Fall FREE packet!

I have teamed up with some fabulous fellow bloggers to create an *awesome* Fall packet for you!!


We've been working on the packet for a few weeks now so I am super excited to share it with you!

There are over 70 pages of fall themed Reading, Math, Science, and Social Studies activities for you to do with your kiddos!



The BEST part about the packet is that you can snag it for *FREE* for one week only!
All you have to do is follow each one of our blogs and fill out the little questionnaire below:
{click the link below}

 
**You are more than welcome to leave a comment, but you must fill out the questionnaire to receive the packet!** 

We will send your Fall packet out in a week.
This will only last for this week! September 30th-October 7th, so follow us fast! After this giveaway we will be placing the packet in our stores to sell!


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Ten frames!

Happy almost-Friday!

I had this great post all laid out in my head; took great pictures this week and was all ready to get them up tonight when I pulled out my camera and realized I have the wrong cord! poo! The cord that I *need* is lying in my cabinet at school... doesn't do me a whole lot of good there!

So, this is a short post but I'm getting ready for stations next week and I whipped up this little guy for Math tubs: is everyone else STILL working on 0-5?! I feel like we always beat. the. numbers. 0-5. into. the. ground. lol! We get to move on soon, but not yet! 

We've composed and decomposed a million different ways with different games (pictures! ugh!)so I feel like my little ones are ready for a good ol' cut and paste! 

Who doesn't love a little cut and paste?

Until you have a friend that goes at his shirt like he has a weed wacker.

Seriously, ya'll. 
It happened.

Needless to say... I've enlisted a few friends to help me out there!
They keep an "eye" out for me :)

So that we CAN do that good old fashioned cut and paste while Mrs. Alderson works with a small group.
sheesh!


{click on the picture to snag!}
Graphics from DJ Inkers 
and fonts by me {click on the link that says "fonts" above}

Hope you can use it!

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Decor!


Happy Sunday, friends!

I have a winner for my laminator giveaway!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
Monica M- I am sending you an email right now!
Thank you to everyone who entered and followed for the giveaway - look how close I am to 1,000! I can hardly believe it!
 
Did you guys notice the spiffy new page links up at the top of my blog? I'm hoping to continue adding fonts and I thought this would be an easy place to keep them. Check it out periodically- I've added a few new ones since the last time I posted!
 
I'm still working on lesson plans for this week (eek!) but I keep getting sidetracked by cleaning the house... I don't know which one is worse! While I was at it- I put up our Halloween decorations! I made that little witch wreath last year and had it on our door- but our door is black so it didn't show up as well as I would've liked. She found a new home on the mantle! Isn't she adorable?!
 This little wreath is my FAVE-orite seasonal decoration. I got the idea from {this blog}. I've been working on making one for every season and I am ALMOST DONE! I did Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas yesterday so I am good through December! Seriously, go read the post and look at her awesome wreaths. You won't regret it!
 
So all of that was totally non- school related, but I hope you saw something you liked! I'm off to finish my plans and figure out what I'm doing with Zero this week (20 days already?!?!)
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Fall! Fall! Fall!

Happy first day of fall, ya'll!
Ok, I don't really talk like that- but who can resist the rhyme?!
{raise your hand if it's your FAVORITE season?! me! me!} 
I'm on a mission today to switch out all the "American" decorations (from 4th of July and Labor Day) in my house and switch them for the pumpkins- weeeeee!

In honor of today I whipped up this little compound word pumpkin puzzle freebie:
{click on the cover to take you there!}

If you haven't seen it yet, check out my new Halloween Unit I just uploaded on TpT!
There are 14 different *fun* Halloween math and literacy stations included. (Aren't the DJ Inkers graphics AWESOME?!)
In honor of the fall season, this packet is on sale for $6 this weekend only! Snag it up before it goes back to $9!

If you haven't had the chance to enter my laminator giveaway, head there now! Today is the last day for your chance!

I'm linking up with Valerie from All Students Can Shine for her Fall Linky Party! Hop on over to check out some other fabulous fall blog posts!

I hope you have a fabulous fall weekend- it's going to be 90 degrees here today - not quite the *fall* weather I'm looking for, but a girl can wish, right?!
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Some new fonts!

