500 Follower Giveaway - Stella & Dot Bangle!

Hi everyone!

We may be in the middle of a POLAR VORTEX, but I have a little something that will warm you right up!

Why? 500 Followers!  I feel the love :)

Thanks for always leaving such sweet comments and feedback.  It's been so great to connect and share with other teachers!

So, here's the back story...

My sweet bloggin' friend Allison {aka Stuckey in Second} was helping out a friend with a Stella and Dot Trunk Sale and I decided to do some shopping...for YOU all!

I think I found the perfect gift of thanks and love.  I'm in LOVE with this Gilded Arrow Bangle from Stella and Dot! It looks super sweet alone and fantastic mixed with those cute Alex & Ani bracelets, too! Take a look...

Who doesn't love a little arm candy? Hope you know how happy I am to be presenting you with this giveaway.  <3

 Aaaaahhhhh! Wishing I would have ordered a second bangle for myself!

A winner will be chosen on Valentine's Day! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, everyone :)

Be My Guest Sunday Presents...Close Reading with The Reading Tutor/OG

Hi there everyone! I am so excited for "Be My Guest Sunday" and I think you will be too! Are you engaging your students in Close Reading Strategies this year?  Close Reading has been a big part of our professional development this year.  In my quest to find out more about this strategy, I stumbled upon a very special blog....

Let me introduce you to Emily, from The Reading Tutor/OG Blog.   Emily has something really special over there!  She has tons of ideas and inspirations for your ELA block! She is also part of a huge collaborative site called Adventures in Literacy Land...another gem for all of you book lovers out there!

Emily has got some great information for you today, as well as FREEBIES.  Happy Sunday, folks!  Sit, back, relax and read on...

Thanks, Emily!

Hi everyone! I'm Emily from The Reading Tutor/OG, and I'm so happy Tracey invited me to be her guest today. I have been an educator for over 13 years now. I've taught mostly 3rd and 4th graders in inclusive classrooms. Currently, I am a SAHM and a certified Orton Gillingham instructor. This means I use a specific multi-sensory approach to help dyslexic learners with reading.  Although I love teaching all subject areas, Literacy is the area I am most passionate about.
Today I am going to share some research about close reading. I know this is a very hot topic in schools these days. There are many questions out there about how to implement it effectively in the classroom, especially with younger readers. I wrote a post about it a few months back about it on my own blog, but would like to share some practical tips you can take away with you today to use in your classrooms. Close reading has been around a long time in higher education. The thing that makes it new is that we're asking children to closely read in younger grades. Here are couple of quick points about what close reading is:

• Close reading is about arriving at a goal in reading, not just about using any one technique or approach.
• Close reading is flexible.
• The questions chosen in a close reading session are critical. Teachers need to be VERY familiar with the chosen text before assigning it to students to closely read.
• There is such thing as close listening for younger readers in K and 1. Since listening comprehension is developed in these grades, using this format is quite valuable.
• Not every story or passage you read needs to be closely read. In fact, the recommendation is to do one close read per unit of study. So if you were like me, we changed our reading units about every 4-6 weeks. I would carefully select a short passage to have my students do a close read.
• It is highly recommended that teachers choose shorter passages for close reads. If you're going to ask your class to read something anywhere from 2-3 times for a specific purpose, then a shorter passage is the way to go, especially for your challenged readers.

I thought it would be helpful to share a variety of resources which I found on Pinterest to use in your close reading lessons today. Plus, they are all FREE! I hope you find them useful!

I love this freebie from Create-Abilities. Show your class how to mark text while they read. Use this as a simple guide for marking text during a close reading lesson.

These handy bookmarks from Wise Words have great reminders for marking text and prompts for answering text dependent questions. There is a bookmark for each of the three reads you may do during a close reading lesson.

Post these posters created by The Teacher Next Door in your classroom as anchor charts for close reading lessons. They serve as a wonderful visual to explaining the process of close reading.

This is a wonderful and FREE resource for teachers. I love how it's organized by grade level, and skill and strategy. Teachers can set up a free account and download any of the passages. Every passage comes with comprehension questions and lesson plans. Choose from hundreds of short, high interest passages to do a close reading lesson.

That wraps up my post today. I wish you all the best of luck as you continue to build your literacy toolbox with resources and strategies. Feel free to comment with your ideas or questions.  I'd love for you to stop over at my blog and follow me, a brand new collaborative blog I am in called Adventures In Literacy Land, or find me on Facebook. Thanks again Tracey!

Credits:
Circle Badges by: Lindy du Plessis
Number Font in Circle Badges by: Jen Jones, Hello Literacy




Are you as ready as I am to work on Close Reading strategies in your classroom?  I know my littles are going to love using post-it notes as they read!  Thanks again, Emily!


