The Dollar Sale is now on!

The Dollar Days Back to School Sale was a success! Many teacher-authors from The Lesson Cloud (myself included) have reduced the prices of many back to school items to only 1 or 2 dollars for this event.  Mine were only $1.00 each from my TpT Store.

Congratulations to the winner of the giveaway! 

Classroom Review - Looking back at our school year...

Well, our school year will not be over until the first week in July... but I'm already feeling nostalgic as I look back at the past nine months with my students. The highlight for them was our Carnival Show that we hosted at our school. It's a combination of cultural shows that take place on a National level that my class portrayed. We had a calypso competition, an Ol' Mas portayal (a comical spin of current events) and a flag waving posse. I'll definitely do it again next year!

  

The Carnival Queen show and Ol' Mas

 

   

A few science experiments... I love experiments! I realize that my students really had a lot of commitments over the school year - tennis, athletics, football (soccer), and choir practice. We participated in the annual music festival in March and April and this really cut into our class time. So coming down to the end of the term was a rush for us to cover work that got postponed. We decided to still do all of these extra curricular activities next year and plan around them so that lessons can still be taught because it means so much to the students and this is an avenue for us to harness and maximize their natural talents. I can't wait for September to roll around, I hope that the next school year will be just as busy as this year was.

Keeping Students Engaged Over the Summer

Teachers and parents sometimes worry about their kids falling behind due to the summer break. Don't worry about it. Kids need a break too. However, summer time is a great time for remedial work for weaker students. Parents can get in on this because there are more and more free internet resources that are available for parents to use with their children at home. Aside from my favorite internet resources, I also recommend AvoidtheSummerSlide.com for parents. It has free resources just for parents sorted by subject area and grade levels and it's brought to you by Teachers Notebook. 

If you're a teacher (and school is still in session) you can give copies of this flyer - Avoid the Summer Slide Campaign to your students' parents so that you can help them fight the summer slide!

Collective Nouns Matching Game

Are you teaching about nouns? I love teaching about nouns, especially collective nouns; here's why... As teachers, we like to get students into the practice of using collective nouns rather than for them to repeatedly say 'A group of...' or 'A set of...', etc. We want students to use collective nouns because it makes their writing more descriptive and increases their vocabulary of words. Students like it too because they are so literal and therefore easy to remember e.g. a swarm of bees. Also, my students like the fact that some of them sound a bit silly, like this one: A gaggle of geese!

I made a set of Collective Noun Matching Cards for Animals, People and Things for classroom use (or at home).  

You can get the whole set at Teachers pay Teachers.

The Latest TpT News...

In this week's TpT Newsletter, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Teachers pay Teachers is now accepting purchasing orders. Now, you can make purchases for your school. The process is simple, just choose the School Purchase Order option at check out. You can read more about it in this week's newsletter, and while you're at it, check out the ten free downloads while you're at it. Just click on the picture above.

Countdown to Summer...

Is your school term almost over? Do you have less than a month to go? It's interesting to see how different schools have their own calendars. Teaching at my school will be going and going (like the Energizer Bunny) on until the 6th of July! I plan to really enjoy this summer holiday time. I'll shop, sleep, and take the kids to the movies. I also look forward to being a housewife for those two months. My husband likes it when I'm home for the summer. (But let me tell you a secret)... By the time its over, I'll be so tired of the cooking and cleaning that I'll be eager for the new school year to roll around!

When the Going Gets Tough...

Testing season is here for my students. Now is crunch time for them. As their teacher,  am feeling the pressure to drill, drill, drill. This is not my style. I swore to myself at the start of the school year that I will teach at a rate (and with a style) that is suitable for my students. It is hard to strike a balance between 'finishing the syllabus' and teaching conceptually. I think that generally, it gets better for me each year, because I learn how to merge certain topics, sequence my activities, and group the students in ways to improve the weaker ones. 

