Holiday Rhyme Scheme Practice

I created this little holiday practice and then decided to make it free.  This is a practice for rhyme scheme using The Night Before Christmas as the final challenge.  There are also some easier practice poems to start with before going to the ultimate holiday challenge.  Just click on the picture below to download yours.  Feedback is always welcome!

Fall Clip Art

I found myself again sketching on my daughter's Ipad, (I really don't know how these things come about) and I created some new fall images.  I will most likely be using them on some of my fallish lessons, that is, if we ever really get below 98 degrees here in Phoenix.  It just doesn't feel like fall when it's that temperature outside!  My black cat inspired the cat in this set as she was sitting on my counter for the umpteenth time!  She did turn out nice though.  There are also several fall colored leaves, a witches hat, a spider web, two pumpkins, a cute owl,a full moon and a ghost.  All have transparent backgrounds (.png files) Below are some examples. Feel free to use these two fall clips for your own work, just please link back to my blog and my product link and give credit to Science, Etc. when you do.  Do not resell them as clip art. The complete product can be linked to here: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fall-Clip-Art

Fish Clip Art!

I don't really know who needs fish clip art actually!  I was doodling around on my daughter's Ipad.  I don't have one but everyone else in my house does. :(  Sniff!  Anyway,  there is a cool application for Ipad that's called Art Studio which allows you to draw onto a transparent background and make some cool clip art images.  You do have to know how to draw, however.  There are some tricks that I use to get more symmetrical images like horizontal and vertical symmetry, but generally I free hand my art.  I needed a few fish for an ecology lesson I was doing so below are a few of the clips.  Feel free to use these fish clips for your own work, just please link back to my blog and my product link and give credit to Science, Etc. when you do.  Do not resell them as clip art.  The bubbles are included in this set as well. You can find the complete product at:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fish-Clip-Art

The Hobbit Vocabulary

Here is the first installment of my Hobbit lessons.  The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey is coming to theaters in December so what would be better that reading The Hobbit once again?  I couldn't really think of anything.  I reread the book to complete this vocabulary study and found it to be as delightful as I remembered it.  This product has over 90 pages of vocabulary words from The Hobbit in graphic organizers.  Many of these organizers have student-friendly definitions, ways for students to rate their understanding of the word, and space for non-linguistic representations.  Take a look at the preview below.  If you like it, it can be found in my store at:
The Vocabulary of The Hobbit


Hobbit Vocab Preview

Get Into the Green- Earth Day 2012

Sunny Days in Second is have a great linky party for all your free earth day products.  Just click on the above picture to get there.  I have created some great little free stickers for earth day.  You can print them to the labels specified in the download.


The link to my stickers is here:
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Happy-Earth-Day-Stickers
Have a great earth day!

Hobbit Crossword Ch. 1-3

I decided to create a  free crossword for Chapters 1-3  after having so much success with my other Hobbit crossword.  This crossword has three pages; a full color page, a plain page without a picture, and an answer sheet.  It was created at puzzle-maker.com for use commercially.  Enjoy!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Hobbit-Crossword-Chapters-1-3

Bill Nye: Water Cycle

I have to say that my students still like Bill Nye the science guy, and he generally gets the point across sometimes better than I do!  I usually take 30 minutes to watch a related Bill Nye video if it matches my content.  I have used different video worksheets but I find that I like to make my own.  I just finished teaching the water cycle to my sixth graders and created a worksheet for the related Bill Nye film. This worksheet has various questions to go with the video and a summary at the end.  I was also doodling when I wrote it and included some water related doodles on the worksheet:

You can find this worksheet and other science lessons at my store here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Bill-Nye-Water-Cycle-Video-Worksheet

Nonfiction Graphic Features II

Due to the overwhelming support for my Nonfiction Graphic Features practice, I have created Nonfiction Graphic Features II.  This is great practice for students who need to be able to interpret diagrams, graphs and charts. It contains a line graph, a bar graph, and a circle graph.  I have also included a diagram of a human ear with associated questions.  This one is a tad more difficult than the first one but a good practice none the less.  Here is the link to this product:


http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nonfiction-Graphic-Features-Practice-II

Halloween Crossword

Well it's that time of year again.  Time to welcome fall and ghoulish delights!  I have made a Halloween crossword in celebration of season.  The hardest word is jack-o-lantern and is probably suited to 4th through 6th graders.  It comes with 3 pages.  A full color page, a black and white page and an answer key.  I am hoping to create a spooky science product as well so be on the lookout for that one. Here is the link to my crossword:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Halloween-Crossword-Puzzle

Fall aspens in Flagstaff

Moon Phase Flash Cards

The trouble with having your students make flash cards to learn moon phases is that when they cut them out, unless they are very careful, they will mix them all up and then end up with the wrong moon with the wrong phase.  I finally developed some moon phase flash cards that cannot be mixed up.  Students have a description of the phase on one side and a picture of the phase on the other.  Both the phase description and the picture have a shape in the corner that matches.  Students can cut all of them out at once and then match the shapes and make their flashcards.  Problem solved!  The moon pictures for these flash cards were taken with my 4.5 inch Dobsonian telescope.  Here is an example of the pictures:

Nice huh? The link to my flash cards can be found here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Moon-Phase-Flash-Cards

ThINK

I wish I would have had this cool poster when I was teaching chemistry.  Using the elements in The Periodic Table of the Elements you can make inspiring words for your classroom.  By using the symbols for Thorium, Iodine, Nitrogen, Potassium the word ThINK can be made.  The I,N, and K will be capitalized but it makes a great poster for your classroom.  I have created a free download for "ThINK" on Teachers Pay Teachers that you can find here:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Chemistry-Wall-Art

Have fun creating your own words with element symbols!