If you are interest in being a guest blogger for Be My Guest Sunday, please email me! I'd love to feature you.  Don't forget to follow The Teacher's Chair to stay up to date with ideas, freebies, giveaways, guest bloggers and more!

Have a great week everyone :)

Sweet Photography Classroom Project & Facebook Freebies and a GIVEAWAY!

I moaned.

I groaned.

I thought there was too much snow on the ground (there wasn't).

The view from my house on the day we were to return from winter break was snowy.

Expectations for a blizzard the following day made it no easier to tear myself out of my warm jammies.

A hot cup of coffee and the thought of seeing those little faces was plenty to get me going :) 

I knew they would all have nice stories to share and I wanted to share with them, too!  Besides, I knew I had this great project to do with them...It all started with this Pinterest Pin:

Clicking on the Pin brought me to a Flickr page for Lewis Elementary.  There’s no blog post there, but I wanted to give it credit.  Boy, there are a lot of exciting things going on in this school!

On the last day before winter break, I asked the kids to think about their most favorite part.   I told them that I would be taking a close-up picture of their favorite part.  I pulled them one at a time while they had snack.  I got them involved with the positioning and creative direction.  They had great ideas! 

Some wanted their shoes on, some wanted them off. Some wanted palms up, some wanted palms down.  My most favorite was the child who formed a heart around the heart on her shirt.  That could actually be one of my most favorite shots ever! I fiddled around with how I wanted to print the pictures, but I decided on using an antique color with a nice frame as a border.  I love how they turned out.  I changed the names to protect their privacy.

The kids were excited to see the photos in school.  After I read my sample and showed them the paragraph planner, they wanted to get started right away! I can't wait to see them all up in my classroom!  

Like this project? Want to grab it for your classroom?  It's FREE this weekend over at our Facebook Hop.  You can find it right on my Facebook page! My sweet Bloggy friend Tori over at Tori's Teacher Tips put the blog hop together.  Follow Tori's directions below and get ready to have some fun! (Thanks, Angela Nerby for the very cute buttons!)

Get ready to HOP people!!

So here is how this works...

Start by going to Tori's FACEBOOK page.

Click on the "FB HOP" button once you are there.  It looks like this:

Then you will see a whole list of bloggers.  Here is a snippet of what it looks like:

Start by clicking on the first button which will take you to Tori's freebie.  

Download, save, print, whatever you want to do with that freebie and then close out those windows.  You want to get back to the list of bloggers on my Facebook page.  Everything should open up into a new window to make it easier for you to get back to the "hop."

Make your way through all the bloggers as they will ALL have FAB stuff for you...for FREE!!!  

Each new FB page will have the same "FB Hop" image- just find that and click there.

Make sure you like the page to get your free product.

Oh and say "Hi" and "Thanks" while you are there... we love your comments/feedback!

Ok.. what are you waiting for... GO HOP!!

BUT WAIT...That's not all...there's a Giveaway, too!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

WHEW! All that's left to do now is start downloading! Have a great weekend everyone!

CURRENTLY AND A ONE-DIRECTION SCAVENGER HUNT

Happy new year, everyone! 

Here's to a safe, healthy and happy 2014! The holidays have come and gone in a blur and flurry of activity, family and friends.  

There were so many good times over the past few weeks!  Here's my favorite snapshot from Christmas.  It's of the girls after they found out that they will be seeing One Direction this summer.  AHHHHH pure joy!

The hubs and I decided to wait until after all of our family were over for dinner.  I created a little scavenger hunt that took them throughout the house.  By "them" you would think I mean the girls, but I mean everyone...like aunts, and cousins and grandparents (I think the grandparents were the most excited!)

They had no idea what was going on until the last clue.  For all you 1-D fans out there (and you secret 1-D fans...you know who you are), here's a peek at the scavenger hunt.  The hubs said that I've officially lost my marbles, but whatever, it's what makes me, me!

That last clue left them looking like this...

and this....

and of course, it left me feeling like this... HA!!!!

I'm looking forward to getting back into routines of all sorts...family, exercise, eating, work, blogging, etc!

To get started, I think it's most appropriate to begin with the first CURRENTLY of 2014.  I'm linking up with Farley, and you should too! I love reading what you all are doing currently :)

Stay tuned folks...I'll be blogging again tomorrow- yes, TOMORROW! I'm on a roll. 

And besides, I have excited news to share.

Here's a hint.

Get your download finger ready.

It's almost time for a little Facebook Freebie hop :)

See you tomorrow (hopefully during a snow day!)

