celebrations, new products, & a freebie

After a "snow" day on Friday (where there was little to no precipitation), and birthday celebrations on Saturday, I am enjoying a quiet Sunday afternoon. 
with my grandma and mom after the day of birthday celebrations
With the day off on Friday, I was busy working on some new units.
Here's my March Words packet.  It includes a header card (pictured in the center), along with 29 March themed words.  Click here to get your set!

Below are some of the preview pictures for my March Packet.  It includes the March Words packet (above) and many other literacy & math activities!

My next project (which I thought I would not get to until Spring Break) was to work on some BINGO games for sound switching.  Once I got started, I couldn't stop!  Each game has 36 calling cards (answer is marked with an asterisk on the bottom of each card) and 10 BINGO cards.  The BINGO card has a word and matching picture in each box.  Each game can be purchased separately or together in a bundle!
beginning sounds
beginning blends
short vowels
My last new product is a freebie!  There are 3 alphabetical order sets in this packet, all with spring words.  Each unit has 8 word/picture cards, recording page, and cut/sort/glue activity.  You choose which activities to use and how to use them.  The units are color-coded to make it easy to sort them into sets.  Click here or on the picture below.



Classroom Freebies Manic Monday
Freebie Fridays

FIve for Friday {02-15-13}

Like everybody else, what a busy week!!  I'm jumping right into my Five for Friday and am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching tonight.

fiveforfriday
1. I have some amazingly creative parents.  Here are a couple of the goodies I received yesterday.
Hershey kiss mouse!
"Valentine we go together like milk and cookies."  Included in the bag was a crazy straw and cookies!
2. One of my little firsties was so excited about her valentines, but could not read the names on the cards in her bag.  She ran up to me to ask who it was from and then ran to the child and with a huge hug to each child in our class, she said "Thank you SO much!  I love you and Happy Valentine's Day!"  She melted my heart!

3. My friend, a second grade teacher in my building, is new to TpT!  Brittany is an amazing teacher and I would love to help her store get some fabulous traffic!  She recently finished a word problem activity.  Here are a couple of pictures.  Click on one of the images below or here!

4. I have just finished another word work packet - this one has ing/ink word families.  I'm giving it to my followers as a freebie!  A 15 page packet with activities for a week, including word cards, I have ... who has game cards, Write the Room cards with word boxes, and a recording page (with a couple extra pages included!). I hope you enjoy!  :)

5. I spent a couple of hours with my grandma tonight; my grandfather died unexpectedly in May 2012 and not having him here for our birthdays, anniversaries, Thanksgiving and Christmas have been difficult.  They were amazing together and a godly example for Josh and I, as well as my cousins and their spouses.  I have been blessed!

Have a fabulous weekend! 

Techy Teacher Tuesday: Money!



I am linking up with Katie, the Queen of the First Grade Jungle today!
I am preparing to begin our money unit on Monday and I have to say ... teaching money to firsties makes me nervous!!

Getting hands on with coins is so important and worksheets are not!  So I have updated my Smart Board, as well as prepared some sorting cards with coins and "purchases."  We are required to have one graded piece of work in each subject area each week, so I have created a worksheet to go with each lesson.  Since we use enVision in our county, my lessons have been designed to match up with topic 13.  

Here are preview pictures of the sets in my Smart Board unit.  I have an introductory slide for each coin and several slides for sorting and moving coins around.
 
 
 
 
 
Link for my Smart Board unit: click here.
Link for my first grade money activities: click here.
Link for my first grade money freebies: click here.






word work, some organization, and a Valentine's Day freebie

This has been a CRAZY busy week!  There are no kiddos tomorrow - parent/teacher conferences and professional development day.  I don't know about you, but 4 day weeks seem harder than a regular week; maybe because I feel like I have to cram everything in with one less day!

