And the Winner Is...

Yesterday I posted about my $10 gift card giveaway to Teachers Pay Teachers.  My husband made fun of me when I went to get a bowl and started writing out names, so I went on random.org for a random number generator.  I assigned each person a number in the order of his/her comment post.






And the winner is Brain Ninjas!  Congratulations!  Watch your Email for your prize by 9pm tonight.  For everyone else, thank you for participating; enjoy some freebies!

1.  Tissue box hygiene reminders.  I use these in my classroom as a not so subtle reminder to keep it clean!  Just rubber-band them to your tissue box.  It's a better place for a reminder than the sink, where they are already washing their hands.  Keep those flu germs at bay!







2.  Holiday Aid for Low Income Students   This is a great seasonal activity for upper elementary students.  It's designed to help target assistance for your lower income students if you have funds from the PTO to provide them with a little something for the holiday.  Whether your PTO will help you or you and your colleagues chip in, this page will help you get started.

3. Mentor Sentences for Complete Sentences.   Mentor sentences require students to analyze quality, model writing, then explain what makes it so.  It's a great alternative to exposing students to models of incorrect writing.  








4.  Kinesthetic Map Activity.  It's not every day you let your fourth graders crawl around on the floor to learn, but I think you'll like this one as much as they do.  This is a fun whole group activity that gets kids practicing where the continents are in relation to each other, as well as which, countries are on which continent. 








5.  Using one half as a benchmark coloring page.  This coloring page reveals a "mystery picture" as kids determine if each fraction is greater to, less than, or equal to one half.  The writing component allows you to differentiate as well as gives students practice justifying their answer. 



Or, if you're looking for bargains for the Teachers Pay Teachers sale, check out these products: Remember to enter promo code CYBER2016 at checkout for 28% off the regular prices, November 28 and 29 only.  Here are a few items from my own store that are in high demand and have kept my own students engaged in their learning each year during the second trimester:

1.  This Long Division Games Bundle provides students with the repeated practice they need to internalize the long division process.  By turning this practice into games and hands on activities, the kids actually enjoy honing their long division skills!

2.  Like the division bundle, this Equivalent Fractions Activities 3 in One Bundle is hands on, and helps students enjoy their math block. 

3.  If you're looking for a more complete fractions unit, I am launching my finished FRACTIONS UNIT on Monday, just in time for the sale.  This product has been months in the making, and I wanted my readers to have the opportunity to get the maximum savings on it.  Check out my most recent product and save 28%! 

4.  If you really want to plan ahead, Poetry Month is traditionally in April.  This is the time to save big on a complete poetry unit for fourth grade.  It has everything you need for high stakes test prep.  This Fourth Grade PoetryMini Unit helps students meet the standards while also providing opportunities for creativity and appreciation for a variety of poetic forms. 

  

5.  And finally, if you're looking for my best deal, you can save 28% on my largest bundle, my 5 U.S. Regions Unit Plans Bundle.  Normally priced $25, it will cost just $18.75 for two days only! 

So start filling your wishlist, and come back Monday and Tuesday to save a bundle on some fun, engaging resources for your class. Again, remember to enter promo code CYBER2016 at checkout for 28% off.  Happy shopping!

Just a Straightforward Giveaway

Let me get right to the point.  I have a $10 online gift code for Teachers Pay Teachers to give away, and I want to make it easy for you!

I don't usually do giveaways because I don't really like entering them.  I know there's a small chance of winning.  And I don't like "loops" where I have to "hop" from place to place to be eligible.  My time is valuable, and if you've read this far, you're a teacher, so your time is valuable too.

So here's the deal!  In the comments section, tell me something you would like to get from Teachers Pay Teachers.  And I don't mean you need to put a specific title or link, just whatever you'll need in the weeks or months ahead.  Like "water cycle board game" or "Northeast Region Unit."    

Only comments made here on this post on this blog will count.  I will pick a winner the old fashioned way: pulling a number out of a bowl.  One entry per person, please. 

Also, I need a way to contact you if you win.  You can leave your Email address in your comment, or check back here at Shut The Door and Teach on Sunday night and I'll post the winner's name so you can contact me then, if you prefer.   

This contest will end at 4:00 pm Sunday (at the earliest) and I'll announce the winner by 7:00 pm EST Sunday night.  That way you can use your $10 during the Teachers Pay Teachers Cyber Sale on November 28 and 29.  Even if you don't win, you can save up to 28% with promo code CYBER2016. 

So do tell!  What would you type into the search bar over on Teachers Pay Teachers if you win? 

Freebies and a Sale!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday!  Mine were great; I had time to be productive (cooking, organizing home and school stuff, and Christmas shopping online) and time to relax and enjoy time with my family. 

I even made time to create a few new resources for teaching writing, as well as updating an old favorite (more below).  All this was right in time for Teachers Pay Teachers CyberSmile Sale on Monday (and Tuesday). You can save up to 28% off of your purchases by entering promo code SMILE at checkout.  My whole store will be a full 28% off as long as you remember the promo code!  

Here are a few items from my own store that are in high demand and have kept my own students engaged in their learning each year during the second trimester:

Homophones Task Cards These task cards help students learn homophones in context.  By partnering students up, they can read aloud and hear the pronunciation of the homographs.  There are also traditional worksheets included to reinforce what students have learned.  These worksheets are perfect for homework or a formative assessment.   

Mentor Sentences: Fourth Grade Bundle and now serving fifth grade with the Mentor Sentences Fifth Grade Growing Bundle.

If you're looking to save more and elevate the level of editing in your students' writing, this is a resource you will find yourself referring to and pulling from all year round.  The fourth grade bundle includes model sentences that highlight parts of speech, transition words, verb tenses, capitals and punctuation, and effective word choice.  Students analyze the sentences and then apply what they've learned to create their own sentence with the highlighted concept.  There are also reference notes included that are perfect for students' interactive notebooks. 

