TPT Sale and a TON of Freebies!

It's Back to School time and I've been a shopping mama... taking my kiddos to buy school supplies, new shoes, clothes and all those things they "think" they need.  I found some AWESOME sales today and my kids are all revved up for school! Now that I got my kids all ready for school ~ I'm so HAPPY I get to "back to school" shop tomorrow at TPT!  {I have lots of items on my wishlist and tomorrow is my chance to get some goodies!} They are having a super duper sale.  Not only do you get 20% off but use the TPT promo code BTS12 and you get another 10% off! Most stores are participating... including me - but you can always check out all the fabulous teachers who are participating over at Blog Hoppin'.

Thanks to Amy Lemons for creating this CUTE image! 

Even though we don't start school for another week ~ I've been working in my classroom so that I can have several days to rest before my students show up and prepare lesson plans and all those last little things that just HAVE to get done {like pinterest inspired projects I really really want to do - SHHH}! 

[WARNING:  The following post is LONG ~ I got a little carried away but there are many freebies throughout.]

One of the first things I'd like to share with you is how I turned an UGLY green chalkboard into a whiteboard for only $13!  I was going to try and use the white board paint but it was $30 and you still had to prime the chalkboard first!  UGH!  Too expensive and too messy!  So I found some shower board (I've heard many bloggers talk about how they have cut it to make small white boards for their class).  It comes in sheets of 4 ft by 8 ft - so I took my measurement and had them cut it to fit!  YAY!  Instant whiteboard.  How to attach it???? I thought about using liquid nails - but worried if it ever had to be taken down it would absolutely ruin the chalkboard.  So - I put magnets on the back (since the chalkboard is magnetic and slid it underneath the metal track by lifting the screws and then tightening them.)  I have to give credit to my dad for doing this for me.  He's such a handy dandy guy!

 But wait... this is the before picture.  

Here is the after picture!

I love how the border filled in those tiny gaps where you could still see the green chalkboard - PLUS I put up my scoreboard in preparation of using some Whole Brain Teaching strategies!  If you want my Happy/Frowney Face - You can download them HERE. 

I've done ALOT {like a TON} of labeling this year.  I've had these baskets for years full of read aloud books that I use during my mini-lessons for Reader's and Writer's Workshop but just never took the time to label them.  Well friends ~ I FINALLY made some labels!

I also keep a basket of my favorite read alouds and science read alouds nearby.  Here is a close up of one of these labels:

I tied these labels on my baskets with some cute ribbon... I think they turned out a wee bit cutey patootey!  If you would like them ~ you can download them HERE! 

Even though I plan to implement whole brain teaching this year, I am still using my clip chart as I get more familiar with whole brain teaching practices.  I started out with a HUGE owl but decided real quick I just didn't dig him.  He was too big and made it difficult for the clothespins to attach to the chart.  I ended up with this idea and I am completely in LOVE with it!

I hot glued a "branch" I made out of construction paper to the top of the bulletin board, then used ribbon between each piece of the chart and finally hot glued the ribbon at the top to make it look like it is hanging from the branch.  Here is a close-up view:

I am so excited about implementing a new behavior reward system. {NO MORE TREASURE BOX... NO MORE CANDY!!}  Not that I am against those things - I just about go broke trying to keep the box and the jar stocked!  Plus, last year I had a kiddo with diabetes - so I did away with my candy jar last year and I realized that the kids didn't miss it at all!  Then on those special days when they did get a treat it was REALLY extra special! 

This year I am going to use "Warm Fuzzies" as my rewards.  This by no means is my idea... I've adapted this from Mel D. over at Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations! 

She has an awesome presentation that explains her behavior management plan in depth as well as freebies for all the behavior coupons that go along with this system. 

I have decided that depending on the color that a student ends on for the day they will earn "Warm Fuzzies". What is a "Warm Fuzzy" you ask?  They are just regular {or fancy} pom poms.

Here's what my bucket looks like on the inside.

So if a student ends up on green for the day - they have earned 1 warm fuzzy.  If they got to move their clip up to blue... 2 warm fuzzies.  If they were Outstanding... then they've earned 3 warm fuzzies.  However, if they end up on yellow {warning} for the day - they do not get a fuzzy.  If they end up on orange {consequence} for the day - then they OWE me a warm fuzzy.  If they end up on red for the day {parent contact} they will owe me 2 warm fuzzies!  Heaven forbid!

But if they get OFF THE CHART - when they are better than outstanding... which is a RARE occasion  - they get a GLITTER FUZZY!  {WHOA - Stop the world!}
These are worth 5 {YES I SAID FIVE} warm fuzzies!

Just take a look at these beauties!

They will put their warm fuzzies in a paint cup labeled with their student number... I didn't take a picture of the cups but I think you might be able to see them inside their book baskets in their cubbies in this picture.