Like many of your children, my firsties love the read/write the room activities using words for their spelling features.  With this said, I have been working on one and two packets a day this week, trying to get a jump start on my lessons for the next couple of weeks.  I have 3 groups in my classroom, so that means between 12-15 lessons are used in one month.

One of my small groups has struggled with beginning blends, but they are not yet ready to spell those longer words, so I have created a couple of lists with CVCC (and sometimes CCVCC!) spelling patterns.  The one I finished last night has short a sounds.  The preview picture (also included on the preview file in TpT) has the list of items included.  Note that the read/write the room headings and word cards are in both full color and black/white, in case you are saving on ink!  Click here or on the picture below.

With all of the word work activities that I have been creating, I knew that I needed to be better organized - to know where the activities are located in my classroom AND  to know that I have something for that spelling feature so I don't make a new one!  (Yes, that has happened before!)  I recently saw a post in which the blogger teacher had zippered page protectors - so jealous!  Since I can't find those around me, I decided zippered pencil bags would work, too!

This is how everything started on my floor after printing and laminating (I just purchased a personal laminator and LOVE it!) ...
Note: I used the same color card stock for each lesson to keep cards organized and I saved on ink! :)
 
now here is one of the finished word work packets in my notebook at school, ready to use
Once I got this far, I decided that my reading group plans (which have been in the same binder with my word work/word study lessons for each week before moving to the filing cabinet), needed some work, too, so I put every reading group lesson with a copy of the lesson plans in page protectors and wrote on the edge of the page protector the reading level AND the name of the story.  For the units that wouldn't fit in a page protector, I used a manila folder and labeled it the same way.  Things are organized in my filing cabinet and I don't have quite as many binders.  I purchased colored baskets at the dollar store to match my groups; everything needed for the week - both reading group plans, copies of the books, and worksheets/quizzes, along with everything for their word work/word study lessons - is in the tub!
my 3 tubs on the AC unit, just behind my reading table

a close up of one of the tubs
And for a thanks for reading this VERY long post, I have a Valentine's Day freebie for you!  Here is an addition and subtraction fact activity.  Your children do not need number cubes for this one, as the number of spaces to move is on the bottom of each card, with "special" directions on the game board.  Store these in gallon size bags so the cards don't spill out everywhere!  I have included an answer key card in hopes the kiddos will be able to self-check.  Click here or on the picture below.  Enjoy!
 


Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

Our 100th Day {& I survived!}

Today was our 100th day of school!  On our Career Day in the fall, one of the florists from our local Kroger stopped in to show the children how to arrange flowers and had all of her balloon equipment.  One of the teachers spoke with her about coming in for our 100th day.  Here is her creation!
My kiddos stayed very busy today ...
we read books
wrote about 100 things we could eat and 100 things we could not eat
"I could eat 100 green olives but I could not eat 100 bowls of stuffing."
"I could eat 100 apple slices, but I could not eat 100 hot dogs!"
"I could eat 100 popcorn, but I could not eat 100 bowls of ice cream."
and shared our 100 Day posters that the children brought in from home (this is a great project that our kiddos do with mom and dad at home each year)
 
 
Happy 100th Day!


Sale & Blend/Digraph Packet

HUGE sale on Sunday!
125sundaysuper
Everything in my store will be 20% off this weekend and when you use the promo code SUPER (on Sunday only), receive an additional 10% off, making your purchase 28% off!  Have your cart full and use your TpT credits to save even more!

We had an unexpected snow day today!  I have taken full advantage of the extra time to work on a HUGE word work packet for two of my small word study groups.  There are 8 word lists (ending blends and digraphs, with some nasals), recording pages, and between 12-20 word cards for Read the Room.  I love being ahead!  Click the picture below or here to see the packet in my store!

If you have not seen one of my word work activities, I have a freebie for you!  This activity has the same pieces as included in the above packet.  Click below or here to grab it!


I am linking up with Keepin' It Kool in KinderLand to find others who are throwing a sale this weekend!  Happy shopping!


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