Who doesn't love a sale??

Are you gearing up for the Cyber Monday and Tuesday sale over at TpT?  I know I am!  I've been loading up my cart for a week now.  By the time I'm done, I should be all set for Christmas and beyond!

 

My store will be 20% off along with MANY other great stores.  I've linked up with Primary Possibilities for their list of stores offering deals.  Head over there and check out all the great items.  Stick them in your cart so you're ready and then all you have to do on Monday is enter the code and checkout!

 

OK--I'm off to whip up a couple of Christmas Math and Literacy centers in hopes of getting them uploaded before the big sale!

Five for Friday--I'M BAAACK!!

Well, friends, in my last post I promised to be better about blogging.  It hasn't happened and I'm sorry!  Life is just nuts sometimes, isn't it?? Well, I've finally found myself with a Saturday morning with no place to be so here I am!  I love having a few hours in the morning to blog and catch up on everyone else's blogs.  I really miss it and wish I could find more time in each day!  Here's a little peek at what I've been up to over the last few weeks!

 

We've been using activities from the amazing Caitlin Clabby from Kindergarten Smiles a lot this month.  This activity is from her October Word Work pack.  So much good stuff!!  If you have never visited Caitlin's blog, you need to go there NOW.  She's amazing.

 

Part of why I've been neglecting this blog is because of this fabulous new evaluation system in Ohio {insert sarcasm here}.  I've had my pre-conference for my observation, my observation and then my post conference within the last week.  Add two nights of parent-teacher conferences in there and the fact that grade cards were due the week before and there goes ALL my time to blog!  Our district gave us these binders to collect our evidence.  I really need to find time to work on it.  Right now, I stuff papers in the pockets, but haven't organized it at all!

 

I got this little gem of a letter hand delivered the other day from one of my students from last year.  So sweet!  And so exciting to see other teachers in my building using great TpT resources!  This can be found HERE from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  Don't you love getting little love notes from former students??

 

 

Here's one of my cuties (don't you love that shirt??) using the letter tracing cards that I made.  I made my own set because we use Wilson Fundations as our phonics program and I really wanted to have the pictures match our keywords for each letter.  Not always easy when they use "Ed" for /e/ and "fun" for /f/ so I made my own set.  I know that those pictures wouldn't be helpful in classrooms that don't use Fundations, so I made a version of those cards with more common pictures for those letters.  You can find them HERE in my TpT store.  It's a new product so it's on sale today!  I use these with my kiddos who are struggling to learn letter names and sounds.  This is recommended in the book, The Next Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson to help build that letter sound knowledge.

 

We made these awesome pilgrims this week and wrote about things that we are thankful for.  This made a great hallway display for parent-teacher conferences.  The craftivity and writing template is from Caitlin again and is found in her November Unit.  Like I said before, she's amazing.  Go check it out!

 

And here's a bonus pic just because I want to share!

My little girl is growing up!  They had a Middle School dance last weekend and here's my girl (on the left) with her BFF at the dance.  Hubby and I were chaperones and he actually teared up a little bit when she walked in with her friends.  She's not little anymore!!

 

Well there it is, folks!  That's what's up with me!  Now I'm going to go link up with Doodlebugs and check out what everyone else has been up to.  You should, too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently November!

Hey!  Remember me???  I sure hope so, but I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't!  It's been two weeks since I've blogged!  There just aren't enough hours in the day!  I'm hoping to catch up this weekend and be better about it, but with the holidays coming up, I'm making no promises! 

 

I was so happy to get to November so that I could get back into the blogging routine with Farley's Currently.  Here's what's CURRENTLY up in my little

world . . .

 

Listening

If you have a pug or know anyone who does, you will be able to relate.  They snore SO loud, even when they aren't sleeping!  We often have to keep turning up the volume on the TV just to hear it over top of her!

 

Loving

We have not ONE thing that we MUST do this weekend!  Mainly, that means NO soccer games. We have spent every Saturday since Labor Day at the soccer fields for roughly 6 hours!  You can't even imagine how excited I am for a Saturday at home.  It's not going to be lazy by any means, but I'm going to be able to catch up on SO much stuff.  School work, housework, TV shows, football, etc.!  Yay!

