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!

BBQ and Boo-Boo's

Hey everybody!  I've been working on this Backyard Barbeque unit for a while now.  My internet has been going down daily and it has definitely put a kink in my extracurricular  activities. :) Anyway, it is finished now!  Click the image to check it out on TPT. It is on the clearance rack until Friday.

Here's a bit of what is in it.

I am offering this unit along with a basic blog design (header, background, and button) in Katie King's 1000 follower giveaway.  Click the pic to find out how to win.  There are so many fabulous units offered!  I want to win it myself!

Now for the Boo Boo.  Jen from The Teacher's Cauldron very kindly let me know that a blue text box was popping up on some of the pages in the New Grade Advice Writing Paper packets.  Weird because I just duplicated the slides and changed the top and bottom lines.  Anyway, they are fixed now. You can download them {here} for free.

Oh, and P.S.: The first person to comment, telling me their favorite cookout food along with their email address, gets my new unit for free.

Advice from a 1st Grader...for free!

My kiddos have been working on writing some advice for the Kindergartners who will be 1st graders next year. As they finish, they have been presenting to the Kinder classes. They are totally loving it! After presenting, some of them will say "Are there any questions?" It is too stinking cute. Here are a few examples of what they said.

"Do you listen to your teacher now?" :)

"My favorite place to go was school, and you will like it too."

Oh that  second one just melts my heart!

Are those bubble borders not the cutest?! I found those in a set on TPT for $1. Yeah. ONE DOLLAR! They can be found in Ms. Talley's Store.

You can DL the writing papers by clicking the pic below.  They go all the way up to 5th grade because that is what my mom teaches and she wanted to do it too. :)

Hope you like it!

Fascination Nomination!

I was so super excited to get an email saying that my post A Birthday Card for Dr. King! earned me a blog nomination for the Fascination Award: 2012's Most Fascinating Elementary Teacher Blog.  I don't know how these nominations come about, but I am total honored to be in the same category as so many wonderful bloggers!  Thanks to all you great bloggers and readers out there who share ideas and support.  I love you all! :) 

If you would like to vote for my blog click the "Vote for Me" badge above.  Thanks everyone!!!

Winner and a Linky Party!

Congrats Sarah from Sarah's First Grade Snippets!

Now I hope I am not breaking any linky party rules by adding this to my winner announcement, but I am linking up with Hadar, Teri, and April for the Summer Bucket List Linky Party. :)

1. Lose weight and get healthier.  This school year has been a tough one and I am a stress eater. Ahh Lawd... Enough said!

2. After I get my workout on, I am going to relax in my little above ground pool and read lots of books (because I don't have to take any Master's classes :)). 

3.  I have kept a list of units that I've had ideas for throughout the school year but no time to make them. So, I plan on making some units for TPT.

4. I want to make these to hold my jewelery.

from http://www.maillardvillemanor.com

5. Laminate and fix up the literacy centers I have bought and made this school year with my favorite little helper ever: 

Last but not least, I plan on staying up way too late and sleeping in!  Thanks ladies for hosting this fun linky party!!!

Have a Laugh!

Tomorrow is Friday y'all!  As if you needed another reason to smile, here is a Mother's Day letter one of my funny firsties brought me today during writers' conference. First he added middle dotted lines to the regular notebook paper, I guess to make it like primary lined paper.  Instead of writing on it like you would primary paper, he wrote on top of the dotted line.  Anyway, have a look. 

  

I know it's not the bet pic but I was trying to snap quickly with a classroom iPod.  Here is what it says: 

Dear Mom, 

          Happy Mother's Day!  You are the best mom I've ever had in my life, because you are my only mom I'm ever going to have for everyday for the rest of my life.  You are the best mom really because you are the bestest. 

Love Your Dear Son, 

_________

I love it!  I got tickled every time I thought about it today. 

What are y'all doing for Mother's Day??

Remember to enter the Blog Design contest!  It ends tomorrow night!!!!

Teacher Appreciation Give Away and Freebie!

I meant to post this last night but my eyes were so tired from all the blog hopping I did yesterday with the Jackpot.  Was that not AWESOME?!?! A great big THANK YOU to all those who participated and to The Modern Teacher for setting that up!

Now, for me to try and show my appreciation to all of you.

Freebie First! Stick with me until the end, because I will be announcing a give away!

I know that I have mentioned on here before that I LOVE my 1st grade team.  They keep me smiling/laughing even on the hardest of days.  I wanted to do a little sumin sumin for them during Teacher Appreciation week to let them know how wonderful I think they are.  Here are the little treats I came up with.  Oh, I have a confession to make.  I LOVE curling ribbon.   

The top blue on says, "I'd go NUTS without you!!" and has a package of peanuts with it. Yellow-  "You LIGHT up my life!" and has a bottle of water with Crystal light.  Orange-  "I love you to PIECES!" with a bag of Reece's Pieces.  Pink- "Thanks for all the EXTRA you do!" with a pack of Extra Gum.  The last one says, "You make me SNICKER!" with, duh, a Snickers. :)  Click the image below to get your tags for FREE!

Now for the give away!  Yay!!!  I love doing blog designs!  The two most recent I have done are

 The sweet and wonderful Katie King at:





And the kind and creative Christie at




Oh, I also did my blog.

So here is the deal.  In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, I will be giving away one blog design!  Here is what you do to enter:

1.  Follow me and comment letting me know.

For 2 bonus entries you can follow me on Twitter (click the button on the left side), or blog about it!  Leave a comment for each you do.

You have until Friday to enter!  I will announce the winner Saturday!  Good luck and thank you for all that you share and do!  I appreciate you sooooo much!!!

Just call me...

The once a month blogger!  I had to get posted before May 1st.  That's right, MAY!!!  Anyway, here is a big ole pot of random for ya...

My End of the Year Classroom awards on TPT have been updated.  I added some new awards and took off the year, so you can use them again and again.  Click the pic to get your awards.

Moving on...
Our curriculum map had us doing plants FOR...EVER...  So I tried to come up with something fun for the kiddos to do with plants.  Here is a little poem I wrote and some Instagram/PicFrame pictures from when we did the activity...

This is what I used for 20 students:
2 large packages of shredded lettuce
1 package of shredded carrots
1 pack of cherry tomatoes
1 bottle of ranch dressing
20 bowls
20 forks
4 spoons (for ranch)
4 cups (for ranch)
4 plates  (to put the "plants" on)

My firsties LOVED it!!!


Finally, The Lorax stuff.   I know, I know.  I'm totally behind on the times, but maybe you can use it next year, or maybe your have an interdependence lesson coming up, and your kids loved The Lorax so much, you've just got to revisit it.  

We got to go to the movies to see Dr. Seuss' The Lorax after reading the book.  We worked it into our Science and Social studies standards.  This is what our first grade display looks like now that we are all finished:

The students created their very own Thneeds and wrote an advertisement to get people to buy them.

We also did a lesson on interdependence using The Lorax...

 And compared Truffula Trees to Real Trees...

Click {here} to get all the freebies.

I am hoping that this up coming school year I will be on the blogging track, and will no longer be a once a month blogger.  We are on that downhill slope to summer vacation!  How many days do you have left?