Star Writer Award!

What a surprise to receive yet another award! 

I've always been an avid writer but never in my wildest dreams 

did I ever expect to receive such a prestigious award!

Again, this top award was sent through cyberspace 

and landed mysteriously on my blog!

 I'm not allowed to divulge the identity of this well known blog reviewer!

Maybe you'd like to take a guess?

Education Blog Award 2012

I'm very humbled and honored to have received this award 

from one of the most prestigious blog reviewers on the Web.
She spends endless hours, days, months to
help teachers' dreams come true! 

This award is not passed from one blogger to another
but rather is awarded secretly to education bloggers. 

TeachersPayTeachers Back to School Sale!

TeachersPayTeachers is having an incredible Back to School Sale on August 12th and August 13th.

Use PROMO CODE BTS12 to get an additional 10% off!  Fantastic lessons, novel packets, ready to print worksheets, Common Core items and more! The savings will help teachers have a stress free start for a new school year. Click on the sale sign to see more! 

Remember! This sale starts tomorrow, Sunday August 12th! 

Happy Back to School to All!

Teachers are adding to their wish lists on TeachersPayTeachers now. Browse my store and add to your list. The sale begins Sunday! Everything in my store will be on sale!

Just a few examples are...

This is one of my newest packets of ready to print worksheets for common and proper nouns. Great practice for the Common Core Standards!

Check out my Common Core Reading themes worksheet and student friendly rubric that can be used with any story or novel! 

Students have so much fun coloring the states they don't realize they're learning

states' shapes, locations and other important information. Have them work in small group

and watch the fun begin!! 

These cards are a perfect way to assess your students' knowledge of vowels/consonant sounds, prefixes/suffixes, base/root words, verb tenses, syllables, singular/plural nouns and more! 

Use as pre-- and post assessments to determine their strengths and weaknesses.

There are 24 task cards, teacher answer sheet, teacher sheet to record their answers, mastery certificates in black and white and Common Core labels for students' folder in color and black and white. 

Once you determine who needs extra practice in a certain area, you can work with small groups. 

I also offer novel packets with ready to print worksheets that save teachers from having to create them!

Stop by my store and browse my 200+ products of teacher saving worksheets lessons in reading, spelling, English, science, social studies, holidays and more! 

Scroll down to see more of my product listings that were featured in the Lesson Cloud sale! 

Ruth

Subjects and Predicates

I remember my fifth grade teacher required us to state our answers in complete sentences. I'm not referring to writing our answers in complete sentences. She would make us turn a question around and answer her orally in a full sentence. I learned a valuable lesson from her and throughout my teacher career have always insisted my students do the same. 

These days everything is quick and easy. Need a cake for a party? Buy a boxed cake mix. Need to change the channel on the television? Grab the remote instead of getting up to change it. So why not answer questions with a quick "yes" or "no"? 

Is everything quick and easy in our classrooms? Do we require kids to give us oral answers in complete sentences or do we accept one word answers so we can move on to the next topic? Are we too stressed out because we're required to meet goals in all subjects by the end of the year and it  just doesn't seem like we'll be able to cover all the material we're supposed to? Have our expectations changed?

Oral response is just as important as written response. In my opinion, speaking in complete sentences should be required in schools. 

For that reason I created a subject and predicate packet of ready to print student worksheets with my instructions. Hopefully, teachers will stress the importance of written and oral responses as they present these to their students and require they give their oral responses using complete subjects and predicates! :)

UPDATE! August 5th The Back to School Dollar Days Sale was a great success. Thank you to everyone who participated in this great sale! My lessons are back to pre-sale prices but watch my TeachersPayTeachers store for sales.  Thanks again!


Ruth


Announcing the first ever Back to School Dollar Days sale...with a $75 Gift Certificate to Really Good Stuff to boot! This Sunday, July 29th and Monday, July 30th, join us on the Cloud for an amazing sale and giveaway!

The Lesson Cloud authors have put together an amazing list of hundreds of items for just $1 or $2!! Stock up on all your Back to School needs for just $1 or $2 each. Plus, once you've stocked up, enter our $75 Gift Certificate Giveaway to Really Good Stuff!! Couldn't you use an extra $75 to start off the school year?

Keep watching The Lesson Cloud blog, The Lesson Cloud Facebook page and The Lesson Cloud Twitter feeds for more! Teachers Pre-K - 12 are selling incredible lessons for $1.00 and $2.00. 

I have the following items on sale! Be sure to click on the Lesson Cloud Sale sign (above) to see the entire list of what talented teachers have put on sale. The link will be live just before midnight EST, on July 28th and the sale will last through July 30th All lessons will return to their original prices after the 30th.

Originally $3.00 On sale for $2.00

Originally $6.00 On sale for $2.00

Originally $3.75 On sale for $2.00

Originally #3.00 On sale for $2.00

Originally $4.00 On Sale for $2.00

Originally $2.75 On Sale for $1.00

Originally $3.00 On Sale for $2.00

Originally $4.50 On Sale for $2.00

Fish and Bubbles Clipart

Fish and Bubbles?  How did I think of that name?  A week ago, my husband and I went to one of our favorite local seafood restaurants that sits within a marina in town. I always say I'm going to order something different, but as it turned out, I once again ordered one of my favorite dishes, "Fish and Chips".

That day I had been creating all kinds of little critters on my computer. One of them was a colorful fish. As I was enjoying my delicious fish and chips,  the words FISH and BUBBLES popped into my mind. Fish and chips. Fish and Bubbles! When we got home, I turned on my computer and began creating bubbles which lead to seaweed, a little clam, more fish an underwater background and more.

I think teachers often have those same kinds of experiences. They have an idea in mind about a lesson they want to present, or worksheets they want to create and suddenly, out of nowhere,  PING! A creative idea is born!

It took me a few days to put the packet of clipart together for TeachersPayTeachers.com. I see it being used along with a class ocean theme. Worksheets with fish and bubbles. The bubbles an be used in a variety of ways. Enlarge them and use them as background circles for numbers or letters of the alphabet. I also designed an underwater background with hues of blue.

Here are a few of the fish. Notice how bright and sharp the images are. All are in PNG format and have transparent backgrounds, so layering and sizing them is fun! I also included some black and white fish that can be used as coloring pages.

These are a couple of the fish. All are large and can be made any size. The clarity, color and sharpness of the images remain the same no matter what size they are.

This is the cover of my packet. If you'd like to read more about it, click on it!

Amanda Clark Cousin in the Summer Olympics

It's very exciting to have a cousin who's participating in the Summer Olympics!!

Our cousin, Amanda Clark was with the Olympians in Washington, D.C., during the Fourth of July celebration and concert that was aired on television. 

Each of the Olympians' names were called and close up's were shown of all these talented young people. It was a great moment these young Olympians, who will be heading to Great Britain to compete!

Amanda started sailing at a young age and has raced competitively all over the world. She also raced in the last summer Olympics in Bejing, China.

Click on the picture to go to the Team Go Sail 2012 site!

On the Team Go Sail 2012 site, you'll see information about Amanda and Sarah, her teammate.  There's also a picture of her standing with one of the greatest musical American prodigies .. the famous John Williams who conducted that night. 

They're on FB too where you can "like" her page. We have to cheer for our American Olympians!

Ruth