Your Free Planning Calendar Has Arrived!

Hello darlings!  Your FREE planning Calendar has arrived!  Check out this new beauty!  This year I added some inspirational quotes and a new color scheme.  I hope you LOVE it!

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @teacherchickamy to get up to the minute notifications of Flash FREEBIES and other sweet deals!

 Please PIN me!!

Do you like the new design?

Free Realistic Fiction Rubric

Hello darlings!  Many of you have already been using my Realistic Fiction Writer's Notebook.  I wanted to let you know that I have done a complete Makeover on this resource!  It used to be 15 pages and now it is 31 pages!  I also revamped the overall look with fun fonts and new graphics. This was one of the first resources I had uploaded to TPT and to be honest, after all I know now, it looked like crap!  Aren't you glad I learned how to use Powerpoint to create my materials!?!?

So... if you have already purchased it, go to your TPT purchases and sort by "Recently Revised".  You can then download the new and improved copy!!

Thanks to the lovely ladies at Third in Hollywood, Peppy Zesty Teacherista, Teach Create Motivate, and Sparkling in Second for creating this challenge!

If you haven't had the opportunity to get your hands on this little beauty, you can click here to get the resource.

If you don't need the entire resource, I would still like to help you out by giving you my Realistic Fiction Rubric for free!  Click here to download!  

I hope this was helpful to someone out there in this great big blogging world!

Welcome Letter to Students and Parents

Hello darlings!  At Open House or Meet the Teacher Night, do you find parents cornering you to tell you all about little Jimmy?  While we would all love to be able to have a conference right then, we just don't have the time!

Alleviate this awkward situation with a request from parents before school even starts!   This letter is called "In a Million Words or Less..."   The letter simply asks parents to write you a letter about their child. It starts off by asking parents what they would say to you if they got to sit down face to face over coffee and discuss their precious one.

 I have found this to be INVALUABLE in my many years of teaching. Now they can tell you everything their hearts desire and you can get great insight to your students before the year begins.  I send this letter home with the Welcome Letter that I send to students.  My school emails the letters out, so I made sure the letters were in color.

I have provided you a cutesified version of "In a Million Words or Less" and you can add your own name to the end.

 I have provided a sample of my welcome letter and directions to download the template from Rowdy In Room 300 for free. (Thanks so much Nicole for the idea for the kid letter!  It looks gorgeous!)

If you plan on emailing the letters:   When you finish creating your letters in Powerpoint, don't forget to save the file as a PDF.  Now all of your pretty fonts will stay pretty!

Check back for more awesome resources!

P.S.  Are any of you going to the TPT Conference in Las Vegas?

Multiplication and Division Facts Boot Camp Freebie

Hello darlings!  Hard to believe there are only two months left of school!  I am trying to think ahead and provide you with some innovative and rigorous resources for your youngins'.  For the past three years, I have held a Multiplication and Division Boot Camp in my classroom toward the end of the year.  State testing would be over, thus all of our math objectives would have been taught.  For my thirdsters going into fourth grade, it is imperative that they have their facts memorized.  Of course we work on this all year long, but Boot Camp is a great way to reward the kiddos that have retained their learning and help your strugglers at the same time!  

So how does this work?  

In a nutshell:  I give soldiers a pretest to see which facts they already have mastered.  Soldiers have daily drills (timed tests) and daily P.T. (homework with flashcards). They keep track of their progress with a graph.  I am the Drill Sergeant, so I wear an army hat and get into character.  They love this!

Boot Camp can be used in conjunction with your existing math curriculum or it can be a short stand alone unit.  

1.  PRETESTING: At the beginning of Boot Camp soldiers take a PRETEST.  This will determine which DRILLS (facts) they still need to memorize.   I find that some of my students immediately pass all multiplication facts and so, they take the division PRETEST.  I also have some kiddos who pass their 2's, 3's, 5's, 9, and 10's but they failed their 4's, 6's, 8's, 12's for example.  This determines the FLASH CARDS that they will have to make and the DRILLS that they will have to practice and repeat.

2. FLASH CARDS and DAILY DRILLS:  If you notice in the chart below, this soldier passed her 1,3,10's on her PRETEST, so she marked it PT and colored in the box.  For each of the other DRILLS (facts) she had to create FLASH CARDS and study at home.  
The next day she would come in and take one DRILL test.  Notice she wrote the date that she took the test in the box above the correct DRILL.  If she got 100% on the test, she colored the box in.  If she missed one or more, she had to study those facts again and retake the test the next day.  I used one of my low kiddos to give you a real world example.  You can tell, she kept getting stuck on her 4's so I had her move on and come back to them later.  She was getting very frustrated with herself. 

All students start out as a PRIVATE.  So my little John Smith would be referred to as Private Smith during math.  Students who pass all of the Multiplication Drills are promoted to PRIVATE FIRST CLASS. Students who complete Multiplication AND Division Boot Camp become SERGEANTS.  I also give these kiddos an army camo pencil that I purchased from Party City.  SERGEANTS are simply allowed to play the games when the others are taking the tests.  They also help with monitoring and are giving challenge work when needed.  

3. DRILL ORGANIZATION:  The pic below shows how I store the drills.  I purchased little camo buckets at Party City to add some character, but you could use any storage method.  To keep myself sane for the next year, I laminated the original DRILL (test) on one side of a green piece of construction paper and the answer key on the other side.  I make 3-5 of these for each bucket.  

