Back to School

I go back to school in two weeks. Back in June I told myself not to do anything school related until August 1. That lasted until mid-July. I was busy creating monthly homework packets and planning for the first few weeks of school. I'm looking forward to tomorrow- the TPT Back to School sale! I'll get the items on my wishlist in time for school to begin!

My Monthly Homework Packets have four activities per week, both academic (practicing math, reading, writing, and phonics skills we will work on at school) and non-academic (such as tying shoes, saying phone number and address).

Don't forget to use the promo code to get 28% off in my TPT store! :)

Teacher Appreciation Sale

Visit my TPT store during the Teacher Appreciation Days and use the Coupon Code ThankYou to get 20% off!  I just uploaded my new Dinosaur Literacy Stations.

Winter "One"derland Dollar Sale

I'm linking up with some fabulous teachers is a Winter "One"derland Dollar sale on TPT.

 Visit my TPT store to grab some resources for just $1 this weekend! Click on the images below to purchase!




I have been receiving lots of requests for the cupcake freebie I released last year from this activity. Stay tuned for a freebie!  





 Happy Friday!

An InLinkz Link-up

FestiveFriday

Happy (almost) Friday!  I am excited to be a part of the FestiveFriday $1.00 on TPT. Simply type FestiveFriday (no spaces and both F's are capital) into the search on Teachers Pay Teachers to find great resources for only $1. This is going on every Friday in November!

I love everything about November and December. I am a fanatic when it comes to the holidays! While my house is not decorated for Christmas yet, we are listening to Christmas music!  My kinders are enjoying listening to Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas albums on Spotify while they work. It's amazing- they are so quiet in order to hear the Christmas music!

Despite the Christmas music, my classroom is getting ready for Thanksgiving. My Festive Friday Dollar Deal for the week is a turkey-themed short vowel word family sort.  Click on the image below for this activity.

Wacky Hat Word Sort

I just uploaded a product that  I am pretty excited about!

Some of my kiddos are struggling with sorting words into their word families. I created this activity I plan to use during Read Across America Week. 

Students will read and sort the cards onto the cats in hats on the sorting mat. They can record their sorting on the worksheet.  To extend the activity for the fast finishers, I will have those students think of more words that would fit into the word families. I can give them note cards or another record sheet to write their new words. 

Click here to see my Wacky Hat Word Family Sort on TPT.

100 Days Smarter!

Well, our 100th day of school has changed several times with all the snow days we had when we tried to come back from Christmas break! Providing that the lake effect snow we're getting now doesn't change anything, 100th day will be February 4th. I am excited about my new TPT product- everything I need for our 100th Day celebration!  Pictures of our costumes and collections will follow! :-)

Five For Friday- 11/22

                                                     

I am so excited for our classroom elf to make an appearance! Only three more school days until we have a new addition to our classroom!

                                                      

                                                       

I received good news this week- I am going be awarded a grant to add a Hot Dots literacy station to my classroom!

                                                           

Seven years ago this time of year, John and I were getting ready to take our honeymoon to Disney World. The castle is beautiful at Christmastime! I love all things Disney and all things Christmas! We can't wait to take our girls there for the first time someday!

                                                      

Not to brag, but I have my December lesson plans done! I am excited to use my Christmas literacy stations during my small group reading lesson. Visit my TPT store to get your copy. I have a wonderful aide who laminates for me and some awesome mom volunteers who cut apart the materials.  I am so thankful for them!

                                                                
I am so excited for Thanksgiving!  I love this time of year, eating, and spending time with family. We are going from my in-laws' house to my parents' house on Thursday. Lots of good food and good company packed into a busy day!  I am so thankful for my silly little girls!

 Isabella could hardly walk in my tall black boots!

 Olivia decided that sitting in this bin would be a good place to read a book! 

Thank you, Doodle Bugs Teaching for hosting this fun linky!

Chevron Schedule Cards

As I was putting the final touches on my classroom before the students and parents arrived for the back to school picnic, I realized I could not find my schedule cards from last year! I am very organized, so I don't lose things!  (I bet I will find them tomorrow.....) It was a moment of panic- I couldn't find them or the file on my computer!  I went to Classroom Freebies, where I had downloaded them before and they were no longer available! Not that I had anything else to do, but I made my own schedule cards!  It ate up a lot of my time that should have been spent labeling and organizing the school supplies brought in by my class, but at least they match the other chevron items in my classroom and are the exact size that works for me! 

