Happy Bloggy Birthday Bash!!!!!! *I "Smell" a GIVEAWAY!*

This is crazy on so many levels.  I missed my bloggy birthday...crazy.  I've been blogging for an entire year....crazy.  In that year I've gained almost 1,000 followers...crazy.  I've made some really great friends on this journey....crazy-cool!

Some very special blogettes are helping me celebrate...

Is offering any one item from her store! Click {HERE} to see the cool stuff there!

 

Jen is offering her inclusive Progress Monitoring Assessments for Foundational Literacy pack.
Read more about it {HERE} 

 

 

 

Three customized activities the winner can choose the skill and theme - how cool is that!?!?
Click her button to visit her blog!

Is giving a cute ghostly math activity pack!

 

Click the picture to visit her store!

 


Is giving the most darling spider week pack!

Click the picture to visit her store!

Is giving away her totally awesome reading comprehension flippy books!

 



Click the picture to visit her store!

Is giving away this way cute homphone pack!

 

Click the preview to visit her store!

And I'm offering...  

PLUS...  

Win THREE holiday Scentos markers!

   

I was contacted by Scentos to try out their new holiday markers - If you remember I'm a HUGE fan of these markers {and so are my students!!!!!!}.  Click {here} to pick up my "Spell It, Smell It" freebie.  These new markers are absolutely adorable!  See for yourself...

 

Do you see Frankenstein!!?!  CUTE or WHAT!?!?

Dry erase marker - my only wish?  That it looked more different from the other smelly markers so I wouldn't accidentally use a smelly one on my dry erase board.  STILL cute though!!!!!!! And smells deeeeeelish! We use tissues for "erasers"...work wonders!

Smelly glitter glue!  So thick and easy to work with!

It's still wet but doesn't "run"...very cool!

And smelly highlighters!!!!

You can find the holiday Scentos at Walmart and the dry erase markers and highlighters will be available at Michael's and Walmart in early 2013!  Click {here} to visit the new Scentos website.

 

 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway



Good luck!!!!!!!!

Boo!

Click the picture to go visit Cynthia's blog over at 2nd Grade Pad - she's the gal who started the fun!!!!

My separated-at-birth-blog-buddy, Kimberly at Funky First Grade Fun, boo'd me! 

 

 

 

Kimberly and I met at our Michigan blog meet-up  - both of our husbands are teachers and she might just be the only other person I've met who appreciates all things Amish!!! Thanks for thinking of me - and this BOO is much easier on the 'ol ticker than the one I received last night from some neighbors. 

 

I'm having just as hard a time with choosing who to boo as I do with who to ding-dong-ditch...I'm not sitting here with the same uncontrollable giggles and heart palpitations though...

 

 

 

 

 

Susan is a TOP teacher in my book!  You should go check out her blog to read about narrative writing! She's also a real sweet gal who I know you'll love to visit!!!!

 

 If you need a good laugh you've got to head over to Miss Squirrel's blog.  Not only will she keep you smilin', she's also crafty and clever to boot.  She's one of my BBF {Best Bloggy Friends} who will probably kill me for boo'ing her...HA!

 

Cheryl has a heart of gold and has been there for me since I started this blogging adventure.  She's super supportive and FULL of great ideas.  Go check out her blog and enter her Skippyjon Jones giveaway!

 

 

Now, I have to decide who I'm going to ding-dong-ditch...it's fun and all that, but let's just say I almost always "out" us with my giggles & screams.  Skulking around people's houses in the dark just isn't a strong suit of mine...

October Currently - {Better late than never...}& A Freebie!!!!!

October - love it!  Coffee, fires, candles & football games...sweatshirts and jeans make me happy too.

Ahhhhhh....October and its colors.  Michigan's landscape is so gorgeous right now.  I can't drive anywhere without noticing its beauty and feeling so blessed to be surrounded by it. 

This is what I see when I look out my window....ahhhh

Farley is celebrating October over at her blog with her Currently October.  Head on over to see what your favorite bloggers are up to!

Here's what's going on in my neck of the woods....

We have these chipmunks that come right up to our door, sit on the lawn furniture and just torment my doggy girl.  She goes from doorwall to doorwall from our family room to our kitchen just in a twit and a tither....just when she decides to call it quits, take a little rest on the couch she hears their chattering and just HAS to play their game. 

Who doesn't love fall decorations?  For some reason, I can't light a candle in the heat of the summer, but once the cooler weather approaches I have them burning every single day...along with a fire in the fireplace...I'm in Fall heaven!!!

Newsletter....yup, I got nothin' to say about that except...UGH.

