Why do we teach nonsense words? (Freebie)

If you have ever wondered why we teach nonsense words, then this is a great post for you!  Most teachers think that nonsense words are used ONLY to reinforce vowel sounds, but, this isn't the whole reason!  We teach nonsense words because those nonsense words turn into nonsense syllables that we can put together to make larger, multi-syllabic words.  Just take any word with 3 or more syllables and you ill find that it is full of nonsense words!  I TRULY think this is a way to get kids to quit being afraid that they are going to say a word wrong.  I've seen a big increase in reading sense I started showing how to put all of these smaller chunks together!  Here is a freebie I made to do this week.  I thought I'd share it with you!  Just click on the pic to go to Google Docs

While I've got you here, I want to give a shout out to Tessa from Tales From Outside the Classroom.  She and I were talking about nouns, so I grabbed her noun pack for my class.  It is sensational!!!  I've put a pic of the cover here along with a link to her pack

Thanks, Tessa!

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Math Read Alouds

If you have been following along you know that I am adding Math back into my teaching repertoire.  In doing this, I am looking for ways to expand our horizons and show my kids that numbers don't have to just be taught or seen during math.  So...in my big hunt for math literature, I added several books to my classroom library!

This is such a cute book!  Since we've been working on even and odd numbers and equal shares, this book hit home the concept of how important equal shares are.  Since the rancher doesn't know how to do equal shares, and his neighbor agrees with everything he says, they both end up with a mixture of livestock.  And someone ends up with more cattle than they started with.  But all is well that ends well because they end up getting hitched.  The picture of the wedding cake clenched it for my girls...they have reread it several times.  I guess it is the math equivalent of a second grade romance book!

Even Steven and Odd Todd are grade level favorites...especially since we have a 'craftivity' that goes along with it.  I'll be posting about it soon!  But, I wanted to share with you that this book isCHEAP right now so you may want to grab it while you can.  Typically when they get this cheap they end up going out of print.

My kids LOVE the book More or Less because of the illustrations.  We've been working on greater than, less than, and equal to, so this is right up their alley!!

Here are the forms I used.  I'll include more next time!  Enjoy!

Compass Craft--Link is repaired!

Right now we are studying cardinal directions, so I decided to have a little compass fun!!  This is my first ever 'original' craftivity and the kids are loving it.  We made it and then used the iPad and Apple TV <or you can use a cell phone> to download a compass app.  We practiced which direction we would need to go to find the cafeteria, office, and library.  It didn't take us long to make them either...and the best part...kids were teaching other kids!!

Behavior Folder Printables

I just finished working on these and thought that I would share them with you.  We use a color scheme for our behavior chart like many of you do.  I think the difference in what we do in my grade level is that we mark behavior colors in the morning and afternoon so that we can track behavior patterns.  We also have a number code system that we can use to communicate with parents to let them know what issues were dealt with that day.  I hope you can use this!  I left the dates and area for rules blank so that you could fill them in if you wanted to use the printables!   Enjoy!  Just click on the pics to go download this freebie!

New Decor Coming to A Classroom Near You

Well...if you live close to me that is!  HAA HAA!!

So far I have a new love seat cover that is being tie dyed with purple dye by The Math Fairy.  She is my partner in crime!!  I have my eye on a new carpet for my classroom because I figured the other one has LITERALLY seen enough blood and guts and it is time to move on.  I just need to find one cheap enough for me to afford and that will accommodate about 24 or 25 second graders.  If you know of any sites that I can look at, PLEASE leave me a link in the comment section!!

This past week I printed off and laminated my new classroom decor that incorporates all of the colors of the rainbow since the teacher that had the room before me painted the coat rack a bright green and the shelves the color of 'strawberry fields' which I translate into a hot pinkish color of red.  Very odd.  And then, the trim is all done in purple.  I was able to repaint the shelves a pretty teal color and had planned on painting the coat rack, but I just ran out of steam.  So I just gave up and I throw all of the colors together!!

