Super Summer Schedule - Recruiting For Feature Teacher Friday! :)

Hello all! I'm here to tell you about something I plan to do starting JUNE 3rd here on the ol' blog! Summer is my favorite time of the year - and the most relaxing, so I figured I'd get back into blogging regularly! Read below to get a glimpse at my schedule and feel free to join in by using the button below, too! :)

{frame by Ashley Hughes - fonts by Jen Jones}

Monday Made It = y'all remember last year when Tara from 4th Grade Frolics started the FANTASTIC linky for Monday Made It? It kicked my booty into gear to create some things and well, this year, I'm participating again!

Teacher Product Tuesday = on this day, I'm going to feature either one of my new products OR another teacher product that I adore OR some kind of physical product that I think is fantastic for teachers. I have SOOOO many files on my computer and SO much stuff in my spare room that I'd love to showcase for y'all - never know, maybe you'll find a new product you like for your classroom, too :)

Wild Card Wednesday = on Wednesday, I'm going to blog about whatever - this is a WILD CARD post. It could be about Tucker (y'all know you love that boy), about something happening in my personal life, an update on my teaching job situation, etc. Never know.

Technology Thursday = exactly what it says... technology! Y'all know (if you know me) that I adore technology. I think it has so many fantastic features, but it's the USING it that a lot of people have trouble with. So, I'm going to showcase a website, a technology tool, an app, or anything else technology on this day!

Feature Teacher Friday = out of all the things I'm doing throughout the summer, I think this day is going to be my FAVORITE. I want to showcase YOU. Why? I want to feature some of the most influential people in my life on my own blog - I want you to tell us all about you as a person. I also want to learn more about those who I follow since I cannot technically meet you all in person. SO, if you are interested, please fill out **THIS DOCUMENT HERE**. I would LOVE to have as many people as possible :)

*Saturday is a ME day - a day to do my schoolwork, layout, hang out, whatever!*

Summer Reading Sunday = I plan to read as many books as possible this summer. Yes, I'm in school so I have lots of schoolwork to do, but on the days when I have nothing, I want to read read read! So, I plan to showcase a new book each Sunday that I've read that past week. It could be a YA book, a children's book, or an adult reading book. I have SO many on my "To-Read" list on Goodreads that I want to blow through the list.

SO, what do ya say? Wanna give it a go? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this new schedule and what you think about it.

Have a good day, y'all!

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.

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

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.

Miss V's Busy Bees One Year Blogiversary Giveaway

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!

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.

{SOURCE}

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.

{SOURCE}

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.

 

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!

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

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.

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!

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!