TPT Seller Challenge Week 2

This was my last week of school and needless to say I'm a bit behind with my blogging.  I'm excited to share my dreams on the blog today!    

While I'm new to the blogging and TPT creating world, I feel so lucky to have this opportunity.  I truly feel that even in the few short months I have been doing this I have become a better teacher and I am so excited to see where this journey takes me!

Inspire others: I have been so inspired by the amazing bloggers and creators I have followed for several years.  These amazing teachers have such big hearts and are so willing to help others to make them the best teachers they can be.  I truly feel lucky to have this opportunity to share my ideas and inspiration with others.  My hope is to inspire even just a few teachers as I continue on this journey.  

Student Loans:  Unfortunately I have student loans that I feel as though I'll be paying until I'm 90.  I know that's a bit dramatic but student loan debt stinks.  I'm just hoping to be able to double up payments to pay the loans off a bit faster!

Create: Creating has become a hobby for me and I'm constantly thinking about different products I can make for my classroom and my students.  Sometimes I think of products faster than I can create them!  That's a good problem to have!  I'd love to continue to create for my classroom with the the hope that these products can be helpful in other classrooms as well!

Don't forget to visit these blogs to see what others are doing!!

1

Tell All Tuesday: Teacher Bucket List

I'm linking up with My Day in K and Teach, Talk, Inspire for Tell all Tuesday!  

Today we're sharing our Teacher Bucket Lists... the posts I've read so far have been inspiring! I

1. I would love to gain followers to my blog and TPT store.  I LOVE creating materials for my classroom and nothing makes me happier than when I get an email or comment on my TPT store telling me a resource I created is working in another classroom.  I love to know that something I created is helping more than just the students I teach!

2. There are SO many amazing bloggers and TPTers out there that have inspired me and helped me along the way.  My hope is that my blog and my TPT store can help even just a few teachers to deliver the best instruction possible to their students!

3.  While my district offers PD throughout the year I would love the opportunity to attend some other PD workshops outside of what is offered by the district... anything offered by the Reading and Writing Project at Columbia would be amazing.  I'd also love to attend a workshop offered by Greg Tang.  I love all his math ideas!

Don't forget to check out My Day in K and Teach, Talk, Inspire to see other Teacher Bucket Lists!  

3

Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

Well, we survived the last "full" week even though it wasn't technically a full week.  We had a half day today.  As I begin the long chore of getting my room ready for the summer I am so sad to see my kiddos go.  

Here are some highlights from our week!   

ONE: Father's Day Gifts

Last year I had my kiddos decorate coffee mugs for their fathers.  This year I looked in about 6 different dollar stores for the mugs and could not find any that would work.  

So we needed to think of another idea and we needed to think of something quickly.  So the first grade team decided to make a Father's Day Trial Mix.  The kiddos enjoyed putting together a snack for their dad and they were all hoping their dads would share the snack with them on Sunday!

TWO: Building Words

The PTO at our school allowed each classroom teacher to buy a few teaching resources for our classroom next year and I was lucky enough to get these word construction nuts and bolts!!

I am in love.  My kiddos used them to create cvc words this week and they loved using them.  As the spun each nut they were able to manipulate sounds to determine if the words were real or nonsense words.  This is going to be a great resource for next year!

   THREE: Sight Word SWAT

This week we were reviewing sight words and I needed a quick, fun way to get the kids engaged and wanting to review these important words.  I typed a bunch of sight words on our Promethean Board and included bug clip art around the board.  

Then I had two kids come up and using fly swatters, they needed to swat the sight word I called out before their opponent.  The kids had a blast and were asking me all week if they could play the game again!  That's when you know a game was a hit!  

FOUR: Odd - Even Review 
Thursday afternoon we had about ten minutes left and my kiddos were DONE!  I needed to think of something fast.  I had them line up on the left side of tape on the floor.  The left side was for odd numbers, the right side of the line was for even numbers.

I began calling out numbers and the kiddos had to jump from side to side to indicate whether the number was an even or an odd number.  Never ceases to amaze me how much kids LOVE games.  Sometimes I forget this when I'm caught up in the routines of each week. 

Like the sight word game, my Firsties loved this game.  They were disappointed when we needed to pack up and leave.  As we were walking out to the buses my kids reminded me I promised another round or two Friday morning!  

