I'm Back For Teacher Appreciation!

This has been a busy year for me!  If it were not for Katie King and her Busy Teacher units, I don't know how I would have made it. :)  Anyway, I got a great response from my teacher appreciation gifts last year, so I though "Hey! I'll do some more!"

So here is what my fabulous first grade team members will be getting this year:

Number one is a bit of a joke.  One of my team members needs new Expo Markers EVERY WEEK!  So I decided to give 2 Expo Markers and a Mr. Clean Dry Eraser (They are the perfect white board eraser!)  The card says, " I wouldn't erase my time with you for anything!"

Number 2 is actually a notepad in the shape of a cupcake, but you could totally do a really cupcake.  The Card says "You take the cake!"

Number 3 is my favorite!  Cookies!  YUM!  The card says, "I love teaching with a smart cookie like you!"

Number 4 was easy peasy.  I poured a cup of Dr. Teal's Lavender bath salt into a small plastic bag.  The card says," Relax!  You deserve it."

So there it is!  You can get the tag downloads by clicking the picture below.

I hope you enjoy!  I have missed everyone.  I will be back in a few days with a BIG OLE POETRY unit I have been working on.  So stay tuned and Happy Teacher Appreciation week!

Winners of the BIG OLE GIVEAWAY!

Rafflecopter is so cool y'all!  I highly recommend it for any giveaways or contest you may have.  Here is a little screenshot (fancied up by The Digital Bake Shop) of how I saw the winner's names as they popped up.

Congrats ladies!!!

I just went in the order Rafflecopter gave me and put a name to each prize in the graphics from the original post. 

Congrats again ladies! Check your emails!!

Also, big, huge thanks to the wonderful ladies who helped with the giveaway!  You are all the best EVER!

  Links to the blogs that belong to the best ladies ever :)

Teacher Idea Factory  

Sarah's First Grade Snippets

 Fun in 1st Grade

 The Digital Bake Shop 

 Teaching in High Heels 

 Eberhart's Explorers

 Queen of the First Grade Jungle

 First Grade Fever

In other news, the sweet and fabulous Lori at Little Priorities has a brand new look.  Go check her out!!

I probably won't talk to y'all until Monday when I post Monday Made It.  Man I love that!  :)

Monday Made It! {Happy Teacher Box}

I am so stinking excited to link up with Tara for my very first Monday Made It!!! Yay!!!

 So, here is what I made:

A Happy Teacher Box

 I was inspired by something I found on Pinterest from Bee in Our Bonnet and they were inspired from something they saw on U-Create.

Here is all the stuff you will need: 

I used a large craft box (about 6 inches by 11 inches).  It came from Hobby Lobby and was 50% off $1.99.  Yup, a dollar!  The rest of the stuff is small pink, red, black, and white, office supplies from Target. I got some candy in pink wrappers (Dove Dark Chocolate with Raspberry Swirl.  That mess is sooooo flippin' good!).  The Starburst are some FaveRed edition I had never seen before.  They are all a shade of pink or red.

I also got  little hand sanitizers from the Dollar Spot and decorative tape and stickers from the scrapbook section.  I peeled the labels off and added the scrapbook stuff to spruce it up a little.

 I put everything in the plastic box.

I still have enough stuff to fill up the other 2 boxes I will do. 

 Then I made these in Photoshop using elements from Class Act Scrap Kit from Just So Scrappy Too and a frame from the Digital Bake Shop:

 

You can use these if you want to make a different sized box.  If you would like to make the same size I did, you can download the file by clicking{here}.

 I cut it out and glued it to the top of the box. 

 

Finally, I tied a bow around it and signed the tag.  It took longer to type this post than it did to make the Happy Teacher Box!

That's it!  Before you go check out all the awesome stuff at Monday Made It, don't forget to enter
my BIG OLE GIVEAWAY!!!   Only a few hours left!

One more thing!  Last night when I was spreadin' blog love, I left some one out!  Jaime from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers gave me a Versatile Blogger award.  Thanks girl!!!!

Now get over to 4th Grade Frolics and look at all the craftiness!!!!!

