A Cool Freebie

I hope everyone is enjoying a nice holiday break.  I had a fabulous Christmas and now I am looking ahead at the new year!

I like to think of the new year as a fresh beginning!  What new routines and changes do I want to do in my classroom?  What are my plans for my personal goals and professional goals?  I will spend the next few days planning for 2014.  It is going to be a great year!

What better way to start 2014 than with a new freebie or two?  Here is a reading comprehension passage and quiz.  Click here to download Our Snowman.

If you are looking for more freebies, check out Classroom Freebies Too!  Many of your favorite authors  (including me) have been able to add a few new freebies to this site during the month of December.  Not to mention, all of the fantastic freebies already posted!

Still Here!

Wow!  It has been a long time since I have blogged, 16 days. Oh my!  I can only blame the craziness December brings.  Then add a cold on top of it all and wow!  Well I am back now, even if it is just for a quick post.  It's a start.

OK, the week before Christmas break and a full moon!  That is just cruel.  However, I can make it!  Just 3 more days.

I have been super busy at school doing many great things.  I have been taking pictures and promise to share soon.

We are doing tens and ones in math.  I put together a quick and easy center for the kids and they have loved it.  I gave them a basket of snap cubes and cup with foam circles.  On the foam circles, I wrote different numbers between 1-120.  The kids pick a circle from the cup and then use the cubes to make that number using 10 rods and single cubes.  Their partner checks it and if it is right they get to keep the circle.  Then the next student picks a circle.  Sometimes the easiest things are their favorites and most effective.

Cyber Monday Sale

Hello everyone!  Just made it back from visiting family and a Regional Cheer Competition (daughter's team got 4th!) and my week long break is over....  Somehow I have not managed to complete anything on my list.  I can't even say I just relaxed, I did all kinds of things and not even fun things.  It just wasn't what I had planned!

I am frantically trying to get ready for school tomorrow but I wanted to let you know quickly about the big sale at Teachers Pay Teachers.  I have everything in my store 20% off then you get an additional percent off by using the code and it ends up being 28% off.

I know I will be doing a little shopping myself.  In this crazy holiday time, it is all about saving time for me!  (Speaking of time, I must get busy on my list during the last few hours of break.)

My Thanksgiving Break

I know I am enjoying my Thanksgiving Break!  I hope you are too!

I know all of my students are also having a great Thanksgiving Break and will be so excited to share with their classmates.  This is a graphic organizer I will use to help them organize their thoughts before they write about their break.  Click here to grab it free.

This organizer helps the students who always answer "nothing" when asked what did you do over break.  I know personally, I will "Go" to my parents and a cheerleading competition in Orlando.  I will "Do" nothing (at least for a day), watch Catching Fire (I LOVED it!) and marathon shop on Friday with my Mom.  I will "Eat" a scrumptious Thanksgiving meal made by Mom!  What will you do?

I am linking up with Thankful Thoughts at Teaching Blog Roundup this week.  (I am taking a week break from Helpful Hints on Hump Day)

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful and blessed to have such a wonderful family.  It amazes me how fast time is flying and what beautiful ladies my girls are growing into.

From my family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving!

Book Box Helpful Hints

Today I am sharing a tip I learned from one of my colleagues, Mrs. Bevacqua.  Check out these great book boxes she made for just pennies!

She picked up shipping boxes from the Post Office (or you can buy them really cheap, even use cereal boxes).  She then assembled the boxes and used a razor knife to cut the boxes at an angle.  One shipping box gives you two book boxes.  My partner teacher painted her boxes to match.  It was cheap and easy!  You could also use duct tape.

Another quick tip, label the boxes with numbers instead of names.  Then you are good to go for the following year!  

I'm still holding out hope that my Helpful Hints on Hump Day will take off.  Freebies are great, but I really love reading great blog posts with helpful information.  Sometimes the smallest tip or "why didn't I think of that" makes the biggest difference.  So join me and share those little tips!

Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

Turkey Time - It's a Fact

Thanksgiving is quickly approaching!  I have been doing a few fun things in the classroom!  With so many things to teach and so little time, I have a hard time fitting fun crafts in!  I generally won't do a craft unless I can tie a lesson to it too!

