Fabulous Finds Friday NEW Linky & Five for Friday

It's Friday!

Today is an exciting day for us because it's our very first Fabulous Finds Friday link up! We hope you will join us for this brand-new link up that we are sponsoring...

  

We have three finds to share this week!

The first two were found at Sam's Club while my husband and I were waiting for new tires to be installed on his truck.  I always wander through the video and book sections, and I was pleasantly surprised to find two goodies!

The first is a fabulous set of DVDs produced by Scholastic---Treasury of 50 Storybook Classics: Animal Antics...and more!

The set contains 50 children's book on 7 DVDs.  The stories are brought to life through the animation of original illustrations. Some of the stories are shared in the form of movie shorts.  Here are just a few of the titles: Harry the Dirty Dog, Office Buckle and Gloria, Chrysanthemum, Make Way for Ducklings, Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type, Arnie the Doughnut, and Owl Moon.  Not to mention, most of the stories are Read Along DVDs (words are highlighted as the narrator reads). 

I plan to use the DVDs on our classroom computer as a listening option during guided reading time.  It's also great for kids to be able to listen to a read aloud of the text and compare it to the video adaptation.  

Price: $29.98!!! A steal--I think!

The second find caught my eye when browsing the books and magazines--Taste of Home's Ultimate Halloween Food & Fun (for Fall/Halloween).  As a lover of our Taste of Home magazine subscription, I figured it would contain some great recipes.  It does---BUT there are oodles of ideas included in this one.  Some of my favorites...

No Sew Superhero Costumes

Boo-Riffic Bunting

Monster Buster (Sock Monster and Monster Spray craft combo)

Wormy Orange Punch

Mini Chicken Empanadas  (inspired by the Day of the Dead) 

Blood and Guts Cheese Spread

Pudding Poltergeists 

Apple Brickle Dip

Fall is my FAVORITE season, and this find made me start counting the days until that cool front comes in and the leaves start to turn.  

Price: $9.99 -- Well worth it! Chocked with fun and tasty ideas!!

The last find Courtney found when rooting through those famous Target Dollar Deals.  These clear-view pouches were only a dollar compared to a four-pack from Really Good Stuff priced at $10.  Courtney plans to use these handy dandy pouches for math and literacy workstations. Nice and durable! 

Now, Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching...

#1 - NEW Friday Linky

We would love for you to link up with us for Fabulous Finds Friday! You can link up at the end of this post...

Teachers are forever coming across fabulous finds--so what better way to share them than with a new linky.  Pretty much **anything goes--as long as it's a FIND.

Examples might include, but are not limited to:

teaching resources 
lesson ideas
recipes for the classroom 
classroom gift ideas 
books and magazines 
gadgets 
apps  
websites
 bargains

items that make the job easier 
the possibilities are MANY...

 

**The only thing we ask is that finds are related to education and ARE NOT products/items created by you for sale.

Grab our button and stop back this Friday to link up with us! Please include our button and a link back to the linky in your post.

#2 - Second Grade Mathematicians

Both of our classes started the year off generating a wonderful list of what it means to be a mathematician.  Amy Lemons' beginning of the year math activity pack included this great craftivity.  We adapted it for our taste, of course.  Students' ideas will be a great reference as we journey through math this year...

#3 - Hanging Out in a Good-Fit Book

A fellow teacher came to me this week with a creative idea for making personalized book marks for the kids.  She has made these with her junior high kids in past years--an idea she found in an old NEA magazine.  

They turned out just wonderfully! The kids loved them!!  They will be hanging out in good-fit books all year...

#4 - Traits Tuesday Linky

We have also started another new linky--ambitious, I guess.  Anyway, we would love for you to CLICK HERE to learn more about our Traits Tuesday (Traits Writing) linky.  We could also use any help you can give in getting the word out!

#5 - Survived!

We are just happy to say we survived a week of heat! Our kids were troopers! Thanks to all of the parents/students who brought in popsicles to help the kids stay cool and our district for providing water bottles and popsicles as well.  We have our fingers crossed for cooler temps next week...

All the best to you and yours for a wonderful three-day weekend!