Spreadin' Blog Love with a Freebie

You've heard of romance.
You've heard of bromance.
I now introduce to you... blogmance.

You know what I'm talking about.  Some people may call them BBFF's (Bloggy Best Friends Forever), but they are the bloggers that you just love!  You've formed a little relationship with them.  You go to them for help with giveaways or linky parties.  You share products and get them to help you proof them.  They are like a friend you've had forever, except you may have never met them in person or talked to them on the phone. You get my drift.

I'm sending my first dose of blog love out to Kelley of Teacher Idea Factory.




 I blogged about loving Ron Brown and using his music in the classroom when I linked up with Teaching Maddeness for her Turn Up the Music Linky Party. Kelley is Ron Brown's daughter. After reading that post she sent me a ton of his Language Arts CD's!!!  One of the songs, on one of the wonderful CD's inspired the freebie you will get in just a minute.  Don't scroll down yet.  Keep reading.   Y'all, Kelley is so AWESOME!  I just love this girl.  You have got to check out her new Pen Pal packet.  I cannot wait to find me a Pen Pal classroom. {Hint, Hint, to anyone reading.:)}

 Second helping of blog love goes to Sarah of Sarah's First Grade Snippets.

Sarah was a winner of my super short Teacher Appreciation Giveaway.  Since then, I have been lucky enough to receive several of her Monthly Literacy Menus for her TPT store.  They are all AMAZING!  They have everything.  Her September Menu is crazy packed with perfect reading activities for back to school.  Sarah is so super sweet, so go by and check out her stuff.  You will be glad you did.
   

A little blog love goes to Crystal at Ms. Jones' Junction.

 She is brand new to blogging!  Click on over and welcome her to blog land.

I've been totally behind on blog awards,  so next blog love goes out to the wonderful ladies who said I was a Versatile Blogger and/or have One Lovely Blog. :)  Thanks ladies!!!

Tarita at Paper, Pencils, and Books, Oh my!

Heather at The Busy, Busy Hive

Ashlee at Sweet Seconds 

Kate at Fresh and Fun First Grade

Jess at From Blood to Books

Emily at Tangled with Teaching

Deb at Fabulously First

Kristy at Teachin First

Kim at Adventures of a K-1 Teacher

My last bit of blog love goes out to those of you who are still reading :)!  One of the CD's Kelley sent was "Word Mechanics."  I love the song "Three Kinds of Sentences" on there and was inspired to make a little activity to go with it.  Click the pic to get your copy.

Don't forget to join my Big Ole Giveaway!!!!!
Have a great week!

Time 4 a Big Ole Giveaway!

It has been almost a year since I had a big ole giveaway on this little ole blog. I recently reached a new follower milestone, so I figure it's time for another giveaway!

That's 5 winners total and you can have up to 9 entries. 

Here is what you do to enter: 
1. Follow my blog and TPT store.
2. Follow Teacher Idea Factory and Kelley's TPT store.
3. Follow Sarah's First Grade Snippets and Sarah's TPT store.
4. Follow Fun in 1st Grade and Dana's TPT store.
5. Follow The Digital Bake Shop and Jaime's Etsy and TPT store.
6. Follow Teaching in High Heels and Gladys' TPT store.
7. Follow Eberhart's Explorers and Erin's TPT store. 
8. Follow Queen of the First Grade Jungle and Katie's TPT store.
9. Follow First Grade Fever and Christie's TPT store.

 Sign into Rafflecopter below and you get an entry for each of the above things you do.   I will announce the winners next Tuesday  (July 10th).

A BIG OLE THANK YOU to these AMAZING bloggy friends who are helping me out with this giveaway and to my wonderful followers.  I LOVE YOU ALL! :)

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Turn the Music Up! ~ Linky Party

I am linking up with Amanda from Teaching Maddeness for her Turn Up the Music Linky Party!

