Let's Get Acquainted Linky {May 19th, 2013}

Hello again!

 

I am linking up with Latoya from Flying into First Grade for her fun linky!

 

 

 

Topic: Meet 2 of my Bloggy Friends

 

1. Kate from Second Grade Sparkle

 

 Kate has always been super sweet to me! I am still thankful for her donation to my very first blog giveaway! She is always willing to help in any way she can!

She has this super awesome freebie too!
Click the pic to check it out and download!

 

 

2. Amie from Glitter Meets Glue Designs

 

 

Amie is another very sweet lady who I just love! She makes AMAZING graphics mixed with glitter! You certainly can't go wrong there! She also was very gracious and donated an item for my first giveaway and I am very thankful! Amie has a great website that you should definitely visit! Click the picture above to go visit!

 

Check out her awesome Glittery Beach Ball Clipart that is FREE for personal use!

 

 

 

 

 Thanks for stopping by as always! :)

 

 

 

 

 



Scholastic Saturday and a FREEBIE!

Happy Sunday!

 

I really meant to post about this yesterday and totally passed out on the couch before I got it done! Oops!

 

Well, better late than never!

 

My teaching bestie, Tamara from Mrs. Russell's Room, and I went on a Saturday morning trip to the Scholastic Warehouse Sale yesterday! It was a blast!

 

 I found so many awesome books! Some will be great for independent reading, some for read alouds, some for book studies, and so on! So happy we went! This is what I brought home. :)



 

Have you visited the warehouse sale before? If so, did you find a lot of goodies?? I'd love to hear about it!

 

And lastly, before I leave you this Sunday afternoon, I wanted to share my latest FREEBIE! If you aren't following me on FB yet, be sure you do because I always post my freebies there as soon as I upload them!

 

We are finishing up measuring with nonstandard length units in math this week so I decided to whip up this freebie! Click on the pic to download it! Hope you enjoy it!

 



 Have a great week!

Five for Friday!



Wow!

Has anyone else's week been crazy busy?!? It also seemed very long and drawn out and I'm not quite sure why! Oh well! Friday has arrived and I am THANKFUL for every last minute I have with my current class of kiddos. I am so unbelievably attached to them that I have already caught myself tearing up a couple times just thinking about the end of school closing in on us so quickly!

Please tell me I am not the only one feeling so emotional. :)

 

In honor of Friday, I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching once again for my Five for Friday! I apologize for my lack of pictures this week... I was just running around like a crazy person and just wasn't snapping as many as I would have liked to!

 

 

1. Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week and I felt so appreciated! I got flowers, chocolates and candy! I loved it all!



2. As much as I love the flowers and chocolates, I also really love the handmade cards that the kids give to me because they are so special and from the heart! Check out this very sweet card I got from one of my wonderful students:

3. I have a pack that I made called "Prove It!" where students have to read a short passage and answer comprehension questions. The trick to this pack is that I have added in a color coding system where students have to go back in the text and mark how they found their answer. For example, if a question asked, "What day does Jimmy do his homework?"...a student would go back in the passage and underline a sentence with a red crayon that says, "Jimmy has to do his homework on Thursday before he can go to football practice." I have them use a different color for each question as well as a different mark (underline, circle, box) for proving their answers. The reason I'm telling you this is because I administered one of my usual weekly reading tests this week and I was so proud of one student's test! She actually made up her OWN marking system to PROVE her answers on her test! I am so proud.. it really made me feel that I have truly taught them the concept of going back and being able to cite how they know the answer to questions. Take a look for yourself:

If you take a close look, you'll notice that this student even wrote how she marked each sentence in the text. For number one she "boxed" the sentence, number two she wrote "line" because she underlined it in the text, and number three says "colr" because she boxed the sentence and colored it in. I love, love, love this! You can click the picture to check out my Prove It! pack if you would like!