Check out these fun Fact Family Turkeys my little turkeys just made.  We are working hard on understanding the ins and outs of fact families.

Each student made a different fact family on their turkey body and wings.  Then we did the addition feathers and followed with the subtraction feathers.  Finally we assembled our turkeys.  I loved them.  I traced some of the parts on construction paper and printed some parts on colored paper.

I'm sure these are easy enough for you to make your self, but if you want to save some time I have uploaded the patterns and directions to my TpT store.  Click here and grab it for $2.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, here is a First Thanksgiving KWL I used last year and am using again this week.  Click here to grab it if you like.

Don't forget to stop by and check out Classroom Freebies Manic Monday!

Passwords and Usernames Oh My!

I am just getting back from a 5 day camping trip.  We had a great time as always at Disney's Fort Wilderness.  Now I am back and hear my bed calling me, but I wanted to catch up on my blog.  Being unplugged for these past few days were nice, but I am almost as happy to have my computer back as my own bed!

Even after just a few days unplugged, I had problems remembering all of my different passwords and usernames.  It seems every different textbook, resource and website requires a different type of username or password. 

I had the hardest time keeping them straight.  I tried a Rolodex and a small address book.  These were OK, but then I always seemed to not have it with me when I needed it.  Then I tried a new way to keep track of them all (except for the major important ones like banking...),  I started using Excel.  I have a workbook for passwords.  In this work book I have several different worksheets; one for school, personal, business and my kids passwords.  I have one column with a hyperlink to the website, my username and password.  I can then click directly on the hyperlink to go to the website.  Then I can even copy and paste my username or password if it is one of those crazy ones.  Give it a try!

I'm still holding out hope that my Helpful Hints on Hump Day will take off.  Freebies are great, but I really love reading great blog posts with helpful information.  Sometimes the smallest tip or "why didn't I think of that" makes the biggest difference.  So join me and share those little tips!

Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

My Toy Wish List Freebie and Helpful Hints

It seems the day before Halloween stores were putting out the Christmas stuff.  What happened to Thanksgiving?  Has it been swallowed up by the holiday rush?  With Christmas comes Christmas Craziness with the kiddos.  (This has already started in my classroom.)

This weekend I noticed the big toy books are out!  This Sunday's paper had a toy wish book from Target and Toys R Us.  (Quick go grab it out of the recycling bin!  You can get copies from the store too.)

Everyone knows how much children love making an unending wish list.  Making lists is one of the reasons we write, so why not add this to your writing center!  Students will LOVE this!  You can even take their list and narrow it down to an item or two and expand the lesson into a persuasive writing lesson.

Here is the list paper my students will be using.  Click here to download your copy.

Now that I have shared my little helpful hint, please share yours with us!

Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

Freebie and a Friday Five

I have to admit I was having mixed feelings about this Friday.  Friday is always my favorite day of the week, but a Friday after Halloween and candy for breakfast????  I have to admit my expectations were not good for a day of testing, but I was pleasantly surprised!  It was a great day!

I am happy to finally have time to sit down to blog! (Yes, I lead a thrilling life that the highlight of my Friday night is blogging!)

I am kinking up at doodlebugs to share my five this Friday.  Then I will head back over to discover a few new blogs and see what is up with a few of my favorites!

We had pumpkin fun!  Unfortunately we can't take a field trip to the pumpkin patch because of budget cuts, so we brought the pumpkin patch to us!  We brought in little pie pumpkins for our first graders and even hay to make it more Fallish!  (Granted is was 86 degrees outside in Florida, we haven't quite made it to Fall yet!)

Then we investigated our little pumpkins.  We measured with links and cubes, weighed them with teddy bears, counted lines and tested to see if they sink or float.  This is one of my favorite days!  We learn so much this day, even without a test!

We decorate out doors every Fall.  This year I stuck with my Lego theme.  Check out my mini-fig maxi-fig.   Today I added a vest and Indian headdress and viola Thanksgiving!  (I take pix next week.)

