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.