Saturday, August 11, 2012

Who doesn't love a sale?!?! =)

I was a bit late in getting home tonight, but wanted to make sure that I sent out a quick message about the FANTASTIC sales going on over at TpT this Sunday and Monday, the 12th % 13th.  TONS of sellers are offering 20% off in honor of heading back to school, and TpT is offering an additional 10% off of sale prices.  This means that you have an opportunity to stock up on amazing great resources at great prices just in time for back to school!
Stop on by my TpT store, all items are 20% off already low prices!
Here are a few snapshots of some of my favorite products:

 Third Grade Interactive Calendar Math Pages
 
Swimming Into Subtraction: A Common Core Aligned Math Game
 Kicking Off a New School Year:  A Back to School Writing and Goal Setting Activity
Monster Mash Memory Game featuring Fry Sight Words 1-300!

I'm loading up my TpT cart tonight to get ahead of the game.
Happy Shopping! 
~Heather~

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Giveaway and GREAT math resource!

Evening bloggy buddies!  Tonya over at Tonya's Treats for Teachers has two great things going on right now.  First up, she's SO CLOSE to reaching 500 followers!!  That's amazing! =)  So I'm hoping on board to help her reach her goal.  If you haven't stopped by to check her out you should definitely head over there as soon as you finish reading this post! ;)

If you don't already follow Tonya, I highly suggest you do!  She always offers such great tips and resources.  For her almost 500 followers giveaway any new followers will get their pick of her listening center or writing center task cards...pretty sweet huh?  An example of her great resources can be found in her post today.  She came across an amazing math literature resource I cannot wait to use in the classroom.  So, if you don't follow Tonya yet, go check her out! =)  And, if you already follow Tonya, drop her a comment and leave her some love! =)

~Heather~

Monday, August 6, 2012

Monday (almost didn't) Make It...and a FREEBIE!

Phew!  What a long day...our family is going through a very stressful time (mentioned in a previous post), and I have been keeping myself busy while I am home in the hopes of keeping my mind off things.  I had no idea how late it had gotten!  So, hopefully this post will be complete while it's still Monday!  I've have been printing, cutting, laminating, and cutting some more to get all of my common core standards/I Can statements finished.  I purchased a great set from Erin Morrison from www.talesfromroom112.blogspot.com.  She's great!  She even offers a customizable set where she'll work on your individual state's science and social studies as well...AWESOME!  You can check them out here.  I decided to put my display chart together using some black and white ribbon to match my new color scheme.  I love how it came out, although I need to figure out how exactly I want to attach each of the standard cards.  I was thinking Velcro circles, but I'm not sure I like how they line up, so I may have to try strips of Velcro.  I think it might make it easier to line things up.  Here's how it came out:
Even the bow looks good, which is a miracle in and of itself!  ;)  
I have also been busy creating many different materials to use with my students.  The first that I've been working on is a common core aligned math game focusing on subtracting fluently within 1,000.  It's called Swimming Into Subtraction, here's a sneak peak!
 It really took a while to get it just right, but I love it! =)  It includes four different sets of subtraction problems, all involving regrouping, the game board, recording sheet, instructions, and answer keys to assist students with checking their work after they have solved the problem.  It is going to make a great addition to my math workstations, and it will to yours as well! 
As mentioned, here's my latest freebie for my followers.  It is my set of binder pages for organizing my teacher binder for reader's workshop.  Here's a sample image:


 
You can download a copy here It's time for me to go to sleep...night! Or technically, I suppose it's morning! =)
~Heather~ 



Thursday, August 2, 2012

MIA apology...

Wow, this past few weeks just hasn't gone the way that I'd anticipated.  Our family is dealing with a very stressful situation.  My father in law has been fighting hard, but is losing his battle with cancer.  I struggle to handle these types of things, as anyone does I'm sure.  I'm not sleeping well, and when I'm awake it's all I think about.  My husband is the type of person who tends to bottle things up, and is the complete opposite of me, so I'm keeping my thoughts to myself quite a bit.  Our boys know what's going on, but they are young still, so I don't think the gravity of the situation has set in for them yet. If you are a person who prays, our family, especially my mother in law and father in law, could really use them!  I know this is very personal, but I wanted to explain why I've been so sporadic lately with my posts.  I promise to work harder on getting them out from now on!
      Now, in school related news...I am the QUEEN of procrastination!  I have always been this way.  All through undergrad and grad school as well I would always put off assignments until I had the least amount of time left to complete them.  I tend to work well under pressure, so I've managed to deal with this quirk of mine.  When it comes to prepping for back to school, each summer I am at home reading new professional books for all the great new strategies and approaches I want to bring to my classroom and my teaching.  This summer has been no exception.  I started out with a very ambitious reading list, and while I haven't tackled the entire list, I have knocked a few books off of my to-read list.  I read Notebook Connections, and Notebook Know-How both by Aimee Buckner.  I absolutely loved them both.  I found them so practical, and so easy to bring right back to my classroom to enhance my teaching.  I am really looking forward to using so many of Aimee's strategies with my class.  I also read Guided Math.  I have to say I definitely thought the book was going to be different.  I think I was expecting a lot more in there to take right back to the classroom, and I found the book to be a lot of rationale and research behind teaching math through the small guided group work approach.  I am pretty sure I was only disappointed because I had done a lot of research on this approach on my own towards the end of the school year before this summer, and had already wrapped my head around many of the ideas presented in the book.  All that said, I did get some great ideas from reading it, so I was glad that I had it ion my list.  I'm looking forward to incorporating this approach to teaching with my math curriculum.
     Along with my procrastination, I also tend to get overly ambitious with what I put on my to-do list over the summer.  After school got out I needed to purchase a new rug for my classroom as ours was disgusting well worn.  I happened to come across a decent sized rug at Walmart for $20 that I decided I could live with would work well.  I don't have a picture of it yet, but it's a black and white rug.  Nothing in my classroom currently goes with black and white, so take a wild guess and try to figure out what I have spent my summer doing?  If you guessed redesigning my entire classroom decor then you are correct!  So, I'm going with a black, white, and teal color scheme, and I have been creating and purchasing things for my classroom to go with my new color scheme.  My husband's response to this was "Why do you have to change your room theme every couple years or so?"  (Picture him saying that with the most puzzled look on his face.)  ;)  I have managed to snag some good buys, and have a lot that I plan to share soon, so stay tuned! =)  And, if you made it this far with me I thank you, I actually found this to be theraputic in a way!  Also, I just realized that when I wasn't looking I reached over 50 followers!  You are all amazing, and I will have to think of something to do to thank you! ;)

~Heather~