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 46 Teaches 3rd in Georgia

I have been finding lots of blogs...LOTS of blogs. I think I have my list made through the middle of March already!  It's fun to see all the different styles and personalities through these teacher's blogs.

What I have found is that blogs are like finding a book at a bookstore.  If the title doesn't hook you, the cover photo might.  Now that's good and bad.  It's great marketing, but you might miss some amazing stories if you only look at the cover.  Which is what we teach our students all the time.

Just like there are thousands upon thousands of books, there are almost as many blogs out there as well!  And if I only looked at the header and the most recent post...I might not find  some awesome jewels out there.

Today's blog is a good example.

To the author of this blog, I will apologize first.  I got caught up in the cute and fancy headers that so many bloggers have created to draw me, the user, in.  Your header was pretty simple...and you really don't have very many posts either.  So I almost surfed right on by...But your blog is like the iceberg where only a little bit of the possibility is above the surface.

If you are a 3rd grade teacher...you have to dig into this blog.  She has some very useful tips and ideas...but what you don't see right away is her huge resource over on TpT!  She has a LOT of great units, games and lessons that she has put together for you to use right away in your classroom with your students!  She has 175 items in her store!  Wow!  Go visit her....now!!

Day 31 It's About Time Teachers

January is almost over so it's time to start thinking about all the fun that February brings.  One of my favorite days in February is the 100th day.  Not because that means that we are more than halfway finished with the year --which seems just crazy to me-- but because it is so fun to see the students so excited about a number!  Moving from 2 digits to 3 digits is amazing...awesome...wonderful...in the eyes of a 1st grader.  Perhaps that's why I have stuck with 1st grade all these years.

Today's blogger is Barb.  She has the blog called: It's About Time Teachers.

Now there are many meanings behind that title, but for Barb, she collects clocks and knows a lot about dusting and winding them I would assume.  She must have a big collection because she has had more than 30 years of teaching experience.  She has seen phonics come and go and come back again. She has taught with Dick and Jane, Dr. Seuss and everything in between.  I am sure she has seen more versions of the Standards than any teacher deserves to see in their lifetime and all her kids have learned regardless...because she teaches!

So like me, Barb's mind is thinking 100th day too.  She has a fun post with 100...yes, 100 ideas for what you can do on the 100th day of school.  Now nobody is going to get through all 100 things...but I'm sure you can find quite a few to help you through your 100th day of school.

And for those of you who have already had your 100th day because you must have year round school or something along those lines...just file this one away in your folder on your computer or pin it on Pinterest for next year!

Day 29 Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten

Whoa...put on the hopping brakes!  I was getting lost in today's blogger.  Julie's kindergarten blog is full of great ideas.  I got so into reading through her posts and ideas that I forgot what I was doing...posting about her blog!

Here is the first thing to distract me.  These are those jumbo lip smackers.  First I flashed back to junior high when the Bonnie Bell ones were so popular.  There were coupons in all the magazines for getting free ones.  They had quite the marketing strategy going because everybody had them.  Well, now here is a new use for all those lip smackers...

Use them to make smelly stickers!  

This is an awesome idea!  Thanks Julie!

Then with 100th day on the brain...I saw this cute idea she used on the 100th day of school.      They counted by 10's to 100.  But with first graders and counting dimes, I will make it 10 cents a scoop and a $1.00.  

Here is a subtraction center.  Awesome cute idea for finding the missing addend of 10.   I was trying to figure out where she got the link for the flowers/suns when I got further down her page...

And I realized it was part of her weather unit!  lol...I was thinking math and flowers....not weather and suns.  Here is her link to this unit:  What's the Weather?....perhaps it would be a great thing to look for during the big sale this weekend on TpT.

Day 23 The 3 AM Teacher

The 3 AM Teacher is an amazingly talented artist as well as a teacher!

You can find some great clip art resources as well as her units on TpT and Teacher's Notebook and she has an Etsy shop too!  

Right now she has a special deal.  If you sponsor her son's efforts to raise money for Jump For Heart you can get either a really cool mega pack of background digital paper...or a mega bundle of math clip art. They are both awesome, but I am eyeing the math clip art myself.  You have until February 10th to sponsor him and get this great deal.

If you sign up to receive her posts, you won't miss my favorite thing...her Friday Five:

Freebie, Find, Funny, Frazzle, Feature

You can simply read and enjoy it...and maybe find some cool thing along the way...or you  can pretend it's the newspaper and just read the funny.  This was this week's funny, a definite teacher funny!

