Special Needs Students

Have you heard of OK Special Needs?  If you haven't, please visit their website or their Facebook page.  They provide amazing tips, articles, and resources for teachers and parents of Special Needs students.  I taught an inclusion Math class last year where Special Needs students were pulled in.  This opened my eyes to their needs and struggles.

Click their logo for more info.

FB Linky Party!!!

Michelle at Kinder Fun is having a fabulous FB Linky Party!  (Sorry I'm a little late...just got back from Chicago late last night!)  There are so many bloggers on there, but we can't always find each other.  She has come up with this genius way to get everyone in spot...a MIXER!  Stop by and check it out:

I'm on Facebook as well!  Here's a link to my page:

Happy blog/FB hopping!

Classroom Decor? (and a FREEBIE!)

Besides the work the students do, I have different inspirational pieces of artwork around my classroom. This is a piece I bought from Garden Ridge for $15.

This is a poster I "adapted" from a poster at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  It need clipart and cute fonts!  :)

(Click the pic to snag for FREE!)

What do you use as classroom decor besides student work?!

"I Have...Who Has?" Freebie!!!

Want some adorable back-to-school ideas?!  The girls at Dishing It Out have a cute back-to-school packet and an "I Have...Who Has?" freebie for you to snag!  Click their button to check it out!

Less than 24 hours left...

...to enter in Lorraine's giveaway at Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies!  Click her button below for details on how to enter!

Classroom Organization Faves!

I'm dreaming that I could be back in my classroom setting everything up.  Since I can't, I wanted to share some of my favorite classroom organization items! 

Mailboxes for returning work

Pocket chart used to store work from pull-in students for Math and different forms the kids need (Rdg logs, computer logs, etc.)

Book bins for Daily Five

Stackable drawers for supplies

Shelves to hold my centers

Containers for centers

Shoe organizer - great for pencil, pencil-top erasers, highlighters, markers, rulers, etc.

Friday FREEBIE!!!

I'm going to the Cubs/Astros game today (GO CUBBIES!), so I thought I'd share a cute little baseball freebie with everyone.  :)  Happy Friday!

"Play Ball" Math Facts

"Play Ball" Rhyming Words

Amazing Blogging and Networking Tips!

Do you want to know more about blogging?  Need help with your Facebook fan page or setting up your Twitter account?  Want to learn how to network with all the fabulous bloggers and educators out there?!


Charity from The OC Blog has provided some fabulous tips and advice in a video collection.  I've been able to learns the ins and outs of blogging, FB, Twitter, and networking!  Click the logo above if you're interested!

Castles and Crayons Giveaway - LAST DAY!

Castles and Crayons are having an awesome giveaway!  They're giving away several cute products to three lucky winners.  Click their logo to find out how to enter.  You only have one day left!

Getting ready for vacay!

I'm doing laundry like a mad woman.  I'm getting the dog's stuff ready to go to the sitter's.  But most importantly, I'm prepping my posts for while I gone.  :)  I'm SOOO pumped to get on the plane and head to Chicago, but I'm even more excited about the posts coming up this next week!

If all goes as planned, you'll be getting two freebies this Friday!  Woohoo!  Here's a sneak peak of the first one:

It's 15 pages!!!  Have a great week everyone!

Happy 100th Day for TBA Linky Party

Congrats to TBA on their 100th day of blogging!  They are such an amazing "hub" for resources and networking!  To celebrate, they're asking everyone to join in their "100th Day of School Celebration" linky party.  It's simple.  What do you and your students do to celebrate the 100th day of school?!

I try to incorporate the theme of 100 all day long in my class.

* Reading - we try to read 100 books as a class that day

* Writing - students write about what they would do with $100 or what they would look/act like if they were 100 years old

* Math - one of the activities the kids like to do is a race to 100 game with a partner, taking turns rolling dice, and coloring in the spaces on a laminated 100's chart

Here are some of the books we read:

Click either book to be the next to link up with TBA! 

New Blog Alert!!!

Hey everybody! There's a new blogger, Lorraine, to welcome to bloggy world! :) She's a fourth grade teacher from TX. Click the pic to check out her cute froggy blog!