 

4. In class during centers, I had students working on a huge word sort! The word cards and headers are from my Long and Short Vowel Sounds Word Hunt Pack and the kiddos had a blast sorting ALL of the cards!

 

5. Lastly, but certainly not least, we have been studying PLANTS this week! We had a blast! I used Rebecca Anderton's pack and it is AMAZING! If you are looking for a wonderful resource to teach your firsties about plants, you must check it out! Click the picture to see it on TpT!

One of my favorite activities from the pack is the "My Sprout House"! Students are able to choose from two designs, color and decorate it! Then students put a lima bean seed with a wet paper towel inside a Ziploc and tape it to the Sprout House opening. So cute and the kids love it!

Here's a pic of ours in the window!

 

 

That's all I have for today! Thanks for stopping by! I love reading comments so feel free to share some love down below! :)

 

 

 

 

 

May Monday Made It! (On a Sunday)

I am linking up with Tara over at 4th Grade Frolics!

Monday Made It is about sharing something that you have made at home or at school with your kiddos!

Since I haven't had any spare time at home to make anything lately, I'm going to share what we made for Mother's Day in class last week! It was full of good times and sweet writing! :)

The first thing we made was the purse craftivity from my Wild About Mom pack! The kids absolutely LOVED making them and picking out what colors/animal print they wanted to use for their mommies!
They wrote the sweetest things to put inside the purse! I teared up on a few of them!

 

 

 

 We also made some adorable bookmarks! The idea for the bookmarks came from sweet Marie over at The Hands-On Teacher in First! The bookmarks are very simple and very cute! The glitter paper came from Michael's and so did the zebra tape and ribbon. The kiddos cut out the heads from their pictures and pasted them on the back and then hand drew the rest of their bodies! Then, I ran their bookmark through the laminator, whole punched the top, and put some ribbons through it! I left my brain at school as well as my pictures from this activity so I only have a shot of the front! Don't fear though, you can click on the picture to head to Marie's blog post about this same idea since it originated from her! Thanks for the great idea Marie!!

 

 So there they are! Two things we made together that the kiddos really enjoyed!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mommies out there whether it's to your children, furbabies, or school children! :)



Spark Student Motivation - Bracelets!

Hi friends! I'm linking up with Joanne over at Head Over Heels For Teaching for her fun Saturday linky!



This linky is all about sparking student motivation and you can find some awesome ideas to keeping your kiddos motivated to learn!

 

I have something to share that's very quick and simple, yet very effective with my students!

 

I use these awesome bracelets!

 

Click the picture to purchase them from Oriental Trading!

 



I purchased these cute jungle themed bracelets at the beginning of the year to go with my jungle theme in my classroom! They are super cute and very easy to put on the kiddos.

 

What I do is write little note on them when a child does well on something or exhibits good behavior. I don't give them out constantly and I don't give them out to everyone. This keeps them guessing as to when I will be awarding them. Sometimes I will give them out to students who scored a 100 on their spelling test. Another day I will give them to a student whose score improved greatly from one week to the next. Then I might give three out to the best behaved students for the day or even students who participated the most one day. I really just try to keep it varied to keep them interested in them. Anytime you reward or give out things too often, they lose their appeal!

 

Here's a bracelet I gave out on Tuesday to a student:

 



I know it's hard to read but it says "I did great with word building today!!!!! :)"

This particular child worked with me one-on-one during centers so that we could work on word building. I would give him a starting word and he would have to change a vowel or consonant to make a new word. For example, nap to map to mat to pat to pit and so on. He is a child who needs extra work and practice with this to improve his reading and he did a FABULOUS job so I certainly wanted him to feel special and proud of himself for working so hard! I filled out the bracelet and called him over. I peeled off the sticky back and put it on his wrist and his eyes just lit up with PRIDE! So cute... I do love my firsties! He got even more excited when I wanted to take a picture of him wearing it! :)

So there you have it! A very fun, simple, quick and inexpensive way to motivate your students to work hard and to help them feel proud of what they accomplish! What I love best is that I can use it to make EVERY student feel happy and motivated because EVERY child is special and has something they can do well at! :)

 

 

Be sure to follow me on Instagram if you aren't already! My username is stickynotesglitter and I try to share pictures throughout the week! :)

 

                                               Thanks for stopping by!                                                

         

Fabulous Feedback! A Super Fun Linky Party!

