FLASH SALE!! Everything is $1!

My title says it all!

Today only all my products are on sale for only $1!

Go stock up ;)

{My Store}

Enjoy!

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Stop throwing everything away!

Okay, so come the new year, does anyone else go around telling people your resoultion in hopes that if other people know, you won't give up, because helloooo, that would just be embarrassing!?

 I mean if I tell everyone and their mother that I want to lose 20 lbs this year.. IT HAS TO HAPPEN, right?!

Well... let's hope that works...

I saw this linky hosted by Amanda over at Teaching Maddeness, and thought I would join in so you all can hold me accountable for my actions this year!

  My new {school} year resoultions!   [1] DRINK LESS COFFEE...or at least not go to Starbucks AS much...trying to save money for wedding.I don't know how this one will go, but I did have a dream last night that I had a spot in my classroom for my Kuerig and all my cute little coffee mugs I've accumulated as teacher gifts :) It was heavenly.  [2] TAKE MORE PICTURES!Gosh darn this one frustrates me! It is always 10 minutes after a lesson when I'm reflecting on how great (or not so much...) it went that I realize I didn't take any pictures to document the lesson! I am hoping that since I have a blog now, I will remember to take more!  [3] NOT THROW EVERYTHING AWAYI have the opposite problem of most teachers. All my colleagues hold onto ev-er-y-thing. Seriously, everything. I don't know what for or when they will use it again or if it is worth having all the extra storage space, but me? I am an addicted purger. I throw away everything. If I have a pile on my desk and it should be sorted through, organized, filed neatly away... I look from left to right to see if anyone is looking and rush right over the recycling bin. This is a great feeling of relief. Then the obvious, "oh crap! I needed that! "comes in about a week or two later. Am I the only one with this problem?!  [4] HAVE FUN (outside of school)!I already have fun IN school. All day, every most days!! Sometimes I have so much fun, I stay on the weekends. My goal this year is to try my darnedest to remember my life OUTSIDE of work. I have to come to the realization that there will alwaysalwaysalways be something to do for school. I could always make something cuter, better, more effective, but sometimes I need to take a break and have some me time! Or at least some me and hubs time!
So there you have it! My new {school} year resolutions!Will you hold me to them!? Pretty please. The future hubs is a softy and he never does.
Thanksabunch!

5

Star of the Week! FREEBIE

Do you have a Star of the Week?!?

In my class we don't have much time for show and tell, or "sharing" so instead, I opt for a star of the week! It is quick n' easy and both the students and the parents appreciate this sweet little book we make for the star each week.

I have all the students names on colored popsicle sticks and each Friday I pick who will be the Star of the Week for the upcoming week. I also send a little note home to parents asking them to send in a picture of their child and their family to be on display for the week!

Throughout the week, the STAR is my special little helper and my line leader. I like to make them feel extra special all week and they take their weekly duties very seriously!!

Every Thursday morning we take the first 20 minutes of school to sit down and create our star of the week book as a class. The Star gets to color in the cover of the book and complete the "Some Fun Facts" page.

While the star is completing these pages, the rest of the class, including ME, is completing this page:

On Friday, I laminate the front cover and bind the book together before I read it to the class. My oh my, I swear I get teary-eyed at least once a month when I look into the crowd and see my star with the BIGGEST smile on their face as they listen to the nice things their classmates write about them.

I love it!!

And like I said before, it is always a student & parent favorite!

You can get the whole book, including the parent letter at my TPT store {here}.

If you download, I would love for some feedback on my TPT page :)

And major thanks to Nikki (Melonheadz) for the cute clipart, and Michelle (The 3AM Teacher) for the sweet chevron backgrounds!

Catch ya on the flip-side!

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BEST NEWS!! & Rockin' Resources, Part II

First and foremost,

I GOT MY JOB BACK!!!!!!!!

At my school, teaching first grade - THANK GOD (hardy, har, har).

But seriously.... I was so beyond excitement that I finally went out school shopping today and spent way too much money.. shh.. don't tell Parker...

YAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAYAY!!!

Phewf... now I am so excited to share with you my top 5 resources for the upcoming school year!

My dearest friend, Kelley, is doing part deux of this awesome linky AND she is even having a giveaway. Now, you can read our bloggy love story in her latest post... but this is how we "met" and I am so excited for someone else to get to win her rockin' resources - they are seriously awesome and I can't wait to use them in my class!

Onto mine:

{1}

FUN!

Is this a resource?

I don't know, but I guess I mean FUN learning materials and activities!

Something like these funky witch-lady fingers for tracking your reading (these were from Kelley!)

 

or like learning about bugs and making these fun bug eyeglasses:

 

Whatever the tools, I like 'em FUN & engaging.

{2}

Kagan!

Our school is a *Kagan* school so I have been lucky enough to attend 2 national Kagan conferences and present the information learned during staff development days. The name of *Kagan* isn't exactly what matters most, more the idea behind it all.

Kagan is all about getting your kids UP and moving and talking all.the.time.

