Monday, May 27, 2013

Notice Anything? & Bloggy Giveaway Help Requested!


SO I woke up this morning to the most GORGEOUS blog makeover in the entire world!!! I am so, so, so, so, SO in love with the way this new design turned out. It's so much more ME.

My new button!

Megan, you did a FANTASTIC job. I am so impressed with how everything turned out. I love the colors, the design, the layout, EVERYTHING!!!

If y'all are in the market for a new bloggy design... make sure to message Megan at her design blog, A Bird in Hand Designs, by clicking the button below.

A Bird in Hand Blog Design

And if you're not following her teacher blog, I Teach. What's Your Super Power?, make sure you do that, too!

I Teach. What's Your Super Power?

Enough gloating... even though I still want to!

My ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY is coming up on June 6th!! I could not be more excited for this and would LOVE to have y'all help me celebrate.

This last year has had SO many ups and downs, but my bloggy friends have always been there for me, especially when it comes to talking me through teaching and product making and just life in general. I could not and would not be where I am without y'all and am SO excited to be at this stage in life!

If you are interested in helping, please click the link to fill out the form.


I intend to have this giveaway start on June 6th, so please have your submissions for giveaway materials submitted by June 3rd.

Again, I thank each and every one of you for all of your support this past year... here's to MANY many more! :)

Happy Memorial Day!

Friday, May 24, 2013

My Summer Bucket List Linky Party



I'm linking up with Hadar (Miss Kindergarten), Teri (A Cupcake for the Teacher), and April (A Modern Teacher) for their Summer Bucket List Linky Party!

Since we moved to a brand new state (Alabama) in late November, I've got quite a few things I want to do this summer since it is our first summer here! What a perfect time to go ahead and link up with the summer bucket list! So, here goes :)

1. Get a library card!
We have 4 libraries within 30 minutes of us and I kept saying I wasn't going to get a library card because it was too far away, but I drive that to do anything else so why not? Plus, there are 29834798 books I want to read so I'd love to go ahead and get a card :)

2. Go to New Orleans.
We only live about 2 1/2 hours from New Orleans, so I'd love to make a trip out there. I've heard nothing but great things about the culture, history, and of course, the fun, about it!

3. Go to the beach as often as possible.
Being that we now live in a Southern state, we only live 45 minutes from Dauphin Island and about an hour and a half from Orange Beach soo I would LOVE to go to the beach as often as possible! I'm a beach bum and always have been so why not use it before I lose it?!

4. Knock out some Pinterest pins.
I don't know how in the world I ended up with SOOOO many pins (bahaha, who am I kidding? Yes I do!)... but I want to go through and knock some out by completing them so I can clean up my boards a bit. Since I've got the time besides working on schoolwork this summer, I want to do as much as I can.

5. Organize my house.
We're still partially in boxes. This is because there's NO storage in this house. My plan to solve this? Buy some shelving to store everything! This should help, I hope. Otherwise, I'll come up with some other method to get us out of boxes and into a real organized fashion.

6. Last but not least, make some more products for my TPT and TN store.
Pre-K, Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth - TeachersPayTeachers.com 
I love what I do. I love making products for others to use in their classroom with their students to help them learn. Making products is what makes me happy, so I'd love to make as many as I can throughout the summer. That way, when I get into my classroom in the fall (FINGERS CROSSED!!), I'll have products I can use for my students, too!

What's on YOUR bucket list?
Click the picture at the top of the post to go link up with Hadar, Teri, & April, too!

Have a good day, y'all!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Teachers Notebook Helps Moore, OK


I don't know if you have heard, but Teachers Notebook decided to help Moore, OK by putting together a bundle of teacher-made products that people would get when they donate any amount from $20 to $100 to help benefit those in Moore, OK. I do not think they expected the overwhelming response they would get...

They received OVER $1,800 worth of teacher-made product donations from teachers, including myself.

SO, for a donation of $20, you will receive over $1,800 worth of product. For $25, you will receive this same $1,800 worth of product.

How amazing is that?

Click on the banner below to be taken to the donation site to make a donation.


Thus far, at the writing of this post, they have raised $23,175 for Moore, OK and I definitely expect them to raise so very much more! This amazing cause is one to support, as we all saw the devastation that this community faced in the aftermath of the horrific storm.

Head on over & make your donation and receive a FANTASTIC bundle of products in return!!

Have a good day, y'all.

Always keeping Moore, OK in my prayers & thoughts <3

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Do You Love Technology?


I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, but I kept forgetting to be honest!

I was reached out to by a woman named Allison in regards to technology. If you know me, you know I LOVE LOVE LOVE technology. I would do anything to be a classroom technology teacher... that's how much I love it!

Anyways, she reached out to me with an interesting info graphic. So, I wanted to go ahead and pass this along.

What do we Know Infographic
SOURCE: OnlineUniversities.com

While the infographic is a bit lengthy, it's full of GREAT information about how teachers truly enjoy technology.

Do you use technology in the classroom? If yes, how so? If not, why not?

Would LOVE to hear your thoughts!

Have a good day, y'all!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Andrea @ *Reading Toward the Stars!*


Hello, everyone!  It's Andrea from Reading Toward the Stars!


I am invading Sara's blog for the day to tell you all about the many uses of nursery rhymes!

