Character Mandala's

Want a great way to have your students analyze character traits. Try this activity.

When I did this with my students they really had to think about their characters to represent them in pictorial form. It was fun to watch their pages come together. You can purchase the file that has all you need for this lesson at TPT (TeachersPayTeachers.) The file includes a PowerPoint that introduces what a mandala is and how they have been made by Monks, Native American's and everyday people. Then you will have copies of the examples you see here and 3 templates for students to choose from. I promise you will absolutely love this project. Your students will as well. It went well with our novel study. I suggest having them write about their mandala after they have created it and explain it in words. I will add that element this year.

Follow this link to get yours -  TPT - Mandala

Lame Sauce

I can't believe I went almost the entire school year without utilizing my blog. What a disappointment for my one follower. Haha.

Actually, as busy as I was this school year I can believe it. Standby for several creations I came up with this year. I will be posting them in my TPT store. (Link: DaisyaDay Classroom TPT).

I will also post pictures here about how I used them with student work.

Can't wait to share.

Happy summer!

Creating!

I love to make my own unique printables. I am starting a unit this week with my students. It is for the books I got funded. Maniac Magee will commence Wednesday. To kick it off, I created my own clip art to go with it and a time line. Check out my TPT page to purchase the time line.Maniac Magee Time line. Here is a preview of the clip art.

Maniac

His favorite treat

Interactive Notebooks

The bulk of my teaching is being put into notes the students keep. We got composition notebooks and call them our interactive notebooks. I love them. They enjoy them. They end up being these kind of pop up books with lots of good information in them. Today I discovered a cool website that had a bunch of different types of little ways to keep notes. Templates if you will and best of all they are free. Check it out! Lapbooking It's a homeschool website. It's very helpful. I love free things that help my students.

Sorry I have been a slacker in posting. It's been a busy year so far.

Theme Song

I searched and searched the internet for an idea to add to my interactive notebooks about theme. There were some good ideas, but nothing I loved. I grabbed hold of an idea about using theme song to demonstrate what a theme is. A good theme song will tell a story about the end of a movie, or the beginning. I excited to share the graphic organizer I came up with. It is available for a very small fee at TPT in my store. Here is a preview photo. Let me know if you use it and how it worked for you!

Ipod Theme <--------Click this link to purchase. 

New Photo Editor

I have been in deep mourning every since Picnik sold out to Google. I mean, I get it, build it and sell it for lots of money. I just didn't like having to go to google everytime I wanted to make a quick edit. Well, today I stumbled onto a new site I can use.

I wanted to make my own badge for this teacher blog. So, I clicked on this google search link One Cool Site. It directed me to use Picmonkey!! Tada! I am a happy teacher again. Now my students and I can do quick fun edits to our photos when we are doing projects. Enjoy!

http://www.picmonkey.com/#

Donorschoose.org

I love teaching. Sometimes it's difficult to get the supplies you need to teach your students. I am asking for help in reaching a goal of getting two award winning books into the hands of my 6th graders this coming year.

The books are: 

 Read about Maniac








and

Read about TreeEar







I have spent the summer hitting every second hand store, yard sale, and thrift store. I have collected 4 books. That is when I realized I would need more help. A friend of mind told me about donorschoose.org. 

You can help me get the 28 copies of each book by donating to my project. If you donate before next Thursday, July 25th and the organization (DonorsChoose.org) will match your funds dollar for dollar.  It's a tax write off. You will also get updates from me to see this year how having these books to teach from reached my students. Follow the link below my signature to help. May great Karma and God's blessings come your way.

Mrsjblake's Book Project <-------------------------- The link to my Donorschoose.org project

USE THIS CODE- INSPIRE, for the fund to be matched when you are checking out.