St. Patrick's Day - Getting Ready for the Leprechaun!

As a student I didn't have teachers who got into St. Patrick's Day. For my first two years of teaching, we did a few activities - but nothing major. However, during my third year of teaching I realized just how much fun St. Patrick's Day can be!

I watched a teacher who left little leprechaun footprints from the doorway of the building all the way into her classroom. It was so neat! The leprechauns left her students little treats. But - best of all - they all set leprechaun traps to try and catch the leprechauns.

I decided to try some of her ideas with my own twist.

Here each of my Kindergarten students set traps to catch the leprechauns. I let them use every day materials from the classroom so I didn't have to bring too much extra stuff in.

Then each student wrote a note to the leprechaun trying to trick them. I love what they came up with!! (Some of the kids even went as far as putting a small doll beside their note and writing a note to the leprechaun that it was his new "girlfriend". Oh the things they come up with!!)

The next day our room was a disaster!! That sneaky little leprechaun wasn't in any of our traps, but he did mess up our room!



That naughty little leprechaun left us a note on the board, along with some of his footprints!

Thankfully he also left us some yummy treats!

Click here for my blog post with a FREEBIE for St. Patrick's Day Writing Prompts.

If you are looking for a St. Patrick's Day activity for grades 3-6, please click on the picture below. It will take you to my Saint Patrick's Day History with Facts & Opinions worksheet. It is only $1.00 and a great way for the older students to have some fun with this holiday while also practicing their fact and opinions skills.



Even I got into the spirit! Maybe I will again this year too!!

How do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day?
~HoJo~

St. Patrick's Day Writing Prompts

These story starters are sure to fit any student in grades K-5! Click on any one of the pictures below to download your copy directly from Teachers Pay Teachers! There are five different prompts to choose from.

Click here for another blog post I wrote about preparing for the leprechaun's annual arrival!

Here is a linky party for more great FREE products!

March's Best Teacher Freebies!

Thanks for looking! Happy St. Patrick's Day!
~HoJo~

To Pin or Not to Pin?!

There has been a lot of interesting discussion regarding Pinterest lately. While I'm still a little confused and concerned on the matter, it is something I will be watching to decide how I will proceed in the future.

Pinterest should not be used for self-promotion. I'll be the first to admit I'm guilty of this. I post things on my blog and Teachers Pay Teachers and then pin them to Pinterest for more people to see. I try to keep my pins at only a 1:10 or less ratio, but I'm sure I'm not always perfect at it.

Now people are also saying we should not pin from others because we don't know if they want their information pinned. It's a bit of a catch 22 in my opinion - we can't pin from ourselves or from others?!

For now, I'm keeping my Pinterest boards and will proceed, but with a bit more caution.




Anyway, I want to let all you great cyber folks know that you can pin directly from my blog without any worries! For that matter, you can pin from my Teachers Pay Teachers store too!!

Make sure to click on the red "Permission to Pin!" pic above to get more info about this issue and decide for yourself.

It'll be interesting to see where this goes!
~HoJo~

Outhouse Races!

Just when you think you've seen it all! HA!

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Nemo 500 Outhouse Races. It was interesting to say the least! Basically people make their own outhouse and then race it around a track with 4-5 people per team.

Here are some of the outhouses that we saw.

Partway through the race, the teams are required to a do a make-shift Chinese fire drill. Part of the requirement is to place toilet paper rolls in a color coded fashion on plungers.

So maybe we are easily amused in South Dakota... It was a fun day though! What local attractions do you have that are a bit bizarre?

~HoJo~

Teachers Pay Teachers Leap Day Sale!!! Feb. 29

Over at Teachers Pay Teachers, Cecelia Magro had a GREAT IDEA! She thought we should do a sale to celebrate Leap Day, and we are!!

Many sellers will be offering up to 20% off their products. Paul from Teachers Pay Teachers will be offering an additional 10% off. This means you can save as much as 28% off many products!

Please click on either picture to be taken directly to my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Here's a link to a linky party where a bunch of sellers are hosting sales!



Here are some other blogging buddies of mine who are also holding sales.

