Day 74 Happy Birthday to ME! A sale, plus one more blog!

Happy birthday to me!  Yup, tomorrow is another birthday.  Ides of March...the 15th.  Plus this week my youngest daughter also turned 15.  There is something special to that number this year.  So I decided to make it even more special...I'm going to give 15% off the creations in my store! Please stop by and see if something tickles your fancy and enjoy 15 % off at the same time!

Thanks!

For my birthday...here is a wonderful gift.  This blog is so full of ideas it's going to burst at the seams!  The name says it all...Teaching Blog Addict...it's what we bloggers tend to be...addicts to the cause.  As they say, they are "a fun resource community for educators."  If you are looking for some inspiration or a freebie or two or just tomorrow's lesson plan or art project, then this is a blog that should be on your bookmark bar!

Enjoy your Friday...my birthday will be a memorable one as we are riding a school bus 10 hours to Boise for our State Cheer Competition...yeah...

happy birthday to me...

stiff back it will be....

25 teenagers on a bus....

wouldn't you love to go with us?

sorry...too much Seuss this week--I broke into rhyme!

Day 72 The Creative Chalkboard

Oh my goodness...I find blogs that wow me all the time.  I wish I had as much time as some of these amazing teachers I find online seem to have.  Maybe I just get too distracted by all the "shiny objects" I find made by others...but I just don't feel like I produce as much as I think about in my head.

But thank heavens for those who do seem to have the time or the energy to get it all done and share it with others!  Today's bloggers is one of those that really made me say wow and to fire up the printer and to load up my wish list on TpT.

Krista has the blog The Creative Chalkboard and she has a wonderful store on TpT.  I found her through the TpT newsletter last month.  She does clip art...(I am a clip art hoarder...just to know...they haven't made a tv show about that yet though--guess Honey Boo Boo is more interesting...lol)  and Krista creates things to use with your class as well.

You can get a good freebie taste of it in her TpT store.  I love her writing templates.  They are so darn creative while still being usable.  Sometimes teachers make great stuff, but they don't have enough room for 1st grade writers to write anything on them.  Or they are so full of clip art that there may only be a few math problems actually on the page.

Krista has a nice balance to her creations.  And if you want more free fonts...she has those too.  Very cute, easy to read ones for young kids.

I love this hamburger organizer.  It goes perfectly with the poster I have in my room!  My 1st graders love the analogy.

Now...if the TpT treasures aren't enough...go to Krista's blog.  Now I want to find time to redo my classroom!  Maybe if I sell enough on TpT myself I can find the money to spruce things up a bit.  I dug deeper and found the tour of her classroom from last September because I absolutely love how she displays some of the things in her room!  Click here for the link to the tour of her classroom from last September.  Very cool and organized! 

I want to know what she is using the pizza pans on the wall for...and those lovely large compare and contrast posters...and the fact poster...and...well I think I just need to go to her classroom! I think I need a trip to Delaware!!

And here is a treasure...shows me that I don't go to the Dollar Tree near enough!  She found these cool eyeballs for her readers to inspire them to track with their fingers!  Now I am on a mission to find these!  Monster fingers are cool...but these are cooler...or the coolest (that was our spelling pattern a couple weeks ago -er and -est endings)

I'm still hopping along...this was blog number 72.  I can't believe that the year is flying by so quickly!

Day 66 First Grade in Foxwell Forest

Mrs. Foxwell, Becca, teaches 1st grade.  You have got to read her post from March 5th.  If you aren't an educator of the littler learners...you will be overwhelmed after you read this post.  No, she didn't do it all in one day (ha ha), but you will see how much we put into our jobs!

All I can say after reading her post...is ditto my last two weeks too.  Well, minus the baby shower...but add in coaching a high school cheer squad getting ready to go to state!  Then I think we are even on the insanity and lack of sleep level.

So I was hopping around her blog and I was stopped in my tracks by this post:

 The Bravo Board

I do table points, but this Bravo Board just puts the bow onto what I already do.  I love the coupon idea.  I already let the table group with the most points have lunch with me in the classroom--and they think that is amazingly awesome--makes me feel almost like I'm Adam Levine or Taylor Swift--because they think it's the coolest thing short of a third recess!  I think mixing it up with her cool coupon ideas would make it even that much more worth winning!

