Guess Where I Am Today....

Well, I'm actually at school today, but I'm guest blogging over at The Lower Elementary Cottage!

I'm talking about sight words today, and you'll want to make sure you check out my post.  There may or may not be a freebie attached!  ;)

St. Patrick's Day Centers, Games, and some Freebies!!

All kinds of sickness is going through my school and now it's my turn.  I left work early, because I feel awful.  So I'm being productive and finally getting a blog post up.  Too bad I need to be sick in order to get something done around here!  

I worked long and hard on getting my St. Patricks' Day Luck of the Irish Centers done in plenty of time that I could use them BEFORE St. Patty's day.  For me that is an accomplishment!

We started using the centers today by working on syllables.  My kids are making sooooo much progress on this skill, and it makes me sooo happy!

There's a ton more of activities in the unit: rhyming, medial sounds, mixed up sentences, addition, counting and more.  You can check it out {here}.

I've also got some super fun St. Patrick's Day games.  My kids love playing games and Save the Gold has always been a favorite every year.

If your kids are working on CVC words, this game will be perfect!

Now onto the freebies!  :)  These were freebies that I made last year but now I've revamped them and made them better.  So if you downloaded them last year, you'll want to redownload them.  Click on the pics below to download them.

I've also updated my Making Words - St. Patrick's Day to include the words shamrock and clovers.

I hope everyone is gearing up for a great St. Patty's Day.  The best part is St. Patty's Day means spring break is getting closer!

A Sight Word Game About a Cat....

I think all teachers know there is a birthday for a certain Dr. coming up.  That Dr. may or may not haver certain copyright laws that make it difficult for teachers to create really awesome stuff in honor of said birthday.

If you are celebrating a certain Dr.'s birthday or spending a day in March reading the day away, you may be interested in a sight word game that has a cat AND it doesn't break any copyright laws (that I know of).  

I don't know about you guys but my kids love playing sight word games.  Goodness knows they need a lot of practice reading sight words and it can be hard to keep them engaged.  We usually play one sight word game a day.  My kids love it, I can see their progress, and they're engaged.  That's win-win for sure!  I've got a whole post I want to write about teaching sight words (whenever I get time and remember to take pictures of tools I use).

So now onto the game.  I've discounted the price to $2 from now until March 2nd.  My kids love playing it (and really any game).  It's great for small group, centers, RTI groups, or something for volunteers to do with students.

These are words typically taught in Kindergarten and reviewed in 1st grade.  There's 72 sight words and 12 special cards.  I've also included a blank page in case you want to write your own words in.  And there's a recording sheet for students to write their words on and color some on for after the game.

If you might be interested, click on the picture below.

Are you doing anything special for a certain Dr.'s birthday?

Sleigh Full of Goodies Blog Hop

I'm so excited to link up with some great blogs who are giving away freebies!  After all, it is the season of giving now that we're officially into December.  Yikes, that means Christmas is coming soon!

First, I'm linking up with Beth at Thinking of Teaching for her Sleigh Full of Goodies Blog Hop.  

And, I'm linking up with Teaching My 3 for her Twelve Days of Teacher Freebies.

For my freebie, I'm giving away a Reindeer Making Words activity and a Gingerbread Kids Sight Word Game that you can download from my TPT store by clicking on the picture.

Don't forget to head back to Thinking of Teaching for Day 2 of the Sleigh Full of Goodies blog hop!

Happy downloading everyone!!!

Magical Product Swap

I'm so excited to participate in Mrs. Stanford's Product Swap.

I got to the lucky blogger who was paired up with Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives.  She teaches Kindergarten and has such a cute blog with some awesome freebies on it.  You'll definitely want to check out her Decomposing Numbers and her I Moustache You a Question freebies.

I had the opportunity to browse through her TPT store and check out some of her great products.  I picked out her Ring Masters Sight Word Practice.

The majority of my students need A LOT  of sight word practice.  This is perfect to not only assess sight word mastery but provide a home/school connection.  There's a lot of reasons why I love this pack.

1.  There are 10 sets of words with 12 words each (120 words in all).

2.  The font isn't confusing and can be easily read by students.

3.  It's the cards are black and white so they look great printed on colored cardstock (cheaper for me!).

4.  There are assessment tracking forms.

5.  There are cute little certificates for when students pass a set of cards or need extra practice on certain words.

6.  She also has a Level 2 set of Ring Masters for when your students pass all of Level 1.  You can check that out {here}.  Even better you can get both in a combo pack {here}.

