NEW and improved!

Two things are new & certainly improved!

{1}

My blog design!

I am kind of obsessed. If you know me a little bit, you know this is personalized to portray me perfectly. My wonderful fiance finally convinced me to let him design a blog for me and he did a fabulous job! I am one lucky gal :)

{2}

My All About Books!

Umm... for about 8 months now this has been in my store as just the templates for the final published book. It has been requested numerous times that I make it into a unit, similar to my best-selling Personal Narratives pack and I kept meaning to... I swear I did. Finally, finally, I have done it!

Now this little pack has everything you need to help you and your students dive into non-fiction writing. Your students will research an animal and go through non-fiction text features all the while creating and publishing their very own All About Book!

These have been the biggest hit in the past and I cannot wait to make them again this year!

I am so excited to have this little pack finished that I have put all my E.L.A. items on 20% sale for today and tomorrow! That means you can snatch up my All About Book and my Personal Narratives pack for only $3.20 each!

  

Click on the images to see them closer in my TPT store!

Have a great week :)

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Photo Friday! {and FREEBIES}

A little bit of this and a little bit of that!

Here is a quick peek into our classroom on Photo Friday:

[Our sweet little Star of the Week!]

I left that smile in there because she was CHEESIN' all week long! As our first star of the week she was thrilled to be our line leader and helper. She was also beyond happy to take home this little book we made for her today and to quote my little lady "ohmigod, my mom is going to be SO proud of me!!!" Warm fuzzies all over!!

The inside:

"she is a really nice friend"

"because she is special" lol

and

"she is fun and funny"

My {Star of the Week} booklet is always a BIG hit and is in my store for FREE!

If you want to download, just click on the image below:

Next we have the Investigations math game, Counters in a Cup.

We have been working on subtraction and finding missing parts and my students loved this game on Tuesday. Naturally, I brought it back for "fun" Friday (A.K.A. regular day but Ms. Moran smiles a lot and keeps saying over and over that everything is so FUN! - kids are so easy to trick)

 

Start with 10 counters. Students work in pairs to hide some of the counters under a cup while their partner isn't looking. Partner turns around, records how many counters are outside the cup and tries to figure out how many are underneath. Easyyyyy and fun!

[Happy Birthday!]

I am not.that.fun.

 I don't have a huge birthday display or a cape or a party for my birthday kids.

No time.

I do, however, draw a little puppy with a party hat on a card and throughout the day I gather quotes from the other students about the birthday student! I compile them into one card, read it aloud and we sing our hearts out. My favorite quotes of today were "I have a big crush on him" and "He is crazy in a good way!"

Lastly, we learned a wee bit about our 5 senses today!

First we read this book and had a pretty thorough discussion about our 5 senses and how they help us to be aware of our surroundings.

Then we completed a 5 Senses flipbook I made:

 They had to write down three things they could see, hear, taste, feel, and touch. Pretty simple? Yah, but it was a quick formative assessment to let me see who was getting it and who wasn't.

If you'd like the flip book I uploaded it to googledocs. Just click below!

Happy weekend!

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First Grade Common Core

My good ole friend, Stacy, at:

  gave me a heads up on this fantastic resource for 1st grade common core!

The Common Core State Standards {First Grade Workbook}:

I remember seeing the Kinder version all over the blogosphere a little bit ago, but now it is 1st grade's turn! The Common Core State Standards workbook is over 550 pages of worksheets, posters, and activity centers that directly align with the our ELA and Math standards! I have heard rave reviews about the Kinder version and I can't wait to get my hands on this one and test it out!

To check out more about this resource, check out First Grade Common Core.

That is all folks!

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Our Writing Community & A Winner!

WRITING!

I was HO-RRI-BLE at writing my first year teaching. Horrible. 

The curriculum I had that year was outdated and choppy and being that it was my first year... I had little to fall back on in terms of teaching writing. I felt like I did my kids a huge disservice when they left first grade! 

Year 2 was much, much better. My teaching bestie (Lindsey) is obsessed with writing and I am envious every year of her kids' writing skills! I learned tons from her and we worked to piece together a curriculum that worked for us. It was a little Lucy Calkins, a little Write From the Beginning, a little TPT and a little *us*!

Well, now in year 3, I am ready to develop some author/illustrators right out of the gate! Our school is piloting the program, Being A Writer, and I am liking it so far. I like that it heavily involves read-alouds for different writing skills. We just started "I Like..." stories this week and we began the program by introducing {Our Writing Community}.

I am making a big, big, BIG deal of writing in Ms. Moran's class this year! I want my kiddos to love being an author, an illustrator and I want them to be proud when sharing their work with their classmates, family and friends.

