HUGE Leap Year Sale!

We've teamed up with a bunch of bloggers to celebrate this unique day! 

Each of the bloggers below will be knocking 20% off all of their product prices on February 29th.  And, as an added treat, TPT is discounting all products an additional 10% when you enter the promo code L2Y9R upon checkout. 

Hip, hip, hooray for this February bonus day!

Did you know that it actually takes the Earth a little longer than a year to travel around the sun?  It takes exactly 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds!

You can click on the button below to visit our TpT store:

Solar System Spectacular: Calling all Astronauts!

We just uploaded our new solar system unit on TpT- here is a sneak peek at some of the lessons and ideas! Most of the lessons are large, so we are selling them separately. However, we are also selling all of the lessons as one HUGE file, too! (More about that at the bottom of the post!)
We have a some super cute ways to build some anticipation and excitement about your new science unit on the solar system! Prior to starting your unit, place an astronaut trainee letter (an official letter from NASA!) in a special star stamped manila envelope. You won't believe how excited your students will be when they come to school and find them on their desk! From here on out, students are astronaut trainees and I (formerly known as the teacher) am now their crew captain-very official, with name badge and all!

After teaching any solar system lesson throughout the unit, I give my junior astronaunts a few minutes to write a reflection about what they learned. I have my kiddos keep their reflections (written on a star die cut for added cuteness!) in a baggie attached to astronaunt clip art. These daily reflections are a great way to review for their test and also provide a great informal assessment for me. I also remind my trainees that I will be reading them as proof that the'vey earned their entrance into the space academy- where the best and brightest go!

 I even glue their face in the space helmet!

Junior astronaunts use their schema (brain file!) to share what they know about constellations and then create their own constellation. Check out the pics below:

Click here if you are interested in the Crazy about Constellations file.

All junior astronauts must learn to work with other junior astronaunts- very important here on Earth and in outer space! Students work in groups to write acrostice poems and present their them to the class.

Crew captains will definitely have the attention of their junior astronaunts when they begin the next lesson with these yummy looking Milky Way bars on display!

And, yes, they do get eaten....AFTER junior astronauts learn about our galaxy and make a really cool art project to go along with it!

 Click on the picture below if you are interested in the Galaxy Galore file:

All astronaunts know about solar and lunar eclipses and junior astronaunts are no different! Below are some pictures from our Exciting Eclipse lesson!

Click on the image below if you are interested in our Exciting Eclipses lesson:

Astronaunts in training must know about how the Moon orbits the Earth and how the Earth orbits the Sun!

Click on the file name for Awesome Orbits

This unit also includes the assessment, a solar system comparison checklist, the solar system flip book, and the lunar cycles.

The solar sytem flip book and the lunar cycle are shown below:

Remember how I started my unit with the official letters from NASA?? Similarly, as I wrap up my unit on the solar system, we celebrate by passing out the astronauts' congratulations letter from NASA! I usually attach these letters to their final assessment- regardless of how they performed- I celebrate everyone's hard work!

As you can see....we really have some fun when learning about the solar system!! :)

We included all of the lessons that are shown above in one huge unit!

Solar System Spectacular ($10.00) on TpT

We are giving away 2 of our Solar System Spectacular: Calling all Astronauts units. The first two people (please leave your email address!!) to leave a nice, little comment will get this unit sent to their inbox! Did we say don't forget to leave your email address? :)

Happy President's Day!

Just in Time for Valentine's Day!

Or should I say, "ValenTIMES day??" After all, that is how all of my students are pronouncing it! So cute! :)

 If you have been reading our blog for a while, you will know that we like to use mirrors a lot in our classrooms- no, not for us!- but for our students. We love how it is a cute and easy way to teach the kids about having confidence and a high self- esteem. (Check out our Whoooo's a Good Looking Kid post for more ideas and printables for using mirrors to build self esteem.)

Since this is the time for celebrating LOVE, I decided to teach this lesson right around Valentine's Day. How often do you hear students talk about how much they LOVE their family, friends, toys, pets, school, sports, or of course, you- their teacher??? All the time, right??? While I love to hear my students profess their love of everything, I especially like to hear them talk about how much LOVE they have for themself! This does not happen as much as I would like- especially when students get older and are much more aware of peer pressure and pressure from our society. This is one of my favorite lessons to teach because it integrates reading, writing, a whole lot of self -reflection, an art project, and some very important LIFE LESSONS!!! :)

I began the lesson by passing out a mini mirror to every student in the class. You can purchase some at the Dollar store, ask your students to bring them to school, or even check your science supply rooms- you never know where you might find them!

