Happy Easter Everyone!

Here is 5 random things for this week (Thanks Doodle Bugs for Hosting)

1. AWWWW...Look at this bunny! I am sorry, I swear can't help it, my five month old daughter makes the cutest bunny ever and I had to share! Oh the things we do to our children! I would have my older daughter in the picture too but she is in school today and I am off. My kinder daughter goes to school in a different district that is closer to our home and our days off don't always align :(

2. It is CRAZY but the end of the year will be here before we know it! (I am doing my happy dance) Each year I make these books and use them as my end of the year gift for the students in my class. By the time May comes, I have NO MORE MONEY to spend on my classroom so this is an affordable but incredibly meaningful gift!
The theme of my classroom is bees so the title of the book I make for them is "I Loved BEEing with you in First Grade!" We pick one student each day and everyone in the class writes two sentences about why they liked being in first grade with them.

 The kids do an AMAZING job writing these books and it is the most precious keepsake ever! (I still have the one that was made for me in second grade!) I write the last page in the book and students get really excited to read what special secret message I wrote just for them :)

I have created a BEE theme, Circus theme and Owl themed book but if you would like a different theme book for your class just let me know and I would be happy to create one for you! I just posted these on TpT for only $3 and each packet comes with a title page for Kinder, First and Second Grade and two different writing pages. Click on the pics below to link to the book!

 3. In honor of the holiday weekend I am going to put 5 of my favorite items from my store on sale. You will have to hunt to find them! Click on the pic above to link to my store!

4. Cathy from First Grade A La Carte is having a birthday giveaway week! She will be giving away my Ice Cream Unit soon so stop by and show her some love!

5. My newest discovery! Are you kiddin' me?

I am off to go spend some time with my new best friend! So sad....the poor little bunny never live to see Easter! HA! 

Have a wonderful weekend friends!

Five for Friday Linky!

 1. It's my BIRTHDAY! Truth be told...I am NOT happy about this getting older business but, I am having a TpT sale to celebrate. This weekend everything in my store will be 20% off! Click on the image above to link to my store. 

2. The clipart above is so super cute right?! My new favorite clipart store is Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah Designs, I LOVE her clipart! 

I just purchased her Base Ten Clipart package last week and created a Base Ten Around the Room activity. Simply cut out the 8 cards and post them around the classroom. 

Students use the recording sheet to show the number by:

 1. coloring their base the blocks to match 

2. writing the numeral 

3. writing the expanded notation

 My kids had a blast with this activity! This activity is part of my newly-revised

 UNIT 4 FIRST GRADE CORE MATH but I also posted it as a FREEBIE in my TPT store, click here to grab it!

3. Last week I posted a pic of my new chevron maxi skirt that I am completely obsessed with and so many people commented and emailed me asking where I got it. My daughter's kinder teacher introduced my to a new boutique in Gilbert, AZ called Junky Trunk and they have some of the cutest clothes EVER! This is what I bought this week! 

The best thing about this store is the owner,  (that is her modeling in this pic) does phone orders and ships anywhere the worst thing about this store is that she posts pics via facebook ALL DAY and being the shopping addicted person that I am, I go crazy! 

Follow her on facebook by clicking here!

Don't say I didn't warn you when you become addicted to her boutique! 

4. I am still working on revising my First Grade CORE Math packets, I have finished Units 5 - 8 and will have the revisions uploaded to TpT this weekend! 

Exciting News...I have had so many request and I have decided that 

 I am going to begin creating CORE math units for 

SECOND GRADE!

(as soon as I finish revising my first grade units)

 

5. Next week we are going to start working on our Animal Research Reports. I will be sure to take some pics so I can share with you! 

Have a wonderful week everyone! Thanks Doodle Bugs for hosting this linky!

Five For Friday

I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Five for Friday Linky Party. Here are 5 random things from my week.

1. IT'S SPRING BREAK! 

 Ha! Just kidding! That has so NOT been my week but Ahhhhh remember those carefree college days??

