Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Giveaway Winner!

THANK YOU to everyone who participated in my HUGE 200 Follower Giveaway and to the great bloggers who donated items from their awesome stores!  There were so many participants and that made it so exciting!


I'm here to announce that we have a winner.....


CONTEST IS
OVER
1806total entries
0/0entries earned
  • 6 Wonderful Blogger Friends are Helping Me Celebrate 200 Followers!

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

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Entry #54Jessica A.
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Jessica at Mrs. Stanford's Class!  


Congrats, Jessica!  I will be emailing you soon!!  


And, just in case anyone was wondering...Rafflecopter is AMAZINGLY easy to use!  I highly recommend it!!  :)

Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day Freebie and 200 Follower Giveaway!

Happy Memorial Day!  A BIG thank you to all of those who have fought for our country and for those who are still defending it!  We appreciate you!!  

Since it is Memorial Day I'm going to share a freebie from my latest TpT pack.  I had really hoped to make this a huge patriotic holiday pack, but that didn't exactly happen.  Between my master's degree courses and my never ending to do list at school, I had to cut this creation a little short.  I also got it posted a little late...oops!  

Oh well...it gives me something to work on over the summer!  :)

It's 16 pages of patriotic fun with graphic organizers, webs, word searches, and fill in the blanks for Memorial Day and the Fourth of July for those who are still in school at that time.  Here's a quick look:

I will be updating it with more holidays so if you purchase it, check back for updates! With my Memorial Day Sale going on till midnight tomorrow night, this little goodie is less than $2 right now!!  

Here is my freebie!  This is the Memorial Day facts page.  We're going to read a couple of books tomorrow and fill out this graphic organizer and then of course color it red, white, and blue!  Enjoy!

Wanted to give you a reminder that my HUGE 200 Follower Giveaway ends Wednesday night!  Click on the link to go see all the goodies you could win!!  I promise, there's A LOT!!!  :)

Only 3 more student days and 1 teacher work day left!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

HUGE 200 Follower Giveaway!! :)

I've reached 200 followers and I'm so excited!  Yay!!  :)  Time for a HUGE giveaway!


To celebrate, I've asked some wonderful bloggers to help me out!  Here are all of the wonderful items 1 lucky follower will win:


My Photo
You can win EVERYTHING in my store!!  I will give our lucky winner everything I have!  :)
Just follow my blog and my store!

A Cupcake for the Teacher 
Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher is giving away her 'Burgerlicious' unit. 
burgerlicious! {2 craftivities in 1}
 Follow her blog and store to enter.  


First Grade Blue Skies
Jennifer at First Grade Blue Skies is giving away her House for Hermit Crab Pack.  
House for Hermit Crab k-1 Math and Literacy Pack
Follow her blog and store to enter.  

Miss Kindergarten
Hadar at Miss Kindergarten is giving away her Sight Word Writing Practice.  
Sight Word Writing Practice
Follow her blogstore, and Facebook page to enter. 

Second Grade Sugar and Spice
Christina at Second Grade Sugar and Spice is giving away two items: her End of Year Writing Pack and My Teacher is Missing Sub Plan Pack!  
Teachers Pay Teachers         Teachers Pay Teachers
Follow her blog and store.      

Mrs. Barnes
Megan at Mrs. Barnes is giving away her new Poet-Tree unit.  
Poet-Tree
Follow her blog and store.  

Hello Mrs. Sykes
Jen at Hello Mrs. Sykes is giving away ANY TWO items in her store so check it out!  
Follow her blog and store

This is my first time using Rafflecopter so here's hoping I did it right!  Enter below for this amazing giveaway now until Wednesday May 30th at midnight!!  Good luck!  :)

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

Welcome Note Freebie and Froggy Update

We're using my  Countdown to Summer Book with end of the day activities which means that the kiddos that haven't had to move their clip get to do whatever activity we turn over.  These star activities have given me such power.  I kid you not!!  All I have to do is threaten to move a clip and the kids straighten up....it really is amazing.  


Today, the activity was to create a welcome note for my kiddos next year.  The first thing my kiddos did was complain that they didn't get a welcome note at the beginning of this year.  I told them everyone has to start sometime!  What stinkers!!  


The note itself isn't anything fancy, but it was so cute what they wrote.  I had to show some pictures:

I love her picture of the snowball fight we had last week. 

Holding two fingers up is our sign to be quiet.  I'm glad she is passing on that bit of information.  I think some kiddos need constant reminders.  