But what is all the fuss about fuzzies?  Every 2 weeks my students will get to shop for reward coupons.  Each coupon is worth 5 warm fuzzies.  {Hopefully an incentive to earn a fuzzy a day by at least staying on green}.  These coupons I printed on cardstock {I got them from Mel D} laminated them and put them in a craft box to keep them organized.  These coupons are things like - sit by a friend, 15 minutes computer time,  kick your shoes off in the classroom, bring a stuffed animal to school, read a book to the class, etc.  There are so many more and they cost me NOTHING!  But the kids go crazy over these kind of rewards!  I'm so excited about this idea and will keep you posted how this new system works out.  OH and if you liked those cute Warm Fuzzy and Glitter Fuzzy Labels - you can download them HERE!

Do you do the Daily 5 and Cafe?  We changed CAFE to FACE so that our first graders would relate a little better to the concept "the face of a reader".  I redid my board this year {Yep - you guessed it - OWLS}!

What I am super excited about this year is that all of my strategy cards have been redone, match the color owl on my FACE posters AND {wait for it} have the CCSS on the card! Give me a 10 finger WOO everybody! LOL

Take a look at what I mean:

The purple owl is on all of the fluency cards, outlined in purple and if you look very carefully the CCSS {and there are sometimes more than one} listed on the strategy card by the owl.

Here is how I have mine organized:

I said there was gonna be a TON of freebies... so if you've made it this far in this post - Here you go!

You can find my FACE posters AND all of my strategy cards with the CCSS {FOR FIRST GRADE} HERE!

Do you do a "Star of the Week"?  This year since I have kinda drifted away from camping but still have that outdoorsy forest feel... I decided to go with "Ranger of the Week".  I ran out of room on my walls so put our display on the inside of our classroom door.

I found the cutest little polka dot rug and some owl pillows - I will probably regret it but they were impulse buys - you know - just too cute too pass up!  

I know there are not many Saxon users out there - but we use Saxon Math - and I just HAD to get rid of all that YELLOW for our calendar wall.  So I cut around each piece and made labels to put above each concept area on our wall.  I don't mind it as much anymore. :)

If anyone does Saxon and would like my labels - just email me and I will send them to you.
WHEW!  I told you it would be a long post... I hope I didn't bore you.

Don't forget about the "Back to School Sale" at TPT tomorrow and Monday.  I know I will be shopping!  Oh and don't forget tomorrow is the last day to enter my giveaway for Deedee Wills Writing Work Stations The Complete Set and my Everything OWLS Classroom Bundle!  There will be 4 winners that will receive both items.  I will announce the winners on Monday, August 13th!  

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"OWL" See ya later!

Whole Brain Teaching Freebies and a Giveaway!

CLAAAAASSSSSS! (Then you say .... YEEEEEESSSSS?) I am just lovin' the Whole Brain Teaching strategies.  The first day of school is just around the corner and I wanted to be ready to teach my class the 5 rules.  There are so many cute WBT rule signs out there and I really liked Stephanie's over at 3rd Grade Thoughts.  I used the same graphics as her, but made them to blend in with my dots on chocolate decor.  Here is how they turned out:

If you would like a set for your classroom, just click on the picture above to download!

I am also lovin' the concept of the Super Improvers Wall.  I think this will really motivate students and I love how motivating it is for individual students.  This can really tie in with RTI and student goals for improving.  I really liked Tara's Super Improver Wall over at Little Minds at Work.  I especially loved the wording she chose for each level.  But to keep with my theme  - I can't help myself - I decided to create my own Super Improvers Wall using OWLS (imagine that!) I did change the wording just a tad but here is how it turned out.

I used our die cut at school and punched out stars in each color that I will hang next to these signs.  If you would like the owl signs- click on the picture or you can download them HERE.

So I've been working in my room the last few days and I am by no means finished but I think my room is coming along.  Here is a sneak peak of what I've done so far:

Thanks to Pinterest, I decided to use my four bookshelves to separate my tables this year.  I'm finding all sorts of ways to organize all my math manipulatives, table caddies, etc.  I'm already LOVING it this way. I also made the signs over each table from tissue fans from Party City and the BIG Dots on Chocolate from CTP.  The idea, of course, was from Melanie over at School Girl Style [I just ADORE her creations!]

I would love to show you SO MUCH MORE but I have bigger and better news!  I am having a GIVEAWAY!  To celebrate back to school and my birthday [let's just say it's a milestone for me]... I decided to have a giveaway.  I just happened to mention it to my friend Deedee Wills and she kindly offered one of her best sellers... so get ready to enter!  Have you seen her Writing Work Stations?  They are FABULOUS!  Well I will be giving away 4 (yes - I said 4) Writing Work Stations THE COMPLETE SET worth $32.00!  AMAZING!  

