Monday Markdown and whats up!

The last two weeks has been CRAZY!!  Volleyball season started and I coach the Grade 8 team - Chey is my assistant coach and another parent also comes to help out.  We  have had a clinic and two practices a week.  We also already have our first tournament and first game under our belts.  We lost the tournament - we came in 3rd.  BUT we won the game. 

My girls are beginning to understand the rotations and PMS (power, middle, setter). 

On top of these activities I have Freedom travelling to Memphis this year on her spiritual emphasis retreat - they study freedom in the physical and spiritual sense.  Also Cheyenne is graduating this year.  So we had a Memphis meeting and a grad meeting on top of Friday and Sunday volunteering.  I love being busy but my blog pays the ultimate price (and so does our meal times LOL!). 

However, this weekend I caught up on marking (more or less), clean the kids rooms (I even washed the walls), watched the season premier of Walking Dead and Supernatural.  I bought all five kids and myself
jackets, boots, mitts, hats, scarves, and other necessities (that was a fast thousand dollars) and I am proud of myself - did not buy one book (although I wanted to very badly).  I even managed to cook a rather interesting Thanksgiving dinner with the help of my in-laws and their BBQ.

Finished the weekend by playing a prank on my kids.  Me and my husband found this creepy butler animated ornament that wobbles and moans.  We snuck it into the kids rooms while they were sleeping and turned it on.  The reactions were all over the place.  The best was Freedom who is a zombie junky like myself - she cried, curled up in a ball, and told it to go away.  Obviously, I need a new zombie apocalypse partner....

Second off - here are my Monday Markdown items this week, as usual one for middle and one for early years.

My early years product is festive :o)  My Pumpkin Themed Literacy and Word Work Stations is half price.  Here is the deets: My Pumpkin themed literacy and word work station unit focused on teaching the –it, -en, and long e word families.

In this package you will find the following over 24 pages:
•A themed poster for each word family that you can laminate and use an anchor chart or print off and place in each student’s spelling/ELA folder.
•A Fall Rainbow Words set which includes the words to print and place in a jar, a printable dice template, as well as the recording sheet with basic instructions.
•A word match cut and paste activity using the three word families.
•A word sorting station, the students are to place the right pumpkins in each word family pumpkin patch and a recording sheet
•A crossword puzzle using the three word families and an answer key
•A themed I have Who has game including 24 word family cards
•An easy reader that you can print out and read with your students or print in black and white and get them to color and read.

I loved teaching this in grade one!

My Middle Years product is my chevron Ecosystem Vocabulary cards. They are hard to see but they are up there on the black board with my underwater ecosystem display.  This is a set of 39 Chevron themed Ecosystem vocabulary cards. Great as review material, game pieces, as part of a word wall, or classroom display.

There are also 3 blank vocabulary cards.

This resource is part of my Interactions Within Ecosystems unit which you can check out here --> http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interactions-in-Ecosystem-Full-Unit-1403059

Vocabulary is a great way to not only introduce main themes but to make sure that the content is being understood - especially for the not so avid readers who do not always take context clues or have other strategies to help them decode and comprehend the text.

I also just wanted that there is a great Milestone Giveaway happening over at School House Treasures.   I was more than pleased to be able to donate a WINNERS CHOICE to the giveaway and help her celebrate her momentous event.  Check it out!