EduBlog Awards 2011...Go Vote!

The 2011 EduBlog Awards are happening now. Nominations are open from now until this Friday (December 2). There are lots of categories to nominate people for, but I'm just voting for Best Teacher Blog. 

I follow TONS of blogs, but I have 3 or 4 that are my absolute favs, so it's hard to narrow it down to just one. But.....my nomination goes to the ever fabulous Cara at The First Grade Parade. Her ideas are *amazing* and beyond creative. If I'm ever in a teaching slump, I always visit her blog to become inspired and she never lets me down. And I'm not joking when I say that her calendar companion completely changed the way I teach my math and I can tell such a difference in my kids because of it. She's beyond brilliant and that's why I'm nominating her. :)

Okay, so how do you nominate your favorite blog?? Just click the link below and follow the simple directions! :) :) 

http://edublogawards.com/nominations/

Sheep in a Jeep- Teaching Long 'e'

Aren't these cute?? Our phonics skill this week is long e so along with our reading series story (Honey Bees), we read Sheep in a Jeep and found all the long e words- all 32 of them! This is a wonderful story to help teach long e and my kids loved it!

***I've gotten a lot of emails and comments asking how we have time to do all this. I precut everything in order to fit it all in. There's no way we could do it if the kids had to cut all the parts out. It is very time consuming, but the kids love it and I think it brings so much more to the learning process and allows the kids to better understand concepts and skills since they feel more involved in the process. :)

***patterns coming soon!

Some new anchor charts and a CHEAP center idea!

After being sick the week before Thanksgiving week and then being out all last week for Thanksgiving, I'm missing my kids and classroom very much! And to matters worse, I haven't been in a creative mood at all these past two weeks, which would have been the perfect time to make some great centers. But no ideas would come to me....until today. Wouldn't you know? The very last day and I'm finally in the mood to create! haha :) I've made a couple of anchor charts to introduce this week's skills. I also make charts with my kids so they understand them more, but these are just reference charts that I thought I'd share.

This idea is not mine! But isn't it great?? I had this saved on my old computer, so I don't know where the original idea came from. If you know, let me know and I'll credit them :) 

Is she scary?? My mom cannot look at this one without laughing. She says she looks scary. Maybe the hair is a bit much? I tend to go overboard on drawing hair HAHA :)

I'm determined to start poetry! I've been wanting to for the longest, so I'm hoping it goes well.

And now for the cheap center idea. I found these Christmas trays at the Dollar Tree for (of course) $1. I created a label and word cards and made this cute, inexpensive sound sorting center. There's a recording sheet to go along with this activity after they sort the sound. The labels and cards are included in my Christmas center packet, which hopefully will be on TPT later this week.

Close up of the tray with labels

Roll Tide TPT Sale!

In honor of Bama's huge win over Auburn(42-14), I'm throwing a Teachers Pay Teachers Sale. Everything in my store is 20% off. Click here to visit it :)

**Hurry! Sale ends Tuesday!

Roll Tide!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Giveaway Winners!

Aren't giveaways fun?? So much fun that I decided to have three winners instead of just one. Here they are!

Melissa and Delighted, I have your emails and I'll send the packets tonight. Ohteach- leave me your email and I'll email you! :)

 I'm working on Christmas Math and Literacy Centers so we'll do another giveaway when I post them! :)

Dinosaur Patterns Freebie, Counting Turkeys, and Ed and Edie!

I have finally uploaded the dinosaurs patterns! Sorry it took a little while! Click the pic to get them. I've uploaded them onto my teachers pay teachers store, but they're free. I've found it's easier to download from TPT instead of Scribd. 

I found this gem of a book today in our classroom library. So wish I would have discovered it last week. It would have been oh so helpful!

If you haven't yet gotten to the Big Circle in Reading Street, be sure and pick this book up! My kids loved it and it would have been wonderful to use at a poetry center during this story. I may even extend our dino study into this week so we can use it :)

Need a quick activity? A handprint turkey is always a hit! We made these while we counted by 5's and 10's.

And lastly, one of our phonics skills this week is ending -ed, so I created Ed and Edie. I made the married couple "ai" and "ay" via the fabulous Abby's blog last year and it helped my kids understand that sound so much better! 

********Don't forget to enter my 1000 followers giveaway! I'll pick the winner tonight, so there's still time to enter!

1000 Followers Giveaway!

Giveaway time! In honor of hitting 1000 followers, I'm giving away the following:

My Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Centers

Christmas Fry Phrases

Christmas Nonsense Words

Here's how to enter:

1 entry: Follow me and leave a comment under this post telling me

1 entry: Follow my Teachers Pay Teachers Store (Click here to follow!) and leave a comment telling me.

1 entry: Blog about this giveaway and of course, leave a comment directing me to the post.

I'll pick the winner tomorrow (Monday) night! :) :)