We went to the hardware store today to get 3 new cinder blocks so that I can add another shelf to my classroom library.  My husband is busy painting them outside as I type right now.  At one point I had the cinder blocks wrapped with material to look like presents, but have no desire to go through that process again....so my daughter and I picked out a beautiful purple color.  I kept sending my daughter outside to take pictures of the blocks being painted with Kilz and then with the purple paint, but my husband and son just never seemed to really get started.  Men!  What do you do with them?  We finally just gave up. So, here is a picture of them ready to paint with just a smidgen of my daughter's finger.  Great eye candy, I know!

I've spent a LOT of time browsing the web looking for neat ideas....living on Pinterest.  (I'll let you in on a secret--I have 2 Pinterest addresses.  One for Best Practices and one that I am reformatting for Charts N Chit Chat and you are welcome to follow both!)  My other favorite of course, is Amazon, because if you've read any of my blog posts you know that I hate to go into stores and shop.  By the time I get done going through a store my anxiety level is up, my back and legs hurt because the Fibromyalgia, and I've usually had to wrangle a couple of kids, too.  So...Amazon, in my point of view, is the bomb!!  Here are some of the things I am looking into and remember you can always click on the pic and go read more about the products I found:

I am REALLY interested in this because my dry erase boards are REALLY scratched up and you can't erase the marker residue off of them anymore.  Does anyone have any experience with this kind of paint?  Does it work??

I love the idea of incorporating this and wish I had enough energy to try it on some cabinets at school.  I think that would be a great way to organize memos and such that I need to be able to grab on the run.

I've seen this around for years and know of teachers that repainted their chalkboards, but I had no idea that you could use it to paint on the regular wall!  Pretty cool!!

I already ordered 2 cans of this glow in the dark paint after seeing the picture on Pinterest showing the glow in the dark planters. To be honest...I am REALLY wishing I could figure out how to use the planter idea in my classroom for days when our power goes out at school <someone is always running into a transformer it seems> or just to turn the lights off and have some ambiance!!  If you have any ideas on how to incorporate some glow in the dark features, leave me a comment and let me know!

Also, just a reminder...don't forget to go by our newest collaborative blog for 2nd and 3rd grade teachers--or if you don't teach those grades, send the link to a friend.  There is a huge giveaway going on right now and there will be about a month of freebies given away, too!  You won't want to miss it.  Just click below to to check it out.

Thanks for coming by!!

Hi everyone! I'm Jen from

I'm so excited to be over here for Jenn. I wanted to share a few things you might want to use in the beginning of the year (ack! don't hate me for talking about the dreaded BTS....BUT, I'm less than a month away, so that's what's on my brain...sometimes! lol)

This time capsule is something I do every year, here is a picture of us doing it at the end of the year and comparing it to the one from the beginning of the year. It was so neat to see how they've grown!

It's a FREEBIE! And there is one for grades K-5!

See the blog post on these HERE 

Also, on that blog post, I have a lot more freebies to get you started for the new year! If you're anything like me, I try to get as much for the next year copied off before I leave for the summer. 

Hope you enjoyed this blog post! Thanks, Jen for letting me come by!

Hope you enjoyed this post!!

Reading Without Limits Book Study: Week 5

Happy Wednesday, everyone!!

                                    Feel Free to Pin This!


If you haven't purchased the book you can find it at Amazon!  Just click on the link below and you can go straight to the book to purchase it.

Just click here to purchase!

Here are the answers for Chapter 7:

1.  What is one of your 'most relied upon routines?

My most relied upon routine is counting down from 10 to 1.  When I do that, my students know that I mean business and that they better be in their seats by the time I reach number 1.  I have 2 other routines that I use and they just so happen to be freebies!  Just click on their picture to download.

The first freebie is a set of desk citations I use to warn my clutterbugs that there desks, cubbies, or other areas need to be cleaned up.  You can tell that this is one of the first products I made for Teachers Pay Teachers.  I've come a long way, baby!!

