It's Race Day $1 Sale!

Memorial Day weekend isn't just another holiday weekend here in good ole' Indiana. It's Race Weekend!!! In case you're not sure which race I'm talking about it's a little one called the Indy 500. The greatest spectacle in racing.  It's really an awesome event and a big week here in Hoosier country.

To celebrate our long holiday race weekend the Indiana Bloggers and I are having our annual $1 sale.  I've got 4 products marked down to $1.

Look through the link up below for some goodies.  There are some great deals! While you're at my store be sure to follow me.

Have a great extended holiday weekend friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

Making Mother's Day One to Remember

We all know it's never too early to start planning and that some things take more planning and prep than others. Say big events for example. Like a big Mother's Day Tea program. I've done a Mother's Day Tea program every year that I have taught. I'm not gonna lie. It's A LOT of work. Like. A lot. But it's also so rewarding once that special day rolls around and you get to see all of the adoring eyes of the mothers in your classroom. I must admit that it is my favorite part of the year. 

 It does take a lot of prep and planning ahead, which is why I typically go into school one afternoon during my spring break to get everything copied and organized for the tea. Every year when we get back from Spring Break I tell my firsties that I have a really big secret that I need for them to help me keep. They must promise that they will not tell anyone. No brothers or sisters. No friends. No pets. And DEFINITELY no moms!!! I tell them that we will be having a Mother's Day Tea for their moms. At first, they're not really sure what that means, but I then outline the main events that outline the tea-read some stories, recite a poem, sing some songs, and shower our moms with gifts. Then, they're a wee bit excited. Over the next two months, my little firsties will be busy little worker bees getting all of our usual academics completed, in addition to adding some crafts, song and poem practice sessions, hat making, and rehearsals.

The first thing that we do to prep for the Tea is to listen to one of three stories each day that the kids will end up having a "part" in reading the day of the Tea. I like to read the kids each of the three books, one at a time first, so that they get to enjoy the story themselves first, but also to try to see which one they would prefer to read from. Rather than picking the story that they read from I do let the kids tell me which one they would like to do after we have finished all three. Now you might say, well what happens if too many kids want the same story? Well, I tell the kids before they even vote that there are only so many spots per book so if one has too many I will politely ask if any kiddos are willing to switch to the book that needs more readers. Almost always, I've had some real sweet firsties gladly make that change for me so that the problem is solved. That night I will take the copied "scripts" of the books that I copied over spring break, along with my list of the choices that the kids made, and select about 2-3 pages for each student to read from the book they chose. I write the students name on the front of the packet and highlight only the pages that they will read. This really helps them know which lines to practice and what part is their responsibility to read.

   

 This unit is my favorite for many reasons-one of which is the beautiful, unique hats that we make for the moms. Each child brings in two 12x12 inch pre-cut pieces of wrapping paper. I also accept donations of artificial flowers, ribbons, tulle, and netting. Day #1 is the actual making of the hats. We put the two pieces of paper back to back and cover one side completely with liquid starch. Then we place the "glued" pieces on top of a hat mold so that it holds the shape of an actual hat. We then design. I ask the kids if they want ruffles, if so big or small, if they want to roll the sides a little or a lot, or if they want to make it like a baseball cap. The hats are left to sit and dry overnight. Day #2 the hats are dry and I take them off the molds. Now is the fun part....decorating! Now I'm not going to promise that you'll have the top layer of skin on your fingertips at the end of this, but I do promise it'll be worth it. Let's just say you'll have some sore fingers from your hot glue gun. I call the kids up one at a time to pick out whatever flowers, ribbon, tulle, and other decorations they want to put on their hat. Once they've decided on their decorations they tell me where they want everything and I glue it for them. And VOILA! You're done!

STEP 1: Molding the hats. I let the kids choose what style hat they want.
Rolled up edges, big waves, little waves, baseball cap, fedora style, or just natural.

 Hat being molded {no waves}

Hat being molded {with big waves}

STEP 2: Decorating
Again, I let the kids pick what items they want to use to decorate.

