Monday, May 7, 2012

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!!!



Monday, April 30, 2012

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?

Friday, March 16, 2012

Warning: This a long one but there are freebies!

I thought that when I graduated with my Master's, I would have tons of time to blog, make units for TPT,create blog designs, make crafty things, and read.   HAVE MERCY! That has not been the case!




That is my friend Sam and me holding the blue folders.  We are working on a book blog as I type, so be on the look out!  The other two ladies are other first grade teachers and the best team members/friends that anyone could ask for!  I love them!

Anyway,  here is a little rundown of -some- of the things that have kept me from blogging.

This has been the busiest school year in my 5 years of teaching. During a team meeting, our Curriculum Coach walked in and a fellow teacher (one from the picture above:)) looked at her and said, "If you say, 'It's just on more thing' one more time, I am going to scream!"

Home life has been just as hectic. This summer we started remodeling/adding on to the house and are still not finished.

My poor Nana has been diagnosed with late life anorexia and dementia. She has broken 3 bones in as many months. I try to spend as much time with her as possible but my job in the situation has become taking my Papa to the grocery store on Friday night while someone sits with her. Please keep her in your prayers!  Isn't she precious?!?! :)
Silly Nana at Christmas.  She would kill me if she knew I put this pic on here, but I LOVE it!


I had planned on using Spring Break to catch up on all the fun things I love. Well, I woke up Sunday feeling like POO! I went to the doctor on Monday and found out I have the flu...ON SPRING BREAK! Ugh. SO the first few days were spent sleeping.

So Wednesday was the first day I got to check something off on my to do list.

Months ago, Katie King from Queen on the First Grade Jungle, contacted me about creating a blog design for her. She was so patient, sweet, wonderful, and understanding. She never gave up on me and I cannot thank her enough. Her new blog design is up and cute! Go over there and check out all her wonderful ideas. Make sure to check out her TPT store while you are there too!   Looking at her blog makes me want to fix me up a new one.  :)



I have made a few things to use in my classroom, I just haven't gotten around to sharing them. My school is Pre-K-2. Our sister school is 3-5 and is a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) School. To prepare our little ones for what's to come, we do some kind of engineering/ inquiry based lesson at least once a week. I wrote about another engineering lesson {here} if you would like more information about it.

One of my favorite STEM lessons we do is building houses for The Three Little  Click the image below to check out the Freebies I created to go along with that lesson.


This next little freebie is a Contraction Word Work Center.  I saw something like it last year but could not find it anywhere this year, so I just made my own.  If you are the original "sharer" of the Green Egg Contractions please, please let me know and I will make sure you get the credit.  Click the pic to get the file.

Well that's it!  Give yourself a brain kiss if you made it to the end!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  I am praying this week goes by quickly, because I cannot wait much longer for THE HUNGER GAMES!!!!!!!! One week... WOOOO HOOOO!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

A Birthday Card for Dr. King!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday is right around the corner. Each year I have my students make a birthday card for him with some kind of thank you statement written in with the B-Day wishes. You can get your free birthday card template by clicking the image below.
Check out what else my kiddos did for Dr. King's birthday last year by clicking {here}.

Finally, if you have not seen my sweet Tennessee friend, Erin Eberhart's latest post with her fabulous (and free!) MLK mini-unit, you have got to click on over there! 


Hope you have had a restful weekend and are recharged for another exciting week!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Critters in the Classroom



If you have not been to Erica Bohrer's new blog, Critters in the Classroom, go check it out now! I am so pleased to be a part of this blogs! I love animals and thanks to Erica, I have a new place to share the love! :)

Sunday, October 23, 2011

NEW BLOG ALERT!

Hey everyone!  There is a new blogger on the block!  Her name is Sandra of Sandra's Savvy Teaching Tips.  She has some really cute stuff to share.  Click on the picture below to visit her blog and check out her first TPT product.  

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Craving Pumpkins and Building Character!

My church is doing a pumpkin patch as a fundraiser right now. One sweet lady brought this wonderful "Pumpkin Prayer" to share.


I would love to use this with my firsties, but since I teach in a public school, I decided to write a "Pumpkin Pledge" instead. 

Download your copy of both {here}!