Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Huge giveaway,3 days down, and a question



Wow---Tonya over at Tonya's Treats for Teachers  is having a HUGE 500 follower giveaway. There are lots of goodies up for grabs with this---so make sure you head on over to her blog and enter!!





Day 3 finished up today with only 5 kiddos. I'll see about 5 or 6 tomorrow and then on Friday---
a l l o f t h e m! :) I do believe I have a good group this year, the biggest thing is just making sure I watch the talkers and keep them as separated as possible. 

Hopefully I'll have some updated class pictures soon. The lighting is terrible so I may just have to make do. 

Question---how do you make a powerpointe editable (I save everything as a pdf but...) but still keep it safeguarded from copying (like with TOU on graphics and all)?? I had someone ask me a question about my Owl Open House Pack and wishing it was editable but I have no clue as to how to do that...and make sure nothing is copied and taken.

Can someone help me with that?? Or offer suggestions? Thanks!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

And the winner is....

Congratulations Kelly on winning my first giveaway. Please check your email. Thanks to those who entered and are now a follower!

Off to prep for round 2 today! :)


Monday, August 27, 2012

First day...giveaway...and other ramblings


Today was my first day with kiddos. I don't know how you all do it out there in blog land but in our county we stagger the kinder kids. How does it work where you are? I would love to hear---do you have all of them the first day or do you stagger as well? 

 So I only had 8 kids today. It'll be--give or take a few--like this until Friday (when they allllll show up---and I mean all!) Not so sure I'm ready for all 26 or however many (it keeps changing) show up! Whew!
But today was a good day--what a cute group...one was a little talker and I had to turn the serious teacher voice on but I think he'll be alright.
I don't know how Friday will go but at least I'll have a 3 day weekend to recoup! :)

Don't forget about my first giveaway! It's just a small one because it's my first but I'm celebrating all of you awesome teachers out there who decided to follow my little 'ole blog. Still hard to believe I'm at 30 followers now.

To enter---just follow my blog and my TPT store. That's it. The giveaway ends tonight! So hurry!


a Rafflecopter giveaway



I did upload a new item at my store. It's a shape game set. It includes

  •  shape cards (rectangles, triangles, cubes, squares, circles, and hexagons)
  • a game board
  •  graphing sheet
  • a spinner
  •  a dice to roll with the shapes
  • shape posters that describe the shape (corners, sides, etc.)
  • cards to use with the game board to allow for differentiation
Here's a preview--it doesn't show everything but it'll give you an idea.

Click on the picture to check it out at TPT. 



Saturday, August 25, 2012

30 followers!! and my first giveaway!

Wow---how awesome--30 followers. I never thought that when I started this little 'ole blog that I'd reach this many followers this quickly. You guys rock! So because of that...I thought I'd try my very first giveaway. I'm giving away any 2 items from my TPT store. 
All you have to do is enter on the rafflecopter! :) Just follow my blog and my store and you are entered. The giveaway ends Monday at midnight so hurry and enter!!!



a Rafflecopter giveaway



Friday, August 24, 2012

It's finally Friday.....and it's Freebie Friday!!


Whew...what a week. And the kids haven't even started school yet. It's been very busy but I do believe hope that I'm ready for Monday. So over at Blog Hoppin' it's the teacher week linky party and it's Freebie Friday!! So I've linked up to offer up a freebie.

I made a little something with monsters. It's a set of numbers 1-20 and a set of uppercase alphabet cards with a monster theme. Click on the picture to download. 





Hope you enjoy and hop on over to join in on the linky party!



   

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Therapeutic Thursday














I've finally been able to link up to this today. It's been a crazy busy week (tonight was Open House---I've got some cuties) so how appropriate that this is Therapeutic Thursday. I need some therapy-----like beach therapy! :)

So this is a big relaxer for me. We only live about an hour and a half from the beach so lots of day trips happen--which is wonderful and my hubby's best friend lives about 2 1/2 hours away at another beach that we are able to visit anytime and stay for a weekend (which is where this pic was taken). 


Another form of therapy is more like my hubby's therapy but I'm just along for the ride. My hubs has a Harley and this pic is from a ride we went on leaving a church a couple of Sunday's ago. 

And of course---our puppy. He's a year old---so sometimes it's not so relaxing..but he's fun. 


It's also nice to just come home, sit on the couch with the hubs and chill. With the way he works and my busy schedule, just sitting down and doing NOTHING is wonderful! 

Hope you have had a relaxing Thursday! :)


Monday, August 20, 2012

Exhausted....and a freebie

Well today was my first day back (no kiddos yet) and boy I am beat. I forgot how my legs feel after walking on that school floor all day....fun fun.

I did quite a bit today at school (new alphabet, numbers, and number line were put up, calendar chart and crate seats were put into place and a few more things). I'll take more updated pictures tomorrow and post hopefully. 

Well I'm falling asleep while posting this so here is a freebie for you.

I threw together two planner covers for this year. Graphics are by mycutegraphics.com. 