I've been totally addicted to watching Brothers and Sisters under my blankets with my iPad these days on Netflix.  I'm still on the first season so I've got a ways to go.  I can't even stand thinking about it right now...I just want to close up the computer and get back to watching the next episode!!!!!

Isn't folding and putting away laundry for the birds?  My husband thinks he's helping me when he "does laundry".  Mind you, he only puts load after load into the washer...and then piles the clean stuff in baskets for me to fold and put away.  {I can't complain too much - he does all the cooking and grocery shopping....hey, stop throwing things at me...I know, I know - I'm really lucky that way!!!!!!} I didn't stay on top of the laundry last week so now I have MOUNTAINS to contend with today. 

I have SOOOOOO many Halloween favorites when it comes to books.....

Gotta love the groove and the beat of this one!!!!

And the rhyming in this one!!!!!

With Room on the Broom we do something called "Rounding up the Rhymes".  I walk into my closet as myself and come out of the closet as my alter ego "Country Mrs. W."...southern accent and all.  With my cowboy hat on, lasso {jump rope} in hand, ready to round up some of them there rhymes.

I record them on chart paper and they record them on their own sheet...I don't worry about rounding up every rhyme {there are a lot} but just enough to notice spelling patterns, that some words may rhyme and have the same spelling pattern, while others rhyme but the spelling pattern isn't the same.

Click on the picture below to pick up your freebie!

It's in black and white too!

Alrighty, ya'll - never you mind that I started this here post a whole darn week ago and just now posted it!  When will I feel on top of things? 

Toodles for now!

Swap & Shop

I am so incredibly tickled pink right now. You just don't know and I don't even know where to begin.  My thoughts are a jumble and there's way too many good things to share with you!!!!!!

First, it's the Product Swap!  As a TpT shopper I *love* this little shindig.  I could spend all day just hopping from blog to blog checking out different products.  Product previews on TpT are helpful, the thumbnails are too...but actually seeing the product in action...seals the deal for me.  I can't wait to move some items from my wishlist to my cart.  A little retail therapy at the end of a L O N G week!

Have you visited Jodi Southard's blog or her store?  Jodi blogs over at Fun in First...

Click the her cute button to head over to her blog - grab a soda and some popcorn because you won't be able to cut yourself off any time soon!

And her TpT store will suck you right in and your pocketbook will take a beating but you'll be a happier teacher for it!

I was given the opportunity to try out her Phonemic Awareness pack....




Click the picture to go purchase yours...I'm SOOOOO serious, you will NOT regret it. You will want to find me and hug me, and of course Jodi, who has it on sale for 20% off!!!!

If you teach preschool, kindergarten, first and even second grade you know how important having phonemic awareness is. Understanding that words have sounds in them and being able to play with them is IMPERATIVE for readers and writers. Without it, reading and writing can be a struggle. 

My first graders have been having a BLAST playing the games and doing the activities in our guided reading groups and my parapro who helps out with groups has said more than once how much she loves doing them my kiddos.

People I have WEEKS of activities to use from this product....WEEKS! And the kids keep asking to "play it again" {and again and again}.  Six bucks and some change...that's IT.  I'd pay $10 and I'm not even kidding!!!!

When I first opened this product I swear my eyes were as big as saucers. I kid you not. This thing is FULL of amazing activities. So full that it would have been impossible to show you all of them.

My laminator was given quite a workout!

And so were my multi-tasking skills...how's that for packing lunches, and laminating!?!?! 

That's not even HALF of it.  Can I say I'm not even kidding you again because I'm not.  That's just a few of the 20 PLUS activities!

A few of our class favorites:

Kids pull a letter out of the pumpkin and say a word that starts with that letter.

Rhyming memory - "dog/frog" - I got a match!!!!!

I can't wait to play...

Students move objects into sound boxes for a given word {cake}.  A rhyming word is given and students remove an "object" from the corresponding sound square {make} - in this example the first sound changed.

Give students a word {cat} then students spin the spinner and give you the corresponding sound in the given word. i.e. the ending sound in "cat" is "t".

After you attach the "yes/no" cards to popsicle sticks teacher says two words that sometimes rhyme and sometimes do not.  Students show the correct card.  SO FUN!!!!!

Hard to imagine that there's more than that! 

*Sentence segmenting

*Pull a rhyme

*Silly rhyme time

*Alliteration sentences

*Syllable sort

*Say the syllables

*Syllable blend

.....and......

MORE!!!!!!!

I'll leave you with this....