I found an amazing book this week at our book fair.  It is packed with fun experiments that are so simple and the kids love!  I highly recommend this book if you ever come across it.  

Today we did a few sink or float experiments.  The kids brought in 3 different pieces of candy from their night of trick-or-treating (3 they didn't want to eat).  Then we did an investigation to see if our candy would sink or float.

I have a cute "why I love seeing the world through a first grader's eyes" story.  Today at lunch in the cafeteria a very handsome Marine in his dress blues came in to see a former teacher.  While he was waiting I was chatting with him and the kids were in awe!  Several kids were asking what he was, one boy asked if he was police.  Then this little girl asked "Is he a prince?"...  I loved it, I said no, he is even better, he is a Marine!  Then I told the Marine and it made his day!

I have become addicted to the sparkle backgrounds,  so I tried making my own.  I want to share a sample to what you think.  Click here to download it for free from my TpT store.

Check out TBA's Friday Freebies for more great freebies!

Helpful Hints on Hump Day

Guess what day it is?  It's HUMP day!  It's a new week for my weekly link up "Helpful Hints on Hump Day!" once again.  I like seeing it grow each week, and have big hopes for it soon.  (It grew by one last week, so let's see!)

Now for my helpful hint...

Looking for cute clip art like this?

Want free clip art?  Need a place for students to find clip art safely?  Check out www.mycutegraphics.com It is amazing and I appreciate Laura Strickland and all of her hard work and support of teachers like me!  She also has a paid site now with high-quality graphics and different images.


Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

Helpful Hints on Hump Day!

Guess what day it is?  It's HUMP day!  It's a new week for my weekly link up "Helpful Hints on Hump Day!" once again.  I like seeing it grow each week, and have big hopes for it soon.  (It grew by one last week, so let's see!)

Now for my helpful hint...

Possibly the only thing cooler (or more annoying) than Hump Day is "What Does the Fox Say?"  So today I am asking "What does the pumpkin say!"

Click here to download this file to teach or practice quotation marks.  The students will create their own jack-o-lantern, name him/her and write what they would say in the speech bubble.  The next step is to translate the picture and speech bubble into a sentence using quotation marks.

Try it with your kids to see "What does the pumpkin say?" (ding-ding-ding-da-ding-da-ding)
I can't wait to see the other helpful hints from those that link up!

Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

A TpT Trick or Treat Grab Bag

Who doesn't like a treat?  I love a treat, especially when it is free!  In this weeks TpT newsletter, they shared a link to a great grab bag of free products!  Click here to check it out!

In addition to all of these treats from TpT I wanted to add to the sweetness!  (I can't believe they didn't include of of my fun and spooky freebies... just kidding!)  It is a cute way to practice 3 addend addition.  Grab it here!

I actually did this work sheet wit the students before I taught 3 addend addition.  I told them I found this really need worksheet, but wasn't sure if they could do it!  I told them I knew they were great at adding 2 numbers, but could they do 3?  Of course they were up to the challenge!  I let them work for a while to figure it out, then we discussed the strategies they used.  This made it soooo much easier to teach this skill with the math series.  Hope it works as well for you!

iFlash with Glitter

iFlash my students do you?  I'm not talking about the kind of flashing that will put you on the 11 o'clock news!  I'm talking about flash cards!  Skill and drill practice with sight words, addition facts, subtraction facts, numbers, and alphabet is key to building fluent readers and mathematicians.  I have decks and decks of flash cards!  (nothing is worse than when they get mixed up!)  I flash the students when they enter the room, when they leave the room, in small group and anytime I have those odd 3-4 minutes.

Many times I can't find the deck I am looking for or we have a few minutes and I don't have a set with me.  I usually have my iPad or iPhone with me.  Although we need constant practice, the same old cards can get kind of boring.  Wouldn't it be great if I had holiday themed or more colorful cards?

So, one night I had a fabulous idea!  I could load flashcards on my iPad as a PDF and flip through them in iBooks with the class.  Think how colorful and fun I could make them with no worries of printing and colored ink!  I could change them out as the themes change.  Not only can you view PDF files on iPads, most eReaders and tablets can do this too.  I can put several of these older devices I have to use!