Winter Lemonade, Christmas Crunch and Holiday Freebies!

Hello everyone!
Here we are...the last few days of school before the holiday break.  We shopped, we wrapped, we baked...and somehow managed to write some great lesson plans for this nutty week.  Right??

Are you looking for some last-minute craft/writing ideas for this week?  I'd like to share two that I used in my classroom last week.  They are for Christmas and Kwanzaa.  The Kwanzaa activity is pictured under my wrapping paper Menorahs (thanks, Pinterest!)

The children really enjoyed learning about the 7 principles of Kwanzaa.  It was a great writing task to have them relate the principles to their own lives.  What they really enjoyed was trying to pronounce the names of the principles. They are beautiful words that are fun to say!

Kwanzaa falls on December 26th, so this a great activity for your kids to do this week...Grab your copy by clicking{here}.

Next up, are these cute little reindeer...

They all look precious hanging in my classroom...and they are all in want of a JOB!  Who will make Santa's Sleigh team?  

Applications accepted in PARAGRAPH FORM only (what a way to practice all we have been learning about paragraph writing!)

I think the kids' favorite part was when I put the "HIRED" stamp on their project!  Click the picture of that little cutie patootie for the template.

Now for the gift giving...This part is from a special request from some of my Instagram friends. 

My girls and I have been making homemade body scrub gifts for the past two years.  Last year, we made a gingerbread sugar scrub.  Our whole kitchen smelled like a gingerbread factory.  This year, we decided that we needed something summery.  They decided on Lemonade...easy enough.  I looked through some recipes I found with a google search, and these are the ingredients I came up with.  We went salt instead of sugar to try something new.

Here's the disclaimer...like my late and beloved Nana, I have no actual measurements for you.  It's like she would say, "A little of this, and a little of that...."  I basically start with the scrubbing component (sugar or salt) and just add the other ingredients until it feels and smells just right.  This recipe was a double batch, and this is how it went down...

• Empty 2 boxes of Epsom Salts in a huge bowl
• Add 2-3 Tablespoons of Coconut Oil...get your hands in there and MIX!
• Add small amounts of the Neutrogena Body oil -you don't want it too greasy! (You can actually skip this step and add all coconut oil if you wish.) MIX!  How are your hands feeling now??
• Add drops of lemon extract and mix until it smells a little lemony.
• Grate lots of fresh lemon zest in there and keep on mixing. This will add to the lemony scent and look pretty with all of the little zesty pieces in the mix!

At this point, your kitchen should be smelling a lot like summer! If we added lime instead of lemon, I think it would have smelled like a big margarita! Hmmmmmm, maybe next year!

Up last, is one of our favorite traditions...Christmas Crunch.  It should be called Christmas Can't-Stop-Eating-This-Stuff-Even-If-It-Means-I-Can't-Zip-My-Jeans.  It's THAT yummy.  There are lots of recipes out there, but this is what it boils down to in our family...It makes two very large bowls.  

• One Large Box of Corn Chex 
• One Large Box of Rice Chex 
• One Large Bag (I got the extra large Shop-rite bag) of pretzels; or two regular-sized bags
• 4 bags of M&Ms (2 bags per batch)
• 4 cans of peanuts (yes, you can omit for those with a peanut allergy, but I have to say...the peanuts are our favorite part of the salty/sweet sensation!) 2 cans per batch
• 4 bags of white chocolate melting chips (2 bags per batch)

Start making this and just watch that the kids...or hubby...or dog...or cat...or even some neighbors passing by don't eat it all!

• Start by getting the chocolate melted.  I do mine in a fondue pot.  Keep warm and melted.
• Prepare a surface to spread the mix on to.  I cover my workspace with a few long sheets of tinfoil.
• Empty half of the Corn Chex and half of the Rice Chex in a very large bowl.
• Add half of the large bag (or one of the regular-sized bag) of pretzels
• Add 2 bags of M&Ms
• Add two cans of peanuts
• Pour white chocolate over the mix. Mixing with a spoon can be a little bit of a challenge, so I give my hands a good scrub, roll up my sleeves and get right in there to mix.  Be sure to incorporate all of the chocolate.  It should look like a white glaze (not thick at all) over all of the ingredients.
• Dump the bowl ingredients onto the tinfoil.  Spread into a thin layer and leave it there to dry.
• TASTE!!
• Once it's dry, pick it up and break up any large chunks.  I usually break it apart right in the large bowl I started with.  Here's what it looks like:
  
  A few of you were asking if I would share the labels for both of these gifts.  Of course the answer is YES!  {HERE YOU GO!}
  
  
  
  
  Happy crafting everyone and have a great last week before break!