2017-2018 Calendar Journals

Hey friends! Can you believe July is almost over and everyone is gearing up for Back to School? I certainly can't. With that said, it's time to update my calendar journals and freebies for yet, another school year. This year, my calendar journals have gotten a facelift with new fonts and a cover page. If you own these, make sure you visit my TpT Store and grab. Or just click the image below to check them out. I hope you enjoy!!

Earth Day + a Freebie!!

Happy Earth Day! If you're like me, you're always doing things AFTER the fact. ha ha So, hopefully, you can find use for this freebie next week. 

I put together an Earth Day craftivity and printable that's easy for students (and you). Students will brainstorm things the Earth has, is, and gives us and record their answers. Afterwards, they will write a sentence about how they will help the earth and attach their printable to their craft. This makes for a super cute hallway display! You can grab this freebie by clicking the image below. Do you do anything special to celebrate Earth Day in your classroom? I hope you enjoy!!

Testing Encouragement + a Freebie!!

Dr. Seuss Brag Tag FREEBIE!!!

Hi ya'll. Im back!! I should have posted these yesterday, but was busy working on my Theodore Seuss Geisel Author Study. Click HERE to check it out. Anyways, I have a freebie for you in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday!! Maybe you can sneak them in sometime during your Read Across America week? Every year, I print off these tags and staple them to a brown lunch bag. Students must go home and search the house for an object, stick the item in their bag, and write a rhyming word to match. I have a few students share each day (during circle time) and if we cannot guess what their object is by the rhyming clue - I allow students to give other clues to describe their object. It's a wonderful rhyme review and students LOVE it! Remember...all you'll need is the tag, brown lunch bags, and a stapler! Your students will add the creativity. 

The tag says:

"I don't mean to brag, but I have something in my bag. 

I'll give you this clue, and I bet you can guess it, too! 

It rhymes with __________." 

Click the image below to grab the freebie from Google Docs. Enjoy!

Valentine Freebie

Hi friends. With Groundhog Day over, I'm gearing up for Valentine's Day. I thought I'd spread the love by sharing a freebie with you. Looking for something to give to your students or possibly your teacher friends? Well, look no further. I've got just the thing!

Just print off the freebie, pair it with some "Tic Tacs," and viola! You've got the perfect little Valentine. For extra durability, laminate. You can download the freebie by visiting my TpT store. Just click the cover image below. I've even included game boards where the words "Tic Tac" aren't highlighted for those candy free schools. In that case, just pair the game board with a fun marker or crayon and attach with washi tape. Happy Valentine's Day!

New Year, a Sale, and some Freebies

Happy New Year, friends! I hope you rung in 2017 with the people you love. Here, at Eberhart's Explorers, I'm helping you check off your New Year's Resolutions with EACH purchase. Winter Close Reads, Literacy Stations, Freebies and MORE. For a limited time only...all of my winter units are 20% off. I'm knee deep in snow and won't be returning to school for a few days, so I have time to prep and gear up for a new year. Grab these units and do the same! I've got all of your January themes covered - Hibernation, Martin Luther King, Winter, and Penguins and I've even included a few freebies for you. Just click the links below to pick up a MLK and Penguin freebie and check out all of my fabulous resources at discounted prices. Happy New Year!

Martin Luther King Freebie - Click Here

Penguin Sort - Click Here

TpT Store - Click Here

Scarecrow Day and a Freebie

Scarecrow/Fall Post

Columbus Day + a Freebie!

Awesome Apple Adventure Day & a Freebie!!

Johnny Appleseed Close Read

Classroom Book Unit (Volume 1)

TpT Back to School SALE and some of my Favorite Resources/Freebies!

Happy Sunday!! It's the most exciting time of the year!! It's time for Teachers Pay Teachers annual Back to School Sale. The sale will be up and running tomorrow and last through Tuesday. Everything in my store is 20% off and when you enter the code BESTYEAR at checkout, you'll save an extra 8%. 

You can visit my store by clicking here. Before I run and fill up my shopping cart, I wanted to share with you a few of my favorite Back to School Resources! These products are sure to get your year off on the right foot and have been teacher tested and student approved. 

You can check out my Back to School Resources here. These have all been successful in my classroom and I use them every year. You can read more about The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School here and my Monthly Family Projects here - - two of my best sellers!!