So this is how iFlash was brought to life!  I took Pre-primer sight word flash cards and spooked them out for Halloween!  Click here to download them and try them out yourself.

Simply click here to go to my TpT page and download the freebie.  Then click open in iBooks if you are on an iPad.  (With the TpT app, you click on the little eye next to the download button.)  Download the PDF on any mobile device you can use to view PDF files and page through with your students!

I have also done an iFlash Halloween themed set for all 220 Dolch Words, Addition and Subtraction.  You can grab each one of them for only $1.  The students will love them!

As I was creating these, I have fallen in love with the glitter graphics!  It is all the greatness of glitter and sparkle with out the mess!  I am quickly becoming addicted!

You can grab other great freebies too at classroom freebies' Manic Monday!

Helpful Hints on Hump Day!

Guess what day it is?  It's HUMP day!  I am excited to try my new weekly link up "Helpful Hints on Hump Day!" once again.  I like seeing it grow each week, and have big hopes for it soon.

Now for my helpful hint...

Make practicing those weekly words fun and interactive.  Get the wiggles out while learning too!  We practice out high-frequency words "Tae-Bo" style!  We punch them out.  

For "tall" letters we punch up.  For "small" letters we punch straight out.  With "fall" letters we kick low.  Then as we say the word we do an upper-cut.  We also chant the letters while we are moving.  Here is what we would say for "here":

H-E-R-E
H-E-R-E
H-E-R-E
Spells HERE, HERE, HERE!

So this week get up and get moving while you practice those words!

I can't wait to see the other helpful hints from those that link up!

Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

Do you LIKE TpT?

Teachers Pay Teachers is celebrating reaching their 100,000 likes on Facebook.  To celebrate they announced a secret flash sale!  (It pays to like them!)

I am sweetening the pot by also adding an additional 20% off at my store.  So if you use the code they posted (FB100K) that will make it 30% off!  Happy shopping, but you better hurry it only last until midnight 10/13!

Helpful Hints on Hump Day!

Oh my!  Hump Day was sneaky today, I didn't even realize it was here so quick!  It is time for

Today we are celebrating Unity Day and wearing orange.  If you haven't found the site for the National Bullying Prevention Center at http://www.pacer.org/bullying/ you have to check it out for all of their great resources!  They have fabulous resources for all ages.  My favorite is the material for Spookley the Square Pumpkin.

Check out my post from last year on this fabulous book!

I can't wait to see the other helpful hints from those that link up!

Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

Helpful Hints on Hump Day

Guess what day it is?  It's HUMP day!  I am also excited fo the second week of my new weekly link up "Helpful Hints on Hump Day!"

Now for my helpful hint...

I do a quick informal assessment of my kids every time we leave the room!  I ask them a question as we line-up or walk out the door.

Sometimes I will ask them information about a topic we just covered to gauge understanding.  It may be generating rhyming words, phoneme deletion or what does a scientist do.

Other times I use flash cards as their way out the door.  They have to answer an addition fact or read one or two high-frequency words.  If they can't do it, they go to the end of the line and then get to try again.  (I find this helps encourage them to practice at home too!)

Today I found another fun way!  I have the app Math Bingo on my iPad.  It ask the students an addition or subtraction problem (even multiplication or division) and they pick their answer on the bingo board.  I held the iPad and they read the question making their choice.  They loved it!  If you only have one iPad, this is a great way to give everyone the chance to interact with it.  I plan to try the Sight Word Bingo with them tomorrow.

I can't wait to see the other helpful hints from those that link up!

Link up an join in the fun! Share a helpful hint that has worked for you and let others learn from your success!  Here are the rules so please play along the right way:

1.  Each Wednesday I will have a post with a linky at the bottom for you to link your helpful hint for all the world to see!  It will be open for 1 day only each week.
2.  Please include the "Helpful Hints on Hump Day" graphic in your post and link back to this post.
3.  Your link must be to a blog post. NO STORE LINKS PLEASE!
4.  If you don't have a blog but would like to share a helpful hint, please do so in the comments!
5.  Please visit at least 2 blogs If you find it helpful, please be sure to let them know!  Leave a comment or follow them!  We will share the love, meet some new friends in the process, and learn something new!  Happy Hump Day!

