Come See My New Blog Design!

Hello, friends.  I have super-exciting news to share with you.  As many of you may know, due to my Facebook page, I have a brand new blog and new blog design, thanks to the fabulous work of Danielle Westvang, whom you might know as Crayonbox Learning.

I will not be posting on this blog any longer.   Danielle transferred all of my content to my new blog, but she was unable to transfer my followers.  So to entice you to come on over and check out and follow my new blog, I have created a special freebie for my blog.

Come on over to   to follow me and claim your Welcome to My New Blog Freebie!

Happy Easter and a 2-day freebie

During this time of preparing for Easter, when our little ones are so focused on the Easter Bunny and the treats that he will be bringing, it can sometimes be hard to help them focus on the true meaning of Easter.

A long, long time ago, I was introduced to this little gem of a book that ties the first Easter Bunny into the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus called “The First Easter Bunny”.   The little rabbit tells the Easter story through his eyes as he follows Jesus through the events of Holy Week.  At the end, it beautifully ties the duty of the Easter Bunny to Jesus.

I was shocked at how expensive it is through Amazon.  Of course, it is the hardback version, and I have the paperback version.  I found it in a Catholic bookstore in my community, so maybe you can find it in a Christian or Catholic bookstore near you.  If you can find it, this book is well worth the money, whether you share it with you class, your Sunday school or CCD class, or your own children.

On a different subject, I just finished my newest resource to help my children remember the most common ways to make the long E sound.

Click here to visit TPT and download this within the next 48 hours for free. 48-hour freebie will end April 1 at 12:00 AM.

Assemble the anchor chart two ways, in one long line of four or 2X2, for the best fit in your classroom. I chose the 2X2 for my classroom.

This will be free for the next 48 hours, starting now and ending at 12:00 Midnight on April 1.  It will last the duration of the Spring Cleaning sale!

Have a great day and a very happy Easter!

The Luck of the Irish!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of you!    I have not one little drop of Irish blood in me.  Not even a smidgen.  And yet I have two kids, one named Sean and one named Colleen Erin.  Can you get any more Irish than that?

Sean and Colleen, 17 and 7.

I hope you had a chance to hop around the blogs, pick up the St. Patrick’s Day freebies, and make good use of them the past two weeks.  Today is the big day, the day that the $100.00 TPT certificate is awarded.  And the winner is — drumroll please —

Aanika P!

Congratulations to Aanika for being the grand prize winner!  You can go to Mrs. Fultz’s blog to claim your prize.

click to Visit Ms. Fultz’s Corner and claim your prize!

Thank you all for playing along with us!  We had so much fun and got to meet so many new teaching friends!  We certainly feel like the Luck of the Irish shone on us!

For those of you who are a little bummed because you didn’t win, I have a consolation prize.  My store is on sale today and tomorrow for 10% off!

Enjoy your Sunday.

To Pick a Pope and Caring for Cole

As you probably know, the papal conclave begins tomorrow to pick a new pope.  I have created this free resource to use with your class to explain how the cardinals go through the process of picking a pope.

Click here to get your copy of Picking a Pope

Even if you aren’t in a religious setting,  it is still a historical event that you can discuss with your class.

Also, a  bloggy friend has put together an incredible package of tried and true resources resources to help raise money for the son of one of her teacher friends.  Her son, Cole, was diagnosed with an aggressive and rare (in children) type of brain cancer.

The package has over $160.00 worth of resources, all yours for a minimum donation of $25.00.  Please head over to Life in Special Education and read Karla’s post about Caring for Cole.

Click here to see how you can help Care for Cole.

Have a great Monday evening.

 

Manic Monday Hookup and A Surprise to Come!

Hi, everyone!  Today I’m linking up with Charity Preston and her Manic Monday Freebies. Many of you already picked up the freebie I’m adding over there, but  click on the button below to visit and see the other  great freebies that are posted today.

Click on the free for fans only tab to get this freebie.

Don’t forget that Monday also means Memory Verse Monday at Pirate Girl’s Education Invasion.  Click the button below to see what great verse and activities she has for you today.