 

Thinking

I'm not getting caught up on anything by still sitting here in my pjs at noon.  Well, yes I am.  I'm catching up on my blogging, right??!!

 

Wanting

I really wish I could just stay here all day.  I want to read blogs.  I want to print and laminate.  I want to create some of the ideas that I have in my head.  But I really do need to put some laundry in and do the dishes and help my son find his bedroom floor again.  And I have to take my daughter to her school to get her stuff because they had to evacuate their building yesterday due to a bomb threat and weren't allowed back in to get their belongings--that's a whole other blog post!

 

Needing

All of my Ohio bloggers will hear me on this one.  See, Ohio has instituted a new teacher evaluation system this year and the paperwork is OVERWHELMING!  My pre-conference for my first observation is Monday morning so I'm looking at several good hours of typing up paperwork this weekend.  Thank goodness it's a weekend with no soccer!

 

Yummy Pin

I've never tried this, but it looks yummy and seems kind of fall-ish to me!

 

Here's the link to the original post with the recipe.  Looks really yummy, doesn't it!

 

S'more Cake

 

Now go link up with Farley with what you're Currently up to in November and see what everyone else is doing, too!

 

Five for Friday with a Fantastic Giveaway!

 

 

 It's that time again!  I missed last week because we've been crazy busy.  Who hasn't, right??  I know.  But I'm back this week!  Stick with me until the end for a chance to enter my HUGE birthday bonanza giveaway!

 

 

 

I've been working hard on getting my Guided Reading binder all together.  I bought this fabulous kit from Caitlin over at Kindergarten Smiles.  You can find Part 1 and 2  HERE in her TpT Store.  It's so fabulous!  I have it pretty much ready to go.  It's helped me organize my small groups SO much!

 

 

We did the fabulous picture sort this week.  My intervention specialist is a TpT/blogging nerd like me.  She made this N/M picture sort for me to use.  As soon as she gets the link up, I will be sure to let you know because she's doing a great job with the picture sorts.  Check her out over at The Phonics Phenomenon!

 

 

Tuesday was my birthday.  I've been wanting red Toms forever.  When my mom said, "Buy something you want for your birthday," I knew right where to go!  I wore them for the first time today and I'm in love!

 

 

It's fall in Ohio!  Nowhere I'd rather be.  It's beautiful where we live in the fall.  We are actually one of the largest tourist areas in the state because of our fall foliage.  This is just down the road from my house.  The trees probably have another week or two of fall beauty and then they will be bare.

 

 

As I mentioned, Tuesday was my birthday.  I put together a HUGE giveaway to celebrate.  You won't want to miss it!  Some of my blogging IDOLS were kind enough to donate!  Run, don't walk!  Click the image to take you over to the blog post with the Rafflecopter.  Hurry--it ends tomorrow!!

 

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Birthday Bonanza Giveaway!

I know I've been slightly absent from this blog lately, but I have been trying to keep my head above water both at school and at home!  There's paperwork and more paperwork at school on top of actually preparing lesson plans and teaching.  There's soccer and more soccer at home! 

But enough about that.  Today's my birthday!!!  I know as we get older we aren't supposed to like to celebrate our birthdays, but not me!  I love my birthday and I want everyone to know!  So I put together a super excellent giveaway event to celebrate!  When you see the bloggers below who have donated to help me celebrate, you won't be able to click all those rafflecopter buttons fast enough to enter!  I'm so excited for all of you!  Check this list out!

I told you it was an amazing list!  You're looking for the rafflecopter already, aren't you?!  I know I would be! Now go enter below, but do it quick.  I'll announce a winner this weekend!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for helping me celebrate!!

It's Currently October--My Favorite!