 Sorry...snapping back to reality.

I have had a wonderful time this week being home with my little girls! In Arizona its has been in the high 90's all week so we have been outside enjoying the weather before it gets too HOT!

2. I bought new glasses yesterday. I am still trying to decide if I like them. You see, I am very blind and I HATE wearing glasses but since I have no choice, I figure I might as well make it fun and wear some funky frames. My five year old daughter took this picture, excuse my messy closet in the background!  

3. I have been working very hard this week during my daughters nap time and at bedtime to revise my First Grade CORE Math Units! I have totally revised the first quarter units (units 1-4) and I think they are SO much better! 

My First Grade CORE units were the first items I created for TpT over two years ago and I have learned so much more about the CORE curriculum and technology since then. I am now working on revising the second quarter units (5-8) and should have those posted in the next week or so. If you are already using these units in your class just re-download them if you are looking for complete CORE curriculum with daily lesson plans, math journals, practice pages and assessment you should check them out! Just read the feedback from other teachers and you will see how valuable these units could be in your classroom!

 4. I bought a new skirt last week and I am totally obsessed with it!

   5. Let's see if I can make this last thing school related...How about a FREEBIE? I just made these greater than, less than and equal to posters for Kindergarten CORE Math Unit 14 that I posted late last night. Click here to download the posters for FREE! (If you download the freebie, I would LOVE it if you would take the time to leave feedback).

Happy Friday everyone!

HEY AZ Bloggers

Fifth in the Middle has a linky page for all AZ teacher bloggers to link up! What a great way to get to know and support other Arizona bloggers! Take a minute to link your blog so we can get to know you!

Ice Cream CRAZINESS!

My maternity leave came to an end and I went back to work this week :( It was really hard to leave my sweet little baby, there were several days this week of driving away from the babysitters house in tears. 

I had heard from my teammates that my class may need a little "help" with their behavior when I return so I pulled out my ice cream unit early. I usually use this unit at the very end of the year to keep those little kiddos behavior on track until the end of the year. But desperate times call for desperate measures! So here is a look at our ICE CREAM week!

To begin our week, the kiddos were given a Ice Cream Behavior Challenge page. In order to participate in our Ice Cream party at the end of the week students had to earn green and blue lights for the week. We used the writing lines on the right to review our classroom behavior expectations and explain the rules of the Ice Cream Behavior Challenge so parents could read all about it. 

When the kiddos came in on Monday there was a envelope taped to the whiteboard. It was addressed to Mrs. Neal's First Grade Class from Cold Cow Creamery.  The kids were given a planning sheet to brainstorm the ideas for their new ice cream flavor then they began writing. I love this time of year because their writing is amazing and you can totally see their personality coming out in the writing. I loved the use of the word "epic" in the picture below.

 

We did a guided art drawing of an ice cream cone and students painted their ice cream to display next to their new ice cream flavor.

 We LOVE Mo Willems so we also used an Elephant and Piggie book called "Should I Share My Ice Cream?" to complete a persuasive writing piece.

 

We also reviewed and learned about Fact and Opinion, ABC Order, Adjectives, Building Words, Fractions, Measurement, Fact Families, Addition, Subtraction, Graphing and Solving Word Problems. 

WHEW! What a CRAZY fun week! 

The kids had a blast and they were super motivated to behave and earn their ice cream party that I had a wonderful week too!

I put all of these activities into a packet for you, check it out here!  It is 74 pages of fun!

 

I LOVE First Graders!

As many of you already know, I am on maternity leave but only have ONE WEEK LEFT!!! AAHHHH! I am SO sad to be leaving my baby to go back to work, but I feel so fortunate to have had this time to be home with her. 

I am slowly trying to prepare to go back to work so I have been doing something small each day to get ready to go back. Yesterday I decided to log on to my school email and start cleaning out my inbox. (My sub check the emails but does not delete anything so when I come back I can catch up) There were TONS of emails and as I was quickly reading and deleting, I came across this:

Really?! I swear I laughed for about 20 minutes. (I absolutely LOVE this little girl, she is so mature, smart and just amazing.) I have never received an email from a current student and I love the subject line :) It is little things like this that remind me of how much I love this age group. 

