Two for Tuesday

It's Tuesday, and by now you know what that means- two products in my store for 50% off! Today only! Both of these products are easy and versatile. All you have to do is print!

The first product is a brand-new product in my store. It's called Parts of Speech Safari. Have your students search for nouns, verbs and adjectives. 

You can have your kiddos search in their independent reading books, guided reading books, novel study books, lit circle books, etc. I have also set it up as a center and have had students find these parts of speech in a magazine or newspaper.

I use this activity all throughout the year to constantly be reviewing these standards... and because it's easy to keep a stack of these on hand.

The packet also comes with a sort for practice of these concepts! Snag it {here}!

The second product that will be 50% off today only is my Word Study / Spelling Tic Tac Toe Homework or Center Game:

This packet includes eight tic tac toe homework sheets. Each sheet is designed to be used throughout the course of a week of homework or centers. Each of the sheets includes the same exact activities, but they are mixed up so that the students aren't picking the same sequence of activities to do each week. Read the description in my TPT store to learn more about how this product in my classroom {here}.

Happy Two for Tuesday! Don't forget to check out the rest of the deals from your other favorite TPT sellers by checking out the linky party {here} at The Teaching Tribune. 

Monday Made It: Pinterest Covers

Today is Monday Made It! My last Monday Made-It was when I made my teacher toolbox that I blogged about {here}

A couple weeks ago Ladybug Teacher Files blogged about customizing your covers on Pinterest. She had each step written out so easily so I decided to give it a try. You can find the blog entry {here}!!! 

Following her directions made it SO easy. I have a lot of boards, though, so it took some time to create and post the new covers just because of quantity. 

The best part is that Kristen from Ladybug Teacher Files explains how to link your pinterest cover image to your pinterest boards so that when people repin the images, when they click it redirects them to your pinterest and hopefully gets you more followers!

(I made the covers in Powerpoint with KG fonts.)

1. Make a rectangle in Powerpoint (by clicking shapes). Don't worry about it being perfect, you're going to resize it in the next step.

2. Right click your rectangle and format the picture to be a height of 2.04 inches and a width of 3.01 inches. 

3. Once you're happy with your image, select all the pieces (textbox, background, any clip art/graphics) and right click. Go to 'save as picture' on the drop down menu.

4. Go to your pinterest board that you want to add your image to. The first box (if you're logged in) within the specific board will say "Add a pin." Click that button and then click "Add a Pin from your computer." You can upload the image!

5. Go back to the "Your Profile and Pins" page and roll your mouse over the board to change the cover to the image you just uploaded. You're good to go!

6. You can go back and edit each cover (by opening the pin and then clicking the pencil option that says "Edit") to put in the url of your pinterest board so that it links back.

Copy the url of the board you want to link from here: 

Here's how to link the image back to your board, click edit, then paste the url:

And there you have it! Come see my pinterest here! I have almost 50 boards and it's exclusively teaching-related.

Worksheet Wednesday Freebie

This week's Worksheet Wednesday has a theme- and that theme is Back to School since it's the last week of The Teaching Tribune's summer blogging linky party series. Although I only joined a few, I really loved taking part and finding so many resources. Two for Tuesday and Worksheet Wednesday were my favorite. I definitely spend way too much money on Tuesdays but I got some awesome swag yesterday. Luckily today is freebies!

My freebie is for Back to School Night or Open House. I like having the parents write their children in my class a note for the kiddos to discover the next day in their desk (Back to School night at my school means the kids typically come without their parents). The kids love it and it keeps the parents busy during the rotations (I'm used to entertaining kids for extended periods of time, not adults!).

Click here to snag this monster-themed freebie from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. All my other Open House/Back to School Night papers are free as well, so check those out too!

Laugh Eat Learn Giveaway!

Alexis from Laugh Eat Learn has hit a huge milestone- her blog is turning one!

To celebrate, she's having a huge giveaway! 30 teachers have contributed to the giveaway and she has FIVE bundles that you could win. All you have to do is enter {here}!

One of the bundles is the intermediate bundle for upper elementary teachers. One of the products in this bundle is the Word Study/Spelling Tic-Tac-Toe from my store.

For those of you who teach the younger kiddos, she also has a Kindergarten bundle, a 1st grade bundle, and a 2nd grade bundle!

ON TOP OF THAT you can win.....

So what are you waiting for?! Hop on over to Laugh Eat Learn's 1st Blog-iversary Giveaway!

Two for Tuesday: 50% off!

My favorite day of the week is now Tuesday thanks to this linky party. I always get so many great products at half off and find some phenomenal TPT stores.

So I'm joining in again today- you can get two products at 50% off in my store today only!

The first product is a brand-new product in my store. It's a Literacy Center Starter Kit for Upper Elementary classrooms. I created it because I remember being a first year teacher and being so lost as to how to set up centers and guided reading in my room. I needed engaging and educational centers in my room and I didn't want to have to reinvent the wheel every week. In this kit are the centers that I use on a weekly basis that can be tailored to fit your classrooms as well.

The second product that will be 50% off today only is my Daily Class Schedule Cards:

There are a ton of cards in this set customized to requests that my buyers have had in the past. If you have a request on what to that you don't see in the description, please add it in your comments and I can add it this summer. But the cards also include two blank cards for you to customize yourself.

Happy Two for Tuesday!

Back to School Goals & Reflection

Last year, Jess at I {Heart} Recess had us blog about our goals for the 2013-2014 school year, here were my goals and you can read to see if I met them or not. You can see my original post about my 2013-2014 goals here.