I know it's March...and the groundhog came out over a month ago...but I am already finding new ideas for next year.  I downloaded this freebie graph and used it this year..

But somehow I missed her cute groundhog craft to go with my paragraph writing.  I am filing this one away for next year! Can't wait to change up the old one I've been using for the last 10 years!  She has it in her TpT store...and it's not free, but it is definitely worth a look and spending a few dollars on it!

Isn't this the cutest groundhog?!

Ok, there is a whole lot more to find in the Foxwell Forest. Be sure to go visit!

Day 65 Double Duty Tuesday

Here is a two-fer day...I was invited to a fun linky party hosted by 1-2-3 Teach With Me.  Do you have a Facebook page for your blog?  Do you want more "likes"?  Well, here is a great way to make new Facebook friends.  Head over there and join up with her Linky Party.

Here is a 3rd grade find...Although I teach 1st grade...I can never get enough of those organized ideas.  I can always improve how I run centers...and pretty much anything else in my classroom and perhaps my life too!

Stephanie teaches 3rd grade in Colorado...one of my favorite places on earth!  Well, second only to North Idaho that is.  Stephanie uses the Daily 5 in her classroom.  She also has a wonderful routine set up for Math Centers.  You have to check it out.

I would love to try more centers in my classroom.  My schedule is just not the way I want it in my new school.  All my free time is the last hour of the day and by then the kids are whooped and not into hard thinking.  I am enjoying my class, but I am also looking forward to it not being my first year again!

So how do you fit in centers and reading groups?  It's hard.  Like I said, the end of the day just doesn't work for me.  I'm tired, the kids are tired...I don't feel like I am as effective as I was when I got to do my reading during the morning.  I am kind of thinking of changing things up a bit after Spring Break.

After 16 years, 3 school districts and 4 schools...I'm still trying to find the perfect routine.  Stephanie from 3rd Grade Thoughts has inspired me to try some new things.  Thanks!

Day 63 Apples and abc's

High energy kinder is what you get with Michelle's blog:  Apples and ABC's

I had to chuckle when I read Michelle's post about using feathers to write like George Washington.  It was one of those amazing ideas...that didn't quite go as planned.  I have to give anyone who posts about failures a lot of credit!  As teachers we know that our students learn equally from their successes as from their failures! And we as teachers, still have lots of learning to do too.  Especially those of us that think outside the box and love to supplement fun in with the adopted curriculum.

Michelle has created some great emergent reader books that she has for sale in her TpT store.
I like them because they are interactive.  The students can draw the pictures to go with the sentence which helps them plant the seeds of learning that much deeper!  Great job Michelle!

Visit her store on TpT...she has over 60 other ideas as well!

Can you believe it is already March?  We are into the third month of 2013...how the heck did we get here so fast!?!?

Do you have any fun units you do in March?  I know St. Patrick's Day and perhaps Spring take the forefront...but what else do you do?  Please share because I love trying new things!

Day 60 Criss Cross Applesauce in First Grade

Holly is a fellow first grade teacher.  I loved reading her blog.  She has a delightful sense of humor which comes through in her postings.   Her blog is called Crisscross Applesauce.  Now who hasn't used that term or at least heard it said before?

Between her fun take on teaching and life as a teacher and mom...she also seems to be amazingly creative with her fun theme units.  I want to sell more of my own so I have the money to buy more of hers! shhh...don't tell my hubby, because I think he has other plans for my earnings!

I learned something new today from her blog too!  If you put a frozen spoon under your pillow when you go to bed, it can bring about a snow day the next morning!  Bet you didn't know that one did you now?  lol....it may not work when you want to extend that 3 day weekend in May into a 4 day weekend...but maybe in January?!?!  I will have to give it a try next winter!

Be sure to visit her TpT store.  She has some fun freebies to give you a taste of her talent.  I found this amazing poster that I'm going to print up.  You know that saying..."

You get what you get and you don't throw a fit."

Well, Holly has a much better twist on it that I am going to start using with my 1st graders!

That is a much more positive message!!  I love it!

Here is the link to go directly to her TpT Store and download it for your class!

It will go hand in hand with the one I use every day....