This is a brand new linky that I am so excited to link up for!

 

Click the pic to head to Christina's blog.. she's hosting this awesome linky!

 

Why am I so excited?!? Because it's a linky where I get to share some of the best feedback I have received on a product! You know, feedback that makes you feel GOOD inside and make it totally worth all those hours of work you put in!

 

And to make it even more fun for the readers, if one of the feedbacks I share was written by YOU, then you win any item from my TpT store that you want! :) How fun is that?!? All the more reason to leave feedback on all of your wonderful TpT purchases... not only do you get TpT credits, but you never know when it may lead into you winning something! :)

 

So without further adieu, here's some of my fav feedbacks!

 

 



TpT Username "lasparker" left this fabulous feedback for me regarding my Long & Short Vowel Sounds Word Hunt Pack! This pack includes word cards and recording sheets to have you kiddos up and moving and practicing their vowel sounds! You simply place the cards around the room and the kiddos have to find them, read them, and record them! You can focus on one vowel sound at a time, or multiple! Your choice! I love reading this feedback and knowing that I have helped out a fellow teacher! :) If you are TpT user "lasparker"... be sure to email me to claim your prize!

 

I would love for you to check this product out for yourself, you can click here to see it!

 

Next up...

 

TWO fabulous feedbacks left for my Spectacular Space: The Earth, Sun, and Stars (A Common Core Aligned Unit)!

 

I tried to choose only one feedback for this unit, but these two REALLY just touched my heart because they were so sweet and made me feel happy inside!

 

Feedback on left is from TpT user "Number Two Pencils" and feedback on right is from TpT user "robinbrandis"... if either of those feedbacks are from you, email me! 

 

 This space unit was a labor of love, that's for sure! I think that's why these two wonderful feedbacks mean so much to me! It really made me feel good reading them! So thank you to those two individuals who left it! :)

My Space Unit is very comprehensive. It's 172 pages of hard work and love! It includes whole group activities, experiments, writing/craftivities, 5 ELA centers, 5 math centers, and MORE!

Want to know EVERYTHING that's included in this best seller of mine?.. please click here. :)

 

I have one more piece of feedback to share with you. This one was left for my Prove It! pack that I love using with my kiddos!

This feedback was left by TpT user "johnathanakers".. if that's YOU, please email me!

 

 I enjoy this feedback because I made this packet to help ALL students, especially the ones struggling. My thought behind it was that students had to MASTER finding RIGHT THERE information before we could take them deeper into ideas such as inference! The fact that this user was able to use them successfully with students who needed extra help with that makes me feel awesome!

To check out my Prove It! pack, please click here.

 

Well, there you have it! Some FABULOUS feedback that I am so thankful for! To anyone and everyone who leaves feedback, thank you for taking the time to do that! It means so much to those of us who sell products! It means even more when buyers take the time to leave meaningful, detailed feedback! :)

 

Thanks for stopping by! Please check out all of the other fabulous feedback posts!

 



Teacher Appreciation Sale and Giveaway Alerts!

Hello!

 

This will be a quick post!

 

I just wanted to share that I will be participating in the TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale on May 7th and May 8th! Use checkout code: TAD13

 

Huge thanks to Beth at Zip-a-dee-doo-dah Designs for this adorable button! :) Her stuff is AMAZING!

 

Be sure to take advantage of this site-wide sale as they don't happen very often! My whole store will be on sale! Now is the time to clear out that wishlist so you can prepare new goodies over the summer! Go ahead and add them to your cart or add to you wishlist for a quick checkout during the sale! :) You can go browse my store here! :)

 

I also wanted to share a couple of giveaways that I am honored to be taking part in!