I have moved this boy's clip one time and he will never forget it!!  His advice was to have a limit of silence and fun!  I thought that was so funny.  He must actually hear me when I say there is a time to be silly and a time to be good workers.  

Sweet picture!

She likes my classroom dollars and be sure to stay on green she says!

I'm also giving this welcome note away for free since I'm sooooooooo excited that I have reached 200 followers!!  Yay!!  :)


Make sure you come back this weekend because I'm going to be having a HUGE giveaway!!  You really need to come back for this one.  I PROMISE it will be loaded with goodies that you will not want to miss out on from some of your favorite bloggers!! 

And, since I'm sure you're all just dying to know about our class pets I won't keep you in suspense any longer....we now have 4 frog legs!!  Click here to read my post about our class pets.  "Froggy" had 2 legs last week and now has 4 legs.  His tail is very short now too.  See him there in the corner??

Tadpoles are not easy to photograph so this was the best picture I could get.  I have about 40 pictures of these tadpoles and Froggy between my camera and my phone.  I thought my phone would get a better picture, but no such luck.  This was the best I could do, but at least you can see his legs!!


Have a happy Friday!  It's our last one!  :)

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Time Capsule Fun

Back in October, my kiddos filled out a time capsule paper about themselves.  We then put them in paper towel tubes covered with plastic wrap and then I buried them all!  At least my kiddos THINK I buried them!!  :)  Shhhhh....don't tell.  

They were really just in this Target bag, in my closet in my classroom, but it sounds so much more fun to say that they were buried in a box in my backyard.  The great thing is....my kiddos REALLY think I buried them.  

It probably helped that I sprinkled some dirt on the bag and a little in the bag.  I made sure to apologize to my kiddos for the dirt and told them to be careful and just wipe it off.  :)  It was all about the experience and my kiddos were thrilled.  That's the important part....

Here's some pics:

This is what they were in all year.  But imagine this bag in a box in my backyard and it becomes a much more memorable experience!!

We curled up their time capsule papers and put them in these paper towel tubes.  Tied some plastic wrap on the end and ta-da! 

This little boy is such a sweetie.  

This little girl loves to draw.  Her handwriting has gotten better too thank goodness!

Check out that microphone!  

I've done this time capsule activity the last couple of years and it's always such a hit!  

Tomorrow we're camping....I gotta go find some flashlights!!  :)

Saturday, May 19, 2012

A *SNOW DAY* in May is soooooo Fun!!

We found out yesterday that a Snow Day in May is soooooo much fun!  :)  

We didn't get a real snow day this year so we made one in our classroom yesterday while we reviewed some important first grade skills.  We voted on favorite snow day treats and graphed them, practiced snow facts (double digit addition and subtraction), did a word sort, discussed main idea, author's purpose, and did some writing activities!  

And, of course it wouldn't be a snow day without some snowflakes and snowmen so we made those too.  

We ended the day by making snow cones!!  These were such a hit!!   My mom came in to help make the snow cones and I'm so glad she did. She's a college professor, but always enjoys visiting my room and seeing my sweet little first graders.  My nephew calls her Nana so that's what my kiddos called her too and she loved that!  :)  

Thanks for coming in, Nana!  

Check out these pictures of the fun we had:








These are the snowflakes they made.  They were allowed to hang them up somewhere in the room.  The little guy on the door is Flat Freddie.  One of my kiddos made him earlier in the year when she took home our friend Flat Stanley.  I have an entire Flat Stanley pack available if you want to do it.  
My kiddos LOVED it!
This little guy worked so hard on his snowman.   
Look at all of these cute snowmen!  The pink one on the bottom is a 'summer' snowman!  Check out that tropical shirt!  :)  We wrote about how to make a snowman too.  
We read a book titled Snowy Winter Day and then discussed the main idea and author's purpose.  Check out the snowflakes on the Smart Board and our pink snow woman.  :)   
Here's Nana making delicious snow cones!  Check out her scarf and boots....she was prepared for our Snow Day!  

So, that was our fun Snow Day!  If you would like to have a Snow Day in May with your kiddos you can purchase my snow day pack at my store!  There are definitely enough activities to last a few days.  This is a fun way to spend a couple of days at the end of the school year reviewing skills.  

My kiddos brought in their snow day gear too and sunglasses for when we went outside to eat our snow cones.  We definitely got some questioning looks when walking around with boots, scarves, hats, and gloves on but it was so fun!  It was almost 80 degrees yesterday  outside, but it was snowy in our room!  

