TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale! May 7-8th

It's almost here!  The Teachers Pay Teachers "Teacher Appreciation Sale" begins Tuesday the 7th and goes through Wednesday the 8th.  What better way to celebrate being teachers!  

Use the promo code: TAD13 at checkout for 10% off everything on the site. Plus, add an additional 20% off of my TpT store.

Have fun teaching,

Flowers for Mom - Mother's Day Card, Coupons, Poems, and Craft

Mother's Day is just a week away and what better way to help your students celebrate their mom, aunt, or grandma than by giving them flowers and love notes.

My student's moms have been so happy to get this child-made flower bouquet filled with flower shaped coupons and a special card made just for them.  The download includes all patterns, coupons, poems, and cards for Mom, Aunt, or Grandma as well as pictures of completed project.

Your student's will enjoy writing what is special about their Mom, Aunt, or Grandma in the card they personalize and making "flowers" with special coupon or note tokens of love! 

To make this with your students, click HERE to go to my TpT store.
Click HERE to go to my Teacher's Notebook Store.

Have fun teaching,

Spring Bird Nests and Friends

I hope your April is off to a great start!  We have a new house guest in our front door wreath, a House Finch.  She has made a little nest in our wreath and laid 5 eggs.  The family and I are excited to see little baby chicks sometime soon!

 

Stop by and visit this group of bloggers who are sharing a giveaway together.  Click on the picture to link to Katie with Teacher to the Core, who put together this group of bloggers giveaway and from there you can visit all of these fabulous bloggers.

Have fun teaching,

Read Every Day Challenge Chart

Are you looking for a way to motivate your students to end the year strong as avid readers?

Last year, I made this chart to track my students daily reading and encourage them to read 100 books.  For my kiddos reading larger books, they could count every 20 minutes they read as a book.  It worked like a charm last year and the kids stay motivated and as a class we earned an ice cream party when we got to 100 books.  I also gave individual prizes for the most books read.  

 One of my teaching buddy wanted to encourage her students to read 1000 pages, so I made that option also.  Her second grade class read over 10,000 pages!  They were on fire!

Click on the picture to download your free chart and tracking sheets.  I hope your class loves it too.

How do you encourage your students to read?

Have fun teaching,

You're One of My Favorite Peeps

I was browsing through Pinterest this week and was overcome with all of the cute, cute "Peeps" ideas.  I never knew Peeps were so versatile.  Here are some of my favorite pics:

Source: blog.scrapaholics.com via Pamela on Pinterest

Source: womansday.com via Pamela on Pinterest

Source: keyingredient.com via Pamela on Pinterest

I was looking for a nice little Easter gift for my kid's teachers and here is my humble adaptation of a Peeps gift.

If you would like a copy of the labels I made they are FREE.  Just click below:

  Favorite Peep

What is your favorite use of Peeps?

Have fun teaching,

Spring Flowers and Poetry Go Together

I just wanted to share our spring flowers bulletin board from last year.  We wrote poems on tulip-shaped paper and I just loved this bulletin board.  This year I made a writing packet that includes the tulip writing paper.  I wrote about it in a post a few days ago.  If you would like to see that post and the packet you can see it HERE.

Are you enjoying Spring?  I start spring break at 1:00 pm today!

Have fun teaching,

It's Spring! Literacy and Math Centers

I love how independent firsties are in the Spring.  They have the routine down, they are feeling like very big kids, they help each other, and they can do centers independently!  Yeh!

Plus our Spring Break is next week!  After Spring Break we only have 7 weeks of school left.  I know it is going to fly.

I have put together some Spring Literacy and Math centers aligned with CCSS to practice making words with beginning and ending digraphs, making real and nonsense words, counting to 120 and adding to numbers by 10.  

They are all fun, independent games and activities that your firsties will love.

I will send this FREE to the first three people who comment with their email addresses.

Click on the picture to link to my TpT store.

When is your Spring Break and how many weeks of school do you have left?

Have fun teaching,

Spring / Easter Basket Writing Activities

Who doesn't look forward to and love Spring?  We get to finally kiss winter good-bye for another year and enjoy the new flowers, warm days, and the end of the school year in sight!

Hard to believe Easter is also just a little over a week away.  I have created a fun Spring or Easter writing packet based on a couple of my favorite writing activities that I did with my firsties the last couple of years.

It includes a spring basket book to make based on Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  Each page changes what is in the basket.  I made a color and black-and-white version of a completed story (by me) to read as an example before the students start theirs.  There is both an 81/2 x 11 and a 5x7 option.

The second writing activity is a 5 senses poem about spring on tulip-shaped paper.  I have included a sheet with the writing prompt, one with a half-sheet of lines and one with a full sheet of lines.  This makes a really pretty writing bulletin board.  See below for student sample.

I will You can get this writing packet from my TpT store.  Just click on a photo to link to my store.

The first three people who comment with there email addresses will get this FREE.  

What is one of your favorite Spring writing projects?

Have fun teaching,