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Sunday, September 3, 2023

Ready for another year!

Well I've made it through the first month of my 28th year!

I can't believe it!  Where have all the years gone.  

Here are a few of things that worked great to start off the year.  I covered my chalkboard with Better than Paper this year.   It was super easy to put up and I glued it right to the board.  It did take 2 rolls to cover this board, but so worth the time and effort.  It looks fantastic!  It's on sale on Amazon right how if you want to try it out.  





If you haven't tried the whole sheet shipping labels to make big stickers for your journals, you are so missing out.  I love how cute these turned out.  I used the 8 1/2 x 11 shipping labels.  Each sheet made two labels and the kids loved that their names were on the big stickers.



We are using a new series in math this year, Envision.  I am loving all of the lessons and the kids are starting to really get the hang of it.  We are currently working on repeated addition and arrays.  I wanted a fun game for us to play this week, so I made these cute task cards.  I'm planning to play a game of SCOOT with them.  The kids haven't played SCOOT yet, put I know they will love it.  

I wanted to make sure that the kids are focusing on rows and columns.  The set has 10 cards that focus on rows and 10 on columns.  We had a lot of confusion this week on which way a row or column went.  I just finished printing and laminating the cards.  I'm going to hang them around the room and then let the kids work with a partner to write the repeated addition sentence for each card.  Click on the cards to see more!


I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

What we do is MAKING a DIFFERENCE!

HAPPY TEACHING!




Thursday, June 6, 2019

June Dollar Deals and Freebies!

Just a quick post to let you know about some great $1 deals and freebies all month long!

I've teamed up with some TPT Sellers to kick off the summer with some fun!  You can grab $1 deals each Thursday for the whole month.  We will also be promoting some amazing freebies on Friday.

Just search on TPT using the hashtags to find all the deals!  I just picked up 4 products that I can wait to use next year!  Only a $1 each!  Shhh.....  don't tell my husband!

Thursday - #thriftythursday
Friday - #freebiefriday

I picked two of my most popular science products to offer at $1 for TODAY ONLY!  Grab these deals before they are gone!

Just click on the picture to go directly to TPT and see all of the fantastic $1 deals for today!


Happy SHOPPING!  Don't forget to search tomorrow for some FREEBIES!


Saturday, June 1, 2019

Welcome June!

It's SUMMER time EVERYONE!

Time to relax and enjoy some fun!

Time to reflect, get organized for next year, and make some goals!

Goal #1
Do a book study with my teacher friends!

THE WILD CARD!!!!
My book has been ordered and the Amazon man should be bringing it Monday!
I'm so excited to read this book!  Everyone that has read it says it is a GAME CHANGER!

Goal #2
Clean out my closet!  That one is on hold....  I just can't!

Goal #3
Organize all of my task cards and cute things I've bought on TPT into tubs by months.  The giant pile has been moved from the garage to my dining room.More about that later this week!

Goal #4
Get back to blogging!  I'm not sure exactly why I stopped but I'm back at it!

To celebrate the month of June I'm picking some of my favorite things to share with you!  They will be discounted for the week or something might be free for a day or two!  Check back often so you don't miss a DEAL!

Today's favorite thing for this week is my teacher planner!  Here is a picture of last year's version.  It has an editable file so that you can customize it.  Printing new covers is on my TO DO list for tomorrow.  You can snag a new teacher binder for only $4.50 all week long!  Just click on a picture to see more details of the binders.  


What I love about my binder is that I can keep everything from student contact information, parent conference forms, long range plans, to a log of all my passwords in one binder.  It even has a section to keep important dates/sessions to use for your professionalism.  

At the end of the day I only have to take the binder home with me!  
Everything I might need is right in there!


Over the different years I've wanted a new binder theme, so I have lots of different themes!


 A Safari Theme!


Polka Dot Kids!


Planning for next year already?  Looking for something to use in a center?

I'm in love with CLIP IT CARDS and have been making a bunch for next year.  As a thank you for visiting my blog tonight, you can download these adorable Clip It Cards for Free!  It will be a FLASH FREEBIE for the next 24 hours, so download it QUICK!  



I hope everyone is enjoying their SUMMER break or if you haven't made it to summer break yet I hope it comes soon!

Enjoy every minute!

Happy Teaching!

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Favorite January Read Alouds!

One of my favorite parts of the day is our read alouds!  I was trying to think back to exactly when I started doing read alouds, but I honestly can't remember how or why I started...  guess that is my old age taking over!

Each week we have a main read aloud that I use to teach the reading skill(s) for the week.  I also do several other read alouds throughout the week, but we might not dig as deep into them as the main one.

For the main read aloud I pretty much follow a pattern each week.  On Monday, we read the whole story cover to cover and focus a lot on prediction skills.  The rest of the days we work on different reading skills and vocabulary.  Somedays we reread the whole story, but other days we might only read a page or two.  It really depends on what we are doing.  Then on Friday we WRITE!  We use a writing prompt that somehow ties to our story to get the kids focused on writing to a prompt for the BIG state test at the end of the year.  (Like it or not...  it is always in the back of my mind.)

Many years ago a parent gave me a beautiful basket.  At the beginning of the month I stock the basket with read aloud books that go with the month, holiday, or season.  I keep all of my read aloud books in a special teacher only place so that the kids haven't read them yet.  If we have a few minutes of down time we pick a book to read to class and discuss.  I've been doing the monthly book basket for about three years and I think it really is excellent idea.  The kids love it and beg to reread a book from the basket on their own that I have already shared with the class.  (Whatever it takes to get them to love books works for ME!)  They are really good about only reading the ones we have shared.

Here are some of my favorite read alouds for January.

Martin's Big Words - By Doreen Rappaport

This is a MUST read!  The illustrations are amazing and the vocabulary is so rich!  We select unknown words as we read and make a list on chart paper.  Then we work in groups to come up with a definition that is kid friendly based on what is happening in the book.  I am lucky that for this book I actually have several copies so the kids can put them in their hands while I read!


Snowmen at Night - By Caralyn Buehner

We love this!  It is a favorite!  This is story is great for sequencing and prediction.  The kids get a big kick out of trying to name all of the different things that the snowmen do at night and then put them in the right order.  We do a writing prompt that is so much fun!  

Here is the prompt we use:

During Snowmen at Night the snowmen come to life and do some amazing things.  What do mailboxes do at night while we sleep?  How about your lunchbox?  Select an object that doesn't move and write a story about their crazy adventure at night while you sleep!  



The Missing Mitten Mystery - By Steven Kellogg

This is a book that we spend a few days working on!  We focus on what a mystery is.  I am always shocked at how many of the kids don't exactly know what a mystery is.  We focus on a bunch of different skills because the kids love this book.   We write about something that we lost and leave off the ending.  Then we pick a few to read to the class and the kids work in groups to make predictions of how they found their item.  It is a great reinforcer for making sure your story provides the reader with enough details.  This book is always a hit with the kids!



We work on identifying the beginning, middle, and end of the story.  We make this flip flap book.  Under the flaps the kids write in detail what happens during each section.  

We work on sequencing using this printable.  I just print them out and give the kids construction paper to cut and glue them into the correct order.  This is a great activity for partners.  Just click on the printable to see the whole packet of printables that go with this cute book.  


These are just a few of my favorites for January!  I hope one of them is something you can add to your collection.  


Happy TEACHING!