How I did:

Personal: From March through May I did complete this goal. I was running about 20-25 miles per week. I completed my first half marathon on May 31. It was the Virginia Wine Country Half. I was so proud of myself & I signed up for a new half marathon- the Rock and Roll Half in Savannah! I also continued to compete in a 5k race once a month. Right now I've done 14 months in a row of at least one 5k race. Needless to say I have a lot of t-shirts. Here's me and my best friend Brittany at the half marathon:

Organization: I'm going to give this goal a big fat stinkin' F. I mostly always had a messy, messy desk. 

Planning: Since we are a failing school, the state came in this year and made us all revamp our lesson plans. My plans for the week for one subject, let's say reading, are about 10 pages long per week. It's stressful and it's a lot. I planned a few memorable lessons that I'm really proud of though. We made some awesome circuits this year and my kiddos were so excited about that and we had a math field day to review at the end of the year.

Professional: I expanded my professional wardrobe and I really want to look my best most days, but I get so tired that I go back to the ponytail and simple teacher outfits I've always lived in. Oh well.

Students: I would say my students this year, for the most part, did love reading. They always wanted to continue independent reading and were excited for read-alouds.

Motto: This will continue to be my motto ;)

Now here are my goals for this upcoming year!

The motto is something I've said constantly to my kiddos this year and I love it!

Head over to I {Heart} Recess to link up and join in on the fun!

Monday Meet-Up

Today is all about meeting up and getting to know our bloggy friends better!

Hop back to The Teaching Tribune to join in on this linky.

Five for Friday

1. The hubster has been planning tons of dates lately and I am loving how late it stays light outside so we can do all sorts of fun things. This week our date consisted of trying a new restaurant on 14th street called Tico's. I loved it because it was tapas style. Then, my favorite part, was that he brought me to Ted's Bulletin for dessert. Ted's Bulletin is a restaurant with a bakery that has amazing desserts (like a cinnamon bun the size of your face) but my favorite are their homemade pop-tarts!

2. Road trip to Pennsylvania! My hubby is in a wedding this weekend so we're on our way up to the Lehigh Valley area. On our way we're spending a night in Lancaster with my in-laws. It's been so nice seeing them, eating my sister-in-law's delicious food (homemade bread, YUM!) and hanging out with my nephew/catching fireflies. So here is me and my dog on our way through 4th of July DC/Baltimore traffic to see the fam:

3. It's super hard to see in the picture because the lighting in my apartment isn't great but I got a new mason jar from Twinkle Twinkle Lil Jar on Etsy! I can't wait to bring this to the beach this month! It says my name on one side and then "wild and free" on the other with an anchor on it. I'm in love.

4. I created a new product for my TPT store. Check it out here! I'll do a more elaborate post on it when I'm back in town after this weekend.

5. I'm having a fourth of July sale in my store! 20% of all products today and tomorrow! 

Fourth of July Sale

I'm having a fourth of July sale in my store! 20% of all products today and tomorrow! 

(Feel free to steal the button if you're having a sale too, just give credit to this blog!)

Worksheet Wednesday FREEBIE

Linking up to the Teaching Tribune for Worksheet Wednesday today! This is a worksheet that I use quite frequently in my classroom. Click the picture to download the freebie from my teachers pay teachers store.

You can use it with any fiction or non-fiction reading passage, article, book.... anything! It's a great way to scaffold the summarizing process.

Now I'm off to hop through this linky party and grab myself some freebies! 

Two for Tuesday- Novel Study and Decimals Game

I just hit up a bunch of stores in this linky party and got so many new products for my classroom at half off!!! So I had to "pay it forward" and link up as well.

That's right, these products are now 50% off in my store  today ONLY!

This novel study packet is based off the book, "Because of Winn Dixie" by Kate DiCamillo. It can be used for guided reading groups, lit circles or whole class novel study. The enclosed activites encourage students to make connections, learn new vocabulary, write and summarize.
The skills that this packet focuses on are:
*Parts of speech (verbs)
*Paragraph Practice
*Dictionary Use & Vocabulary
*Predictions
*Character Mapping
*Summarizing
*Visualization

The second product is math-related!

Students can put the cards in order from least to greatest or greatest to least. This sort includes decimals up to the thousandths place. This can be used as a quick math center or enrichment activity. Print, laminate, & cut and you have a quick and easy math center for years to come.

I used this in my fourth grade class as a math center. The students were beyond excited to get to this specific math center. I gave them each a set to keep and they were playing war with the cards during indoor recess.

When students are finished putting the cards in order from greatest to least (or vice versa) you can have them partner up and play "war" with the cards. War is a card game where both of the students have a pile of cards facing down. At the same time, both students pull the top card off their deck and put it face up in front of them. The card with the highest value wins.

Currently July!

Listening: I've been watching a ton of Netflix documentaries lately. Today I watched "Stuck" and "Mortified" and would recommend both. "Mortified" was a comedy where regular people read their diaries from their awkward teen years as part of a comedy show. Hilarious.

Loving: We've only had about two weeks of summer and I've already gone to a Nationals baseball game, taken a cooking class with the hubby at Sur La Table, visited friends in Pittsburgh, ran a Father's Day 5k with my family, went hiking, gone tubing down the Shenandoah River, gone to brunch and tried three new restaurants! But most of all I get to hang out with my dog.

Thinking: I have lots of packing to do for the wedding this weekend. My hubby is a groomsman so we have to pick up his suit. & I have to pack for the long weekend and all the festivities!!

Wanting: Obsessed with all the cute american flag clothes and accessories I've seen lately. I have some american flag shoes from American Eagle and I love them.

Needing: I've been staying up until 2 AM lately (and by 2 AM I mean 4 AM) and need to be more normal. I've cut coffee out of my life cold turkey so waking up is even more difficult than usual. If anyone wants to send a Dunkin Donuts iced coffee my way, I won't hate it.

Can't wait to see everyone else's Currently July over at Oh Boy! Fourth Grade!