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

F-f-f-f-f-f-ive for F-f-f-f-f-friday.

Sorry! I can barely stop shivering long enough to write this post! My house hasn't been warm in months. And it's looking like that groundhog isn't going to be on my side in a couple days...

Seriously though, it has been SO COLD! So cold in fact that we've had multiple two-hour delays lately. And so that's the first thing in my Five for Friday! I'm not just linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching, I'm also linking up with Literacy Spark for her Trending Topics linky.

1. This week's topic is Snow Days!


 It never ceases to amaze me how different every school district seems to be with things like this. In my district we make up all snow days. Teachers don't really love them because it just means that we'll be in school one more day in June. We are much more likely to have a two-hour delay. Those can be kind of annoying too, though they are a bit better. Basically, on those days we start school at 10:30. This means that I don't get my planning period, the kids don't get their special, and we aren't allowed to have recess either. 

We've missed out on our specials five times now due to 2-hour delays, and twice for snow days! It's getting old! And it looks like we might have another one next Wednesday...

Which leads me to my #2:

2. PDE MPL Conference

So all those letters up there stand for the Pennsylvania Department of Education Membership Participation and Learning Conference that I'll be attending next Wednesday and Thursday. It's being held in Hershey, PA which means I'll be driving to it in a snowstorm. And more than likely all of my colleagues will be sitting at home on a snow day! Aargh. 

I'm responsible for creating our presentation on how I've used co-teaching to expand the inclusive practices at our school. Check out some of my past posts for more info on how I have a highly inclusive class, and how I make use of all kinds of special educators throughout the day to keep my students with autism and specific learning disabilities present in my class instead of being pulled out a lot.


I guess it's kind of cool that I'm getting put up in the Hershey Lodge for a night. Here's hoping the seminars I attend send me away with some useful strategies!

3.  The One and Only Ivan

The book I've been reading with my class right now is pretty much awesome. It was a Newberry Award winner for good reason! This work of fiction is based on a real life gorilla named Ivan. He lived in a mall for nearly 30 years before he was finally sent to live in the Atlanta Zoo. This book has a lot of great things about it. A lot of examples of figurative language, some great vocabulary, unique text structure, and of course an excellent plot! I loved the book so much that I gave it my novel unit treatment. I read the book several times while making the unit, and loved it every time. I've gone through the book and pulled out a bunch of good stuff, and I created a bunch of activities to do with my kids. 

Check out the pictures of my lapbook. 

Here the kids are making predictions
to begin our work with the lapbook.

There are a bunch of other activities in addition to the lapbook, including some pre-reading task cards, and an assessment scoot game. 

The included picture vocab sheets
makes learning new words fun and
helps the definition stick in the
kids' minds!

The 85 page novel study unit has JUST been added to my store today for a pretty reasonable price of $7, especially considering all the work I've done for you! I'm going to leave it marked down to $6 for the whole weekend though, so go grab it up and save a buck!

4. I got a shout out! 

I was excited to see that I was mentioned on On the Trail of Learning's blog. She tried out Tunes Tuesday with her kids and it was a success. Check out her blog post and consider following this budding blogger!

I recently did Tunes Tuesday with my kids. We used Katy Perry's song, Roar. It's too bad the video is just barely not safe for school. For this one we just listened to the song and then did the activity. If you're into Tunes Tuesday, grab the lyric sheet for Roar for free by clicking the image to the left! Check out my other Tunes Tuesday posts for more lyric sheets.

5.  Biography Writing

My kids have been working on our Biography Writing Project, and I think it is coming along really well. My intern has done a great job of leading them systematically through the process of reading, taking notes, using a graphic organizer, drafting, peer editing, and finally publishing! I'm excited that the main biography essays are written because now we get to move on to some of the more "fun" activities. The kids have been doing a great job with it!

I've brought home a ton of work for this weekend...I suppose I should get on it! Thanks for reading!