Traits Tuesday Linky: Starting the Year with the Traits

Welcome to our very first linky--Traits Tuesday! We are so glad you flew on over and hope you find something that inspires you...

Below are the Traits Tuesday topics for the coming month.  Click here for more details about linking up.

Starting the Year with the Traits

We are just into our second week of school and it is HOT, HOT, HOT! Today was the hottest day since we have been back, but I think the kids minds were even hotter today!!  I decided to start the year talking about writing with the kids by simply asking the kids to finish the sentence, "Writers...".  I instructed students to create that "storm" in their brains and simply share what comes to their minds when they think about writers.  We did this in two parts--because the "storm front" had not fully made its way to us this morning.  The kids came up with some great ideas to add to our anchor chart, but the ideas were just "sprinkling".  We took a break and came back to add more this afternoon... The heat must have done something--by the afternoon the kids were "on fire"!! Her are the numerous ideas the kids came up with:

How will transfer to introducing the traits?  Our next step will be to group or ideas into different categories: A Writer's Ideas (Ideas), How a Writer Organizes (Organization), A Writer's Conventions (Conventions), and How Writer's Present (Presentation). These traits will be much of great focus for second graders who have not experienced writing with the traits before this year. We will also delve into Word Choice and Sentence Fluency as time goes on.  It is always important to build upon the ideas generated by students, so we are off to a great start!

We SO look forward to reading about how you start the year with Traits Writing...

All the best--

Made Its & Two Brand-NEW Linkies!

We would love for you to join us for two NEW linkies!!

New Linky #1: Fabulous Finds Friday

Come join us this Friday for our very first Fabulous Friday Finds linky!  Teachers are forever coming across fabulous finds--so what better way to share them than with a new linky.  Pretty much **anything goes--as long as it's a FIND.

Examples might include, but are not limited to:

teaching resources
recipes for the classroom
classroom gift ideas
books and magazines
gadgets
apps
websites
 bargains

items that make the job easier
the possibilities are MANY...

**The only thing we ask is that finds are related to education and ARE NOT products/items created by you for sale.

Grab our button and stop back this Friday to link up with us! Please include our button and a link back to the linky in your post (the button has a transparent background--the blue is a blog setting on our site).

We can't wait! 

Fonts courtesy of KG Fonts & Kevin & Amanda

Graphics courtesy of Graphics by Sarah Beth

New Linky #2: Traits Tuesday

Courtney and I just had the wonderful opportunity of attending a summer literacy institute where Ruth Culhum and Gay Su Pinnell spoke and led breakout sessions!  We were searching Ruth's website last year to see if she would be presenting anywhere near us this summer, and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that she was a keynote speaker and session leader at the institute.  Her speech and session were inspiring, as she shared her love for picture books and using them to teach kids about the different traits of writing.  She also shared how the traits coincide with the Common Core Standards for Writing. 

As we begin our school year, we thought we would try sponsoring our VERY FIRST linky, Traits Tuesday.  We are starting this linky as a means of learning through the sharing of ideas, resources, and experiences among fellow teachers. Whether your district has adopted the traits writing program, you implement traits writing with the help of various resources and mentor texts, you have infused traits writing into an existing writing program, you are just getting started with traits writing, etc--we would love to hear from you!

Traits Tuesday will start this coming Tuesday! We have included a topic guide for next week's and September's posts below...

Week of August 27 - How do you start your year with the traits? How do you begin talking about the traits with your students? What trait/s do you start with at your grade level? Do you have a favorite beginning of the year lesson/writing to introduce a trait?

We look forward to learning from all of you! Please come join us this Tuesday, August 27 for Traits Tuesday!

Feel free to grab either of our buttons below and stop back on Tuesday.  Please include our button and a link back to the linky in your post (both have a transparent background--the blue is a blog setting on our site).

Fonts courtesy of KG Fonts & Kevin & Amanda

Graphics courtesy of Graphics by Sarah Beth 

We hope to see you back here on Tuesday and/or Friday!

Made Its

Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics has gone back to a monthly schedule (second Monday of the month), but I still wanted to share a couple of made its this Monday...

