FREE St. Patrick's Day Styled Images

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

Sorry about that - I may or may not have Irish on the brain because of my latest project that I can't wait to share with you!

Do you know what a styled photo is?

You most likely do - even if you don't know that's the name for it.

Styled photos are stock photographs taken for use online - for blog posts, social media, product covers, etc. It's a growing trend that's really gaining popularity - especially among teacher bloggers and product creators. 

Here are some examples of how I've used styled images recently:

You see - the possibilities are ENDLESS! :)

Because I love the versatility and crisp clean look of styled photos, I decided to jump in and try my hand at taking some. I have created this set, just in time for St. Patrick's Day - and they're FREE for you!

This download includes 10 crisp images that are cropped to square (for social media) and 4:3 (for product covers) so that you have easy formatting options.

Here are some ideas of how you could use these St. Patrick's Day themed styled photos:

These styled photos are available for personal or commercial use - so what are you waiting for? Download them HERE and start creating! :)

Like what you see?

I have another set of school-inspired styled photos - in a fun NEON theme! :)

Happy creating!

FREE Opposite Day Activities for Monday, January 25

Good-bye teachers!

Sad similar night no one!

While that may read like a bunch of gibberish - it isn't! I'm practicing for National Opposite Day! :)

You see, that's how I greet my kiddos every year on Opposite Day - which happens every year on January 25th. So what I'm really saying to them is:

Hello students!

Happy Opposite Day everyone!

Get it? :)

As a 5th grade teacher, one of my goals was to engage my students to such a degree that they wanted to come to school each day. One way of maximizing student engagement without compromising learning time was creating packets that capitalized on their interests and let them have FUN while developing and practicing important skills.

Here is one of those packets:

National Opposite Day (yes, it is a real thing) is coming up! This year it's Monday, January 25th. Carve out some extra time to have {structured} fun with your students. It will be a day they won't soon forget! This *FREE* packet includes a poster to hang on your door as well as some ideas for celebrating Opposite Day in the classroom/home.

It also includes 5 activity pages that will stretch their imaginations while reviewing important skills.

1."My Opposite Age" asks students to imagine that the numbers in their age have been switched!  They must write a journal entry about what their life is now like – and include a picture!. (For example if they are 06 years old, they pretend that they’re 60! If they’re 12 years old, they pretend they’re now 21.) Note: If they’re 11 years old, they can choose to be 1 or 110 :)

2. "Antonyms are Amazing" gives students practical experience with opposites - antonyms!

3. "An Opposite Adventure" tells a strange story - the students must read it and switch out the underlined words for their opposites - and re-write the story so it makes sense.

 4. "A Day of Opposites" is a creative writing prompt that asks students to write about a day they have in which EVERYTHING is OPPOSITE

And finally, 5. "Opposite Learning" gives kiddos some practice with basic skills - but with an OPPOSITE twist :)

This was good practice, even for my 5th graders - they were a little rusty on their alphabet and basic math facts. It's good to brush up every now and again :)

You can download this packet for FREE here:

Opposite Day Activity Packet

If you use this packet and enjoy it, please leave feedback! Also - if you take any pictures of your students' work from this packet, I'd love to feature you on my blog! Please e-mail me at joyinthejourneyteaching@yahoo.com - and I'll send you a FREE product as a thank-you! :)

Thanksgiving Decimal Practice!

Hey fifth grade friends! Can you believe that Thanksgiving is on Thursday? I am feeling very thankful for some time to recharge, my friends and family, and (of course!) all of our blogging buddies! Thanks to all our fantastic followers and awesome contributors for making Fifth Grade Freebies a great place. :-)

Today I wanted to pop over and share a quick and easy freebie with you - and if you still have a couple of days before your restful break gets to start, then it will be perfect for your plans this week!

My fifth graders just finished up a loooooong unit on decimal operations and they needed something different. And what better way to practice decimal operations than by using MONEY and FOOD as topics? All fifth grade teachers know what I'm talking about!

Thus, Thanksgiving Decimal Operations Practice was born!