Blog Mixer Linky Party

I couldn't resist! This is too cute and such a great networking idea!!! Yearn to Learn is having Blog Mixer linky party. Here's what you include:

1. A blogger who is a "New Kid on the Blog"
(Let's say someone who has blogged 2 months or less and has less than 200 followers)

2. Post a blogger in your same grade level

3. Post a blogger in a different grade level

4. It's all about the button. Find a cute blog button and post it.


Here are my shout outs:

1. Pat @ A Time to Share and Create

2. Elizabeth @ First Year in the 3rd Grade!

3. Courtney and Katie @ Dishing It Out: All Things K and 1st!
Melissa @ Plug-n-Plan

4.

Click Yearn to Learn's button below to head over and link up! You never know what awesome blogs you may find over there! ; )

Less than 24 hours...

until my 200 followers giveaway ends! Make sure you stop by and pick up your freebies. You have until tomorrow night at 6pm.

Click the picture to go back to the original post.

Thanks to all who have snagged them already! And thanks for the new followers and sweet comments. :)

Laura Numeroff Linky Party!!!

Ana at Ingles 360 is hosting a fabulous linky party in honor of Laura Numeroff. It's her birthday! Woohoo, Laura! Laura Numeroff is one of my favorite authors. The kids just love her!

My favorite Laura Numeroff book is Mouse Cookies & More: A Treasury. It's a collection of all the "If You Give a ____ a ____" stories. It also come with a CD, recipes, and songs!!! It doesn't get much better than that!


Click the pic to link up and tell us what your favorite Laura Numeroff book is!!!

Freebies for ALL!!! ('til Friday)

 ***As of 6pm on Friday, July 15th, these products were moved to TpT as mentioned in the original post.***

Thank you all for helping get to 200 followers! As a token of my appreciation, here are four freebies! They're linked through google docs as of now. But Friday at 6pm I'm switching the links and moving the items to my TpT store. So grab them now while they're FREE!!!

All I ask is that if you download the activities, please be a follower. I appreciate your honesty and support. And tell your friends to stop by, too! The more, the merrier!!! :)

Now let's get down to business!

Monkey Mayhem - All About Verbs

Fix-it Sentences

Addition and Subtraction Flashcards

Multiplication and Division Flashcards

Who wants some freebies?!

I woke up this morning to see I'd hit 200 followers! YAY! To celebrate, I'm going to give away a few freebies! I'm doing some finishing touches now, but here's a sneak peek:

This is a LA center I finished. I'm working on the math activities now. I'll post everything this afternoon! EVERYONE IS A WINNER!!! : )

Daily Schedule Linky Party!!!

Woohoo!!! Another linky party! Becca at Simply 2nd Resources is hosting a great linky party! All you have to do is link up with your daily schedule. I moved schools over the summer and I can only PRAY that my new school's schedule is as awesome as my previous one. : )

Here's my "old" schedule:

Scholastic Resources

Since I can't work in my classroom this week, I've been working on a few projects at home. For instance, leveling my classroom library. Whew! What a job! I'm using Scholastic's Book Wizard tool and it's helping me out tremendously!

Speaking of Scholastic, I did a Google search for tips on getting ready to go back to school and this fabulous article popped up! I didn't realize Scholastic offered some of these resources. It's a quick list of 14 tips. Click on the Scholastic logo to check them out!


Which tips do you find most useful! Are there tips you know of that didn't make the list? And just a disclaimer: I love Scholastic, but I promise I'm not getting paid to promote them. This list just seemed too helpful not to share with others!

Freebies Page!

I added a "Freebies" page to my blog! (It's under my header.) I'm super excited to have all of my freebies in one place! I'll keep it updated with all of my goodies. : )

I'm off to have dinner with the hubby for my birthday! It's really tomorrow, but tonight is all-you-can eat-tapas for $15 at one of our favorite spots! We're about to shut 'em down! Woohoo!

Sad news :(

I'm extremely sad to report that I can't go in my classroom yet. I'm devastated! One of my new coworkers thought it was ok to go in and start setting up. Well, I just got kicked out of the building by one of the janitors. He was super sweet about it. But I'm going to Chicago the entire last week of July and preplanning starts August 1st. I need time to get all of this finished!!! What's a girl to do?! Looks like I'll be putting in some extremely long hours that first week of August. BOO HOO!!!