I think the favorite part of the day was the snowball fight!!  I had to set some boundaries, but the kids had a great time.  No injuries happened and they followed my directions so it was a good time for all.  I mean, really.....what's a snow day with no snowball fight?!?! :)

One more thing before I go.  Jen at Hello Mrs. Sykes has reached 200 followers and is having a big giveaway.  She asked several bloggers to donate to her giveaway and I donated my Snow Day in May!  Make sure you stop by and enter!!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

We Have a Hundred Class Pets...and a Freebie I Found!

A hundred class pets....really!?!?  


Yep, well kinda.  See......
I'm pretty sure there's a hundred in there.  Feel free to count them though if you don't believe me!  :)

One of my kiddos and her family found these tadpoles and offered to bring them in so of course I said yes!!  My entire class has been so excited over these guys and gals.  The best part is that one of them has already started growing his/her back legs.  They're getting the chance to see the frog life cycle happening live in our classroom.  

We had these guys yesterday and today.  The mom took them home today to get some clean water.  Amazing how small they are yet how dirty they can make that water.  

With so many classroom 'pets' around I had to do what any good, decent, self-respecting, blog stalking, TpT obsessed teacher would do find a cute activity to learn about the frog life cycle and so I found this great little FREEBIE on TpT!  

Check it out:


It was a very cute and easy book for my kiddos to make.  We discussed the frog life cycle and then cut out the pages, filled in the missing information, stapled them, and of course colored the pictures.  

Hopefully next week we'll get to see more frog legs! :)

Tomorrow we're having a *SNOW DAY* in MAY!!!  Yep, for real!  Check out my Snow Day in May Pack at my TpT store.  I'll post pics later.  We're going to be making snow cones and maybe having a snowball fight, but you didn't hear that from me!  :)

Happy almost Friday!  Not too many of those left!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Summer Pack Giveaway and Freebie!

I have had several parents ask me for some kind of summer review for their kiddos in the last couple of weeks.


Sooooo, I decided to add some fun writing, math, and reading task cards into my Summer (June/July) Pack!  


This Summer Pack is 33 pages and can be done with partners, small groups, or independently.  I plan on using these task cards as a game as we get closer to the last day of school.  


I will also be sending these home with all of my kiddos for quick and easy summer practice!  Instead of sending home a bazillion math pages to practice facts, they can draw 4 number cards and make a two digit addition or subtraction problem.  This way I'm not killing a bazillion trees and they can easily reuse the cards for an entire summer of practice!  


I've also included reading and writing task cards.  Kiddos can rate the books they read over the summer by giving the books a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' with shovels...you'll have to check it out! 


I'm going to tell my kiddos that if they bring back the book review next year they will find themselves a little treat for being such a great summer reader!  :)


Here is what is in my Summer Pack:



My kiddos LOVE the riddle page!  They always remind me to add one in the next month's pack!  So, I'm sharing it here as a freebie:

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to have end-of-the-year-itis!  I was on my way to the office today to put some papers in our guidance counselors' mailbox.  Well, I got sidetracked in the computer lab and totally forgot to go to the office!  :(  I told our guidance counselor later that I have end-of-the-year-itis!  She understood! 


Because of this hopefully temporary disease I'm putting this Summer Pack on Sale until Friday!  I'm also going to give 3 away to the first 3 people who leave me a comment with their email address!  


Good luck as we're getting closer and closer to the end of the year! I'm going to miss my kiddos so much!  

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Snow Day in May and a FREEBIE!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you wonderful, hard-working moms!  I don't know how you do it all.  :)  A special Happy Mother's Day to my beautiful mama and mother-in-law too!  I'm a lucky girl!


It's been a very busy week.  I was working on my 3 trillion things to do.  I did manage to cross off a couple of items cross off a whole bunch of things.... 


I just posted my Snow Day in May!? pack and I think it's adorable!!   Yep, you read that right....we're having a snow day in May!  I live in Ohio and we usually get a snow day or two, but this year we didn't get any!  I'm not complaining about the nice weather at all, but who doesn't enjoy a snow day every once in awhile?? :)


Well, my kiddos and I thought it would be fun to create our own snow day so we're having one in May!  We're going to be reviewing some first grade skills with some snow day themed fun.  


Everything in this pack is ready to use!  There is no cutting or laminating to do!  That's what we need at the end of the year....simple and ready to go.  The only materials you will need are construction paper for the snowman and snow cone ingredients!


