A Chance to Win.....Yes, Please!!!!

Nothing says back to school like school supplies.  I love the smell of freshly sharpened pencils and the sight of opening a box of 64 crayons all perfectly lined up.  As a kid, I didn't even want to use my crayons because I didn't want to mess with their beautiful perfection.  You are a teacher, you know exactly what I am talking about.  :)  

To prepare for school this year, I had a few school supplies that were on my MUST HAVE list.  I have a desk drawer full of pens, but Flair pens are my absolute favorite.  I have ALL sorts of colors!  They are perfect for grading papers.  I just LOVE to write with them!!!  

SO, why I am telling you all of this????  Because I have teamed up with Rachel Lynette from Minds in Bloom and a few other blogging buddies to offer this AWESOME give away for teachers.  How would you like to win a $200 gift card from Staples?  I am sure the answer is YES!!!!!  So for chances to win, all you have to do is enter with the Rafflecopter below.  

A few rules for you to remember:  

* You must be a U.S. resident to enter.  

* Although I am hosting this with a group of several bloggers, you need to only enter through one of the blogs because the Rafflecopter is the same for all blogs.  :)  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck to you all!!!!  I would love to hear what you would purchase if you won the $200 gift card from Staples!  Leave your comments below.  :)  

Thanks for stopping by and entering!  

TpT Back to School Sale

Yes, I am sure you are like me and have anxiously awaited the TpT Back to School Sale!!!!  It's finally here.  All of the products including my popular Reading and Language Interactive Notebooks are 20% off.  If you were thinking about purchasing these, now is the time!  Check them out at my TpT store here or click on the picture below to visit my store.

So, I would love to know....what's in your cart?  What are some of your TpT MUST HAVES?

SO we have started our Reading Interactive Notebooks

I have officially survived my first full week of school.  I have been busy this week and boy I am tired!!!!  My body and my bladder are having a difficult time adjusting.  :)

I have spent the week laying the ground work for the school year.  In my language arts class, we began putting together our interactive notebooks.  The kids were SO excited about these!!!!!!  I get a lot of questions about how to put these together.  Here is what I have chosen to do with them.  Maybe this will give you some ideas.  

1.  The first thing I did was copy the cover, dividers, and all of the headers/I can statements for each standard.  

2.  The kids colored and glued the cover for the notebooks.  

3.  I had the students number each of the pages so we will always be on the same page and everyone's notebook will look similar.  The students numbered the fronts and backs of each sheet in the bottom corners.  

4.  We cut out and glued all of the headers and dividers on the appropriate pages.  When gluing the headers in, I allowed some additional pages for each standard for other activities that we might do in class that I wanted to be in the notebook.  

Now the notebooks are ready to go for next week.  We will be creating our interactive pages for poetry, drama, and prose.  I have decided to start with the Common Core Standard. 

RL.4.5Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.

The theory behind this is as we read fiction all year long, I can refer back to this standard by asking the students if what they are reading is poetry, drama, or prose and explain their answer by describing the structural elements of each type of writing.  

I will blog about our activities that we do next weekend, but I plan to use my unit Understanding Prose, Poetry, and Prose.  If you want to check this out in my TpT store, click on the picture below.  

I hope this post helps you with deciding how to start putting together your notebooks.  :)  

Have a great weekend!!!!!

Fridays with Friends

Hey guys and gals!  I haven't been much into blogging or creating lately because, believe it or not, I am back in school mode.  My students' first day is this coming Wednesday.  Yikes!  Where did my summer go?  Anyway, this is going to be a short and sweet message, but wanted to let you know about a giveaway.  My friend from Dots of Fun is having a giveaway on her blog.  You can win all kinds of great prizes....one of which is one of my Interactive Notebooks.  You can choose the grade level you want.  Here is the link for the contest.  I would love to see one of my sweet followers win.  Best of luck to you!

Happy Friday!