Lucky You! Blog Hop!

The reasons why I am lucky...
I have an AMAZING FAMILY and I have had experiences in my life that have made me the not overly sensitive person I am!  I feel lucky to be able to laugh about things, myself included, and not take myself or others so seriously!

For example...When I think of St. Patrick's Day I have a few memories of this LUCKY & GREEN day...

In elementary school it was a BIG deal to wear green.  I specifically remember in 5th and 6th grade, our teachers would walk around and observe all  of the green we were wearing.  The individual that wore the most green on this particular day always won some prize.  I never won, so I have no idea what the cool prize even was.  Green was NEVER my favorite color!  I believe the only green I ever wore was my Boston Celtics t-shirt.  As I think back, it makes me laugh!  As a 6th grade teacher today, I am just glad my students are dressed appropriately-any sort of seasonal or holiday spirit is a bonus, right?!

My second memory is the cleverness of "Erin Go Braugh!"  The meaning of this phrase is, "Ireland Forever!"  An extra special thanks to all of the thoughtful companies that made t-shirts and buttons with this spirited mantra.  For an elementary and middle schooler with the name Erin, there were so many creative phrases made-up by my kind peers with my name that had nothing to do with Ireland, but more to do with my wearing female undergarments!  AWESOME!

I hope your memories of this Irish holiday make you laugh a bit as well.  I have come around on the color green and I still giggle when I see "Erin Go Braugh!"

Onto my green-inspired FREEBIE!  Growing up in New England we were HUGE Boston Celtics fans.  The Celtics played four games a year at the Hartford Civic Center and we always had those 4-game season tickets.  I have always loved basketball and still think about the AMAZING basketball legends that I got to see in person competing for and against the Celtics: Larry Bird, Danny Ainge, Robert Parrish, Dennis Johnson, Kevin McHale, Charles Barkley, Spud Webb, Minute Boll, Carl Malone, John Stockton, Dominique Wilkins, etc.

So with this GREEN holiday and MARCH MADNESS, I wrote a few CLOSE Reading passages for you to share with your upper elementary students.  My students LOVE to read about athletes, so I try to keep as many of these high-interest passages on hand for test prep, morning work, "I'm finished, now what?", etc.  Grab them below and use them how you see fit!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Now head to my friend Ali's blog to find another incredible FREE upper elementary resource.

 

Thematic Thursday Linky Party~Historical Fiction Novels for Upper Elementary to Middle School

A little early, but I have linked up again with my friend, Carla from Comprehension Connection to share about some essential historical fiction novels to share with your middle-upper elementary and middle school students.

I have to be honest and tell you that I am not a big history buff.  I never enjoyed my social studies classes in elementary school and was always hopeful for a solid, whole-class-period-in-length film in my history classes in high school.  Have you seen this meme?  This brought pure delight back in the day!

As a teacher and mom, I now have different expectations about what history class should look like.  My third grade son is obsessed with history, and I have worked hard to find historical fiction novels for my students in my ELA classroom. 

Here are a few of my son's favorite historical fiction texts...

He has plowed through the entire I Survived...series of 11-novels.  He is so fascinated by historical events and these books bring up some awesome discussions with him.  While some of these events hadn't yet taken place when I was in elementary school, I would have enjoyed history more with books like these.

If you are looking for high-interest historical fiction texts that are fast-paced to hold student attention, find these at your local library, or buy them.  Your students will fly through them.  The books are designed for grades 3-5, but can easily be utilized with older readers.  The author's website allows you the chance to read about each book by clicking on the cover.  In addition, she provides an Educator's Guide for teaching the novels that are common core aligned.  Head to her website here: Lauren Tarshis

A few historical fiction novels I have utilized with my 6th graders are: 

• Bud, Not Buddy (The Great Depression)
• The Whipping Boy (1700s)

These two books contain male main characters that are both witty and on a quest for true happiness.  These early adolescent years send most boys and girls on a bit of a quest to figure out who they are, so my 6th grade students are really able to connect to these clever characters.