Currently October

Happy Fall Y'all!  It is October and I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy! Fourth Grade.

So what am I up to currently...

Listening...  I am binge watching Revenge as I work.  I am a person who hates to wait for what comes next, so I love Netflix and Hulu Plus.  Speaking of Netflix, I use it at school also.  Today we watched a Magic School Bus and the Leap Frog learning videos are on there as well.

Loving... Pumpkin!!!  I adore pumpkin latte's and pumpkin muffins.  My favorite pumpkin muffins are the ones I make.  Mix a box of spice cake mix and a can of pumpkin.  That's it, two ingredients!

Thinking...  Really what happened to September; was it shorter this year?

Wanting and Needing...  I really think is I could get a chauffeur to drive my girls to all of their various after school activities I would then have the time to exercise!

Trick or Treat...  I will take both please!

I can't wait to head over and see what my favorite bloggers are up to.

Don't forget!  Guess what day tomorrow is?  It is Helpful Hints on Hump Day!  Check back and link up!

Eye See October Freebie

October is just a day away!  October brings Halloween fun and lots of gross stuff in stores.  We all know kids love gross things!  What better way to trick kids into learning by using gross things.

One of my favorite finds was eyeball ping pong balls.  I found them at the Dollar Tree.  When you see them buy several packs!  Use one set to write sight words on (get it sight word eyeballs!)  Then also write numbers on another set.  You can use these great things all month in a multitude of centers.

Here is a great freebie to start you off with!  This freebie includes a fun Sight Words Eye Can Read and Eye Can Make 10!  Perfect for your word work and math centers this month.  Click here to download it.

If you like this freebie, make sure you check out more freebies at Classroom Freebies Manic Monday!

Five for Friday and a Fabulous Freebie!

Happy Friday!!!  Can you believe this is the last Friday or September and October is just days away???  Holy Moly Guacamole, where did September go?  The Holiday Season begins and before you know it, 2014!

One of my favorite parts of Friday is the Five for Friday!  (I know I haven't done it in a while, but I'm back!) 

I had a pretty good week!

One
I finally finished and printed my Good Readers Zoo posters.  It combines the CAFE with beanie baby strategies with a few other things.  Each strategy is paired with cute little critter!  I couldn't decide on the frames I liked best so I made it with 3 different frames.  You can check it out here.  I still plan to add bookmarks and mini version for their binders.

I started introducing the Good Readers Zoo animal strategies this week.  My favorite is when a kid tells me "I was reading last night and when I got to a word I didn't know, I used stretchy the snake!"  Then another kiddo tells me "I used Chunky the Monkey!"  Those little things make it all worth it!

Two
I started my own weekly linky!  It is Helpful Hints on Hump Day!  We had a few link up this week, but I am sure there will be more next week!  Make sure to stop by Wednesdays!

Three
I can't forget about the new man in my life, Mac.  He is huge, bright, fast and can do so many amazing things!  He is my new iMac and I am in love!  I have been way more productive! 

Right now I am enjoying writing this post while I watch the new Castle streaming.  (If you haven't watched it yet, wait until next week!  I hate to be continued shows!  It is like reading half a book and then having someone taking it away from you for a week.  Really!)

I will admit last night was not fun, I had to share my Mac with my oldest daughter!  I don't like sharing, but I put on my big girl panties and let her finish her project...  I am so happy to have him back to myself tonight!

Four
I stopped by the Dollar Tree to grab a few things quickly and hit the jackpot!  I found so many fun things that inspired a few great ideas.  (I will be posting about them this week.)

Here is the reason I went in to begin with.  I was putting together spirit cards for my daughter's cheer team to give the football players.  They are playing the Sand Crabs this week.  Here are the cards we mad.  The boys loved them!

Five
A freebie for you.  This is a great beginning book report project all ready to send home.

You can download it free here.

Don't forget to stop by TBA's Freebie Fridays!