Tried it Tuesday and a SALE!

I'm linking up with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper for another

Now that our state tests are over, I can honestly say that my brain is in vacation mode! I can totally sympathize with the kids and their want to have fun (haha--dare I say that! Fun in school?!?! haha)

So to add a little excitement in my room--I've devised an addition to my behavior management plan because we all know that the last month of school is one of the hardest parts of the school year! It's a raffle system, which is used to reward students for completing their all their homework. (It could also be used to reward great behavior--if you chose :)

I give students the raffle tickets and they fold them up and place them in our raffle jar (I call it a chance can!)

Since it's the end of the year, I pull the raffle tickets a bit more frequently than if I were to do this during the year. (Next year, I want to use it on a monthly basis--one month's worth of raffle tickets, pull the tickets at the end of the month, then discard all unused tickets and start over for the next month. Just a thought!)

The prize...homework passes! The kids love them and so do I!!

Here's a little treat...

Click here to get your freebie!

a little freebie for all my readers! Thank you for all you do! You all truly inspire me to be a better teacher and blogger!

Don't forget that Teachers Pay Teachers is having a huge Teacher Appreciation Sale...

Enjoy 20% off my store today and tomorrow!

Teachers Notebook is also having great sales and giveaways at their site...

Teachers Notebook is offering an additional 10% off all sale products for the entire week--my shop is on sale for 20% off until May 10th :)

Have a wonderful week and happy shopping!!

Calming the Chaos

Welcome to the Calming the Chaos Blog Hop hosted by 2peasandadog.

All of us bloggers have come together to share our top tips for making the last month of school run smoothly. Visit each of our blogs to learn something new and catch a freebie or two!

Happy Hopping!

The end of the year is full of mixed emotions--excitement for the upcoming vacation and apprehension about next year and the years to come (this is especially true if you teach the upper grades!)

One of my favorite end-of-the-year read alouds is Someday by Eileen Spinelli--

Spinelli poetically writes about a little girl's dreams for the future and how it relates to what she's doing today. Not only is it a great book for discussions about hope and dreams, it is an excellent mentor text for students to use when they write their own Someday poems!

To collect their ideas, the students use a planning page--which focuses on the 5 senses and feelings. I model how to take the information from the planning page and turn it into a poem. The students write their own poems on drafting paper and make revisions and edits before they publish. 

I usually have them publish their poems on legal sized paper and illustrate--there is something about having all that space (it reminds me of a two-page spread in a book), which stay hanging in the room until the last day of school!

And since the end-of-year is full of so many other things to do, here are some freebies to get you started...

 click HERE to get them :)

Blog Hop Participants

Check out this Great Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway