Teachers are Heros Sale and March Work on Writing Freebies!

There's a BIG SALE going on tomorrow that you don't wanna miss!!!

Clipart: Melonheadz 

Font: KG

One of my newest products that my friends are loving is their new Work on Writing activities for March!

I have to admit, after the buzz of Valentine's Day, I had to change it out and put something new up.  I'm so ready for Spring, so a change in my writing center had to be done!

I created word wall words that centered around my writing prompts.  I included St. Patrick's Day, weather, and plants and gardening.

I found the clothespins, ribbon and garland at Michael's.  I am not allowed to walk into that store for a very long time.  My husband added up my expenses for the month and let's just say he wasn't happy.  I just can't NOT go in there and NOT buy fun stuff!!! 

 You can get the word wall cards HERE FOR FREE!

My friends sometimes enjoy doing different activities at Work on Writing.  I made these little booklets for them to use when they aren't in the mood for prompts.

They simply choose a word from the wall, draw a pic and put it in a sentence.

You can get the booklets HERE FOR FREE!

My writing center is just a cozy little corner with not much space...

So that is why I keep my writing prompts on a ring for easy removal. 

Many of my friends take them off the hook and move to a cozy spot in the room where they would like to sit and work.

This writing pack includes several different writing paper options.  I chose this one so that my friends can get their thinking going with a little illustration at the top.

Your Work on Writing center is SURE to be a hit with all these fun writing options!  The best thing about it???  Once it's done, it's done FOR THE WHOLE MONTH!

Super easy to assemble!  Super fun once it's done!

Don't forget to mark your calendars to join in on the big sale!

HUGE Giveaway!

It's my girl's Blogiversary and she's celebrating BIG!!

Kristin from My Carolina Classroom is doing a HUGE giveaway with TONS of products!
It's so big, she has a K-2 giveaway and a 3-5 giveaway.  There's over $180 worth of products!

Now y'all head right on over and celebrate with her and enter for a chance to win one of the prizes!

Five for Friday on a Valentine's Day!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!  It's been a CRAZY week!  Anyone else out there barely make it?  It was long.  We had our Valentine celebration.  And the 100th day of school is Monday.

We have been studying 2D shapes.  I needed some activities to put into my math tubs for Guided Math but I didn't want to run any worksheets.  So I (quickly) made this pack for hands on fun!

The activities included are identifying a certain shape among other shapes...

 Counting sides and vertices...

 Sorting by number of sides and vertices...

 Sorting shapes regardless of their non-defining attributes...

And using shapes to create new ones.

 My students fell IN LOVE with their new word work activities!  Right now we are studying vowel teams so I created this LOVELY little pack for them!

Some of the activities include rolling a vowel team and coloring the matching word...

 And sorting cookies by the vowel team.

 I got a little carried away with this one.  I found the aprons from Target on sale and I found the pancake flippers and pans from Dollar Tree.

 And then I used my Silhouette to put the vowel teams at the top.

 And they also love playing this little game with a partner.

On Thursday, my students decorated their Valentine pouches to hold all their craziness.

 One of the amazing first grade TA's (I have four amazing TA's) took two hearts and stapled them together and there ya go!  She did them for two classes!  That's over 40!

 She wrote she loved Valentine's Day!  I love Valentine's Day too.  Just not when my little friends act like savage animals :)  It was Valentine's Celebration, early release, possible chance of snow, Friday the 13th, and the anticipation of 100th day on Monday, all rolled into one.  You can only imagine.

 I couldn't resist making some little goodies for my babies.

I also got some really cute treats from my friends!  This mug is ADORBS!  They know me all too well!

Now it's time to get ready for the 100th day of school!  

I am WAAAAY too excited about it.  

I plan on using Cara Carroll's 100th Day of School Math Stations.

I also saw on Pinterest where there is this app that makes your face look old...

It's called the Aging Booth.  I did it for all my students and printed them out!  It's so creepy!  And they are working on what life if going to be like when they are 100.  When I get the writing page done I'll set it up as a freebie!  So check back!

#igain100poundsat100

And lastly, my AMAZING husband surprised me with a little something for Valentine's Day.  He lied and said that maybe we won't buy anything this year.  I was cool with that.

I was even cooler with this!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Valentine's Day!  I told my husband that since I received such an amazing gift I would take him anywhere he wanted to go for lunch.  He wants to go to Dick's Sporting Goods and Tijuana Flats.  Well okay then.

Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday (and getting back in the swing of things)

It's been a minute since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday!  

We've been back to school for only three days and we have been working HARD!  It's almost as if we haven't been out of school for 5 whole weeks!

First of all, I have to share this AMAZE-Balls product from Firstie Favorites!

I always MODELED the chunking reading strategy but I never had a way for my students to actually PRACTICE it.  Enter: Chunk it up!

 Some of the words I was rather apprehensive about my students figuring out...

 I was AMAZED at the words they could read after showing them the chunking strategy.  Some of the words in this pack were really hard!  But they figured them out!  It was incredible!

I ended up liking this so much that I used it during whole group as a mini-lesson!  All I had to do was put it under the document camera. 

One of my students asked if I had made it and I said "No, my new friend Miss. O'Connor made it."  He said, "She did a good job.  She made it fun."

If you are looking for a way for your students to PRACTICE this reading strategy, I would definitely check out Nicole's Chunking Activity!  Like I said, I even used it as a mini-lesson!

 We started graphing!  I love graphing and I don't know why.  

A sweet buyer told me she was going to use it as morning work and I thought, "Why didn't I think of that???"  

We only have 15 minutes by the time the bell rings till the time we have to go to specials so this is perfect for the morning.  I put the title at the top of the chart paper...

 And I put the little response pieces in a bucket underneath with the tape.  By the time everyone has answered, we have just enough time to complete the graph.

 I updated it this year to make the graphing pages into a book so I didn't have to deal with papers every day.

 They find the page we are working on and complete the graph.

 This year I actually pick a student to put their book under the document camera and lead the rest of the class like the "teacher."  They stankin' love it.

Work on Writing is a HUGE hit!

Of course I had to completely redecorate to match the upcoming month!

I put up all new words and activities!  To get the words for Free CLICK HERE!

The letter writing is the absolute favorite out of the pack.  

(Maybe it's because they get to make an envelope for the letter...)

Since my students have been on VA-CAY for 5 weeks, we needed a SOLID review of long vowels.  And because of all the wintery weather, these phonics activities were perfect!

I also wanted to incorporate a little Valentine fun so I put just a few activities from this pack.

Anything with a teeny tiny mailbox is sure to be a hit, right?  I found the mailboxes at Target (and they are back this year too!)  And yes, these tiny envelopes are included in the pack :)

I also knew that "time was of the essence" (see what I did there?) and that when my friends got back they were going to need some practice with time.  Oh, boy, was I right.  

When I pulled these activities out, I heard a lot of silent "Yes!"  I said, "What?  You guys like these activities?"  One student said, "We just feel so free.  No papers."

Um.  Okay.

So crazy as it sounds, ALL THIS took place in a matter of 3 days.

I'm ready for the weekend!