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!
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!
I want to share my top 5 favorite things about my classroom this year!
The best part of this post, is that each of these adorable pictures
are linked to my favorite things!
Where have you been all my life? I mean SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How fun is it when all your reading centers are in colored ink? Every math game comes to life! Best of all no more COLORING things in!
If you don't have HP Instant Ink.... don't walk.... RUN and get yourself signed up!
The program is really simple. Sign up for the service and your printer lets HP know to send you ink. No more running out at 1:00 in the morning to buy ink! The ink comes right to your mailbox.
They have different plan levels from $2.99 to $9.99 a month. I am on the $9.99 plan. That gives me 300 copies a month! Unused copies roll over to the next month. (One catch is that you can only bank 300 copies in the roll over)
If you have an HP printer that is wireless you already may be in luck! You can check on the link to see if you already have what you need. (Just click on the cute kid above!)
I bought the HP Envy 5540 at Best Buy for less than $75. Turns out that I could have gotten a better deal at CostCo, so make sure you check them out before you buy. Also check online for some great deals at Amazon and Walmart. I have a few friends that have bought one the last few weeks and have gotten some great deals!
Once you have your printer, all you need to do is log in on the site and set up your account. The huge bonus is that you can enter promo codes to get free MONTHS! Yes, FREE MONTHS!
When I signed up I used two codes and got 7 free months of ink! These codes worked for me and also for my friend last week, so give them a try.
6freeink
gDTW3
Don't forget to check your box because you might have scored 3 more free months like my friend did!
I promise if you only give yourself one gift this year.... MAKE IT INSTANT INK!
I am always looking for new sites for the kids to use in the classroom and this summer I discovered a WINNER!
ZEARN!
Zearn is a free independent learning program that allows the students to work at their own pace mastering their math skills.
It is rated as a Tier 1 instructional program with proven research based results. You can read all about it on their site.
This is my first year using it and so far I am impressed with it! The kids seem to really be engaged and want to get extra time on the computer to work on it some more!
Take a peek at it and see if it will help your kiddos!
This book is FANTASTIC!
This is one of my favorite ways to start the school year off and we always revisit this clip every so often to help use make sure....
We aren't being a VOLCANO!
At the end of last year I read about NAIER and had to take a look!
NAIER is basically a teacher paradise with all kinds of supplies we need at HUGE discount prices!
You have to apply to be a teacher member and it does take a few weeks to get approved, but it is worth the wait!
I ordered 24 rolls of Scotch brand packing tape, 12 tablets of sticky notes that were 12x12, 6 rolls of duct tape, markers, pens, tape dispensers, and more!
Total cost..... $47
Yes, you read that one right! The only drawback is that it does take a few weeks to get your order, but it is so WORTH the WAIT!
If you haven't checked it out yet.... take a look!
Well... that one is a WISH!!!!!!!!! A classroom that is all set and ready is just a DREAM! Every year I stress and worry that the kids will be disappointed if everything isn't perfect.
THEY DON'T CARE! All they want to do is spend time with YOU! The decorations, name tags, and color coded stuff can come later. All they want to do the first week is spend time with YOU!
It is so easy to get tangled up in all of the stressful issues that surround us each day, but this year celebrate the JOY and SUCCESS! That joy and success is far more important than anything else!
I hope everyone has a wonderful school year. Enjoy every minute with your kiddos.
TPT is having a sale August 1-2. Everything in my TPT store is 20% off. Combine that with the TPT discount and you will save 25% off all of the items you need for BACK TO SCHOOL!
Want to win some TPT cash to spend? Enter to win a $10 TPT gift card! Just hop on over to my Facebook page and comment on the post with the grade level you teach. A winner will be chosen 8/1 at 10 p.m. Click on on the picture below to go to my Facebook page!
We finished our work week today! There is no other word for it..... TIRED!
Setting up my classroom, Teacher Visit Day, leading two inservice sessions, and somehow finding time to feed my son and get him to football. Not going to lie.... hubby did a TON this week!
The last thing a teacher wants is a meeting during work week! It is brutal and all you can think about is the million things you have to get done in your classroom.
I found myself presenting twice this week. I knew they didn't want me wasting their time and I knew EXACTLY what they would be thinking.
COME ON TRACY.... HURRY IT UP!
I did one presentation on Numeracy to PK-2 teachers in my building. I love MATH and I could talk about it forever! But they didn't want me to talk forever, I can assure of that!
We talked about what we thought numeracy means and they worked in groups show their ideas. They did great!
Here are a few pictures of them!
I talked about one of my favorite strategies for math. It is called My Favorite NO! Take a second to look at her video. It is an 8th grade class, but I was able to use the same concept with my second graders and they LOVE it!
Give it a try and you will be HOOKED!
Here is another video clip of some other games that are so much fun! I taught my class how to play and we played them as a group. Once they got the hang of it, I put them in centers and the kids played almost everyday!
The second presentation I did was for all of the second grade teachers in our district. We worked together to create a CFA that we will all give online and come back together in September to discuss the results. Everyone was busy learning the computer program that we will use!
The best part of my inservice presentations were the GIVEAWAYS! I always do little prizes, but this time I wanted to go BIG or go HOME! So I reached out to some TPT authors and asked for some donations that I could give away to the teachers. I thought I might get about 5 or 6.....WRONG! Can I say that 38 different products were donated by these AWESOME sellers! The teachers were so excited! Who wouldn't be!
Please visit theseAMAZING sellers and see the adorable things they have created. I have to admit I found several things to buy for this year!
I've teamed up with some great TPT friends to blog about our favorite activities, organizational ideas, and teacher fun!
The best part is that each of us is giving away a $25 TPT Gift Certificate! You can enter at the bottom of the blog post. Lots of different ways to enter to win before the next big TPT Sale!
That first day of school is a whirlwind of CRAZINESS! If everyone gets feed and home the right way it is a SUCCESS!
To get the kids settled for a few minutes and give me a chance to breathe, we make About Me Banners. When I first tried them I let the kids design them by themselves and it never seemed to turn out the way I had thought. I always seemed to have one crying because they couldn't think of anything to write and another that had cut their banner into 1,000 tiny pieces.
Being the OCD teacher that I am, I created a template for them to use. It has been a HUGE lifesaver for me. I project it on my board and fill it out so they can get to know me a little better. Then I give everyone their copy and they go to work.
The banners look adorable in the hallway after the first day and are a favorite memory in our portfolios at the end of the year. The kids are always so amazed at how much better their handwriting is at the end of the year.
You can download this activity for FREE from my TPT store. Just click on the picture.
My favorite classroom game is SKITTLE MATH!
State testing is just part of life.... like it or not! So we do test prep all the time and for math we play a very simple game....
SKITTLE MATH!
Just use any test prep you have, dry erase boards, and Skittles! Just project one question at a time and have the kids write their answers on their board. Move around the room and check their work. If they are right, they get a Skittle. Because test prep has lots of different levels of questions, everyone gets a BUNCH right!
I made these fun jars this summer so that I didn't have to keep the Skittles in a ziplock bag this year. You can download the labels by clicking on the picture.
You can enter for the giveaway starting at 10 a.m. on July 27th.
The blog hop will end on August 1st at 11:59 p.m.
The WINNER will receive their $25 directly from me on August 2nd.
Want to enter to win more?
TIME TO HOP TO MY FRIEND!
Just click on the link and enter to win another $25 TPT Gift Certificate!
