Back to School Sale

It's that time again...Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale and so am I!  On August 18 and 19 TPT is offering a 10% off code PLUS I am having 20% off all products over $3.00.  That adds up to 28% off!  Don't forget to use the TPT Promo Code when you check out!

Here's a peek at some of the deals you'll find at my TPT Store:

That's all for now - I'm busy as a bee working in my classroom and I promise pictures will come soon!
Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog or TPT Store.

Under Construction

Our school hosts a Back-to-School Open House each year before the school year starts.  Students and families can meet their teachers and explore their new classrooms.  Sometimes I have supplies or center materials that I do not wish students (or their younger siblings) to get into during open house, or even the first few weeks of school.  My solution? Under Construction Signs.  They are FREE for you!  I also made a sign to put up on bulletin boards that I am intentionally leaving blank for eventual student work or anchor charts we create together.

Again they are FREE for you!  I hope they make your Back-to-School organization a little easier!

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Guilty Pleasures

My kids have gone off with Gramma and Papa for a fun-filled 10 days of vacation and spoiling! I'm free to spend countless hours in my classroom organizing to my heart's content without even a speck of guilt about neglecting my own children!  So...what did I do on my first free afternoon?  Laid around on the couch and enjoyed doing NOTHING!  Watched a little tv (ok, a documentary about teaching), surfed the web (pinning teaching-related items), and took a teeny tiny nap (and had a school dream)!  It's that time when I can't get my mind off teaching.  So, I decided to publish a new product on TPT to help you get ready for...

wait for it...

Guided Math!  That's right, I know it's not as flashy as all the back to school classroom decor printables but my CCSS Guided Math Lesson Resources pack was really helpful to me last year and hopefully it will help you!  This particular product is geared for First Grade only; other grade levels coming soon.

 

Look for future blog posts about how I organize guided math in my first grade classroom!

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog or TPT Store!

Thanks for reading!  Please consider following my blog or TPT Store!

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

- See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.j43xFyOA.dpuf

Back to Reality!

OK OK - time to face the facts.  My beautiful northern Michigan summer is slipping away.  With all the back to school supplies in stores I can't even pick up disgusting sugary cereal and smore fixings for my camping trip without lamenting that my summer is ending help but feel that excited twinge of a new school year and a new beginning.  Yes I have worked a lot this summer...finished my Master's degree (WOO HOO!), done some extra work for the state Department of Education, and worked out a plan for my guided math groups...but I've also spent time on the beach, cleaned my house, sang and screamed my head off for took three girls to see One Direction in Chicago, and enjoyed many many afternoon naps quality downtime with my children.  However, this all adds up to one sorely neglected teaching blog.

Here are some quick pics of my summer beachy days (thanks Louise):

Summer Slacker?  Who not me!

The great thing about a teaching blog is that your followers usually don't give up on that summer slacker "un-follow" you and I know you'll all be here for me.  Yes I had big plans for my blog and TPT this summer - after all, when during the school year do I have this much unscheduled time?  But you know, the old saying "If you want something done, ask a busy person" is true and I'm much busier during the school year.

So I'm hoping that many of you are like me...and in the summer you don't especially want to think about school or read about an over-achiever who has no life a teacher who is probably making millions in TPT sales dedicated teacher who already has her lesson plans for the year done and classroom set up by early July...but now that it's August you are starting to get the bug to eat, breathe, and live teaching!  At least that's MY justification for being a summer slacker!

Back-to-School Beaver Fever

So join me in my Back-to-School (Eager) Beaver Fever and let's get this party started oops, that sounds like a summer slacker talking get ready for a great school year together!

Here's what I've been working on during the past few days:

• set up my classroom tables
• created a Butterfly Life Cycle Unit for my Fall monarch butterfly hatching

• worked on my OWL Book (Organized While Learning) labels
• purchased some totally unneeded super cute new bins for my library
• created Volume 2 of my Common Core Choice Books for Independent Writing (AKA Daily 5 Work on Writing)

BTW...There's a FREEBIE in the preview:  3 different farm-related books.  And Volume 1 has a FREEBIE in the preview too:  3 different apple-related books:

And here's some of my to do list for next week:

• blog post, blog post, blog post
• change bulletin board paper in my classroom (I'm TERRIBLE at this)
• laminate, laminate, laminate
• assemble OWL Books
• copy, copy, copy
• decorate my classroom...this e-card says it all:

I think it's a manageable list.  Photos of my classroom to come!  What's on your to do list?

Thanks for reading!  Please consider following my blog or TPT Store!

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page! - See more at: http://firstgradefriendzee.blogspot.com/#sthash.cuGR8mt4.dpuf

Proud Peeps Writing and Craft Activity

Just a quickie post to share something I'm going to do with my kiddos this week - and it's FREE for you!  Thank you to Jennifer Bates of Finally in First for the inspiration!  Included are all templates and a pre-writing brainstorming page.

The Proud Peeps Writing Craftivity is available for FREE here.

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page!

It's Almost Summer...