In this freebie, you will find several Thanksgiving-themed word problems involving money and all 4 operations!

If you are already enjoying your Thanksgiving break, I hope it is restful and relaxing! If you are not quite there yet, I hope you have a great couple days leading up to your break and a restful break after that!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Motivating Kids to Clean!

Here's a great little tip that will motivate your students to clean like they have never cleaned before!  It's called Mystery Trash!  At the end of the day, I walk around the room and find three things that need to be picked up and thrown away, or put away, or simply straightened.  You need to be very sneaky so the students can't tell what you are noticing!  Then I tell my students to go and find the Mystery Trash!

I try to watch and see who has taken care of each item.  Once they are all done (or we are out of time), I tell the students to return to their seats.  Then I announce the winners who each get a piece of gum or candy.

I especially love the first time I do Mystery Trash with my students!  I pick a couple things like a small piece of paper on the floor or a pencil that was dropped, but then I always pick something like a book that was crooked on the book rack or a tissue box that wasn't perfectly in the corner.  They never get that last item on the first day, but after I announce the winners I say, "And the last Mystery Trash item that no one got was...this book!  Look at how it's crooked on the book rack!  We can't have that!"

The kids' eyes get wide and they say, "What?!"  They can't believe I'm that picky!  But you should see them clean and straighten the next day!  It's a beautiful sight!

3 FREE Math games your class will love!

Hey y'all! This is Kristen from Chalk & Apples. I hope everyone is settling into a fantastic school year. Today, I wanted to share a few quick and easy (and of course FREE) math games that my students are loving this year. They're all free and require little to no prep. Check them out!

Mindreader

This is my go-to game for the end of the day when we are lined up, waiting to be called for dismissal. My class loves it! Beth from Adventures of a Schoolmarm blogged about it in detail at Classroom Tested Resources a little while back, so you can read all the details in her post.

Basically, I think of a number, tell my class how many digits it is, and they start guessing. After each guess, I tell how many digits are correct and how many are in the correct place value. We also discuss whether guesses are logical or not based on the previous information. This is a great time to build some common sense skills! (For example if a student guesses 325 and I say that 1 digit is correct AND in the correct place value, 476 is not a logical next guess because the student has changed all of the digits when we knew one was correct.) Grab all the details & instructions free in Beth's TPT store!

MathAGories

This is another student favorite! I use it mostly during centers, although it made a great whole-group time filler when our power suddenly went out - for TWO hours! It's played much like Scattergories, where the most unique answers win. Students learned quickly that the easiest answers would likely get used by many of their classmates, and that they needed to think outside the box if they wanted to win. This freebie is for different ways to make a number, but the same game rules can be applied to lots of math concepts, like equivalent fractions, multiples, etc. Get the recording sheets and game instructions in my TPT store!

Odd One Out

This game was shared by Cassie from Funky in Fourth last year on Teaching Trio, and my class loves it! She has all the details in her post, plus a free game sheet. Students place 15 chips onto the game board. Then they take turns removing chips from only one row. The goal is to NOT be the last person to remove chips from the board. I love the way it gets kids thinking about their strategies and adjusting mid-game. Grab the freebie here!

What games do you play with your students? I'm always on the lookout for new games for our math workshop time! 

FREE classroom jobs chart!

Posting a classroom job chart is the perfect way to delegate responsibilities to your students. We just can't do it all!!  Plus, students love to help around the classroom.  Take some time at the beginning of the year to teach your students how to successfully complete some important classroom jobs and you will be thankful.  Nothing is better than the middle of the year when your students get so good at the classroom jobs that they are essentially running the classroom.  I just want to show up and teach I tell them!  The rest should be up to them!!!

Download this classroom jobs chart for FREE.  Just print, laminate, post, teach, sit back, and enjoy!!

First Day Welcome Letter Warm Up

Need a warm up for the first day of school?  Here's a quick little fill-in-the-blank letter you can have on your students' desks so they have something to do right when they walk in.

You can find this freebie at my TPT Store!