Best of 2016

Whew! 2016 has really been a fabulous year! It is hard to believe in a few short days we will ring in a New Year. In celebration of the wonderful year it has been, I am teaming up with many, many TpT friends to highlight our bestsellers of 2016. For you it means those bestsellers will be discounted 20% from December 28th to December 30th. 

To make things a little easier for you, this will be a hashtag sale. In the search bar on TpT, enter #bestof2016sale. You will see all of the bestsellers of the TpT sellers that are participating in this sale. 

Below, you will find my Top 10 Bestsellers of 2016. You will not find all of these by searching the hashtag sale, but all of these resources will be on sale. 

 

#1: Geography and Map Skills Interactive Notebook- This interactive notebook comes with 13 templates, plus a cover template and table of contents. This is a great way to teach geography and map skills. Students remain engaged through the hands-on portion of the interactive notebook. In addition to the hands-on activities, students produce a product that is useful to develop good study habits. For some of the templates there are a couple of versions to choose between for differentiation purposes. This has been my #1 bestseller this year.

#2: American Revolution Interactive Notebook Templates- If you are teaching the American Revolution, this is the perfect product for you! This resource comes with nine templates, individual template directions, pictures of templates in an interactive notebook, a unit cover page, a table of contents page, and possible answers and information for each template. Students love using interactive notebooks!

#3: Grammar: Parts of Speech Interactive Notebook- Grammar Interactive Notebook covers all parts the of speech you teach your students in your language arts classroom. Perfecting the parts of speech can be fun and engaging! In this bundled unit, you get eight separate interactive notebook units to use in your classroom. teaching nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, interjections, and conjunctions just got easier.

#4: Civil War Interactive Notebook Templates- If you are teaching the Civil War, this is the perfect product for you! This resource comes with eight templates, individual template directions, pictures of templates in an interactive notebook, and possible answers and information for each template. The templates included are: Terms to Know, Economies of the North and South, King Cotton, A Nation Divided, Causes of the Civil War, Civil War Leaders, Turning Points in the War, and Women of the Civil War.

#5: Reward Coupons and Incentives for Middle and High School Students- Reward coupons and incentives for Middle School and High School Students is a great behavioral management system. Students are able to earn reward incentives through their kind deeds, actions, and performance in class. This is great for those students who need a little incentive to get busy on an assignment or who need a little praise for effort. These are great for students in grades 5-12! My students love them!

I keep these reward incentives in an index card holder for easy access, and it takes up less space around my desk. The students are able to ‘cash-in’ their incentives at certain times that I set up in the classroom. I have found these reward incentives save me a lot of time correcting negative behavior, and we are able to focus more on positive behaviors and learning. The fabulous thing about these incentives is you can use them year after year!

#6: American Government Interactive Notebook Templates- If you are teaching a unit on American Government, this is the perfect product for you! This resource comes with 14 templates, individual template directions, pictures of templates in an interactive notebook, and possible answers and information for each template. Students love using interactive notebooks!

The templates include: Terms to Know, Articles of Confederation, History of Democracy, U.S. Constitution, Articles of Confederation vs Constitution, The Amendment Process, Bill of Rights, Rights vs Responsibilities, Levels of Government, Branches of Government, Individual Branches of Government, and Voting: Every Vote Counts!

#7: Stargirl Novel Study- If you teach the book Stargirl, this resource will help you greatly! It is 82 pages of material to use before, during, and after reading the novel. Included in this novel study are pre-reading lessons and activities, vocabulary, chapter questions and discussion, journal writing prompts, character analysis, literary analysis, and reading skills. Check out the preview to get a glimpse of how it is organized.

#8: Bill of Rights Match-Up- The Bill of Rights Match-Up is a great resource to use when teaching a unit on government. This resource contains ten badges with the amendment numbers, ten badges with what each amendment states, a recording sheet, and a handout for the students to illustrate the meaning of one amendment. 

