Sunday, October 28, 2012

Sunday TpT Featured Product

Hello again, fellow bloggers! I am just finishing up a 4-day weekend and I honestly don't know where the days went!  I am looking forward to another busy week of teaching and coaching though.

My TpT featured product of the week this time is my Social Studies PowerPoint Project.  This 2-page PDF document offers specific directions and a rubric for students to create their own PowerPoint presentations on special topics that they want to learn more about. This project was originally used in a 6th grade social studies classroom, but can be adapted to fit the needs of any subject area or age group.  To be linked directly to this useful product in my TpT store, click on the image below.



Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you all have a wonderful week in your classrooms!  Until next time.....
~Mandy   :)

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Sunday TpT Featured Product

Hello again, fellow bloggers!  I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I am looking forward to this week because our district has a 4-day weekend coming up.  Our town is in the middle of celebrating its annual 10-day fall festival, Neewollah (or Halloween spelled backwards), which, as you can probably imagine, gets the kids stirred up.  There is a musical production, Queen Neelah talent and coronation nights, three different parades, bandstand acts all week downtown, a carnival/amusement park set up, and the downtown is lined with food vendors, along with various other activities throughout the week.  Learning is definitely not a priority for our students during Neewollah and our district has finally figured that out.  We are getting our comp day from last month's conferences on Thursday and then another day off on Friday....nobody really knows why, but we are not going to complain about it.  :)

My weekly featured TpT product is one of my freebies - my Flashcard Template. This one-page, reproducible PDF document is a flash card template that can be used in any classroom at any grade level.  If you want to download this useful (free!) tool, click on the image below to be linked directly to the product in my TpT store.



Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great week!  Until next time....
~Mandy   :)

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Whew...it's been a while!!!

Good Sunday afternoon, fellow bloggers!  I am gearing up for another busy middle school week.  I am an assistant coach for our middle school girls' basketball team and we begin practices tomorrow.  We have 39 girls signed up to play (total 7th and 8th graders), which is actually a manageable number compared to previous years.  Usually we start out with 55 or 60 girls and end up with around 40 who stick it out through conditioning.  For the next 9 weeks, my life will be a bit more hectic with practices and games, but it's fun to spend time with the kids outside of the classroom.

Today is Sunday, so that means it is time for my weekly TpT featured product of the week.  This week, my featured product is a fairly new addition to TpT - my Social Studies Life Application Chart.  This one-page PDF document is a chart activity to use in your social studies classroom to help make the five areas of social studies relevant to your student. Students can work individually or in small groups to answer the question, “How Does Social Studies Apply to My Life?”, for each of the five areas of social studies – geography, history, government, economics, and culture. Students are engaged in higher order thinking during this activity and it can lead to excellent classroom discussions.  We just used this in my 6th grade classroom a few weeks ago and it is a great tool to get kids making real-life application and making what I teach in social studies relevant to them.  To be linked directly to this product in my TpT store, click on the image below.



This weekend, I finally decided to jump on board the Pinterest bandwagon.  I have been reading about it on the TpT forums, as well as seeing many of my Facebook friends "pinning" items, so I thought that I would give it a try.  If you would like to check out my Pinterest, please click on my link along the left side of my blog or view it by visiting this site - https://pinterest.com/AmandaAllen82/.

Before I sign off for now, I would like to share my creative project from this week.  After seeing several of my Facebook friends' creative pumpkin carvings, paintings, etc., I was inspired to paint my own pumpkin.  So I took my college alma mater's mascot (Pittsburg State Gorillas) and painted it on a pumpkin.  Here it is!


Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time....
~Mandy   :)

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Sunday's TpT Feature Product

Good Sunday evening, fellow bloggers!  I am gearing up for another busy week of school.  It seems like after this weekend, I need to go back to school to get some rest!  My husband celebrated his 20-year class reunion this weekend, so we spent most of the weekend in his hometown for the festivities.  It was fun, but man, I'm tired from trying to keep up with the Class of '92.  It also didn't help that we had two nights of parent-teacher conferences last week, which made for looooooong days at school.  On the bright side, my 6th grade team of teachers had almost 75% of our students' parents show up for conferences.  That is probably the best attendance we've had since I have been teaching.

Enough rambling and on to my Sunday featured TpT product, my Current Events Assignment.  This 2-page (or piggybacked printed) PDF document is a current events assignment that can be used in any social studies class. Students may use newspaper articles or online articles to complete this assignment, basically answering the who, what, where, when, and how of the article. Students also love to present their articles and findings with the class, which can lead to some really fascinating class discussions.  To learn more about this great project, click on the graphic below to be linked directly to the product in my TpT store.



I hope everyone has a wonderful week!  Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time.....
~Mandy   :)

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Sunday TpT Featured Product

Hello again, bloggers!  Do any of you feel like the beginning of the school year is just a whirlwind of activities and you meet yourself coming and going?  Hopefully I'm not alone in this!  In our district, we are already halfway through the first quarter of school.  Usually by this point in the year, I feel like I have settled into a routine, but this year still has that crazy and hectic beginning of the year feel.  I'm still trying to figure out why!  Another busy week is ahead for me....we have parent-teacher conferences on two nights this week and I'm scheduled to run the scoreboard for middle school volleyball another day afterschool.  Anyway, on to more important things....

This week my TpT store's Sunday featured product is one of my newly added items - State Capital Flash Cards.  This four-page, reproducible PDF document is a set of flash cards that can be used to help your students learn their states and capitals. The flash cards are designed to be printed with the states on one side of the card and the corresponding capital on the back.  To get more details about this helpful study tool, click on the graphic below to be linked directly to the item in my TpT store.


Before I sign off for tonight, I would like to give a shout-out to my college alma mater's football team - the Pittsburg State University Gorillas.  The Gorillas are the defending Division II national champions and are currently ranked #1 in the nation.  I finally attended my first PSU game of the season last night and witnessed an exciting romp over the Lincoln University Blue Tigers, 59-17.  Also another reason to be a proud Gorilla, PSU had a complete sell-out of the game early last week, the first time in school history.  Go 'Rillas!

Have a super week, everyone! Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time....
~Mandy   :)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Happy Sunday, fellow bloggers!  I hope everyone's school year is off to a superb start!  It's hard to believe that we've been in school almost a month now.  Time flies when you're having fun.  :)

This week for my TpT featured product of the week, I would like to share another of my best sellers - "U.S. Geography Notes by Region".  This 7-page PDF document is an outline of important notes pertaining to the geography and landforms of the 4 regions of the United States - the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West. Information includes climate, landforms, industry, history, and vocabulary. This document was originally used as an overhead transparency in a 7th grade world geography class.  If this excellent product is one that you are interested in purchasing, click the graphic below to be linked directly to the item in my TpT store.
Before I sign off for today, I want to send out a quick reminder to all teachers who teach social studies.  Tomorrow is Constitution Day!  Each year, on our around September 17, social studies teachers are required to teach about the U.S. Constitution in some capacity.  Be sure to have fun teaching what can be a very interesting topic tomorrow!  :)

Have an excellent week in your classrooms!  Thanks for stopping by!  Until next time.....
~Mandy   :)