The schedule cards are available now in my TPT store. 

Good luck with the first day of school!  Mine is tomorrow! 

I have a Facebook page now for my blog. Please head over there and "like" it.  I plan on putting something special on there for my fans soon!

Back to School Sale!!!

Click on the image above to visit my TPT store. Don't forget to use the promo code to get your purchases 28% off! I know I will be stocking up on some things from my wish list! 

Enjoy this freebie. I have it printed and hanging near my behavior charts. The kids will say our classroom pledge each morning after the announcements.

Monday Made It- 7/22/13

I am so excited about this planner I made for a gift for my sister. (Hopefully she misses this blog post so it can be a surprise!) She loves the look of the more expensive life planners but wasn't willing to spend $50+ dollars to own one, so I made her one!

    I am so pleased with how it turned out, and I love that it cost way less than the more expensive planners!  I had the front and back covers laminated at a local school supply store ($1.00) and had the black spiral binding done at Staples (about $4.00). I used card stock ($5.00 for a ream) and ink, which I already had.) 

 It features twelve monthly calendars.

 And weekly calendars, too.

It's available now in my TPT store!  Click here to get your copy!

Also available-  is a matching lesson plan book!  I haven't printed it yet, but I will share pictures once it is done!

Visit 4th Grade Frolics for more Monday Made It inspiration!

Chevrons and Polka Dots!

I am so excited to get into my classroom and update the decor with chevrons and polka dots. I made some chevron and polka dot name plates for the tables and some pennants to hang in my window.  I'm backed up on printing, or otherwise I would have pictures of them for you! (I had to wait a week for ink and have lots of things in queue. I go through a lot of ink and found a great website to buy ink.  I ordered two packs of color ink for my Epson 8 cartridges inkjet printer and a toner for my Brother laser printer for $60. They are recycled cartridges, but I have had really good luck with them in the past!) Okay, back to my new products!

Click on the images to visit my TPT store!

Chevron Alphabet Cards

I fell in love with Schoolgirl Style's Lilly Pulitzer inspired design when I saw it on Facebook last week. I have tried to link back to her website, but her Facebook says her website was hacked and is currently down. 

My walls are the green of the flowers in this picture.  I hope that incorporating some of these other colors into my classroom will tone down the green-ness of my walls!  I'm retiring my black and white alphabet this year to use my latest TPT creation! These alphabet cards are my first step to my Lilly Pulitzer inspired classroom. Don't worry, I am still keeping the cupcakes! :)

Get it now in my TPT store.

I also made a print version for those of you who don't mess with the monkey tails of D'Nealian like I do!

Out of This World Space Stations

I asked my class what they wanted to learn about after we finished the reading series. The majority voted for outer space. I made these literacy stations to use in my classroom during the final eight days of school.

It is available in my TPT store!

Dinosaur Literacy Stations and a Freebie!

Last week our reading lessons revolved around dinosaurs. There are several kids in my class who absolutely LOVE dinosaurs. One student can read every dinosaur name! (I needed his help more than once this week pronouncing dinosaur names!) We read lots of books about dinosaurs:

If the Dinosaurs Came Back
was the trade book for the week from the reading series. The class really enjoyed this book!  We did some writing activities about what would happen if the dinosaurs came back. We even created a class book for our classroom library with their ideas.







This book by Gail Gibbons taught us so much about dinosaurs!

We read all the books from Jane Yolen's How Do Dinosaurs series. The kinders made a really cute craftivity in response to those books. Their dinosaurs weren't dry enough to hang in the hallway on Friday, so I will take pictures tomorrow and share them with you!

The kids really enjoyed practicing their literacy skills with the dinosaur themed literacy stations:

 They practiced using Ten Frames in this Decomposing Dinos game from Kinder Doodles.

 They practiced unscrambling cards to create a sentence. Visit my TPT store for your copy!

 They practiced short and long a vowel sounds during literacy stations.  Grab your freebie here and here.

We have been working hard on making our illustrations match our words.  I created this Write the Room activity for the students to write a sentence and illustrate it. I love this drawing!  (I snapped this picture before she got to color her illustration!) Visit my TPT store for this activity!

I am very pleased that most of my students will get Established marks on their report cards for clapping and counting syllables. I created this activity for them to have continued practice.