If you're not Listening

You're not Learning

This is what I say whenever I start a lesson and I am trying to get them all to focus and listen to the very important directions I'm about to give.  I say the first part...they come back with the second part.  They love it and it works...plus it's a little moral message that is sinking into their brains as well!

Day 58 Positively Learning

Positively Learning is a blog by a Special Ed teacher in Baltimore, Maryland.  She teaches (inclusion) with the 1st grade teachers and sounds like she has a few small pullout groups, but mostly she supports the students learning in the classroom.  That's awesome!  I hate that the SpEd student I have is out of my classroom half the day.  I think this affects his behaviors in class more.

This is a very fun game that she does with her students.  It's called Batty Blast!  It's a phonics game that I can't wait to purchase from her TpT store because it's something I think my students would love to play too...

She also has the cutest "Smart Cookie" award notes.  Here is a partial shot of them.  See her full page of award notes she has posted on Scribd:

Click HERE for the full version on Scribd

Day 57 My (Not So) Elementary Life

Today's blogger is a delightful newbie teacher named Heidi.  I'm not sure where she is from...though from reading her blog she has had bad snow days and scary tornado scares at school.  I'm so happy that is not one of the drills we have to do up here in North Idaho!

Her blog is called My (not so) Elementary Life and it is full of her fun experiences as a new teacher and great ideas she has created.  I love her enthusiasm and positive outlook on even the worst of those teachable moments!   Heidi teaches title I math and is a Kindergarten Reading teacher.  She has great ideas for helping the little ones understand big concepts.

Heidi also has a TpT store and a Pinterest board with her creations and other fun things she has found.  And I am happy to say...she is one of those OCD organized people like me :)  So it is really easy to find your way through her Pinterest Board!

Be sure to stop on your next blog hop and see the creative units she has posted!

Day 56 Flamingos and Butterflies

Today I have found Mrs. Dunn. She teaches 4th grade somewhere that most of us probably wish we could go to on vacation...in her pictures it looks way too warm and there's a beach...and flamingos...and green things growing year round....perhaps that would be a fun place to have a blogger hook-up!

Mrs. Dunn doesn't sell on TpT...she is a straight-up blogger and a self-proclaimed book junkie.  She has the most amazing collection of books (I think I saw the word hoard in one of her posts...lol)  On her blog, Flamingos and Butterflies, she has a great link called Picture Book a Day.

It's hard not to read her posts about all the books she finds, uses with her students and just plain loves and not have my Amazon Wishlist open and add many of the titles she shares!  She truly does love books and even though you (and I) may not teach 4th grade...there are books for all of us to use.  I also think it's important for teachers in the older grades to remember that picture books aren't just for little kids...but there is a time and place where maybe a chapter book just doesn't fit in with your lesson and a picture book might just make your point much better.  It's like those animated movies.  They may seem like they are for the littles...but older kids and even adults can find something to enjoy in them too.

I do have one question I would like to end with...how come flamingos has no 'e' and tomatoes and potatoes need to have that 'e' when you add the final '-s'.  That has always puzzled me!  Any grammar know-it-alls that can help me with that one?

Day 55 Erica Bohrers' First Grade

Erica Bohrers' First Grade blog is inspiring me to be more creative with my lesson plans.  I made a  change this year to doing mine on my computer.  It absolutely drives me nuts to buy those lesson plan books that you have write everything in from scratch each week.  It seems like such a huge waste of my pressure hours that I have each week.

Erica has the coolest visual lesson plan book ever!  You have absolutely got to check it out if you haven't seen it already...Click HERE.  While you are there, check out the cutest ever bunny art she has for Valentine's Day.  I already finished all my V-day projects, but those bunnies would be so stinkin' cute for Easter too don't you think?

Day 54 Doodle Bugs Teaching and Five for Friday

This morning I joined a linky party :)  Five for Friday pops up all the time...not always on Fridays...but isn't that just how our teacher's lives roll?  We get to things when we have a window of opportunity...It may not be when we want to do it, but it always gets done.

So my Five for Friday...um...Saturday morning....

1.  The weather.  The last couple weeks started to feel like there was a hint of spring in the air.  Perhaps the groundhog was right.  It got close to 50 during the days and the nights barely dropped to freezing.  The snow started melting big time...I could see my roof again and the potholes in the road, the bottom of the slides on the playground at school, and the path to the chicken coop!  But then it hit...

