Cyber SALE!

Saturday, November 30, 2013

I made my own button for the Cyber Sale! YAY! I always have hopes that I will get one made and then...life happens. The graphics for this button are from JWIllustrations - I LOVE her!
(Feel free to grab this button for your blog but please link back to my blog.) 
 I am totally prepared for this sale, my cart is stocked with new items and I can't wait until Monday! 

My Kinder and First Grade CORE math units will be on sale for 28% off!
You can click here to read more about how these units have helped teachers implement new CORE math standards. 

Or perhaps you need a little something to prepare for teaching 3D shapes?
3D Space Shapes - A 10 day Geometry Unit all about 3D Shapes

Maybe some practice with non-standard measurement? 
Meet the Measurements - Nonstandard Measurement Unit

OR...if you don't use my CORE math units and your students could use a little help with problem solving then check out these - Kinder and First Grade Math Journals! Each journal has over 170 pages of word problems for you K-1 students!
Kindergarten CORE Math Journal     First Grade CORE Math Journal
Can you tell I am a little bit of a math geek??? 

I am looking forward to purchasing some more clipart from MelonHeadz and Krista Wallden at Creative Clips for my next FREEBIE extravaganza coming soon!
Penguin bundle by melonheadzGina's winter bundle by melonheadzSnow Buddies {Creative Clips Digital Clipart}

AND... I LOVE me some Kathy Law and I can't wait to try her new Math and Literacy Picture Puzzles. I already have all her monthly Color by Codes and my kiddos love them!
December Math & Literacy Picture Puzzles
What are you looking forward to purchasing?

Crazy Weekend!

Sunday, November 17, 2013


Do you use any of these National Geographic KIDS books in your classroom? They are amazing! The pictures are fantastic- these books are full of facts and vocabulary and they are just the right reading level for a first/second grade class.

I am doing my best to try and incorporate more non-fiction text in our first grade class and one of the easiest ways to do this (for me) is during guided reading. Only problem, I don't have 6 copies of these to use with my kiddos BUT...that is where Donors Choose comes in!

Last week I wrote a Donors Choose project to get more non-fiction text for my guided reading groups. I requested 6 copies of 19 National Geographic books in various Science and Social Studies topics. I wrote to a parent in my class who's family owns the Earnhardt Car Dealership in our sunny state of Arizona and they were thrilled to help fund my project. I was so amazed by this family, they also were willing to make a donation to our entire school library! 

I had the opportunity on Saturday to meet Mr. Tex Earnhardt and I was so thrilled. I grew up in Arizona and I have watched his commercials on TV since I was very little and I honestly felt as if I was meeting a celebrity! The Earnhardt family invited myself and our school librarian out to the Grand Opening of their new Dodge Dealership where we got to talk on the radio and thank the Earnhardt family for the donation to our school. AMAZING! 
Note: When I say "we" talked on the radio what I really mean is Laura our Librarian talked on the radio. Things like that give my hives and I just CAN'T do it, I would sound like a rambling mess but she was awesome! Laura our Librarian just began her TpT career stop by her store and show her some LOVE because I adore her, and you will too when you see her cute stuff. 

If you have never tried a Donors Choose project, I really encourage you to. It is amazing how willing families are to help out teachers they love. I am beyond thrilled that my project received funding and so excited to get those readers in the hands of my students! THANK YOU Earnhdart family! 
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Tomorrow we are starting our -Story of the Pilgrims Thanksgiving Books tomorrow. This book is the #1 Top Seller in my TpT store!
We make this book every year to go along with our study. This book takes us about a week to complete and my kids learn so much when we are finished.

This 24 page packet includes:
- front cover for student book (pictured above)
- direction page with pictures and activity suggestions
- mayflower art page with black lines for ALL shapes and labels for the parts of the boat
- mayflower facts writing page
- Mayflower suitcase black line with suitcase label
- Mayflower suitcase writing page
- Black lines to create pilgrim boy and girl
- Life as a Pilgrim sorting activity
- Black lines to create Squanto. Labels to describe his important role helping the pilgrims
- Letter to Squanto page
- Black lines to create Thanksgiving Turkey
- Venn Diagram to compare current Thanksgiving traditions to those of the past.
Here are a few of my favorite books that help us with our study of Pilgrims and Native Americans. My favorite of all is If You Sailed on The Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern!

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On a totally unrelated and personal note....
My baby turned one today! AHHHH! Such mixed emotions as a mom because it is thrilling to watch her learn and grow each day but sad because she is my baby. We had a low-key birthday at the park with my family. She LOVED the cake and dug right in. I am so grateful for my beautiful girls.  

Owl Pellet Fun!