Tulle & Ribbon

Flowers

I also let them show me how and where they want everything. They're the boss. They direct, I do. I will help them and give them ideas and suggestions as we go.

STEP 3: Set aside and let dry.

Natural edges

Baseball cap

STEP 4: Take adorable pictures of the kids wearing their new hat for their mom. Print. Save as a gift for the Tea.

That concludes the hats-the main gift for the moms. The big one. It's time consuming and you will have to dedicate at least one whole morning to the molding of the hats. Let them dry overnight and then dedicate the whole next morning to decorating with ribbon, tulle, and flowers.  Your fingertips will be burned from the hot glue. You'll be tired of the mess. You'll wonder why you did it. You will be over it.  You'll store the hats away in a large trash bag and hide somewhere in your room (making sure of course to tell your custodian to NOT throw them away!) They are not trash, but rather a memorable keepsake that moms will hold onto and treasure for the rest of their lives.  

However, there will be more gifts. There will be poems, placemats, napkin rings, pictures, coupons, a book, and some homemade flowers.  

Homemade Coffee Filter Flowers

The kids will each get 3 coffee filters to color. No fancy designs, just beautiful colors.

 They will bring them to me one at a time to spray with water.

 They will set the wet filters on their desks to dry.

 Within about an hour they will be dry. The kids are always so amazed at home they turn out and look nothing like how they colored them.

The next day I call them up with their "flowers", twist them, wrap with a pipe cleaner, and attach the poem for their bouquet.

Each firstie will write an acrostic poem with their mom's first name.  They will also use the flower template to write a thank you note to their moms for coming and why they are thankful for them.

Some fun floral decor.

The Setup

Butcher paper as tablecloths, coffee filter bouquet, placemat, napkin holder, I love you teddy bear stand,  and Kleenexes in the middle of each table. Trust me-they're a MUST!

The Snack Table

I usually get some small doughnuts, some iced cookies from a local bakery, the fruit barrel jugs,  and bottled water.  I also make chocolate dipped pretzel sticks with sprinkles. Add a vase with real flowers and you're set.

Photo Op after the Tea

 After the Tea I quickly walk around and take a picture of each kiddo with their mom. I print these after the tea and send them home for the moms to have.

I also have them come up to our "Tea Table" so that I can take their picture. I let them choose their pose and if they want to be serious or silly.  I also print a copy of these off and send them home with the other picture.

What I've shown you so far is about half of the activities and special events that occur throughout this special day for our moms.  In addition to reading the stories and giving the hats, the kids will also sing 6 short songs to well-known tunes, recite a short poem, share a piece of personalized writing of why they love their mom, as well as the other gifts I talked about earlier.  

So like I said. It's a lot of work. But I can guarantee that your moms will feel so special and spoiled that day. Their cup will runneth over. Tears will be shed. They will be beaming, proud moms. And if I'm being honest, the kids will be beaming with just as much pride as well.

I describe the whole program of the Tea and include everything you need in my pack.  Make Mother's Day one of those memories that last a lifetime for your classroom moms. I still have moms come back and tell me that they still have their hats and wear them all day every Mother's Day.  I mean that's what it's all about, right? 

#SpringTeacherBloggerMeetup2015

I'm late to the game, but I figured better late than never, right?!  A couple of weeks ago I kicked off my Spring Break by driving about 3 1/2 hours south to French Lick for my 1st blogger meet up at the French Lick Resort and Casino.  Let me just tell you that it did not disappoint.  

I'm pretty sure I was in shock and awe the whole weekend. I got to meet and see so many amazing people and bloggers like Deanna Jump, Deedee Wills, and Christina DeCarbo, who almost seem like celebrities, who may I say seem like two of the nicest ladies who can talk to just about anybody.  I was able to contain my freak fan flag from flying and not be that crazed fan, but it took lots of effort. I'm not gonna lie. 

The room that we were in was so beautifully decorated by none other than Schoolgirl Style. I just love her stuff. And I seriously could have taken all of the decor back to my classroom, or house for that matter, to decorate.  We had lunch, entered giveaways, had some Q&A, breakout sessions, and began the giveaways!  It was truly an experience. Totally out of my comfort zone with SO many people that I did NOT know at all, but I'm so glad that I did it. Baby steps, right?