I've been busy playing around all weekend on the ipad! :)

My hubby got me the ifont maker app on our ipad- I played with it a few days ago when he downloaded it but hadn't really created anything until yesterday! Boy is it fun to make your own fonts!

Here are a few for you to use if you'd like!
Click on the picture to take you to the download. Click on the pink download button on the left side of your screen. In your download window, double click the font to open it and then in the top left corner there will be a button that says "install." Click on that and it will go into your fonts! Easy peasy!





 I think "Rowdy Spunky" is my favorite so far, and "Rowdy Thin" is pretty much my regular handwriting. I hope you enjoy these! If you use them I would appreciate a link back to my blog, but it is not absolutely necessary!

If you haven't entered my laminator giveaway yet, be sure to! The giveaway ends Saturday!

Also, if you haven't heard yet, my sweet blogging buddy Alisha is raising money for her friend who is not even 30 years old with a 1 year old and just found out she has stage 3 cancer. She has pulled together products from many of your favorite bloggers (me included) to make a large bundle. If you donate $20 you will receive the bundle full of great teaching resources! All proceeds go directly to Tiffany for medical expenses. 
 
Click HERE to see Alisha's post and show some random love!
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You could win a laminator!

Happy Saturday friends!

I'm so excited to be offering a laminator giveaway for my fabulous followers!
The awesome folks at mybinding.com contacted me and asked if I would be willing to review and give away a laminator. Who can pass up that kind of a deal?! Plus, I have been drooling over everyone's posts who have access to their own laminator at home!!

I was so excited when I got the box in the mail! (Happy ending to a L-O-N-G week!)
This is the LA3 Papermonster- it laminates up to an 11x17" paper.

It comes with these cute stickers to customize your laminator:

I added the far right sticker to my laminator:

The size of the laminator is perfect! It is super lightweight and could easily be transported from your classroom to home and back!

The laminator pouches come in two sizes- 9x11 1/2" and 11 1/4x17 1/4". This meets pretty much all of your small scale laminating needs! Perfect for home use! This is the large pouch.

It is SUPER easy to use- you plug it in and turn it on, wait for the blue light to come on, and start feeding the pockets through!
{this is the pouch coming out of the back side}

The only teeeensy problem I had was one page got bunched up inside. I contacted the company and they said to use the protector page provided or to slide the pouch between two file folders or construction paper to prevent the rollers from grabbing hold of the plastic and sticking. Problem solved and no more sticking!
{this is the pouch protector provided in the pouches- worked like a charm!}

Look at everything I laminate from HOME in just a few short minutes!
{cards from my new Halloween unit! Go check it out!}

Now..the best part of the review! The giveaway!!
Complete the rafflecopter tasks for a chance to win your very own home laminator!


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Name games!

Happy Monday friends!!

Guess who found out we're getting another teacher today?!!?
THIS GAL!!
woot woot!
I mean, I really do love my 25 little munchkins...buuuut, this is going to make life a whole lot easier! 
*Hopefully* this time next week I will be down to 20!

This is the first time I've posted actual "school" stuff since we started back- it's just been a little nuts-o around here! So I'm glad to be back and sharing a few things with you that we've been working on!

As I posted last weekend, we are working *really* hard on learning each other's names, their beginning letters, and just getting to know one another!

Something I really like to do is make name sticks for all my kids! I have kids all over the spectrum, so it is very important to use their pictures with their names for quite some time. I forget every year how much they truly do grow over the year!

We play name games with these sticks: I either lay them out in the middle of our circle and they go choose a girl if they are a boy or vice versa and have to say the person's name and hand it to them. Everyone ends up with their sticks as the end and maybe they learned one more person's name!
As we play this, I change it up daily- they might have to ask the person their favorite color or favorite food, etc.
They *love* looking at these sticks!

After we have become familiar with each other, I add them into a center and we begin by sorting by beginning letter (I write it in red on the stick). As we go further, we may sort by syllables or certain letters in their names! The fun is endless! :)
{to make this I got some library pockets in two colors - one for vowels, the other for consonants, adhered them to a poster board and stuck on letters. These are punched out letters we have at our materials production, but I'm sure you could use letter stickers and that would be easier! Then I run the whole thing through the laminator and cut out the top of the pocket with an Exacto knife.}

If you are not a facebook fan yet, I have a little preview of the Halloween unit I'm almost finished with as a freebie for my fans only! Click on the "fans only freebie" tab on the top right of my page to snag it up!