This is my first time using Google docs...so hang tight...*fingers crossed* it'll work. 

Ok for whatever reason---it doesn't upload the way that I made it so just go to my TPT store by clicking on the picture and downloading....



Friday, August 17, 2012

Classroom Pictures

I was finally able to get into my room yesterday because my carpets had already been cleaned, so a few of my awesome friends/co-workers got together and we worked in my room and my neighboring teacher's room just moving furniture.

But of course I forgot to take before pics--go figure! But I did take a few after--and with a lot of changes this year, my room looks huge. First of all, last year I had long rectangle tables and my friend next door had trapezoid tables that she put together to make a hexagon. But the problem is, her room is SMALL! 

Our school has the open classroom concept (before I got there--10 yrs ago) there were no walls. It was all rolling cabinets that divided the rooms up. Now we have panel walls between our rooms and walls in the hallway. But the rooms are not divided up evenly space wise. 

Are your picturing this or have I thoroughly confused  you? 

Anyway so we decided to switch tables---I took the trapezoid, she took the rectangle. And WOW at the difference it has made in both rooms! Amazing...no pictures of her room though--sorry..I should have though. AND!!! I got rid of my assistant's desk as well!!!  

Ok on to the part you've been actually waiting for (unless you bypassed the above and went straight to the good stuff)! :)  And I forgot my camera--grr so the pictures are from my phone---sorry!

This is the view from the door looking into the classroom. My assistant's desk was right on the left as you came in the room. Now that will be where my writing table sits...and look at the space!!!!! 

This picture is the left wall that you would see if you were standing at the door. This obviously is my word wall. I've had the popcorn words displayed like this forevvverrr. No time for change this year but next year....hmmm. And the brown table in the bottom left corner was where the assistant's desk sat. The shelves that are covered is my reading station. 

This wall (was placed there a few years before I got to this school---it use to be that the red cabinets in the pictures below were the "walls") Anyway...this are my math tubs and under the polka dot  tablecloth is more math stuff. This is the wall to the right when you walk in the door. I was doing the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom exchange last year so hence the display. Not sure what I'll put up there this year. 

Ok this is wall on the far right when you walk in the room. This is my display wall for my student's work. 

Two of the famous rolling cabinets. These two house all my storage items (as well as a storage room across the hall) such as paper, crayons, etc. etc. And the stars are for my environmental print display board. These cabinets sit beside the math tub area and the kids display wall in the corner. There is one more red cabinet in the very back of the room (I think you can see it in the first picture) that holds the students book bags. 

This view is from where my desk sits at the back of the room looking towards the front door. (I don't use my desk--so now my assistant and I can share it and I mostly will use that kidney shape table in the picture to work at--finally got one after wanting one for years! And once I get my crate seats to school they will be at that table.)

This is still a view from my desk but it shows now you can look into the next 3 kindergarten classrooms from the back of my room. I do not have anyone on the other side of me--it's all wall and the last teacher's room in the picture is closed off as well on one side. There is one other K teacher who is down the hall and she is open to 4th grade on one side. 

Well there you have it. I'll post more pictures after next week once I have boards up and all the stuff put out and furniture exactly where I want it and all that good stuff. But at least you can see what we've gotten done so far. Because I couldn't do all of that by myself in one day (normally we have a couple of days). 

Now--off to the pool! 


Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Back to School Jitters Linky----and a freebie!


I hope that everyone has rested up from the big TPT sale....I think know I have..whew...it sure was a mad rush! :) I did buy some awesome items though! Writing work stations packet (DeeDee Wills), Common Core Standard Posters (Deanna Jump) , Alphabet bundles, clip art graphics and other goodies! :)

I saw over on Learning is Something to Treasure that A Turn to Learn was having a Back to School Jitters Linky Party---and I thought how appropriate, because I know that we all have some jitters.
Click here to join up!

.Back to School Jitters Linky Party




              Here are some of my jitters!


Now on to the freebie---thanks for reading along to get it! LOL
Cupcake Months of the Year--click on the image to take you my store to download for free! And I would LOVE if you would become a follower of the blog and my store! 



Sunday, August 12, 2012

TPT sale

It's that time folks---the back to school sale at TPT is happening now! Many teachers are offering up to 20% off of their items at their TPT store and then you use the code BTS12 to add an additional 10% off!!! Click on the button to head on over to my store.

I'm offering up to 15% off of items at my store. Some of them include the following:






There are a few more not listed--so head on over and fill up your cart with items from everyone's store!! I know my cart has been full for a little while! 

Happy shopping everyone!

Friday, August 10, 2012

I won!, birthday, and TPT sale (linky party)



So I woke up this morning to find an email stating that I won a giveaway! My first one! I'm so excited and it's my birthday (hmmm 31---wow) so that made it even more special! :) 

Erica over at Sprinkles to Kindergarten was giving away some awesome glue caps that will help from those pesky glue bottles from getting clogged. Click on her link to hop over to read about them. And I won them! Now my assistant and I won't have to find a paperclip to jam into the lid to unclog them!  
She also gave away 2 items from her TPT store and I won those as well!
I'm so excited. 



