Only 171 More Days Until Christmas!

Did you know there's only 171 (or so) more days until Christmas!!??!!  That's less than half a year.

CHRISTMAS FREEBIE FOR 

PRACTICING ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION STRATEGIES

It’s never too late to think about Christmas activities!  Here’s a cute FREE math GAME for the children to play in those hectic weeks before Christmas break.  It's a great review because not only do children have to solve the addition problems, they need to identify the strategy they used to solve the problem.  It makes a great formative assessment to judge children's understanding of addition strategies!

Click here to download Christmas Scoot

While you are visiting my store, be sure to check out my back to school activities.  One of the favorite activities I do with my firsties during the first week of school is my Read All About Me activity.  It's great to display on the walls for open house!  It also gives you the opportunity to learn a little bit about your firsties, and it covers skills in both math and language arts to make integration easy.  Since we always start school on a Wednesday, I pair the activity  with a book I inherited in my classroom called "All About Me," and it makes for a nice, integrated block of math and language arts before we jump into the curriculum during our first full week of school.

                     

Click here to see my Back to school resources

I hope you enjoy the rest of your summer!  May the hot, sunny days go slowly for you!!

Launching Off with Educents!

Have you heard the news!?  Educents is opening their MARKETPLACE!  What does that mean?  That means that besides the already AMAZING deals they offer on a daily basis, you can now purchase items from sellers stores, also on a daily basis!  WHAT!?  That’s right!  Over 500 sellers have already created stores in the Educents Marketplace, so you are sure to find some money-saving deals anytime you need them!

To LAUNCH the whole thing, several of the sellers are joining in to bring you a sneak peek at a FREE product offered in their new sale, as well as hosting a giveaway for $50 worth of Educents Credits.  You can buy a LOT of educational materials with that kind of money!  And, there are several groups of bloggers who are joining the LAUNCH, which means multiple ways to enter.

Here is a little information about my FREEBIE.   It is one of my favorite items that I use every year to help my firsties master short vowel sound

                 

click the picture above to find my freebie in my Educents shop!

I love these five short little stories that tell stories incorporating the sounds of the short vowels.  I laminated them and hung them by my reading table for the kids to use as a quick and easy reference when trying to remember which vowel has which sound.

I also have this great freebie available in my store

This one is a free resource!

It's a sample of a much larger companion pack I made to go along with my Short Vowel Stories.  There are games, interactive notebook pages, flip-flap booklets, and so much more in here to go along with each vowel to help your students master the sounds!

And, of course, I have the complete Learning the Short Vowels bundled resource available in my Educents store as well!

This one is not a free resource!

Leave a comment below for a chance to win the paid resource "Short Vowel Stories Companion Pack Bundle:  Learning the Short Vowels"!  Let me know what the best thing YOU have found on Educents has been (past or present!).

Be  sure to enter for your chance to win $50 in Educents credits!

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #6 - First Grade Stores

And finally, be sure to follow the blog hop around the circle to visit other great Educents shops and claim your freebies!  Next up is Mrs.  Thompson's Treasures.  Click on the picture below to get to her blog.  If you get lost, look for the Link Up at the bottom of the page to get to the next blog and the next freebie!

                                             

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a great day!

Happy Fourth of July (blog hop)

Welcome to our Fourth of July blog hop, and Happy Birthday, USA!

How many veterans do you have in your life?  I have three in my life.  My grandpa was in the Merchant Marines during World War II.

You can click the picture above to learn more about the Merchant Marines.

My husband served in the Air Force for eight years as a flight nurse.  He was stationed in Germany and New Hampshire.  Luckily, he was serving in a time of peace, so he didn't see any action as far as having to fly in and out of active war zones.

You can click the picture above to learn more about the Air Force.

And of course, you all know my son is a Marine. 

Today, on this 238th birthday of our country, let's remember and pray for the men and women, from the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror, who have bravely fought, died or come home forever changed by their experiences.  Let's pray for those currently deployed that they will remain safe.  Let's pray for those who will be brave enough to step up and answer the call in the future to protect our freedom.  We may not be a perfect country, but my heart swells with pride and I have to swallow the lump in my throat every time I see a flag waving in the breeze, or a hear the Star Spangled Banner being played.

 So be sure to thank the veterans or active duty service people in your life.  They have had a hand in making this country great!

