It's a New Year's SALE!

To celebrate the new year, everything in my TpT shop is 20% off! Click here to shop :)

Favs

I'm linking up with Erica to share my favs over on Southern Belle Inspired. Come check it out and follow my life+style blog here. 

Silhouette Portrait GIVEAWAY!!!

Hi friends! Today I am SO excited to share with y'all an amazing giveaway that is happening on my Instagram. I'm partnering with Silhouette to giveaway one Silhouette Portrait Cutting Machine! Say what?!? If you don't know exactly what a portrait is, it's essentially the same as a Cameo, except smaller. This means it's more portable. Perfect to use an home and then bring to school when need be! I have a cameo and LOVE it! Seriously, it is the best for crafting and creating things for my classroom. I had a Circut and hated it. You could only use cartridges and they were expensive! The cameo and portrait both connect to your computer, so you have the ability to cut any font or image you have on your computer. You also have access to the fabulous Silhouette Design Store which sells a ton of images that you can download and cut out. Most are 99 cents! 

I've used my cameo for both home and school. I made my Dip Tray Centers with them.

I made labels for my task card storage system

I saw this cute idea for a student shoutout box on Pinterest and I made my own with the Cameo.

We call independent work iWork in my classroom and I made these letters with the Cameo. They are actually magnets! I used the Silhouette Magnet Paper (obsessed) and cut out scrapbook paper to stick onto them. How easy and fun is that!

I've also started using it on home creations like these pillows and labels for the bins in my pantry.

*************GIVEAWAY TIME**************

 The only way to enter is through Instagram. If you aren't on Instagram yet, you are missing out! I'm not a huge social media person, except when it comes to Instagram! It's the easiest way to get ideas and keep up with your favorite bloggers! Here's how to enter.

*Head over to Instagram and follow me (@msleslieann01) and Silhouette (@silhouetteamerica)

*Like this photo below on Instagram

*Comment on the picture about what you would love to use your Portrait for!

*For bonus entries, repost the picture and/or tag friends. 

Now it's time to enter! Giveaway ends Monday (12/22) and I will post the winner on Instagram, Facebook, and here (of course!) GOOD LUCK!!!

Be Here Tomorrow!

HUGE Giveaway coming your way tomorrow! Be sure and check back around 5pm! I'll leave you with a little picture hint! :)

C. Jayne Teach Clipboard Giveaway!

When I'm teaching, I find it helps to surround myself with pretty supplies and these C. Jayne Teach goodies are definitely a mood lifter! I absolutely adore her products and when I saw her new line of clipboards, I knew they were a must have. Just look at how grogeous these are!

My personal favorite is this one. I'm constantly checking people off certain lists when they turn something it and this makes it so easy to do so...the cute little personalization is just icing on the cake! :)

I am so excited that Chandra agreed to let me giveaway one of her new clipboards! 

Follow the directions on Raffelcopter to enter. Giveaway will end Tuesday (12/16) and I will announce the winner Wednesday. :)

                                                            a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five for Friday (On Saturday!)

Yesterday was just too crazy for me, so I was unable to link up with Doodle Bugs for my favorite linky! Here's my five for Friday on Saturday :)

Kahoot is quite possibly the best thing ever. My kids BEG to play this and I've noticed a HUGE difference in their vocabulary scores after playing this. I love seeing their funny, creative nicknames. Someone asked me about using nicknames on Instagram. We always play the first round using our real names so I can pull the excel sheet afterwards and see who missed what. Then as a reward, we play a round using nicknames. 

I'm loving this sweet picture of my Reese. It might not be the best background, but how sweet is that face? Love! 

Christmas gifts already? Yes, please!

One of my former student's dad is a flight nurse and all last year the student would bring me different things from the different countries his dad traveled to. He brought in this little chocolate from Africa! So sweet and thoughtful! IHe's also shared with me a Coke from Japan and coins from London. 

I'm preparing these Christmas Conventions centers for next week...Crossing our fingers that we survived this crazy busy upcoming week! These are the gr. 4-6 version, but you can grab the gr. 1-3rd version here.  5 days 'til Christmas break, people!! :) :)

Quick Draws: Increase your students' vocabulary...Freebie Included!

 Sometimes you plan and plan a big elaborate lesson and sometimes, the best lessons come to you about 10 minutes before class. This activity is one of those. Tuesdays are when we tackle most of our vocabulary work. I had several things planned and while the kids were working on the warm up, a neat little "game" popped into my head and I can't wait to share it with y'all!