Enough with the whining...here are some pics of my progress. Slowly, but surely. :)

This is the before shot (with zero of my stuff in there):

This is a shot of what it looked like after moving stuff in:

And here is what I was able to get done this morning:

School Box Coupons!!!

Not sure if you've seen these, but here are two really awesome School Box coupons!

Ends July 31st

Only for July 8th.  25 ft max.  Must present coupon to get the discount.

Hope these are helpful!  I'm going to round up my things to be laminated and hit School Box first thing in the morning.  :)  Enjoy!

Calling all Target lovers!!!

Hadar has started a blog completely devoted to Target and the awesome deals she finds there!  OMG!  This is my personal heaven!!!  Way to go Hadar!  Click on the pic to check out her new blog!  L-O-V-E!

Check her out!

Have you been to Mrs. D's blog at The Third Wheel? If not, you should check her out! She has some great math task cards as well as other fabulous ideas! She's also planning on having a giveaway, but needs a few more followers. Here's her adorable button!

It's on!

It is officially ON!  I went by my new school/classroom today and to my surprise, the carpets have been cleaned!  Y'all know what that means....I'm going in!  I'm so pumped to get in my room, set stuff up, and get a feel for the place.  Give me a few days and hopefully I'll be able to post some pics of the progress!  YAY!  "I'm so excited!  And I just can't hide it!"

Linky Party with Mrs. Owens!

Rachel at Go Fourth! With Mrs. Owens is hosting a linky party!  She has a great back-to-school freebie up for grabs!  To join in the linky party, simply list 10 things we should know about you.  Not too hard, right?!  Here is my list:

10.  If I wasn't a teacher, I would want to cut hair or be an interior decorator. 

9.  I am so OCD it isn't funny.  My coworkers make fun of me all the time!  It's ok though.  I own it.

8.  I watch WAY too many reality shows.  I try to DVR them so my hubby doesn't go nuts listening to the yelling and bleeping.  :)

7.  I could eat an Oreo blizzard at any given moment.  De-lish!

6.  Sushi, macaroni and cheese, and Chicago pizza are my favorite foods!

5.  Football (college and pro) is very important to me.  (You couldn't tell that from my blog design, could you?!)

4.  Uno and Yahtzee are my favorite games.

3.  I'm absolutely addicted to Target, Dots, and Kohl's. 

2.  I love my puppy Maggie as if she's my kid. 

1.  I LOVE blogging!  I'm SO addicted!

Click on the pic to head over and link up! 

Create Your Own Awards for FREE!

Did y'all know you can create and print your own classroom awards on the Lakeshore website?!  I just found this and I'm LOVING it!  I never knew this resource was here.  And it's FREE!  That's right.  FREE!  Click the award I just created and it will take you to the website where you'll find the awards and tons of other free resources!

Yep, good ol' Billy Bob!  :)  Simply amazing!

Calling all Font-aholics!

I'm one.  I'll admit it.  And I can't stop myself from going back for more!  They're just too darn cute!  And free! (Most of mine are from Kevin and Amanda.)

Jenn at Finally in First is hosting a linky party about your favorite fonts!  Here are a few of the fonts I heart:

Head on over and check out the other fonts.  You just might find more to add to your collection!  Happy font hunting!

Happy 4th and TWO FREEBIES!

Happy 4th of July to everyone! To celebrate, I created some multiplication and addition flashcards. And they're all yours...for FREE! Click the pics to snag them! Have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends!

Multiplication

Addition

And now, off to the pool!

Read Aloud Linky Party!!!

I love these! We ALL love read alouds, so why not participate in a linky party about them?! You might even see some new titles you'll have to try out! :) Mrs. Parker at Learning With Mrs. Parker is hosting this. Check it out!

Here are a couple of my favorite read alouds with my kids:

My School's a Zoo by Stu Smith

Today I Will Fly by Mo Willems

The kids crack up when we read these books! There are so many others, but so little time!