Hobbit Crossword

Well I finally reread The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  I am really looking forward to the movie that is now in production in New Zealand.  Peter Jackson is the director (thank goodness) after others that were interested in the movie dropped out.  I just got a look at the first day of filming which is posted on Peter Jackson's blog.  The sets are amazing!  He walks around the set of Rivendell and in some caverns where they most likely will film Bilbo's exchange with Smaug the dragon. 

What does this have to do with a crossword you ask?  While I was reading The Hobbit I made some notes on characters and such and created a crossword for the book.  At first I thought of doing more than one, but in the end I just went with a big crossword that covered the entire book.  Here it is with a very nice background:

You can find this crossword and many others at my store on Teachers Pay Teachers here:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Hobbit-Crossword

Scientific Method Template

Here is a new product that my class has used but I thought I would revamp it a bit and post to my store.  Usually, before our school science fair we practice with a smaller format.  Here is  one page of the publisher brochure that I use to have students record their data.

Students can type directly into this template or you can copy it and give it out as a handout.  This is much easier for me to grade than collecting student notebooks.  I usually have them glue it in their notebook after I hand it back.  Students get good practice in collecting data and recording their findings before we actually do a full science fair project.  Here is the link to my store to check it out:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Scientific-Method-Brochure-Template

Rovers, Rovers Everywhere!

Well the rover project has come to a close today.  There are so many rovers my entire classroom was completely full.  This was probably the best end of the year project I have ever done with a class.  The rovers were so varied and creative from all of my students  There should be many future engineers, and scientists coming from this generation.

My lesson culminated with building a rover, but first my students had to find out about Mars and pick a mission.  They created a mission patch for their group and named their rover.  They then went about creating their own Mars Rover.  The had to stick to a $2,000,000.00 budget during the project.  That meant that they could not purchase items from me that would exceed that amount.  They could buy things like metallic paper, foil, NASA stickers etc. and my prices were greatly inflated!  This meant that they had to use mostly recyclable items to build their rover.  They used boxes, paper towel tubes, soda cans, plastic juice containers etc.  I think they did an amazing job.  We had a lot of fun the last few days!

If you are interested in this lesson to build rovers in your classroom I have posted it in my store at Teachers Pay Teachers.  Here is the link:
Mars Rovers Project

Hunger Games Literature Study

I have been working on a Hunger Games lit study for awhile.  My main motivation was the fact that I will be teaching 7th grade reading next year along with 6th and 7th grade science.  This literature study has activities for every chapter of the book.  There are basic lessons in setting, mood, rising action, climax, and resolution, as well as some fun stuff.  There is a found poem for Haymitch, a comic strip for Peeta, and even a haiku for Rue!  I even added a web based lesson that covers edible and medicinal plants (gotta put in some science!)  There is also a section about the ethics of reality tv.  I think Suzanne Collins was trying to get a message across about what is moral in that realm!

I had the 6th grade teachers at my school look it over and the only thing they really wanted in addition to a good answer key was a test that was set up like our state test in reading.  Let me tell you the answer key took long enough!  I did eventually come up with a test that covers the figurative language, setting, etc. and is in the state testing format.  The whole thing is 67 pages long and can be found if you are interested at:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Hunger-Games-A-literature-study

Nonfiction Graphic Features Practice

I was trying to get my students ready for our state testing here in Arizona and I wrote some things to help me do that.  There is a lot of analyzing graphs and graphic features in the science and reading on our tests.  I wrote a graphic features paper for my students and used science type graphs for them to analyze.  After I was done using it, I uploaded it to my teacher pay teachers store and it has sold fairly well.  The graphs are colored for better display on smart boards etc.  To see this assignment (lesson) go to the site below:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nonfiction-Graphic-Features-Practice

Student Birthday Cards

I had several parents call me this year and tell me that it was their child's birthday and they wanted me to know so I could do whatever we do for birthdays in 7th grade.  My first thought was, "Do I do anything?"  Not something high on my list for 7th grade.  I am more concerned about if I can get biodiversity taught by state testing week.  Well, I actually did do something nice.  I made a cool pop-up card for birthdays and I will be actively giving them out next year.  Here is a picture of the card below.  It has a pencil placed behind the pop-up.  This card is on sale this weekend in my store. Just click on this link to find it:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Student-Pop-up-Birthday-Cards

Rock Cycle Game

My Rock Cycle Game made it into the Teachers Pay Teachers newsletter today.  It is a fun little game that teaches that the rock cycle is not circular.  Rocks can go through various changes and not in a particular order.  It contains some of my personal photos from around Arizona.  The cover page shows a picture of Sedona during a storm.  This picture is repeated on some of the cards.  There are also pictures from Sunset Crater and Saguaro National Monument.  You can download it free from my store.
Rock Cycle Game

Spring Sight Words

Well I must deviate again from science for awhile and talk about sight words!  I tutor non-readers on a weekly basis and have put together another sight word game.  I did not like the clip art out there so I drew my own spring pictures of a bunny, a swallowtail butterfly, and a ladybug.  Whew!  That was a lot of work!  I am pleased with the result, however.  It came out very springy and Easterish!  (Are those words?) Here is my ladybug:

If you would like to see the rest of this game, please visit my store at:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Science-Etc

Make a Quake

It seems that the Make a Quake website is still operational.  I have written an assignment to go with this website for my class.  It basically walks students through a simulation.  Students can choose what ground they want their building to be built on.  They can also choose the type of prevention to be built into their building and the magnitude of the earthquake.  They then cause an earthquake to happen and see how their building held up.  Tsunamis and other dangers are also addressed in the simulation. A very timely activity indeed.  If you are interested in this fun activity for your class pay a visit to my store at this link:
Make a Quake