                                    Mary Amoson's TpT store:                               

           

Teaching4Real's TpT store

       First grade and Fabulous TpT store

Kindergarten Lifestyle's TpT store

Jd's Rockin' Readers TpT store

Andrea Kerr's TpT store

Teaching Tales TpT store

Laura Candler's TpT store

Christina Aronen's TpT store

Mary Lirette's TpT store 

Kids Cog Works TpT store

DillyDabbles TpT store

Rachel Lynette's TpT store 

Fisher Reyna Education's TpT store

Mrs Miners Monkey Business TpT store 

Nylas Crafty Teaching TpT store

First Grade Blue Skies TpT Store




Teaching in Room 6 TpT store

Happy Shopping!
~HoJo~

            Nicole Heinlein's TpT store

Amazing Video - Gotta Keep Reading!

A former coworker of mine got me absolutely hooked on this music video. It's a flashmob based off of the Oprah/Black Eyes Peas show. It was performed by Ocoee Middle School. I have watched kids from K-5 absolutely LOVE it! I find them humming it all day. =)

Click below to go listen!!

What other online educational videos/songs can you get me hooked on?
~HoJo~

Reading Sight Word Games - FREE Website

I LOVE this website! When I was teaching my little Kinders it was a great activity to do as a class when we had five minutes to spare or something fun for the early finishers to do.

Click on any of the pictures below to go directly to the game.

While there are several games to choose from, we always played the matching game. If the whole class was playing we would stand in a line. We didn't keep score, but we always cheered for anyone who got a pair. You had to pick any two - so I always told the kiddos they'd best be paying attention! (It was easy to tell who was and wasn't!!)

I really like this game because it says the word aloud for the students. Even if they do not know the word, they can hear it!

This game was a definite favorite of mine! What are some of your favorite online educational games?

~HoJo~

Dr. Seuss Activities & Fun Ideas!

Dr. Seuss week always seems to be a fun, BIG deal! I absolutely love it! There are so many educational activities you can tie in with Dr. Seuss.

Here are some of my favorite Dr. Seuss websites:

http://www.seussville.com/

http://www.obseussed.com/

Here is my Pinterest board full of Dr. Seuss ideas - with more being added frequently! http://pinterest.com/hojostptstore/dr-seuss/

Here are my Dr. Seuss socks! I LOVE THEM!!

My last school district had the entire elementary get into the spirit. For Read Across American Week we had dress up days. Here are some of the days we had:

• Hat Day
• Dr. Suess's birthday (We all wore Seuss hats!)
• Silly Sock Day (We all went out in the hall and read books - typically by Dr. Seuss - for 15 minutes to show off our socks!)
• Dress like what you want to be when you grow up
• Wacky Hair Day (wear your hair like the "who's")

We also celebrated by having K-5 all get together for cupcakes and juice in the lunchroom for Dr. Seuss's birthday (March 2nd). While there, the principal read her favorite Dr. Seuss book while the students listened and ate.

I always enjoy having the older students guess how old Dr. Seuss would be if he were still alive. (He was born March 2, 1904.)

My Kinders loved playing "Pin the Eggs on the Plate". You can get your free copy from Seussville.com by clicking on the picture below.

Here is the link to a Dr. Seuss consumable book I used with my Kinders.

We had some amazing cooks that made green eggs and  ham on Friday of Read Across America Week. The kids loved them!

My Kinders also enjoyed playing a Duck, Duck, Goose variation called Cat, Cat, Hat. I know some teachers that have played it with Doctor, Doctor, Seuss. It's a lot of fun and gets those wiggles out on these crazy, silly days!

While teaching 3rd-5th grades, I have found that it's harder to find Dr. Seuss activities. That's why I created this worksheet.

Students read through a Dr. Seuss biography and underline or highlight all of the opinions (8) located within it. It is only $1.00! Click on the picture above to purchase it from my TpT store.



Here is a blog post with all sorts of links to different Dr. Seuss ideas.

Here is a second linky party with EVEN MORE Dr. Seuss ideas!

Please leave me some comments of your favorite Dr. Seuss activities, or a link to your Dr. Seuss ideas on Pinterest. I LOVE hearing new ideas!

Happy Dr. Seuss Day!! =)

~HoJo~

**This blog post is in no way endorsed or affiliated by Dr. Seuss trademark. I am simply tring to promote all of the great ways teachers can use Dr. Seuss in their classrooms!**