Casey Rocks!!!

Happy Tuesday!! Every month at our school, a teacher or staff member is chosen to be "Teacher of the Month". We nominate each other based on our district's 5 goals. I can recite them from memory, but won't bore you with the details. =) When our principal called us all down to the lobby for a short little impromptu meeting one morning in early December, we didn't think much of it. Since Mr. D. started at our school in September, we've had a few of them. He started the meeting saying that he didn't really want to wait until his next "official" staff meeting to announce December's teacher of the month since it was a relatively short month. Once he started talking about the teacher of the month and describing the different things that the teacher has done to earn this award and help our school, I thought to myself, "hmmm... I've done that too, or my sister did that a few weeks ago". To our very excited and extremely humbled surprise, WE, The Sister Teachers, were chosen as Co-Teachers of the Month of December!! We were so happy and honored to be chosen by such an amazing staff!! We're just a small representation of the talent in our school. A few years ago, our former Principal, Dr. B. started the tradition of giving the Teacher of the Month a huge rock with our mascot (Casey the Dragon) on it. The rock is now known as "Casey Rocks!!". Each month we pass the rock along to its newest recipient. Here's a pic of Danielle and I with our "Casey Rocks!!". It was kind of hard to get a self pic with the rock since it was pretty heavy, but it's not too bad. We have to give our rock up tomorrow, so we wanted to share it with you tonight!

Happy Blogging!

-Jackie-

Sneak Peek, Proof Readers, and a 300 follower giveaway!

I woke up totally refreshed! Maybe it's because my sweet hubby got up at 7:30 with the little one and let me sleep 'till 10:30! What ever it was, I got up today totally motivated do do things! I helped Makenzie clean and organize her play room. What a MESS!! That kid has more toys than she knows what to do with. She doesn't like to get rid of anything, so one day when she's not around, I'm going to have to do something about it. I don't think she'll notice (hopefully!).

After that, I decided to start working on my Magic Tree House Polar Bear Unit. It's quite a process that I go through. In order to really adhere to the Common Core State Standards, I like to look through all of the ELA standards and write out verbatim what each of the standards I want to touch upon say. That way it stays fresh in my mind and I can keep track of which standards I'm hitting as I write my unit. Next, I write out all of my questions on notebook paper. This way I'm able to revise and edit my questions as I write them. While I work on the content of the unit, I give my hubby a vision of what I'd like the front cover to look like. He's my photoshop whiz, so he does my background and frame for me. Once all of my questions and answers have been handwritten, I search for cute clip art. I really love and appreciate all of the graphics provided by Laura Strickland at My Cute Graphics . She is an amazing artist and she's so generous to offer her clips for free! If you haven't already, please check her out.

Once I find all of my graphics, I begin my unit. I've been using power point to make my units. I find it easy to use. The only thing I really don't like about it is the fact that I can't figure out how to make it portrait not landscape. If you have any idea if it's actually possible, please let me know. So far tonight I've done my cover page and about 7 pages of content. I have a ton to go, but I'm hoping I can get it done by mid-week. Here's a sneak peek of my cover page.

I really love the Magic Tree House books. I use them in whole group (if I have a class set) or in small groups. I also love the fact trackers. For this unit, I am going to do a combination fiction & non-fiction unit and I am going to split it up into just fiction or non-fiction. Lots of variety! =)

I am looking for some proofreaders! If you'd like a rough copy of this unit, please leave a comment with your email address below. I'd love to give it to the first two interested people. Extra eyes are always amazing!! Thanks in advance for your help!!

I can't believe we almost have 300 followers!! To celebrate, I'd like to have a HUGE giveaway!! I am hoping my bloggy friends would be willing to donate an item or two from their TPT or TN stores. If you wouldn't mind helping us out, email us at sisterteachers@gmail.com or please let me know with your email address in a comment below that you'd like to help. I will email you with the details as soon as I figure everything out.

Have a fabulous end to your weekend and enjoy your sweet kiddos on Monday! I can't wait to see mine!

-Jackie-

I've been MIA and Currently!

Happy New Year! I can't believe it's January already! This vacation has flown by. I can't believe I am starting school again in two short days. I'd love to say I had the greatest vacation ever and I did SOOO much. Unfortunately, I didn't. I was sick for the first week and a half. I didn't move off of my couch. There is a major indentation in the cushions from my rear!
The last few days have been better. When I left school on the last day before vacation, my plan was to work on some units for January. I didn't do it. :-( I had no energy or motivation. When I finally got the energy back, I just wanted to play all day! I've been spending lots of quality time with my sweet little girl, Makenzie. We've played lots of games, barbies, and some golf.

