. 

I DIDN'T show them this image because I
didn't want to thoroughly confuse them.

When we moved on to the passage about epidemics, I knew that some kids would want to hashtag "zombies" or something like that. We talked about how in my original photo there was a guy in the background wearing a t-shirt, and while this is related to the idea of it being summer and me being at the beach...it's not important enough for me to say #appropriatetimetoweartshirts because that's not what the photo is about. 

In the end, the kids were able to make the exact claims that I hoped they'd make. This piece is about what epidemics are, and how you can prepare for them. Success!

The downside? For an entire afternoon my kids made this hand symbol and said things like, "Hashtag: yessity yes" when I tried to get their attention or "Hashtag: stamina" when I sent them off to Read to Self.  :) Eh...let's just call that a by-product of Whole Brain Teaching and call it a day!

I'll be revisiting the passages this week to talk about how to annotate a text, and to look at the idea of footnotes as a text feature. I plan to ask my kids to practice making a few footnotes of their own. While doing this week's activities, I wasn't surprised to find that 95% of my kids had never even heard of the word footnote! I hope that the different annotations we make will help us further understand the text and make answering the included comprehension questions a breeze.

Whether you use this freebie this way, or another way, it's definitely worth a look. Jivey also has a paid set of paired texts in her store for $5 about Owls, Bats, and Spiders. I have this product as well, and am looking forward to using the passages with different groups in different ways in the future! I'd love to hear from you guys about other ideas and ways to use paired texts like this!

#funreadingplan #effective #easytodifferentiate #mainidea

A forever freebie to celebrate a 3 day weekend!

I made this poster to hang in my classroom for when I introduced the concept of stamina to my kids. We talk about having stamina for both read to self, and for writing during writer's workshop, so I wanted a constant visual reminder for the kids. I've put it up in my TpT store as a freebie. I hope some of you can use it in your classrooms! The graph below it is also a freebie that you can grab from the freebies tab right here on my blog! 

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!

PA Blog Hop - Tips and Tools for Back to School!

It's hard to believe that lots of my buddies have already gone back to school! I still have a couple of weeks until the kids return, but I'll be heading in this week (unpaid of course!) to set up my classroom. Some of my fellow PA bloggers and I have made this blog hop just in time for our back to school...hopefully it will benefit all of you too!

We're each sharing a tip and a tool for you to use as the new year begins!

Collaborate with Google Presentation!

It was really hard to pick just one thing to talk about here! I've had all of the back to school stuff swimming in my head for a couple weeks now...and honing in on one seemed impossible!

But in the end I figured I'd share about something I do that I think really helps me work better with my colleagues. It's all about Google Docs!  

I used to e-mail a copy of my lesson plans to a couple of my colleagues and all of the special educators, specialists, and paras that I work with. It just makes it easier this way. I don't have to worry about a para not knowing what is going on...and I don't have to worry about remembering to tell the special ed teacher that we've got a special project on a certain day.

One day this past year I was planning with my intern and we wondered if it'd be easier to do it as a google doc. Since then I've created my same weekly schedule in Google Presentation, and then shared all of my peeps on that file. 

Now each week I make a copy of my template slide, (pictured here on the left) then adjust it for any changes in the schedule for the week, then I fill it in with my plans (the basic version). I usually print the slide for myself and my intern as well to clip to a clipboard on my desk. 

Here's a plan in progress!

It's really handy to change the colors of the cells to represent different things. Like one color means "my intern is leading this lesson" and another means "Special Event/Field Trip." I also add notes about meetings I have before and after school. I usually have a few weeks in advance at various stages of being mapped out. And when things don't go as planned? It sure is easy to cut and paste the stuff inside one of the cells and move it down the line.

Why Google Presentation and not Docs? Well, in Presentation each week can be on it's own slide! AND you can merge cells in a table in Presentation, but not Docs! And did you know that you can change the size of the slide to be the same size as a piece of paper? You can! It's under "File" and then "Page Setup"

I've had a LOT of positive feedback from the paras and teachers that I share my plans with. I know a lot of people might be nervous about the idea of sharing your plans...but I think we should be proud of our plans, there's nothing to hide anyway, and it makes communication so easy! Think about trying it out!

EEKK Poster for Read to Someone

This is a handy poster for when you introduce the concept of "Read to Someone" to your kids. You take a picture of some of your kids (I would pick the ones that are LEAST likely to be well behaved during Read to Someone, so you can remind them later that they are the models for the class!) The rhyme on the poster is a great way for kids to remember how they should be sitting. This poster matches a lot of the other decor and Daily 5/CAFE items in my TpT store (most of which are free)!

If you're new around here, thanks for stopping by my blog today! I hope that you enjoy the freebie I shared today. Be sure to stop by my Freebies tab at the top of my blog to check out about 20 more cool freebies! Like what you see? Become a follower!

 Don't stop reading here!  

We have more tips and tools for you.  

Next up is my bud Wendy over at Read with Me ABC!

Have fun hopping!

Graphics and fonts used in this post were courtesy of I'm Lovin' Lit, Melonheadz, and KG Fonts.  Check them out!

Five for Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July! 

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

1.

This is what our 4th Fest looks like...

How do you all celebrate the 4th? I know a lot of people get really into going to a huge fireworks display, or have a picnic or BBQ...but Killer B and I have always been a bit more laid back. We usually buy a few rockets and roman candles to set off for our dogs to watch, and that's about it! Woohoo!

Seriously though, we're almost always visiting family in Atlanta around this time of year, so it's hard to do too much.

It's kind of a bummer that this holiday is in the summer. It'd be a lot of fun to celebrate it with the kids at school. There are so many cool things you could do with them too! 

