Fun Giveaway!

Check out this fun giveaway from Laura at Discovering Hidden Potential!

The prize packs are pretty substantial and you can enter to win all 3 prize packs!  Woot Woot!!

I have donated my Superhero Sentences unit which  is a super cute and super fun way to focus on punctuation!

Super cute ★ Superhero ★ themed reading language arts punctuation pack for K-2nd grade! 

This pack includes:

Period Poster
Question Mark Poster
Exclamation Poster
Comma Poster
Apostrophe Poster
Punctuation Practice Worksheets
2 different period assessments
2 different question mark assessments
1 comma assessment

Click the giveaway pic above to enter!  The giveaway ends on Saturday so go quick and GOOD LUCK!!

Back to School Linky & Class Decorations

U My classroom is finally ready!  In my guided reading and small group math area, I created a fun beach theme using a palm tree that was created from an old carpet roll (Home Depot give away), brown lunch bags and an old umbrella covered with green fleece.  MeaningfulMama has a nice blog post with step by step pictures showing how to make your own tree here.  I also added a small kid sized beach umbrella and a paper lantern sun to my beach area! 

Tip -  In order to stand the umbrella and palm tree I used 5 gallon buckets from Home Depot that I filled with water bottles to weigh it down.  I bought PVC pipes from HD and they cut a hole in the top of the bucket lid so the PVC pipe would fit perfectly.  

Here is my new writing center!  I am really excited for this area and I am trying something new by having my writing center menu fully displayed this year.   I love having my writing center activities already set for each day of the week - it gives my student a schedule and they look forward to different days of the week and once they get into the routine they always know what to do at the writing center.  Check it out here for more details.

In my county, school starts on Monday and all across Maryland kids and teachers will all finally be back to school!  As a way to celebrate Techie Turtle Teacher, OC Beach Teacher and I have set up a Back to School linky party to gather some fantastic resources for everyone!  Please feel free to link up your back to school post, resource or freebie and make sure to visit each other's sites and leave some BTS love!! 

Classroom decorations Day 1...

Today was my first day back at school and even though I went in last week to sort out supplies for my team it was still a lot of work and dang I am tired tonight!

So here is what my class looked like last week:

It was all shiny and clean and in the corner where you can't see there are boxes and boxes of supplies for the whole first grade team!

So last Friday I went in and with the help of 5 awesome helpers, we got all the supplies sorted and delivered to each of my teammates classrooms!  

Over the weekend I chalk painted a table in my room that turned out so cute!  I used cream colored chalk paint from Jo Ann Fabric (Lace) and mixed  and in my own acrylic paints to create some bright colors!  Mixing the paint was pretty low key, I poured some chalk paint into a plastic ziplock storage container and then added just enough acrylic paint to get the color I wanted.  For my table, I mixed 3 different colors and still had some left over!  Gotta love chalk paint! If you have not tried it yet you need to!!!  I am going to chalk paint an old night stand that I have sitting in front of my classroom, it holds books for kids to read while they are waiting for school to start!  I will post a few pictures later this week...

I also managed to move all my books and set up the library.  This year I added a few new Seuss Turffula trees and moved my palm tree to my reading table (more on that later this week)!  They were super easy to make and Bombshell Bling has a great blog post with lots of pictures to help you make your own!  Since the trees are made of pool noodles they are super light and I was able to simply tie them to my class library using pretty ribbon!

More to come later this week...

Back to School Word Work Flash FREEBIE!

I am honored to be featured as as a Milestone Seller on Teachers Pay Teachers!  I am so grateful to all of my customers and followers ~ THANK YOU!!

To celebrate my TPT Milestone, I am having my first FLASH FREEBIE!

Happy BTS everyone - my flash freebie is perfect for you!  It is a back to school themed Word Work unit full of fun worksheets that can be used for morning work, independent work OR literacy centers!

August and September Word Work Unit includes:

✔ 10 different “make a word” activities
✔ Back to school Word search
✔ 4 different word alphabetical order activities 
✔ 2 sentence writing activities
✔ 2 adjective word work activities 
✔ 4 themed writing pages 

Grab it here, or click the picture below! Please make sure to follow me here and in my TeachersPayTeachers store so that you can see what other freebies or giveaways I may have in the future!  The unit will be a flash freebie until 8/9/15!!  

Update!! I have extended the FREEBIE until the need of the day Monday 8/10/15!!  

Happy BTS everyone!