 

First one is Mrs. Sykes from..

 

 

Click the button to visit her blog!

 

Mrs. Sykes is doing a WEEK full of giveaways! I am part of her DAY #1 giveaway so head over there quickly to enter! It goes live in only a few short hours at 8 AM! Woo!

 

 

 

Wendy from 1st Grade Fireworks is also having a giveaway!

 

 Click the picture to head over and enter  Wendy's giveaway!

 

Before I go, I just want to take a moment and WELCOME all of the new followers that have joined me! I have reached AND surpassed 100 followers so quickly that I am amazed and blessed! It snuck up on me so fast, I didn't even have a chance to organize my own giveaway! That just means my next milestone calls for an even BIGGER celebration and giveaway! And to those of you who have followed me since I launched, thank you for sticking with me! You are ALL appreciated!

 

Make sure you are following me on Facebook and TpT to stay in the loop of everything going on!

Have a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week!

 

 

May Currently

Happy May friends!

 

I know I'm late with this and I apologize! My hubby works night shift and he took some of his vacay days this week/weekend so I have been having some much needed family time with him and my daughter!

 

Better late than never though, right?

 

Here goes...

 

Listening - Well, my hubby is passed out on the bed next to me... snoring away! My daughter is in her room singing her little heart out through her monitor! LOL! Guess it's just me and the computer for now!

 

Loving - We have had some Disney tickets to use for a while now so I decided to take a personal day tomorrow so that we could finally venture down there! It's that time of year when I need a little mental break and it worked out nicely that the hubs could take some nights off of work also! Arielle is so excited! She has been jabbering nonstop about it!

 

Thinking - I should totally be sleeping right now... everyone knows how much theme parks will wear you out! Why on earth didn't I go ahead and take off Tuesday too so I could recuperate?? Oh, I know why... sub plans! :)

 

Wanting - I am having a huge craving for potato chips for some reason. Weird!

 

Needing - Ok, y'all. I am in desperate need of some de-tangling ideas! My daughter's hair is a constant tangled mess! I have tried shampoos and sprays... nada! Anybody have any advice? I'm all ears if so!

 

Summer Bucket List - Basically I want to have a well-rounded summer break! I want to spend time with my family and be able to getaway for a while.. even if it's a quick getaway! I also want to catch up on my reading (both fun and professional) as well as create lots of new things for me to use in my classroom next year (and of course share with all of you!). :)

 

Thanks for stopping by everyone!

 

April Showers Bring May Craftivities!

 Hi Friends!!!

I am beyond excited for this post today! I am teaming up with my teaching bestie Tamara Russell from Mrs. Russell's Room! Tamara and I both teach 1st grade at the same school together... two doors down from one another! We decided to team up to bring you an AWESOME MAY giveaway!

Tamara made a beyond amazing Memorial Day craftivity that includes everything you need for your kiddos to create a stellar writing piece as well as everything you need to make the beyond awesome MEDAL OF REMEMBRANCE! Y'all, I really do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this craft activity!

Take a look!

Click the picture to check Tamara's Craftivity out on TpT!

Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter at the end of this post for a chance to win Tamara's Medal of Remembrance pack!

For MY half of the giveaway, I am giving away my brand new Wild About Mom Mother's Day Craftivity! My product also includes everything you need to have your kiddos create a wonderful piece of writing to show why they are "Wild About Mom" as well as the craft pieces and directions to create an adorable purse craftivity! I have also included a "Wild About Grandma" version of everything in case you need that for any kiddos who aren't being raised by Mom.

Take a look at my pack!

 Click the picture to check out my pack on TpT!

 For a chance to win my Wild About Mom pack, click the button below to head over to Tamara's blog and enter the Rafflecopter! But don't forget to enter the Rafflecopter at the bottom before you go! And as always, I love getting comments so feel free to leave some love and glitter down below! :) Good luck to everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway