Currently, One Candle-Hanukkah/World War II Mentor Text, and a Sale!

Happy December 1st! I can't believe how fast the year is going! I hope those of you that had a few days off for Thanksgiving enjoyed it as much as I did. Since it is December 1st, I am linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for Currently.

Most of my Currently is self-explanatory but a few things  could use a little explanation.
Thinking: My birthday is tomorrow...hard to believe another year has passed. I can't help myself but my birthday tends to be the time of year that I evaluate myself...I find it is a good time of year to make new goals for myself.

My favorite tradition is something my husband introduced me to during our first Christmas together. His family makes giant homemade cinnamon buns on Christmas Eve to be enjoyed for breakfast on Christmas morning. Before we eat we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and pray for our upcoming year. It's a nice tradition that I am looking forward to passing on. This year will be the first year that Glen's mom won't be making the Cinnamon buns...Glen and I will be taking over the tradition, it is sure to be a bittersweet time for us.

I also want to link up with Collaboration Cuties for their Mentor Text linky.

A book I like to use this time of year is One Candle. This book focuses on a family celebrating Hanukkah together.

Even though I teach at a Christian school, with 0 Jewish children I still like to read this book. My students and I read Number the Stars together so this is a great book to have them make text-to-text connections. I also like to use this book to teach questioning. Because there are some heavy topics this book helps us generate a lot of great questions.

 

I also love this book because it helps my students learn about the awful parts of World War II in a kid appropriate way. I think it is so important to slowly introduce our students to some of the events of WWII and this book is a great way to do that. I also like that it teaches my students about another holiday that others celebrate.

What are your favorite mentor text to use to teach WWII? What books do you use to teach Text-to-Text Connections?

I also wanted to share the TPT sale starting tomorrow! (Banner from Krista Wallden)

I don't know about you, but I have a bunch of items in my wishlist. My entire store will be 20% off so when you enter the Promo code from TPT you will receive 28% off. Happy Shopping!

Cutting, Laminating, and TPT Sale-Summer Must be Over!

Sorry that I've been a bit MIA this week. I've been busy working in my classroom. I'm trying to finish setting it up by day, and I'm printing, cutting, laminating and whole punching by night! My classroom is almost ready to "reveal." I'm looking forward to sharing it with you.

I'm also super excited to share about the TPT sale going on this weekend. 

Every item in my store is 20% off 8/18-8/20.

Teacher's Pay Teachers is giving a 10% off sale on 8/18 and 8/19. You will need to enter in the code BTS13 to receive the extra 10% off.

When you do the math you end up with a 28% off all items in my store (and many other TPT sellers stores!) Be sure to head over there to check out the awesome deals this weekend. I have a few new items in my store this week.

Common Core Aligned Writing Bundle

I know I have a few items in my cart that I can't wait to purchase! (Click on the pictures to check them out-sorry that they are a bit blurry!)

Numbers and Operations Bundle

Geometry Unit

Spiral Math Review

What are you looking forward to buying?

 

Check out this linkup to see what others are planning to buy!

What's in My Cart

I'm hoping you all know by now about the amazing sale that starts tomorrow on TPT for Teacher Appreciation. (If you don't be sure to read to the bottom for the information.) Because of this awesome sale, Fifth in the Middle is holding a fun linky party. "What's In Your Cart"

 

If you are anything like me, you have a ton of stuff on your TPT wishlist, and are trying to choose which ones to buy. These are the items that have moved from my wish list to my cart...so if you are looking for shopping suggestions this is what I plan to buy this week.

Inference Task Cards 5 Set Bundle



Contiguous 48 States Capitals Magic Square Puzzle

First 10 Weeks Mentor Sentence Unit


Common Core Word Problem Bundled Set Grade 4-5


Hands On Common Core Fraction Unit


That's what's in my cart.What's in yours? Happy Shopping!



Many sellers are running a sale on their stores. I'm running a sale too on all of my products. You receive 20% off from me when you purchase anything from my store starting tomorrow 5/6-5/8. But TPT is offering their own discount. So if you purchase on 5/7 or 5/8 you will receive an extra 10%, (which ends up being 28% off the original price.) All you need to do is use the code TAD13. 

Mentor Texts in the Reading Workshop-Eve Bunting and a sale

A colleague of mine asked me what my favorite mentor texts were to use during Reading Workshop. She was looking to build her library and wanted some new suggestions.

I have a few authors that are my "go-to" authors when I am looking for a book to share during Reading Workshop. The first author is Eve Bunting. Her books are beautifully written and for the most part not very familiar to my students. A few of my favorites are:
 




I use these books to teach inference, summarizing, synthesizing, questioning, making connections...you get the point. They are great books for all of the major strategies and skills that we teach our kiddos. If you haven't used any of her books I really encourage you to do so!

Here is a making connections freebie that you can download. It has a bookmark and a chart for students to use. I have them tape them into their Reader's Notebooks so they can go back and use it as a reference if they get stuck.

What are your favorite mentor texts to use in reading or writing class? Be sure to link up with Collaboration Cuties for their Mentor Text Linky to share some of your favorite Mentor Texts!

I'm not sure how many of you have heard, but many TPT sellers are offering a sale this week for Teacher Appreciation. I'm running a sale too on all of my products. You receive 20% off from me when you purchase anything from my store starting tomorrow 5/6-5/8. But TPT is offering their own discount. So if you purchase on 5/7 or 5/8 you will receive an extra 10%, (which ends up being 28% off the original price.) All you need to do is use the code TAD13. I don't know about you, but I have a lot of things in my cart that I plan to purchase! Happy shopping!