Response to Literature: Fiction

Are you sick of making RTL copies on a daily basis?  I thought it would be handy to train my students to take out a RTL booklet after reading a story, instead of me having to pass papers out each time.  So, I decided to make a packet like the RTL I made for Dr. Seuss's birthday.

Click here or on the pictures above to snag your copy.

Plus, I'm having a 20% off sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store on 3/30 and 3/31.  Woohoo!

I also wanted to let you know about a website that I just heard about called EduCents.  It has flash sales (30%-90% off) for educational materials.  It sounds pretty cool.  If you give them your e-mail (like Groupon) before they launch, you will earn a $10 gift certificate.  That's a pretty sweet deal. 

Click here to get your $10 EduCents gift certificate.

Plus, my giveaway is almost done. 

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Have a GREAT day!

100 TpT Follower Freebie Announcement

First of all, I wanted to let you know about a website that I just heard about called EduCents.  It has flash sales (30%-90% off) for educational materials.  It sounds pretty cool.  If you give them your e-mail (like Groupon) before they launch, you will earn a $10 gift certificate.  That's a pretty sweet deal.

Click here for your $10 gift certificate.

I've been wracking my brain, trying to decide on what to give away as my 100th follower freebie.  Now, you may think I am jumping the gun (I still need 21 to get there...but you can help me <wink, wink>).  I am all about planning.  So, tell your friends to follow my Teachers Pay Teachers store, because there is a SUPER cool freebie coming your way.  No really... it is SO worth it!  My husband helped me with the artwork, and it is AMAZING!  Keep checking back to see when it will be posted, and THANK YOU for your support!

Now, for this week's freebie.  We use thinking maps at my school.  I went to two evening's worth of training to learn when to use what map.  In my training, we learned to use bubble maps for adjectives.  As I've been looking through resources, I've been seeing the same graphic organizer used for other things.  So, I decided to make a bubble map for you to use to describe characters or whatever you would like (butterflies, frogs... I know you're all working on life cycles like we are).  I made two different options: one map has four bubbles, and one has six bubbles.  I sometimes find it's overwhelming for the kinders to think of a lot of adjectives, and it takes them even longer to write them.  ;)

Click here for your freebie!

I also just finished a really cool product on number bonds.  I think number bonds are so cool, so I wanted to make a differentiated version for my classroom.  I'm really excited to use them in my classroom.  They are listed in my Teachers Pay Teachers store and in my Teacher's Notebook store.

There's still time to enter my giveaway (and the odds look pretty darn good right now).

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Have a GREAT week!

RTL Flow Map Freebie

We just returned from three days in Disneyland.  Man!  I love that place!  I always leave feeling exhausted, but believing I can take on the world.  I think it's the whole "Your dreams can come true" theme.  Anyhow, my dream right now (well, one of them) is to make it to 50 followers on my blog and 100 followers for my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  I know you can help me.  There's going to be something cool when I hit that first milestone.  I'm not quite sure what it is yet (please forgive me... it's been six hours in the car with two kids and a husband), but it's going to be cool. :)

I made a generic flow map for you to use any time of the year.  I bought some new super cute borders from Krista Wallden (she's so talented), and I am LOVING them!  Anyway, I made four different versions of the same flow map, so you can have choices (if you've read any of my other posts, you know I am ALL about options).

Click here for your freebie!

Don't forget about my giveaway!

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Thanks for stopping by!

Getting Ready for Kindergarten Sale! Woot, woot!

Have you seen the new daily deals on Teacher's Notebook?  I was curious to see how the whole thing worked, so I checked it out yesterday.  I was pleasantly surprised!  I bought a file on letter identification for 40% off. 

So, I made the jump and put my "Getting Ready for Kindergarten" pack as the Daily Deal on Sunday, March 17th.  We start testing our incoming kinders in April.  I am quite excited to see this pack in action.  We've decided to set a sign-up sheet so we can e-mail the pack to parents.  That way, they can click on the links and go to the various activities.  Plus, you save a TON of paper.

If a student is lacking in a certain area, we are going to have a paper copy of that section to hand to parents.  The pack includes activities on letter recognition, shape recognition, number recognition, and first sound fluency.  I'm hoping the letter recognition activities and the first sound fluency activities are going to raise our beginning of the year DIBELS scores.  All of the activities have clear directions, so set-up will be a breeze for parents. 

Plus, as I said before, there are clickable links so parents can head to educational websites, online activities, child friendly YouTube videos, and more.  When I was making this section, my team gave me suggestions as to what the ideal kindergartener would come to school knowing.  It's pretty thorough because my team is awesome.  ;)  No, really... they are.

Click here to save 40% on March 17th.

 

Plus, as an added bonus, I am offering all of the items in my Teacher's Notebook store for 20% off. 

 

Click here to check out my other items.

***The products are ONLY on sale in my Teacher's Notebook store***

 

 

Don't forget about my giveaway!

 

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I hope you had a FANTASTIC weekend! :)

Free Flower Writing Unit

I've been working like a mad woman getting everything ready for the fourth quarter.  We're ready to learn about plants, ladybugs, bees, butterflies, ants, rabbits, and more.  I can hardly wait, because spring is my favorite season.

I usually sell my writing units individually, but I am also going to offer seasonal packs.  It's actually a smokin' deal at more than half off.  Who doesn't love a deal?

Here is a link to the Spring Writing Pack in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and my Teacher's Notebook Store.

Today's freebie is included in that pack.  It's an entire writing unit on flowers.  Woohoo!  Let's celebrate spring.

Click here for the freebie!



  I've also added a super cool field trip planning file.  Check it out in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store or in my Teacher's Notebook Store. 

