I'm in the spotlight!

Thanks to Mr. Hughes and his wonderful blog, Educator's Life,  I am the featured teacher-author. I am very grateful for the opportunity to be featured on his wonderful blog full of resources. In addition, he is a fellow TPT seller, and makes some great stuff to check out! Please check out my feature by clicking the button below.


His TPT store link is: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrhughes

Thank you again!

New Goodies!

 

I have been extremely busy since getting my job as a 5th grade teacher at a very rigorous IB school. Unfortunately, I have neglected my blog a bit, but plan on revamping it and making it more informative and useful very soon. In the meantime, I have created sooo many various new items, most specifically targeted for the common core. I have added lots of task cards, board games, prefix and suffix work,  3-5th grade math items, comma activities, graphic organizers, and much more. Be sure to check all of them out at my TPT Store!

Teacher Feature and Product Swap!

Happy 2013 everyone. It has been a while since I posted, but I am a part of a product swap and wanted to feature a fellow blogger's awesome product!

When I first found out who my product swap partner was,I was super excited. Her names is Jennifer Findley at Teaching to Inspire. I have been a follower of Jennifer's on TPT since I began my 5th grade teaching position in October. Teaching the new 5th grade Common Core math has been tricky, and her products have really helped. So when I found out she was my partner for the swap, I thought "Awesome! I get another great product of hers, as well as the benefits of swapping". We both swapped our 5th grade Common Core math items. I swapped my new winter 5th grade fractions and decimals board task cards and board game, and she swapped her new Patterns and Coordinate Grids Unit Pack. I already owned some of her fractions dice games, and her Common Core math review pack, so I was excited for this product, which would be the upcoming unit for my class. This resource is jam packed with Common Core resources, and is organized very nicely for each standard of 5th grade dealing with this unit ((5.OA.3, 5.G.1, 5.G.2). There are performance tasks, assessments, task cards, practice work, posters, and more! Plus, each item comes with an answer key.
       

There are over 50 pages in this unit!
 Included are: 1. Label the Coordinate Grid Printable 2. Create a Coordinate Grid (Similar to a Craftivity) 3. Complete Patterns Printable 4. What's the Rule? Printable 5. Completing Patterns; Word Problems Printable 6. Graph the Data Printable 7. Pattern Grid Match Up Printable 8. Using Grids to Complete Tables Printable 9. 6 Printables for you to use to design your own Plot the Point handouts (whole numbers and decimals) 10. Where Am I? Printable 11. Plot the Town Printable 12. Real World Problems: Shrek and Toy Story Printable 13. Real World Problems: Candy Bar Sales Printable (2 pages) 14.Task Cards for Coordinate Grids (18 Questions) 15. 8 Word Wall Cards 16. Extra Grids
 I found this unit extremely thorough, and I can not wait to use it with my 5th graders beginning next week. It has made my lesson planning a breeze. I like to do mini lessons and then learning stations in math (plus this is required at my school). I plan on incorporating the task cards at one station, and then rotation the other included items through other stations. Be sure to Check out Jennifer's blog with great teaching ideas here.

Also, check out this great product of hers that I featured here: Patterns and Coordinate Grids

Be sure to check out my new Common Core products at my TPT store, including my 5th grade fractions and decimals task cards and board game  (covering most standards of decimals and fractions) as well.
 

28% off sale (two days only!)

Quick update promise I'll get this blog up and running again soon...it's really hard to start teaching middle of the year. However, I wanted to let everyone know I have a ton of new products, including seasonal and more writing prompts, in my TPT store, and Monday and Tuesday everything is 20% off plus another 8% off using the promo code on the TPT banner on the site. Now is the time to buy those items you have in your shopping cart! Happy teaching everyone :)

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Dannerk

I got a job!

I know, I know..it's been a while since I have posted, but it has been with good reason. Last Friday I was offered a 5th grade teaching job at a Title-1  international baccalaureate elementary school 5 minutes from where I live. As some of you may know, I was teaching 4th grade at a Title-1 school about an hour from where I live. I took the chance on not renewing my contract last year with the hopes of finding a more ideally located teaching position. At first, I did not get a job and was subbing, but last Friday my risk was rewarded with a new job! I am very excited, and also kinda nervous (I start next Monday and it's already second nine weeks). I have also never taught at an international baccalaureate school, but I don't think it will be a problem. Luckily, I am feeling pretty prepared thanks to the fact that I was keeping up to date with Common Core, and designing lessons and products for classrooms. Anyways, because of this great news, I have been very busy and will probably remain so the rest of the year. I will begin reposting with more frequency after next week though. Plus, now I can make more posts that have pictures of my classroom and the activities, so  the blog will only get better! In addition, I got a new camera, so I will have better quality pictures to add to my blog to. I am very excited. Be prepared for a revamped and better blog in a couple weeks.