Classroom Writing Center

I finished putting together our classroom writing center last week! Found some great children's dictionaries at Barnes & Nobles in their bargain books this summer, and some children's thesauruses are out for students to use, if need be.  The stack drawers contain writing ideas/monthly prompts and paper supplies.  The "regulars" are also included--Post Its, pens, and highlighters.  The clear containers I found at Menard's are great for storing pencil top erasers and paperclips.  Also found some wonderful small "clicker" staplers for small hands--they will come in handy when making little books.  I picked up the little metal buckets from Walmart. The bulletin board will collect writing resources throughout the year... The kids already love to sit in this area to read, even though we have not started using the center yet!

 Writing Portfolio Suitcases (Pizza Boxes)

I also folded and put handles on our suitcase writing portfolios. This was a snap--just some hole punching and knotting of ribbon.  The kids just need to color the suitcase straps and glue on the construction paper.  Decorating these is easy and quick--doesn't take a lot of class time. The kids are so excited about these! I will share some pics of some finished suitcases soon... 

Wishing you a wonderfully productive week!

Finally... Mentor Text Linky & a New Linky!

Well, Courtney and I have been busy bees the past couple of weeks--getting our rooms ready and having our first full week of school... Needless to say, we have not been around the blogging world for some time. :0(  

Mentor Text Linky

We are so glad to be able to link up with Collaboration Cuties once again for their wonderful Must Read Mentor Text Linky! 

This week's topic is social studies mentor texts, so we are sharing a character ed text that we both used this week, My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook.  This may have been shared a previous week--if so, this is a reminder of a "must read".

 

Synopsis:  Louis has a problem. His words slide down from his head, wiggle, jiggle, and his tongue pushes them against his teeth and he erupts! His words are so important that he erupts when other people are talking.  The worst part is that he does not even realize what he is doing and blames it on his volcano.  Louis learns a valuable lesson when other people erupt--right when he is having his important time... 

This picture book is a perfect read aloud for the first week of school, especially if you have already noticed eruptions in your own classroom.  While it is a funny story, the kids really do get the gist of how Louis' experiences apply to them.  Louis' mom teaches him a great strategy to help him save his important words for a time when he is not interrupting.  Students can practice this strategy after reading the text, and the strategy becomes a great reference for students throughout the year.  I remind my students, "Push those words out your nose and breathe them back in when I (or whoever is talking) have finished."  

Fly on over to Teachers Notebook to grab some great discussion/writing questions to go along with the text, AND visit Julia's website!

NEW LINKY: Traits Tuesday!

Courtney and I just had the wonderful opportunity of attending a summer literacy institute where Ruth Culhum and Gay Su Pinnell spoke and led breakout sessions!  We were searching Ruth's website last year to see if she would be presenting anywhere near us this summer, and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that she was a keynote speaker and session leader at the institute.  Her speech and session were inspiring, as she shared her love for picture books and using them to teach kids about the different traits of writing.  She also shared how the traits coincide with the Common Core Standards for Writing. 

As we begin our school year, we thought we would try sponsoring our VERY FIRST linky, Traits Tuesday.  We are starting this linky as a means of learning through the sharing of ideas, resources, and experiences among fellow teachers. We would love to hear how you teach your students the traits of good writing!

Traits Tuesday will start this coming Tuesday! We have included a topic guide for next week's and September's posts below...

Week of August 27 - How do you start your year with the traits? How do you begin talking about the traits with your students? What trait/s do you start with at your grade level? Do you have a favorite beginning of the year lesson/writing to introduce a trait?

We look forward to learning from all of you! Please come join us next Tuesday, August 27 for Traits Tuesday!

Feel free to grab either of our buttons below.

All the best for a wonderful week, and we hope to see you back here on Tuesday!

Back to School Teachers Pay Teachers SALE!

Just letting you all know that Teachers Pay Teachers is having their annual Back to School Sale!

You can save 28% in both of my TpT stores---Sarah E Masters & Graphics by Sarah Beth!

Thanks to The 3AM Teacher for her wonderful sale button.

We will be back very soon with pictures of our classrooms and some other great tid-bits... School starts Monday!

Monday Made It--Kermit the Frog!

Just a quick link up this week for Monday Made It with 4th Grade Frolics...

