Planning Ahead (Maybe)

So ... ever since discovering Pinterest my ink and Paypal budgets have multiplied. By an insane amount. Another area in which I need to learn to exercise more self control. :/ (The other two being CHOCOLATE and putting an amount of books I can actually read in a given period on hold at the library.) I thought I'd share some of my favorite purchases from the TPT Back to School sale.

With my luck many things will change this year and I won't get to use these.

And some say "Why are you buying lesson ideas? Aren't you supposed to come up with those?" But hey. If someone else has a great idea I'm gonna take advantage of it. Saves me time and may be a better activity. I tweak it for my kiddos!

Though seriously ... considering if I have enough original ideas to open my own store because all the shopping starts to get expensive. Plus my clip art habit. ;]

First up? (Not necessarily in order of how much I like it. Just first on this list.) Graphs Galore. Find it here.

I don't naturally think of graphing. Kids still need that skill. And hey ... I could improve on it myself since I'm more and more interested in designing infographics (I know ... makes no sense, does it?).

Thought I could integrate them pretty easily into storytimes or booktalks. There's a zoo one, a pet one, a "critters we fear" one, an AR test one (could totally have done without that but oh well), and a test scores one. Covers bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, and line plotting.

Our campus math scores were not what we wanted them to be so this is my third attempt (first is always decimal place value and finding books in the non-fic area, second was our library data board (if you missed that last year as it came pretty late ... you'll see it again!), and now this one. Will be adding more, I think, with the iPad/iTouch stations in rotations. I hope.

I only bought the first one a couple weeks ago. Not even sure ... I guess with reader's theatre and fluency practice? Not as directly curriculum related. Just cooler than cool. Color (only WHY did they put the blue behind all of the masks? Total ink waster and you cut that part off.) and blackline. Find these Halloween themed masks here.

Library Centers. You know her! Super cute alternative to kind of boring reading logs. Find this one here. (And check out the other genre one.)

Sort of a reverse biography study. The info is given and the kiddos have to figure out WHO it is. Find it here.

Seasonal words on picture tiles so the kids can manipulate them and create new words. Sort of like a precursor to Scrabble or Words with Friends. Find it here.

Another area I don't naturally think of (I sound like a dummy. I mean, I do think of other areas. Just ... ELA is just my natural go-to. Branching out!) so these will be helpful. Might integrate them into specific content area rotation studies or just have them as an enrichment area. Find them here.






This is not even all. So ... go. Spend your money if you are so inclined.