My new door sign I created using my new borders clip art Here!

Fall is in the Air!

Despite having a wonderful time of relaxing a bit in the Summer, and despite Spring blooming with flowers, Autumn is absolutely my favorite time of the year (the only thing I like about winter is the holidays). There is just something about the crisp, fresh-smelling air, the beautiful changing leaves, and the perfect temperatures that make me so happy. I also have an affinity for fall boots, scarves, jeans, festivals, races, football games, and pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin!!! This season also brings some fun holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving that you may or may not teach/celebrate in your class. In honor of this wonderful holiday, I want to showcase my fall items (I only have a few), and the many more items available with links to my store and a Fall blog link party! Check out the badge below to see lots more fall goodies in addition to my own. Enjoy this wonderful season :)

Fabulous Fall Writing Prompts- These 40  Common Core writing prompts include 10 informational, 10 narrative, 10 opinion, and 10 creative writing prompt cards, that when glued on popsicle sticks make adorable writing prompt cards. There are a mixture of fall, Thanksgiving, and Halloween prompts in this set with fall clip art too.



Fall Borders Clip Art- This set of basic .png fall borders is perfect for creating your own items for your class, and are perfect for the season.

 
Trick or Treating for Syllables (also available as "Shopping for Syllables")- This fun, engaging sorting activity connects syllables to trick or treating, and has students sort picture word cards based on their syllables. There are also blank cards and two assessments.


Pumpkin uppercase/lowercase alphabet cards- great for use as flash cards or word walls or bulletin boards! Cute!

Finally, click these links (the actual image badges) to go to their Fall linky parties for more great fall finds! Don't forget to link up your differentation posts in my Differentiation Blog Linky Party too!

Thank you :)
-Kristin

Differentiation and a Linky Party to go along with it!

Hello teachers and bloggers! We all know that differentiation is a key component that needs to be incorporated in lessons and that principals look for when making observations. Therefore, it is important to understand how to differentiate for the needs of various students. Methods of differentiation may include graphic organizers, visual and verbal cues, leveled texts, scaffolding instruction, incorporating the multiple intelligences,  giving students smaller tasks or chunking the assignment, giving them extended time, and much more. Although differentiation can be a challenge, luckily the internet provides us with some assistance and useful resources. I wanted to give you a link to my college professor's blog "Teaching with Purpose". This site has so many great links, resources, templates, tips, and so much more for differentiation, lesson planning, assessments, and so on. It is not a blog, and Dr. Carr created this site purely because she is passionate about education and wanted to give teachers some great resources.

<div align="center"><a href="http://teachingside.blogspot.com/2012/09/differentiation-and-linky-party-to-go.html" title="Taking a Walk on the Teaching Side- Differentiation Link-up"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig6Yl2RjvjgyCr3Z_y_HY5pIkKd4GG9ctzIatBbNAcLCcWS0Oy2J6RlC877xeWaYLcq9aBVSiKUQ54x334waiPooIxmRbu1TX04oytlqACBpgWCGzFXGHiI5yy9yz7FNIxL7RhMRp3zj0/s192/diff3.png" alt="Taking a Walk on the Teaching Side- Differentiation Link-up" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 In addition, this post also has a linky party below so that you can link up your blog posts with your tips or products for differentiation in the classroom. Simply click the add link below, and follow the prompts. Be sure to link up the specific post on differentiation, or an item that would be good for differentiation, not just your general blog site.  When you are finished, please mention and link this post by sharing the badge above! and linking to the specific post with this badge and with your differentiation info.
Remember, please copy and paste the code above in your blog post to link back to this linky party. Thanks!
Please follow my blog for 10 Weekly Teacher Finds, links, resources, and other goodies!

Some of my products great for all students but that can also be incorporated into differentiated aspects of a lesson are: My new Dolch site words, sold individually or as a set of 220; Writing Prompt cards, now sold as a bundle of 120 informational, narrative, opinion, and creative, or just narrative, just opinion, just informational, or sets of 40 mixed cards; my Guided Reading Binder with prompt cards, graphic organizers, organization for grouping, running records and more; my Community Helpers Multiple Intelligence Unit with 10 complete lesson and many supplements; and my Early Finishers Task Cards with lots of ideas for early finishers! Plus many more items and some freebies available in my TPT store: Click Here or any of the links above for the individual products. Be sure to follow the store for updates!

  

Thank you!