Get my NEW freshly redone creative writing tools all in one printable volume! This contains all of my previous sets of cards, many with edits and fixes. They have also been reworked in a paper-saving smaller format. You now get 9-15 per page instead of 4. That really helps when you print 1200 cards!
 
Great Starts Cards offer a title and some hints on how to get started. 5 activities are included for using them.
 
Story Starters Cards offer genre-specific items, characters, plots, and settings along with 10 activities to help you make your own stories from THOUSANDS of combinations.

This works so well for all grades of creative writing for COMMON CORE!
 
INCLUDED SETS ARE:

1. Great Starts - Titles and Plots (EXPANDED)
   
2. Great Starts - Titles and Starting Sentences
   
3. Story Starters - Asian Adventures
   
4. Story Starters - Dramatic Fiction
   
5. Story Starters - Fantasy and Fairy Tales
   
6. Story Starters - Historical Fiction
   
7. Story Starters - Horror and Thrillers
   
8. Story Starters - Religious Stories (NEW)
   
9. Story Starters - Science Fiction
   
10. Story Starters - Spanish Telenovelas (FIXED TRANSLATIONS)
    

What can I say? I'm on a roll! This is a new set of 50 Learning Labs for STEM. You can apply common core standards for writing and reflections to the labs, as well as some math standards for calculating weights, engineering, and geometry!

Enjoy volume 2!

This one isn't necessarily common core, but the math portions do support the common core. It also lends a little time to the often-overlooked subject of science! I just wanted to share my new book with you all.

This is a collection of 50 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) science experiments for kids. Recommended for grades 3 and up. Each one has a snappy title, a brief description of the task required, the rules, and grading rubrics. These are very adjustable for your classroom, home, or homeschool needs. 

They support learning in these technical fields in a fun, hands-on, and sometimes competitive way. Learn by doing, measuring, and designing, and then reflect upon it. 

Labs are tagged with categories so you can search for other similar labs. Types of labs included are: paper airplanes, bridge building, roller coasters, weight lifting projects, cars, crash tests, egg tests, and many, many more!

To celebrate breaking 1000 followers in 1 year's time, I'm throwing a sale on all of my 350+ products on TeachersNotebook. There will be 10 days of sales at 10% off of everything. There will also be 10 days of 10 giveaways! 

Thank you everyone for your support. Find all of my Little Learning Labs files and collections, all of my Common Core Assessments materials, as well as many, many more products!

You know all of those great common core vocabulary cards on this site? The ones that are for ELA and MATH for grades K-8? They're being released in a color and B&W versions. The color one is a bit pricier, but I wanted to offer that option. The B&W has blank backs so you can cut them out, and it's very economical!

Get your copy and share with your friends at different grade levels. Save your toner and order now!

They will be available on Amazon, Lulu, and other online booksellers.

Little Learning Labs, my other educational site, is proud to have their first educational release: How to Draw with Basic Shapes. It's now available via pdf download on teacherspayteachers and teachersnotebook. It's also available in print on lulu (click on the image). It will soon be available on amazon, as well!

This is a collected version of all of my how to draw books, with nearly 150 different drawings, all explained in 5 easy steps or less. It has some updated graphics and a nice cover.

Included volumes are:

• Birds
  
• Bugs & Insects
  
• Creepy Crawlies
  
• Flowers
  
• Food & Drinks
  
• Fruits & Veggies
  
• Home & School
  
• Pets & Farm Animals
  
• Plants & Flowers
  
• Sea Creatures
  
• Seasonal & Holidays Items
  
• Wild Animals

I've been keeping busy, how about all of you?
I've been cranking out lots of new preschool and kindergarten resources for my site www.littlelearninglabs.com. It's a lot of fun making teaching resources for young learnings. They're all still so eager and want to learn, perhaps more than the students we might have to teach Common Core to , but common core doesn't have to be sad and frightening!

Let me show you a few quick and easy assessment templates you can make standardized worksheets out of to make your life a little easier! I'll give you a sample from each category of the book, so you can get a better idea of what you're getting:

So, I just got back from a 5-day trip to St. Augustine. It was great, right during Father's Day and all. It's summer vacation. We're supposed to be having fun, not thinking about school and all that nonsense, right? Or is that right?

