Monday, May 26, 2014

Happy Memorial Day! & FLASH FREEBIE Alert!

I hope everyone has enjoyed their Memorial Day! I know that I have. :) Since I have a six week old this year, I was not able to hang out by the pool like most people *sigh*, but I was able to finish up my newest pack. 
As a way to give back to YOU, it will be FREE until tomorrow! So head on over to my TPT store (use the link at the bottom) to grab your copy! All I ask is that you leave me some feedback. :) Thanks and Happy Memorial Day!





Saturday, May 24, 2014

Hurry hurry hurry! Only 4 hours left!

That's right! Only four hours left to enter my Letter Buddies Lap Book Giveaway. Just click here to enter! Good luck!

Monday, May 19, 2014

Letter Buddies Classroom Contest and Giveaway

After winning the Miss Wishy Washy Giveaway from First Grade Blue Skies, I decided to check out the Hameray Publishing website and, lo and behold, I saw that they were hosting another great giveaway!
Click on the link to go to their website to enter! The winner will be announced June 2!

Along with this awesome giveaway, they were also offering teacher bloggers a chance to review the different materials.  I decided that I wanted to participate, so I contacted the company about becoming a reviewer. I was able to choose between Letter Buddies Letter, Blends, Starters, and Best Friends books. After much consideration, I chose the Letter Buddies Starters Books.
The Letter Buddies Starters titles are used in correspondence to the Letter Buddies Letter Books. Using the same vocabulary, the Starters places each word within the context of a sentence. This is a great way to reinforce what students learned with the Letter Books. (24 Titles)

 I chose these because I wanted something that my beginner readers could read independently and comprehend. After looking through and reading each of the 24 titles (one book per letter of the alphabet except for X, Y, and Z - they share a book), I have to say that these books were everything that I was looking for!

Here are a few of the reason that I am IN LOVE with this collection:

1. ENGAGING PHOTOGRAPHS that correlate beautifully with the text are located on each page, along with the Letter Buddy for each particular book. (Because I have been on maternity leave, I haven't had an opportunity to try these books out in the actual classroom; however, my daughter LOVES the books and gets so excited looking at the pictures. We have already read through each book at lease once!



2. SIGHT WORDS are included in each book, with a list at the back of each book telling the ones that are highlighted in the book!


3. A WRITING EXTENSION is included in each book! We all know how important writing is in the classroom, especially now with Common Core, so it is also that the guess-work of how to incorporate writing with your lesson is taken away.



These books would be great to use for letter of the week lessons or (and my personal FAV) sight word introduction/review! I am always looking for ways to incorporate sight word use in my small group lessons and what better way than to have students reading books that emphasize the words that you are working on. One way that I plan to use these books for SIGHT WORDS is to first introduce the sight words using flash cards and word building. Then after the students are familiar with the words, guide them through the reading of the Letter Buddies book. This will give the students a way to practice using and recognizing the words in text, instead of just individually. {I have found a lot of times in my classroom that students can recall the words when flash cards are used, but when presented with the words in text, they struggle to recall them.} I can't wait to use these books next year to help my kinders with their sight word struggles. :)

Thank you Hameray Publishing for creating such a wonderful product!

As a bonus, I am offering a mini-giveaway here on my blog!
Use the Rafflecopter at the end of this post to enter for a chance to win a
Letter Buddies Lap Book
to use in your classroom.

 Alphabet Lap Books are 12" x 16" oversized books which show Letter Buddies visiting a common environment in a child's world, through which new vocabulary is introduced. In this book, children can see how the letters interact at Home.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Beyond ECSTATIC!

So you may or may not know but I began a maternity leave at the beginning of April. Here is a picture of my sweet new baby and his proud big sister:

 Prior to my leave, my kinders and I worked super hard to prepare for our DIBELS test in May. And when I say super hard I mean SUPER HARD! Every spare minute we had we used practicing reading CVC words, segmenting words, and keeping momentum while reading our letters. I wanted to make sure that my kids were as prepared as they could be for their test since I would not be there when they actually tested. This morning I received an email from my instructional coach with this attachment that she titled "Perfection":


All my kids BENCHMARKED!

I am beyond excited! All of our hard work paid off! {Shhhh! Don't tell my kids, but Monday I am going to surprise them with ice cream. :)} I am so proud of them!

On a side note: Don't forget that I am participating in a fabulous giveaway! Check it out by clicking here




Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Mother's Day FREEBIE, Blog Hop/Giveaway, and TPT SALE!

Have you heard? I have teamed up with some awesome bloggers for a HUGE giveaway and blog hop. You can win a bundle of 55 classroom resources just for being an awesome teacher! Great, right? All you have to do is enter with the link below! Also, you might want to follow the hop for some great ideas and freebies. ;)
Click HERE to enter the giveaway.

I am also having 20% SALE in my TPT store that starts TODAY! Click on the link below to go check it out and don't forget to use the PROMO CODE TPTXO at check out to save even more!


and now for your FREEBIE!

With Mother's Day on Sunday (and me being home on maternity leave), I wanted to share with you an activity that I did last year with my kinders. You can check out the post I did about it last year here and grab a copy here

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week! 




Monday, May 5, 2014

"The BEST for the BEST" Blog Hop and GIVEAWAY!


What better way to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week than with a Blog Hop Giveaway? I am teaming up with a bunch of awesome bloggers for "The Best for the Best" blog hop and giveaway. 

(BIG THANKS to Michelle from 3AM Teacher and Marcy from Simply Sprout Educate for the use of their graphics!)

All participants have donated one of their BEST selling products to be given away. How awesome is that?

I am donating my Math All Year! Pack, which contains 30 weekly Common Core based homework/practice pages for kindergarten. In my classroom, we use these pages as weekly homework. On Monday, I send home the page for that week in the students' take-home folders. My kinders have the entire week to work on the page and bring it back on Friday. I do not take a grade from these; however, I do look over the pages to make sure there weren't any struggles with the skills covered that week. The incentive that I use to get the students to bring the page back COMPLETED is a trip to the treasure bucket. I have noticed a big difference in my students' math performance after using this pack. :) To grab a sample of this pack, click HERE
Enter for your chance to win this pack along with 54 other best selling resources at the end of this post!
Hope your week is AWESOME! 
Enjoy your Hop!






Continue on The Best for the Best Teacher Appreciation Blog Hop by clicking the picture below.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, May 2, 2014

Teacher Appreciation Sale and Giveaway ~ Happy Friday!~


Site Wide Sale! Everything in my store will be 20% off! Use the PROMO Code for extra savings at check-out! Don't miss out!


I also just posted my new Spring Math Print and Go Addition and Subtraction Pack. Comment below for a chance to win a copy for yourself or you can get it for TODAY ONLY for 1/2 price! I will choose a winner tomorrow. :)

Click here to get your copy!

Happy Friday!