I've also snuck in some handwriting, CVC and sight word practice (shhhhh... don't tell her. She thought we were playing school!). I may start working on some new things this weekend, but I'll play that by ear. I might want to have fun. :-) Once again, Farley over at Oh Boy 4th Grade is hosting her fabulous once a month Currently Linky Party. I'm a few days late, but like the saying goes, better late than never! Right? Here goes...

Listening: I'm a news watcher. I don't know why, but I've been a news watcher as long as I can remember. The unfortunate thing about the news in Orlando is that it is extremely depressing! There is always something wrong... like a murder, or missing people, or a plane crashed into someone's house. You would think that Orlando would have happy news since it's the home of the Mouse House, but it's not. It's a train wreck, and I can't stop watching!
Loving: I'm loving baby butterscotch! Who is baby butterscotch you ask? Well, She's an animatronic pony! My daughter got her from Santa. Makenzie is in LOVE with her! I love how Mak plays with her. She's endless fun, and I'm so happy that Santa was able to fulfill her Christmas wish!

Thinking: I'm thinking about how I need a few more days off, especially since I was so sick for the majority of my vacation! It's ok though. I am glad I didn't have to use up my precious sick days.
Wanting: I want some new clothes and a haircut! Maybe that's what I'll do on my last two days off. =)
Needing: I need a dryer... still! My dryer kicked the bucket during the last week of November. We're on such a tight budget, so we really couldn't swing a new one with it being Christmas time. Maybe we can get one with the TPT money I'll get soon. Hopefully something else doesn't go in the time being. :-)
Finally... OWL (one little word): My word is ENJOY. Enjoy life, enjoy my daughter, enjoy my husband, enjoy my family, enjoy my job, enjoy my students, etc... Life is too short not to enjoy every second that God gives me.
If you haven't already, (which I'm sure most of you already have since I'm like number 379!!), link up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade!
Happy New Year!! -Jackie-

Mr. Holly is Here and an Elf on the Shelf Linky Party!

Hi Friends!!

Boy oh boy were my kiddos super excited to meet our elf on the shelf! They saw the elf on the shelf box on top of my cabinet throughout the month of November, but I played dumb and acted like I had NO idea what they were talking about.

Yesterday morning, our Elf miraculously got out of his box and appeared on one of the bookshelves next to a book basket! Surprisingly, it took the kids 10 minutes to spot him. I don't know how many times they walked right by him. Finally little miss Em. saw him and the whole class erupted in utter chaos! It was good chaos though... fun excitement. They read his little poem and began to think of different names for him.

Later on in the day, our class sat down together and read the elf on the shelf book. We also brainstormed some possible names for our Elf. There were some interesting ones, but I picked my favorite, my intern picked hers, and then each child was able to do a preliminary vote for their favorite. It came down to Mr. Holly, Max, and Elfie. After a secret ballot vote and bar graph, we finally had a name! The name, Mr. Holly won by the slimmest of margins, but overall I think the class was pleased with his name.

After we voted, we had to write about it!! Our awesome elf left the kids their very own Elf Journal. I gave them a few sentence starters, and they were on their way!! They enjoyed the rest of the afternoon tweaking their first journal entries and coloring in the front covers. I think they came out adorably!

I've never seen the kids so eager to enter my room like I did today! They spotted silly Mr. Holly sitting at the bottom of the flag pole! He had a letter for them too! This elf is some writer!! I think he's got lots to say! Today we found out that Mr. Holly is 99 years old and his birthday is on Halloween... who would have thought an elf could be born on Halloween?! My kiddos were thrilled to find out this information! In fact, many of their journals today asked all different sorts of questions... maybe he'll answer some of them tomorrow. :-)

I'm sharing Mr. Holly's classroom antics with Mel D's awesome Elf on the Shelf linky party! Click {HERE} to join up too!

Happy Elfing! -Jackie-

I can't believe it's December! Time for... Currently!!

Hi Bloggy Friends!! I can't believe it's December already!! Didn't November just seem to fly by? I'm hoping the next few weeks of school kinda flies by too, but I also hope our Vacation goes ridiculously slow... I'm in need of some Mommy/Makenzie time!!!

Well, since it's the beginning of the month, that means Farley over at "Oh Boy 4th Grade" is having her super fun "currently" linky party.

Stop on by Farley's blog and link up!

Happy Saturday Night!! -Jackie-

HUGE 100 follower giveaway!!!

Happy Friday Bloggy Friends!!!

