Spring Break Sale

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I wanted to share a fun idea I am using next week for one of my math stations. We have been practicing fact families in our first grade class and I wanted to offer this write the room activity to all my fabulous followers out there. Enjoy!!

Click here to get the document

Classroom Themes

Happy Sunday everyone! So as the new year has come I have began thinking of some new items I want to create for my TPT store. I wanted my followers input on my next items. So that's why I'm here today. What is your classroom theme? Do you have a theme? Do you want a theme? I ask because I teach first grade as you know and I have always had a theme because I just love how it brings the whole classroom together. This year I have a cowboy western theme and I've done jungle, and camping before. Last summer I created a jungle theme and a cowboy theme pack and they have been pretty big sellers on TPT. I want to start making more for your classrooms. So what themes would you like to see? Let me know and remember it's never too early to start thinking about next school year and being creative in your classroom! :)

Visit my TPT store to see my jungle pack and cowboy western pack for your classrooms.

Welcome to my buckaroo room!! :)

New Year, New Giveaway

Happy 2013 everyone! To start out the year right I'm doing a giveaway for all my wonderful followers. Follow the rules below and I will be picking a winner Friday at midnight. So get following, and posting to become a winner of 2 free items from my TPT store OF ANY VALUE!!!  Yes that's right it can be any amount in my store. I'm feeling loving in 2013 so let the giveaway begin!

For each of the following completed you can leave a comment on this blog post that you did it. So you could have up to 5 comments/entries for this giveaway. Friday, I will choose a random number using the generator and that comment will when the giveaway. Good luck!

1. Become a follower of my TPT store here.

2. Find your favorite item in my TPT store and leave a comment of what the item is and why it is your favorite.

3. Follow my Facebook page here.

4. Pin 3 items from my TPT store onto Pinterest.

5. Share this giveaway on your blog or Facebook page.

Blogging Memories of 2012

2012 has been a great year for my teaching career. I began my 7th year of teaching and I still love every minute of every day teaching first grade. Back in January of 2012 I was introduced to TPT by a coworker who has done pretty well selling her things she has used for technology use in the classroom. After debating if I would even make anything with all my things I finally did it. I joined TPT in February and I instantly saw the success one could have with this teaching tool. Each quarter I did better than the previous one and I ended this year with my highest pay out of $4,000!!

My husband and I have been soooo lucky to have the TPT profits as this past year we have been working on starting a family. We have been seeing a fertility specialist and paying everything out of pocket. We have been led to the direction of in vitro fertilization which is going to cost us ALOT, but we have been so blessed with the TPT funds to help speed up this process. We are excited to see what 2013 brings us soon!!

My TPT store has some great items for all subject areas. Some of my best selling items are below.

Do you need a patriotic unit that can help your students understand United States symbols or Famous Americans and Presidents? These are perfect for President's Day in February.

One of my favorite packs of 2012 that I created was my Elf on the Shelf unit. I updated and revamped my old pack and made it just perfect for the use of the Elf on the Shelf in the classroom. I LOVE my pack and my students looked forward to finding Frank the Elf and writing in their elf journal.

Another thing I started doing this summer was my classroom theme packs. One of my best seller classroom decoration theme packs was my jungle pack. I helped a fellow teacher at my school decorate her kindergarten class in a jungle theme using all in my pack. It turned out super cute!

2013 is going to be a great year of new ideas and products for my TPT store. I'm working on an animal life science pack that is going to match up to first grade-third grade content standards. It's a VERY large pack and I'm very excited to get it up in January to my store. I will also begin working on more classroom theme packs so if you have ideas of classroom themes you would like to see in my store leave me a comment and let me know! Again, thank you again for all your support this past year and hears to the new year that is approaching! Happy New Year!!

We Will Remember Those Students and Teachers

December 14th, 2012 started out as a wonderful school day as I travelled to school getting ready to celebrate my 29th birthday with my class. But when news hit of the school shooting in Connecticut around 10:45 a.m. mountain time my day quickly changed. Coworkers and I stood by the computers and tvs watching the news coming in about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. We watched as developing news changed and we worked together to ensure that our students at my elementary school DID NOT hear about this awful tragedy. We then went into a lock down as well but the students went on with their day and didn't know a thing was going on. Their innocent minds didn't need to fear their lives at school and to know there was something wrong in our country. I watched my class perform their Christmas program, we had Christmas around the World presentations, and we sang all afternoon to keep smiles on their beautiful faces. I couldn't imagine the terror on the faces of the parents, students and staff members of Sandy Hook Elementary. Their lives changed that day in a brief 20-30 minutes of time. But they did all they could to protect their own. Heroes were shown that day. They weren't wearing their military uniforms, however these were ordinary teachers who in a moment of terror made the right choice to protect the innocent lives of their students. As a first grade teacher and knowing so many precious lives were lost from those students and staff members, I wanted to post today and let my blog followers know that my thoughts and prayers go out to the whole community and to the Sandy Hook Elementary staff and students. I pray each night for the families of the children and hope for a recovery and knowledge that their little children are with God and protected now. They will now forever be our Guardian Angels.

Christmas Around the World

Celebrating holiday traditions around the world is a fun and engaging thing I do in my classroom. I do it a bit different than most teachers out there. I assign each student a country. I usually choose 5-6 from each continent and we travel continent to continent. Then the child is given an information packet with a project overview, country description, and due date and rubric form. The student then completes a short 3-5 minute oral presentation with visual aides. They also are to make a edible food sample of a traditional food from their country. Then for a week I have presentations going on. While the kids give there presentation the other children are completing their country information page. We have passports and suitcases to go along with us on our travels.

Visit my TPT store to grab a copy of my Christmas Around the World Pack.