First up, I love Ron Brown of Intelli-tunes!  I went to a workshop he did at the big Texas Summer Math Conference a few years ago and fell in love with his songs.  I think I bought almost ever math CD that he had with him.  Click the image below to check out his math CD's, but explore the site because there are a ton of great thing, including freebies! :)

Source: http://www.intelli-tunes.com/

As a side note, it is such a small world.  Ron's daughter has become a bloggy friend of mine.  She is having a big ole giveaway right now! Her giveaway pushed me right over into a follower milestone, so be looking for a giveaway from me as soon as her's ends. Click the image to check out her fabulous giveaway.



 

Now, back to the music!  

Second, I love using Lucas Miller.  He is a singing zoologist.  His songs are fun, upbeat, and the kids love him! Some are super silly, but they are still educational.  Here is a video for his Metamorphosis Song about the a tadpole changing into a frog.  

Check out a sample of his music by clicking {here}. 

Next, Dr. Jean probably has a song for almost anything you might want to sing about in the classroom. She is so much fun!  Here is a link to her blog: Dr. Jean and Friends.  She also has a website with great resources, but while typing this post it was temporarily unavailable. It is www.drjean.org.  Hopefully, it will be back up soon and I will update this post! :)  For now, check out her blog and this video of birthday ideas and songs.

Finally, what primary classroom is not complete without Greg & Steve?  They are super fun and great for energizers or indoor recess. 

Now click on over to Teaching Maddeness to check out the rest of the great classroom music that is out there!

BLOGS Gone Wild

Blogs, Blogs, everywhere there's blogs. 

Fillin' up my Reader, makin' my eyes start to fog. 

Click this, click that, can't I read all these blogs?!?

This post has three sections containing some really important stuff about blogs.  Well, it's not really important, but  will be really happy if you read it anyway. :)

 First section of this post: 

Seriously folks, there are so many GREAT teacher blogs out there!  I have so many that I follow, it is hard to keep up.  During this school year, I had to take a little break from blogging and blog hopping due to lack of time for anything ever. HA!  When I got back, I was amazed at the number of new blogs I found.
The whole point of this section of the post is this:

How do you keep up with all the great blogs out there?

Please comment and let me know! Once upon a time, I was a big commenter.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE leaving comments, but I have so many blogs to visit that sometimes I forget and get sucked into this blog hopping vortex.  I feel sad just thinking about it. :( I want to know how Jennifer and Gladys do it! They always leave sweet comments. :)

I often find myself going to my go to blogs, stalking certain blogs for a period of time, or checking pinterest and going to the blog from there.  Does anyone else do this?

Second Section of this Post:

I have been working like a mad woman to get some blogs designs done!If you do not have a bazillion blogs that you are following like I do, here are some more for you to check out.  Even if you do follow a bazillion blogs, you should still check these ladies out.  They are great.  Click each button to visit the blog.



I have been finished with Sarah's Blog for a little while now, but it is so cute and she has so many great things, I've just got to share it!  Sarah always has awesome freebies and units.  For each month she does a Literacy Menu Packet.  They are AMAZING.  She covers so many skills.  I love them!  You can check the latest one out on TPT by clicking {here}.

At Home in First is a brand new blog.  However, she came up with such a cute name and had such a clear vision for her blog, that I know she will have great things to post. So, just go on and follow her anyway!  :)

 Dana is funny and totally sweet!  She has a ton of great ideas.  I love her blog's bright colors, and I got to use graphics from one of my favorite places, The Digital Bake Shop. I am totally obsessed with Jaime's stuff! Her blog can be found {here}.








 Stacy was great to work with!  She is wonderful   Her blog will definitely leave you seeing stars. :)   Check out the way she has her students pose for pictures.  I absolutely love it.

Third Section of this Post:

 My friend Sam and I started a new blog!  Yeah, we did. We love to read and would like to get some advanced reader copies of our favorite series.  We thought, what a better way than to blog about them! I am still working on the design of the site.So, don't hate on it or I will get all sad again! :)   We have much more to come. There will be a section for children's books and books we use in our classroom along with the books that are sitting on our night stand.  Please do go visit it and follow if you love to read books too.  You can click the image to get there!

Thanks for sticking with me until the end!  Have a great Sunday Summer Night!