Fall Sale and Give Aways

Can you believe it is the last day of September???? Well I am excited for sure.  My favorite month is October and we spent yesterday getting our house ready for the fall!  My little guy sure does love pumpkins (or puntkins) as he calls them.

To celebrate the start of my favorite month, I am running a 30% off sale over at my Teacher's Notebook shop. Click on the pic below to take you there. I just uploaded a Halloween themed reading graphic organizer set and also included a plain version of each organizer for those that prefer to use them that way or so that you can use them after October is over!

And don't forget about this great giveaway! Head over to Amy's blog and be sure to enter. 20 Teacher bloggers have donated prizes and you can also win a $25 LOFT gift card- to start your fall wardrobe!

Don't forget this give away either!

HAPPY SUNDAY!

Freebie and Give Aways

Happy Saturday Everyone! We made our weekend trip to "Monkey Bizness" today. Never heard of it? It is an awesome indoor gym for kids 7 and under. Parents are encouraged to play right along side of their children, which I LOVE- and they have a great coffee shop as well.

This week has been another crazy one!  I held Data Chats with the teachers in Grades 3-5. Here in FL we are required to take the FAIR- Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading- assessment three times per year. It helps us to know how are children are doing in reading comprehension, fluency and word analysis compared to a norming group across the state. From these chats, we developed a plan for intervention groups. We have one group of kiddos at each grade level whose fluency and word analysis scores are not that low, but reading comprehension needs a boost.

We decided on using Reciprocal Teaching as our strategy for working with our students who need comprehension guidance. I created this graphic organizer for our children to use as they read. Grab your FREE copy here!

What are some interventions that you implement for students struggling with comprehension, fluency or word analysis?
Finally, I am helping my bloggy friend, Amy at What Happens in First Grade celebrate reaching 100 Followers. She has an AWESOME giveaway with products from 20 teacher bloggers. Be sure to check it out and let her know I sent you!

And Finally....Check out Fun in 1st Grade's HUGE HUGE HUGE (did I say it enough) give away!

Whole Brain Teaching

So my latest Pinterest stalking has been in regards to Whole Brain Teaching. How many of you out there are using it? Can I get a 10 Finger Woo!!! I'm interested in hearing your experience with it, any advice, tweaks, etc????
Here are some FREEBIES and videos that I have found while stalking around the web. Enjoy!

A Few New Things....

As much as the start to a new school is an overwhelming time for me, I can say that it has been even more of an overwhelming experience for a few of my teacher friends. Due to low enrollment at our school, we lost 3 teacher units, however our Kindergarten numbers are booming and so we added a 6th Kindergarten class. One of my intermediate teacher friends has taken the leap and is going to be teaching Kindergarten after years in 5th and a few weeks in 3rd. 
To help her in getting her new room ready, she asked that I make her a few posters. So I did, and I've listed in my Teacher's Notebook store. Click on any of the pics to take you there.

And don't forget to enter Latoya's Give Away at Flying into First. There are only 5 days left to win a huge lot of prizes.  Tell her I sent you!

Have a great week!

Reading Journal and Give Away

I am so happy it is Saturday. I'm about to go spend an hour or so with my little guy at Barnes and Noble. I love how much he craves books right now.  He woke up this morning saying "I go to the book store!" Fun day ahead of us.
I just uploaded a new item to my TN Store.  I have been working with my 5th grade teachers on creating reading response journals with their students, and this is the result of that. It includes poster reminders for the part of the response journal, thinking stems for the students to refer to and also a scoring rubric.  Check it out!

I am so happy or my new blogging buddy Latoya who has reached 100 Followers. To help her celebrate I have offered my Owl Theme Set and My Circus Theme Set to her give away. Be sure to stop by and show her some love and enter her Give Away.

Here are the pics of the Owl Theme Set and the Circus Set.

Have a great weekend!

Classroom Pictures....Finally!

WOW! These past few weeks have been C-R-A-Z-Y!!! I have been so busy, but finally got a chance to travel around my school and take some pics of a few of our adorable classrooms. You sure will be able to tell we are Thistle Girl and Teacher's Clubhouse customers as well as being Pinterest Inspired.  

So, check out the pics (there are tons!) and show my teachers some love by leaving some comments.

The first group of pics is from my Reading Coach room. I wanted to make it inviting to teachers so that we can use the space to get down to all of our lesson planning and PLC data chats!  I was definitely inspired by Melanie at School Girl Style (can we say "double border" and ribbons!)

Next up.....JUNGLE THEME! So cute, I especially LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the crate seats. How adorable is that fabric??? 

How cute is this Dr. Seuss "Positive Behavior Chart!" I love it!

And how about this teacher's "CRAFT board" courtesy of Kristen at  Ladybug's Teacher Files (I love her!) oh and a few owls to go with it. What could be better???