 To celebrate the Fourth of July, I made this fun little resource that you can use to teach your children about some of the Heroes of the Revolutionary War.  If you click on the picture, you can download the file from my Google Docs.  Enjoy!

Check out the Inlinkz below to visit the other blogs taking part in this hop.

An InLinkz Link-up

And as an added bonus, all of the participating bloggers have 'pooled their cash' to purchase 4 $25 TpT gift certificates and 1 $10 Target gift card!

The first four selected will receive the TpT gift certificates and the 5th winner will receive the Target gift card!

Enter here, or on any of the participating blogs:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Saturday Roundup!

Saturday again?!? Where is this month going?  Today it is cold, cloudy, and sometimes rainy in southwestern PA, so we are going to spend the afternoon at the museum.  For the first time in years, our son is going to accompany us on an outing.  Why, you ask?  It's all due to the influence of a girl!  He has done more with us this year than ever since he began dating his girl.  Maybe they will let me get a picture today to share with you.  Can you tell I'm ridiculously excited that he is coming with us?

So let me start up the roundup by revisiting a product I already blogged about, the Autism Friendly Puzzle Token Charts.  I revamped them a bit by adding quarter-page size puzzles so they would fit better on the desks of the students you would need to use them with.

Click here to visit my store and download my FREE Autism-Friendly Token Charts!

Have a few kids with specific behavior issues that need to be addressed? Try one of my puzzle token charts. I'm currently using them with two of my kiddos, and it's working quite well.

I recently finagled my son's tablet from him -- mentioned that I was thinking of buying one, and he said I could have his. I didn't want to just take it, and he always needs money, so I gave $100.00 for it -- and I plan on letting these two guys use some carefully selected apps as a reward when they fill their token chart. Both are currently on the 12-piece token chart, one to encourage finished work on time, and one to encourage in-seat, on-task time.

While you're at my store, if you need some Earth Day activities, be sure to check out the Earth Day story and poetry activities.  I'm so excited to use them Monday with my kids

My Earth Day story, inspired by St. Therese and her Little Way ( but the story is totally secular

Click here to see the Earth Day syllable lesson and poem writing activity, including two easy poetry forms, Haiku and acrostic poems.

Now, on to the rest of the roundup!  This Saturday, Mr. Hughes has his Share the Wealth freebie linky going on.  You're sure to find something there for the next few weeks of lessons!

And Saturday also means Primary Paradise's Top Five Freebies!

Teacher Mom of  3 has her Seasonal Saturday post up.  Meet some new sellers and see some fantastic products.

Next up is Pirate Girl and her Memory Verse Monday -- a must for Sunday School, Christian, and Catholic School teachers.  I love how she makes them relevant to the season!

Do you like to make it and take it?  If so, you've got to visit 2nd Grade Pad and check out her Thursday linky party.  Great ideas!

Remember, you can add your take it and make it link to this as well!

Mrs.  Fultz keeps us up-to-date with all the apps in her weekly App of the Week post.  Now that I've got my  hands on a tablet, I can't wait to dig into some of the apps she has posted about!

Crayonbox Learning has added a new fan freebie to her Facebook page.  You have to like her page to get the freebie.

I  hope you find some great free and paid items you can use to make  your weekly planning a little bit easier!

As always, if you have anything you'd like to add to this list, you can leave a link in the comments on my blog or my Facebook page.  Have a great week, everyone!

Happy Saturday Morning (and a 50% off sale on Spanish resources)!

Good morning!  I love Saturday morning.  I've got a cup of coffee, I read the paper front to back, and now I'm putting in some computer time while SpongeBob plays in the background.  What's not to love, especially when the sun is shining!  Don't forget to set your clocks forward tonight!  Back to driving to work in the dark, BUT extra daylight in the evening when we are home!

I've got a few things for you this morning you might like.  First of all, if any of you  teach Spanish, you'll want to check out this old post of mine.  I've updated it with some links, there are a few freebies offered, and I'm throwing a 50% sale off of all my Spanish resources for the next three days.  What a deal!

Click here to see my old post, claim your freebies, and check out my other Spanish resources on sale for 50% off March 9 - 11, 2013!

Second thing is it is Saturday, and you know what that means!  Primary Paradises Top 5 Freebies of the Week!  Head over to her blog to see what great offerings she has for you this week!

Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone!

Here a Freebie; There a Freebie; Everywhere a Freebie!

