Irony Maze

 

 

It took all weekend, but I finished my next lesson: an irony maze to assess students on the three types of irony.

 

 

 

Students make their way through the maze by making turns as they decide what type of irony is being shown: dramatic, situational, or verbal. 

 

~Mrs. Scott

Figurative Language Hidden Pictures

After posting my first Teacher pay Teacher item less than a week ago, I have already made 4 sales for a whopping $10.65! hehe 

 

Maybe not enough to retire on, but definitely an added bonus for something I had already done for my class anyways!  And what's nice is now that it is posted I don't have to do anything else but continue make a profit off of it.

 

If you don't have an account, you can join here.

 

I was so inspired by my first set of sales that I created another item and posted it today:

 

Do you remember how much you used to love color by numbers?

This is the same concept, but instead students color similes, metaphors, and personification examples making your English, Language Arts, or Reading class fun and relevant, especially for you kinesthetic learners!

The set includes two hidden picture sheets, along with their keys.  



 

*Even better, ALL of the examples on the first sheet are popular song lyrics from every genre and kids will LOVE it! Some artists included: Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Nas, Rhianna, and Elvis.

 

~Mrs. Scott

95 Illustrated Word Wall Posters for Language Arts

 

I am so excited to post my first item for sale on teacherspayteachers.com:





 

 

 

All the definitions included:

 

 

A few examples:

 

 

 

 

 

~Mrs. Scott

Classroom Kindness Ornaments

After searching the internet for an ornament activity to do with my middle school students, I was unable to find anything that wasn’t geared towards younger children. So, I decided to create a lesson to do with them that could be educational and also create a keepsake to hang from the tree.

Students write compliments to their classmates, and their words of kindness are turned into an ornament.

My 8th grade students loved the lesson and ornaments, and I was able to work out all the kinks before sharing with you!

I am also excited to announce that I have joined the world of TeacherspayTeachers.  I originally had the opinion that teachers should just be generous and share their work with others for free, out of the goodness of their hearts.  Surprisingly, A LOT of lessons are free (including this ornament one), but the ones that do cost are definitely worth it.  After seeing the quality, I now understand the time and effort that went into the activities, lessons, posters, etc. and definitely think the teachers who created them deserve to be compensated. 

I doubt  I will be charging for anything anytime soon, but am kind of excited to have a new outlet to possibly earn some extra moula.

~Mrs. Scott

Online Games for Middle School Language Arts

I love having student computers in my classroom, but because there are only two, I have been at a loss with how to let students use them so that they are relevant for 8th grade English.  Anytime a student finished early the only website they knew to go to was coolmath.com, and while I am sure there are great math games, it just didn't feel appropriate for them to play during my class. 

I found tons of elementary-oriented website for helping with reading, spelling, and phonics, but secondary games are hard to come by...so I searched harder.

I have spent some of my free time  (hah!) during the past few weeks looking for games that are fun to play, but also address objectives my students need to know and may also struggle with.  I added my "finds" to my classroom website for students to access and thought some of you may want to use them as well without having to do the legwork. ;)

So, here they are...  If you know of more please share with us in the comments!





 

Freerice.com:
For each answer you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, and grades.

It's Greek to Me Game:
Identify definitions by using clues found in words' roots while playing in the Olympics.

 

 

Professor Garfield Reading Ring:
Wrestle your opponent by answering comic strip questions.

 

 

Professor Garfield Learning Lab:
Watch videos and play games from Garfield.

 

Superthinkers:
Interactive mysteries teach problem solving

 

Rooting Out Word:
Help Remainder the Dog gather enough mushrooms to sell at the market by uncovering the roots of words.

 

 

Plural Girls:
Twin sisters Pearl and Flora lost their friends in the bubble machine. Help them get their friends out by choosing the correct plural form of the given word.

 

 

Word Confusion:
Help Regan the Vegan make fresh salad. Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

 

 

Grammar Gorillas:
Our friends, the Grammar Gorillas, need help identifying parts of speech. If you click on the right word in the sentence, our friends get a banana. And you know, a gorilla with a banana is a gorilla with appeal.

 

Spell Check:
Can you check the misspelled word??

 

 

~Mrs. Scott

School Shirts & More for a Cause

I haven't talked about my middle son, Deacon, on here before.  He is two and a half and has already been through quite a bit in that amount of time. He has been diagnosed with autism, epilepsy, and visual impairment.  You can read Deacon's story HERE on my family's blog.

Because of these disabilities, we are working extra hard to give Deacon the best future possible.  As you can imagine, this doesn't come cheap. Between doctor visits, therapy, tests, gluten-free diet, medication, and taking off work for these things (in addition to having two other children), we are stretched pretty thin. 

Needless to say, we are THRILLED to begin our fundraiser for Deacon!!  The main reason for our enthusiasm is because an AMAZING company was willing to help us out:

I stumbled across their website a few years ago and loved their products.  Their personalized shirts were perfect for an upcoming photo session we had scheduled, so we quickly ordered!  They arrived promptly and turned out adorable:

 

I thought about the website a couple of days ago and figured I would take a shot and see if they would be willing to help us raise money for our sweet guy.  Kristy and Michelle responded the next morning and were happy to participate! 

So, with the holidays quickly approaching, may I suggest Luna B. Tee's for your shopping needs:

They have a ton of personalized products for children, pets, teachers, and family members. 

Including festive holiday shirts,

 baby gifts,

 

and what I thought you might like, school shirts!  (We teachers could always use an adorable shirt to wear on Jean Fridays!)



 

Best of all: they are giving YOU a 10% off discount for shopping, while still donating 20% of orders to Deacon!

 

They also run "Deals of the Week," where selected items are $10 off!  One item this week is personalized clipboards. 

 

 They also have pillow cases, cutting boards, and water bottles.   So for any of these special deals, you get:

 $10 off + 10% off + 20% donated to Deacon

 





Start shopping now to get orders in time for Christmas presents and pictures!!  (Orders are guaranteed for Christmas if purchased by December 4th, 2012)

www.lunabtee.com

To get YOUR discount and donate 20% to Deacon, be sure to enter this coupon code at checkout:

 

 

Thank you in advance for your participation!  I can't wait to see pictures of you and your little ones in their new outfits!!

You Danger

I have recently discovered Scholastic Scope Magazine and LOVE using it to teach lessons in my language arts class!  While you are encouraged to purchase subscriptions for each student, Scholastic's website allows you to view issues and project the pdf in class.  (If your school has EBSCO access, you can also find printable versions there)  As an added bonus, they provide curriculum that accompanies each article that address junior high TEKS.

I recently used the above article for a persuasive writing lesson in my class that the students loved.  The article is about how kids risk their lives to video tape crazy stunts to post on youtube and poses a question about youtube's responsibility.

I started the lesson with a video clip from youtube that the kids found hilarious = the perfect hook:



Then we read the article as a class.  At the end of the article students are asked to choose a side on whether youtube should ban stunt videos and support their opinions with textual evidence.

 

As an extension Scholastic provides a step-by-step guide that walks students through writing an argument essay.  I didn't use these, but there is also a transition guide and an argument essay checklist.

The rest of the magazine is fabulous as well, so you will probably see more blogs in the future about other cool stuff I find in there.

~Mrs. Scott