Easter Literacy Centers

I've just uploaded my newest literacy centers unit. I plan on creating math ones as well, but I will post them separately. This does come with a bonus counting odd numbers set of eggs. :) 

Click the pic to get it!

Also, don't forget the big Leap Day Sale on Teachers Pay Teachers Tomorrow!!!!! Are y'all as excited as I am?? Who doesn't love a good sale :) Everything in my store is 20% off, which when combined with the discount from TpT, makes it 28% off! Visit my store here.

As always, first 3 to comment get the Easter Unit free! :)

Leap Day Sale on TpT!

I'm participating in TpT's huge Leap Day Sale on February 29th. My entire store will be 20% off. And if you use the promo code in the banner, you'll save even more, for a total of 28% off! Visit my store here to see what's on sale. **Anything else that I upload from now 'til Thursday will also be included in this fabulous sale. 

Lorax Craft Patterns

Click here to get patterns for the Lorax!

Dr. Seuss Sale

I've just put all my Dr. Seuss items on sale for 15% off now through Sunday. Happy soon to be Dr. Seuss Week! :) Check out my sale here.

Dr. Seuss Giveaway, teaching /ay/ and /ai/, and new small group area

Warning: this is a random post ( as if you didn't already know that based on the title!)

 First things first: Have you entered the HUGE Dr. Seuss giveaway that I'm a part of on Teaching Blog Addicts? I'm giving away my Dr. Seuss Unit

Click the pic and go enter now! 

Second: we are finally learning about the married couple {ai} and {ay}. My kids have been waiting for this sound for so long so they were excited that we have finally gotten to it.

Third: I moved my small group area last week to the front of my classroom like I had it last year. We needed a change and it works SO MUCH BETTER here. You wouldn't believe how much it helped with our reading :) :) Sometimes we just need a change of scenery. 

I've had a lot of requests for a /ai/, /ay/ packet and I'm working on it now. I will hopefully have it finished within the next couple of days. Tonight's Glee night so I can promise it won't be done tonight. Any other Gleeks out there?? :) 

Cat in the Hat Nonsense Words

Click here to get Cat in the Hat nonsense words.

Dr. Seuss Math and Literacy Centers-TpT

Update: I think y'all guessed every book Dr. Seuss ever wrote except my favorite! :) My favorite book is The Sneetches. If you haven't read it, you must! It has the best message. I also found the cartoon movie of it at Target several years ago and it is WONDERFUL. My kids always request it during snack.

I'll send a free copy to the first 3 commenters. Have a great president's day!

Click here to get my Dr. Seuss Math and Literacy Centers- These are centered around Green Eggs and Ham, the Cat in the Hat, and Fox in Socks. I'm working on a literacy companion for The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, and The Sneetches. Hopefully they'll be up by the end of the week. 

First three to comment and name my favorite Dr. Seuss book get a free copy! :)

Last Week in Pictures (Plus Pirate /ar/ activities!)

First off, sorry to everyone who has emailed or commented here lately. My week was beyond crazy so I didn't have a lot of time for blogging. I've also become addicted to a new TV show that I've been trying to pull myself away from. :) Did anyone else see the new Revenge episode Wednesday night where we finally got to see who was shot at the White Party???

 To the first three who commented on my Math Madness post, I promise I'll email them to you today! To those who have commented or emailed to ask about a Dr. Seuss unit, I'm working on it now and *hope* to have it up by Monday. I didn't realize Dr. Seuss week was week after next. Can y'all believe that?? My kids are starting to get his books for AR and they are getting sooo excited about Read Across America Week. 

This week, we talked a lot of presidents. I wasn't sure how much this would interest my kids, but they loved it! I think it was one of their favorite topics so far. 

We made hats for our door:

Side note: I did the same thing with Cat in the Hat hats for my door last year and thought it turned out really cute.  Check it out here.

We also made George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I had planned on making a President Obama, but we ran out of time. 

You can find the facts sheet and bubble maps in my President's Day here.

 I also started doing something different for our  "A to Z sounds" board. I use to just put the name of the sounds we had covered like Long a or /th/, but I realized that was just a waste of space since it didn't have any words that contained those sounds. Everyday, we make charts for our weekly sounds on our smartboard, so I started copying those charts onto paper and displaying them on this board. It has worked out sooo much better and now the kids can actually look to the board to see examples of those words. Here's a few of the charts:

And lastly (sorry, I know this is a really long post!) my kids need a little extra help with the /ar/ sound. I've created a ARRR!!! Pirate mini unit that we will be doing next week at Word Work. You can get it here. It's a short packet, so it's cheap! :) 

Reading Street Teachers- we've been busy with so much other stuff in my classroom, that we haven't had much time for extra stuff in our reading series. So if you've noticed a lack of "extras" for the last few stories in Unit 3, that's why. Plus, Unit 3 is my least favorite unit. The good news is Unit 4 is my favorite, so I'll start posting more fun things for each story. We're on Mama's Birthday Present next week, complete with a fiesta on Friday! :)

Unit 4 Questions of the day will be uploaded soon!