2.

Don't forget to stop by and enter this giveaway! Today's the last day to enter! There are lots of great prizes to be won!

3.

I'm sharing my favorite font of all time today! It's one I made a while back for the express purpose of using only a little ink. I make a lot of my bigger TpT files using this font. It's called Nick's Typewriter because it's my handwriting in typewriter style letters. Grab it up for free! 

4.

Not at all related to the Fourth of July, but I'm getting excited about the Institute on Academic Differentiation I'll be attending in a couple of weeks at the University of Virginia! The leader of the institute is Carol Ann Tomlinson. The workshops are all about things like flexible grouping, mindset, close reading, teaching up for complexity, etc. The institute is offered at two levels, and I'm excited to be going to the more advanced version because I hopefully won't have to worry about any of the workshops being too introductory. 

Monticello is right next door! I'm looking forward to
marking this site off of my must-see list!

Spending a week away from my lovely wife, while doing teachery things in the summer is sure to be a challenge...but luckily I'll have some good company! My principal and another teacher from my team are going with me! They're both cool, so I'm sure dinners and after workshop activities will be fun too. This is one of the few times that being a male teacher in elementary pays off by the way...can you say "hotel room to myself?" I can! I can finally snore all I want without Killer B punching me in my sleep!

Hopefully if the jealousy I have of all my BBBs who are going to the TpT Conference in Vegas hasn't worn off by then, this'll help.

5.

Just for fun I thought I'd put some of the patriotic products in my TpT store on sale for Independence Day! Actually they're on sale all weekend. I also put all of my Kaboom math games on sale too, because you know... kaboom... like fireworks!

So grab some stuff at 20% off and let's help stimulate the American economy together! ;)

Here's a few of my favorites that are on sale:

The full list of all 10 on sale items can be seen here:

My BBB Emily over at I Love My Classroom is also having a sale!

Enjoy your weekend!

Surviving Spring to Welcome Summer Blog Hop! - with a writing freebie!

My best blogging buddies and I have gotten together to do the best kind of blog hop, one with freebies and giveaways! Hop from one blog to the next, picking up a freebie and a secret word at each stop, and don't forget to enter the giveaway! If you're not already following one of these blogs, now's a great time to start! And if you are a reader already, this is our way of saying thanks! There are some great TpT gift certificate prizes, and someone lucky will win the best pencil sharpener ever (I know because I have two in my room!) from Classroom Friendly Supplies.

Our hop's theme is basically all about how to make it til the last day of school without losing it! :)  If your kids are anything like the couple hundred I've had over the years then I'm guessing with every passing day they are getting a little more antsy. 

My freebie is for writing! Towards the end of the year I try to plan some highly engaging writing lessons that are more focused on instilling a love of writing in the kids than anything else. While I'm at it, I figure I might as well get something in the queue for next year. (I'm always thinking ahead!) So my kiddos take some time to write a letter to my future students! Then next year during the first week of school my new students read and respond to the letters. I've used a couple of varieties of the form the kids write on, but I think my favorite is "A letter to the kid sitting in my old desk." Haha. The freebie includes 3 versions, and each of those come with two different sized writing lines. 

I've done this activity several times over the years, and each time it has been a big success. The kids just love the idea that sometime next year there is going to be a new student reading all the things they've written. And when they get their letters a couple weeks into the school year, they're excited all over again! Double win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now, hop on over to my bud, Jess from I {Heart} Recess to get another freebie and another entry in the giveaway!

Spark Student Motivation with Hands On Science - and a Freebie!

I'm linking up with my BBB Joanne over at Head Over Heels for Teaching for Spark Motivation Saturday!

I wanted to share a quick post about what we're doing in Science lately! We've been studying Energy and Electricity, and a big part of that is understanding that energy can be classified as potential and kinetic. 

This Studyjams video explains it really well, and isn't too long.

  

There's also a handy little quiz included to do with your class after the video. If you haven't heard of Studyjams yet, it's a great free resource. There are lots of short videos that explain concepts in all the subject areas!

After we had a basic understanding of the difference between potential and kinetic energy, I showed my kids a couple videos of some amazing Rube Goldberg Devices. 

This one is my absolute favorite!

Melvin the Mini Machine from HEYHEYHEY on Vimeo.

While we watched, I had the kids notice when energy was being transferred within the system, when energy was transformed, and when potential energy was activated.  Pausing at different points and quizzing my kids about what kind of energy transfers and transformation were occurring during these engaging videos really helped them understand. It was a lot of fun, and really help the kids see how energy can be transferred and transformed...but never created or destroyed!  

I think one thing I would like to do when I teach this next time is to teach the kids some hand motions to go along with potential, kinetic, transfers, and transformations. That way they could try to make the motions to keep up with the video!

This group is using a catapult from the
simple machines unit as part of their
device! 

And now that we've watched some cool Rube Goldberg device movies, and talked a lot about potential and kinetic energy I figured it's time for an assessment. So my intern and I gathered up a bunch of raw materials, and my kids have been building their own devices! They are working in groups. They are expected to plan out their device, build and test it, and finally present the device to the class. The devices have to perform a simple task in the end. The kids have to label where the potential energy is in their device, and where energy transfers or transformations will occur. 

Here's the first stage of this group's machine! 

As you can see, the kids are coming up with some great stuff already! And I joined in the fun and have been building one too! If you only watch one video in this post, watch this one because I'm proud of my machine. :)

I made this poster to put up in my room to help kids remember how groups should work. I've posted it in my TpT store as a freebie! Go grab it up! 

Be sure to stop over and check out the other link ups!