The second freebie is a set of behavior punch cards that I use with my whole class.  It is sort of a 'caught being good' reward system with those with all of the bees punched out by the end of the week earning a trip to the treasure box.  Everybody needs some form of a paycheck, right?

2.  What is a muscle memory routine?

It is a routine of some sort of action that imprints on the brain. The action of DOING it or SAYING it reinforces the behavior that we want.

3.  Explain figure 7.1 on page 186.

Maddie recommends that we repeatedly expose our kids to behaviors or routines that we want by defining accepted behaviors and unacceptable behaviors.  Role playing is perfect for this!  She also recommends that we incorporate something 'bizarre' (for example, acting in a manner not expected) to help students remember what is expected.  I do this in my classroom by wearing wacky 'reading hats' when I am teaching guided reading.  Why my hat is on, I am NOT to be disturbed unless a student has one of the 4 B's:  Blood, Bruising, Barfing, or Broken.  I have an assortment of hats which range from a tiara that lights up to a sombrero and I even have a frog hat!!  

4.  How can you incorporate "hot or not" in your classroom?

I love the example of how to treat books and creating an anchor chart about this.  I can see expanding the idea to apply it to grammar skills such as, "Is this a noun?  Hot or Not".  I think it would be a lot of fun!

5.  Read through the routines on pages 192 to 205.  Choose a routine you can use and summarize it!

Summaries will vary!!

Here are the questions for Chapters 8 and 9:

Chapter 8

1. What is a pitfall you have faced in your classroom. How did you fix it?

2.  Why do you want lessons to be bizarre?

3.  How do you address pitfalls?

Chap 9

1.  Share an 'aha' moment with us. We want to learn from YOU!!

2.  What is the difference between racetrack and halftime conferences?

3.  What is a grow goal? How can you manage them in your classroom?

4.  On pages 238-239, Maddie gives a format for reteaching. Summarize the format.

Here is a button for you to use on your blog if you would like to incorporate your thoughts into a post:

Color My Word Classroom Decor

Anyone that knows me, knows that I love COLOR!!!  I found this really cute set of backgrounds and started experimenting with my MS Publisher to see what all I could do.  Throw in a little bit of Power Point here and there for some work on the graphics, and this is what I came up with!

ZB Manuscript at TpT

D'Nealean Manuscript at TpT

Here is a collage of the D'Nealean set.  The ZB set looks just like this.  Altogether there is at least 230 pages of materials that can be printed.  I love this set so much that is has me SERIOUSLY thinking about printing and laminating and putting last year's Tie Dye Set into storage!  Anyway, I thought I would share this with you.  It is great eye candy!!

Oh, I almost forgot.  Here is a mystery freebie that goes with the set if you can use it!

P.S.  The Tie Dye Set from last year got a serious rehab, so you may want to check it out also!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I just wanted to let you know that I am having a sale on TpT.  Everything is 20% off...Go shop while you can and clear out that wishlist!  When you go to my store, be sure to click on MOST RECENT to see the new packs that I have uploaded!

Now, I am off to enjoy lots of gingerale, green popsickles, and yes, green jello as the Type B Flu has hit our house and the fevers are on the rise.

Remember, if your child is lacking energy more than normal, watch him or her closely...this is the easiest symptom to spot.  

But for now, go grab this freebie in my store and be sure to grab something else just for luck!

Enjoy!

Free Classroom Resources

Try this link!  www.classroomfreebies.com

You will find a wealth of free materials developed by some of our nation's top teachers.  I have personally chatted with some of these ladies and they know their stuff!   There are things for all grade levels!

Free Download: Sentence Sorters

Best Practices 4 Teaching Blog

FREE! FREE! FREE! Go to this lesson and download the FREE activities that I just posted. I use these activities in my own classroom to help students differentiate between statements, questions, exclamatory sentences, and commands! Don't forget to click on 'follow' to keep updated on new lesson developments!http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sentence-Sorters