 

This pack includes the following items:
-a planning checklist
-a table to keep track of permission forms, groups, medications, etc.
-permission forms
-chaperone forms (accepting and politely declining help)
-student reminder form
-chaperone reminder forms (with chaperone responsibility reminders)
-student reflection activity
-5 different chaperone thank you cards

 

I hope you are having a GREAT day!

 

Caring for Cole

As I was searching through the Maniac Monday freebies on Classroom Freebies, I found a freebie about butterflies.  We are going to be studying butterflies within the next couple of weeks, so I wanted to see what she had to offer.  In that post, I read about a sweet little boy named Cole that was recently diagnosed with brain cancer.  As a fundraiser, some ladies got together to offer over $160 in products for a $25 donation.  Wow!  What a deal!

I cannot imagine going through something like that, let alone the income missed and the medical expenses from such a serious illness.  My daughter had surgery twice, and it was extremely tough emotionally as well.  So, think about showing some love by making that donation and getting some amazing products.

Click here to help care for Cole.

How Do You Know You're a Teacher?

One of my teacher friends had this posted on her page, and I seriously laughed out loud!  I tried to find the original post with Jeff Foxworthy's words, but I didn't have any luck.  I met Jeff Foxworthy, and he is an extremely nice, friendly guy.  He also understands teachers better than most.

"How You Know You're a Teacher" by Jeff Foxworthy

1. You get a secret thrill out of laminating things.
2. You can hear 25 voices behind you and know exactly which one belongs to the child out of line.
3. You walk into a store and hear the words, “It’s Ms./Mr. ____________ and know you have been spotted.
4. You have 25 people who accidentally call you Mom/Dad at one time or another.
5. You can eat a multi-course meal in under 25 minutes.
6. You’ve trained yourself to go to the bathroom at two distinct times of the day, lunch and planning period.
7. You start saving other people’s trash, because most likely, you can use that toilet paper tube or plastic butter tub for something in the classroom.
8. You believe the Teacher’s Lounge should be equipped with a margarita machine.
9. You want to slap the next person who says, “Must be nice to work 7 to 3 and have summers off”.
10. You believe chocolate is a food group.
11. You can tell if it’s a full moon without ever looking outside.
12. You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, “Boy, the kids are sure mellow today.”
13. You feel the urge to talk to strange children and correct their behavior when you are out in public.
14. You believe in aerial spraying of Ritalin.
15. You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.
16. You spend more money on school stuff than you do on your own children.
17. You can’t pass the school supply aisle without getting at least 5 items!
18. You ask your friends to use their words and explain if the left hand turn he made was a “good choice” or “bad choice.”
19. You find true beauty in a can full of perfectly sharpened pencils.
20. You are secretly addicted to hand sanitizer.
21. You understand, instantaneously, why a child behaves in a certain way after meeting his/her parents.

I had to laugh because I have about 100 toilet paper tubes in the back of my room.  They are located next to about 10 Crystal Light plastic containers.

I also had to laugh while I was at the store today.  There were about 5 boys hanging from the metal shelves at Sam's Club, and climbing on the food pallets while their parents were looking at the boys and having a conversation.  It took all of my willpower to not correct their behavior (See number 13).  Then, I thought about number 21.  :)

Have a relaxing weekend.

Goldfish Sorting

I had SO much fun on Read Across America Day!  We wore pajamas and read all day.  It was topped off by a trip to IHOP and some new clipart from Melonheadz to make more easy readers.

Anyway, we sorted colored Goldfish crackers for snack.  We sorted them by color, counted them, and graphed them.  We had a blast!  While we were completing the activity, I thought of some other ways to use the data, so I have revised the file and added a few extra pages.

Click here to download this great freebie!

Visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store and my Teacher's Notebook Store.

FYI.. my TpT store has more items.  That's one of my projects over spring break.

 

I'm also hosting a great giveaway!

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Thanks for stopping by, and have a GREAT weekend! :)

 

Famous Scientist and Inventor Easy Readers

Have you ever read through the science standards and wondered how to talk about famous scientists in the classroom?  I have!  There's one problem... the books I find for the scientists are WAY too long to hold the interest of my students.  So, I made a set of little books to introduce famous inventors and scientists to my class.

 

11 famous scientists and inventors!

 

I've also included links to resources and more information.

 

These are SO easy to assemble.  The books are four pages that are double sided, so it's only two pages of paper to staple (using a long arm stapler) and cut in half.

 

 

Download the preview file for a freebie reader on Nikola Tesla.

 

 

Have a GREAT week!

 



Throw Your Tooth Over the Roof

I've been trying to incorporate the common core exemplar texts into my teaching as much as possible.  I've always been intrigued by the title of one particular book: Throw Your Tooth Over the Roof.  I requested it from the library, and immediately fell in love.  I adore books that teach me something.  I loved this book so much, I wanted to make a fun activity to match this great book.

Since it felt like we were taking a trip around the world, I made a "Tooth Passport" for my students.  We had tooth shaped passport stamps and everything!

 

I made two different books: one shorter version (for younger learners) and one longer version (for older learners).  For my kinders, I used the shorter version and it was the perfect length!  Here are some of the fun things that included in the pack.

 

 

This is formatted to be printed like a book.  They are SO easy to assemble!

 

If you are interested in purchasing this pack, please visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

 

 

 

Here is a free dental health writing paper.

 

    Julia won my $25 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card giveaway!  Hooray!  I've started another giveaway.  This one will give three lucky winners any item from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  You can enter daily.  Again, hooray!   a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

 

Enjoy your weekend! :)