Thursday, June 18, 2015

End of Year gift idea

Hi there!
Can you believe it...we are STILL. IN. SCHOOL.  Yup, thanks to the snow days our last day is TOMORROW!  The end is finally insight, as well as sunshine and pool time!

I wanted to share a quick and easy end of the year gift I made for my students.  I definitely can't take the credit for this one.  I was scrolling through Pinterest...eh hem, writing lesson plans and I came across this adorable gift!  The original idea came from Confessions of a Teaching Junkie.  I created my own "Just One Word" recording sheet for my kiddos.  Our introduction was a great review of positive character traits.  We brainstormed as many as we could think of for students in our class.  Then, I let them go!  They had so much fun!!  They even asked if they could add our ESOL teacher, team paraeducator, and an assistant that works in our math class.  I was surprised with how excited they got.
The whole project was created in Wordle.  If you've never used Wordle, it's pretty awesome.  The more you type the same word, the larger it will get.  You'll notice that their names are the largest on the paper because I typed them eight times each.  The other word sizes were determined by what the other kids said about them.

Here are a few examples...

 


Thanks for listening to my rambles!
Happy SUUUUUMER!!!!

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Favorite Teacher Items

In honor of Ashley's birthday, this week's post is about our favorite teacher items.  Who can resist teacher stuff?!?!  One of my absolute favorite times of the year is in August, about 2-3 weeks before school starts.  I make my rounds to all the teacher supply stores and big box stores to get the best deals and stock up on things for my classroom.  I also enjoy getting little teacher gifts in my mailbox during Teacher Appreciation Week, my birthday, or for no reason at all!!!  Who doesn't love getting stuff for their classroom?!?!

Here are just a few of my favorite items...
I LOVE mechanical pencils!  These are my favs, but they have to be .9mm, I'm a little tough on the lead.  I even let my kiddos use them in class, they love it!

Post-its...enough said :)
Fadeless paper is a MUST for bulletin boards!  It can be a tad bit on the expensive side, but I leave the same colors up for two years and just change the borders, as needed.
If you use the Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarking Assessment System, you know how awesome this calculator/stopwatch is!!!  With the push of a button it calculates reading rate, percentage of accuracy, and self-correction ratio.  Click {here} to check it out!

Last, but definitely not least, is this amazing Jan Richardson Flip Chart!  It's a teacher cheat-sheet to Jan Richardson's Guided Reading Comprehension strategies.  It offers step-by-step scaffolding of  each comprehension strategy.  If you could use one in your classroom, simple Google "Jan Richardson flip chart" and look for it in PDF form.

To see what Ashley loves and to enter her Favorite Teacher Items giveaway, click {here}.

Thanks for listening to my rambles!!


Monday, June 1, 2015

Birthday Blowout~Week 1 giveaways!!

Hi there!
No, it's not my birthday.  I am helping Ashley from Teaching in the Net celebrate her birthday ALL. MONTH. LONG.  Each week, Ashley and a TON of TPT sellers are giving away products to celebrate her special day!  In addition, Ashley's entire TPT store is 20% off all month and on her birthday, June 11th, some items will even be 50% off!!  Wait...that's not all....she's also having flash freebies on her Facebook page.  Can you believe how generous she is?!?!?!  I just hope I can keep up with all of the fun happenings! Click {here} to view her official blog post and get all the details. You can also enter BOTH of her Rafflecopters right here on my page...keep scrolling :)

Enter to win this END OF THE YEAR Prize Pack below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now, that I've shared THAT giveaway, you may also enter to win one of four amazing products...are you ready for this?!?!?  You could win a $50 gift card to Sit Spots, over $300 in TPT store credits, A Few of Ashley's Favorite Things, or a $50 clipart club membership to The Creative Art Teacher.  To see more details, head on over to Ashley's blog {here}.

You have until Thursday, June 11th (at midnight EST) to enter to win these prize packs.  4 random winners will be drawn on Friday, June 12th.

HUGE Birthday Blowout Prize pack (runs May 31-June 11) - drawing will be on June 12 
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thanks for listening to my rambles!