The notorious second wave of winter!  We have had over six inches again in the past two days with more falling as I type.  Dang...I thought I might get an early start to prepping the garden for the summer season...Not going to happen.....yet.

2.  Districts is today.  I am the assistant cheer coach for our high school team.  These girls AND boys are amazing athletes.  It's so sad that people pick on them and say that they aren't doing a real sport.  It's actually a combination of many sports and it is incredibly hard...the competitive part.  Yeah, that sideline cheering at a game is not what we are talking about.  

I love this picture from last night's practice because it has both my daughters in it.  My 'baby' is the one doing the prone fall.  What incredible trust she has in her bases!  My oldest daughter is the one with the blonde hair and black shirt on the left side of the picture.  She is one of those strong bases that holds a flyer's life in her hands.  

Please send us some good thoughts as we compete today and hopefully make it to State. Because there is nothing I want more than to  ride a school bus on my birthday for 10 hours  see these kids get a second chance to go to State!  {Yup, second year in a row we are traveling ON my birthday....lol.} 

3. Finally got my A.R. (Accelerated Reader) bookmarks finished and posted onto my TpT and TN sites.  Yeah!  I found that when my first graders use these bookmarks, their passing rate is much higher because they actually read the book more than once before attempting to take the comprehension test on the computer. Keeping track of reading in a fun way and not 'cheating' the system has really helped them take ownership of their reading.  I have about 14 different designs to use throughout the year.  They love to see them change every few weeks.  You can find them here: TeacherpayTeacher and on Teacher's Notebook.

4.  The moose are back!  

This young lady will be 3 this spring.  She was born the year we moved into our house (we believe this is her).  We haven't seen her mama in awhile at our house, but we have seen her in the 'hood.

This is actually a different moose.  This is one of two that were bedded down in our yard just two days ago.  They are twins that Mama moose had last year.  Not sure where mama is, but she may be getting ready to have her newest baby and needs a bit of space.  I did see them all together just a week ago down the road.  Moose don't have their young until May, but she may be kind of cranky with two little ones tagging along! lol

5.  Today's blog for my 365 Blog Hop Challenge!

Doodle Bugs Teaching was what I found this morning.  I actually found her first on TeacherPayTeacher because I found her awesome --FREE-- calendar cards.  Here are the March cards...click HERE.  March is my favorite month...cuz I get to ride a school bus to southern Idaho...lol.

Doodle Bug is a Mississippi 1st grade teacher and I think she does what most of us do so well...packs in 26 hours worth of projects and ideas into 24 hours.  Please visit her blog and you will be amazed by her energy and creativity!  Perhaps some of her ideas and creations will help you save some creating time in your classroom!

Day 53 I Teach. What's Your Super Power?

Well, if there were a top 10 of the "Best Teacher Blog Names", this would be in the top 3 for sure!  Perhaps even number 1!

Megan is a Texas teacher, teaching 3rd grade this year and she shares the ups, downs and the need to have super powers...err...I mean the tricks she uses to help her students learn.  I Teach. What's Your Super Power is full of great stuff.  I discovered a new website for classroom behavior management.  It's called Class Dojo.  Megan tells all about using it in her class on THIS Post.

It seems to be pretty popular in some parts of the country from the way she talks about it...but hasn't made it to North Idaho yet. Heck, we are so behind in technology up here that it's no great surprise.  Hey, at least most of us have whiteboards now instead of chalkboards!  I do say most of us...there are a few rooms in my building where the teachers still use stuff called chalk!


Megan not only designs units and activities to use in your classroom but she also designs background papers.  This is a great thing if you want to design projects, cards, bulletin boards or cover pages for your TpT creations!  Click HERE for her TpT Store.

She has this mega pack for sale on her TpT store.  But if you want to take some freebies out for a test drive, she has some in her store too!

Are you following my Blog Hop Challenge?  Choose your favorite method to follow me over in the column on the side of the blog, 

or

friend me on Facebook.  

Day 52 Fourth Grade Flipper

 I spend most of my time in the primary world...but lately I've been in search of other grade levels who teach those kids taller than me.  This pretty much covers 3rd grade and above (tall has never been an adjective used to reference me!)