This just happens to go perfectly with my teaching style because I am all about moving, talking, working together, blablabla you get it.

All us awesome teachers already do these things, but being a *Kagan* school we have names for all these structures. If you want to know more there is a powerpoint I found [here] - I did not make this, but I looked through it and the information is correct!

{3}
Singing & Dancing
Whether I am singing, having a spelling "dance" party(yeah, we dance out our words), or playing music on the computer, there is ALWAYS music on in my classroom. I actually wrote about one of my FAVORITE brain breaks using music during a guest post on Stephanie's blog (here)!

P.S. - I won a bunch of CDs from Intelli-tunes created by Kelley's dad, Ron Brown, that I cannot wait to use next year!!!
 


{4}
MAD LIBS!


proper noun + verb + adjective + color word = silly story & students who are giggling so much they don't even know they're reviewing important concepts?!?!?!?!
Teacher success!
This website has some kid friendly printable ones & I love this scholastic book for fun math mad libs!


[It says for grades 2-3, but with Common Core I could use them towards the end of the year for great practice and extension]


{5}
((Fun)) Manipulatives!
I use manipulatives for EVERYTHING!
So instead of the sameeeeeee olddddd boringggggg counters, I love to switch it up!
I have buckets full of small, colorful manipulatives!
Thank goodness I don't teach the real little youngin's [choking hazard nightmare!]
I let my kids and their partners choose whatever manipulative their feelin' that day... choices, choices, choices... it's funny how something as silly as this gets the students excited before they even start their activity!
Here are few classroom favorites:
 

Yeah.... we use popcorn on special occasions!

That's all for tonight!

Go do a happy dance, have a drink for me, or give me a high-5 through the computer screen because I got my job back!!

Oh, and obviously link up with Kelley so I can see YOUR rockin' resources!

 

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A Gaggle of Giveaways & a WOAH!

I thought gaggle just meant a lot of something....

BUT

according to Wikipedia it pretty much just means a lot of geese...or salt...

I'm going to keep it anyways because I like the word. 

Gaggle. Gaggle. Gaggle.

Yes, it has a nice ring to it.

Anywaysssss there is a whole GAGGLE of giveaways going on right now that I just wanted to share:

{1}

My dear friend, Stephanie, over at Falling into First, is having an awesome 331 follower giveaway!

You can win a sah-weet 31 bag for back to school!

PICK ME, PICK ME!

{2}

My new bloggy friend, Andrea, over at Reading Toward the Stars, is having a 207 follower giveaway & she was nice enough let ME giveaway something from my store!

{3}

The sweet Ashley, at The Resource Room Teacher is having a 100 followers giveaway where you can win loads of fun stuff, including another item from moi!


{4}

Last, but not least, the wonderful Brigid, from Brigid's Daily Lesson Log, is also having an awesome giveaway!  She has an adorable new blog, you should go check it out!



Sooo... GO CHECK THEM OUT, follow, enter, win!!
Wahoo!!!

Now, for my WOAH!
I was noticing that this little unit of mine was selling like hotcakes this past weekend:

 

 

  I was very excited!
 I was smiling &bragging to friends (aka my cats and fiance)... and then someone informed me... it was in the TPT Newsletter!

WOAH!

Super, super, super exciting :)
Thanks TPT!

That is all folks!

I will be back in a day or two to link up with my BLOGGING BESTY, Mrs. Kelley Dolling, to be exact, to let you know what my top 5 Rockin' Resources are!

10

READ! My Craftventure

Now, I may have mentioned this before... but "crafting"... yeah... not so good at it. I didn't inherit that gene from my mother, who just happens to be a master seamstress/crafter extraordinaire.

That being said, I decided to put on my big girl pants and head over to Hobby Lobby.

E-GADS!

Fabrics, paints, furniture, doodads. WHAT IS THIS PLACE!?!

I didn't even know where to begin or what half the stuff was... but I was on a mission!

I had seen these READ letters all over the blog-o-world and it seemed like a craft I could tackle. I mean... buy 4 letters, paint them... c'mon Susan, you can do this.

So, I did it!

My inspiration:

 {Katie @ Queen of the First Grade Jungle}

{Melissa & Nicole @ Lesson Plan SOS}

{Alicia @ The Bubbly Blonde}

{Tara @ 4th Grade Frolics}

And now... after many mishaps and re-dos...

Drumroll please........

TAH DAH!

Yeah, that's right, black-on-black chevron! [Of course, this happened on accident, after trying to cover up a mistake lol, but I ended up liking it!]

I'm probably supposed to explain how I did this, but all I did was buy the letters and the round wood pieces, paint them, and glue them together.

EZ-PZ lemon squeezy!

Also... the A & D look like the same color in the pictures, buttttt they aren't. The A is way more tealish green and the D is blue.

There we have it. 

My first CRAFTVENTURE and I have to say... it wasn't so bad!

Now I'm off to check out all the other marvelous crafts!

Link up with Tara and show me what you've got!

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