Our experience with MobyMax - plus, win a free year!

I was recently given the opportunity to try out MobyMax with my class. I have to admit that I hadn't heard of the site before, so I was anxious to see what it was all about!

They have a great introductory video on their site, but I'm going to point out some of the features I really liked. Check it out and if you like what you see, enter my drawing below for your chance to win a free year subscription for your class!

The subjects section gives you a good idea of the types of material the site covers. Each of these buttons will take the kids to a placement test, followed by practice with those skills. 

A lot of my kids felt that the placement tests were a little long, but I noticed that many of them completed the placement test and went immediately into the practice. The Fact Master activity is really informative to me as a teacher, because it is really easy to have the kids go through several facts in a short amount of time, and the site tracks it all for you. And unlike flash cards, every kid is actively engaged because no partners are needed!

My kids really like the Vocabulary section too, because they love learning new words.

 The classroom tools section has some really cool features too. The Messenger app lets kids send you messages directly from their account to you. The Wall is a place where you can post things for your kids to check out, like polls, messages, or assignments. 

 The next section is a lot of fun. "Vibes" can be assigned to kids for working hard, or even for being off task. It's a great way to give a little reminder or a little praise privately. My kids' favorite section was the Games section, of course. The Games section comes with a little feature that makes it really great, and makes the Subjects section more important to the kids. Basically, the kids add time to their game timer by completing sections in the Subjects area! So for every set number of minutes a kid is working on math facts, she is also earning herself a set number of minutes of game time. The amounts earned versus work put in or all adjustable too!

MobyMax is definitely worth checking out. In addition to the times that I have planned for my kids to do a particular activity on the site, my kids often choose to use it during recess on days when we can't go outside! Enter my raffle below for your chance to get a year's subscription free for your class!

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Giveaway Time!

We are so excited for the holiday season that we couldn't help but spread some love! Lots of your favorite TPT Teacher-Authors and I have teamed up to give YOU some TPT spending money. We love you and appreciate you (and we wish we could give all of our fabulous followers some money)!

Enter the Rafflecopter below by simply following our TPT stores, and you will have a chance to win one of five $25 TPT gift cards! Good luck!
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Five for Friday - Sore muscles, a big sale, and a giveaway!

After a LONG week of basement and bathroom remodeling, I'm exhausted! But I'm still taking a moment before I collapse from exhaustion to chime in for Five for Friday by Doodle Bugs Teaching!

1.

It's hard to believe that it's already Back to School time! I'm excited to be seeing some of my old 3rd grade kiddos as my new 4th graders! It should really help with all of that beginning of the year rules and expectation setting stuff. Only half the kids need to be caught up to speed! I am lucky that I still have a couple weeks until the kids come back. I have a LOT to do! I've got to finish this remodel AND get ready for the new year! 

The basement is almost totally drywalled! I now have more tools than Home Depot. And the bathroom is...unusable so far! I'm hoping to wrap up most of the work by this weekend!

2.

The best part about Back to School time is that this is the perfect time to fill your online shopping cart and save a bundle of money! That's right, the TpT Back to School Sale is happening next Monday, August 4th and Tuesday the 5th. 

Everything in my store will be marked 20% off! Then, use the code BTS14 to get an ADDITIONAL 10% off! 

3.

Need some ideas of what to buy? Here are the two most wishlisted items in my store:

My Wonder Novel Study Unit is 174 pages long! If you haven't read this book yet then you're doing yourself a serious disservice! Be sure to check out my unit for the companion novel/sequel The Julian Chapter too!

One of my favorite products is my second most wishlisted! The Book of Awesome Tasks is a half-page book that you can make for your kids. Test their creativity and make them do a little work without them realizing it! My kids love the book, especially during rainy indoor recess days! 

And I hope you'll peruse the rest of my store too. I have a lot of dollar items that'll be a steal during the sale, over 20 freebies up for download all the time, and a ton of other great things, all in the 3-5 buck range...super cheap during the sale! All of the money I make in my store goes to a really great cause! I'll be sharing more about that later!

4.

Of course, I'm not going to miss my chance to grab up some things. One thing I'm especially looking forward to is the 4th Grade Math Bundle from Jessica Scott's TpT store. You might know Jessica from her blog, I {heart} Recess!

I'll be teaching 4th grade math for the first time this year (I taught 3rd last year) and I need all the help I can get! This set currently includes 5 products, but if you buy it now at the cheaper price you can re-download it later when the 6th product is added!

Check out some other products you might like to buy!

An InLinkz Link-up

5.

Now that you've seen some cool stuff to buy, here's a chance to get a gift card to help you get those things!

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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!

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

Giveaway Winners!

I'm so excited to announce the winners of my One Year Blogiversary Giveaways! There were a whole lot of entries! So I hope that means some of you either already follow or maybe even discovered some great blogs, Facebook pages, and TpT stores! So, without further ado...

Five for Pi Day!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday! It's been an exciting week! But it's not over yet, there's a lot still going on, so check it all out!

I'm joining in with some of my BBBs and throwing a special Pi Day Sale! That's 20% off all of the math products in my store. That makes some of them cost a mere 80 cents! This is a great time to grab up some projects or games!

My big celebration ends tonight at midnight EST!

Head on over to this post to enter for your chance to win one of the four prize packs! 

So I was looking around instagram the other day (do you follow me? My username is reitz2001) and I saw a great idea from a fellow PA Blogger, Autumn (user firstgradetchrlady on instagram) from the blog First Grade Teacher Lady. She had taken the free Red Apple Teacher calendar from Scholastic and turned it into a cool banner. Well, I happened to have the same calender from a recent book order taking up space on my counter. I knew I'd never hang up or use the calendar as an actual calendar...so I turned it into a banner like Autumn's and hung it up in my classroom library! I think it turned out great!

Cool, right?!

This week I introduced a new feature on my blog! Each week I'll be posting a new time-saving, efficiency-bringing lifehack! I'll be keeping them all in one handy spot, which is accessible from my new tab bar at the top of the page! Stop by each week to pick up a new tip!

Another cool feature that I'm bringing back from the dead for a brand new life is Tunes Tuesday! Now each month will have a new theme! The first link-up will be next Tuesday, March 18th! The topic is science! I hope you'll link up a post showing how you use music to teach Science!

In other news, we've got a lot going on at school right now!

In writing we're working on poetry. We study many of the different types of poetry, and of course we have to cover Haiku! I've already read Dogku and If Not For the Cat. So this past week we read Haiku Hike (written by kids!) and Guyku (which should really just be called Kidku!) 

Our Mentor Sentence this past week came from Thundercake, and we just finished reading a kid favorite, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. 


Our newest read-aloud is a book that is new to me, but is really entertaining. It's being called a mix of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and A Night at the Museum. So far the kids are really into it and it is a perfect read-aloud to discuss foreshadowing!

In math we're doing a bunch of review before our big state tests. I don't believe in doing a lot of "test prep," so for me reviewing for the test is business as usual...math workshop with a bunch of math games, task cards, a good project to work on, etc. is enough prep for me!

One of the things kids really need to work with a lot are word problems. 

These task cards have the kids solving multiplication and division problems. But there's a twist! Each word problem has too much information! The kids really have to read the problem carefully to determine which operation is needed and which numbers they need to use!  I put them here in my store! (Remember the Pi Day Sale!)  Placing the cards all around the room and letting kids wander and solve them is a perfect way to do a "worksheet that's not a worksheet!"

Whew! That was a lot! I'm looking forward to the weekend!