And finally, here’s a hint about the surprise to come.

16 gold coins.  Cryptic, huh?  Be sure to check back for more info all through the week!

Have a great evening!

Don’t Miss Day 11!

Be sure to hop over to Teach With Laughter’s blog to pick up the freebie for day 11, a wonderful Valentine ABC order activity for your kiddos to work on this week!

Just click on the day 11 button below to visit Laureen’s blog and get your ABC order freebie now!

Have a great evening!

Callum’s Addition Pyramid

Adding basic facts is too easy! Can we try the hard level?

Today during Pickles and Ketchup time, a group of my students were using the SMARTBoard to play Callum’s Addition Pyramid.  If you don’t know about this resource, you’ve got to check it out!  Click on the picture to visit the site.

It’s an addition game with three levels of play, easy, medium, or hard.  After each turn, you can choose which level you want to play.  Easy is basic facts, and typically, my kids start there.  But then they get adventurous and want to try medium and hard.

Today, about 5 of my kids decided to play on the hard level, and it was so cool to watch the different ways they tried to figure 17+19.  One boy was trying to count on his fingers.  One of my girls got out the cubes.  Ben realized counting on his fingers wasn’t going to work, so he started helping Jules count cubes.  In the meantime, Alaina and Shelby decided to use the number line above the chalkboard.  It only goes to 30, but Alaina was finally the one who came up with the answer using the number line!  Anyway, the game is really cool and easy for the kids to get the hang of.  Try it out!

There’s a really cool giveaway going on at Rockin’ Teacher Materials.  Hilary has 6 flash drives to giveaway, one at each grade level, loaded with teacher materials donated from TPT members.  Can you imagine?  A flash drive full of resources at your fingertips!  Click on the picture below to visit Hilary’s blog and sign up for her giveaway.   It ends Sunday, so go now!

Good luck!

Preparing for January

I hope of you have had a peaceful and restful winter break so far.  We had an excellent Christmas and are now enjoying the lull between Christmas and New Year’s with lots of sleeping in, visiting family, and of course, shopping!  Those gift cards don’t spend themselves,  you know? 

In between all the fun, I’ve been thinking about teaching in January.  I’ve developed 4 new eSources (my newly coined name for my digital resources; how do you like it?)  Funny story about eSources — it started out as a typo when I left the “r” off  “resource.”  I looked at it and thought, esource, huh.  Let’s spell it eSource and it makes sense.

Anyways, back to my eSources.  Two are winter math games including adding, subtracting, and place value, January Roll and Cover with Mike the Moose

and Penguin Push

I also added a long and short O sorting activity to complement my other long and short vowel sorting packets, Short I and Short E.  The remaining vowels will be added — someday.

And finally, I added a Martin Luther King integrated Esource packet.

Feel free to click on any picture above to visit my TPT store and explore these products further.

Finally, I have a quick and easy MLK freebie for you.  It’s a dove of peace made out of paper plates.  I’ve been doing this activity along with MLK for years in my classroom.  It makes a nice wall dsiplay when I pair it with the children’s writings on what they think would make the world a better place today.

If you click on the picture, it will take you to a page with the PDF on it.  Open the PDF for directions and a step-by-step pictorial tutorial for you.

Enjoy and have a very Happy New Year!

Heavy Heart

I came to post about a giveaway, but it just doesn’t seem like the thing to do right now. My heart is heavy, thinking about all those innocent children in Conneticut, and all those families whose lives are being turned upside down by this tradgedy. I can’t make sense of it, just as I’ve not been able to make sense of any school shootings anywhere in the world. Why?

As teachers, we can’t help but think about our own school situations. We know no place is immune, but are we doing all we can to make our schools the safest they can be? Schools are run by routines, and anyone with bad intent just has to study those routines to figure out a way to get in. All we can do is keep our doors locked, stay alert, and practice our emergency procedures. And keep a big bat by our classroom doors.

Please pray for the children, staff, and families of Sandyhook Elementary.