Courtney and I have been very busy getting our rooms ready for back to school, SO I have only one thing to share this week--but a good one, I think!

My class' theme each year is "Moving Right Along TOGETHER!" (Muppets theme).  Last year I created a funky Studebaker with Kermit and Fozzie driving--like the one they drove in The Muppet Movie (I will be sharing a pic of that later).  This year I created a Kermit to greet the kids next week and our visitors throughout the year.

First, I drew Kermit with pencil on a large piece of cardboard.

Then I added the fill colors with pastels.

 

Some highlights...

 AND the black outline!

 I just know the kids will love to see Kermit welcoming them to second grade! 

Thanks so much for stopping by! Courtney and I will be sharing pics of our classrooms very soon... :0)

Have a splendid week!

Secrets of the iPad Link-Up

Matt over at Digital: Divide & Conquer had a great idea for a link-up--Secrets of the iPad! Looking forward to reading what other bloggers have to say on this topic!

Over the past few years...

First, it was one iPad--owned by me. You might be asking why in the world I would use my personal iPad (not district property) with my kids in the classroom?? The answer is simple--how could I not? At the time, I had introduced the iPad to my two year old grandson, and I saw how amazing and easy to use it was for him, SO I searched for apps that would be good to use with my students and brought it into the classroom.  The iPad was used as a center/workstation in those fifth grade days...

The summer following the first school year that I had brought my iPad into the classroom, I took a class that included being able to pick a piece of technology to use with my kids.  I chose the iPad 2--didn't take me long to make that decision. :0) Again, I began to use another personal iPad with my students--second graders this time. The kids were still using the ipad as a center/workstation choice and began using it for research writing their non-fiction books.

That same year, I buddied up with another second grade teacher for a new project--iPals.

iPals was a project we designed to get a kindergarten class familiar with using iPads.  Why? Their teacher had written a grant for an iPad, so we buddied up to get them ready if, and when, the time came for them to get a classroom iPad.  Second graders and kindergarteners paired up in the morning before our morning assembly.  This was a great opportunity for second graders to be mentors. BTW the kindergarteners DID get the grant for a classroom iPad!

In the meantime, our parent club purchased a set of 10 iPads to be shared among the classrooms in our building... Yes!

The following year (this past year), my personal iPads were still being used as a center/workstation and research tool. Students also began to use them for listening to reading and word work, a read to self choice, and for graphing.  My ultimate goal was to have students begin using the iPads to publish their writing in the form of "ebooks".  So I searched for an app they could use to create books that was user friendly and free (or of little cost). I found one (don't even remember the name of the app now) and was delighted.  I downloaded the app on my iPads and put in a request to have it downloaded on the school iPads.  The day came to begin showing the kids how to maneuver around in the app--iPads were checked out, students were paired up, the app was open, and we were set to go! WELL, the app began to malfunction and I could never get it to work again!  Our plans never materialized...

So the search began for a different app for students to use in creating their own books--My Story.  I look forward to trying this app with my kids this school year, MAYBE (see HELP! below).  The plan is to use iPads to publish explanatory writing in the form of non-fiction e-books...

Some Helpful Tips:

"Two Hands Please!": I require my kids to always use two hands when transporting iPads.  No carrying them like a waitress with a pizza pie, and no pinching them on the corner and carrying them like a spiral notebook.  My second graders do a FABULOUS job with this after the first week or so!

Invest in Headphone Jacks: Kids always want to buddy up, and why not?? This is a great time for kids to work together and interact with an app or text on the iPad.  I have purchased two-person jacks at Radio Shack, and I also have a couple of five-person jacks (Belken brand) for kids to use when using the iPad as a listening device.

Always Plan Ahead: Check that things are working ahead of time! I'm not saying this will eliminate all problems. After all, it did not help in the situation I explained above... BUT, 9 times out of 10 it really does make all the difference.

Model, Model, Model: Don't assume, just because kids are coming up in this amazing digital age, that they know (or can easily figure out) how to use the device.  Modeling is really important--and use those kids that are proficient as go-tos when students are working independently and someone needs a hand.

