Spotlight Saturday: Getting Back In!

Thank goodness for Spotlight Saturdays! It is so wonderful to be back blogging and connecting with so many wonderful teachers. Thank you all for sharing your ideas with us and thank you Erin of Kindergarten Dragons for putting this all together. Okay, I will share what I can and try my best to stick to the rules. I am not in the classroom technically anymore, but I have many more students. I am the Lead Teacher for my school’s after-school program. We received a grant which allows us to have STEAM be a part of our after-school program. My job is to write/create tutorial lessons for grades 2^nd - 8^th as well as tutor two days out of the week. It is a big job since I don’t teach middle grades…I guess I do now…lol and I have to be able to teach what I prepare for the students. I work with the teachers so that my lessons correspond to what the students are learning that week or what they may need extra help mastering. Also, my school just purchased Study Island and I have to train the teachers and the students on how to use the program. If anyone has used or is using it please let me know what you think of the program. Thanks a Bunch:) Whew! Now that’s enough about me! 

  

Okay! My spotlight product FREEBIE for today is POST-IT PLANNER by Primary Polka Dots! 

I love this product so much even though I haven't had a chance to print it. This is so creative and much needed. I reviewed it and will be using it everyday soon. I am the queen of Post-It Notes so this will save me from gathering my notes that are stuck in my binder and peeling through them all to make sure that I have completed all of my tasks for that day, week, etc... 

  

Next, is my Word Family Search. I made this one day out of the blue and it has been one of my biggest sellers. I made it for my kindergarten class and they loved it. I printed them out and put them in plastic sleeves, but you can always laminate them which I prefer. I think that I am going to update them soon by adding another font choice. What do you think? 

           

        

Alright! Thanks for visiting my blog. It's been along time. I hope you stop by again. 

Sight Word Freebie!

 

I'm back with a FREEBIE! I want to say thank you to my old and new followers for hanging in here with me. I have been on a journey of faith and patience. I have grown so much as a child of God, wife, mother, daughter, and friend. I still have more roads to travel, but I am thankful for all the roads that brought me to the place I am now. I am thankful for all the friends I have made along the way. They have been so amazing and encouraging...I could not have prayed for better friends. Now on to the FREEBIE!   

      

 

I love integrating subjects so I created a packet that combines learning sight words with simple math skills. The best part-hands-on-learning! This packet was created to add the love of math with learning sight words. It can be a challenge for some students to learn these words, but I hope that by completing these activities they will learn them more quickly and easily.  Also, pick your Fan Freebie!    

 

 



Winter Activities

I have been so busy these pass months with working and leading my daughter’s literature circle at school plus a ton of other things and when I thought that I could slow down! My mommy had an emergency and now she is living with me for a while. I love it! I love being with her and taking care of her. She is such an awesome mommy and she makes me laugh EVERYDAY!

She has Parkinson’s and it has slowed her down a bit and so she will be with me until after the holidays. I wish it could be forever. Let's keep our fingers crossed. I am delighted that she is here because it is so hard to share with her what I am doing since she doesn't have the internet and it is a lot trying to pack all that I want to tell her in a text message to my sister’s iPhone…lol. Anyway, she is here and the whole family is thrilled. She is my BEST-FRIEND! Since I won’t be adding anything else to my store expect one more product for the winter season, I thought that I would pack it all in one BIG post and so here it is-all the goodies that you can use to take you through the holiday/winter season. These packets are great for math/literacy centers, whole & small groups as well as it will complement any lesson plan. I updated several packets and I am still working on the last one, but I won’t be making anything else until about February. Also, don’t forget to check out my Year in Review for the New Year! I wish you all the best and a Happy & Safe  Holiday! As Always Thanks for Following Me :)    

 Winter Activities to last

 the whole season long!

Long Day!