I love Starbucks. I could drink a chai tea latte every day of my life.  Chai tea lattes make me feel warm and cozy inside.  They wake me up and make me very VERY happy.  If, one morning, you asked me to choose between buying one of these...

OR

I'd gladly spend my money on THIS!!!!! {GASP!}





The games are timeless and can be used over and over again.  Best 6 bucks and some change spent on your classroom ever!

Be sure to visit Jodi's blog to see my Data Year Round which wil be on sale this weekend....20% off!!!!!!

Click the picture to get it  20% off!

Happy Weekend!!!! {Now go do some hopping and some shopping!}

Weekly Rewind & We Have a Winner!

I think we're really starting to find our groove!  I think we're beyond the testing phase, I think they've figured me out and I'm now able to work on figuring out their individual needs and I KNOW they are a whole bunch of sweethearts. I'm even willing to ignore the fact that one little one asked me if T.V's were invented when I was little.  In his defense, I had just whipped out the record player and watched their eyes turn as big as saucers when they saw the MASSIVELY huge record {that they kept referring to as a CD} with "Free to Be You and Me" on the cover...

Anybody remember this oldie!?

A little recap of our week...

Daily 5 is going wonderfully.  We're up to 13 minutes with Read to Self and we're up to 15 minutes for Word Work.  We've opened up our book nooks...

Cozy places around our room to do Read to Self

...and the kids are loving making words with pipe cleaners and clay!  I'm absolutely amazed at how quickly they picked up on how to use IPICK when shopping for books to place in their independent reading bookshelves.  Such BIG kids!

Are you familiar with the FOSS kits for teaching science?  I hear mixed reviews - but I'm somebody who LOVES them!  Right now we're hot and heavy into solids/liquids and we played around on the FOSS website this week on our Mimio...

Click on the picture to head over to the games section of the FOSS website!

We've launched our writer's workshop and the kiddos are working hard to build their writing muscles!  This is always tricky at the beginning of the year - but I'm usually amazed at how quickly they build their stamina!

One way that I encourage quiet writing time {or "hot pencil" time as we refer to it} is by hanging a large wooden pencil onto the middle of our white board to serve as a visual reminder.  Ours looks something like this:

I can't remember where I got mine - but if you click on the picture it will take you to the website for this pencil!

I also play "quiet thinking music".  A favorite CD of our is:

LOVE!!!!

In math we're hot and heavy into math Workplaces.  We've created our own picture problems, graphed, counted money, sorted bugs, created numbers sentences using ten frames...you name it, we've done it.  A class favorite this week was a Bridges Math game "Which Numeral Will Win 1-4"

In Social Studies we've been learning about families.  Our focus this week was exploring the past, present and future.  A great book that is part of our curriculum:

It explores this little guy's life when he was "younger"{past}, now that he's a bit older {present} and what he wants to be when he grows up {future}.  We worked on these today too...

Click {HERE} to pick up your own!

Crazy to think that's just a snippet of our week...we moved mountains!!!!!!

And the winner of the trimmer/cutter giveaway through MyBinding.com is...

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congrats, Debbie - I'll be emailing you shortly!!!!!

Happy weekend all!  It's a whole lotta football for this family.  One boy Saturday the other Sunday!

Subs? {Quiznos? Subway? Guest Teacher?}

Hey Friends!
Good golly this was supposed to be "The Great Year of Organization" for me.  How you can go from feeling on top of the world to buried beyond repair in TEN minutes is baffling to me.  Okay, it's not really baffling - c'mon we all know it.  Enter 26 little 6 year olds and it's bound to happen.  I feel a Saturday in the classroom calling my name...

I've been TRYING to find ways to organize myself this school year.  I created this GREAT teacher planner that I found over at The Teacher Wife.  Which would be REALLY helpful if I would actually get beyond the cute cover and actually put the daggone thing together.  So far I've been stuffing everything in the binder thinking...I'll get to it, I'll get to it!!

The other day I was out for a Common Core ELA meeting and finished up my plans for the Guest Teacher {Sub, Substitute, Poor Soul...whatever you might call him/her}when I realized I needed to actually get on the computer and find one.  There I sat at home racking my brain trying to remember who the "good ones" are.  A few texts later, I landed one that I KNEW wasn't going to stick markers up her nose or in her ears {yeah, that's happened}. 

Had I been a little more organized I'd have a list of preferred subs in my teacher binder, right?  Now I do and so can you if you'd like to download this little freebie! ENJOY!

Click the picture to download!

If you haven't entered my giveaway for the cutter/trimmer deal from MyBinding.com  click {HERE} to enter!  Just two more days to enter!!!

Toodles!