As a reading specialist, I love using nursery rhymes with my students to help them with many different aspects of reading.  I especially use them with kindergarten since they already are familiar with many of them.  I actually spend an entire week with one nursery rhyme to work on many different aspects of literacy.  Here is a look into my week with one nursery rhyme or poem.

On Monday we spend some time reciting and "reading" the rhyme together.  I track the rhyme with them to model, and by mid-year, some of the students are ready to track the print on the first day.  At the beginning of the year, I put stickers underneath the words to help them with the one-to-one correspondence. Here is what that looks like.




As the week progresses, I take off a line of stickers at a time.  Eventually, the students do not need the stickers at all!  That is the ultimate goal!

We also spend part of a session reading the poem again and listening for rhyming words.  We locate the words and think of new words to rhyme with the various words in the poem.  Sometimes this is a struggle, so I will give them a list of words to choose the rhyming words.  For example, from the poem above, I would say "What rhymes with bear?"  Hopefully, they will say something like hair or chair, but if they don't I give them three choices:  dog, hair, ground.  Usually they give me a correct answer.  Then we play rhyming games and do other rhyming activities.

Their favorite activity is matching the words to the poems.  Each day we review a list of words for the poems through flash card or a typed list on paper.  By Wednesday, after reading and tracking the poems, I give the students word cards from the poem, and they match the word card to the word in the poem.  I mix it up a little and show them a word in the poem, and they have to find the word card.  This becomes a crazy game, but it is always fun!   The kids love to "beat the teacher."


By the middle of the year, we are ready to really hone in on the sight words in context.  In my list of words, I always include many sight words from the poem.  They love to find the sight words, many times not even using the word cards to find them.  This too becomes a game.  I give them the poem on paper and call out a sight word.  They use a crayon to circle the sight words in the poem.  I then incorporate a sight word book or activity to complete.  I love the sight word books from Hubbard's Cupboard because they are FREE and easy to make!

Kindergarteners LOVE highlighters too!
And who can forget letter identification and sounds.  Even at the end of the year, some students still struggle with them.  I give the students a letter or letter sound to search for, and they find a word with that particular letter or letter sound, focusing on the letters they know or are currently learning.  Then I have them think of another word that begins with that same letter or letter sound.  If they cannot think of a word that begins with the given letter, I offer them three choices, and they have to choose the correct word.  Many times I use my picture clues to help them think of the words and hear the sounds.

There are so many great nursery rhymes to use.  Books are abundant!  I use this wonderful website to get many of my nursery rhymes for my students, PreKinders.  There are some great free printables of nursery rhymes for the kids.  The print is large enough, and the pictures are crisp.  I love letting the kids color the pictures to send home in a book at the end of the year.  This way each kid has a book of rhymes that he or she CAN read.

Even older students can benefit from nursery rhymes.  Students can sequence the rhyme or compare and contrast two nursery rhymes.  They are also fun to use when teaching cause and effect:  Jack fell down {cause} and broke his crown {effect}.

Hopefully this has helped you find new uses for nursery rhymes.  What new ideas do you have for using them?

Thank you, Sara, for letting me invade your blog for a while!  It sure has been fun!  And thank you to all of her followers for reading my ramblings about nursery rhymes!

Thank you SOOO much, Andrea, for guest blogging here! I loved every minute of having you!

If y'all don't follow Andrea, you are missing out! Make sure you head on over and do so NOW - click the button below to head to her blog :) And below that are links to some social media that she participates in!

Facebook / Pinterest / TeachersPayTeachers

Have a good day, y'all!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

TPT SALE - Teaching Blog Roundup - FREEBIE!


Hey y'all!!

I've got two things to tell you!!

First up, if you haven't heard about the Teachers Pay Teacher's Teacher Appreciation Sale, you are going to be MISSING OUT!!

It started approximately 7 minutes ago... so if you haven't filled up your cart, get to it!

The sale will last 2 days - May 7th and 8th - and you will receive up to 28% off on MANY MANY products.

Button credit goes to one of my favs - Ashley Hughes @ The School Supply Addict

Loads of sellers are hosting 20% off in their specific stores, while TPT is giving an extra 10% off by using the code TAD13 at checkout.

NOW, don't be like me and forget to put in the promo code at checkout like I did last sale - you better believe I'm kickin' myself in the booty for that one!!

Anyways... I've loaded up my cart & I've added a couple of new products to my TPT store. Some of them are paid products while others are freebies... they're listed below!





{THIS IS THE BUNDLE - SAVE $1.00 BY PURCHASING THIS FILE VERSUS THE OTHER 3 ABOVE ALONE}


This last one is a freebie that's featured over at the NEW blog titled Teaching Blog Roundup. You can get it for FREE by heading over there now and checking out my post on non-standard measurement & literature that ties into this topic. Also check out the other posts while you're there... trust me - this is one blog you will WANT to follow along with!



LOAD UP at the Teachers Pay Teachers sale, y'all! Don't forget to check out my post over at TBR :)

Have a good day!

Friday, May 3, 2013

Happy Birthday to Me!

Happy Birthday to Me!

In a celebration of my birthday, I'm throwing a FLASH SALE in my TPT store this weekend only! Starting NOW until Sunday at midnight, everything in my store (that isn't already free) is 20% off! Click the link below to be taken to my store!

My TPT Store

HURRY HURRY!!

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