President's Day Unit on Sale

Get it for 10% off 'til Thursday! Check it out here.

Math Madness Basketball Math Centers

March Madness is right around the corner so I thought I'd bring a little basketball into our math centers. This 64 page unit includes 9 math centers focused on addition facts, time (to the hour and 1/2 hour), tally marks, analyzing picture graph data, sums of 10, and ordering numbers from least to greatest. Click here to get it

*** First 3 to comment get a free copy. 

President's Day Unit

When I started creating my President's Day unit, I realized I really like teaching about all our presidents. There are some really interesting facts. Here are my two favorite books for teaching this holiday:

So You Want to Be President

A classic, right? This book is *wonderful*. I loosely based my unit on this book. It has so many interesting facts. Not to mention the illustrations are beautiful. 

What Presidents Are Made Of

This book is super cute and the pictures of each president are too funny. I can't wait to read this one to my kids.

Here's my President's Day Unit. Click here to get it! 

Included are the patterns for my Yankee Doodle Kids:

First 3 people to name my favorite president get a free copy! Just comment below :)

**Hint: I have a Pinterest Board devoted entirely to his wife. Love, love, love her style. He's also the cutest president we have ever had.  ;)

This should be super easy now!

Update: Obviously, my clues were so easy. Of course my favorite president is JFK. Although Bill Clinton is a close second. He was a terrific president, despite what happened at the end of his presidency. 

Free copies go to Megan, Annie, and Team Burns Elementary. Team Burns Elementary: leave your email address and I'll send you freebie to you!

Thanks for everyone who commented! :)

Anatomy of a Groundhog and Tagged Questions

We started learning about groundhogs today and graphed our weather predictions for tonight. I remembered to take a pic of the anatomy anchor chart but of course forgot the pic of the graph. 

And I've been tagged by Amy at the The Resource Room, Barbara at Happy Teaching First, and Sarah at Fun in Title Math

Since some of the questions were the same and I figured y'all didn't read all 36 of my answers, I decided to do a mash up of the fabulous questions :)

1. What is your favorite TV show? I have three: Glee, Pretty Little Liars, and Gossip Girl. Although recently I've become addicted to Revenge. If Daniel Greyson really dies at the engagement party, I'll stop watching. Isn't he gorgeous?? 

2. What is your favorite book? Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly

3. How much time do you spend on your hair in the morning? I just love this question! :) I do my hair at 6:15 every morning, so I could spend 3 hours on it and it still isn't going to do well that early in the morning. That's one of my least favorite thing about teaching. My hair does horrible when I fix it in the morning. I guess I spend about an hour on it all together: washing, combing out, products, drying, curling.

4. What's your favorite memory from high school? That would have to be cheering. If I could go back to high school to do one thing again, it would be cheering. I miss that so much. 

5. How long have you been teaching? This is my 3rd year :)

6. What is your favorite color? Pink...bet you were surprised by that, right? :)

7. Name the one blog you frequent often: Teaching blog: The First Grade Parade Fashion/Lifestyle Blog: Confessions of a Twenty Something

8. What is your favorite movie? Legally Blonde

9. What is your classroom theme? I don't really have a theme, I just decorate with a lot of bright colors. I get bored very quickly so I like being able to create different things and just using bright colors as opposed to a theme makes this easier.

10. How do you group your students seating? I change where my kids sit A LOT. I would get so bored sitting in the same spot everyday so I know my kids do too. Sometimes we sit in a U shape, sometimes in  two long rows, and sometimes (like now) in pods of four. Usually just whatever works best at the moment!

11. How long do you stay after work? Not too long. I'm usually home around 3:45 or 4:00. By the end of the day, I'm completely spent and cannot think about much. It's usually pointless to stay and try and work because I'm so tired from the day. I come home, take a bath and concentrate on something non-school for awhile and then feel ready to create school things again. I do the majority of my planning and creating on the weekends (exciting, I know). If I didn't have the weekends to plan, my entire week would be off.

12. Are you married? Nope! I'm single and happily enjoying my carefree twenties. Although if a John Kennedy Jr. came along, I wouldn't complain. :) :) :)

13. What do you do to relax and de stress? Take a bath, do my nails, look at InStyle, and watch Gossip Girl. 

14. How did you discover the world of blogging? I have a sweet teacher friend to thank for that! She told me about First Grader...At Last! and after that, I was hooked! A few months later, I discovered fashion blogs, and I cannot tell you how much I've learned through those!

15. How long have you been blogging? Since August of last year (2010)

Thanks for tagging me, girls! I love to answer questions like these and love reading everyone else's!

Don't forgot! My Groundhog's Day unit and Valentine's Day unit are on sale. Go to my store to check them out!

Groundhog Day and Valentine's Day Sale!

My groundhog day and valentine's day units are on sale now 'til Friday for 15% off! Check them out here :) Happy 1st day of February!