Spring Cleaning Sale March 29-31 - 20% off all items!

Clean out those wishlists with this 

Spring Cleaning Sale going on now!

Be sure to check out all the freebies 

I've included in my TpT store, too! 

Shammie O'Shamrock and My Little Leprechaun Writers

It's almost St. Patty's Day! 
My students were busy this week working on writing pieces and St. Patrick's Day crafts for the upcoming week.  We made a really cute, interactive bulletin board display outside of our classroom for everyone to enjoy.   

We called it, "Leprechaun Yourself".  Anyone who walks by can figure out what their leprechaun name is by using our Leprechaun Glyph.  Students enjoyed finding their leprechaun names, too. I wrote them on shamrocks and placed them by their writings.   We also have parent/teacher conferences this week, so while parents are waiting outside the room, they can enjoy their child's story and find their leprechaun name as well.  It'll be something fun to do while they wait to see me :)
I was really impressed with the students' writing.  It didn't take near as long to complete the writing process as it did a few months ago. I call that some major PROGRESS!  I'm so pleased to see my firsties becoming better creative writers.  
They each got to present their stories to the class.  Then they chose the best of two stories they wrote to go on display.  For this assignment their choices were:  "If I Caught a Leprechaun" and "If I Found a Four-Leaf Clover I Would Wish For..."  

  

 

We brainstormed ideas for each writing prompt and wrote down some key words students thought of using in their stories.  Students used the words in their stories if they wanted and came up with some great ideas of their own, too!

I don't like limiting them to a certain number of sentences, but for this assignment I requested at least 4 sentences, with no more than 6 in order for their stories to fit on the page, and most importantly, I wanted them to stay on topic! That seems to be the biggest issue we have when doing our creative writing.  I think limiting their sentences to just a few helped keep them focused on the topic better for this assignment.

I created this "Leprechaun Yourself" activity to share on my TpT store.  It includes 5 different writing prompt pages, the fun leprechaun glyph, and templates for creating a leprechaun.
It's on sale through March 16th!

Happy Teaching!

Pin to Win With GoNoodle!

Pin to Win With GoNoodle! For the month of March, GoNoodle is sponsoring #GoNoodleMadness where pinners will pin motivational blog stories and GoNoodle brain breaks for a chance to win GoNoodle Madness Classroom packs and GoNoodle basketballs! Winners are chosen each week in March. 

How to get in on the GoNoodle Madness:

1 – Pin  your favorite brain breaks from GoNoodle.com, or pin any GoNoodle image from this blog post.  Just hover over one of my photos in this post and pin it.

2 – Tag your pins with @GoNoodle and #GoNoodleMadness.

3 – The more you pin, the more chances to win!

Let the Madness begin… start pinning now!

You can also:
Follow GoNoodle on Pinterest

Follow Preslar's Place on Pinterest

Here's my classroom GoNoodle story:
I've often thought how wonderful it would be if someone could invent a program for teachers that would be our all-in-one cure for unfocused, unmotivated, wiggly students?  What if that same program included fun games and music? 
Even better, how about if it incorporated cute avatars that grew bigger and stronger each time your students completed levels of dancing and movement?
Graphics courtesy of GoNoodle
I'd love it even more if it were free, right?
No, I'm NOT dreaming!
This is NOT a hoax!
This program really exists and it's called,    Graphics courtesy of GoNoodle
GoNoodle is free to all teachers all over the country.  You can create your own account by clicking the image above.  GoNoodle is a fun, interactive suite of brain breaks your students will LOVE!    In my first grade classroom we spend at least 10-15 minutes a day dancing and moving to these fun songs.  It's a great way to transition quickly and smoothly and get the wiggles out.  My students look forward to our GoNoodle brain break times each day. 
 It's a great classroom management tool as well.  It's amazing how the chance to earn an extra brain break each day can improve student behavior!  I also randomly draw student names and those students get to choose the brain break for the class.  It's a special privilege they get when they're having a fabulous day! My students LOVE "Boogie Down".  Just reading the name, you can imagine what goes on with these little dancing machines when I turn it on.  The chicken character who narrates this video is hilarious, and this game has become a necessity in my classroom each day.   
Ok...I'll admit.  I love to "boogie down" just as much as the kids do! I love to show off my "moves" and have fun with my kids. 
   Pictures courtesy of Mrs. Preslar's Class Attention Arkansas Teachers!!!!  Graphic courtesy of findgoodmovers.net
Thanks to a generous statewide sponsorship from Arkansas Children's Hospital and the Blue and You Foundation, Arkansas teachers receive a special GoNoodle Plus upgrade which gives us access to Common Core aligned games!   All you have to do to start enjoying these fun brain breaks is click below to create your free account: 
Graphic courtesy of GoNoodle

Try it and see what an improvement it makes in motivating your students and getting their brains working! 
   Happy Teaching!