Try as we might, we can never really escape from school, can we? We're always wondering what we can do differently next year to escape from the pitfalls and trials of the previous year(s). Then school starts, we fall back into the rhythm, but we don't have the time and energy to actually try much new. Oh, we try for a few days, but then those standards, the tests, and deadlines creep up and we return to the comfortable and familiar. After winter break, we vow (another failed new years' resolution?) to try harder. Kids get us tired out and we stare down that long, but not long enough, march toward state testing. Finally, when we get a chance at the end of the year to squeeze in some of our favorite activities, we're too tired to really give it our all.

I know some of us are high-powered, tireless individuals, but this story sounds a lot like a few years of my own experience, not to mention that of some coworkers. It's a tiring, often thankless, low-paying job. It's hard, perhaps one of the hardest jobs out there. Don't get me wrong about that! The thing is, preparation can make a difference. Going into the year with things planned, lessons printed, etc... makes a huge difference. Walking out the door on friday with monday ready to go, instead of arriving monday and scrambling makes a HUGE difference. What else makes a difference? Tools to help make things easier. 

Try some of my free grade level vocab cards and assessment templates, and see if they make a difference, if they're that tipping point on the scale that moves things back in your favor! God Bless and happy teaching!

I thought I'd try to make this a bit more interactive. So, to herald the finishing of all 18 sets of common core vocab cards (ELA & Math K-8 sets), I thought I'd ask what you guys teach, and how you will use the cards. What subject areas matter most to you? Where do you need the most help teaching common core?

These templates allow you to match pictures in the square boxes to words from the word bank. Write your answer in the bubbles beneath the pictures. You can put any pictures you want on there! This can be fun for identifying animals, rocks, or other science terms. You could also use them for identifying genres by putting different book cover images in the boxes. You can really use it for any subject! Put outlines of countries in there and use this as a geography quiz, too! The possibilities are endless.

Match 6, 8 , or 10 terms to pictures.

As the school year winds down, you might be looking toward a long vacation, and who could blame you? Some of you might be looking at summer school. And, knowing teachers from being one myself, I know you're all thinking about next year, at least a little.

What is the Common Core Adoption Status in your state? Are you already fully into the swing of things? Are you partway in, getting further along next year? Some of my free common core vocabulary cards could help out! No matter what grade level you're at, these K-8 cards have some great skills and vocabulary that will suit any set of standards, whether you teach to the common core or not.

Are you thinking about lesson plans? Has your school district adopted new forms and set out new rules for using standards or listing standards in each subject area? If so, my free common core assessment templates are great for your lesson plans. Simply check off the grade level and write the standard in the box! 

Here's to a happy summer and a great next year!

With 7th and 8th grade ELA vocab cards now completed, that marks the completion of ALL 16 sets, which are grades K-8 math and ELA vocabulary cards. There are something like 2500 vocab cards altogether. Whew! That was a lot of tedious typing. Get your Common Core Standards Vocabulary Cards now!

My next potential project for the summer is making some practice tests. I'm still not sure if I'll do it. It all depends on interest levels.

Here are grades 5 & 6 in ELA vocab cards. Grades 7 & 8 should be done tomorrow! Enjoy these ones. I hope they help with your word walls and teaching common core.

Here are grades 3 and 4. The other English Language Arts vocabulary cards should get done this week. I will likely do grades 5&6 on one day, and grades 7&8 on another. Then all of them will be available!

Here are the new vocab cards for 1st and 2nd grade. Expect more tomorrow! I should have them done to grade 8 by the end of the week. Enjoy these new free common core vocabulary cards downloads for English Language Arts Standards.

Here is the first of the vocabulary cards sets. I'll try to get another one every day until K-8 are all done! This one features 175 key terms for Kindergarten success with the common core standards.

Keep in mind that your own classroom may require a few other words, so feel free to cut out the ones you don't feel are necessary and substitute in a few of your own on the blank cards at the end!

With these last four completed, grades 5-8, the math vocabulary cards are done! With over 1000 cards in grades K-8, these are pretty comprehensive. I'd suggest getting the grade level you teach, and perhaps the one above and the one below. You never know if you will need to differentiate some instruction, review, or adapt your textbook to fit the needs of your students!

The third grade math cards are done! With nearly 175 important math terms, they should really help you focus on the areas that will be covered in the 3rd grade.

The fourth grade math cards are also done! With nearly 225 important math terms, they should really help you focus on the areas that will be covered in the 4th grade.