Saturday, August 17, 2013

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!!!!!

Friday, August 2, 2013

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!

Monday, July 22, 2013

5th Grade Language Notebook is Posted!!!

Whew!!!!  Boy, I am SO glad to have the last of my notebooks finished.  I posted the 5th grade Language Notebook late last night.  Now, I can take a break and relax for a couple of days before I have to get my tail to school and set up my classroom.

For those interested in the 5th grade notebook, here is what it looks like.  Here is the link to the product in my TpT and TN stores.





Now, hopefully, I can blog about other things.  :)  I am looking forward to attending a blogger/TpT meet up with some of my fellow KY(and surrounding states) friends.  I can't wait to post pictures and to tell you all about it.

Happy Monday!

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

2nd Grade Language Interactive Notebook

Hot off the press!  The 2nd Grade Language Notebook is ready to go and is posted on both my TN and TpT stores.  :)

Here is a sample of the book.





To my 5th grade friends, the language notebook will be finished in a few days.

Have a great evening!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

3rd Grade Language Interactive Notebook FINISHED!!!

To all of my 3rd grade followers, I have the Language Interactive Notebook posted.  Here are some samples of what's inside.  :)




This notebook can be found in my TpT and TN stores.

I hope to have 2nd grade and 5th grade Language notebooks finished by the end of the week, so be on the lookout for those.  They are COMING SOON!

Have a great Sunday!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Hello Shelby Font

Everyone has their addictions and obsessions.  Some people are addicted to caffeine, while others are addicted to exercising.  These are two things I am NOT addicted to.  LOL!  I will confess, my addiction would be FONTS.  I love fonts!  I literally sit at my computer for hours creating documents.  Do you know what takes me so long?  It's not formatting, it's not inserting clipart.  It's going through and finding the PERFECT font for that newsletter title or product cover.  I will confess that I have over 1,400 fonts downloaded to my Mac.  Yikes!  Did I just admit that?

Anyway, I often get the question of, "Where do you get all of the fonts you use in your files?"  Well, with having 1,400 fonts, I get fonts from a lot of places; however, there are certain fonts that I use in every file I make.  I LOVE the Hello fonts created by Jen Jones from Hello Literacy!  Her fonts are absolutely AMAZING!!!  She has them available on her blog to download or you can download them from her TpT store here.  She offers a commercial license if you wish to use her fonts in TpT products.  You can purchase this license for $20, which I highly recommend because it gives you permission to use any and all fonts that she has created or will create.  And let me tell you, she makes new fonts all the time.  In fact, Jen knows how obsessed I am with her fonts and even created a font for me.  The font is called Hello Shelby.

If you would like to download this adorable font, click on the picture above or here.  

I would like to give Jen Jones a big shout-out and thank you for the font!!!  Thank you for making this font-aholic's day! :)  I hope you all enjoy this font as much as I do! 

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

2nd Grade Reading Interactive Notebook

I have been SO busy this summer!!!  These notebooks just might be the death of me! LOL!!!  I am happy to say that the 2nd Grade Reading Interactive Notebook is ready and hot off the press!!!  :)  Here is a preview of what the notebook looks like:






If you are interested in purchasing this notebook, you can check out my TpT or TN stores.

Also, I want to address a question that I have been asked several times.  I have had 6th grade teachers contact me about making a notebook aligned with the 6th grade standards.  Unfortunately, I will not be making notebooks for this grade level.  I am certified for grades K-5 and although I teach upper elementary, I am not comfortable with trying to create a notebook for a grade level I have NO experience teaching.  I would be very afraid I would not be able to meet the rigor that is required for those standards.  I hope that you can understand.  I hate telling people no, but in this case, I really have no choice.  ;)

Thank you so much for all of your support and interest in my notebooks.  Your sweet comments feedback keep me motivated to continue creating new notebooks even though my hands are cramping from coloring and my eyes are strained from staring at the computer for HOURS at a time.  You all are fantastic!!!  I can't wait for school to start so I can blog more about how I use these little "jewels" in the classroom to help my students truly understand the standards.  I am currently working on Language notebooks for 2nd, 3rd, and 5th.  They will be finished soon.  :)

Happy Wednesday!!!!