Our very awesome blog friend, Melissa from Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late is having a humongous 100 follower giveaway! She's invited some of the most amazing teacher bloggers and TPT sellers to be a part of this giveaway. We were so honored and extremely excited when she invited us to be a part of her tremendous giveaway! One of our most recent products, Magic Tree House Christmas in Camelot book study unit, is one of the many amazing products being featured in this giveaway. You must hop on over to her fabulous blog, and check it out!!

Have a fabulous weekend!! -Jackie-

Night Of the New Magicians and a Freebie!!

Hello Blog Friends!

I am finished with my newest unit, Magic Tree House Night of The New Magicians! I am very excited about it. =) Our friend Tracy, and our friend Melissa from Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late were wonderful peer editors and have given this unit a big thumbs up! I greatly appreciate their fresh eyes! Thank you so much ladies!!!

We'd like to share a freebie from Night of the New Magicians with you.

Click For Freebie!

If you enjoy it, please drop by our TPT store and grab your copy of Night of The New Magicians! It will be on sale until midnight tonight, so grab it quick! =)

Here's a description of everything included in this unit: This 49 page book study unit is full of literacy activities aligned with a variety of different 2nd and 3rd grade Common Core State Standards. This unit could easily be adapted for 1st and 4th grade students as well. When you download this unit, you will find: -a table of contents which outlines the entire unit -1 organizer for asking questions (before, during, and after reading) -1 story map organizer to organize story elements -2 character profile bubble maps -13 pages focused on answering who, what, when, where, why, and how questions using textual evidence -1 flow map for sequencing -4 pages of reader's theater for fluency practice -1 Venn diagrams for compare and contrast -2 Circle Maps to categorize -15 vocabulary organizers -1 narrative writing prompt complete with graphic organizer and publishing paper -1 expressive language poster -1 descriptive language poster -expressive and descriptive language word sort **plus you'll also receive a 26 page teacher's answer guide! All together, this is an 75 page unit! Your students will love it and have tons of fun learning!

Happy Wednesday!! -Danielle-

Hanukkah Literacy Pack, a Freebie, and our 250 follower giveaway!

Happy Sunday Bloggy Friends! I can't believe it's the end of my week-long Thanksgiving break! I've had fun with family, cuddled and napped with my baby girl, and I've completed a few projects on my "to do" list. Overall, it's been time well spent. I have to get back into the swing of school though, so after this post, it's lesson planning for the next few weeks before our next 2 week vacation! This upcoming month is going to fly by!

One project that I've worked on this week is my Happy Hanukkah Literacy Pack. My very awesome hubby was able to create the background, frame, and clip art for this pack! He's so technologically talented!!

I'd like to share this Happy Hanukkah Freebie with you!

If you like it, please check our our TPT store and grab the Happy Hanukkah Literacy Pack during the cyber Monday and Bonus Tuesday sale! Everything in our store is 20% off plus TPT will also take a percentage off for a total of 28% savings!

We are so excited to have reached 250 followers!! We thank you so much for your constant support and well wishes! To express our gratitude, we are going to give away TWO items in our TPT store to one follower! To enter our giveaway, check out our TPT store, become a TPT follower, and leave a comment in the comment section below this blog post. That's it! Super simple! We will randomly pick a follower's comment next Saturday! Spread the word!! Thanks again, and have a relaxing Sunday! -Jackie-

Happy Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday TPT Sale!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, Friends!! We hope you all had an enjoyable day with family and friends! We had a wonderful day with our family... lots of yummy food, drinks, lots of laughs and of course Football! We all relaxed today since we're not black Friday shoppers. I even got a cuddle and a nap with my daughter Makenzie... she hasn't napped in almost two years, so it was a treat!I guess the trick is to keep her up late. Probably not... her teacher may not be too happy about that!

This is Makenzie... she's attends the afternoon voluntary pre-k program in our school. Her teacher is fabulous!! She does tons of awesome activities with her kiddos and they are learning so much!

I HAD to take a pic of this adorable turkey leg hat... I couldn't resist! Silly Aunt Danielle aka "Auntie Yellie" couldn't resist the turkey hat either! She looks cute too!

Danielle and I were even able to take a new picture together... we took it ourselves of course... instagram is so much fun! Overall, it was a lovely Thanksgiving. The quality time we spent with our parents was great and much needed! We're very lucky to be able to spend our holidays together as a family.
I'm sure many of you will be checking out the amazing deals TPT will be offering on Monday! Everything in our store will be 20% off plus TPT will also take an extra percentage off so everything purchased on Monday and Tuesday will be up to 28% off!! What an unbelievable sale! I can't wait to see what my favorite teacher stores are offering... i'll have to stock up! The amazingly talented Michelle at 3 AM Teacher created this fantastic button and super fun linky party! Check out all of the fabulous stores holding Cyber Monday and bonus Tuesday sales!

