Weekly Spelling Lists for Nat Geo

Hey friends!

Just popping in for a quick update on a new product in my TPT store tonight.  As I said before, this year is our first year of adoption for National Geographic's Reach for Reading program.  I have created a couple of other useful tools if you are using this program also, but tonight's deal focuses strictly on spelling.

Hot off the press you can get a packet of spelling lists for all 32 weeks of the program, based specifically on the spelling skills and vocabulary words for each week.  The first 10 words of the list are skill words for the week and are directly from the teacher's manual.  The second ten words include all of the weekly vocabulary words for each week, and some of the academic social studies vocabulary for each week.

Now you may be wondering why I have a list of 20 spelling words for my firsties?  Do I really give them all 20 words?! And the answer is goodness, NO!  Each of my firsties only gets 10 words. I'll be back more to explain how I do spelling in my classroom tomorrow. I need to take some pictures to help it all make sense for you all. So stay tuned! It's one of my favorite things that I do in my classroom and I can't wait to share with you!

In the meantime, head on over to my TPT store and check out the weekly lists. I'll fill in the blanks for you tomorrow!

P.S. Don't forget to follow me through Google or BlogLovin'! I'm considering a giveaway of any item in my store once I hit 15 followers!

Currently September {1st Timer here!!}

I've always wanted to be a part of Farley's monthly link, but never really felt worthy. Not sure what's changed, but I'm putting myself out there and giving it a shot, so here goes.

Listening

Let's just say it's one of many reasons as to why we're currently trying to sell our house! Had we known 5 years ago what we know now about our neighbor's dogs and how they constantly bark at all hours of the morning, day, and night {yes, including the middle of the night}, I can promise you we would have never bought the place.  Welp-there they go again!

Loving

I'm all about nice, warm weather.  However, I don't know about the rest of you all, but it has been H.O.T. here in good ole' Indiana the last 3 weeks {basically since we went back to school, conveniently}.  I think the heat and humidity are finally past us, at least for awhile, so we can finally go back outside and enjoy ourselves each evening. My daughter is all about playing outside and it's just been too hot to do anything so we've been staying inside, which means LOTS of Finding Nemo.

Thinking

My sweet mom's birthday is Thursday. She'll be turning 60 folks. I can hardly believe it and I know she is struggling with that fact a little bit. Actually a lot of bit I'm sure. More than she will ever let anyone else let on to believe.  My parents have done SO much for us, that it's so hard to figure out what to get them. I know that she ultimately just loves spending time with us, Kayleigh in particular, and to have a new collage of pictures of her to hang, but she deserves something more. I would love to surprise her with plane tickets to Hawaii {they've never been}, but that's just not in the budget this year. I hope to someday.

Wanting

We've been trying to sell our house for almost a month now and we have not had one single showing!!! It's so frustrating! Our house is nothing special, but it's cute and well taken care of, so I thought we would have a couple of bites so to speak. But no. Nada. Nothing. And considering I've got probably the most impatient husband in the world, it makes it even harder.  We did have an Open House last Sunday and had 6 couples come thru, but nothing else. Total bummer! Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

Needing

I absolutely positively need to finish my planner for this year, but just can't get myself to sit down and do it. That's actually what I should probably be doing right now.  But this is more fun. I would love, love, love to buy an Erin Condren planner since I've seen so many cute ones and everybody RAVES on about them, but I just can't justify spending $60 on a planner, unless it's going to write things down for you and alert you when something important is coming up.  So I guess I'll just stick with my ole' boring one and maybe get a little crazy and take it to the copy shop to get it bound nicely.  We'll see.

Goals

 I love fall. It's one of my favorite seasons. Along with summer and spring. Obviously I'm not a fan of winter. I hate snow. Hate the cold. Clearly I'm in the wrong hemisphere for that. But anyways-I'm looking forward to taking my sweet little miss to an apple orchard that's about 40 minutes from where we live. Our first grade classes take a field trip there every other year. She will love it and I would love to show the hubs around.

Somehow convince someone to seriously look into our house and get a showing. Maybe an offer. Maybe a SOLD sign. I don't know. Please, please, please!!

And finally, get home at a decent time. School started 3 weeks ago today and I have not gotten home before 5 since then. Actually before then, but I'll try not to think about that. Folks, our kiddos get out at 3:15!!!! So my goal starting next week is to get out of there before 5 at least twice throughout the week. Spend some more quality time with my sweet little miss, ornery husband, and 3 small ponies also known as our pups.  We'll see how well I can stick with that.

Well friends, this chick is off to read some Nicholas Sparks. Sorry, I'm totally a sucker for his sappy, tear-jerking stories. I'm currently reading The Best of Me. It's a good one. It reminds me a lot of The Notebook in some ways, but we all know that's a timeless classic. I've only got about 70 pages left. I'm hoping I can finish it tonight, so I can head back to the library to get some new books.

Have a good one!

P.S. Don't forget to follow me through Google or BlogLovin'! I'm considering a giveaway of any item in my store once I hit 15 followers!

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BOOKiT! Monthly Tracking

Hi friends!

Just popping in to let you know about a new freebie that I just added to my TPT store.

Hopefully you are all aware of Pizza Hut's BOOKiT! reading incentive program! If not, you definitely need to look into it. It's a great, easy to use program to encourage your students to participate in because they can earn a free personal pizza coupon! Who doesn't love pizza?! And a free pizza at that.

Here's how it works.

The teacher sets  a monthly reading goal for your class. It can be measured really in any way you like-minutes per night, per month, or by books read.  I tell my kids that they have to read for at least four nights a week for 20 minutes in order to meet the goal.  They record the nights they read on a free form from Pizza Hut's BOOKiT! website.  At the end of the month, their parent's have to sign the recording sheet and the kiddo has a week to bring it to school. One I received the form, I fill out a coupon with the child's name and school info. I am sure to announce to the class that so and so completed their monthly BOOKiT! calendar, just as a little moment of pride and reward for the kiddo.

I like to take it a step further and try to motivate my kiddos to participate even more by throwing a pizza party at the end of the year for those kids who reached their goal every month (October-March).  We, of course, enjoy Pizza Hut pizza.  They absolutely LOVE this!

If you've never done this program before, it really is great and low maintenance which I'm sure we all love. It's encouraging the kiddos to read and rewarding them with a world-wide kid favorite-PIZZA!

I'll be laminating my tracking sheet Tuesday morning and hanging up this week!  Hop on over to my TPT store to get your copy!

P.S. Don't forget to follow me through Google or BlogLovin'! I'm considering a giveaway of any item in my store once I hit 15 followers!