Organize Apps: I like simply organize apps into folders.  I also have a folder labeled Teacher Only.  The folder does not contain inappropriate apps, it just contains those apps that are not useful for students.  This is where I move my Settings icon.

Teach Kids to Close Apps: Teach kids to close out open apps when they are finished using the device.  It is a snap to press the "Home" button twice, hold, and close all of the apps that are open.  This helps save battery life!

Just a FEW Suggested Apps for Young Kids (PreK - 2nd Grade):

Anything created by Duck, Duck, Moose

Monkey Preschool, Wordschool, and Mathschool -- Apps created by THUP Games

Storia - Scholastic ebooks -- Free books offered periodically

National Geo Kids Apps - All are excellent

Audible.com -- Subscription required--Users get a free credit for a purchase each month and reasonably price audio books for kids (adults, too)

HELP!

I recently discovered an app called Book Creator for the iPad.  It is pricier than My Story, but it looks wonderful.  Does anyone have experience using this app with younger kids? I would love to hear your feedback... Thank you! 

Fly on over to Matt's blog to read more secrets!

Five for Friday--Classroom Library Edition

Thanks to Doodlebugs for the chance to link up once again--It's Five for Friday!

Since we have been busy back in our rooms--our classroom libraries have gotten a lot of needed attention--adding to, reorganizing, cleaning...  We thought we would take this opportunity to share our two different, yet equally as effective, classroom library systems.

Courtney's Classroom Library

I have been doing The Daily 5 in my classroom since 2007 after reading The Sisters' book in about 2 days. They stress that students need to read "good fit" books and learn how to pick these books out. I feel it is important to have a wide variety of books available for my students so that they learn how to pick out books that are not only at their level, but also are interesting to them. While reading The Daily 5, I noticed The Sisters put numbers on their books and then on the basket that contains those specific books.

I thought is was a genius idea and that summer took all my books home to number.  

 

Over the years, I have had to combine baskets of books because my library is just way too big, but now it is so organized and the kids can put books back in the correct baskets. 

Sarah's Classroom Library

In a previous post, I briefly talked about my classroom library system when sharing a rainbow key for the library...

Since books are color coded according to type, this works perfectly.  All baskets are simply labeled with an easy to read font that directly corresponds to the label on the back of each book.

This system works famously! The kids must read/match up the label on the book and find the corresponding basket label to reshelve a book.  The library stays incredibly organized, and the kids take pride in making sure books are in their places and easy for the next person to find. Here are some more pics. If you should see any dust bunnies or piles in these pics, please know they have had a happy home all summer, but they will soon be moving on... :0)

Chapter book series are coded yellow and are in a section with separate series labels. 

Favorite authors are kept on a shelf and are color coded pink.  I help students take these down when asked (no more room down low), and different authors are spotlighted throughout the year as well.

 

Clear View Organizers (Sarah)

I discovered these wonderful little containers earlier in the summer, but I just got around to filling them.  When I was walking the aisles at Menards, I discovered these handy-dandy little organizers--intended for storing nuts and bolts and such.  They are called VIEWTAINERS and come in different sizes.  I filled a larger one with pencil erasers and mini one with jumbo paperclips for the kids to access. They are easy to squeeze open (as you can see my mother-in-law doing with her arthritic hands)--just like those classic rubber coin purses from back in the day. The sticker comes off--just wanted to show you the brand labeling in case you want to pick up a couple for your classroom... :0)

 Monkey Joe's (Courtney) 

Because I go back next week, we have been trying to finish up our summer fun list. On Thursday this week we went to Monkey Joe's. For those of you that are not familiar with Monkey Joe's, it is a place kids can go and bounce their little hearts out. Our Monkey Joe's has about 9-10 different kinds of inflatables for kids to jump, hop, flip, and tire themselves out on. My little ladies loved it, and this little diva pictured below took a great nap after her fun day!

Destination: Registration!

Well, student registration was this week--another step closer to the beginning of the year! It was a pleasure, as always, to see the smiling faces of former students both small and BIG. Jeepers--those little buggers grow up fast! It's amazing to see former students come back as parnets to register their kids.  Quite the reality check to remind us of how long we have been at this... We are looking forward to meeting or new kids!

All the best to you for a wonderful weekend!