Summary of Bud, Not Buddy: Bud is an orphan after his mother's death and is sent from the Home to the Amoses where he is mistreated and flees.  He wants to find the person in the flyers he keeps in his suitcase that he believes to be his father.  Bud takes the reader on an adventure to find his forever home. 

Summary of The Whipping Boy: Prince Horace is known as Prince Brat to all of the kingdom.  He is a spoiled brat that refuses to learn and loves to play pranks on others because he has no consequences.  He has a whipping boy that gets punished every time the prince has a misstep.  One night Prince Horace decides to runaway and takes Jemmy, his whipping boy, on the adventure of their lives.  As much as they boys seem to despise one another at the beginning of the story, they form a bond and their lives are changed forever by the end of the novel.

Your students will love Bud's quick wit and resilience.  They will also grow tired of Prince Horace, but understand that the life of the rich and famous is not all that it is cracked up to be.

I created this FREEBIE summary organizer that works perfectly for any fictional text, so grab it below...

I have also created novel units with lesson plans to go with Bud, Not Buddy and The Whipping Boy.

Challenge your students with these AMAZING historical fiction texts-they won't be able to put them down, and more importantly, they won't need special videos to learn about history! I would love to hear about any historical fiction gems your students can't get enough of!

Supermarket Saturday Linky Party-Halloween Resources

If you are looking for an upper elementary to middle school weekly linky, you have come to the right place.  As teachers we are always looking for seasonal resources to utilize in our classrooms and they can be tricky to find-especially for time-strapped teachers.  So, be sure to stop by my blog every Saturday to find the best tools to implement right away in your language arts classroom.

I know that it has been a really busy week...you likely just finished report cards for the end of the first quarter, are exhausted due to writing the most thought-provoking comments, you have had more preparation for fall conferences, and on top of it all, you are heading into a week filled with out-of-control enthusiastic kiddos that can't wait to dress-up, and head out for a Friday night filled to the brim with candy collecting!  You get to be reminded of costumes for the entire week and candy is already coming out of students' ears!  Am I right?

Read more »

Best of the Best~A Teacher Appreciation Blog Hop and Giveaway

Amy over at Teaching with Blue Jeans organized this amazing blog hop and giveaway for Teacher Appreciation Week.  There are over 106 teacher/bloggers participating to make a few AMAZING bundled prizes.  Each teacher/blogger has donated the top selling item from their TpT store in order to truly make this giveaway THE BEST FOR THE BEST! 

The novel Crash by Jerry Spinelli is an absolute favorite of mine.  It is the first novel I share with my students when they arrive in my classroom in August.  Here are my top 5 reasons that I find it to be such a hit:

1. It is the perfect read aloud!
2. My students easily connect to the characters.
3. It is realistic fiction, dealing with present day issues.
4. The chapters are short, which appeals to my students.
5. It is the perfect tool to introduce/reinforce: read to someone, read to self, listen to reading.

Need I say more?!

I have my own set of classroom copies of this novel, but they are worn out.  So I utilize our public library's teacher collection system to have 25 hardback copies for use in the classroom.  If students are absent, I send one of my copies home to make-up missed work.

Each student is given a file folder with the unit inside.  Because this is a tool we are using in the classroom, I collect the folders at the end of class and keep them.  This allows me to grade any work they completed in their unit folder, and I don't have to worry about it being forgotten-students are prepared to learn upon entering the classroom.

Below are a few pics of students working on the novel unit and the end of book project I love to use with this text to really focus on character, setting, and narrative writing.

The project is called "Spend a Day!"  The students have to select one of the characters from the novel that they would like to spend time with.  Based on evidence from the text, they write three narratives about three different activities they would do with this character.  Finally, they draw three pictures of the activities they shared about in their narratives.  The illustrations and narratives are complied into a construction paper book.

            

If you are looking for that perfect text to start the year, this truly is the best one!

I just created this reader's theater script to go with the novel because every year my students ask if the novel has been turned into a movie.  Shout out to Hollywood for making my students think that!  My students LOVE to perform reader's theaters and with the CCSS mandating that students can compare and contrast different versions of the same story, this learning tool helps my students with that skill.  It can be read to introduce the novel, or it can be utilized at the end.  Either way it is a great addition to the novel.  Grab it for $1 by clicking on the image!

