Well, the groundhog saw his shadow and we’ve been feeling the additional six weeks of winter up here in the Northern Hemisphere. But maybe that means spring and summer will be extra special. I, for one, will appreciate the rising temperatures when they come!
On a warmer note, here’s a full class of fabulous TpT Teacher-Authors. Each one of the following 17 have recently achieved a TpT Milestone. Couple that with the fantastic fact that TpT is now over 3 million teachers strong (hurrah!) and the weather suddenly doesn’t seem so chilly.
Meet 17 March Milestone Achievers
1. From Missouri it’s Deedee Wills
Try her: Writing Work Station for March
Her tip: “My students spend time working independently in stations while I work with a small group. It is, therefore, imperative that they have meaningful tasks that are engaging and predictable. I try to create independent station activities that do not need a lot of teacher explanation. I include, ‘I Can…’ cards to further improve their independence. Once my students have learned how my Writing Stations work, I just switch out the materials once a month.”
2. From California it’s PowerPoint Guru
Try his: Short Story JUMBO PowerPoint: 6 Stories in One
His tip: “As illustrated in this product, the PowerPoints from the PowerPoint Guru are visually attractive and serve as a means to hook students immediately to the content being taught. This particular PowerPoint serves as either a tool to be used before introducing a short story or broken up and used as the story is being read. Discussion and explanation are easily produced from the content of the presentation.”
3. From Idaho it’s Arik Durfee
Try his: Game Show Mania – Five Fun ELA PowerPoint Review Games
His tip: “These games are fun on their own, but I found I can increase engagement even more by hamming it up and making a huge deal out of it. A few years ago, right before testing time, I started doing what I called ‘The Durfee Cup.’ I split each class into two teams, turned one of my walls into a huge scoreboard, and then spent a week and a half playing every game show I have. The teams earned points for each win, and the points accumulated each day until I could declare a winner from each class period and an overall champion from all of my classes. I spent every day acting like a game show host, and the kids loved it. One year, I even splurged and took the overall winning team go-cart racing. It was a blast, and the kids went into their state tests confident and excited.”
4. From California it’s Michelle Griffo
Try her: Base 10 Math Unit
Her tip: “This is a product designed to teach and reinforce counting and adding with base 10 blocks. You can use this during whole group instruction, for center time, or as homework. I also included language arts interactive decodables that promote literacy in math, where the students read the simple sentences and color the blocks to match.”
5. Amy Headley and Victoria Smith from Arizona run Splash! Publications
Try their: HUGE American History/U.S. History Bundle–Common Core–9 Units!
Their tip: “Don’t skimp on Social Studies! Teaching Social Studies allows you to meet several Common Core Standards and integrate multiple subjects at the same time. Our content rich Social Studies lessons provide students with critical informational and functional text comprehension; expository, persuasive, and creative writing practice; mapping skills, and vocabulary acquisition.”
6. From Texas — Jessica Williamson
Try her: Wild West Math and Literacy Unit
Her tip: “Learn all about Texas and the Wild West with this fun unit! Not just for Texas. This 95-page unit is a great supplement to any classroom ready to learn about cowboys, rodeo, and the Wild West.”
7. From the Armed Services, Middle East — Sarah O’Shea is Educasong
Try her: Kids Clip Art Bundle
Her tip: “This set of boys and girls clip art is a favorite with Educasong followers. The list of ways to use them is endless! From brightening up your letters and documents, to using them for counting and inspiration for writing in the classroom. And of course, you can use them in your own products to sell on TpT!”
8. From South Carolina it’s Sarah Tighe LLC
Try her: Cause and Effect Activity Menu (CCSS aligned Choice Board)
Her tip: “I would like to highlight my Cause and Effect Activity Menu (CCSS aligned Choice Board). I love using menus while teaching. They are great for differentiation and give the students a choice in applying their learning. My reading menus are perfect to use as centers during guided reading, as a project, or as an early finisher activity.”
9. From Texas — Jessica Osborne
Try her: Book Report Project: Bloom’s Taxonomy Poster on ANY Novel
Her tip: “This alternative to boring book reports fosters higher order thinking skills as students analyze either their current independent reading book or a class novel. It will help you meet your required standards by having students ask and answer leveled questions about the text, referring to the text as a basis for their answers. Students love to create these fun posters to show what they know, while teachers love that it’s an easy-to-use, student-led activity (as many of my products are).”