 I know a few kids this year that have already proven this one very accurate!

Maybe someday I will be one of the 3 AM Teacher's finds!  

If you have already started following me, thanks and welcome!  If not, then thanks for visiting.  Maybe come back again sometime and see who I have found next!

Day 21 Wolfelicious

Today's blog should get an award for the most colorful header!  It's what caught my eye and drew me in...so good choice there!  The name was the second hook -- Wolfelicious

April teaches Kindergarten in Florida.  She is full of energy...which is amazing considering she is a mom to an active 3 year old boy and getting ready to have her second child in about a month!  She is getting ready to go out on maternity leave and she is doing the most amazing thing...she is planning her whole 10 weeks off.  When I did that, my co-workers thought I was crazy.  It is so nice to see I'm not the only crazy one out there! lol

April teaches in Florida and down there they have already had their 100th day of school. They made the cutest hats...I'm thinking I might need to make these with my 1st graders cuz they are so stinkin' cute!

Click HERE for the actual post.  But here are the pictures of the clever hats they made.

Aren't they cute...the hats too? 

April has a TpT store and a store on Teacher's Notebook as well.  Visit them and see more of her great kindergarten ideas!  

Want to see what blogs I find next?
Make sure you follow my blog!

Day 20 The Happy Edugator

Here is a new area I haven't delved into yet....

Middle School!

I barely survived my own two daughters being in middle school...I just couldn't imagine teaching middle school.  I know middle school teachers though who say they don't know how I can teach 1st grade too, so I guess it's true...The Lord God Made Them All

Side note....James Herriot was one of my favorite authors when I was a middle school kid.

The Happy Edugator is Deborah (great name by the way) a 7th grade English teacher in Georgia.  She has a lot of out of the box (or rather, out of the boring text book) ideas to make learning fun for her students.  I wish my daughters could have had her for a teacher. I know they would have loved her!

She uses different books that I have never heard of and even an episode of the Twighlight Zone to teach those boring skills you need to know in 7th grade!  And if you are teacher looking for ideas...you have got to visit her TpT store...she has almost 700 items in her store to liven up your lessons!

I had to chuckle...on her google+ profile she has a quote that should be posted in every classroom and household in which a teenager enters:

Think before you speak, and speak not all you think.

Follow me and see where I Hop to next!

Day 19 Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas

It has been a long two weeks.  It seems hard to believe that this was the same amount of time that we just had off for Christmas break.  These past two weeks seemed a whole lot longer.  Don't you think so?

But now it's Saturday morning! And to make this one even sweeter, it's a 3 day weekend!  So what fun plans do you have for your weekend?

To start my morning, I am on the search for more teacher blogs.  It's not hard to find them...it's harder to keep track of them.  Pinterest is great for that.  I always tag my favorites that I want to go back to on my board. But I started my 365 Blog Hop Challenge to get to know more of my blog neighbors and to be able to find them again.

If two weeks flew by, then my three day weekend will be gone in a blink of an eye!  Especially with all that I have to do this weekend....

My weekend will include:

• Sleeping in (I got up at 7:00 instead of 5:30 -- woohoo!)
• Adding blogs to my 365 Blog Hop Challenge
• Staying warm (it's 9 degrees outside right now at 8:30 in the morning)
• Finish grading the assessments I gave last week
• Start my report cards
• Taking pictures at my friend's daughter's 18th birthday party
• Adding more blogs to my 365 Blog Hop Challenge
• Working on my report cards
• Watching the 49ers game
• Finish lesson plans for the next two weeks
• Making the program for our Cheer Competition next weekend
• Working on my report cards
• Paying the bills :)
• Turning the pictures I took at the birthday party into a photo book on Shutterfly
• Working on my report cards
• Catching up on the laudry folding

So now you see how a 3 day weekend can fly by?  Goodness....just looking at that list makes me feel like it's already Monday night!

I think I will get back to the fun part of my weekend...looking for blogs...

This is the one I was hanging out on this morning.  Her blog is called Fern Smith's Classroom Ideas!  Fern is from Florida and teaches 3rd grade. She was even chosen as teacher of the year at her school...so her co-workers know what a treasure she is. She has lots of fun ideas and freebies and items on her blog and in her TpT and Teacher's Notebook stores that you and your students will just love!

I have to admit, one of her posts just stopped me in my tracks...

