Crazy for Class Books!

I would love for you to click over to the Who's Who and Who's New blog to read my latest post on making class books with your students!


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Fighting for Fiona Fundraiser

I am teaming up with my fellow Who's Who and Who's New authors to participate in a fundraiser for 3 year old Fiona.



Fiona was born with a rare, life threatening immune deficiency and her only cure is a bone marrow transplant. 

This fundraiser will help pay her medical bills.

You can help by purchasing one or more of the bundles.   ALL proceeds from the sale of these educational bundles, will go to Fiona and her family.




More information about Fiona and her family:


Thanks for your help!
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Guided Reading in Kindergarten

Be sure to head over to Who's Who and Who's New to read my latest blog post. Today I am giving you tips to get guided reading up and running in your Kindergarten classroom.


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#kindertribe

The teacher tribe movement is in full force and some kindergarten teachers have formed the Kinder Tribe blog!  And today I'm linking up with their Kinder Tribe Linky Party!

http://kindertribe.blogspot.com/2015/07/all-about-this-kinder-teacher-first.html


Hey everyone!!!

I have been teaching elementary school for 14 years!  Yikes!  And before that I taught preschool for 6 years!  Holy Cow!  Makes me feel OLD!

OK, not that old! Hahaha! 

I have taught 2nd and 3rd grade, and am currently in Kindergarten!


I am always drinking water!!  I take 2 LARGE reusable water bottles to work each day.  {We have nasty water at work, so I don't like to drink out of the taps there!}

I carry my water everywhere!  And can't live without it!


Mr. Sketch scented markers!  Right?


Caps for Sale.  I love this oldie, but goodie!  My students love acting out this story. They love to stomp their feet and pretend to get mad at the monkeys!  And they love to play the monkeys and shake their fingers at the peddler!


One of my favorite Kinder blogs is KinderGals!  Kim Adsit is A-MAZ-ING!!!  Go check her out!

I LOVE teaching Kindergarten, because I am really just a kid at heart!  Here I am in Kinder!  I still feel like this little girl!  LOL!
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Dollar Celebration Sale!

I am joining Keri at Enchanted Kinder Garden to celebrate her many milestones! It's time for her $1 Celebration!


I linked up with 4 of my products that I have marked down to $1 each!!!


Head over to my TpT store {HERE} and check out my 4 featured items at the top of the page.  They will only be $1 for one day {July 20, 2015}!

And don't forget to head over to her blog to enter her giveaway and see all of the other items you can pick up for just a dollar!


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Dinosaurs!

Hi everyone!  Today I'm linking up with Allie at The Gypsy Teacher for her weekly Rewind and Retell linky!


I am rewinding to May.  May was such a crazy month in my classroom and I didn't get a chance to share a little a fun art project that we did while reading the book If The Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most.


I found the idea on Pinterest and it comes from Mrs. Knight's Smartest Artists.  I knew that it would be perfect for my Kinders!


We started by drawing a city scene with pencil and then tracing it with a thin black marker.  Then we drew different types of dinosaurs onto colored construction paper.  The kids traced them with black marker, carefully cut them out, and glued them onto their city.







I photocopied the last page in the book If the Dinosaurs Came Back, which has a lot of small black line drawings of different types of dinosaurs.  This was a great reference for the students when they were drawing their dinosaurs! 


My Kinders LOVED this project!  And they came out fantastic!!!

We also did some writing about dinosaurs.


We started by describing dinosaurs and put the answers into a Bubble map.  Then we go to our writing!







They made such great progess over the year!

If you are looking for more learning activities to use with this book, you might enjoy:


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TpT Seller Challenge - Week 2

It's week 2 of the TpT Seller Challenge and this week the focus is Dare to Dream!


And you can join in!  Find all the details by visiting one of the blogs below!

TpT Seller Challenge is hosted by:

Sparkling in Second



When I began my TpT journey nearly 3 years ago, I was very modest in my goals. Since then, with the continued success of my store, I have gradually updated my goals.  And now I am encouraged to Dream Big!  Well, here are my dream goals for my TpT journey!


Become debt-free
This is a common theme for most sellers - pay off debt!  And I have my share of it! I am slowly paying off dental bills and other credit card debt, and I hope to increase the payments so I can pay it off faster.  I am hoping to be debt-free in 24 months!

Save for a new car
I live in Southern California and I NEED my car!  I commute from Orange County to Los Angeles for work and put 70+ miles on my car per workday!  My current car is getting closer to 150,000 miles and I know that it is only a matter of time before I will have to buy a new car.  So I am hoping to put aside a little money each month into a "new car fund."

Travel
I would love to be able to travel more.  I traveled a lot when I was a child, and when my kids were younger we would travel a couple times a year.  But now that they are adults and doing their own thing, I haven't made it a priority to travel.  So I am changing that now!

What are your TpT goals?
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TpT Seller Challenge - Week 1

Well... school is out and it is the perfect time to create and update teaching products on Teachers Pay Teachers!  And I have joined the TpT Seller Challenge to give me the much needed motivation to work on my little store!  You can join in too!


Week 1 is Makeover Madness!


I looked over my products and first on the list was my High Frequency Word Leis!


Yes, this cover can definitely be improved!!!

So I got to work! And ta da!!!  The finished covers!

Dolch words

Fry words

CA Treasures words

I was on such a roll, that I decided to create a new version of the leis!  I teach with CA Treasures in my classroom so this will be perfect for my kiddos!

And all 3 are on sale through Sunday evening {6/21/15}!

You can find more details on making the leis {HERE}.


I can't wait for next week's challenge!  Bring it on!
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Make an Aladdin / Arabian Nights Sensory Bin!

My class loves our Aladdin themed sensory bin!!!  I love combining a sensory bin with an academic activity, such as letter recognition or CVC words.  And this bin is a perfect combination!


Here is how I created it.


I started by layering in some shredded paper.  I had this left over from my winter sensory bin.


I added in some beads strings.  I purchased necklaces and then just cut them into different lengths.


I found these gems at the craft store.  I loaded the bin up with these.


I also added some sheer ribbon lengths.  These originally had wire in them, but I pulled the wire out after cutting the ribbon.


I headed to my local Halloween store for this genie lamp.  Luckily the store is open year-round!


Here it is!  All ready for my genie and magic carpet cards!



You can find 2 different versions of cards in my TpT store - CVC words and Alphabet letters!
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