Back to School Indiana Blog Hop! (FREEBIE!)

(I know this is long - but you probably want to read all the way to the end...  hint hint!)

I'm very sad to say that today is my last Friday of summer break.  (Insert sad face here).  I've been working like a maniac trying to get things done.  I have TONS of blog posts scheduled out for the next few weeks so get ready!!  But for now, I'm super excited to be apart of the Indiana Back to School Blog Hop!  I had the chance to meet these amazing teachers earlier this July and let me tell you - what a FUN bunch of ladies! :)  We chat all of the time now and have put together this very special Back to School Blog Hop just for you!

There are so many Back to School themed giveaways, hops, Facebook frenzies going on right now that I hope this one helps you out!  At each stop on the hop (ha!  that rhymes!)  you should find a fantastic Freebie from the author as well as their recommendation on other B2S products and ideas.  Get your notebooks/PIN buttons ready because here we go!

I've been so good this year about taking pictures of things I want to share - let's just hope I keep it up!  I figured I could start sharing now better than later.  :)

(This is NOT my original idea).  I found this idea on pinterest and thought it was FANTASTIC so I decided to make my own.  We always do a "Scoop on the Group" poster for group expectations but I liked this much better.  If it wasn't obvious, you move the red arrow to the section in which the students are being groups so they know their expectations.   It's great!

So I don't know about you but I DREAD teaching procedures every year.  I completely realize how important they are and am very good at classroom management, but ah!  There's just not that many ways to make them 'fun'  So, to help I've created some fun and easy "Go for the Goal" procedure lesson goal sheets.  Basically, after teaching different procedures, the students write an "I Can" statement and then set a personal goal on how they want to do with this procedure.  This can include percentages or just basic wording.  Then they identify 3 different behaviors that they can do to help meet this goal.  There's also a section for teacher feedback.  I plan to, sometime in the first 2-3 weeks of school, give each student personal feedback on how they've been doing on that particular procedure.  This is going to be done by writing comments, putting stickers, or drawing smileys.  When we're completely done with the books the kids will then circle 'yes' or 'no' whether or not they've met that goal.  I <3 these and know that these will help keep my kids accountable and are a great way to 'end' those procedure lessons.  Check them out if you'd like! - just click the photo!

 Ok - so if I don't have a brilliant idea for the rest of the year, its because this one idea took all of my creative juices.  The picture might not look like a lot, but believe me - it is!  I teach 3rd grade this year and we take the standardized test at the end of the year.  So to help the students with all of that testing vocabulary I've come up with this FANTASTIC year long activity that we'll do everyday.  This poster and words display is right outside my door.  As the students enter the classroom, they must say the word that's being displayed.  Sometime that day we write down the word on the recording sheet and write its definition as well.  We go through 5 words in a week.  But HERE'S the kicker!!  The next week we go BACK through those same 5 words.  But this time the students are practicing answering questions that include those words.  So at the end of the year the students will have learned how to read, known the definitions of, and have had a practice question for over NINETY words.  They WILL be ready for that test :)  I'd love for you to check this one out.  Just click on one of the photos!!

Ok - onto a non TPT product ;)   Something I like to do in my classroom is have students give feedback to one another during each lesson.  A lot of times students don't know what to say.  So I've come up with this fun, but simple, feedback bulletin board.  It has 5 sample sentence starters for students to use when needing help to give peer feedback.  

Ok - back to procedures!  Remember when I said I hated teaching them?  Yeah - still do.  BUT  this will make it more fun for the students to review all the procedures they've learned.  It's a fun partner game where they questions are opened ended and all of the questions are procedure questions.  They're questions like "When can I sharpen my pencil?" and "Where do I turn in my homework?"  Cute, fun, easy, AND they're learning procedures.  Yeah?  Yeah!  Just click the photo to see more!

Yay for bulletin boards!  I always like to do something different from others and it was hard coming up with something this year!  I kept thinking back to my students (because I loop) and I kept remembering them saying how excited they were for 3rd grade because they got to do this.... and that... and this...  So I was like - Hey!  I've heard it through the grapevine!  Boom!  Instant bulletin board idea :)  Yes, it looks bare now, but eventually the students will be creating their own bunch of grapes - each grape has a picture of something that they've 'heard' they're going to learn/or something they're excited about learning.  Too cute!  Just click the photo to see more!

Ok - one more fun plug! :)  Anyone else in here have students in their classrooms who LOVE cootie catchers?  Me too!  So I created some fun and cute back to school cootie catchers.  There are 5 in all, some where its all filled out and then some where the students have to write in their own answers before they can play :)  They're super cute and super fun!  Click away! :)

Ok - I did say there was a freebie... right??  Here you go!  I made some "What to do when I'm done?" cards for my room and thought I could share them with you!  You can display them however you'd like.  Below is a picture of how I use them.  Just click the photo to download them for free!

To thank you for reading to the end I'm going to have a secret contest.  PIN any of the above photos and then leave a comment with the PIN URL for a chance to win ALL of the products I've discussed in this post.  That's FIVE back to school products for free!  Pin more than one product and have more chances to win :)  You guys rock!

Where do you go now?  Off to see Ms. Jenny at Luckey Frogs Lilypads!  Just click the Blog Hop button below!  Why should you keep going? - Well if you don't want a chance to win a $75.00 gift card then fine - stop here...  but if you DO then keep on hopping!