Have fun navigating the rest of this BEST OF THE BEST Blog Hop!  Most importantly, thanks for all you do for your students!  Have a great rest of your year and a well-deserved summer!

Here is the next stop on the BLOG HOP:

Continue on The Best for the Best Teacher Appreciation Blog Hop by clicking the picture below.

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Test Prep....UGGHHH!

Now is the time of year when things start to get a little more tense around the school building.  The year is half-way completed, the second set of conferences are quickly approaching, and TESTING seems to be looming.  AHHHH the stress can be overwhelming!!!

I have found that cramming for state tests is not beneficial for my students.  It stresses them, retention is limited, and there are so many positive ways to keep them focused as testing season approaches.  However, every moment of instructional time counts.

For that reason, I created this Waiting in Line Challenge!  It is a fun tool to keep students thinking throughout transitional times.  Simply print, laminate, and cut the question cards.  Bring along with your WHEREVER you go with students.  During any moment, challenge students to answer what is on the cards.  Provide some little incentive-bonus point, school money, stickers, etc.

Click the image to download for FREE!

I would love for you to try it out with your kiddos and let me know what they thought.

How do you teach FABLES?

My students LOVE fables!  They are clever little stories that involve talking animals, and convey a lesson!  What is more fun than that?

The other day my neighbor stopped me.  She is a mom of three teenagers-a college freshman, a high school junior, and an eighth grader...YIKES!  She asked if I wanted to come over to check out some books she was planning to get rid of? "Of course!" I said .

Side note-I am not a pack rat-I am a pitcher-trasher!

1. I hate clutter!  
2. I have a hard time watching Hoarders!
3. When things are left around the house by my children, I contemplate whether they will miss them if I throw them away!

So off I go to my neighbor's!  To my dismay, but my daughter's pure joy, she has a GIANT bag of crap stuff that she is wanting to send my way! Everything from craft supplies, broken trinkets, stickers-you name it-it was in the bag.  My daughter wanted EVERYTHING, darn her!  She then went through a stack of books! Among them a version of Aesop's Fables I had not seen...inspiration for my latest reader's theaters.

After reading through this version, I found some fables I have never read with my students and created four, one-page, three-character scripts with corresponding reader response questions to give students the chance to: work on fluency, enhance comprehension, and learn about the fable genre in a FUN way!

Fable scripts included in the BUNDLE:
The Fox and the Crane
The Fox and the Cat
The Wolf and the Crane
The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

Moral of my story: my neighbor's trash turned into my latest treasure!

Click the image to check out my latest FABLE creation.

Is it St. Patrick's Day, yet?

Just kidding!  Although now that Christmas is over, I am more than ready for spring-like temps.  Better yet, just get me out of the single digits.  We are a family that spends a TON of time outside, but gangrene is not my best color!

I took some time off of creating and writing resources over the holiday break.  Managing three kiddos, preparing for family visitors, baking, wrapping, cleaning, crawler-chasing, and writing anything worth posting was a bit of a challenge.  My 10 month old's favorite activities to date are pulling out the outlet covers and pulling himself up on the art easel.  My house is baby-proofed and this child is blockaded in safe spaces, but he is fast as lightning when a gate is moved or a pillow is shifted.  Little bugger!  Needless to say I have had a few mini-heart attacks over the last few weeks.

Finally, with the holidays over and the start of a new year, inspiration hit!  Despite this quick baby and a snow day, yesterday I completed a St. Patrick's Day inspired reader's theater mystery.  My inspiration is always my students.  The daily occurences in a school building are plentiful for sure.  I have always found recess and the lunch room to be central settings for the greatest amount of drama content for my writing.  So recess and the lunchroom on St. Patrick's Day is right where this script takes place.

Text Summary: While the 6th grade students are participating in St. Patrick's Day team challenges, recess equipment goes missing. Students accuse one particular student, but it turns out that the culprit is not one that would ever be suspected.

Your students will love working on their fluency and comprehension with this high-interest, realistic fiction mystery. They will also learn that sometimes we can learn a great deal by making mistakes. A must have for this green holiday! 

