Back to School Mentor Text: Miss Rumphius

I love back to school mentor texts-this is our chance to hook them with reading! One of my favorite parts of my reading block are read alouds. I call my students to the carpet (yes, 4th graders love this too!) so they can get up close to the text and be fully engaged. One of the first books I share during that first week is Miss Rumphius. The illustrations are beautiful and the message is inspirational.

Amazon's Description: The narrator's great aunt, Alice Rumphius, wanted to travel the world and do the one thing her grandfather told her she must do. He told her she must do something to make the world more beautiful. Miss Rumphius travels the world and comes back to live by the sea where the story began. She discovered her way of making the world more beautiful was scattering flower seeds so everyone could enjoy the beauty of the colorful flowers. The story ends with Miss Rumphius telling her great-niece that she must do something to make the world more beautiful.

 

Alice is told that there are three things she must do in her life:
1) She must travel to far away places.
2) She must live by the sea.
3) She must make the world more beautiful in some way.

After reading Miss Rumphius, I ask my students to think about how we could make our classroom more beautiful. I get several responses (keep it clean, decorate, move furniture, straighten the books) until I get the one I want...posters!

For my first few years of teaching, I spent hundreds of dollars on premade posters from teacher stores and catalogs, then I thought my students could make their own posters!

 

Each student selects an inspirational quote and interprets the meaning of the quote to illustrate it for a poster. I've done this activity for years and it gives students a sense of ownership of our classroom and it's great for community building.

 

They really brighten our classroom and it "MAKES IT MORE BEAUTIFUL!"

My students make extra for the front office to make our school more beautiful too.
They love that our class gets "orders" for additional posters!

 

 



This picture book is the perfect reminder for teachers that we are making the world a more beautiful place with every student "blooming" in our classroom. It's a great life lesson that we should all do our part to make the world a better place, being example citizens. This book would be great for Earth Day: students could plant flowers (like Miss Rumphius) if you want to revisit this book or wait until Earth Day to read it.

So excited to link up Miss Rumphius with my sweet friends Amanda & Stacia for their mentor texts: back to school linky!

 Last day to enter my giveaway!
Google Reader goes away tomorrow! Please follow with Bloglovin'!



 

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Five For Friday: Birthday Sale, New Products. & More!

Happy Friday Everyone! I hope you had a great week! On Fridays I love linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to find out what everyone did all week and on Fridays it's time to play kickball!!

My birthday was Wednesday and to celebrate my TPT Store will be 20% off until midnight tomorrow evening!
Look what I got in the mail on my birthday from my BBB Jivey! It was such a nice surprise and she didn't even know it was my birthday! She made my day!

 

 

I "cutesified" 3 more products for my TPT Store! Here they are:

 

Place Value Worm Bulletin Board Plus Student Manipulative:

Perfect to hang over your chalkboard!

The "mini" version is for students to use as a manipulative.

Blackline and color version available.

Interactive Figurative Language Bulletin Board:

I had several emails asking about this file cabinet in my classroom that I posted several months ago. This bulletin board is perfect to keep track of all that figurative language your class encounters during the year and wants to keep track of! Also included are student tracking sheets for students to reference during writing-gives them ownership of their learning.

     

 Idiom Poster Quotes:

 Students get so excited about illustrating these idioms-makes a great bulletin board display!

Great visual for students to reference and learn new idioms!

 

 

Have you heard of Coupon Sherpa??!!

It's a MUST-HAVE app! All of your favorite places have coupons on this app-no more cutting those paper coupons. I know everyone is crafting and creatng this summer, so it's great to have Hobby Lobby, Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics coupons at your fingertips! There are hundreds of your local stores on this app!

 

I have been working on my office for over a day! I needed to clean out and organize badly! You know those drawers you just throw everything in? I took everything out and labeled/organized that drawer!

 

 Here is my bookcase-I love it! I had it custom made for my "teacher" books (the carpenter who built it borrowed one of my standard sized books to customize it for me). Anyway, you know how things get during the school year: tossed anywhere, upside down, junk that doesn't even belong in there...tell me you can relate.

 Here she is...nice and neatly organized! I cleaned out a bunch of stuff and got rid of old outdated materials. All books are by subject.

 

I know you know about my Post-It and label obsession...there's a few packages of labels and cardstock on the bottom shelf, but my prized possessions are held elsewhere.

Doesn't it feel so good to get a big project completed?