10. From Wisconsin it’s Michelle Hanson
Try her: Interactive Morning Math Calendar Meeting SMARTBoard for March Common Core
Her tip: “You will love how actively your students are engaged with my monthly morning math calendar SMARTBoard lesson. The daily math covers 20+ Second Grade Common Core concepts. You also get a printable worksheet to keep your students accountable during the lesson. Each day, I allow my leader to operate the SMARTBoard, calling on students to answer questions. The rest of the students answer questions while filling in the daily math worksheet. Then each Friday, I test the students on their understanding of the concepts. I run the meeting, but instead of answering questions as a class, I have the students fill in the answers on the worksheet without input from the other students. This gives me a quick snapshot of what students need extra practice with. Each month I change the slides to progressively get more difficult.”
11. Terry Abromitis from Georgia runs Terry’s Teaching Tidbits
Try her: 4th Grade CC Math Test & Execl Data Sheet Bundle – ALL STANDARDS
Her tip: “The bundle contains math tests for 7 units, covering all of the 4th Grade Common Core Standards. The math tests are to be used as a pre and post assessment for each unit and Excel data sheets are provided to chart student growth between the pre and post assessments. It’s a great way to plan instruction and small group differentiation at the start of each unit, as well as show growth to your administration as each unit is completed.”
12. Introducing Susanna of Whimsy Workshop Teaching
Try her: Sentence Building Kit 1 (70 pages) Whimsy Workshop Teaching
Her tip: “For morning work and literacy centers, I like to incorporate as many skills as possible. I use this set of sentence building tasks to reinforce many basic skills at once: printing, decoding, logic, comprehension, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. I also want to build independence, so it also includes a self-editing checklist and peer-editing section. I love the feedback for this set!”
13. From Texas — Samantha Halbert
Try her: 2-D Shapes Unit (15 K-1 Geometry Activities)
Her tip: “This 94 page, 2-D shapes unit is a great way to review K-1 geometry vocabulary in an interactive, centers-based approach.”
14. Alice Seeger from Ohio is Look Who’s in First Grade
Try her: Nonfiction Text Features Resources
Her tip: “My students love to write, and they especially love to write informational texts. I use this packet of resources to kick off my nonfiction research and writing unit. Posters defining text features help students complete their text features notebooks. The graphic organizer helps them categorize the facts they gather in their research. Finally, the writing paper helps them write their informational text in style!”
15. Ohio’s Chynell is The Pinspired Teacher
Try her: Common Core Anchor Charts Made Easy-Literature Standards Bundle
Her tip: “These anchor charts are huge time savers for teachers who peruse Pinterest in awe of attractive anchor charts, but simply do not have time (or artistic inclination) to make masterpieces of their own. Prepare the anchor chart pieces in advance and store in envelopes with a photograph of the completed anchor chart on the front to act as a label as well as a visual aid. Since there is at least one anchor chart per standard, the anchor charts can serve as a visual checklist that you have taught all the standards and impress your fellow teachers and administrators at the same time!”
16. North Carolina’s Jen Sykes is Hello Mrs Sykes
Try her: Common Core Reading: Comprehension Strategy Sheets Informational Standards, 3-5
Her tip: “Designed for grades 3-5, this set covers all Informational Text standards and can be used as independent work, partner work, small group work, whole group work, or even for homework! This straightforward packet is easy to understand for use with volunteers or paraprofessionals, yet complex enough to engage students in repeated readings.”
17. From Illinois Melissa Kozerski runs Inspire Me ASAP
Try her: I “Mustache” You a Question About Guided Reading
Her tip: “I ‘mustache’ you a question… Do you need some guided reading inspiration… ASAP? Do you need COMMON CORE guided reading inspiration!? It’s that time of the year to kick up your guided reading a notch… mustache style!”
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Don’t miss out on the fun here at Teachers Pay Teachers. If you’re new to TpT, check out A Top 10 TpT Look Back on 2013 for some excellent context. If you’re interested in selling on TpT, you can learn more here.