I was so busy yesterday that I didn't have time to let you know about all the great freebies that came through my inbox yesterday.  You may know about some of these already, but if you don't, be sure to check them out!

First up is Primary Paradise's Top Five Freebies of the week.  You can find them by clicking on the picture below.

Martha has found some fabulous freebies to offer you this week!

Next up is Share the Wealth Saturday by Mr. Hughes.

John has over 30 freebies linked up to his site this week.

Pirate Girl Education Invasion has a really cute freebie featured for Valentine's Day.  I found it too late to use this year, but printed it out and put in my February box for next year!

And finally, while not technically a  freebie, Chalk One Up for the Teacher is having a 100 follower giveaway!  She has so many great resources to offer you. Be sure to head on over to Cyndie's blog and sign up for her giveaway!

So that's it for now!  Be sure to check out my Facebook page later today, where I will be having a special "followers only" freebie giveaway (if I can figure out the technology side of  it.  I think I'll be able to; I've got a YouTube video tutorial to follow, thanks to the generous Christi  Fultz from Mrs. Fultz's Corner)

Enjoy your Sunday!

Trying to Keep Up

Some weeks I feel like I'm running as fast as I can just to keep up with everything (and not running quite fast enough).  Between school and home responsibilities, with parent-teacher evening conferences thrown in, I felt like I spent last week going in circles.  Without the help of my lists, I probably would not have survived.

When you have weeks like that, something has to give, and in my case, it was keeping up with my blog and everything that revolves around it, like the "For the Love of Teaching" blog hop.  I hope you were able to keep better than I was through the links that we continually added to my little blue frog face that you can find here.   All the freebies have been  fabulous, so just in case you weren't able to keep up, here are the links for the past three days and today.

And today, be sure to head over to Sugar and Spice where Christina has a Valentine's writing freebie for you!

In the mood for more freebies?  Check out Primary Paradise's blog, where she lists the Top Five Freebies of the week, where I am beyond honored to have my freebie offered as the numero uno!

freebie. Wow! Thank you, Martha!

I'm working on a few new products that should be up in the today and tomorrow.  I'm really excited about both of them, so be sure to check back tonight for a flash freebie on my Lent resource that I am thisclose to finishing!  Next up will be my How to Writing for First Grade February/March edition, where I introduce using transitional words and phrases and using graphic organizers to organize ideas.  You won't want to miss that!

Until next time, enjoy your day!

Day 4 of the "For the Love of Teaching Blog Hop"!

Welcome, everyone, to day 4 of the For the Love of Teaching 14 Day  Freebie Blog Hop!  Special thanks to our friend, Mel (Graphics from the Pond) for designing our unique buttons for each day!

Aren't you loving all these freebies?  Samantha,  Cyndie, and Cynthia all had fantastic freebies to share with you.   I can't wait to work all these activities into my plans for this week!  My kiddos are going to love, Love, LOVE all of them!

I'm excited to share my free item with you today.  It's called "Love Me True," and the idea is to read an addition or subtraction problem and decide if it is true or false. If answered correctly, you get to move your marker the number of spaces written on the owl on the math fact card.   I played it with my math group on Friday, and they loved it!

The first time we played, we did it as a whole group with the girls against the boys and I was coach/judge/moderator so that I could make sure they understood how to play the game.

We gathered as a group with the board in the middle and the cards in one pile,  face down.

Pick a card and read the math problem.  Decide if it is true or false.  If it is false, tell why.

Use the number line to check and see if the person has given the correct answer.

If answered correctly, move your game piece the number of spaces on the owl on your card.  Follow any directions that are on the game board.

The game I played with my children is in black and white because I printed it out on the copier.  But the download is in full color as shown above!

The girls won the group game, and we ran out of time before we could partner up and play the game, so we are going to do that today.

I hope you enjoy this freebie, and please do come back and let me know how it worked out in your classroom!   Click on the picture below to download "Love Me True" from my TPT store.

You can also find this freebie featured on Manic Mondays Freebies.  Click the button below to see all the great freebies offered there!

Next stop is Mrs. Fultz's Corner, where my friend, Christi,  will have another fun freebie for you tomorrow.  So be sure to come back tomorrow to click through and  hop on over to Christi's blog.

Enjoy your day!

If you missed any days so far, click on the little blue frog face below.  As more days are added, you'll be able to see them here.