I then called the students to sit in a circle on the carpet and asked them to look in the mirror and share what they saw and how they feel. Yes, there was giggling, whispering....so I went first. "On the outside, I see my blue eyes and feel happy because I like them. On the inside, I see how I am a compassionate person and I care about my students." The boys and girls followed my example and shared their own thoughts about what they see on the outside from looking at their reflection in the mirror and also who they are in the inside (what the mirror does not reflect!)

We continued by sharing the positive "inside and outside" qualities that we notice about each other- showed some love to each other. I then read a few of my favorite picture books and had the students reflect on the "top ten things I love about myself!" We then learned about the different adjectives that could be used to describe our personality (postive ones of course!) and create a cute, little art project that we turned into a bulletin board.

Check out some of the pictures that I took from our lessons:

I used to teach this lesson earlier in the school year, but I wanted to wait for the "love" theme of February to inspire the lessons this year. (***TPT customers- This was a file that we revised from our TPT store. If you already purchased the file titled, Awesome Adjectives that Describe Me!, then please redown the revised file!!!) If you are interested in this file, click on the image below to buy the file from TPT (it is $3.50):

This file is also sold in our Show Your Students the Love February unit, also on TpT, for $8.00.

Speaking of all this love....the first two readers who leave a nice comment will get our Valentine's unit for free! :) Please don't forget your email address! Enjoy your weekend!

Can't Stop Thinkin' About Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln has always been someone my students LOVE learning about.  His stovepipe hat, his beard that goes all around his face, and his height always fascinate kids.  His determination, perserverence, dedication to changing our country, and the stories of his honest ways are also great discussion starters and an opportunity to talk about his unique physical features and character traits.

One of my favorite activities to do to culminate our learning about Lincoln is this character trait activity and art project.  We talk about how tall Abe was (6'4") and see where we would be if we went head to head with him.

Next, we paint a tall picture of Mr. Lincoln using long lines to represent his body parts.  We also make his famous beard by using a paint brush to bunny hop around his whole face. 

 

Lastly, we go through different character traits and decide which words best describe him and which ones don't.  We glue the ones that describe them to their master project and throw the others away.  This makes a great ending activity and an adorable bulletin board!

Check out this creative twist on your study of Abe Lincoln on TpT.  This 9-page file that includes detailed directions for the art project, photos, adjective worksheet, project reflection, interactive height activity, and bulletin board signs.

Thinkin' About Lincoln

While there are many books that talk about his childhood and his presidency, there are some stories I love using with the kids that go beyond the common facts many kids are familiar with.  Here are some of my favorite books that go beyond the kid's schema about Abe Lincoln.

Mr. Lincoln's Whiskers by Karen Winnick

This story is about a young girl who gave him the idea to grow a beard.  She told him that if he let his whiskers grow it would make him look better because his face was just too thin.  She goes on to say that since all the ladies like whiskers, they would tease their husbands into voting for him.  

What Lincoln Said by Sarah L. Thomson

This book takes direct quotes from Lincoln and uses them to teach the issues he dealt with in a way that young children can relate to.  The part of this book that really opened up a heartfelt discussion about slavery was when Lincoln says slaves are "humans being treated like animals". 

Abe Lincoln's Hat by Martha Brenner

This book shows that Abe Lincoln's famous stovepipe hat came in handy for more than just covering his head...he used it to store important papers!  This book shows Lincoln's fun-loving, compassionate, and disorganized side!

 

American Symbol Freebie

Teaching about the different American symbols is part of our social studies curriculum and what better time to introduce them than during February when we are studying about Presidents?!?! 

We start by gathering a bunch of books and read about the different symbols.  There are also a ton of free Power Point presentations online to show your students (just Google American Symbol Power Point Presentations).  After learning the different symbols, I used the cards in What the Teacher Wants President's Day and US Symbols Unit and play the kid-favorite...Headbands-American Symbols Style!  We used the actual headbands from the game, however, you could just use a head-sized strip of paper and attach the cards to it using sticky tack.  One child puts an American Symbol card onto their headband.  The others in their group give them clues about the symbol until the player guesses it correctly.  They LOVED it!

Here's a follow up printable.  Just click here to download it from Google Docs.

Super-Duper Super Bowl Sale

In honor of Super Bowl XLVI we are throwing a HUGE TpT sale! 

Click here for a link to our Reading Strategy Apron post to see the apron!

Super Bowl Fun Facts:

*A 30 second commercial costs $3 million

*72 official NFL balls are made for the Super Bowl game

*100 million viewers around the world will watch the game

*14,500 tons of chips will be consumed

*Disneyland has the MVP endorse their theme park with the famous answer to the question, "What's Next?"..."I'm going to Disneyland!!"  Disney reportedly pays this athlete $30,000 for endorsing their theme park and making an appearance there

WOW!!!!!