I do not have the power to say 'NO' to all of this National testing. My poor students are stressing about it. But at least, it is not as stressful as before. I know that I am still here to teach and not to teach for a test, I am teaching for the children. Maybe, one day, an alternative method of performance data collection will come along that will be less intrusive...

Happy Mother's Day to all Teachers!

To all teachers, I want to wish you a very Happy Mother's Day! Yes, whether you are a 'Sir' or a 'Miss', have kids or not, you are nurturing children that you love more than they could ever know. So, here's to you!

Prefix + Root Word + Suffix Matching Activities

This is my latest word work game for Prefixes, Root words and Suffixes.  I was inspired to make this for my students while I was giving them a challenge to come up with a few prefix + root word + suffix words of their own. The root words in this collection do not change their form when the suffixes are added. 

The directions for using these cards (in three ways, different activities) are included.

Free Science Lab - Comparing Lather!

Hi teachers! Remember my post about the hard and soft water experiment in my class? Well I finally got around to making a free lab write-up for you to use as a guide with your class. Download it for free here!

It's Day Three - The Third and Final Day of the Huge Sale!

Teachers, today is the last day of the sale at Teachers pay Teachers.com! Get 20% off of mot of the teaching resources there and use the promo code TAD12 at checkout to get an extra 10% off of whatever is in your cart!

Happy Teachers Appreciation Week!

It's day Two of the Teacher Appreciation Week Sale!

It's Monday, off to school I go. I hope that you had a blast downloading all those freebies yesterday! 

I know that due to the heavy site traffic at Teachers pay Teachers.com, the links to some of the freebies did not work. Don't worry about it. Sometimes it fixes itself on it's own. If you log out of the site then log back in, that may help. I'll be checking in to hear from you if you have any problems or questions today - on my Facebook page.

Today's top pick...

@ 28% off! Use Promo code TAD12

It's Day One of the Teacher Appreciation Sale!

I'm just reminding everyone that the HUGE Teacher Appreciation Week Sale starts now! The rules are simple, just log in to TeacherspayTeachers.com and get lesson plans, units, printables, tests, smartboard lessons and more for up to 28% off. I am pleased to announce my participation in the sale, I have discounted most of my teaching resources at my TeacherspayTeachers Store! You have two days left after today to grab this sale!

Today's top picks are:

      

Usually priced at $3.00 each, you can get them for $2.40 each plus if you use the promo code TAD12 at check out, you will get an additional 10% off = $2.16 each!

Free Phonics ebook Today Only!

Thanks to the hard work of Laura Candler, Adrianne Meldrum, and April McNair,  tons of TpT teaching printables that are regularly priced were FREE all day yesterday, Sunday 6th of May, through the TpT Teacher Appreciation Jackpot! 

The Three Sounds of CH

I want to also thank you, the many teachers out there for downloading my freebie yesterday and for taking the time to leave such lovely feedback on it. I will be changing it back to being a priced item a little later on this morning because I learned that due to the heavy site traffic yesterday, some teachers were not able to download it. So enjoy having it for a bit longer and...Happy Teacher Appreciation week from...

Top Teachers' Memorial Day SALEabration!

This weekend, we're showing our appreciation for the brave ones who have given their lives for others by throwing 20% off sales at our TpT Stores! All of my unit plans and lessons are now on sale! Check out as many stores as you like, just click on the buttons below...

Teachers! 3 Day Sale - Don't You miss it!

It's here again! Bigger and better! Teachers pay Teachers will be having it's annual Teacher Appreciation Day Sale FOR 3 DAYS! That's Sunday May 6th to Tuesday May 8th. Many teaching lessons, units, games and printables will be discounted with up to 28% OFF. The site is cataloged with teaching resources made by highly skilled teachers (myseld included) that cater to all of the different grade ranges and subject areas. Just use the Promo code TAD12! 

My own products will be on sale too, including my Fraction Bundle and Geometry Shapes Bundle, so be sure to check those out to save a lot!