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Wow! The finale of our Owl Unit was owl pellet dissection. What an amazing time we had with our owl pellets this morning! Here are a few pictures. 
This is a picture of the kit that I had ready for each group. Each kit contained: tweezers, dissection sticks, gloves, ruler, one pellet, Dissection Form, magnifying glass and diagrams of various animals so students could identify which animal their owl ate.
 Here you can see me little investigators comparing their bones to the diagram.
 I had several mom helpers so there were only 3-4 kids/group.
We had the most amazing time, the kids LOVED it and really saw themselves as little scientists. The pellets were great, most kids had at least 2 skulls in each pellet! I highly recommend obdk.com (and I am not a paid sponsor, I promise).

As promised last week, I have combined all the activities from the 7-day Giveaway Event into one packet and just posted in to TpT. Click here to check it out! It is 50 pages of Owl fun! Whew! 



Activities Included:
-Anticipation Guide for “Owls” by Gail Gibbons
-Owl Vocabulary Book, Game Cards, Word Search and ABC Order 
-10 Page Math Journal
-Pellet Dissection Information and Recording Sheet
-2 Thinking Maps and Writing Pages
-Fact and Opinion Sorting Activity and Anchor Charts
-Guess Whooo??? Owl Craftivity


Stay tuned because in the month of December we will do it all again. I am still undecided on the theme of the next Giveaway Event but check back, I will let you know. 


Whooo Loves A Freebie - Day 7

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Thank you for coming back for the last owl freebie! I have had a great time creating and sharing this unit with you! I am looking forward to December so we can do it all again! I was thinking...snowmen or maybe penguins or possibly polar bears...hmmmm. At any rate, be sure you follow my blog and TpT store so you will be notified of the next FREEBIE Extravaganza! 
Owl Brand Discovery Kits - Buy Owl Pellets
I mentioned on Day 1 that I ordered owl pellets from obdk.com. I bought one pellet for every three kids and asked parents to come in to help with the pellet dissection. OBDK has very affordable owl pellets, an instructional video for kids to watch before beginning dissection and these awesome FREE diagrams to download. 
I printed the 5 diagrams for each group and the students are going to use the Owl Pellet Dissection Form to: Measure, Predict, Investigate and Share the details of their experiment. (I am also going to provide students with gloves, ruler, magnifying glass, tweezers and craft sticks.) You can grab this dissection form for FREE for the next 24 hours only. Tomorrow all of my owl items will be combined and uploaded to TpT. 
THANK YOU so much for being part of the fun this week. I hope you have gained some valuable tools for your classroom. I will post some pictures on Tuesday night of our dissection fun. Until then, enjoy the rest of your long weekend :) 

Whooo Loves a Freebie - Day 6

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Hey All! Happy Saturday!
I am a little later posting my freebie today because this morning we had family pictures. I AM EXHAUSTED! I know they are going to turn out great and we had fun but my goodness now I know why we don't have tons of family pictures, it is a lot of work! As soon as I get our pictures back, I will share :)
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Thank you for coming back for another FREEBIE Owl item! Over the last week we have read more than enough books to be owl experts and I think we are ready to begin writing. I am going to challenge my students to use some of those vocabulary words that we have learned throughout the unit in their writing.

Today I have a Tree Map/Bubble Map/Writing Line Freebie for ya! Before we ever begin writing we spend so much time brainstorming our thinking and I couldn't decide if I wanted to use a tree map or bubble map with this unit so...I made both! At the beginning of the year I use lots of tree maps with my firsties because they can use this tool to translate their writing so easily. I loved using tree maps with my kinders!


 You can get these Writing Pages for FREE for the next 24 hours only! Tomorrow I will put all the items from this week into a packet on TpT. Hope you are having a relaxing and wonderful weekend!

We used out bubble maps to brainstorm facts about owls then used the writing paper to combine all our facts for some non-fiction writing fun! We also used this fun owl writing craftivity to play a little "Guess Whooooo???? Game


Get all these activities in my All About Owls packet on TpT! 

Whooo LOVES a Freebie - Day 5

Friday, November 8, 2013

Welcome Back Everyone! YAY it is Friday! THREE DAY WEEKEND!! I am so excited to have an extra day to spend with my little girls!

Thank you for coming back for another FREEBIE Owl item! Today I am very excited to share with you a product for my favorite subject - MATH! Honestly, I love everything math, it is my favorite part of the day. I have spent so much time creating math resources and I feel so comfortable with the CORE math standards.

We begin our math lesson everyday with our Math Journals, where we work on problem solving. We will read the problem together, work the problem out with manipulatives if needed. Discuss our thinking, try a few more examples then get to work with paper and pencil.

I have created an Owl Math Journal to go with this unit and would love to share it with you all. I have 16 other math journals that are in my CORE math units for kinder and first grade but I also just posted them as a separate item. For TODAY ONLY these packets will be 20% off! 

Click here to see my First Grade Math Journal Packet (162 pages)

Click here to see my Kindergarten Math Journal Packet (176 pages)

 You can get this Math Journal for FREE for the next 24 hours only! At the end of the week, I will put all the items in a packet on TpT. Happy Friday everyone! 

Only 2 more days of freebies left!

SEE YOU TOMORROW! 

Whooo Loves A Freebie - Day 4!