This 20-page Fun Pack includes:
-8 1/2 page, 12-character script
-directions for classroom use
-a list of CCSS covered
-reader response questions
-context clue word work
-two high energy games for outdoor or gymnasium play
-a sweet St. Patrick's Day treat idea

I hope you had a restful break.  If you are one who plans far ahead, check out this brand new reader's theater resource.

Happy New Year! FREEBIE and Word of the Day: CCSS Word Work for Middle School-UPDATED

Happy New Year!  I am having a hard time believing that 2013 is a memory, and we have embarked on 2014!  Where did this past year go!  As I reflect, I am grateful for so many things...
Here are 9:

1. We added a new member to our Beers' clan!  My baby boy, Landon is now a few days shy of ten months old-holy moly! Watching him grow has been a joy! 
2. My family is healthy!
3. I have had the opportunity to stay home with Landon and see my other two kiddos off to school each day, as well as enjoy lots of different school fun that I might not have had the chance to take part in working full time.
4. My husband has a new job that he loves.  The AMAZING sunglasses I get are a nice perk, too!
5. My three kiddos are mostly good listeners and treat each other well the majority of the time.
6. I have gotten to spend more time with my Gram this year.  We can't wait to take her to the Cincinnati vs. UCONN women's basketball game in February!  She is a superfan!
7. I have had the time to create resources that I will be able to use with my students when I return to teaching.
8. I can still run sub-8 minute miles and do Shaun T.'s Insanity workouts.
9. The fun we have as a family!  My kids and husband make me belly laugh DAILY!

What I resolve to do in 2014:

1. Keep my cool when frustrated.   Ohhhhhh, there are days where my patience is thin and the crumbiest plate with apple sauce flies off the table and onto the floor because of a small person not sitting in her chair.  I am working to keep the steam in my ears and the fire from flying out of my mouth.

That's it!  There are so many things I can work on, but this is for sure the thing I currently like the least about myself.   So I will continue my work!

Enough about me...onto you!

I hope you are ready to head back to the classroom well-rested and eager to begin again.  Over the break, I updated the very first TpT resource I ever created.  It is a Word of the Day CCSS Word Work resource I created to enhance vocabulary with my students.  I realized it needed some HUGE changes and updates based on how I used it.  It has been revamped and is a pretty great tool, if I don't say so myself:)  One component that I updated was the organizer used by students.  It is one that you can either copy or have students re-create daily in their vocabulary notebooks. (to save copies)

If you are looking for a word of the day organizer for your students, click on the image and download this FREEBIE.  If you want to purchase the whole resource click below.

Enjoy these next few days of break and my fingers are crossed for some more snow days!

A Holiday or Anyday Middle Grades Reader's Theater: The Show Must Go On

So Deanna Jump has hit her $2 million milestone...can you even imagine?  I am at a loss for words when I think about how in the world she does it all: teaching kindergartners, presenting at all kinds of seminars, and creating enough items to generate $2 million in sales in her Teachers Pay Teachers store.  AMAZING!

Teachers Pay Teachers has an I-Phone app.  It is the most fun thing on the planet because every time you get a sale, your phone goes "CHA-CHING!" I am obsessed with that sweet sound.  I was saying to my husband that Deanna Jump must not be able to use that app because it would be going crazy all day!  Everyday would sound like "Black Friday" in her classroom!  Dare to dream!

While m phone is not going as crazy as I would like it to, my kids love to hear that "CHA-CHING" as well.  In the morning getting ready for school or on our walk to school, it tickles them to hear it go off and they can't wait to find out what "we" sold.

I have created product #22 today...a holiday reader's theater for the middle grades with both reader response questions and a snowflake craftivity that we created with our students last school year.

The reader's theater once again features 6th grade students-I can't help it, I adore teaching this age.  I also feel like I have so many stories to tell after spending so much time with them.  Once again, they find themselves in some hot water due to some questionable behavior in music class when a sub is present for the day jeopardizing the holiday musical.  Your students will love playing the roles of this 13-character cast. 

If you are looking for some fluency and comprehension fun for your students, be sure to check it out.