BUT WAIT.... THERE'S MORE!  In addition to the Writing Work Stations, the four lucky winners will also get my new Everything OWLS Classroom Bundle worth $20.00.  It includes my OWLStanding Clipchart, OWL Write! Writing Choice Board Packet, Owl Themed Desk Nameplates (in both Brown Owls and Bright Colored Owls), Cubby Labels Numbers 1-28, Blank Labels for book boxes, baskets, material tubs, etc., Color Word Owls to display color words, and OWL themed Restroom Passes (3 different designs for boys and girls)!  Take a look:

There are 4 ways to enter - so there will be 4 winners!  The giveaway starts today - August 7th - and ends Sunday, August 12th.  The winners will be announced on Monday, August 13th!  

In addition to my giveaway, I will be running a Birthday Sale in my TPT Store today.  Everything is 20% off for today only!  Happy 4- th to me! [Can you tell I'm having issues?]  

"OWL" see ya later!

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Christmas in July - 1 Day ONLY!

Ho ho ho!  There's a Christmas in July sale going on over at TPT starting tomorrow, Wednesday, July 25th. I decided to get JOLLY and join the fun by having a sale at my TPT store tomorrow (one day only) also!

 This cute button was designed by the fabulous Babbling Abby!  

Click on the link below and check out all the awesome teacher bloggers that are having a sale too!

Please note that Teachers pay Teachers will be offline from 12:00am-8:00am EST for upgrades so please plan your shopping with that in mind.

Merry Christmas in July! 

OWL-Standing Behavior Chart!

Hi ya'll! (My family and I are back from vacation from Tennessee!) We had the best time!  I can't believe that summer will soon be coming to a close... the stores already are stocking up with back to school supplies and I actually made my first trip to my classroom to take a look around.  

Even though I only did a bit of furniture arranging and cleaning - I had time to put together an idea that I've had for a while to see if it would work.  This year I thought I would use an owl behavior chart.  I put together a large owl but after I got it done realized I didn't bring my poster printouts to attach to him!  Ugh!

So I took a picture of my owl and then placed photos of my charts on him to see how it will look eventually.  I'm asking everyone to VISUALIZE here... so hopefully you get the idea.  

I think he will eventually look pretty cute... I still have to add a little detail and laminate him but I think he will work out perfectly.  I am loving my new charts.  However, I could not decide between polka dotted owls and solid owls so I made charts using both.  Here is a close up!

As you can see, I included Purple and Pink as color choices for Outstanding.  With my last behavior chart, I had many requests to change it to purple - so I made charts using both colors.  If you would like to see a better preview you can check it out at my TPT store or click on the pictures above.  

On another note, does anyone out there use Whole Brain Teaching?  A bunch of teachers from our school went to a session recently and I am excited about using some of these methods.  I would love to hear your thoughts about WBT and results if you've used it in your classroom.  At the end of the year I began using the class-yes and liked it. I'm a little iffy on the scoreboard, mirror, class-teach stuff.  I have been watching videos and reading more about how WBT works in the classroom.  I would love to hear thoughts and experiences!   

OWLS, Reading Street, and a Freebie!

Well ~ we've had a break in the weather... high today 98! At least we are out of the triple digits.  Yesterday, I found some of the cutest clipart and decided I had to make a few things using owls.  {I just LOVE owls!}  I bet you didn't know that!?  So for ALL the owl fans out there, I hope you like these.  I started out by creating some nameplates using bright colorful owls.  I thought these were just the cutest... take a look:

If you notice - some of the nameplates have cute sayings and some do not.  I made them both ways  so you could choose if you wanted the sayings or not.  There are actually even more nameplates in the file.  I used 6 different backgrounds.  Click on any picture above to take you to my TPT store.

As I started using the chocolate brown backgrounds (which I love since it is the theme in my room) I began creating another file using brown owls.  I fell in love INSTANTLY!

I'm not sure which one I'm going to use this year... I may just use one of each!  Again - I created these so there are 2 copies in each file - one with the cute sayings - and one without.  Just print out the ones you want to use.  If you are interested, click on any picture above or HERE to go to my TPT store.

If you teach Reading Street, I created some grammar posters that I plan to use this year as we make our way through each week.  I will post these as references for each unit and then make them available in my writing center either on a ring, or in a binder, etc.  I'm not sure yet.  I wanted something that I could project on my Smart Board as we learn about each grammar concept.  Here are a few examples of what I came up with:

These are both from Unit 1.

These are from Unit 2.

These are from Unit 3.

These are from Unit 4.

These are from Unit 5.

Each unit has 6 different posters for each of the weekly skills.  These are all available in my TPT store if you are interested. 

