The Ultimate Middle Years Giveaway and Blog Hop

Today I am super excited to be participating in The Ultimate Middle Years Giveaway and Blog Hop: Going Back Fully Stashed!

 

 

For those of you who are just visiting my blog for the first time...welcome!  I'm Jennifer and I go by the name Liliris on my blog: Fourth Grade Garden.  If your interested in any of my products check out my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and be sure to follow me on Pinterest.  Enter the giveaway for a chance to win my Survival of the Fittest Bear Hunt Game and more.  Plus, just for participating, you can score my Cardboard Math Arcade Pack plus loads of freebies from many others!

Now, I'd like to introduce you to Joy from Joy of Teaching!


Joy teaches special education and her blog is perfect for a wide range of grades. Readers will find a variety of levels from Kindergarten through 5th. There are some freebies, a DIY project, and some teaching tips.  Joy is donating one item of the winners choice from her TpT store along with her Olympic Medal Coordinate Graphing Activity free to whoever participates.

Check out Innovative Connections and Lessons From The Middle for over $300 worth of prizes which will be broken into three awesome prize packages for three lucky winners.  Plus...those of you who complete the blog hop challenge will get a bundle of awesome freebies to make your school year fabulous!  Hurray, you only have until August 27th!  Start hopping!

Gearing up for a great year!

Ahhh...2 weeks until my first day back with students.  And these two weeks are full of curriculum writing, meetings, and conference days.  Where has the summer gone?
I'm going to keep this post short and sweet!

This week for Monday Made It I created some cute labels for my students' water bottles.  Each label contains the phrase, "Welcome to 4th grade."  However, you can download my labels for free with the phrase, "Gearing up for a great year!"

Enjoy!

Lauren's Hope

Today my first medical ID bracelet arrived in the mail.  It caught me by surprise because I just ordered it a few days ago.  I must say...it was love at first sight!

It was told to get a medical ID back in March when I was first diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  Then I was reminded again a few weeks ago when I started wearing an insulin pump.  I kept putting it off.  I didn't want to wear my medical condition on my wrist.  I didn't want it to define me.  I didn't want to display my "handicap."  I also didn't like the way medical ID's looked.  Ugh...not for me.

However, with a 2 hour round trip drive to work each day spending that much time in the car leaves me at a high risk for potentially having low blood sugar while driving.  If I were to get in an accident someone might wrongly assume that I'd be drunk.  Wearing a medical ID might very well save my life one day.

I decided to do a little research online and came across a wonderful website: Lauren's Hope.  Lauren's Hope has an array of wonderful medical ID bracelets, necklaces and more.  They are cute yet functional.  The best part is that the actual engraved ID detaches from each bracelet so you can purchase more than one strand and interchange them based on your outfit.  When you sign up for the emails you hear about frequent discounts on specific bracelets.  After spending hours contemplating which bracelet I'd like, I finally settled on Sparkling Ice.  I love how it will match any outfit I pick out and it sparkles in the sun.  I can't wait to wear on my first day back to school. 

Know anyone who is contemplating getting a medical ID?  Check out Lauren's Hope!

Shared Writing Journals and More . . .

I'm linking up again this week with Tara for Monday Made It! 

This week, I finally had time to put my own spin on the shared writing journals Tara posted a few weeks ago.  I created some of my own covers for the journal, printed them out, and glued them to some composition books that I found at Walmart.

I plan on having students use them during reading and writing centers or as an activity for fast finishers.  Students will grab the journal of their choice, write about the topic on the cover, and read what other students have written.
I packaged my shared journal labels, along with some fun writing prompts and character and setting dice here at my TpT store.

This week I popped into my local library and snagged some read along books, the kind that come with both a picture book and a CD to listen along.  I downloaded the stories onto my classroom iPods and then started to work on the packets to go along with them.  The first one I finished up is for the book, The Emperor's Egg, by Martin Jenkins.

It includes worksheets and activities (some for fun and some for state test prep) for reading, listening, and writing.  You can download it here at my TpT store.  Look for plenty more to come in the near future as I plan on making one for each of our listening passage books...and we use a different one for each week of the school year.

Check out Monday Made it for more Made it Fun!

Don't forget, there is still one more day for the Back to School Sale at TpT. 

Back to School SALE

If you haven't already, stop by my Teachers Pay Teachers Store today and tomorrow for a HUGE Back to School Sale.  Not only have I discounted all my products 20% but Teachers Pay Teachers is also offering an additional 10% off if you use the code: BTS12.

Stock up on all your Back to School must-haves.  Hurry and check it out before the sale ends!

Sharpest Pencil in the School!

One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing an electric pencil sharpener roaring in the background while I am trying to teach.  Not only is it a huge distractions for my students, but it is an extremely annoying sound.  This year i set out to find a better solution to our dull pencil problem.

After lots of searching I finally ran across a few blog posts about the quietest classroom pencil sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies!


These sharpeners come in three colors: green, red, and blue!  Not only are they super quiet, but they create the sharpest pencil point that I've ever seen.  These sharpeners are quick and easy to use.  They are child friendly and will lessen pencil sharpening distractions throughout the day. 

Check out that pencil tip!  You are going to want to stock up on these before the school year begins!

Check it out!

Math Keywords Poster Set

Today I'm participating in Jessica Stanford's Magical Product Swap!

This week I have been trying to squeeze in some time to prep for my classroom.  While looking around online I found the coolest math posters on Teachers Pay Teachers.  They are created by Katie Lyon from the Art of Possibility for Teachers.  You can find here Teacher Pay Teacher store here.

Do you have students who struggle with knowing which operation to use when solving word problems?  I love these posters because they are bright and colorful.  Her first poster shows all the math keywords for each operation, addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication.  I'm going to print four of these on each page, laminate them, and then tape them to students desks for the to reference throughout the year.

Also included, are four posters that focus on the keywords for each operation individually.  I printed these, laminated them, and plan on displaying them on my classroom wall!

Included in her packet is also a math worksheet for students to practice solving math word problems while using these posters as a great reference.  I can't wait to try this out with my kiddos in September.

Looking for more great back to school ideas?  Pop on over to Katie's blog.  Then take a look at some other cool products at Jessica's product swap!