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is my last Showin' Some Love Freebie! Thanks for stopping by my blog, leaving comments and feedback over the last 14 days! I love being part of the blogging and TpT community and I love hearing from everyone out there! 

Today I have TWO freebies for you! I created both of these and couldn't decide which to offer as a free item so I just decided to give you both! One is a Roll and Color game, my kids LOVE these games and they make a perfect math station so I thought I would share it with you and the other freebie is a True or False math sentence sort. 

I hope you have a wonderful day celebrating with your loved ones and a huge THANK YOU to all my wonderful friends who left feedback on the items they downloaded for free. I so appreciate you taking the time to do that. I read every comment posted and the positive feedback inspires me to continue creating and sharing with you. 

 For those of you who missed the 14 days of freebies, you are in luck because I just bundled all of the activities and posted in on TpT. This MEGA Pack has over 100 pages of February activities/printables and games to address the CORE standards with your K-1 kids. 

You can purchase each item separately for $2 but the MEGA Pack with all 15 packets is posted for only $12! Check it out here!

   

Happy Valentine's Day!

Build A Word - Valentine Style

Hey Everyone! Here is the FREEBIE of the day! It is a fun word building activity that also incorporates math, YEAH! With this activity students use the letters in Valentine to build words. Each letter has a number value so students then use the values to write a number sentence. You could make this a class contest, the student who comes up with the highest value word wins! I also included a Valentine Word Search because you just know you are going to have that one kid who finishes building their words in 5 seconds flat, so run these pages back to back and keep them busy.

 For those of you who missed the 14 days of freebies, you are in luck because I just bundled all of the activities and posted in on TpT. This MEGA Pack has over 100 pages of February activities/printables and games to address the CORE standards with your K-1 kids. 

You can purchase each item separately for $2 but the MEGA Pack with all 15 packets is posted for only $12! Check it out here!

SEE YOU TOMORROW!

Today's FREEBIE!

Happy Tuesday everyone! Here is today's Showin' Some Love Freebie - Heart Toss. Today's freebie is short but sweet. Your kids will love this activity!
 
Students cut out the heart at the bottom, fold it in half then glue the middle to create a heart "coin"! Now students will toss the heart into the air and graph what it lands on - polka dots or stripes. After students are finished graphing they can tally their data and use the lines to write about their data.

See you tomorrow!

Meet the Measurements!

Introducing - Mr. and Mrs. Measurement! 

It is finally finished! I am so excited to share this new product with you! I just finished my nonstandard measurement unit for K-1! If is a huge packet with tons of activities for your students to work with measurement. 

I have created Standard/Nonstandard Posters with Mr. and Mrs. Measurement, a tool lesson and printable for students to sort standard/nonstandard tools, Measurement Vocabulary Posters for height, weight, and length and a vocabulary printable page for students to use, several activities that would be PERFECT for math stations, measure the room activities, comparing weight printables, a Mr. and Mrs. Measurement Craftivity and much, much more!  I have spent so much time on this unit that I am now seeing Mr. and Mrs. Measurement IN MY SLEEP! AHHH!

 If you are currently using my Kindergarten CORE Math Units all of these activities will be part of Units 12-16. If you are a kinder teacher who is not using my CORE units, WHY ARE YOU NOT!? 

Here is a comment that was posted on TpT just this weekend from a teacher who just tried my kinder math units:

"Absolutely love this, my school has no curriculum and I have an hour and 15 minutes a week for a break. This is a life saver. I just found it so I will be starting it in the middle of the year. No more staying up until 3am. And no more 10hrs of weekend time at school. Thanks:)"

I totally understand the frustration and stress that comes along with being expected to implement new CORE standards with little to no curriculum support! That is why I have been creating math units for K-1 and the feedback has been AMAZING! If you are still unsure, click here to take a look at the comments teachers have been making!