Read what it says under the picture!

Yes, this is the top of her desk when she leaves school everyday.  This is what I have always wanted to achieve, but have never been able to accomplish!  I just love the 3 hole punch next to it all.  Maybe if I had that on my desk it would help me stay organized...lol.

Nope, organization is just something I have to keep striving for...I don't think it is what I will ever attain 100%.  I just have little windows of hope!  But Fern, you are amazing!!  Not only do you create awesome units and activities...but you probably know where they all are! lol

Day 18 Wild About Fifth Grade

I teach 1st grade. I don't know about the other 1st grade teachers out there...but I get the funniest responses when I mention that I teach 1st graders.

"Wow, how can you do that?"

"I sure couldn't do that!"

"Better you than me!"

"Isn't that exhausting?"

"I'm glad you teach my 6 year old, cuz I sure couldn't do that all day!"

There are a few things that make it tough...For instance,  I don't particularly care for the untied shoelaces (especially the little boys who walk in and out of the bathrooms with them untied -- ick!).  I could totally do without the nose picking --  really I have like 8 boxes of tissues around the room!  Then there are the occasional potty accidents.  And this time of the year, it is just amazing the amount of time it takes them to put on and take off their snow suits before and after every recess...

But I love teaching 1st graders. I can't imagine teaching any other grade.  I almost had to do just that this year....I almost had to teach 4th grade...or even worse, 6th grade!  I say that in good humor because I have taught both grades...they aren't all that bad...but I really like teaching the little ones in 1st grade.  Everything is new and exciting.  And when they learn how to do something, they think they are so proud of themselves!

But I will be honest...the main reason I love 1st graders is that...they are still shorter than me!! :)

In my inbox today I got an email from Melissa in Michigan.  She is a 5th grade teacher (more power to you!) -- and hopefully taller than most of her students!  She wanted to be included in my blog hop challenge...so I visited her blog.

Melissa is Wild About Fifth Grade!  Her blog was started last fall and she is doing really well already.  She has hooked and linked and pinned and TpT'ed a number of useful tools and units already!  Now I don't teach the advanced math that a 5th grader will need to know but I sure could have used some of her units to help my two girls when they were in 5th grade struggling to visualize those abstract math concepts.

Welcome to my 365 Blog Hop Challenge Melissa...you are my first upper grade blog!

Keep up the good work!

Day 15 Fun in First Grade

Yes, sorry, another 1st grade blog.  I do think that the 1st grade teachers are the most prolific at blogging.  Not sure why. It must be that we have so much more free time on our hands because our students are so independent -- tongue is definitely in cheek right now :)

But Dana's blog, Fun in 1st Grade, is full of great ideas and links to even more that she finds online.  She seems to be a linky queen.  She would be the person to connect with if you want to start connecting along the linky path.  This is something I'm still learning about myself.

She has over 60 items in her TpT and Teacher's Notebook stores and links to lots of freebies on the blog.

Stop by and check out her blog...sit down in a comfortable chair because I assure you that you will be there for awhile!

Day 8 2nd Grade Pad

Pad...now that is a word I haven't heard in awhile.  Then I saw the Frog on her blog and went...oooooooooh, now I get it!  I was having a 'duh' moment there.  Haven't had my morning mocha yet!

Cynthia is from Georgia and I'm betting even this time of year they can hear toads croaking and frogs going ribbet.  Here in North Idaho...they are all asleep for the long winter under a layer of ice and snow.  I woke up this morning and it is only 12 degrees! brrr

Cynthia is a second grade teacher (I know, obvious from the title huh?...remember, I haven't had my mocha yet) and she has over 90 great items in her TpT store.  I do have to chuckle...some of my best finds regarding winter and snowmen are from the southern teachers...because of all the snow y'all have down there? tee hee  Or is it because you wish you had snow??

Cynthia has a Linky happening that you should take part in...so hop on over and check it out.

Day 3 of Blog Hopping

I teach 1st grade, but I love to see what 2nd is doing (I spent 3 years with second graders). I think spending time at the grade above you currently teach is truly a valuable gift.

I know exactly what my 1st graders need to do next year which makes it easier to prepare them in the long term this year.