Here are some things up for sale in our TPT store...

Happy shopping and enjoy the last few days of this amazing Thanksgiving weekend!! -Jackie-

Christmas in Camelot Book Study and a Freebie!

Hi Bloggy Friends!

I am so excited that I'm finally finished with my Christmas in Camelot unit! I am sure my daughter is too... and my hubby for that matter! I absolutely love creating these units, and I plan on making many more!

I'd like to thank my sister, Danielle for proofreading for me. Gina at Beach, Sand, & Lesson Plans, and Melissa at Don't Let The Teacher Stay Up Late were also super helpful peer editors too! Thanks so much ladies!! Your help is greatly appreciated!

Please check out my Christmas in Camelot Book Study Unit on Teachers Pay Teachers. Your students will love it!

To celebrate the completion of this unit, please download this free Adjective & Adverb word sort which is a part of this book study unit!! Enjoy!!

Magic Tree House Christmas In Camelot Adjective & Adverb Word Sort Freebie

I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!! -Jackie-

Proofreaders Wanted!

Hi Friends!! I just completed my latest book study unit for Magic Tree House book #29, Christmas in Camelot! It was a LOT of work, but I think it looks awesome. =) I've proofed it a whole bunch of times, but you can never catch every single mistake, so I'd like to do some "peer editing"! I'd love to give this unit to the first three followers to comment with their email address. Please read it, and email me all of your suggestions on how I can make it better. Thanks so much for your input... it is GREATLY appreciated!! =)

-Jackie-

So You Want to be an Inventor?

So, after working on my "Night of the New Magicians" unit, I realized that the book is about The Magic Tree House kids, Jack and Annie traveling to Paris for the 1889 World's Fair to save 4 magicians from an evil sorcerer. After actually reading the book while working on my unit, to my surprise, the four magicians happen to be Alexander Grahm Bell, Thomas Edison, Gustave Eiffel, and Louis Pasteur. "Woah, wait a minute", I said to myself. Jackie just told me about the book "So You Want to be an Inventor?" by the same author of "So You Want to be President?", the last unit I created. Oh boy, this realization got me really excited to do some theme and topic connecting. So long story short I will also be preparing an informational unit to go along with Inventors. Yay! Can you sense my excitement?? My plan is to go to Barnes and Noble tomorrow to purchase said book. I look forward to sharing all of my work soon. Until next time! -Danielle

Lots of things swirling in our heads...and a SALE!!

Hi Friends!! Now that we're on a very awesome 9 day Thanksgiving vacation, we've got some time to work on a few different units that have been swirling around in our heads. Our students have absolutely loved our Magic Tree House Thanksgiving units, so we've both decided to continue learning about Jack and Annie's adventures through some different stories. =)

It's almost Christmas time, so Jackie is working on a 2nd/3rd grade Common Core Unit for Magic Tree House book #29 Christmas in Camelot.

And, just in time for Winter, she is going to do a 2nd/3rd grade combination Fiction/Non-Fiction unit for Magic Tree House book #12 Polar Bears Past Bedtime and the Fact Tracker Companion: Polar Bears and the Arctic.

Danielle wants to write some units for a couple of her small groups. She thinks Magic Tree House #1: Dinosaurs Before Dark would be a Good Fit Unit for her three lower students to work on with scaffolding and lots of support.

She also thinks Magic Tree House book #35: The Night Of The New Magician would be a good fit for her medium group with scaffolding and support and for her high group to work on independently.

If you and your students enjoyed our Election and Thanksgiving units, then you're sure to enjoy these units!! We will blog all about them when they are done!!

We are so excited to be on "vacation"!! To celebrate, we are throwing a sale in our TPT store!! Everything is 20% off including already reduced items!! You can access our store by clicking this link: Sister Teacher's TPT Store

Have a fabulous Saturday!!! Happy Blogging!!

So close to a 250 Follower Giveaway!!

Wow!! We're so close to 250 followers!! We're so excited!! To celebrate, we're having a TPT giveaway once we reach 250!! Stay tuned for more details on how to enter. =)

Happy Blogging and thanks for following us!!

Teacher Tip Linky Party!

Hi Friends!!!I am linking up with Miss Kindergarten for a teaching tip linky party. Even though I've been teaching for 12 years, I still love reading everyone's tips. I've found so many really amazing ideas that I will definitely try out in my classroom... it's so important to change things up every once in a while! =)

Click this link to link up: Miss Kindergarten

My teaching tips are pretty simple, but they took a few years to actually figure out.

Tip 1. A label maker is your best friend! I love to get fancy and make super cute labels on the computer just as much as anyone else, but for time's sake, I use my handy dandy label maker!! I think I may need to buy a new one because it's pretty old and I've used it so much!