When it is time for the DAILY DRILL, I call students up by COMPANIES (table groups, ex. Alpha Company, Bravo Company) and they grab the test that they need.  (I have included table signs for your Companies.)  They take the test back to their seats and turn it over face down so they can't see it.  When we finish, I have my kiddos check their own work.  (WHAT?  Don't they cheat???)   They complete their timed DRILL in pencil as an entire class, then they come up to the buckets and check with an answer key with a green pen that are stored in the buckets.  We have a huge discussion on honesty and how cheating only hurts your own brain.  I have only had one incident that was quickly corrected.  I also have my students who have been promoted to SERGEANT, monitor the checkers.  

4. GAMES and ACTIVITIES:  After we complete a DRILL for the day, students pair up with a new solider and complete one of the eight games/activities.  These games are very hands on and require students to manipulate items or complete exercises.   They LOVE these games!!!  Before I allow them to choose a game or assign them a task, I go over each activity with them as a class.  

**Operation Cobra Monkey: Complete Word Problems to rescue your team.  If an Enemy signed card is drawn, you must run in place for 10 seconds.

**Get in Formation: Be the first player to use the paper soldiers to create arrays

**Army Strong: Get more soldiers for your army by finding the missing whole numbers, ex. 5 x n =35

**Battle Buddies: Whole group game, soldiers walk around with a number taped to their back and when signaled, they grab a Battle Buddy and multiply their numbers together

**Battle Row: Be the first soldier to secure four combat vehicles in a row on a multiplication board(horizontally, vertically, or diagonally)

**Fitness Facts: Use a spinner to multiply, if you are incorrect, you must complete various exercises

**Build a Soldier: Complete multiplication problems and use that info to create a soldier following specific glyph instructions

**Create a Cadence: Create a fact song or rhyme to march to

This mission requires a lot of strategy.  Can you tell he is thinking hard?

5. Diplomas and Awards:  Once students complete Boot Camp, they receive a Diploma from me, their DRILL SERGEANT.  These diplomas are editable in Powerpoint.  I also award my SERGEANTS with a fun camo pencil that I purchased at Party City.  The point is, you want to make Boot Camp a big deal and you want your students to pass their facts QUICKLY!

Download this game for free!  IF you like it, try out the rest of the unit in my TPT store by clicking here.

This is one of my top sellers on TPT!  Click here to get your hands on it! I really hope you enjoy it!

Meet the Teacher- Open House Freebies and Bloghop!

Hello darlings!  I am so thrilled to be involved in the Back 2 School Bloghop with the other fab bloggers listed below.   Visit each of their pages to get some awesome freebies for your classroom.  I don't know about you, but I can use all the freebies I can get right now.  I always seem to spend WAY too much money on Back to School stuff!

       

       

       

       

       

       

During back to school time, any teacher can use new back to school advice and ideas right? 

RIGHT!! 

So this bloghop/giveaway is going to benefit you in 2 ways:

1. You could win over $100 worth of TPT products from some amazing bloggers! Check out the rafflecopter below to enter. We will choose 5 winners at the end of the bloghop on August 13th! This gives you TONS of chances to enter.

2. Follow the bloghop each day to a new blog that will give you tons of advice and ideas, in addition to lots of FREEBIES!

Awesome right?

Here are the products you could win!  Click here to go enter!!

So what am I giving away for free?  If you have been a follower of the blog since last year, you have already gotten to see this little beauty.  It contains a scavenger hunt for your Meet the Teacher or Open House Night where you have your kiddos bring their supplies.  It also contains some files for your schedule, other info, and parent helper sign ups.  This is a Powerpoint file that allows editing.  Yay!  I know how everyone loves to be able to make their stuff personal. 

 To use some cute fonts, download Fonts for Peas for FREE!!!  GO here!

You can download all the fonts at once with the button on the side of the page!!  I love Kevin and Amanda!

Click the pic to get the freebies!

Don't forget to stop by the next blog on the hop!

Freebie Book Labels for Your Library

Hello darlings!  If you follow me on facebook or instagram, you know this was coming!  I finally finished relabeling all of my book bins for a fresh new look!  I wanted to make them available for you for FREE so unfortunately, what you see is what you get.  I can't make them editable for you in the PDF file with melonheadz graphics as it goes against her copyright.  I hope you are able to use them though.  I have labels for Fountas and Pinnell levels F-S and many series books that you would find in a second-fourth grade classroom.

To print:
You can control the size by choosing multiple page printing or booklet printing. As you can see, I printed 6 to a page.

To get the free book bin labels, click here.  I would love for you to pin it and give me feedback!

I did not laminate the laebls once I cut them out.  That eliminated an unnecessary step.  Instead, I used clear packing tape on a tape roller and taped over the entire label.  You will notice I have a lot of different book bins that I have collected over the years.  Bins are expensive!  I bought most of them at Wal-mart.  I have found the white plastic tubs to be very sturdy and they have lasted me 10 years already!

Most of the chapter books are stored in plastic shoe boxes and I also have a few from the Dollar Store.

I made sure to put my chapter books in order by levels.  This makes it easier for the kiddos to find Just-Right books and it keeps them from having to search all over the book cases.

My dad and I created the books shelves last year.  I LOVE them because they are on wheels and close together.  I can lock them and then the custodians can simply wheel them out the door at the end of the year so they can wax the floors.  It was soooooo nice to come in this year and just open the book cases.  I didn't have to reorganize my library or unpack books.  That has ALWAYS been the longest job for me when setting up the classroom and packing up each year.

Happy Back to school!