7-12 Grade Holiday E-book

Last year I was a little slow on the draw and missed being able to contribute to the holiday e-book.  Fortunately, I did not miss it this year.  The books were divided this year into three volumes; primary, middle, and high school.  The 7-12 E-book was the one I contributed to and it is wonderful.  There are free products from all subjects on beautiful holiday pages.  All these products are just a click away.  You can download the great item by clicking on the cover page below!  Happy holidays!

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!

Cyber Monday and Bonus Tuesday Sale

Well it is that time of year again!  I can't believe the Cyber Monday sale is right around the corner.  Many of us sellers will be putting our store on sale.  Mine will be on a 20% reduction starting Monday.  In addition, you can use the promo code CMT12 and get addition money off! This sale will run through Tuesday.  Stock up on all of your Christmas lessons and fun stuff to start the new year off right.  See you Cyber Monday!

Fall in New Mexico

Every fall I look forward to a week off in October when I can drive to New Mexico and take in the fall colors and the land of enchantment.  My travels usually end up in Las Cruces but this year Cloudcroft was my destination.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera in Phoenix.  I blame that on being sick the week before break and functioning and packing in a brain fog.  All the pictures you will see here were actually taken on my phone and look decent enough I think.

Cloudcroft sits on a mountain which overlooks the Tularosa basin.  This picture shows the view.  The white area is actually White Sands National Monument, one of the largest gypsum dune field in the world.

My husband and I stayed at the Lodge in Cloudcroft, a historic lodge which used to house lumberjacks instead of tourists.  It is a nice old lodge with a great restaurant and it is said a friendly ghost as well.

Cloudcroft had a railroad which transported people and lumber in historic times.  Some of the old tracks and trestles from the railroad can still be seen outside of town.

There are some great hiking trails in and around Cloudcroft.  One that isn't too long is called Osha Trail.  This hiking trail can be accessed from inside the town or from a parking area right outside of town.   It is about 2.6 miles long and a gorgeous hike in the fall.  This is how the hike began at the trail head.

There are many beautiful aspens and maples along the trail that are really breathtaking in the autumn.  Here are a few pictures from along this wonderful hike.

The interesting thing from a geology perspective is that Cloudcroft, New Mexico sits on Permian aged rocks.  If you know anything about geologic time, the end of the Permian ends the Paleozoic era with a mass extinction much bigger than the Mesozoic extinction event that did in the dinosaurs.  The Permian extinction basically killed of mostly everything.  The rocks on the Osha trail are Permian and they also have many fossils that are easily spotted on this trail.  Here is a Permian cephalopod I spied in the middle of the trail.

Cloudcroft is not far from a solar observatory in Sunspot, NM.  If you are ever in the area a visit to Sunspot is a must.  The road to Sunspot is a scenic byway and the telescopes are very interesting as well.  Here is a big solar telescope at the observatory.

White Sands is another must if you are near the Tularosa basin. The sand is gypsum and extremely white and soft.  I was messing around on the dune field when I took this picture.

It generally looks like you are driving on snow in White Sands National Monument.  This is a very odd sensation because it isn't cold at all in October.

Most of the animals, through natural selection, are white on the dune field.  However, I was about a mile into the field and I saw this black beetle.  Who knows where he came from but he left some cool tracks as well.

If you are every in the southwest, do stop in to see New Mexico.  It is truly the land of enchantment.

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