If you teaching Reading Street, you might have noticed the vocabulary resources online. If you aren't a reading street teacher, I'm sure you have vocabulary cards that you use as well. I've started using these to show the kids different examples of the words, and today I decided I wanted them to come up with their own example for each word. The problem was we were pressed for time and I had a million and one things to cram in. I needed an activity that wouldn't take up a ton of time, yet provide enough practice to be beneficial. So I decided to create Quick Draws!

Here's how you "play"

Step 1: Have students write each vocabulary word in the smaller boxes. I've included a template with six boxes and one with eight depending on the number of words you have. 

Step 2: Set the timer for 20 sec. This is called "Brainstorm Time" During this 20 second period, students sit with their eyes closed and brainstorm how they want to illustrate the word. There is no talking and no writing/drawing during this time...just thinking!

Step 3: At the end of the Brainstorm Time, set the timer for 1 minute. Students will have 1 minute to draw their illustration to show the vocabulary word. Now isn't the time for details! It's just a quick sketch or doodle with just enough detail to figure out the meaning of the illustration as it relates to the word. 

Step 4: Repeat steps 1-3 for each of the vocabulary words. 

My kids did so well with this little activity! We did a vocabulary assessment afterwards and the grades were really good! I'm going to make this a staple in my weekly vocabulary lessons.  

You can grab your free copy of the template here! 

Teacher Desk

Today on Southern Belle Inspired, I'm sharing how my desk drawer went from this:

to this! Watch out teacher desk...you're next! Head over to Southern Belle Inspired to see more! :)

Sale Favs-Show Us What You've Bought (So Far!)

Hi friends! How fabulous was Cyber Monday? It might just be my favorite day of the year. I'm SO happy that TpT's sale is thru today! I'm a HUGE online shopper and I've been shopping so much on TpT it's crazy, y'all.

Today I wanted to share my favorite upper grade products that are on sale, along with some of the products I've purchased from other amazing sellers! I want to see what you've been buying too! Link up with us over at Blog Hoppin'. One of my absolute favs is my Character Comprehension Unit, which I use to teach character traits with. 

It pairs perfectly with my A Trait A Day Pack

Another favorite is my Christmas Conventions Mega Unit. This unit has 7 Language Arts Center Activities. *Love*

My Blooms Ladder are definitely one of my favorites! I use these to increase my students' thinking and work on those HOTS questions.  We treat these as a video game in which you must complete each level's tasks in order to defeat the level and move up. 

My favorite part about this resource is that you can use it with ANY fiction book! 

Now there's a non-fiction version that can be used with ANY non fiction book! :)

Now let's see what all I've bought!

(Click each pic to check out the product!)

Fa La La La...3 more weeks!

I don't know about y'all, but I am counting down the days 'til Christmas break. Don't get me wrong. I love my job, but nothing beats a mini vacation (except a nice, long vaca). Seriously I could never leave my house and be absolutely perfectly content. #hermit

Anyways, today I wanted to share a freebie with y'all that just might come in handy over the next three weeks. When I taught first, we always had an elf visit our classroom as I'm sure many of y'all have. One year we decided to make our own elves in order to "impress" our class elf, Tinsel. It worked, y'all. He was super impressed and left our class a Santa Hershey bar as a reward for our great work :)

You can snag this freebie here. Feedback is greatly appreciated! While you're grabbing this free craftivity, be sure and follow my store so you can get updates on new products and other seasonal freebies! 

Increasing your students' thinking!

Happy Sunday, friends! I wanted to share with y'all my newest creation that is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I made Bloom's Ladders for upper grades, but after a ton of emails, I created a lower version for my k-2 friends!

If you don't follow Life in Fifth Grade, you're probably thinking, " Umm, what are Bloom's Ladders?" Blooms Ladders are my way of increasing my students' thinking. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, I've created ladders which feature multiple tasks that students must complete in order to move onto the next level.

Since I teach fifth grade now, I have to work reeaallly hard to motivate my kids to simply care and want to do a good job. So I decided to treat these ladders as video games or apps. Students must complete each task on each level in order to "defeat" the level and move onto the next one.  

I just have my kids use their own paper to answer each task, but I've designed different options of answer sheets for this lower version. 

Another version of this "game" is How High Can You Go? This activity features one task for each level. Four sets are included focusing on different skills like character, plot, setting, and problem/solution.

Keeping track of which task you are on is super easy by using a paperclip! This provides a visual for the kids and lets them really see when they have defeated each level.

I've also included a copy of my Bloom's Taxonomy posters in the unit. I always like to display these posters so my kids can be in charge of their own thinking and really understand their level of thinking. We've done these so much, my kids will sometimes say, " Hey! That's a level 6 question, Ms. Leslie Ann!" We love HOTS problems! 

Click here to grab your copy or wishlist it for tomorrow's Cyber Monday SALE! Or you can try and win a copy over on the Facebook Page!