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. 

Halloween FREEBIE!

On Saturday I was putting together an AWESOME-too cute packet from Kristen at A Day in First Grade. However, after a long search for the buckets and straws at Hobby Lobby I realized that I would have to come up with a new way of doing my tallies. So I made Tally! I found most of the items needed from Target, but the Lobby was empty. I got my canisters from Wal-Mart and the colorful  cocktail stirrers  from Party City to use for the tally marks. (I forgot to tell my daughter to demonstrate the tally marks -sorry.)Then I realized that Halloween is almost here and that I had not given away any goodies to all my trick-or-treaters so here it is! HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

Halloween Freebie

The Wonderful World of Math: Kindergarten

WOW. This has been a crazy week! I have been subbing for two weeks and finally got took a break for the rest of the week. I have taught Orders of Operation to 8th grade boys (pays to pay attention in class never know when you might need it :), graded SLOs for 1st and second grade, substituted for 1st grade and 8th grade ELA and did other assessments throughout. I'm tried! My daughter is thrilled; it has been hard for her to adjust from me being at home to working all day even though we did this last year. Did I mention that teachers now have extended hours 7: 20 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.?! Yes, ladies we can't clock out until FIVE! My brain is pretty scrambled by 2...LOL. Anywhoo, the kids are trying adjusting as best as they can. I love the school and the students are GREAT...the hours are just so loooooooooooong! However, I have been working on several products as usual… LOL

The school year is back and I am so excited to provide teachers with a wonderful packet to start off the new school year! This packet is jammed packed with great hands-on activities that would be just wonderful to start the school year off with or wait until September when the apples are just ripe for the picking! This packet can be used for homework, cooperative learning, math centers, homework, RTI, morning work and the like. 

  Kindergartners love to count and these worksheets which can also be laminated (just directions on top) and made into math centers. Is a 

 is great way to help students reinforce their counting skills. 

An apple of the teacher! What a great way to start off your apple theme or the month of September than with these adorable apple counting mats. I have also included number cards 0-100 that can be used all year long with addition and subtraction problem cards for large or small group activities.  Also, there are before and after worksheets that can be used with the counting cards as well.  Students will love creating their own Counting Apples Books using finger-paint, stickers, markers or whatever you can in your art closet.  Teachers can also enlarge a tree and place it in the math center along with number cards and apples for he students to work with independently or in pairs. 

Math stories are a wonderful way for students to really get to thinking about math through drawings or using manipulatives. I have created a set that allows for students to practice doing both. FYI: I like to print the worksheets with the manipulatives in different colors so that when the students are working they don't get the cards mixed up and fuss about who has their cards. This also can be made into a math center by following the same directions. Print desired amount on to colored card stock, laminate, cut the the cards from the bottom of the page (you will still have a border), label and place in a zip-clock along with a dry erase marker and a 1/4 of a Mister Clean eraser :) I like to use large envelopes or gift boxes from the dollar store so that my activities won't bend.    

Math Center: Counting and graphing is always fun especially when it's a game! Again, I have made matching counting cards (0-20) that can be used the whole year. The "counting clouds" worksheets/mats  are differentiated for each child's level of learning. Teachers can also use the clouds to play "Find your Number" by giving each student a card tell them to find their match or tape them to the floor and play musical numbers. They will also look great posted in the classroom. I have also included a Spin-n-Graph Game with recording sheets. 

BONUS! 

As a BONUS, I have added a sight word cut & paste activity that I hope will help you reinforce those many words that we all must teach the little ones. Now that you know a little about my Wonderful World, I hope that you will stop by and check it out!   

Hi ya'll! I know it has been a long time since I last blogged. I was on a roll until we switched to bloglovin'...I know, I know that I should be over it, but it put in non-motivated mood. However, I must move on and get back to blogging. I have been working on several TpT products and Fan Freebies which I hope to post soon. I am sitting now in my friend's classroom as she reviews with her second graders before their quiz on the Creek Indians. This has been a busy years so far. I have been working with the teachers as they complete their SLOs for the beginning of the school year. I was so excited to see the students work on my "What's My Value?" packet during math. I hope to have that packet posted on TpT soon. Anyway, I hope that everyone has a great weekend as I try to get back into the swing of the things.