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Hello All! Hope you are back for another FREEBIE Owl item! As promised I will not post another Vocab activity. Today I thought we would switch things up and work on a little Fact and Opinion sorting.

Today's freebie includes 2 anchor charts for students to use as reference and a fact and opinion sorting page for your kids. Students will cut out the statements and glue them on the T-Chart to show if each sentence is a fact or opinion.  Click here to get this freebie! :)
More freebies coming tomorrow - so I will see you then!

 You can get this activities for FREE for the next 24 hours only! At the end of the week, I will put all the items in a packet on TpT. Happy Thursday everyone! 

SEE YOU TOMORROW! 

Whoooo Loves A FREEBIE? - Day 3

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Hello All! Hope you are back for another FREEBIE Owl item! We had so much fun yesterday creating our Owl Vocab Books! The kids were so proud of them and they turned out adorable! I know you are probably SICK of owl vocab but I have just a few more vocab activities to add to your freebies this week!

Today's freebie is Vocab Cards and Printables. Simply cut out the cards and use them to play "Find Your Partner" whole-group OR use them as a memory game (perfect for centers). I have also included a Vocab Word Search and ABC Order activity.
I promise no more vocab activities, tomorrow we will switch it up...I was thinking you may need some Thinking Maps or an Owl Word Problem Packet maybe a Fact and Opinion Sort or some Writing Templates - just to name a few of the freebies coming soon! SO STAY TUNED!

By the way, I do take requests so if there is something specific you are looking for to complete your owl unit, let me know by leaving me a comment! :)

 You can get this activities for FREE for the next 24 hours only! At the end of the week, I will put all the items in a packet on TpT. Happy Wednesday everyone! 

SEE YOU TOMORROW! 

Whoooo Loves A Freebie - Day 2

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Hello All! Hope you are back for another FREEBIE Owl item! During my PD time this weekend about exemplar text we spent time yesterday learning about Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary words and the importance of direct and explicit vocab instruction - another reason I LOVE Gail Gibbons books. I found this article that shares the importance of academic vocab and I thought I would share because these few sentences speak volumes to me about the importance of teaching vocab.

The Common Core State Standards place an importance on academic vocabulary. In addition to developing an advanced vocabulary, the CCSS calls for increasing the amount of nonfiction and informational text in classrooms. We know that vocabulary knowledge influences fluency, comprehension, and student achievement. And, vocabulary plays an even more important role in understanding nonfiction and informational text. It has been estimated that 80% of comprehension in nonfiction is dependent upon understanding the vocabulary.

To work with some of the Tier 3 vocabulary in Gibbons book Owls I created a fun book/craftivity. Students can use this to focus on some of the vocab words such as: talons, raptor, nocturnal, pellet, clutch, endangered, owlets, etc.... Students can write each vocab word, draw a picture and write the meaning of each word on the pages provided. Students will then be able to use this book as reference throughout the unit.
 You can get this activitie for FREE for the next 24 hours only! At the end of the week, I will put all the items in a packet on TpT. (If you become a follower of my TpT store you will be notified each day as I post the freebie.) Happy Tuesday everyone! 

SEE YOU TOMORROW! 

WHOOOO Loves A Freebie? - Day 1

Monday, November 4, 2013

Happy Monday everyone! Whoooo LOVES a FREEBIE?!

In November I have two major units of study that I like to complete with my students: Owls and Pilgrims. Before we get to our "Story of the Pilgrims" Unit I want to spend a little time learning about owls. This weekend I had the pleasure of sitting in a full day professional development class in which we learned about choosing exemplar text. (I hope you sense the sarcasm about PD on a Saturday, I was NOT happy) But, trying to make the best of a crummy situation, I am going to try to apply what I learned yesterday to my classroom. When I think of exemplar text, the author that sticks out most in my mind is Gail Gibbons. Her books have great visuals they are full of factual information and great for guided read-aloud lessons. 

 I decided to start our Owl unit tomorrow with a Anticipation Guide for the book Owls by Gail Gibbons.

I love using Anticipation Guides because the my kiddos become so much more involved in the text trying to listen to hear the answers to determine if their thinking before reading was correct or not. Anticipation Guides are great at activating prior knowledge and building curiosity about new units of study. Maybe it is just my class, but my kids can sometimes get slightly competitive with the amount of answers that they got correct.
  
Because I am so happy it is fall, and because I am loving this new unit I think we should have a little freebie fun! For the next 7 days I will upload one new item/day from our Owl study for FREE - but I will only post it for free for 24 hours. You must stop by daily to grab your free item. At the end of the week, I will put all the items in a packet on TpT. HINT: become a follower of my TpT store you will be notified each day as I post the freebie.

SEE YOU TOMORROW! 

One last note...the finale of this owl unit in my classroom will be to dissect owl pellets at the beginning of next week. I ordered owl pellets from www.obdk.com. I ordered one pellet/three kids and have scheduled several parents to come and help. The pellets were very affordable and arrived very quickly! 
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