Elephant and Piggie Pack!

If you are a lower elementary teacher and haven't heard of Elephant and Piggie yet, you have to dash over to your nearest book store and pick up a few copies for your classroom!  If you are a Mo Willems fan, and own every book he has ever written (please tell me I'm not the only one), then you adore Elephant and Piggie, I'm sure!  I forget how much firsties LOVE Piggie and Gerald until I pull the bin out for the first time and read just one.  They are instantly hooked and cannot get enough of the dynamic duo!  My kiddos are allowed to pick them as their look book when they go book shopping and the bin always sits empty week after week!  I have about 15 copies of various titles and they are always rotating through from kid to kid.  You should hear the barganing on shopping day..."I'll trade you this Elephant and Piggie book for yours."  Stinkin cute!!

Since I already have a Mo Willems' Fun with the Pigeon pack in my TPT store, I figured I should give Elephant and Piggie the same kind of love.  : )  I just posted an Elephant and Piggie Pack to use as extension activites after you have introduced these pals to your kiddos.  Click on the picture below to go directly to the Elephant and Piggie party!  : )



Pumpkin Fun! A glyph and a freebie!

We are beginning a study of pumpkins and their life cycle this week.  Pumpkins make me happy, but sad as well, because that means the snow is going to start flying soon.  Any other northerners feel the same way?

Click on the picture below to see the latest glyph I just posted.  

Happy Pumpkin Days!

Graphics courtesy of Scrappin Doodles.

While you are in my TPT store, don't forget to grab a free copy of the graphing activity I made using BooMallows!  If you download it, please kindly leave feedback...it warms my heart!

The first 3 comments I receive on this post will snag a copy of my pumpkin glyph pack for free!  Just be sure to leave your email address so I can get it to you right away! 

Brag Tags {Thanks Cara, from the First Grade Parade}

Thanks to the awesome Cara from The First Grade Parade, Brag Tags are now a part of my classroom!  When I saw her Brag Tags here, I knew I had to have them!  Sooo...I emailed my wonderful principal with the link to Cara's blog and she immediately said YES to our whole first grade!  Gotta love amazing administrators!  : )

 We all know how much cuter things look with scrapbook paper! 

 Each child has a pushpin with his/her tags hanging from it on the bulletin board.

I put them on the board behind my student computers.  That board drives me crazy because it is so hard to get to.  It always ends up being a board that stays up all year, so I thought the Brag Tags were a perfect thing to hang for the whole year.  And...it is far enough out of the kids' reach so they won't get "played" with at inappropriate times.  : )  I gave the kids the B.U.G. Award tag for the first tag because we just got done studying insects.  3 of my kiddos also have the Birthday tag since they already had September birthdays.  The kids are so excited to find out which tag comes next...there are enough for each child to have one every month this year! 

If you are interested in ordering Brag Tags for your classroom, check out imagestuff.com HERE!  They are the nicest company to work with and even have REAL people that answer the phone when you call!  And you would think they use a supersonic jet plane for the shipping because it is so stinkin fast!

Do you use these Brag Tags in your classroom?  Or are you "hooked" and going to order them now?

FLASH SALE & Spider Fun

It's been a Wacky Wednesday with the full moon!  To add to the wackiness, I have uploaded a 58 page Mega Sight Word pack to TPT and it is just $4.00 until I wake up Thursday morning!  And I didn't stop there...all of the items in my store are $4.00 or less until the morning!!!  Don't delay...head on over and stock up on some good stuff!!!

We had fun this week studing insects and spiders!  We used Deanna Jump's insect unit and made the most adorable (am I allowed to call an insect adorable?) praying mantises!  Did you know that praying mantises can be absolutely starving, have an ant walk by and they won't even think about eating it?  Scientists don't even know why they won't touch ants!  Weird!

We also made the spiders I found on Doodle Bugs Teaching blog.  She even has a free template for the spiders!  Stinkin' cute!!! 

I had my kiddos add a writing piece to the spiders to make them look a little more "educational."  I found the writing piece here at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits.

And I couldn't help myself...adding scrapbook paper to anything makes it that much cuter!  I used glittery black and silver paper to cut out the letters.  : )

Next week...pumpkin fun!!!

Fun Halloween Snacks

At a family get-together this weekend, my mom and aunt brought these darling treats for the kids.  I think they would be cute to make at your classroom Halloween celebrations or to use as gifts for coworkers!

The skeleton cups were filled with Chex Mix, Halloween colored M&Ms and candy corn.

