Teacher Appreciation at Reading A-Z

Was yesterday GREAT or what! 

I downloaded so many freebies. Thank you to all of the wonderful teachers for sharing their items at TPT.

  But WAIT! More Teacher Appreciation FREEBIES.

Have you ever used Reading A-Z.com?

It is a fabulous resource to assist you in differentiating your reading instruction..You will find thousands of materials to teach leveled reading, phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency, alphabet, and vocabulary. If you are a regular classroom teacher, special education teacher, ESOL teacher, or a reading intervention teacher, you have to check them out. I have used their materials for years and particularly like the leveled readers and the Raz-Kids website. They are having an Open House with a one week trial for all teachers beginning today through May 11! 

You can download some freebies everyday. 

Just click on the link below and register.

http://www.learninga-z.com/special/openhouse2012/

Here is a sample of a book I used today from Reading A-Z for our Ocean Unit. It is a Level L book entitled Deep in the Ocean .The kids loved this non-fiction book about the depths of the ocean. I used this book to reinforce my students glossary skills.  I created a printable to go along with the book that you can download below.   We also used a diagram from the book to create our own crafty ocean zones complete with the creatures that live in each zone. 

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A COPY

And now for a shout out. 

All of us know what it was like starting out and trying to get others to come to our blog. Many of us are still learning, (like me) but we can all help each other out by taking a few minutes to recognize other teachers that are wanting to share and grow professionally by blogging. 

Please stop by and visit Tammy Wathen at The Resourceful Apple. I was her second follower. We all need encouragement and support even when we know we are working hard and doing the best we can. 

Show Tammy some Teacher Appreciation by visiting and following.

Click HERE to visit Tammy

(I am still... learning how to link a picture! I can not get it for the life of me!)

You still have 3 days to sign up for the 100 followers give away. Scroll down and enter. 

 I left my freebies up for another day at TPT if you did not grab them already. I had a busy day  and weekend and have not had time to download anything new. I will try to get another new item and freebie up tonight. 

YOU ARE APPRECIATED! THANKS FOR VISITING!

Teacher Appreciation Day at TPT and a FREEBIE

It is Teacher Appreciation Day at TPT, 

and there is a group of 150 TPT sellers giving away items today. Of course I read about this group about 1 hour before the the deadline to enter was due. I frantically put in my information, but I missed out. I forget about the timezone differences. Anyway Lori Rosenberg, who is a very talented teacher and blogger has the list for you, so I am sending you to her blog. Lori is a sweet blogging friend that always stops by my blog and gives me sweet comments. Thanks Lori! She has great stuff! Check out her TPT store, her freebie, and the rest of the bloggers on the list. 

Click here to get the list participating blogs

Even though I missed the group, I can still give something away. Today only I am giving my Ocean Compound Word Center away.  You can grab it for free at my TPT Store, today only.

Here is a preview. Get it TODAY ONLY FOR FREE!
You have until 4:00 today to grab yesterday's freebie also, 
Ocean Theme Word Sort - Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives. It goes with this Ocean Theme. 

Click HERE to down load from my TPT store

Then go and check out my new blogging friend Sara. She has great ideas and just started blogging. Be sure to share the love and encouragement by following or commenting.

Miss Sara has a cute Mother's Day word search Freebie for you.

Click Here to visit Miss Sara at her blog,
 Miss Elementary

And last but not least Sign Up for My GIVEAWAY

You could win a Thirty-One Organizing Tote

http://classroomcompanion.blogspot.com/2012/05/100-followers-thirty-one-giveaway.html

or

Just scroll down to MY MAY 3 POST  and ENTER

Happy Shopping Today!

Sea Creatures and Dollar Tree Deals

Are you like me?  I ran in Dollar Tree to grab some fish for a new unit I am starting tomorrow and came out with 2 bags full of things.  I always find great teacher things there, and with them only being $1, you can't go wrong.

This is what I was looking for!

This is what I bought!

As the school year begins to wind down, I try to have a few fun units for the students to keep their interest high. In math we are studying measurement, volume, and weight. In science I like to begin a unit on oceans. So I begin with the "Sea Creatures!"  I have used this unit for the past 5 years in kindergarten and will be using it in my first grade classroom this year. To be honest, you could do this in most grades and do additional math using percentages, various units of measurement, and analyze the weight and growth changes. I do a lot of graphing with this unit, and for higher grades you can get even more specific. My classroom was very popular before school with the older students wanting to see how much the sea creatures grew. So I think upper grade students would even get a kick out of this.

Day 1 Sea Creature Observation

I like to begin this unit on a Monday, but it really doesn't matter. In the morning I will introduce my class to our new "class pets", the sea creatures.  They are the small rubbery ocean fish that grow 600% of their original size. Before placing them in the water we examine them using all of our senses. Next students measure and weigh each sea creature and document this information in their notebook.  At the bottom of each page I leave a space for students to write in their own words what their observations were for each sea creature. Students may draw their observations. In kindergarten, I had a few that could only draw pictures and write a few words. Some things to take note of are; the color, how they feel, and how they smell. Have the students generate a list of adjectives they may use in their data collection notebooks. The sea creatures are then placed in a large tub of water to begin to grow.

Stay tuned! Tomorrow I will show you what happened.  I will also be sharing my Observation and Data Collection Notebook that I made for each child.

  Now go to Dollar Tree and buy these Sea Creatures if you want to have some math and science fun!

You can use the same ones year after year.  The ones out of the packages are the ones I used last year.  They shrink back to almost their original size.  

I will be using this 66 qt. clearview plastic container made by Sterlite for the 

Sea Creatures.

What do you think do you 

want to grow some?