In Search of LOVE

It's Monday, three more days of FREEBIES! Today's free activity is an Around the Room activity. I bundled four Around the Room math activities, 2 addition and 2 subtraction. There is two different levels of each so this would be perfect for K-2. 

Enjoy the freebie! Have a wonderful Monday everyone! 

Busy Day....BUT I Didn't Forget the Freebie!

Happy Sunday everyone! We have been so super busy today, but I would never forget to get the FREEBIE posted! Today is a little something with ten frame. Before you say "My kids are WAY past ten frame!" take a look at the resource. It has a double ten frame math mat and ideas on using ten frame for addition. I have also provided two practice pages that would be perfect for a math station! ENJOY! 

In totally unrelated news, my five year old daughter lost her first tooth yesterday! Let me tell you, I can handle all the blood, vomit, boogers etc... all that fun stuff that comes with young children HOWEVER for some reason teeth freak me out! I hate when the kids come up with a tooth just dangling or even worse show me their little tooth that just fell out still covered in blood, I swear my stomach just does FLIPS, it is horrible. So when we went to the dentist and they said she would be loosing a few teeth very soon I was not excited. 

So yesterday I suggested instead of sitting there with her fingers in her mouth wiggling it maybe she should try eating an apple. Well it fell out...and she swallowed it! She was traumatized! (I know what your thinking, good job mom!) She was so worried that the tooth fairy was not going to give her money so we had to write a letter to the fairy and explain ourselves. I also printed her my free tooth fairy craftivity and she made her own little tooth fairy that she fell asleep with.

Everything turned out OK because the fairy left her a note and she was so excited this morning as she came running into my room at 5:00 AM! The fairy only gave her $2 and I am little worried that she may find that other kids at her school get paid much more for their teeth. The tooth fairy must have won the lottery since I was a kids because when I was little we got 50 cents and that was only if you were able to find all the nickels and dimes LOL! Now my students come to school and tell me how they get $5 - $10! WHAT?!

How much does your tooth fairy pay?

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful evening, see you tomorrow :) 

Valentine Corn

What??!!! Valentine Candy Corn?! 

We had Bunko last night and I was introduced to my new favorite Valentine Candy...

  DELICIOUS!

If you have not tried Valentine Corn you are seriously missing out, it is amazing! (You can get it at WalMart.) My FREEBIE for today is in honor of my new discovery and I call it - Candy Corn LOVE! This packet would make a great math station with 40 fact family cards and 2 recording sheets. Students pick a card, record the numbers on their recording sheet and write the four facts for each family.

Hurry and get this FREEBIE because it is only free today! Don't forget to stop by tomorrow. Only 5 more days of FREEBIES!

Five For Friday

Hey All! IT'S FRIDAY!!! I wanted to link up with Doodle Bugs Five for Friday Linky Party with 5 random moments from the week. 

1. I hope you have been visiting my blog this week and been picking up your FREEBIES! I have been Showin' Some LOVE to my followers and posting new free items everyday, but it's only posted as a FREEBIE for 24 hours. Here are a few of the fun products I have posted this week.

 

2. Here is today's FREEBIE! It's A Number Line, Valentine!  

 

3. I LOVE being on maternity leave BUT I could desperately use some adult conversation so thank goodness it is....

Yep! I am so excited to see my lovely BUNKO ladies! (Do I sound like I am 80 years old getting SO excited to play Bunko? Seriously, its so much fun when you have an awesome group of ladies to play.)

4. I just finished reading The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, AMAZING but if you pick up this book be prepared to shed some tears, it's one of those. Now I am reading something a little lighter, The Skinny Rules by Bob Harper. I love Bob, The Biggest Loser is one of my favorite late night shows, it is so incredibly inspiring! 

5. I am working on my new Nonstandard Measurement Unit and I should be done and posted on TpT this weekend! It has TONS of activities, your students will be nonstandard measurement experts!

Have an awesome weekend! Stop by tomorrow for another FREEBIE!