7.  Right now, she has all of her Ring Masters on sale in her TPT store {here}.

It was super easy to assemble, too.  I printed off the cards on colored card stock, cut out, hole punched the corner and put on a book ring.  Viola!  10 sets of sight word flash cards in no time.

I can't take pictures of my students at school, but luckily I have eager helpers at home that like to model for me!  

Remember to stop by Mrs. Lirette's blog today.  She's going to be reviewing some of my fall products!  In honor of the product swap, I'm putting all of my fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving items on sale for  15% off today and Sunday!

Click on the pictures to check them out.    

October Currently, Made it {some}day, & Other Stuff!

Well, that's one heck of a title, huh?  Since school started, the blogging has obviously dropped!  Just too much to do and not enough time.  That's why I'm loving October's Currently from Oh' Boy 4th Grade.  She's gotten me motivated to make a post!

So I'm super excited about the changes in my body since I started going to boot camp in July.  It's a GOOD problem that I need new clothes.  It's not good that I feel kinda dumpy and like I have a saggy rear end all day.  I think a shopping trip needs to happen ASAP!

Can you believe our district doesn't give us Columbus Day off?  Ughhh!  My husband (a Marine) even has the day off.  I'm going to try and see if I can find a sub and maybe take Monday off, too.  Anyone else have to work on federal holidays?  Double ugh!

I know I'm breaking the rules with my book......but it was just released at the end of September.  So that sorta makes it almost an Octoberish book, right?  I LOVE J.R. Ward and this is her latest in the Fallen Angels series.  I've just started reading it and so far so good!

I've also been meaning to do a Made it Monday post hosted by 4th Grade Frolics.  But I can never seem to get it together to actually make the post.  So today, I'm having a Made it {some}day post!

At the beginning of the school year, the art teacher sent out a school-wide email saying she had some free easels to give out.  I was ALL over that.  I've been needing an easel to use during whole group and to put my chart paper on.  Well, this is what she had to give away for free!

 Well, I knew I could make it into something great!  I took the paint covered chalkboard and white boards off.  I went to Home Depot and bought some new whiteboard (it was like $13 for a sheet).  They'll even cut it for you for free!  I then sanded the frame down, primed it, and painted it white.  I bought the cute polka dot duct tape from Wal-Mart and put it around the edges.  Then my husband helped me screw the new whiteboard onto the frame.  And now VIOLA!  I have an awesome chart that I can write on as a white board or use for my chart paper.  Which is great because I use the heck out of some chart paper everyday!  This is the new and improved easel!

 Another thing on my to-do list FOREVER was to make these Making Words folders, which I saw on Pinterest.  Teacher Bits and Bobs has the template for the letters for FREE!  I used these today in one of my small groups and it was so much easier than finding/counting out the letters that everyone needed.

I know it's sideways, but you get the idea.  I made the front cover and you can download it for free by clicking on the picture.

I've also been working on some Halloween and Thanksgiving stuff for my classroom.

I made this super cute Hocus Pocus sight word game.  It has words that are typically taught in 1st grade.  One of my dear followers requested I made some games with harder sight words.

I also used the same words to make this Gobble, Gobble sight word game that I just finished today.

And I'm really excited about these Common Core aligned Candy, Candy, Candy math centers.

And wow, I should really post more often!  That was a WHOLE lot in one post!  I hope everyone is hanging in there this school year!

Fall Blog Hop! (with a freebie)

Happy Fall everyone!  I'm spending the weekend at the beach in FL, so it doesn't really feel like fall here.  I know that most everyone else is getting to experience some fall weather and all those traditional fall things.  It's hard to explain fall to my students since it's not very fall-like where we live.

I'm super excited to join up with Teaching My 3 for a Fall Blog Hop.

We've been practicing Even and Odd Numbers this week, so I made this cute little sorting activity to use for centers that I'm offering as a freebie for a limited time.  Click on the picture to download your own free copy!

Here's some other fall games and activities that you might be interested in checking out at my TPT store.

Don't forget to check out all the other great blogs participating in the the Fall Blog Hop!

Back to School Sale

Today begins Teachers Pay Teachers Back-to-School sale!

My entire store is 20% off, which means you get a total of 28% off when using the code BTS12.

I just uploaded 2 new products last night that I was hard at work on yesterday.

Since I decided at the last minute to change my room's colors, I made a behavior clip chart in the same bright colors as my Alphabet Cards and Touch Point Number Posters.  Click on the picture to check it out!

Next up, I need to make word wall letters.  I better get busy since teachers go back to school tomorrow and I still need to get it all laminated!

I was also thinking ahead and made this really super cute Trick-or-Treat Sight Word Game for Halloween.  Click on the picture to check it out.

Happy Shopping everyone!!!