What name games do you play in your classrooms?!

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Room reveal... FINALLY!

Ok... I have a confession to make!

I worked and worked on my room throughout the summer and especially right before we went back in August. I took so long before sharing pictures because...well, I wanted it to look awesome and completely finished before I showed it off! But... as you all know, there are so many things that you put up as the year goes on that really complete the room!!

I mean, my walls end up plastered with anchor charts and student's work and right now it just seems.. empty! I have whole bulletin boards not finished yet because I add to it as we go... you know the drill!

So.. I'm sharing with you guys now because I know you all understand! It's definitely comfy and welcoming, but it will be even more bright in another month! :D

Just to remind you...this is what it looked like at the end of July! (I moved into a bigger classroom with a sink and closet! Totally worth all the work!)

Now this is what you walk into. MUCH better!
{standing at the door, looking at front of room}
{turn to the left a little bit.... my writing center {will post full pictures when we start using it!} and word wall.
 {standing at the front, looking at the back}
 {A little bit closer look at the front board - schedule, Smart board, Calendar, PBIS posters, etc}
 A close up of the calendar corner... see, I add things as I introduce them...they end up covered in another month!
 Teacher table and my desk - reading group strategies from Deanna Jump!
My little reading corner - super comfy and cozy when it's full of kids reading to themselves!
 I promise I'll be back with more pictures of details in my room when we start using the all the different centers!

Linking up with these wonderful bloggers to show off my space!
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Folder woes - a Made it edition!

Happy Labor Day friends!

Let me start out this Made it with a story... 
As most of you know, I have 25 little darlings in my class this year. I have a folder problem! In the past, my kids have turned their folder in on top of their lockers. Each kid has a number and the first thing they do in the morning is get their folder out and place it on top of their locker, under their number. They are assigned a locker alphabetically. Anytime they had work to turn in, they just laid it directly on top of their folders. This way it was easy for me to just go by and pick them up in alphabetical order - great for marking things off my checklist! I *love* this system. And then I didn't have to buy those expensive mailboxes from Office Depot.
See that awesome shelf in the picture??
 So, here's the problem: with 25 kids, there is no way that all of their folders will line up on that shelf! I had 20 kids at the most last year and even then they are a little tight. So I had to figure out another solution.

The room I moved into had mailboxes in it that I inherited. Thank goodness! I was not about to go spend $50 on them! So, I labeled them, my kids now know where theirs is and we turn work in there.

BUT - I still need their folders every day! We color in their behavior charts daily so parents know how their child's day was. I am seriously missing my old system, it was so easy to just walk down the row and open their folder and place anything that needed to be inside it.

I'm still in mourning.

So I was on a mission this weekend to find a good sized tub for my kids to put their folders in. I picked through Target and came up with a few great options, but I kept coming back to those Sterilite drawers. 

This way I can just slide them into a corner and don't have to have them out on top of a table somewhere. Of course, I couldn't just have plain ol' white Sterilite drawers. Here's where my Made it comes in! (I know you were anxiously awaiting it!)
 I decorated with scrapbook paper following the directions that Maria from Kinder-craze gives. 
Her tutorial is great! Because my kids are going to be in these every day, I didn't add paper to the sides - I thought this would get torn up really easily with all the use. I just taped the paper in - I don't have it secured perfectly yet because I'm going to go back and laminate the paper so it is a little more durable!

Here is a close-up of the girl's drawer:
And here is one of the boy's drawer:
I used the top and bottom so that the drawers could be open at the same time to slide folders into. We'll see how it goes tomorrow!

If you would like the labels on the drawers (you could slap these on any kind of tub!) here they are! I had to change the "boy's" and "girl's" font because I do not have a license to share that particular alphabet (it's called "Chillin" from Lettering Delights if you are interested) but this one is just as cute!
Now go check out all the other fabulous Made its on Tara's blog!

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