Two for Tuesday

It's Tuesday!  Is is Tuesday?  I woke up this morning and forgot what day it was; what an awesome feeling!  Don't worry though, I remembered that today is TWO FOR TUESDAY!  That means that I am linking up with The Teaching Tribune and discounting two of my product by 50%.

A sweet little decor for your classrooms...

It is only $1.50!

A fabulous math pack to use all year!

It is only $1.50!  Don't forget it is only for today.

Happy Tuesday!!!

Monday Made It - Creating Away

I love summer!  Not only because I get to sleep in, walk the dog when I choose, take a nap whenever. Nope, but because it lets me reconnect with the teacher blogger and TPT world.  I spent this past week creating away and I am so excited to show you my new goodies with today's Monday Made It!

I updated and bundled all of my chevron decor!

I created a short vowel Roll Read Color Roll Read Write...

to go with the long vowel edition.

Plus, I bundled them!

Finally, I created a fun interactive short vowel (CVC) game that can be used so many different ways!

The best part is, I am giving one of each of these away!  Just comment below with which product you would like to win and why and I will choose a random winner for each product later this week.  

Happy Creating!!!

A Summer Sunday

It has been a crazy, but fun week.  The weather here in the Pacific Northwest went into full summer mode.  I was able to enjoy the sun and relax (my summer goal).  I am linking up with Fabulous In First for this week's Sunday Smorgasbord.

I was able to fill my week with mass amounts of summer fun.

I went blueberry picking

 and lavender harvesting with my sister and husband.

I spent a day at the river sitting in this chair and reading my book club book.  YAY!  For Ramona Recommends' Book Club!

Plus, I found all of these Scentos products at Office Depot!

It was an awesome week!  I am looking forward to all of the fun this week has in store.

What was the highlight of your week?

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th everyone!!!  Let's celebrate with a sale!!!

15% off my entire store for the whole weekend!

Be sure to check out my new products and bundles.

You can get these two packs bundled!

Volunteer Goodness

We all know that without volunteers our classrooms would fall apart.  Whether you have 10 volunteers or 1, without them we would be lost.  Like many of you, I work in a Title 1 school and have very little parental support.  This year, I had 4 amazing parents volunteer their time.  I needed a gift that would work for moms and dads and I think this did the trick...lemonade recipes, pitcher, and spoon.

 I scored the glass pitchers at IKEA and the spoons at Bed, Bath and Beyond.

I printed and laminated a traditional lemonade, and my favorite, lavender lemonade recipe.

 I love the way they turned out.

You can grab a copy of the tag I created here.

What do you do to say thank you to the volunteers in your class?

Monday Made It - Custom Bookmarks

Happy Summer!!!!  I am back and ready to ENJOY my time!  Thank you to those of you who have stuck around; the last 6 months have rocked my world.  Between student teachers, teaching, living, taking care of my home, getting sick, and trying to relax blogging really took a back seat.  That is the whole thing here though, Finding Balance!
I decided to take a break from yard work and bust out the hot glue gun for today's Monday Made It.

Custom Bookmarks!!!!  I can't wait for my kiddos to pick their own charm this fall.  I plan on having each student choose their own charm/button to create their own bookmark at the beginning of the year.

Supplies: jumbo paper clips, fun buttons, and hot glue. 

Just hot glue buttons to the tops of the jumbo paperclips.  Be sure to add enough glue to make them sturdy.

 I love this little octopus bookmark!

Happy Creating!!!

June Book Club

I am beyond excited to be hosting this month's Ramona Recommends' eBook Club.  I don't know about you, but finding time to read during the school year can be crazy.  I try my best to find the time to relax with a good book, but my pile seems to grown until the summer when I can really dive into them.  However, I have made the time to read both of Courtney's eBook Club recommendations and have LOVED them both. 

This month we will be discussing two books; one geared toward primary students and one for intermediate.  You are more than welcome to read both or just one, but either way be sure to leave your thoughts along the way.

 The primary pick is Ribbit!, by Rodrigo Folgueira. 

The intermediate read is A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Llyod.

June's book club will run from Tuesday, June 3rd until Wednesday, July 2nd.

This month's discussion:
1. If you are new this month--Introduce yourself to the group: Share your name, blog/instagram name, what grade you teach, and a little bit about yourself.  *Remember, you do not need a blog to be a part of this discussion. You can just leave a comment below this post. :)
2. What were your thoughts of the book?
3. How could you use this book with your students?
4. Did you have any connections to other texts while reading this book?

Feel free to share the book club button on your instagram and blog pages.

Happy Reading!

Summer Blog Hop

Ahh summer...I can almost taste it!  Two more weeks and I get to bask in the idea of sleeping in and regaining my health.  What is it with the second half of the year?!  It aways seems to knock the wind out of me.
This summer is all about reading books, blogging, sleeping, and kinda thinking about next school year. As a way to celebrate summer I am linking up with some of my favorite blogging buddies for a Summer Blog Hop.  Plus there are freebies involved!  Grab my freebie below and then make sure to hop on over to Inspired Owl's Corner by clicking on the adorable shell.

Happy Hopping!

Ramona Recommends Book Club - The Year of Billy Miller

I love a great book recommendation and Courtney from Ramona Recommends totally nailed it with this month's book club pick.

Kevin Henkes is one of my favorite picture book authors and I was so excited to crack open this chapter book.  I love how he divided the books into specific character interactions for Billy.  This format allowed for the reader to truly see how Billy Miller evolved over the year.
I plan on using this book as an end of the year read aloud with my firsties next year, since Billy is a second grader.  It would obviously be a great beginning of the year read aloud of second grade.
On a random note...just as exciting as reading the book is my new bookmark obsession.  How great is this one?!?

More to come on this new book accessory love...

Happy Reading!

PYP Part 4 - Applying What We Learned

Once students had read, experimented, discussed, watched, listened, and created it was time to apply.  The final piece of our How the World Works unit was for students to create their own nonfiction penguin book.  My team and I used Matt Glover's writing approach for book creation with the help of several TPT products (image links will take you to the products).
Students began the process by reading and discussing many different penguin books.  Throughout their reading and being read to, they completed a Penguin A-Z book and an All About Penguin book.

Once students had read, recorded, and conferenced they used their new resources to write their own All About ____ Penguin Book.

The final books were magnificent.  Students used several nonfiction text features throughout their books, as well as the knowledge they gained throughout the unit.  Overall, I am very happy with the final products of our first PYP unit.

Check out some of the other penguin fun we had during our unit:

My student made shape penguins.  They turned out so cute and were the perfect way to kick off our shape unit in math.

I created these life size examples of the little blue and emperor penguins to give the students the realia they needed to make connections.

Students also worked together to compare their height to that of the little blue and emperor penguin.  I love when they work together and discuss their learning!!

Happy Learning!