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!

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!

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!

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!

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!