Being that it is my birthday I'm offering up a little freebie for you today! :)
Click the picture to go grab it from my TPT store.

Graphics by Trina Clark at Dollar Graphics Depot


And lastly---TPT is having a huge Back to School Sale on August 12-13. Lots of awesome bloggers are adding an extra 20% off of their store plus what TPT is offering. So that's a huge savings! I know my wishlist keeps getting bigger and bigger. I'll be putting my stuff on sale as well so use this link to head on over to my TPT store and find some goodies. (I'm adding more and more stuff while I'm trying to finish this post as well because I don't have that many items yet--I'm new to this! :) 

                 
Also First Grade Garden is having a linky party for bloggers who are offering up items for sale. Click here to go check it out. (She is the one who did the awesome graphic promoting the sale--thanks for letting me use it!)

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Currently...and some other goodies

So I've been seeing the Currently stuff by Farley over at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade and thought..why not?! 

 Click on her button to find out more about it!Oh' boy fourth grade



So I've been working on my Open House stuff and trying to get back in the swing of things---all though I'm having sort of a hard time with that. I decided I'd put some stuff together and see how it goes. 
First I wanted a welcome banner but didn't want anything too big to hang, so I made this Owl Welcome sign to hang and attached ribbon to make it more fun! 
                                           (yes that's my shower curtain--:) the lighting is terrible)


Sorry about the lighting...I was trying to find the best place in the house but hmm...oh well. The owls are blue if you can't see them very well (courtesy of the3amteacher) and I attached ribbon in the middle of each to tie them together. 

I also made some pencil toppers to put on pencils that I'll give the students at open house night. I teach K but I made them for Pre-K, K, First, and Second Grades.


I continued on and made a variety of open house items to put in this packet such as:

As well as the pencil toppers, sign in sheets, welcome signs (print and fold), a class wish list and other items.

Head on over to my TPT store and grab your Open House packet. 














Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Another giveaway!

Hey all! I wanted to tell you about another giveaway at First Grade O.W.L.S!

 In honor of her birthday she is giving away her Everything Owl Classroom Bundle. And the awesome DeeDee Wills is throwing in her Writing Work Stations bundle. I mean really--how awesome is this giveaway! 

          

Go over to First Grade O.W.L.s to enter for a chance to win. I sure hope I do! :)


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Blog giveaways and other cool stuff

I'm looking around in blog land and there are so many awesome things out there by some amazing teachers. Stop on over at Primary Pizzazz and check out her great giveaway!

                                     


One winner will receive a $25 gift card to TPT and a $25 gift card to Amazon! 


Also--over at Fancy Free in Fourth an amazing giveaway is taking place. Lots of bloggers are involved and there is so much cool stuff I can't even begin to name it all! So head over there and check that out as well.
                     

Over at Rulin' The Roost she is giving away $80 to VistaPrint! :)  
              Angelablogbutton

There is so much cool stuff going on out there in blog land. Have fun blog stalking watching! :)

Friday, August 3, 2012

Crate seats, pen pals, and new finds



So I finally finished my crate seats a couple of days ago. I only have 4 right now, but I'm going to make 2 more next week. Very little cost b/c I already had the crates and my dad had the wood laying around. I bought 4 pieces of fabric at $.97 each and it was $7 total for all 4 pieces of foam. 


Excuse my dog in the corner of one of the pics. He couldn't figure out what was going on. The grey fabric has small polka dots and the green fabric has little bright flowers. I can't wait to use these for more storage and seating! :)


Ok--new stuff. It's tax free weekend here in NC so a few of us decided to hit up a school supply store about an hour from where we live. It's huge..and overwhelming awesome! :) I could probably spend all day in there but it was only about an hour and half.

I went with finding a number line and a pocket chart for a calendar in mind. I found both and a few other items.


I forgot to take a picture of the pocket chart but oh well. I wanted a calendar pocket chart to hang instead of always trying to use bulletin board space or any other little wall space I have. I think it'll be easier this way. 

I found the big number line to display and then ran across a set of 30 individual number lines which I thought would be great for small group practice or even whole group and the students can have their own number line.

I HEART owls so I bought owl name plates, a notepad (will use this for a bulletin board) and an owl pointer. :)   The blue border will be used for the bulletin board. (It will go outside my room---hopefully I can get into school soon to take pictures.)

The little cube with the orange square is a foam dice that has pattern block shapes on it. I will use that in some of my math center activities. 




Sorry this is such a long post but I'm trying to get everything in that I can think of.

 I just saw on The Teacher Idea Factory about a great Pen Pal exchange that she is hosting. I signed up because I think that it's an awesome way for students to share and learn from other kids their age that are not necessarily always in their own school. 


You do not have to have your own blog to participate. It is open to all teachers so head on over to Kelley's blog and sign up!


I think that's it for today...thanks for reading all the way down! :)   Headed to the beach this weekend----gotta enjoy every last free moment!