 FIVE: Teaching
As I was finishing report cards this week I came across a writing sample from one of my kiddos that struggled with writing at the beginning of the year.  As I looked over the final writing sample I was BLOWN away.  This student has come so far in writing this year and I am so proud.  It's moments like this that remind me why I love teaching!!  We are all so blessed to be doing this wonderful job each day.

September  

June

June

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching!

0

TPT Seller Challenge Week 1

I've decided to participate in the TPT Seller Challenge and I'm excited to get started on this four week journey.   Each week we'll be challenged to do something to improve our TpT Store!  This week our challenge is to update at least one product in our TPT store.  We can update the cover and/or the contents of the product.  

I decided I would update my "Building" Teen Numbers math tub game.  This was one of the first products in my store and the cover needed some work.  Even though I've only been creating since January my "style" has changed in that short amount of time.  While I wanted to change the look of the cover I also wanted to change the title.  Rather, I wanted to add to the title.  While this has been a popular item in my store I wanted to attract those buyers that were looking for more teen number practice.  

That being said I added to the title to make it easier to find and then understand what the kids would be working on should they purchase the product.  I'm always trying to come up with catchy titles for my products while still keeping them descriptive enough so they would pop up in a TPT search! 

Take a look at my cover makeover....

I also changed the tub cards as well.  While the graphics and text are the same I put two lines around each card to make cut out and lamination easier.  The solid line can be used for cutting the materials when laminated.  It just makes things a bit easier when prepping materials.  It's hard to see that extra line, but it's there!

Take a look at the new cards.  

I've put this product on sale for the week!  I hope your students enjoy it as much as my kiddos did this year!

Don't forget to visit these blogs to see what others are doing!!

1

Tell All Tuesday: Summer Snapshot

I'm linking up with My Day in K and Teach, Talk, Inspire for Tell all Tuesday!  This is my first week linking up and I'm excited to read about the fun summer adventures everyone is planning.  

I still have two more full weeks of school and the following Monday at 7:30 my summer job begins.  It's all good... but there's no vacation in store for us this summer!  So that means no fun pictures of beaches or tourist destinations for this post.  

Rather I'm posting a picture of the patio and fire pit my husband built in our backyard.  We've spent many summer days and nights in our backyard enjoying the patio and this summer will be no different.  I love eating dinner our there or enjoying our nights beside the fire.  Sometimes it's the small things that make me happiest!  

Happy Summer!!

Don't forget to check out My Day in K and Teach, Talk, Inspire to see other Summer Snapshots!  

5

Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

Here are some highlights from our week!   

ONE: Sunflowers

Our flowers are going strong... the kids are so excited to take them home to plant.  The grow lights have done wonders for the plants and I think they'll be ready to send home at the end of the upcoming week!

TWO: Assessments

We are in the final few weeks of school and I'm knee deep in assessments and report cards.  This weekend I'm buckling down to get these report cards finished.  By the looks of this assessment folder I better get crackin'! 

   
THREE: Math Games

This New York Rangers odd and even numbers sort was a HUGE hit this week.  Even though some of my kiddos aren't exactly New York Rangers fans they loved completing this math tub.  

We also played a doubles game using marshmallows to mark off our sums.  The kids have enjoyed any spinner game I've introduced this year and its been a great, low prep way to add fluency practice to our math rotations.  

FOUR: Fiction Writing
We finally finished our fiction writing unit this week.  With all the interruptions that occur during the month of June it felt like this unit lasted for weeks!  Each kiddo did such a great job with their stories and I have seen such great progress from each of my firsties this year.  This story in particular caught my eye... LOVE the title!

 FIVE: Camping Week

The kids got a chance to practice spelling long vowel super e words this week as they went on a camping supply "hunt" around our classroom.  On each supply card I had a long vowel picture.  The kids needed to use the super e pattern to spell each of these words.  I love getting the kids up and moving this time of the year ... they need to be moving to get through the day!!  

We also completed this "What's My Campsite Number" game to practice place value as we end our year.  

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching!

2

Wordless Wednesday: Polyhedral Dice

Today I'm linking up with Miss DeCarbo for Wordless Wednesday.  

Here's my picture for the week!