You can check out all of my co authored Close Reads here. If you are struggling to get your students to slow down and reflect as they read, these Close Reading units are for YOU! They are the perfect book companion and follow a 5 day lesson plan where everything is laid out, step - by - step. Super easy to follow along with and very creative!! This can serve as your whole group reading lesson or can be paired with a reading series you currently use. Jennifer Horner and I are certain these Close Reads will make your students become better readers and dig deeper in the text. 

And...just because I love my followers...here are a few Back to School Freebies for you. All of these products have been updated for the 2016-2017 school year and can be found under my Freebies tab, above. Check them out and Happy Shopping!!

Writing, labels, and freebies - Oh my!!

Whoop whoop. I'm back folks.....2 days in a row! Today, I'm posting about what's been going on in Writer's Workshop. I began with labeling and my explorers are doing so well with it! I loved Julie Lee's idea on labeling the teacher and Cara Carroll's idea of making an anchor chart to hold the labels...so I went for it. And oh.my.word, my students loved everything about it. Brilliant.

Here is the after math of it all. ha And I'm not sure what is up with my outfit. Well, I do know. I was running late and went down to my garage to leave...in just my shirt and shoes....hoping my black pants were clean and hanging in the laundry room.....and, well, I was wrong. ha And I didn't have time to go back upstairs and change my shirt...so I grabbed the first pair of pants I could find. Wardrobe fail. They did NOT match. heh Good thing I'm with 5 and 6 year olds all day....

It is important to remember, that when teaching Writer's Workshop, (you match your clothes) AND you generate ideas for writing with your students. ha ha Providing "live" demonstrations, while showing the students how to write the same type of text they will, is so important! You should provide interactive writing opportunities where you "share the pen." When you do this, you're inviting the students to record some parts of the shared text. Here is my classroom example of pen sharing:

And for those of you not familiar, this is a labeling chart on our sweet and precious Gertrude. You can read more about our classroom pet here. We discussed how a label gives the reader more information and how we needed to educate others on our guinea pig. ;-) Afterwards, students labeled their own guinea pig.

If you're interested in a Gertrude labeling page, you can grab it by clicking the image below. Also, check out Katie Mense's most recent post on labeling and the great freebie she included. So smart! 

I also wanted to share with you a great sheet I put together based on the teachings from Dr. Deborah Rowe from Vanderbilt University. There are many conditions that support young children's writing and we must remember that students learn write best when the learning instructional environment provides: 

1. A purpose for writing and a real audience

2. Immersion

3. Demonstrations

4. Collaboration

5. Response from Others

6. Engagement

7. Responsibility

8. Expectation

9. Approximation

These are great to remember when carrying out your Writing lessons and conference times. This reminder sheet is tucked away in my plan book and I refer to it when planning. I sure hope you've found some helpful tips. Happy Writing!

Nocturnal Animals and a freebie!

Hey friends! Long time, no post. I've missed you all. I wanted to post on what my Explorers are learning this week. It's my favorite unit to teach - - nocturnal animals! Here is a little glimpse into what we will be doing. 

We will be making Owl fact books from Deanna Jump's unit. These are wonderful for teaching sentence structure, labeling, and illustrations. We will record some of our new learning on a have/can/are chart and afterwards, dissect owl pellets!

I purchased an owl pellet kit through a STEM grant and my students (last year) LOVED it! You can get a similar kit from Amazon {here}. 

This great little poster was included with the kit and showed the bones students might find when they dissect their pellets. Students were able to bring their bones up to the poster and figure out what part of the Vole it was from. A Vole is a small rodent, resembling a mouse, but with a stouter body. Here is a picture of a Vole skull we found. 

My students begged to take their findings home and show their parents. They were so excited! I'm not so sure my parents were, though. ha ha My explorers, this year, are already counting down to dissection day! It is definitely a wonderful, hands-on learning experience. I plan on teaching about Bats as well and I want to begin with a KWL chart. Here is one that I've put together. We will begin adding to it, tomorrow.

Afterwards, we will compare and contrast Bats to Owls and make a Venn Diagram. 

This wonderful idea stemmed from my bloggy BFF - Katie Mense and it came together so well. The bat pattern is from Cara Carroll and the Silly Shaped Owls can be found here. If you're interested in doing something like this with your students, you can grab the Venn Diagram labels and a recording sheet below.