Here is a look at what's in the pack along with a list of what you'll get:
Page 1- Cover
Page 2- Table of Contents
Pages 3-4 Teacher Info Pages
Page 5- Main Idea
Page 6- Author’s Purpose
Page 7- Summary
Page 8- Snow Day Words
Page 9- Compound Words
Pages 10-13 Word Sorts (ow, oa, o-e)
Pages 14-18: Adjectives and Writing Prompts
Page 19: Story Problems
Page 20: Double Digit Subtraction
Page 21: Double Digit Addition
Pages 23-24: Graphing: 2 copies with one blank to add  your own treats
Page 25: Word Search
Page 26: Snowman Craft
Page 27: Snowflake Craft
Page 28: Parent Letter
Page 29: Snow Cone Recipe
Page 30: THANK YOU!

And, since it's Mother's Day I'm adding this freebie:



Just make sure you leave me a comment if you take it!  :)

I've included an easy snow cone recipe in here to end the day with, but I just bought snow cone flavoring.  It's up to you!  There is also a parent letter because my kiddos will be allowed to wear their winter items if they want to and bring sunglasses to wear while we enjoy the snow cones!  

If you live in an area that doesn't get any snow, this could be your chance for a snow day!!  At the very least, it will add some fun to your end of the year routine...and review some important skills while you're at it.  

I'm off to celebrate with my mama and my mother-in-law!  Enjoy your day moms, soon-to-be moms, and wanna-be moms!  :)

Monday, May 7, 2012

Flat Stanley Unit and My Blog has been NOMINATED!!

First of all, THANK YOU so much to those of you who visited my blog yesterday during our Teacher Appreciation Jackpot!  I gained quite a few followers and had thousands of my May Activity Pack downloaded!  That is so exciting!  My May Activity Pack is marked down from $4.00 to $3.00 if you missed out and would like to purchase it!  You can also get 28% off with the code TAD12 until Tuesday, May 8.  

I want to share my new Flat Stanley unit!  I did 2 different Flat Stanley projects this year with my first graders and they LOVED it!  

There are so many different things you can do, but I chose these 2 activities because I thought my kiddos would really enjoy them...and they did!  

Check out my unit here:


We read the first Flat Stanley book back in September.  After we read it, we decided to create 'Flat First Graders' and mail them to friends and family around the country.  I sent home a letter to my parents explaining what we were going to do.  Then, my kiddos colored and cut out a flat version of themselves.  We wrote "Flat ______" on the back of each one.  

We mailed them out and it only took a couple of weeks before they started coming back.  My kiddos would ask every day if we had another flat friend come back home yet.  

We would read about their adventure, where they went, and what they did.  It was great!  Some of them brought back some REALLY cool souvenirs!  

Then, after we got our Flat Friends all sent out on an adventure, I created a Flat Stanley and the kiddos took turns taking him home over a weekend.  They would have their own adventure with Stanley and write on a journal page and then share it with us when he came back.  Stanley was like our classroom pet!  He hung out with us during the week and then went home with a first grader on the weekends.  

EVERYTHING you need to do these activities with is included in my Flat Stanley Unit!  I have several parent letters, thank you letters, explanation pages, 2 charts to help you stay organized, journal pages, a flat boy, girl, and Stanley template, poster for hallway, bulletin board paper for your kiddos to fill out and hang up, reading organizers, several writing prompts with a couple of activities, and a word search!  My kiddos LOVE word searches so I always have to include one!  

All you need are the stamps and envelopes.  I mailed everything from school.  To me, that was easier.  I sent all the flat friends out in 1 big envelope addressed to their friend with a slightly smaller one inside addressed back to the school.  Make sure you put an entire package together and have it weighed at the Post Office before asking for stamps.  I totally forgot to do that sorta didn't do that and then had to purchase quite a few extra stamps myself.  

All in all it was a big success!  It was a lot of work this year, but now that I've created this unit I will be ready to go in September!  

I know this is a LONG post, but I haven't written in a few days so I'm making up for it tonight!  :)  

Before I go, I have to tell you that I've been NOMINATED FOR MOST FASCINATION BLOG OF 2012 under the category Elementary Teacher!!  I don't even know how that happened?!?!  :)

I received an email today telling me that my "Chapter Book, April Activity Pack, and a Freebie" post had been nominated!  See my great nomination badge on the right.  I had to display it, right!?!?  :) 

Okay, I'm headed off to do some work!  I told my kiddos today that I had about 3 trillion things to do.  They looked at me puzzled....so I just said don't worry about it; you can't even count that high anyways!  :)