Narrative Writing Unit  If you're looking for a complete narrative unit, this will end your students' writer's block as well as understand exactly what you mean when you say, "You need to add more details."  

 Check out my most popular writing unit, get your students ready for the big statewide writing test, and save 28%!

And finally, if you're looking for my best deal, you can save 28% on my largest bundle, my 5 US Regions Unit Plans Bundle.  Normally priced $25, it will cost just $18.75 for two days only! 

So start filling your wishlist, and come back Monday and Tuesday to save a bundle on some fun, engaging resources for your class. 







As a thank you for following along I also wanted to direct you to a few of my favorite seasonal freebies.  There are a few must-haves if you are teaching elementary, and a few if you are specifically teaching fourth. 

1.  Tissuebox hygiene reminders.  I rubber-band these to each tissue box in my classroom as a not so subtle reminder!  Even if you have a sink in your classroom, the place to hang a reminder is not over the sink (where they are already washing their hands).  It's on the tissue box itself.  Slow the spread of germs this flu season!

2. Holiday Aid for Low Income Students   I know I've posted this before, but I wanted to remind you that now is the time to find/re-download your copy! 

This seasonal freebie for your class is designed to help target assistance for your lower income students.  It's perfect if you have funds from the PTO to provide them with a little something for the holiday.  I'm lucky enough to work in a school where we give to the families in need every year, and this page will help you get started with that.


3.  Homework Reminder Forms  This is a gentle reminder for kids who have forgotten their homework. 

They print 6 to a page in order to save paper, and can be easily glued into an assignment book to help kids and parents see what's due.






4. Synonyms and Antonyms   Many grammar tasks ask kids to find what needs to be fixed in a sentence.  As a result, kids are exposed to models of incorrect writing!  Stop reinforcing models of common grammatical errors.  Mentor sentences require them to analyze quality, model writing, then explain what makes it so.  This is a free sample of my Mentor Sentences line of grammar, usage and mechanics resources.  I've even started a fifth grade version due to popular demand!





5.  Coordinate Points and Ordered Pairs Warship Game  This is a fun, free math game to help reinforce reading ordered pairs and plotting coordinate points. 

 You can play whole class, put it in a math center, and even put a copy in your sub tub for a fun activity that the kids will happily return to as needed. 

5.  Context Clues Practice Page  Can your students ever have enough practice using context clues?  This free page is perfect for practice any time of year. 

Teach the strategy of how to determine the meaning of words using the context of a sentence.  Your students will enjoy the silly twist on this strategy with this fun practice page.   





I hope you enjoy the freebies and save lots of money at TPT.  Do remember to enter the promo code SMILE when you shop on Monday (and Tuesday) in order to get the full 28% discount.  One new product that I launched this weekend is Mentor Sentences: Verbs {Fifth Grade}.  You can also check back on my Mentor Sentence category on Tuesday for one more Mentor Sentence resource coming out just in time to save you 28%.

Happy bargain hunting!

Free Context Clues Page and a Sale

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Day!

I love this time of year.  The sun is out and it's warming up, the kids know what's up when they walk into the room, and summer is starting to feel like it's getting close (even though I'm going until June 29).  And to top it all off, it's Teacher Appreciation Week!  I'm one of the lucky ones who has parents who spoil us.  Even though we are a Title One school, they really do go all out to give us recognition and fatten us up a little.  May is a great month.

Except of course for state testing, hah.

Our school is still doing MCAS and not PARCC, but it doesn't get any easier.  So I've created a freebie for you to help your students with context clues.  Every year I have a handful of kids who get stuck on a word and don't know how to figure it out.  Often they think it means the same as another word in the sentence (not recognizing that it would be redundant to have the same word twice).  So I whipped up a page that's good practice and easy enough to understand that I can use it for a homework assignment.  To show my appreciation to YOU, I'm offering it free for a limited time.

There is also a sale going on at Teacher's Pay Teachers today, May 5 and 6.  You can save 28% in my store by entering the code THANKYOU at checkout.  Here are some products I have available to get you through to the end of the year:

I wrote all about the Tuck Everlasting resources I developed in an earlier post. When I found the MDESE's model unit for Tuck Everlasting to be cumbersome and, well, tedious, I needed to flesh out their framework to get the kids interested.  I needed to turn the whole class discussions into prompts for reflecting and writing on an individualized level.  They needed time to delve into the vocabulary as well as the figurative language.  I needed them to see their own thinking about the characters change as they progressed through the chapters.  I started small, and have a few free pages available in this post as well, and worked my way up to the full Tuck Everlasting Activities packet.

What can I say, anytime I can incorporate art into my day I'm a happy camper.  Geometry is the PERFECT excuse to draw in math class, haha.  I developed my Tessellations lessons for an after school club that combined math and art, but in years when our school couldn't fund it, I used many of the lessons during our geometry unit in fourth grade.  I have this math/art lesson too:

The kids had so much fun with this "Scoot" style Geometry activity.  I wrote more about how they used sheet protectors and guidelines to position their protractors and drawing triangles correctly every time in an earlier post. 

Finally, if you are one of the lucky ones finishing your year this month, I have task cards to help you involve the kids in the clean-up/pack-up/organization process.  I really feel like in addition to saving me time, it helps them feel a sense of closure to help pack the room.  And having activities that get them up and moving interspersed with quiet reflection time/memory books is important for most learners:

I hope you find some great resources during the sale!  Besides resources geared specifically for this time of year, do you already have other planned purchases in your wish list?  Share your favorite finds in the comments below.