Only 15 1/2 days left of school in my district and I'm racing to get all my end-of-the-year assessments done.  And with teacher evaluations now based largely on student achievement data it's an even more stressful time of year.  But summer vacation will be here before we know it and to celebrate, I've created two new surf kids themed clipart sets to help you "surf" through the rest of the school year!  There is a 35 image Colorful Collection of Surf Kids and a 13 image Black & White Digital Stamp Surf Kids Set; both are available at my TPT Store.

And a FREEBIE!

And to show you all how much I'm looking forward to summer vacation and some much-needed beach time, here's a freebie for you!  5 Colorful Surf Themed Clipart Images - click the images to download!

Thanks for reading and please consider following my blog, TPT store and/or facebook page!

Teacher Appreciation Sale

Just a quickie post to tell all my teacher friends out there how much I appreciate what you do every single day for your students! I'm so proud to be a member of this great profession and so to put my money where my mouth is, I'm having a 20% off sale on all items in my TPT Store! Add that to the 10% coupon code being offered by TPT and you've got yourself some savings to appreciate! Sale is May 7th and May 8th!

  

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EGG-citing news!

Big news!  It's only day 20 but I stopped by school today just in case, and look who I met!  Our first chick is still wet and worn out and if you look closely another is one it's way!

It's going to be an EGG-citing week in first grade!

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Calming the Chaos Blog Hop

Welcome to the Calming the Chaos Blog Hop hosted by 2peasandadog.  All of us bloggers have come together to share our top tips for making the last month of school run smoothly. Visit each of our blogs to learn something new and catch a freebie or two! Happy Hopping!

It's getting to be that time of year when I start looking for ways to keep everyone sane continue the learning process even as the lure of sunny warm days make it hard to resist a REALLY long outside recess remind us that another school year is coming to a close.  I actually find that sticking to our normal routine as long as possible makes for the smoothest and happiest last month of school, but with school-wide assessments and Dibels testing starting in the second week of May it's hard to keep in our routine.

Student Showcase - Reader's Theater

One thing I've done for the past 6 years is to hold a Student Showcase at the end of May.  I invite families and caregivers into my classroom and we show-off all the things we've learned.  We usually do a combination of reader's theater plays, poems, and author's share.

Each year around the second week of May I mix up our reading groups a bit and assign students to a reader's theater group.  I've used the Reading A to Z Reader's Theater scripts and scripts from the Scholastic Book below:

You can get this book from Scholastic Book Clubs or from Amazon.  I like this one because each play has a multi-leveled script which allows students from different reading levels to work in a reading group for a few weeks.  We spend a lot of time building fluency and expression as we practice our plays.  Each student works on a character-related headband to wear and the cast of each play works cooperatively on a large bulletin board-sized scenery poster.  Every student has at least one part in a play.

Student Showcase - Poetry & Author's Share

While all students are required to be in a play at the student showcase, they get to decide what they'd like  to do for their second part.  Students have a choice between doing a partner poem (choral reading) or reading aloud a story or book they've published.  I use poems from a variety of places; I like the Jack Prelutsky and Bruce Lansky poems for older students, and I use poems from CanTeach - they are short and sweet and have great rhythm.  I pair students and they choral read their poems together.  For the students who choose to share a book I have them use our wireless microphone and read aloud a published book.  The microphone really helps the audience stay interested hear better!

The whole showcase takes about an hour and I usually serve juice and cookies.  I typically invite our building principal, our district superintendent and my reading assisstant to join us for the showcase; it's a great way to end the year! I also usually use the showcase to publicly thank my parent volunteers and give them a small token of appreciation. You can check out my pinterest board on parent volunteer gifts:

Let the Fun Begin!

Once the showcase is over we relax a bit and enjoy the last few days of school  with some fun and games.  We usually go on a picnic and swimming field trip, our school holds a Fun Day carnival and of course, we make plans to say good bye.  Soon it will be time to hug those first-graders one last time and send them off to second grade, but before we do here's a quick list of end-of-the-year activities I've done in the past:

• auction off anchor charts and old/used materials - you'd be amazed at what kids want to take home!
• re-organize our classroom library
• clean our tote trays with shaving cream and a hose (on a hot day of course)
• beach ball autographs
• write a letter to next year's first graders
• read-aloud day (where I say yes to every read-aloud request!)
• watch the video of our student showcase
• watch the dvd movie of our school year spent together (I give one to each child to take home)

That's about it!  Since it's still April and yes, it snowed again this morning here, it's hard to realize it's time to be thinking about the end of the year.  Hopefully this blog hop initiated by 2peasandadog will get us all energized for a great year end!

 

Primary Grades

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Earth Day

April 22, one of my favorite days each year.  I love celebrating Earth Day with my students and teaching them about the 3 R's.  Last year I did the "litterbug" art project inspired by First Grader at Last.  Alas, I was not an obsessive blogger/TPTer last year did not get any pictures of my litterbug museum, so here is her version.  Cute, right?

  

 

This year I will be doing this wonderful "I Love My Earth" flip poem by First Class Teacher.  I love flip books and they turn out very well.  Not to mention it ties in with landforms and we never have enough time to teach science and social studies love those cross-curricular connections!  Click the pic to download this freebie!

I also wanted to create an Earth Day math activity to go in my math tubs this week, so I quickly made a Making 10's Freebie.  Students will be doing this in math tubs with a partner.  Visit my TPT store to download!

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