Thanks again for being SO great! 

Don't forget about the TPT back to school sale (8/3-8/4)!!  Enter code BTS15 for 28% off everything in my store!

 Check out all my other Word Work units here!

Huge Back to School SALE on TPT

It's officially that time of year again - BTS!

If you're like me, along with getting our own kids ready for school you are getting your classrooms ready too!  Well never fear - TPT is here!  Teachers Pay Teachers is having a site wide sale starting on August 3rd where my whole store will be on sale and TPT is offering an additional discount so you can save 28%!  Now, that is way better than standing in line at Walmart to buy glue sticks and first day of school outfits!

Do like this minion; treat yourself by going to check out the BTS sale at TPT!

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Must Read Monday or Wednesday

Ok so it's not Monday but I am still linking up with Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection with their super fun Must Read Monday linky party!!

This week's theme is Just For Fun! If you are like me and you LOVE books then as soon as you read the theme funny books are probably popping into your mind! 

Here are a few of my favorite "Just for Fun" books to read to my sweet little students:

Falling for Rapunzel by Leah Wilcox is such a funny book, I ❤ it! Of course it is a fractured fairytale but what makes it so funny is the way Ranpunzel misunderstands everything the prince says to her. One example is when he asks her to throw down her golden locks, she throws him her dirty socks! My kids always crack up when I read this story!!

Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes is a hilarious look at sibling rivalry when ✿ Lilly ✿ has a new brother that she does not like! She can't stand anything about him - until someone else doesn't like him and then in her true spirit she champions and defends him! 

Chester by Melanie Watt is a book that I read because I love Scaredy Squirrel and decided to try another one of her books! OMG is it funny! Chester is a cat who thinks the story show be all about him so he hijacks the book and with his red marker ✎, he rewrites the story the way he thinks it should be told! Melanie and Chester go back and forth in a super cute story that has a really funny ending! 

The Monster at the End of This Book is one of my all time favorite ☻ books! I remember reading this book when I was a kid!! Grover is so funny in this story and it is great how he talks to the readers directly, my class always enjoys it! I loved it so much, and even though I knew the ending I would beg my grandmother to read it to me again and again! 

I am off to jump over the this fun linky party that Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection have put together so I can find some new books to add to my class library this year!! 

Thanks for stopping by and happy reading!!!!

Kindness in the classroom

As my summer winds down, I find myself thinking about the first week of school!  I LOVE the first week of school!!

One of my favorite activities to do with my students is working collaboratively to set the tone for a kind classroom!  To begin the activity, I hand out the 10 keys and have students work in groups to talk about what each key means.  After 10 minutes or so, we get back together as a class and they share what their groups have come up with.

The 10 keys are:
Be Kind
Be Friendly
Share
Be Helpful
Take Turns
Be Respectful
Do Your Best
Be Patient
Smile
Have Fun Learning

After we have talked about each key, they go up on our Kindness bulletin board!  For the rest of the week, I devote some time to our new mission of creating a kind classroom by reading books, doing fun follow up book study work and finally we create a class book of ways that we can each be kind in our classroom.

What are your favorite books that promote kindness?  I love adding new titles to my collection!

A few of my favorites are:

Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids by Carol McCloud

Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson

Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli

Kindness Is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler by Margery Cuyler

My Kindness unit is on sale until Saturday, so hop over to my TPT store and snag a copy for your classroom! 

Must Read Monday ~ Friendship books

Kindergarten Planet and The Kindergarten Connection are hosting a linky all about reading and this week's topic is books about friendship!

I have been reading some of the posts from the linky and now I want to go shopping on Amazon for some more classroom books!!

Here are a few of my favorite friendship books:

 

Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes is a classic!  I love his illustrations and characters!  This story is great for teaching about not just making friends but about trying new things and not judging each other.  Love, love, love this book!  For all your Kevin Henkes fans, check out my author study here!  

 

Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell is a cute story about a little girl that wasn't like all the other kids in 1st grade.  She is short and has bucked teeth but her grandmother taught her to stand tall and believe in herself.  When she moved to a new school she learned how important her grandmother's lesson really was.  This story is a great way to talk about differences in each other and believing in yourself!  

Making Friends is an Art by Julia Cook is outstanding!  I love all of Julia Cooks books but this one is a great book that is full of character traits and is perfect for talking about friendship and making friends!

Now I'm off to go read some more link ups and then hit amazon for some new friendship books!  :)