Giveaway Ends Tonight!

      Don't forget to enter by 11:59pm Eastern Time tonight, to win a chance for 5 of my products!! Click HERE to head to Friday's post and enter in the giveaway!!  Don't miss out.

I will announce the winner tomorrow! 

Five for Friday and 200 TpT follower GIVEAWAY!

      I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday!  Here are a few things I have been up to this week!
 1.  I don't know about you, but I prefer to plan in advance.  My team is meeting today to work on our scope and sequence for the year.  This is where we map out what we will work on and when, etc.  One thing that helps with this is knowing your schedule.  In NC my schedule was always sort of last minute given to us those last few days before school started.  Yesterday, I emailed my AP and was so excited to recieve an email back with the schedules for the year!!!  This will be a HUGE help with our planning today!

 2.  I started my TpT site about a year and a half-ago.  I figured it was time to go through and do some updating to some of my older items.  I printed off a list of all of my products and I am going through them slowly but surely! Yikes...this is not a lot of fun, but it needs to be done. 

 3.  I know I keep posting pictures from my runs, but this park is awesome!  I love having it right by my apartment!!  Plus, to top it off, this week we had AMAZING weather.  If there is a place that is 74 and sunny year round, let me know because I could handle that!

 4.  So, one of my favorite products is my Three Little Companion set.  It has three book studies that compare those stories to the traditional story of The Three Little Pigs.  I decided that I would love to do that with another traditional story.  So, I have started creating a packet for the story Little Red Riding Hood.  This product will have four stories that are all similar and different in some ways!  I really enjoy reading and scratching my ideas all over the books (on sticky notes that is)!  When you create a book study, how do you go about coming up with the questions, etc.?

 5.  It is hard to believe that my TpT store is about a year and a half old and growing slowly but consistently!  I was excited to see that I have 200 followers at my store!  Even more exciting is that my blog is almost at 200 followers, too!  So, I decided to throw a giveaway!  
       I am giving away five products that would be a HUGE help for the beginning of the year. 

• My 1st-3rd Grade Reader's Notebook Kit
• My Science Notebook Starter Kit
• Chrysanthemum Read Aloud guide
• Amelia Bedlia's First Day of School book study
• Nate the Great Throughout the Year Bundle

      One LUCKY winner will get all of these products!  All you have to do is enter for a chance to win!  One winner will be chosen at 11:59 on Sunday night! Start entering now!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wordless Wednesday- Laminate, cut, repeat!

      I am linking up with Sugar and Spice for another Wordless Wednesday!  My picture was taken today after making stop at Lakeshore Learning to do a little laminating!.  I don't know about you, but our school allows us to laminate   The problem though is that I feel like at the beginning of the year laminating is ENDLESS.  I am always finding something else I need want to laminate. Plus, it is WAY more convenient to have things laminated and ready to go when I walk in the door to set up my room. Right?!?! So, today I laminated over 20 feet of awesomeness that I have purchased and created this summer.

I have two questions for you today!
     Does your school allow you to laminate anything or do you need permission?  Also, do you laminate things over the summer, too, so you are ready, or do you wait?

 

Two for Tuesday is Still HERE!

     I was surprised and excited to see that The Teaching Tribune decided to continue their Two for Tuesday Linky. Although I am a seller on TpT, I feel that this linky has caused me to do a lot of shopping, not just selling!  HaHa  
     If you are new to Two for Tuesday, it is a linky where teachers post 2 products half-off all day on Tuesday!  Make sure to check out what all the great teachers have on sale today!

      This week I have two of my newest products on sale.  My first is my Sarah, Plain and Tall book study.  I wrote about it yesterday on Monday Made It.  Click on the picture below to grab your copy for 50% off!

      My other product is a HUGE deal.  This is a Cam Jansen bundle packet.  Each novel study usually sells for $3.00.  The bundle sells for $9.00, which is already like buying three and getting one free.  NOW, TODAY you can get all four novel studies for $4.50!!! If you know me, you know that I LOVE Cam Jansen.  Two of these four books are in my top five selling items, too!  Click on the picture below to grab your copy for 50% off!      

    Don't forget to follow my TpT store, while you are there and leave some feedback!  :) Happy shopping!