I have been running all day! I woke up this morning and got my daughter ready for school…normal, but my god-daughter came over at the last minute and spent the night...totally threw me. I went to bed late and woke up late which is okay for me and daughter since we only live four houses away from her school, but my god-daughter's school is almost a 15 minute drive with traffic and we didn't get up after 7 and they still needed to eat breakfast and shower. I usually cook breakfast, but this was going to have to be cereal morning. I got the girls ready-curls, ribbons and all. My daughter was on time, but my god-daughter was going to be late! OMG...her mother dropped her book-bag off after they went to sleep and she didn't want to go to school without finishing her HW :( What was I supposed to say? She finished it in the car. WHEW! Then when I returned home...I washed the dishes-cleaned the kitchen, living room, bathroom, mopped all over and cleaned base boards. Then I walked the dog and stopped by his Vet which is at the end of his walk to drop off his poop. Can you say too much? Then we walked back home. It was 11 a.m. Then I took my son to his Japanese class. He has to be there by 11:45...I took a break and went to Moe's for lunch, but I wasn't hungry so I just ate my queso and chips. My son's class was over at 1:00 and then I took him to his next school to pick-up his work for the rest of the week and then we made a few more stops before heading home. Okay, by now my head is bobbing in the car and it is not because of the music. I was totally exhausted. Thank God my husband picked up our daughter and cooked dinner before he went to work because I fell asleep when my body hit the sofa. So now I'm up late and just remembered that I have literature circles with my daughter's class tomorrow or today depending on when you read this. LOL. I updated the rubric because it was OLD...it had ran through the copier too many times and needed a complete overhaul (Yes. I like that show :)  We will be reading and discussing the book Frindle by Andrew Clements. Click the link to get the updated Literature Circles Rubric. Goodnight or Good morning.   

PS Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors...ZZZZZZZZZZ             

Fall Word Search & FREEBIE!

I really don’t have much to say. We are getting ready to go to our state fair-Yippee! I will post pics tomorrowJ. However, I do want to say “Hello & Thanks” to my new followers. It’s been almost a year since I started blogging (I know you can’t tell by the number of followers...lol) and I hope this year I will stay focused and not have too many or none at all life changing events. I have been working all this week updating my products and making new ones. I will post pics of the products within the weeks to come, but now I have a fall freebie to celebrate my onward journey in the blogging world. My Fall Word Search is a cute mini packet designed to go with any fall lesson. The packet includes 3 word searches w/ answer key. I also put the word searches on a beautiful fall chevron background that you can laminate and place in your literacy center for endless searches. Click here for your free word search! Visit my TpT store to grab the complete packet. Note:The freebie will look a little funky in Google Docs until you download it. 

Currently November

WOW! I haven’t linked up awhile….since all of the blog to this and blog to that came about. I really was out of the loop and not to add some other life changing events. However, I feel a little better and now it’s back to what I love-anything and everything teacher related. Also, I would like to take this time to thank you guys who followed me to Bloglovin’ it really means a lot. I so heart you!  Now let’s link it! I"m so excited to link up with Oh, Boy Fourth Grade  to share my Currently for November!

   

Click for Recipe

    My Yummy Treat

   Need I say More J

Math Story Starters

Hello and good morning :) I really need to get better at blogging. I have been so busy working, taking care of my family, making TpT products (I have three ready to go FINALLY!) and loving on our new little one-Mojo. Any who, I love word problems!  I believe they are so great at getting the wheels turning in little minds. Then I had an Aha moment of how can I make their little minds think even more-critical thinking! Math Story Starters-how cute is that! We have them for language/reading activities why not math. The students create story/word problems from the picture provided and they can add to the picture as well by drawing. They write the key words they used and write the number sentence to solve the problem.  I also included a graphic organizer to enlarge or use on your over-head (everyone is not as blessed to have SMART Boards) essential questions and a blank copy to really get it going. It is really fun to see all of the amazing math stories they come up with and solve. Teachers can work on addition problems for a day or a week then take the same activity and ask students, “How can we make this a subtraction story/word problem?” This activity is a great resource  for introducing story/word problems, whole class, independent, small groups, morning work,  homework  as well as ELLs because of the pictures and easy to read language.   Click the link to download preview.