I do have to admit I get a little sad having to give up my competent and independent end of the year 1st grade workers each June only to start from scratch with end of the year half-day kindergarten kids again in September.  <<big sigh>>

But at least I know I'm good at getting them ready for the world of learning...or so the 2nd grade teachers tell me.  Is that perhaps because they don't want to exchange their kids for my potty accident, runny nosed, dragging shoe laced first graders??  Nah...they would love to do 1st grade :) lol

When I search for ideas, I always visit those 2nd grade teachers.  They tend to have some fun things that can challenge my kids that need challenging.  The first 2nd grade blog I am sharing is called Pirate Girl's Education Invasion.

She calls her kids Mrs. Powell's Pirates.  I love that! Pirates?  That got me wondering where she was from.  Well, where did pirates hang out?

Well, in warm places with lots of ocean of course!  This is a sunrise, not a sunset...that should narrow it down to the East side of our country.  

She lives in Florida!  Gorgeous, warm, tropical, Florida.  I was born there and my parents moved us west when I was 10, but that beach picture truly calls to me.  Perhaps the foot of snow outside my window and the fact that the low tonight is supposed to be 9 degrees (brrrr) only adds to the desire to be somewhere...anywhere....warmer!

So, Merinda....if we all show up on your doorstep for Spring Break, will you have room for us?

Day 2 of My Challenge

Day #2 

I discovered this blog just last week.  I found it as part of Google+.  I have no idea how I became part of it...other than the fact that Google Chrome or Google+ or some googly thing invited me.  But there is a huge network of teachers on there.  And +Sarah Winchell is one of the teachers I found.  (Isn't it cool how if I just put a plus in front of her name it just directs you right to her Google profile :)  

The first thing that drew me to her blog was the title!  Yup, I eat, sleep and dream first grade.  I even got to the point where I keep notepads everywhere...like on the bathroom counter...because when I'm in the shower cool ideas pop into my head and I have to write them down right away or I will forget them! lol

Sarah has LOTS of experience.  She teaches 1st grade in North Carolina.  She has been teaching for 27 years!  Wow!  Her blog, I Dream of First Grade, is full of great ideas and advice from a veteran who absolutely loves teaching the little ones!

Pop on over for a visit!

The First Blog

I had trouble deciding which one of the blogs I've found I should share first.  There are so many to choose from and I find more all the time...

So this is the one I have decided to start with...Fluttering Through First Grade
How can you resist the name.  It so describes a typical day in 1st grade.

This blog is created by a pair of clever teachers named Christy and Tammy.  They have been teaching 1st grade for 10 years and have come up with a lot of clever units.  They have over 75 products in their TpT store.  Be sure to check out their awesome Habitat units. Be sure to visit their blog and see what they have created!

Blog Hoppers Unite!

Blog hopping or Bird Walking as my friend calls it--is addicting and never ending.  I don't know if anyone hops on to mine yet.

Hellloooo....(was that the echo of my own voice I hear?)

Oh well, maybe someday I will be helpful to someone.  If so, I am glad I got to share something with somebody.  In the meantime, it's just me and the sounds of the keys clicking away on the old laptop.

Like I was saying...blog hopping is addicting and never ending.   It's like the book series that my daughters got me hooked into last summer...

The Maze Runner Series

The twists and turns you take throughout the variety of web pages out there.  I never know where I have been and worst of all, how to get back to where I started!  And the path I take is never the same twice!

Fortunately there is this really great tool that helps me keep it all organized.

Life in Idaho Pinterest Board

Are you on there yet?  You need to be on there if you are a blog hopper.  All you have to do is 'pin' your find in a category on your bulletin board.  It's awesome!  Check out my board...there's lots of fun stuff on it.  With Pinterest I can find my way back to my favorite stops along the blog hopping trail!  No more worries of writing down lists of sites in a notebook or trying to bookmark them on my computer and then having long lists of bookmarks.  Best of all, it saves time...and we all need that!

So today's fun find I added to my board is a clip art site.  It's called Scrappin Doodles.

You can click on the link over there on the right side bar ----->  ----->  ----->

I found it when I was downloading freebies on Teachers Pay Teachers.  The teacher used her art on her planning sheet she had created.   There are kids and animals that are as cute as the Thistle Girl designs.  And unlike Thistle Girl, you can use the Scrappin Doodles designs you buy without purchasing a $120 resellers license--like Thistle Girl requires!

Things that save time and money are two biggies in my world!  How about yours?  Now on to lesson planning...ugh...I hate that part of getting ready for school.  It brings out the procrastinator in me.  But you can't teach like you blog hop :)  So planning I must go!