Yay for October!  It's my favorite for many reasons.  I love fall weather and the sweaters and boots.  I love watching football all weekend long.  I love watching the leaves turn color.  I live in a very spectacular area that draws a lot of fall tourists just to look at our leaves.  They are just starting to turn so be watching for pictures!  I love pumpkins.  And, maybe best of all, my birthday is in October and I love my birthday!  I know, most people don't love their birthdays as they get older, but I sure do!  I'm hoping to put together a little birthday giveaway in the next couple of weeks so stay tuned . . .

 

Anyway, now that you know my love for October, you could probably imagine how excited I was to see the October Currently from Farley show up in my blog feed.  Well, here it goes . . .

 

I'm listening to my morning silence which I treasure!  The hubs is already gone for work, my daughter is already on her way to school, and my son isn't up yet.  I get about 45 minutes of ME time every morning!

 

I'm loving that it's October--no explanation needed if you read the beginning of the post!

 

This morning, I'm thinking about my awesome parents.  I'm lucky enough to still live in the same town as my parents.  They help us out so much when it comes to getting the kids where they need to go!  My daughter is on student council at her middle school and their meetings are at 7:15am every other week.  My terrific father volunteered to come pick her up at our house and take her to school those mornings so I didn't have to get my son out of bed and ready for school so early.  Tonight my mom is helping with shuttling kids from school to meet my hubby to take the kids to soccer practice because I have an after school meeting from 4-6pm.  They are the best and I'd be lost without them!

 

I really want a day off of school so I can catch up on all the blogs I follow and make all the ideas floating around in my head a reality!  I seriously don't know how some of you do it!  All these great products and posts keep coming up in my blog feed!  I have some great ideas, but between school, soccer, dishes, and laundry, I'm exhausted by 9:30 each night and I'd fall asleep on my laptop if I tried to do anything then!  Sadly, we don't have a day off until Thanksgiving so I'll just keep writing all my ideas down and get to them when I can!

 

I need to go shopping.  I know we all say that, but I think the situation really is dire.  I have like two pairs of pants that are school worthy.  It's time . . .

 

And, now my favorite part of this Currently--the trick!

Maybe you've already heard of this app--I think I may have even blogged about it before, but I really love it and use it a million times a day!

This app allows you to create multiple lists.  That's what I love about it.  I can pick who gets to use the iPad, partners for activities, errand runners, etc. and never use the same set of sticks.  That allows me to keep track of who hasn't had a turn yet.  It also allows you to give each student a level and then it will create question starters for you using Bloom's.  I've never messed around with that, but it might be something you're interested in!

 

Now, head over to Farley's blog so read all the other Currentlys!  There will be a trick or a treat waiting for you on each post!  How fun is that!?!?

Happy October everyone!

 

 

Five for Friday with a Freebie and a Giveaway!

It's time for Five for Friday again!  This one is going to be short and sweet.  I'm not feeling the greatest, I just finished a whole day of Professional Development, and I'm heading out to the high school football game soon!

 

Check out these numbers that Jen at Hello Literacy created for Five for Friday!  Aren't they great.  You can get them HERE.

 

 

We had a district in-service today.  We spent the afternoon going over AIMSweb data and setting goals for our kiddos.  I think I'm officially braindead now . . .

We started stamping out sight words this week.  This was a favorite last year so I was excited to get it out again this year.  I was slightly overwhelmed by the amount of ink that ended up on fingers and faces, but overall, I think it was a success!  I use THIS PACK by Deedee Wills.  I love that it's editable so I can add my own sight words.

I introduced tens frames this week.  For some reason, I love working with tens frames.  They did awesome with it and I can't wait to incorporate some tens frame fun into my apple math centers next week!

 

 

It's my day to post over on Teaching Blog Roundup.  I shared a few of my favorite apple read alouds and apple activities since we will be starting our apple theme next week.  I also included a freebie! 

Head over there to check out the post and grab the freebie.

 

 

Have you seen the amazing giveaway going on over at Meet Miss Parker??  It's HUGE, but it ends tomorrow so hurry up and check it out!

 

Well, that's my quick Five for Friday.  Hopefully, tomorrow I will have some time to check out all your posts!

Don't forget to link up!