Monday Made It- July 14th

     I CAN’T believe it is July 14th already! The summer keeps flying by.  I am linking up with Tara from Fourth Grade Frolics for Monday Made It!

    

     My first project this week was finishing up my newest book study.  I plan on using this book as a read aloud, unless my kiddos are on this reading level to be used for a guided reading book.  I loved reading this book in fourth grade and I know that it will provide for a lot of discussions about life at the time period in the book.  Our school district celebrates Pioneer Day for part of our communities standards, looking at comparing and contrasting life today and a long time ago.

     Click on the picture below to grab a copy!

    Now, I am not really a baker, besides the basics like cookies and muffins, etc.  We went blueberry picking this weekend and we have a TON of blueberries so I decided to look up recipes   I found a recipe for a lemon-blueberry cake!  It has a homemade cream cheese frosting on it.  I didn't realize when I found the recipe it was four a double or triple layer cake, but it all worked out! The icing was a little runny and not staying in place so well, but  that's ok! It is delicious!  

     I have seen so many cute ideas for book marks recently on Pinterest.  I ended up finding this great one on TpT and it was a freebie!  It was super easy to input names, print and back.  I plan on laminating them and putting ribbons through the top to stick up out of their books! If you click on the picture below, you will find the same freebie that I used from TpT!  I love how they turned out!

5 Things That Make Summer Awesome- Help Feed Our Students!

      I am sure you know who Kid President is by now.  I absolutely LOVE his videos.  They've made me cry sometimes or mostly smile and laugh.  When I went to click on this video that I saw on Pinterest, I was surprised when the ending went in a different direction.  It is his video called 5 Things That Make Summer Awesome! The difference with this video is that at the end he talks about the large number of children who may not eat lunch or may not eat a healthy lunch during the summer.  For those children, school is much more than just about learning.  School was a safe place that provided them with one daily meal that they could always count on.

     I am so grateful to know that at my school there is a program for free lunch during the week, where students can come to school and eat lunch and partake in a fun activity.  Unfortunately, too many of the kids invited don't come because of transportation or being at day cares, etc., but it is a good feeling knowing it is available to them.  

     However, think about the number of communities that don't have a program like that.  Those kiddos need healthy meals all year, not just on the 180 days of school.  ConAgra foods has said that for every time a person watches, likes, or shares this video, they will donate to Feeding America until July 31st!  

P.S. "If you don't like popsicles, there is something wrong with your brain". Haha Good thing I love popsicles!! 

Five for Friday- July 11th

      I am linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! This was definitely a random week, so here goes!

1.  First things first, today marks the 1 month count down until school starts for teachers.  AHHHH!!! Teachers have two workdays, but our Meet the Teacher night is on the night of the first workday, so we have to have our rooms ready to go before the 11th.  I am super excited for this school year, but I am LOVING my summer!  I've had one of the most relaxing summers since I started teaching.  Mostly because I didn't "work".  Not to say that I don't work on projects for my classroom, TpT, or my blog each day.  I am SO thankful to have had this summer to relax, work on things that I chose to do each day, and just refresh before the new school year!

 2.  Since school is just around the corner, I have started doing a little back to school shopping.  I like to watch the sales and grab the items that are a dollar or less, when I can! This week I went to Target, Office Max, and Staples.

3.  Are you taking any professional development courses?  Our district will pay for us to take two courses a year.  I didn't realize this until summer was starting, so I thought I would sign up for a class.  I am taking an online Autism module which is very informative and super simple to read through at my own leisure.  However, I sort of forgot about it for a few weeks and I need to get moving on it!!  

4.  You've heard me say all summer that I have been really trying to exercise and eat right all summer long.  This park is right by my house and I have been running there each day.  It is really a beautiful place to run.  My goal is to keep running there once the school year starts! Keep your fingers crossed that I keep it up!!

 5.  So, I remember reading Sarah, Plain and Tall as a fourth grader and now that I am a third grade teacher and have a Pioneer Unit (Early Settlers), I thought I would create something to go along with this book!  One of my teammates read it aloud to her class last year and I plan to read it aloud this year or use it in a reading group if I have kiddos reading that level, at the time of the unit. I was hoping to have it ready for you today, but you may have to wait until Monday for it to be ready!  I really enjoyed reading it again, too!

Have a GREAT weekend!