A Year in Writing! {FREEBIE}

Need a way to keep track of writing samples throughout the year?  Do you end up having random writing samples in piles?  How about a book for each student that is put together at the beginning of the year.  Then it can be sent home as a sort of memory book at the end of the year!

Here’s a little freebie pack that has a page for each month!  I’ve included a cover page for Kinder, 1st and 2nd grade.  The writing pages are also included in black and white or color.  There are always some kiddos who want to write more, so I included a page that you can print off for them that is simply a page of lined paper.

Click the picture above or HERE to head over and download it for free!  If you enjoy it please leave some feedback! 

Happy weekend!

The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn

Anyone else LOVE LOVE this sweet story for the first day of school?? It is a favorite of mine!  So, I created a few things for you to use with it!

This pack includes 2 literacy and 2 math activities that are great for the beginning of the year!  Letter recognition and writing, picture-word match, number-representation match, and patterning activities! Click HERE or the picture above to head on over! {It’s on sale until midnight tonight!}

I love to talk about how the students felt on the first day of school.  An anchor chart like this one I found on Pinterest would be great to do:

From Once Upon a First Grade Adventure

Then today, I created this cutie:

This cute little craftivity is great for kiddos to compare how they felt on the first day of school and how Chester felt in the book! 

Click the image below to head on over and check out!  It’s on sale until midnight too!!

Then I found this ADORABLE pin on Pinterest!!  How sweet would this be as a first day treat?!

From Handprint and Footprint Art

And as always, here’s a video version!!

Enjoy!

Christmas in July!

UPDATE: Teachers Pay Teachers was down MOST of the day today (July 25th) so I am extending my sale through midnight on July 26th!  An extra day of Christmas in July!! :)


My store and many other stores will be on sale 20% off tomorrow, July 25th for Christmas in July!  Click the image above to see all the stores participating!
Click the button below to head to my store: 

Great time to shop for back to school!!!
I’m also linking up over at Blog Hoppin:

Teachers Pay Teachers…on TV?!?!?!

So, I took a break from the bloggy world today to help one of my besties and her fiance move.  Well, I got home tonight to about 10 emails and 4 comments that MY products had been on TV in UTAH?!?!  In-freakin-sane!

Come check out the video!! 

Want to check out the product?? Click the picture below to head to my store to grab it for FREE!

This blogging/creating world is more than I ever dreamed!!! Happy weekend!

500 Follower Giveaway Winners!!!

Without further delay…here are the winners!!!

 

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Congratulations to Amanda who won the first prize with all the goodies and a $25 TPT gift certificate!  AND congratulations to Andrea who won the second prize of a $10 TPT gift certificate!!! I’ll be emailing you both shortly!

I’m working on some new stuff I promise! Life is all kinds of crazy right now though!

I {LOVE} Picture Books!

So when I saw this linky party at The Teacher Wife, I just HAD to join in! I am in LOVE with any and all picture books! 

In no particular order:

Ish by Peter H. Reynolds: I love this book for the beginning of the year for kinders.  Before focusing on writing, I always focus on drawing with details.  This book is great for those kiddos whose pictures HAVE to be perfect!  It sweetly portrays that every drawing is beautiful, even if it is an “ish” drawing.

Big Words for Little People by Jamie Lee Curtis & Laura Cornell:I am a firm believer that kinder friends don’t need to use “baby” words.  They are so very capable of knowing big words and using them too! So many kinders are a little afraid of big words and one of my goals has always been to make them comfortable with big words.  This book is a fun, rhyming way to show them that big words are fun to learn!

The Mine-O-Saur by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen: I know I’m not the only teacher who has experienced a few “mine-o-saurs” in the classroom!  This book is a great and fun illustration of what happens when kiddos are “mine-o-saurs.”  It’s always a MUST read at the beginning of the year for me!  The first half (or so) of the book is where he acts like a “mine-o-saur.”  After reading this I stop and discuss how he is feeling (lonely & like he has no friends).  We discuss why he feels this way and why no one wants to be his friend.  Then I have the kiddos brainstorm how he can make friends.  After reading the rest of the book we see the ways he does make friends!  It’s something my kiddos would refer to all year long!

Leo the Late Bloomer by Robert Kraus:This is a sweet, sweet story about a “late bloomer.”  He can’t do many of the things that his friends can and gets discouraged.  But by the end of the book he realizes he can do it, it just took him a little longer!  LOVE the lesson in this story.

Those are just a FEW of my favorites.  I am guilty of having a very LARGE children’s book collection! :)

Enjoy!  And check out the other links in this linky party…some incredible books! I’d love to hear what your favorites are too! Leave a comment and share :)

DON’T FORGET: 500 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY ENDS TONIGHT {click on the image below to enter!}

Chicka Chicka…

BOOM BOOM!

This is one of my VERY favorite books to read at the beginning of the school year when the focus is on letters and letter sounds!  You can hit on so many different letter concepts with this: ABC order, beginning sounds, upper/lower matching, letter characteristics (tall, short, etc.).  So naturally, I created a little activity or two to go with it.  Lucky for you…it’s a FREEBIE! {Click the picture below to download!}

Clipart from DJ Inkers.

This little freebie pack has: 2.5x2.5 upper, lower and picture cards.  These are great for pocket charts or centers!  Then I made up a few recording sheets as well.  There are three upper/lower matching recording sheets.  I love differentiating this kind of stuff!  One sheet gives uppercase and students write lowercase, one gives lowercase and students write uppercase, and one is a mixture of upper & lower give and students write what is missing.  There are also 2 beginning sounds matching recording sheets.  One has the pictures in ABC order and one has the pictures in random order.  For those kiddos that already know ABC order by heart the random order sheet is a better gauge of whether they understand the beginning sounds concept.

Another FAVORITE thing of mine to do with this book is to show the video from YouTube!  They LOVE…I mean L-O-V-E the song!

And now for a little something I found on PINTEREST! {Click the picture to head to the pin!}How stinkin’ adorable is that!!  You could also have kiddos spell their names on the tree part! So fun!

Enjoy the freebie!  If you download, leave a comment and let me know how you liked it!

Also….don’t forget my HUGE, MASSIVE 500 follower giveaway ends TOMORROW night at midnight EST!  Head on over to enter by clicking the picture below:

500 Follower Giveaway!

I can’t believe I’m throwing this giveaway!  I never dreamed that this lil ol’ blog would reach 500 followers!! So as a thank you, I’ve put together a MASSIVE giveaway.

The first prize winner will get a $25 Teachers Pay Teachers gift certificate from me:

And….OVER $100 worth of goodies from incredible teachers!

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And the second prize winner will get a $10 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers from me!

So browse the blogs and stores, follow the ones that interest you and submit your entries!

Entry period ends 12:00am on July 16th (next Monday).

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