Product Swap! (And a Super-Quick Update)

Oh my goodness you guys. I haven't even read a blog post in over a week. It hurts me inside.

I miss you.

But all this wedding business has been keeping my crazy busy-but more on that later.

The real reason I'm writing this post is because a few months ago, when I wasn't crazy busy, I signed up for Jessica's product swap!

I was paired up with Ann Marie from Innovative Connections, and got to try out her Reading Adventures Pack from her Teachers Pay Teachers store!

Let me start off by saying that with all of the craziness this week, I wasn't able to find time to use these with my students. However, writing prompts of any kind are ALWAYS helpful-especially since I'm trying out Daily 5 this year! Especially with some students in particular, extra ideas are incredibly helpful!

Obviously, Step 1 was printing. Again, due to constrictions on time (and ink budget) I wasn't able to print out the whole file, because this puppy is HUGE! The pack that Ann Marie sent me was a combo pack that includes Part 1 and Part 2 of her individual writing task cards, and no joke, this thing is 62 pages long! That's a lot of writing. And printing. But mostly writing. :)

So anyway, I only ended up printing Part 1 for the time being, but that still gave me 36 task cards! (And there are a total of 72 cards in the full set!)

Not too shabby.

Next up was laminating. You know as much as I do how awesome these little laminators are. I just love that little guy.

So I loaded all of my sheets into pouches, fired up the ol' laminator, and got to work!

I must say, I was getting a little sleepy at this point in the evening, so I was heavily tempted to take a nap while my pages ran through.

Once the pages were all laminated, it was on to the cutting stage. I must say, I seriously enjoy cutting stuff. It's almost therapeutic for me. I know, I'm weird. No, I won't do all of your cutting for you.

And that's it! All cut out and ready to go- easy peasy.

Even better, I also found that Ann Marie included full page-sized versions of the first 36 cards. Why? So that you can display the writing prompts on your interactive whiteboards! Pretty smart, right?

And, to top it all off,  she included two different response sheets: one that's unlined with a border that matches the task cards, and one that's a bit more ink-friendly that's also lined. Both response sheets have a place for students to write their name, the task card number, the writing prompt, and their own writing.

This ought to keep my kiddos occupied for a LONG time! I plan on hole punching the corner of each card and putting them on a ring somewhere in the room so that they can easily access them if they need them. Or, I could split up the cards into smaller groups, put them on rings, and place the groups around the room...

Decisions, decisions.

Make sure you check out Ann Marie's TpT store-she has a TON of ELA resources for all grade levels!

And don't forget to follow her blog (click her blog button at the top to check it out)!

In other news, I've been running around like a chicken with its head cut off this week trying to get everything ready for the wedding Sunday. Biggest stressor? Preparing a week's worth of sub plans.

I've spent SO many hours standing at the copy machine this week. Yuck.

But, everything is ready to go, I've met with my sub, and Walter has a temporary weekend home thanks  to Teri.

Whew.

As I'm writing is (at 9:40 on a Friday night) I have about half a bajillion things left to get done. Tomorrow (Saturday) we're setting up for the reception from 10-2, have the rehearsal at 5, and the rehearsal dinner at 6.

Um, I'm getting married-SUNDAY!

Eeek!

And did I mention that our ridiculously hot summer has now turned into a ridiculously cool fall?

A high in the 50s isn't exactly ideal for an outdoor wedding. Grr.

Anyway, I have a honeymoon to go pack for, and wedding details to finish up, so I'm going to call it a night! Hopefully once all of this madness has died down, I'll be back more regularly!

Enjoy your weekend!