Don't miss this SALE!

Check out all of these great sellers, and think of all of the great resources 

you can get before school starts!  The sale is from August 1st through August 4th.  Use this code {B1T1S} to get the additional 10% off!

     Primary Perspective           Lesson Plan SOS         The Teacher Wife    

 One Extra Degree    Babbling Abby        Anna Brantley        Michelle Oakes             

Made For 1st Grade     Kinder Glynn        Erica Bohrer          Primary Graffiti

P.S. I am trying to upload a few new items, but the system must be on overload-I'll keep trying! 

Print, print, everywhere!

I just finished up a great unit for primary learners. . .

What is environmental print?  

It is the print of everyday life in the world around us:  the symbols, signs, shapes, numbers, and colors that can be found in Mc Donald's, stop signs, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, enter/exit. . . and more!  It provides a meaningful and relevant way for young children to understand concepts of print as they connect the alphabet and features of text to their personal experiences.  Not only is environmental print great for reading, it is also a powerful tool that can be utilized across the curriculum...

This resource is 78 pages of class books, art, graphing, map skills, literature connections, and writing-all connected to environmental print!  

Here's one of my favorite activities. . .

Here's another part that I love. . .

I Have Who Has Environmental Print

The first 5 bloggers who leave a comment can snag a FREE copy. . .since I'm posting this at 4:00 in the morning. . .it might just be whoever is up blogstalking! 

Making Every Minute Count. . .

I am so sorry for the lack of action around here.  I have really been trying to make every minute that I have left of summer count...hanging out with the boys, napping, and shopping!

Last week I was one of the busiest weeks of my life, and then it hit me this week that my summer is officially over...yikes!!!  This week I've had training for 3 days, next week I'm finalizing my classroom and meeting with teammates, the next week I have 4 days of training, and the following week-the madness begins and we report back full time-those first few weeks are so so crazy!

For those who are participating in the letter exchange or who recently expressed interest, be on the look out for more information by August 1st.  Everything is almost ready to go-thank you so much for your patience!

I still have a ton of "how-to" ideas and fab finds to post, but before I get back to that I wanted to share my presentation from CAMT.  You can take a look at it below if you're interested.  My sessions went well, and I think overall it was a great learning experience.  I literally spent all summer researching (and buying) books, preparing the presentation bit by bit, and making stuff with my handsome little Christian-so go easy on me!  I burned a lot of midnight oil while trying to get it wrapped up, and at one point I thought I wouldn't finish in time.

Along with the presentation, I created a pack of math tools and resources that you can use along with the literature.  The pack has ideas for addition, subtraction, problem solving, patterns, fractions, time, money, and more!

You can grab a copy {here}, but the first 5 bloggers to take a quick scroll at the presentation and leave a comment about their favorite activity or book-will get a FREE copy!
CAMT '11 Presentation

Sale Extension. . .

I know that many teachers were not able to take advantage of the TpT sales due to a high volume of customers using the site...my sale is extended through the entire week ('til May 6th)!   Click on the red apple to visit my store.  Many teachers are also extending their sales so you still have time to get lots of great stuff!  If you want to save an additional 20%, use the code (TAD11) since Paul has agreed to extend the discount to teachers as well!

Huge Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Use the promo code-TAD11 to get an additional discount of 20%...that means you'll get to choose fabulous products from all of these TpT sellers and save 40%!  
Lesson Plan SOS Teachers 

Crazy for 1st Grade 

Primary Perspective

Erica Bohrer

Growing Kinders

One Extra Degree

Fabulous in First

Made for 1st Grade

Babbling Abby

Cara Carroll

Fairy Tale Freebie. . .

I have finally posted the "Happily Ever After" unit to TpT.  My kids loved it, and it was one of my favorite activities of the year!  I'm including a freebie in this post-a "fairy tale" journal which we worked on throughout the unit.  

Our newspaper is still a work in progress.  It will be done next week.  I can't wait to share some of the hilarious police reports, advertisements, and advice letters which my kiddos wrote!

 

I'm also working on a fractured fairy tale unit...here are two of my favorite books to use with fractured tales!  

I hope you've enjoyed your weekend so far...here's the fairy tale journal!

fairy tale journal

Spring Has Sprung. . .Day 3

I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!  My favorite parts of blogging are hosting "giveaways" and finding/sharing great resources.  Today's post is another great giveaway featuring some teaching tools from Diane and Kelly, two first grade teachers who have recently entered the world of blogging.

I stumbled across their blog and resources a few weeks ago, and I'm so grateful that I did!  Today's giveaway features one of their latest creations, 

Learning About Weather.

This unit is perfect for March and April, and it combines science with lots of wonderful literature.  My favorite parts of the unit are the "Roy G. Biv" art activity and the "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" mini-book.

If you're interested, there are 3 ways to enter. . .

1) Follow Diane and Kelly's blog.

2) Follow Made for 1st Grade on Teachers Pay Teachers.

3) Leave a comment about one of your favorite science or weather activities for spring.  

This contest will be open through Friday, March 25th at 6 p.m.

Spring Has Sprung. . .Day 1

I'm pretty good at rhyming and making up silly jingles, but I'm no poet...and I know that I definitely have a lot of room for improvement in the area of exposing my students to great poetry.  Amanda from One Extra Degree, has created a wonderful resource which will make it SO much easier to incorporate poetry into the curriculum all year long! I love this packet because it provides an outline for how to expose students to the elements of poetry such as visualization techniques, vocabulary, author's craft, making connections...and so much more.  

I cannot tell you enough what an amazing job Amanda did putting together resources, ideas, and tools!

If you're interested, you can enter the first giveaway of the week, but if you can't wait that long it's also available here!

If you want to receive this fabulous document, here's what you need to do. . .there are 7 different ways you can enter.  Leave a separate comment for each one of them to receive additional entries.

1.  Follow One Extra Degree.

2.  Follow Primary Perspective.

3.  Follow Amanda's TpT store.

4.  Follow Brooke's TpT store.

5.  Follow Amanda on twitter.

6. "Like" One Extra Degree on FB.

  7.  Follow Brooke on twitter.

The contest is open until Wednesday (March 23rd) at 6pm.  

  

A New Blog. . .

Teachers Pay Teachers is having a sale right now!  If you enter the code (G2RM) at the checkout you can save 10%!  Last night as I was searching through for new ideas and great resources, I discovered some really great stuff from two fellow first grade teachers/bloggers.  They're having a giveaway for one of the things that I purchased from (which also happens to be one of my favorite purchases that I've ever made onTPT).  Click on the photo below to check out the blog, and take a look at the giveaway.  The unit is available as a whole set or individually.  I highly recommend it because it's adorable, and it's full of great stuff that's completely connected to literature!

new making words activity

I just finished up on a Valentine's Day unit with math, literacy, and word work.  Here's a freebie from the unit.  This is my favorite "making words" activity.  The entire unit is posted on TpT for $3.99, but it's on sale for $2.99 until Sunday! 

cupcake making words

Penguins are just so cute!

I just posted a penguin unit on TpT!  It's called "Cute Litle Penguins," and it's $5.00.  It includes 50 pages of reading, writing, science, art, and research activities! 

Coming soon...

Today is a professional development day, and I have been meeting with my teammates all day!  I will be posting lots of penguin and Valentine's Day activities soon!

I am also having a TpT Sale!  

Spend $5.00-get $5.00 free! If you're interested in any items that I've posted or have a question, contact me via e-mail!  The sale begins today and ends on January 18th.

Check back later this afternoon for the updates.