My mind is spinning with all the different possibilities for these dice.  We've been playing a few games already but I'm wondering...

How would you use these dice?

Be sure to check out Miss Decarbo at Sugar and Spice to see more Wordless Wednesday posts.

1

Camping Week with Freebie

This is the first year I've planned a camping theme and I'm EXCITED about it.  I know my kiddos will love the activities I have planned and I think we'll be up and moving around enough to keep the kiddos engaged and learning during the last few weeks of the year!

Here are my plans for the week ahead as well as some highlights!!

This week we're going to be reviewing long vowel super e words.  Most of my kiddos are reading and writing these words with consistency but we can always benefit from review.  I created a camping supplies hunt  around the room and as the kids rotate to each card they will need to spell long vowel words correctly.  I posted this long vowel hunt in my TPT store for free if you'd like to try it!

  As part of our camping unit the kids will also be playing these "S'more Doubles Practice" games during our afternoon math rotations.  There are two versions of this doubles game... one version the kiddos need to double the number they spin and place a marshmallow on the sum.  In the other version the kids spin the sum of a doubles fact.  They need to work backwards to figure out what doubles fact makes that sum.  



We'll also be using these tubs throughout our week as well.  The "What's My Campsite Number" game requires the kids to use their knowledge of place value to determine different campsite numbers. The other tub gives the kids some practice with ABC order.  They need to first order the words alphabetically and then record the camping words on a recording sheet.
 


Even through the New York Rangers did not make it to the Stanley Cup finals my kiddos are still huge fans of the team.  This week I created a math tub game to go along with the players on the team.  I listed the players and their numbers on cards and the kiddos need to sort the cards by the even and odd numbers.  I have a few kids that are eagerly awaiting this game during our math rotations!!  I can't wait to use them this week.  

Have a great week... hang in there if you're still in school this week!  

0

Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday!

Here are some highlights from our week!   Our last full week of school! :(

ONE: Planting

We finally got around to planting this week.  We planted on Tuesday and this afternoon we noticed a few sprouts... the grow lights are an amazing thing!  

TWO: First Grade Favorites

I've seen the First Grade Favorite photo projects all over Instagram and blogs... I love the idea.  We're using a slightly different version of this project.  I'm having the kids do their own writing and we'll attach the photo to the top of the page.  Next week we'll create a revised copy so I'll   be printing pictures at Target and we'll finish the writing next week.  


THREE: Math Games

Today was Field Day and by the end of the day I only had 12 of my 19 kiddos.  So the writing project I wanted to complete was put on the back burner until next week.  With the last 25 minutes of the day the kids got to team up to play some math games.  I had some kids playing addition Chutes and Ladders as well as addition Candy Land.  Because I let 5 kids play each board game I gave them candy to use as their markers... they loved this idea! 

I also took out my iPhone and iPad to let some kiddos play a math game. The app is called Math Slide and if you haven't tried it out download it now!  The kids love it and it's a great way to give them addition and subtraction fluency practice as well as number concept practice.  Perhaps the best part of the app is that it's multi-player.  The iPad edition allows up to 4 kids to play at one time while the iPhone app allows two kids to play. Great way to get a few kids on classroom technology at one time! 

FOUR: Field Day
It never ceases to amaze me how exhausting Field Day is.  Our events were first thing in the morning so I really wanted to include a few ways to add some competition and games to our entire day. First we completed this Field Day Workout when we came in.  The kids actually worked up a sweat.  

As they rotated around the room they answered questions that included review from the year.  After they recorded their answers they needed to do some exercises until I blew my whistle and they switched to the next station.  They LOVED this!



After completing the review cards we also had a relay to see which team could fill up a jar with marshmallows first.   To get the point someone from the team needed to count the marshmallows by two... great way to add in some math review.  To end the day I have the teams try to fan a paper fish into a box... they loved this and it was a challenge for some!


 FIVE: It's The Little Things

Yesterday I was in meetings all day and as the kids came down the hallway at 9 am I ducked into the conference room to begin my meeting.  About a minute later I heard the faintest of taps on the door.  I opened it to find one of my kiddos standing there with a flower and hug "just because".  What a sweetie!  I am truly going to miss this bunch... they are all so sweet!   

Have a great weekend.  Don't forget to visit Doodle Bugs Teaching!

0