Tip 2. Use a crate and hanging file folders to save your student's work for the week. Grade their work as it comes in and send it home on Friday all in one neat and easy stack! As you can see, my label maker came in handy here too. =) When I first started teaching, it took me so long to pass papers back to my kids. This is such a simple trick, but a HUGE time saver!

Tip 3. Use a crate and hanging file folders to save all of your reading strategy/skill posters all in one spot. I also have writing posters, CAFE cards, and scales(rubrics) filed away here too. This crate is sitting right next to my rocking chair for super easy access. I used the label maker here too...I'm slightly totally obsessed!

I hope you enjoyed my teaching tips!! Be sure to link up with Miss Kindergarten to share your tips of the trade! Click on this link to link up: Miss Kindergarten

Happy Blogging!! =)

Big Makeover

So we really weren't feeling the latest blog makeover that my husband recently did. He really wasn't feeling it either, so he's redoing everything again. The blog might look a little whacked out for a few days while he figures blogspot out. Apparently it's not as easy to design and fix a blog as it is to make a website...something about codes and widgets are way too much for me to understand. If you have any tips to share, they would be appreciated. Stay tuned for a very updated look!! =)

Happy Blogging!!

Blog Makeover and a Freebie!

Hi Friends! My very awesome and extremely tech savvy husband is in the process of giving our blog a makeover!! He still has to work on a few things like the new button, and the little headings to all of the different links and things. I love it, and hopefully Danielle does too! =)

I am super excited about the Common Core ELA Magic Tree House Thanksgiving Unit that I created last week. I am going to start it tomorrow with my students. I'll take lots of pictures and blog about it throughout the week. In celebration of my unit, I am giving away this freebie that can be used for Thanksgiving on Thursday, Fact Tracker: Pilgrims or both. I hope you enjoy it, and if you do, please check out the whole unit on our TPT store. If you don't want both the Non-Fiction and Fiction parts of the unit, I've also split them up, into two separate units.

=)Happy Sunday!

You can download the freebie on Google Docs by clicking: Magic Tree House Common Core Freebie!

Currently, Hurricane Sandy, and the American Red Cross

Wow... this is my first "Currently" in a while! Head over to Oh Boy 4th Grade to link up to this post!! This past week was difficult for my sister and I. Our Dad and so many of our friends still live on Long Island and other parts of the tri-state area. Waiting for word that everyone was safe and accounted for was tough. Our hometown of West Islip, NY was damaged tremendously and all of the pictures and video that we've seen have been heartbreaking. New Yorkers are strong and resilient people, so we know they will recover. It will just take lots of time, lots of prayers, and lots of donations. Any donations your can make to the American Red Cross will be used for their recovery. Please consider making a dontation. Every little bit helps! My thoughts and prayers are with everyone in the Tri-State area!

Election 2012 unit!

I am so excited to announce that I have finally completed my first Common Core Unit of study!! While perusing the exemplar text list, I noticed a book called "So You Want to Be President?" On the way home from school, I convinced my sister to drive past Barnes and Noble to purchase said book! (It wasn't hard to convince her, since she was the one with the idea to start selling products on Teacher Pay Teacher) A few weeks later, for your teaching pleasure, I present my 2012 Election Unit based on "So You Want to Be President?". This unit contains Common Core questioning based on the book, as well as hand picked vocabulary to go along with the book and the election. I also added a fact vs. fiction lesson, persuasive writing, and a research project on election issues. To top it off, I included directions on how to have a mock election in your class. This 3rd grade unit covers 17 Common Core standards in informational text and writing. It can be easily adapted to fit your 2nd, 4th, or 5th grade classes in all states. I hope you enjoy! Happy voting!

Tons of Credit!!

I am finally finished with my first Common Core ELA unit! My unit focuses on Magic Tree House Thanksgiving books (Thanksgiving on Thursday and Fact Tracker: Pilgrims)!! Last year I read my class both books and did some basic things with them. This year, I wanted to really dive into them, write about them, and get into the meat and potatoes of the first Thanksgiving. With this unit, I believe I will accomplish those goals. I hope I have allotted enough time to do so. :-) After working on my unit for the past few days, I am shocked by how much time really goes into writing, revising, editing, revising again, and finally publishing a quality unit. I give my fellow TPT sellers tons and tons of credit for creating such master pieces over and over again! They are true masters of this profession! Please check out my latest Thanksgiving unit and tell me what you think! I appreciate any and ALL feedback! Happy Blogging!!

Common Core ELA Magic Tree House Thanksgiving Unit