In case you haven't heard....dozens of bloggers are each having a giveaway to get you to follow their blog through Bloglovin'. Thanks Amanda for setting this wonderful linky up!

If you're not already following me, I'd love for you to! Don't forget to enter my giveaway! 3 winners and the grand prize winner will get a package delivered to their doorstop!

Follow by clicking my button below, on the sidebar, or on Rafflecopter!



 

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Go check out what everyone else did this week!

Show Us Some BlogLovin' Giveaway!!!

Hi Fabulous Followers!!

You have probably heard by now that Google Reader is going away on July 1st. Well, Google Reader may be going away, but I don't want YOU to go away, so I hope that you will consider following my blog through bloglovin! I know that change is hard...so I thought I might sweeten it up for you a little bit!

I am Participating in a  bloglovin' giveaway linky for all of my fabulous followers that take the leap and switch over to bloglovin. You may have already switched over! In that case, this will be an easy entry!

You will need to set up an account with Bloglovin' so that you can follow me. Please be sure to leave your Bloglovin' username in the Rafflecopter entry. Since I can't see the list of all of my followers (yet), I am asking that you "like" this post on Bloglovin' after you become a follower. I can see who has liked the post, so that will be a way for me to verify the winners! You can click the button below.

 

If you want to go ahead and move all of the blogs you follow from Google over, you can go to this link and it will take you through the super easy steps. BUT, please go to my bloglovin link and make sure that you are following me through bloglovin. To be sure, make sure that the blue button at the top of our bloglovin page has been clicked (it should be gray with the word following- if it's blue, please click it to follow!)

*Today's my birthday, so I want to celebrate with you!

So, if you follow me with Bloglovin', please enter my giveaway!! I will be picking THREE WINNERS- there will be one GRAND PRIZE winner who receives a Head Over Heels For Teaching Box plus their choice of ANY ITEM FROM MY TPT STORE! What's in the box?? You'll have to wait and see when it's delivered to your doorstep! But I can promise you, it's some of my favorite things and I'm a GREAT packer! The other two winners will also get to choose ANY ITEM FROM MY TPT STORE!

Check out all these great bloggers also having a giveawy at their blog! You have a chance to win at every blog!!!

Good luck!

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Tried It Tuesday: Facebook Fan Freebie

So excited to link up with my friend Holly for Tried it Tuesday and excited to share what I "tried" today!

With the help of my friend Jivey and Mrs. Fultz's video tutorial, I have a Fans Only Freebie tab! It actually took me longer than I thought it would-there were some technical difficulties! The video tutorial was only about 9 minutes, but she's an expert! :O) Jivey's tips helped me to design my image!

I also added this feature in hopes some of my fans will tell their friends about my page. :O)

 Please click to make sure you're following so you can pick up Fans Only Freebies!

It feels good to have another thing done! Go check out what others have tried this week!

Also, linking up with Tori for her Bloglovin' Blog Hop!



 Make sure you visit my blog tomorrow for a special surprise!

Monday Made It: Teacher Gifts, Posters, and Winners

 

I love Mondays in the summer because Tara's linky holds me accountable to get some projects done!

My first "Made-It" was a Picture Frame Post-It Holder inspired by Pinterest.

First I gathered all of my supplies.

 

You will need:

• clear 4x6 acrylic frames (Dollar Tree)
• cardstock or scrapbook paper (cut to 4x6 pieces)
• ribbon
• tags
• post-its
• scissors/paper cutter
• hot glue gun (optional)

 



Just cut the paper to size (4x6) place in frame, tie ribbon and tag (secure in back with hot glue-optional), and place post-its on the frame. Super easy and chic!

I think these gifts for my team members and my children's teachers will be a hit!

My next "Made-It" was a creation I made for my classroom-it's an 11x14 poster! (Gotta keep the heel theme!)



But then my friends that wear ballet flats felt left out...

And then my friends that love flip flops weren't feeling the love...

And finally, some teachers like to boot, scoot, and boogie while they teach!

 

Which one do you teach in?

 

Late breaking news....I have the winners for my 300 Follower Giveaway! Thank you to everyone who participated, donated, and followed along-I appreciate all of you! This blogging journey has changed my life with new friends, inspirations from others, and the outlet I needed to share my passion. I hope you continue to follow, comment, and read! 

Congratulations Melissa B. and Ilyce P.!!! You've hit the jackpot with all these wonderful blogger donations!