Tried It Tuesday: Dear Mr. Blueberry

I'm excited to share a super cute writing activity with you today for Fourth Grade Flipper's Tried It Tuesday linky party!

The activity I'm sharing with you today comes from Elementary AMC.  I love, love, loved her Persuasive Letter Writing activity and so did my students!

This writing activity goes with a cute book called Dear Mr. Blueberry by Simon James. Here is the description of the book from Amazon.com " It's vacation time, so Emily has to write to her teacher to help when she discovers a blue whale living in her pond. Mr. Blueberry answers that she must be mistaken, because whales live in the ocean, not in ponds. 
Throughout the summer, Emily and Mr. Blueberry exchange letters, until Emily has a happy surprise to share with her teacher. In the process, Emily learns a lot about whales. And Mr. Blueberry leans even more about imagination, faith, and love."

After reading the book, I gave each student a letter from Jane that is included in this activity. Each of these letters describe how Jane thinks she has a different animal living in her backyard. The students then have to use the facts from the letter to write their own letter persuading Jane that she doesn't actually have a lion, shark, elephant, etc. living in her backyard. 

Everything you could possibly need to teach letter writing and persuasive writing is included in this packet. My students had so much fun writing their letters back to Jane. In their final product I had the students draw pictures of their perspective of what was in Jane's yard and then of Jane's perspective. Here are a few pictures of the final projects!

Monday Made It and Flash Freebie!

This is my last full week of Summer Break :( I am hoping to get lots done this week though! I want to share just a couple of things I did last week so I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics Monday Made It!

First up is a vase that I spiced up. I don't know about you but I seem to keep all of the flower vases I receive and they all look the exact same. So I decided to try and spice one up! I just painted it with acrylic paint and then modge-podged over it so that water wouldn't take the paint off. Then I put modge-podge around the bottom and shook on some glitter! Now I have a cute vase to put on my desk to display the flowers that my students will have to bring me :)

Next up I made some Government Task Cards. As with all of my new products, they will be free in my store for the next hour or so! If you do download them, I would appreciate it if you left me some TpT back if you like them!

Link up with Tara at 4th Grade Frolics to show off what you have been creating!

Educents Back to School Sale Last Day!

I told myself I was NOT going to spend a lot this year on school stuff and then I got the Educents back to school sale email.

I bought the Math Bundle for Grades 3-5. It is FULL of awesome math activities! I broke down and ordered a color printer so I can't wait to start printing all my new goodies! This math bundle has 10 different math activities for only $10.99! That's a savings of 69%. I couldn't pass it up! Some of the topics covered in this bundle are fractions, multiplication, prime and composite numbers, line plots, decimals, and more!

I'm also debating buying the Full Year Curriculum Bundle for 3rd and 4th grade. It looks like it is full of some great activities too! Has anyone purchased this one? I need talked into it since it is a little more expensive!

These are just a couple of the bundles that are available right now at a huge discount so head on over and see what you can pick up! Today is the last day for the big sale!

P.S. For those of you that signed up to be a part of my upcoming giveaway...thank you, thank you! I'm going to hold off on that for a while though because there are sooooo many back to school giveaways going on right now. Once things settle down a little I will get it going though! Thanks!!

Free Fraction App and Giveaway Help Please?!

I was contacted by Crystal at Visual Math Studio to review a new game they are working on called Zap, Zap, Fractions. This basic fraction review game has two parts.... a lesson and a game. The lesson is very basic and explains and shows what a fraction is. It shows fractions represented by a circle graph and also on a number line. I really liked how the lesson was interactive, having students answer questions throughout the demonstration. Once students have gone through the lesson they can move over to the game. The game has students identify different fractions in order to avoid being hit by an asteroid. Again this is a very basic game but would be a good review after an introductory fraction lesson. The game is free for the time being so click below to download! Who doesn't love a free App!?

Onto the second part of my post! I am soooo close to 500 followers and I would love to host a giveaway! If any of you would be interested in helping out, I would be forever grateful!! Fill out the form below if you would like to be a part of my giveaway :) Thanks!

P.S. If you are new to the blogging world, this is a great way to gain new followers!

Click here to be a part of my giveaway!

Celebration Giveaway!

I have another giveaway that I am a part of to share with you today! Nichole at The Craft of Teaching is celebrating 350 followers by hosting an awesome giveaway! Click on the picture below to head on over to her blog to enter to win some great prizes!!

Thriving in 3rd Giveaway!

Happy Monday to you all! I'm here today to let you know that Lindsey from Thriving in 3rd is having a blogiversary giveaway! There are tons of great prizes to be won so head on over to her blog to enter!

Weather Task Cards Flash Freebie

I made a huge list of things that I wanted to create for school this summer but have been too busy having fun to get started. Now that I am realizing my summer break is coming to an end, I guess it's time to get my butt in gear and get working! 

This weekend I have been busy listening to people like Brad Paisley, Montgomery Gentry, Leah Turner, and Randy Houser at the Country Life Music Festival, but I did manage to get another set of science task cards made. This set covers weather vocabulary terms. As with all my new products, they will be free for the next hour or until I remember to change it back to a paid product. Click the picture to download. Feedback is appreciated :)

Enjoy your Sunday! I'm off to enjoy the last day of the music festival and listen to this guy!