This wonderful teacher teaches in a rural district in New York...yes, there's more to New York than 'The Big Apple'.   I teach 1st grade, but I find great ideas from any all levels of teaching.  4th grade was where I did half my student teaching (kinder was the other half--yes, night and day difference there).

I actually found a great resource for fluency on her blog that I shared with my school's reading coach and she in turn shared it with all the 3-6th grade teachers in the district and they went gaga over it.  So thank you Flipper!

I was looking at her list of blog topics in the right column and I saw a link for Class Pet.  I clicked on it and expected to see a rat or a guinea pig...or some other animal that would be sure to gross me out, smell really bad or make my eyes swell shut!  (Nope...I'm not describing 4th graders at least not until May when it gets warm in the classrooms and they come in from gym or recess!)

This is her class pet....

This is the coolest thing ever!  You don't have to worry about the kids killing it when they take it home over a weekend.  No food to buy, no smell and no mess to clean up.  It's perfect!  She sends it home with a journal for the kids to write about their adventures with the class pet.  This is such a great idea I think I will use it next year in my 1st grade classroom.  Thank you Flipper!

Day 51 Sunny Days in 2nd Grade

I would love to have some sunny days in Idaho right about now :)  Don't get me wrong...I love winter.  I love cold weather.  It's fun to snuggle up with a good book in front of a warm fire...but some days I feel my body just craving sunshine or even just sunlight.  Living this far north, by December the days are so short that by the times the kids leave and I pack up my bag, it's dark outside.  Yup, by 3:30 it's time for the headlights on the drive home.  There are a couple weeks when I drive to school in the dark and drive home in the dark.  That's the rough part.  I know it's harder for those that live farther north, but I can still whine just a little bit :)

So when I found Sunny Days in 2nd Grade...the name just drew me right into her blog....

Sunny Days lives, teaches and creates in Florida.  Perhaps all those hours of daylight help inspire her :)  Whatever her inspiration is, her blog is delightful.  She teaches a gifted group of 2nd graders...what a dream that would be!

Sunny has a fun thing she does called Show and Tell Tuesday.  She has a different topic each week.  Some of these include: Literacy Centers, Book Shares, 100th Day, but she has many more....check it out.  And the fun part is you can link up your blog with her topic.

On her Winter Show and Tell Tuesday she has found some very clever winter ideas including the best ever snow globe project!!  You absolutely have to go check it out!  I will have to file it away for next year....I would much rather move on to spring ideas.

Day 50 The Schroeder Page

Monica teaches 2nd grade and posts her teaching ideas and adventures on The Schroeder Page.  She has a lively blog...full of ideas and activities...lots of videos and pictures.  

Yesterday her post about dental hygiene has me wanting to teach about teeth in my class too...wish I had a school nurse who wanted to do fun stuff like her school nurse!  Hmmm...homemade toothpaste?  That sounds like lots of fun for the students!  

This year we adopted a new science curriculum...the National Geographic one.  It looks like it has great reading material and ideas for experiments, but our district didn't purchase the lab kits...so to do the units we have to buy it all ourselves!  I'm not sure how to describe how I feel about that. :(

But science is one of my favorite things to teach and my goal for next school year...after being in my new school for a year...is to see how I can work it in to my lesson plans.  In the meantime I file away cool ideas that I find.  And Monica had the coolest science activity for Valentine's Day.

I love the scientific method.  All the built in questions and the potential for problem solving and writing are huge!  So when I saw this activity...it made me crave to teach some meaningful science again!  Monica even includes the directions for how to make the goggles.  Yes, the kids MAKE the goggles they wear!  How cool is that!?

Day 49 3rd Grade Grapevine

Do you have everything ready for President's Day?  It's the 100th day of school for us tomorrow so President's Day will be on hold for another day.  But if you are in need of some last minute ideas, head over to Mrs. Hardin's 3rd Grade Grapevine.

This coin chart is her freebie for today.  These are great charts for teaching the coins!  I downloaded these and will be using them as I am introducing nickels very soon.  

Susan has some great resources and ideas on her blog...but the bulk of her ideas are in her TpT and TN shops.  Be sure to visit those shops!