NOW for the freebie!  I hope all you OWL lovers out there will like this. You can get one brown owl and one bright owl name plate for free by clicking HERE!  I am thinking about creating new book box labels, binder covers and cubby numbers using these cute owls.  What do you think?  Hope everyone has a great week... I am off to take my kids to Six Flags today.  Thank goodness it has cooled down a little.  (Heh heh)!

Saxon Math FREEBIE!

It's still H.O.T. in Missouri ~ 107 degrees today!  I was going through all my math stuff today and thought I would share my printable math calendar pages I created to go along with our Saxon Math Meeting.  I know many of you do not teach Saxon but if you use any of these same components, these pages might work for you.  If you teach Saxon (1st Grade) then this should be perfect!

Last year, I found that my kiddos needed something more to keep them engaged during our math meeting.  We started using white boards - but some aspects were hard for them to do on a blank white board and then I saw lots of doodling... SO - I came up with these pages to help keep them engaged, on track, and as a nice reference for many of my kiddos - especially my intervention students.  I used these two pages copied front to back for the first 40 lessons:

After the first 40 lessons - I began using one page with all the calendar components.  To save paper, I placed these pages in plastic sleeves and students used (skinny) dry erase markers to interact with their calendar page.  It definitely helped keep my kiddos on track, focused and my intervention students loved having the resources at their fingertips to answer questions and follow along.  Click on any of the pictures to download for FREE!

I'm not sure how many Saxon Math users are out there ~ but I hope you find this to be a good resource.  I would love to hear your thoughts!  My TPT 20% off sale ends tonight, Friday, July 6th at midnight.  Have a wonderful weekend and stay COOL! 

Camping/Forest Theme Classroom Ideas

Is tomorrow already the 4th of July?!  Yikes!  I don't know about you - but it is H-O-T here in Missouri!  Since I have been spending a lot of time indoors due to the heat, I have been able to sit down and create some things that I want to use in my classroom next year.  Many of them were pinterest inspired but I thought I would share what I've been up to.

Don't you just LOVE the writing choice boards that have been floating around pinterest?  I have seen several that I love but I wanted to create one that went along with my camping/forest themed classroom.  So I sat down and came up with this... Warning:  I had to lay these out on my table or my bed to see how they will look on a bulletin board.  Sorry for the ugliness - but hopefully you can use your imagination and see the possibilities with a cute background and border.  We cannot get into our classrooms until August!

This will give you an idea of what my bulletin board will look like:

So then I thought it was too dark of a background so here is another picture:

After I cut these out - I decided I wanted to have the option to just cut out a square instead of all the little nooks and crannies!  Whew...my hands were aching!  So I came up with this - I haven't decided which one I will use yet - So I printed this one out on paper so I could see how it looked.

I made some generic list cards to go with "Make a List" part of the board.  There are 12 cards but here are a few of them. I plan to laminate, put on a ring and hang on my board next to the "Make a List" choice.

While I was at it, I created some recipe cards, letter templates (forest themed), list templates, and created the cards to make the title of this board.  I'm not sure how many out there do a camping theme - but if you are interested you can find them here at my TPT store.

I also made some new name plates for my student desks.  I print these out and laminate them and then USUALLY adhere them to my desks with contact paper.  This year I think I'm going to use velcro to attach my name plates.  I like to use cable ties to hold my desks together so when I need to move students around - I don't have to move their desks - just their name plates!  

I made 2 sets - one set is specifically geared for FIRST GRADE and the other is for ANY GRADE.  Here are a few examples:

You can find the first grade set below and the one for ANY GRADE here.

Next year we are going to be focusing more on the six traits and I decided that I wanted some posters that went along with my theme that students could reference after I teach each trait.  I just LOVE how they turned out... here are a few:

I tried to use simple language that my first graders could understand.  I made a poster for each of the traits plus 1 for Presentation.  If you are interested here is the link:

Last, I just love some of the alphabet cards that I have seen lately and I have been wanting to do something that was "foresty" or camping related so I sat down today and made these cards.  I printed some of them out and hung them in my office just to see if I would like them.  I can't wait to replace my old, faded, ugly alphabet line above my Smart Board!  Here is a picture but it was very sunny so it is a little dark:

Here are some of the cards included in the set... I just LOVE dots on chocolate!

I decided to outline the vowels in pink so they will stand out a bit from the consonants.  I am so excited about these - I am ready to head to the laminator!  Click on the picture below to go to my TPT store.

Well - I didn't mean for this post to be SOOOOO long.  I had several emails asking me to create some more woodland themed items.  I have a few more ideas that I hope to add very soon - but I almost forgot - I am having a SALE in celebration of the 4th of July!  Everything in my store is 20% off until Friday, July 6th.  Hope you are keeping cool in this 100+ degree heat!  Have a great day!