These adorable spiders have a mini peanut butter cup sandwiched between two circular pieces of card stock.  The legs are made by using a "corner punch."  Aren't they two cute to take apart and eat?  : )
If you don't have time to make your own, come on over to my Etsy store HERE!  Wouldn't they be a perfect gift for your parent volunteers?



Book Leveling Labels {Made Easy}

Recently our district book leveling chart changed!!!!  And it happened after my kids had already book shopped, had their personal book shopping list and a bag full of leveled books...of course!  I needed to make new book labels, and it had to be done quickly!  I just so happened to have a package of Avery Color Coding Labels in my drawer that are suitable for printing!  It was easy to find the template in Word using the product code, 5472.

I would love to share the documents I made, however, Google Docs will not let me save it as a label document.  It just spreads out all of the typing all over the page.  : (

If you missed my post this summer about book shopping lists {and would enjoy a freebie} click HERE.

Owls, Apples, and Monsters!!!

I can hardly believe it is October!!!  We have been busy making our first grade hallway all fall-ish and it is looking quite cute!!!  Check out these adorable owls!  I wish I had a pattern to share with you, but I free handed the owl heads.  The kids made their own beaks and pupils.  Cupcake liners make them extra cute!

We also studied the seasons of an apple tree.  My awesome retired-teacher-mom came to help with this hall display.  Each child was able to contribute something to a poster.

Halloween is just around the corner so I made a cute Monster Mash Sight Word Game that you can see by clicking on the picture below! 

And one more thing...my dear friend over at Stepping Into First Grade made me a fantastic treat yesterday!  She is the Martha Stewart of our grade level and is totally responsible for my increasing waistband size!!!  Head on over to her blog to see what she made!!!

Sticky Notes for Readers Workshop

I hope you enjoyed the free Apple of My Eye sticky notes in my post here!  I also wanted to thank you for the thoughts and prayers for my father-in-law.  He is going to take the trip to Florida's Mayo clinic for his road to recovery on October 10th.

I have a wonderful pack of printable sticky note templates at my TPT store here.  The pack is for reading comprehension activities used during independent reading in a readers workshop model.  If your kids independently read during the school day, this pack is for you!  Graphics are courtesy of Scrappin Doodles.  This pack is  on SALE for $5.00 (regular $7.00) until Friday!

Click on the pictures for a closer look of the preview.  : )

Printable Sticky Notes {Freebie}

Sticky notes + Me = LOVE! 

I am so excited to give you this freebie!  Your kiddos will love a surprise sticky note on their desk from their teacher!  Click on the image below for the template.  Directions on how to print are below.  Graphics are courtesy of Scrappin Doodles.

Steps to a perfect print:

1.        Print the page(s) you would like to make into sticky notes.  I do this in greyscale so I don’t waste my colored ink.

2.       Place sticky notes on top of the boxes for the sheet you would like to print making sure the sticky strips are all at the top of each box.  It is very important all sticky notes are facing the same direction.

3.       Place the paper in your printer.  Depending on which direction your printer feeds, you will want the sticky notes to go through the printer top first.

4.       Print the page (be sure to select the page you chose the template from) in greyscale (again, saves ink and colored images turn out just fine).

5.       Cross your fingers and hope for no paper jams!   J 

  

I just uploaded a sticky note template pack to TPT here.  It has templates for your students to use while independently reading during Readers Workshop!  Text to text connections, I wonder, My favorite part, etc.  (One of the templates can be seen in the printing directions above.)  I am in the middle of working on a holiday pack of sticky note templates.  Stay tuned...

As I was writing this post, I got a call with some terrible news.  My father-in-law just got test results back and he has bladder cancer.  : (  And...this news comes on my birthday.  : (  If you pray, please say an extra prayer for my husband and our family.

Reading Memories {Freebie}

In my classroom, Readers Workshop is off and running!  We are working to build our stamina to 15 minutes before the kids can go book shopping to fill our independent reading bags.  This week we talked about our favorite reading memories.  Feel free to download the reading memories page by clicking on the picture below.  The pdf document has one for girls and one for boys. They would be perfect for a hallway display or to make into a class book!

{Clip art is from Scrappin Doodles}

At the end of the day today, I was changing out my book display case from "beginning of the school year" themed books to Fall themed books and I overheard a little voice say "she's putting out new books and I see some great ones.  I think I am about to have a new favorite reading memory!"  MELT.MY.HEART!

PS  If you have not checked out this new first grade blog, New Adventures in First Grade, head on over!