Students will match the amendment number card with the card containing what the amendment states. Once the students have sorted and matched the cards, they record their answers on the recording sheet. In addition to the recording sheet and center cards, there is a printable for the students to choose one amendment and illustrate it so that others will be able to understand its meaning. 

#9: Civil War: Major Battles PowerPoint and Organizers- Civil War {Major Battle PowerPoint Presentation and Organizers} contains 50 pages total. There is a 25 page ppt covering major Civil War battles. There is a 25 page document with organizers to help your students organize the information for the major battles. 

The battles included are: Fort Sumter, First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), Shiloh, Fredericksburg, 
Antietam, Siege of Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Spotsylvania, and Appomattox Court House.

#10: Prepositional Phrase Task Cards- Prepositional Phrase Task Cards are great to use in your classroom as a center activity, as skill reinforcement, and as practice for upcoming assessments. Your students will read each task card, identify the prepositional phrase in each sentence, and record the answer on the Prepositional Phrase Recording Sheet. There are 30 Prepositional Phrase Task Cards. The answer key is included.

Remember these bestsellers will only be on sale from December 28th-December 30th. So hurry on over to Right Down the Middle with Andrea to check out the resources. Remember to use the search bar and hashtag #bestof2016sale to find all of the resources on sale. 

I have a couple of fun giveaways coming up very soon! Make sure you like and follow me on Facebook and Instagram (rightdownthemiddle). You will not want to miss these upcoming giveaways! 

Unlocking the Secrets of Interactive Notebooks

Interactive Notebooks seem to be the rage in classrooms across America right now. In fact, there are resources for them for all subject areas, grade levels, and they are in designed for differentiation. Every teacher I speak to who uses them absolutely loves them! But there may be someone out there who is still on the fence, so why would I choose to use it in my classroom?

Here are some reasons every teacher would want to use Interactive Notebooks.

1. Student-Centered

The focus of using Interactive Notebooks in a classroom is because it is student-centered. Interactive Notebooks do not take the place of teaching, but rather they reinforce the skills and content taught by providing students an opportunity to record information learned and research additional content to include. The student decides what information is recorded in the notebooks.

2. Hands-on Learning

How many students do you know who need movement incorporated into their classroom schedule? For this reason, Interactive Notebooks provide a good balance of hands-on learning as they allow for movement instead of just sitting and listening to a lecture. Students actually enjoy cutting and assembling the notebooks.

A few years ago, I shared one of my Interactive Notebooks I created with a co-worker. At first, the co-worker was unsure if the students were going to be receptive to the idea because they were 8th graders. The students loved it so much, she decided to use Interactive Notebooks with every content area she taught.

3. Provide a Working Product

An Interactive Notebook is not completed in one day; it is a work in progress. The students can add to it daily or once a week. They are designed to meet the needs of your classroom and can be tailored to meet the needs of your students. By providing a means to look at work from the beginning of the year to the end of the year in a single notebook, the teacher and students are able to look at student growth. It is amazing how differently a student responds to some questions at the beginning of the year compared to similar questions at the end of the year.

4. Built-in Study Guide

One of my favorite reasons for using Interactive Notebooks is because it provides a built-in student guide for the students. This study guide is ready for test prep at any time of the year for quizzes, chapter tests, unit tests, and even standardized tests. I always have the students leave the first several pages in the notebook blank to use as an on-going 'Table of Contents' to help make it easier to find certain topics when students are reviewing or studying.

5. Ownership

Students are proud of their Interactive Notebooks. They spend a tremendous amount of time working on them, and I have found that even students who have a hard time staying organized are able to keep an Interactive Notebook. I believe this is because it is THEIR personal INB. I always smile when I see students paying close attention to detail in their drawings and illustrations, because I know this is when it has clicked with them the notebooks is theirs.

If you are looking for Interactive Notebook Resources click HERE!

            

Thank you to Graphics from the Pond and KG Fonts for the use of their talents in the title image!