The rest of Snowflake's Adventures

As I've previously shared, we have a classroom elf.  It's not tied to any holiday and I have not mentioned it's a scout elf for Santa, but rather our visiting elf for December.

The third graders love it and it's pretty precious. Plus I planned out all the elf's adventures beforehand, so there wasn't any thinking or frantic planning in the morning.

In honor of Star Wars, 

I definitely looked up the opening lines from the original films and made it my own.

I happened to have scarf in my purse and used a patterned straw to mimic a light saber.  I timed this the release of the new movie since many of my students are fans.

Tuesday was a spirit day, so naturally Snowflake got in the festive spirit:

One of my students brought me a teddy bear (who we named bear), so I decided to use it for a game of hide and seek:

We also experienced yet another pencil drought, so it was Snowflake to the rescue.

As I'm sure every other elementary school teacher can attest, every so often it seems that all of the pencils in the classroom disappear. I swear they eat them. We had some pencil stealing drama the day before, so I problem solved with new pencils for everyone.

Our final day with Snowflake meant the introduction of a new elf, Candy:

One of my sweet students got me a robe for the elf.  However, since I have the non-traditional sized elf, the robe didn't fit. Three Targets were all sold out, so Amazon Prime to the rescue!  

The new second elf arrived the night before the last day of school (December 21st), so it was perfect timing.

The kids loved the two elves and had a great last day. I wrote a goodbye note from Snowflake on snowflake stationary.

All the elf props went into a box into the garage for next year. I also snagged some props and another outfit for the elf after Christmas on sale at Target.

I fully accept that I'm now "that teacher". 

New Product: The Strange Case of Origami Yoda teacher's guide on TpT!

For Battle of the Books, I challenged my students to read at least 3 of the 8 selected books for this year's competition.

It seemed fair that I try to do the same.

I just finished Tom Angleberger's The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and thought it was cute. 

 A tad predictable, but I like how this book is organized with different characters telling different chapters.  It lets students experience how different characters react to different events and challenges their critical thinking.

I created an eighteen page teacher guide, which you can snag here!  I included pre and post reading activities, suggested vocabulary for each chapter, comprehension questions with answers, homework questions and more.  

"Visit my TpT store, you must." -Yoda
(Okay, not really, I was just channeling Dwight!)

Happy reading!

Equivalent Fractions Bingo

During our intervention block, we've been working on equivalent fractions.

By no fault of their own, our kiddos have a very limited understanding of what fractions mean so we've been doing a lot of whole group intervention.

I found this adorable freebie on TpT, created by Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas and available here that has been so much fun for my kiddos!

She's also made Darth Vader & Princess versions, which my other small groups enjoyed!

I love doing math stations because it's a formative assessment and I can pull small groups.  I love hearing their discourse (discussions) and how they help each other find equivalent fractions.

Just a few of my favorite (FREE) things

In the spirit of the holidays, I've decided to compile a list of some of my favorite free things, all from TpT.

I did not make these products but love using them in my classroom!

Item 1: Schedule Cards

These adorable cards were made by  Cara Carroll and available free here!  She's included so many subjects and they're perfect for almost any classroom.  

Here's a snapshot of them in my classroom:

When combined with green marker and a funky polka dot border, our schedule gets a lot more fun in fifth grade!  Since they have different specials each day, I just use a magnetic clip to keep them organized.

Item two: Star Wars fluency posters

I'm a nerd, I'll embrace it.  There are superhero and Star Wars things all over my classroom.  I'm not ashamed of it :)

So when I found these adorable freebies:

I literally squealed in delight!  Then of course, forwarded the link to my grade level because who wouldn't want R2D2 helping out their students?

This gem was made by Jane Loretz and is available here on TpT.  Use the force to go snag yours.

Item 3: Grammar Cheat Sheet

I struggle with teaching grammar, especially to my second language learners and inclusion students.  Maybe that's why I love this cheat sheet:

Created by Jen of Hello Literacy and available here, this cheat sheet is a great reference.  I have students place a copy in their writing binders as a resource.

Item 4: Bookmarks

While Carly Rae's song may be a little dated at this point, I still love these free bookmarks:

Available here and made by Kathryn, my students get a kick out of these.  Anything to encourage reading, right?

Item 5: Author's Craft

Another great freebie from Jen at helloliteracy!  

It goes great in our reader notebooks :)

What freebies would you add to the list?

Sunday Funday

It's a lazy Sunday filled with catching up with family, pancakes and reading time.

Plus a little teacher prep :)

I sold another product on TpT and I hope that other teachers are finding my products useful!  If you do download a product, please rate and leave feedback!

While searching on pinterest (aka researching), I stumbled upon this amazing fluency freebie on TpT!

It's Star Wars themed!  The creator has all four components of fluency with different characters from a galaxy far, far away.

I'm a little more excited than I should be :)