I've been wanting to make one of these, and want to even more know that I have seen this on a 1st grade teacher's desk. Sorry for the glare!

Ok...you know when you you are overfilled with pride when one of your students ends up surpassing you as the teacher? Well that is how I feel about this next classroom! It belongs to my dear friend, Heidi. Heidi amazes me on a regular basis. She is my go to Kindergarten teacher, and my go to for mom advice!  A few years ago she lost everything in her classroom to a fire. She invested in a teacher-store "Monster Theme" set. And boy was it adorable!  This summer she and I started talking about themes and she told me she wanted to do a Hollywood theme since the time her daughter was in my "Hollywood" 4th grade, but she couldn't spend all of that money again after having to replace so many lost items. I showed her Thistle Girl and Scrappin Doodlesand how cheap she could purchase the graphics for. I then showed her how to make documents in Powerpoint without the frustration of Word. I made her Daily Five posters and a few other items in her class. Then.....I unleashed an animal!!!! Just look at what she did. I can't imagine a classroom that I'd rather be in.  I'm hoping she is still teaching K when my son gets there!  I think my favorite is the golf balls around the "What We're Learning" board to look lights.  Or maybe it is her positive behavior display....Oh boy, to many to name.  So, just take a peek!

Hope you enjoyed the pics!  Happy Wednesday:)

We Have a Winner and Currently!

I am linking up with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade for September's Currently- here ya have it!

Here is a run down of my favs!

1.) The Make a Wish Foundation: Boy, what an amazing group of people.  14 years ago, my sister lost her first son when he was born way too early. In his honor our family and so many of our friends made donations to the Make a Wish Foundation in his name. At my other sister's wedding, in lieu of a favor, she made a donation in my nephew's memory on behalf of each guest. So, this foundation has been near an dear to our hearts.  Life has a way of coming back around again, and just a few weeks ago, my sister's youngest child Matthew who was born in end stage kidney failure was granted a wish from the foundation to go to Disney with his family. You can read more about it here but these people are truly amazing!

2.)  I have been obsessed with Pinterest and blog stalking for well over a year, and I became fascinated with everyone's cute little cut outs that were scalloped. I originally thought people were just talented with scissors- HAHA!  Well, I finally bought my own scallop punch with a Michael's 40% off coupon....know everything has a cute scalloped cut to it!

3.)  Am I the only one who never watched this show? It's on HBO and recently they have been playing tons of reruns.  I am hooked!  Almost right up there with "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Not quite as funny or inappropriate as "sunny" but still just as good.

Now...onto the winner of my 100+ Follower give-away.  Congrats Lori!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to stop by and see the amazing bloggers who helped make my give-away possible.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

IPod-Touch Report & 1 Day Left

I am sooooo EXCITED about my newest product. We are focusing this month on our Reading standards that address Character, Theme, Plot, and Author's Purpose. I wanted to provide the teachers with an independent task that their children could complete regardless of the fiction book they were reading during independent time.
I was inspired by Kristin's (Ladybugs Teacher Files) All APPout Me first day activity, and wanted to do something that would hook the kids- they sure do love their touch screens.
Here is what I came up with:

There is another full page of questions for the rest of the "apps". I added this file to my TN store for just  $2.50  But , the FIRST 3 people to comment will get it FREE!  Click the image below to go to my TN store:)

Speaking of FREE.....just one day left to my 100+Follower Give Away. Click the image below to go to the rafflecopter. Good Luck.  It's Friday tomorrow.....YAY!!!!!

Two Days Left

Hi Everyone Just two days left to my 100 follower give away! Don't miss your chance to enter for some fabulous prizes from my fellow bloggers. Click the pic below to take you to the original post with a listing of the prizes and to enter the give-away! Happy Wednesday!

100+ Follower Give Away

I am soooo excited to be offering this 100+ Follower Give Away. I never imagined that I would reach 100 this soon after starting my blog. It has been an awesome summer of  sharing ideas and being inspired from other blogs through my awesome followers. So many of you are the inspiration behind the ideas I have been implementing at my own school.

To celebrate, I am happy to be offering some great give-away products and am even more excited about the other bloggers who are helping me celebrate by donating their own products. Everyone is so nice out here in blog land!

To celebrate, one lucky follower will ALL OF THE FOLLOWING:

1) A choice of my Circus Themed Set OR My Owl Themed Set AND one product of your choice from my Teacher's Notebook Shop.

2.) Back to School Writing Pack from Crystal at Ms. Jone's Junction

3.) Write the Room Centers from Latoya at  Flying into First Grade

4.) Your choice of either the Hollywood Star of the Week Pack or the Explorer Star of the Week Pack from Corinna at Teaching Fabulous Firsties.

Good Luck to Everyone and THANK YOU for your encouragement and support! a Rafflecopter giveaway