Insert: classroom anchor chart!

This community mentality is already producing better work and I thought I would share a few first drafts of our "I Like..." stories.

(BIG, proud momma smile):

 *Just a little sneak peek into my room*

Does anyone else use Being a Writer?? 

I would love to know your thoughts on it!

Oh ya.... A WINNER!

Thanks to everyone who entered my *spook*taculer giveaway!!!

Congrats to:
Lori!!

An email has been sent your way :)
Enjoy the Halloween goodies!

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Fallin' for Autumn Freebie!

Fall is here folks!

My oh, so FAVE season is in full swing.

Unfortunately, I live in Vegas now... and there is no such thing as Fall... no cool crisp nights, no orange, red, and yellow leaves, no raking and jumping in leaf piles!

Oh well... 

I do love getting to show pictures and share my Autumn memories with my students during this season. These Vegas kids know summer... they know allllllll about summer... but Fall... that's my domain!

  

(source)

Ahh... New England memories...

As I was reminiscing about Fall last night I decided to make some writing prompt cards that I will be using during Daily 5 over the next few weeks! Since I love Fall and I love all y'all, I decided to make the free! Just click the image to download them from my TPT store!

 

My bloggy friend, Ashley, also has a great resources page full of Fall/Autumn items on her website, The School Supply Addict. Click the button below to go to her Fall page. If you haven't been to her site before, beware... you will spend hours there! She has organized so many fabulous resources for you!

Last, but not least, go link up with Christine at The Crazy Pre-K Classroom, to share your Fall Freebies!

Happy, snappy Fall to you all!

Corny... I know...

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In Awe! 500 Follower Giveaway!!!

I am in awe...

 Last Saturday around 2:00pm I reached 500 followers!!!

I am so thrilled and I love all of you ladies n gents so much that I went all out for this giveaway! Seeing as we are getting into the Fall season, and being that I am from Salem, MA, I thought it would be fitting to have a Fall/Halloween themed giveaway!

I called on the big dawgs.... the real big dawgs.... and they answered! These ladies are some of my ALL TIME favorite bloggers in all the land. I would've never started creating products or blogging if it weren't for them. Many thanks to these inspiring women!!

First up,

{Abby}

 (source: The Inspired Apple)

Abby has donated The Candy Corn Bandit. This is such a fun idea! Your students will be making predictions while trying to find out where this bandit went and what he looks like. All the while you are traveling all over the school! Anything to get my kids up and movin'!

Next,

{Rachelle}

Rachelle has donated "A Halloween Unit" to the giveaway! This huge unit is jam-packed with Halloween activities!! Some of my favorites are the "guess what we're being for Halloween" class book and the paper plate scarecrow craft!

On to, 

{Teri}

Teri's craftivities?!? Yah... I'm obsessed. This little pumpkin pack is no different. It is so stinkin' adorable I can't even contain myself! She always has the best activities to go along with her picture perfect crafts!

Then came,

{Kelley}

Have you checked out this woman's morning work?!? If not, you need to! She has the perfect September morning work packet to keep your little ones busy n learnin' in the morning! All the activities are aligned to to common core and I swear my kiddos are smarter because of these activities! She just, just, just came out with her October pack - and you can be one of the first to have it!

and next,
{Stephanie}

Are those witches adorable or what?!? Steph's creative craftivity also comes with an original poem and some how-to writing prompts! I am super excited about this pack!

Last, but not least,

{Me}

You can read more about this mini-unit here, but I kinda love it! There are loads of activities I can't wait to do with my kids!

Enter away & good luck to everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

16

Showstoppin' Digraphs! {and a bundle}

Hi friends!

Thanks for all your sweet wishes for my BTS night - all went well!

I am excited to say my creative *spark* is back! I have been working with a small group of students on digraphs and I was in need of some games and activities to keep those kiddos entertained!!

We used Cara Carroll's {Digraph Kids} to introduce the digraphs sh, th, ch, and wh and now we have been playing games from my new packet, Showstopping Digraphs!

 Some highlights from this pack are:

{Anchor charts}

{digraph games with dice & spinners galore}

{E-Z, no prep, activities}

If you're in need of new digraph games and activities, ch-ch-check it out in my TPT store!

{Showstopping Digraphs}

I have also gotten requests to bundle some of my work and with this new addition, I thought it would be perfect to bundle some word work packets! 

I bundled together the 4 following packets:

 

This new bundle is now in my TPT store for $12.50!

Check it out:

Happy hump day!

{Hint: comeback Friday for a *spook*tacular giveaway with some of your FAVE bloggers!}

4