On top of learning so many great things over the weekend, I also was able to get some serious SWAG! I'm you all saw all of the AH-MA-ZING goodies that we were showered with on our blogs and Instragram accounts last week.  All of the tools and goodies were so awesome in and of themselves, but I'll be honest. Holly was Oprah.  No, I'm serious.  We are sitting there so overwhelmed with our awesome goodies and she proceeds to give us one more surprise. EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. GOT. AN. ERIN. CONDREN. PLANNER!  Yes. You read that right. Every last one of this. I'm pretty sure the room erupted in squeals, screams, oooohhs, ahhhhsss, etc. immediately.  Our jaws hit the floor. And before I realized what was coming out of my mouth I was pointing towards Holly screaming that she is Oprah! It was totally one of these moments.

Except Erin Condren planners instead of snow days.  You get the idea.

Here are some of the other awesome goodies that we received from all of the gracious companies that participate in our fun weekend.

A Teacher Planner from  Erin Condren  
A bag from Vera Bradley
Markers, stickers, and pens from Scentos!
PJ Party, Lanyard and other Goodies from Go Noodle!
PJ Party and other Prizes from Teachers Pay Teachers
Decor from Creative Teaching Press

That evening, we had a PJ Party sponsored by the SUPER AMAZING Teachers Pay Teachers and Go Noodle!  SO MUCH FUN!    

I'm sure there are many of you out there who would love to have gone, but couldn't.  And while we can't go back in time and have you join us, you can still win all of the SWAG and awesome goodies donated by all of the wonderful, generous companies that were involved in our fun weekend.  Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

French Lick Spring Blogger Meet Up Teacher Tool Exchange Linky

Try saying that 5 times fast?

I'm coming out of blogging hiatus to talk to you about my first big teacher blogger meet up that I recently attended in French Lick.  I won't tell you all the juicy details quite yet.  We will all be blogging about that next weekend, but I did want tell you about just one of the many fun activities that I participated in over the weekend, the teacher tool gift exchange.  We wanted to share through a linky because of all of the great gifts and teacher tools that were shared.

So to give you an idea of what the exchange looked like, we each had to select some of our favorite teacher tools to gift to another teacher.  The meet up was much bigger this year than last, so we split up into 4 different groups: Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd & 3rd, and upper grades.  

Here is a picture of the 1st grade group that I was a part of:

We played a fun "swap" game that was led by Mrs. Pauley from Mrs. Pauley's Kindergarten. We switched our gifts to the left and the right while she read a story until we ended up with someone else's gift!  My gift was from the amazing Mel D. from Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations! I was so excited just to receive a random teacher tool from this lady. Not only have I followed her blog for quite awhile, but she is also a fellow Indiana blogger. She is pretty hilarious lady and it was so fun to get to talk to her and look through my goodies from her gift.  

I kinda hit the jackpot. 

In my little gift basket were TONS of bright, fun colored Post-it notes, bright neon highlighters, Scotch restickable shape piece, some April themed stationary, To Do list notes, some adorable chevron Post-it flags, a planner, and some personally made & labeled binder clips complete with adorable Washi tape.  I loved everything about this gift!  All were things that I would totally buy myself as useful teacher tools.  I have not had the chance to use any of my fabulous gifts yet because we have been on Spring Break since the meet up, but I can promise you that I will be using them tomorrow fo' show!  Thanks, Mel!

The tool swap was such a great idea and I saw so many other great tools and ideas that I could use in my own classroom just from watching others open and explain their gifts.  It was a great weekend spent learning about blogging, but more importantly meeting so many great teachers and people that I've followed online for quite some time.  I'll fill you in more about the meet up festivities in another linky next weekend! 

Have a great week friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

Vowel Clip Strip {FREEBIE}

One new thing that I've been using as practice and review for my firsties this year is my vowel clip strip.  As we've progressed through the school year, most of my kiddos no longer need this practice.  But we all know there are those select few who just need a little more repetition and practice than others.  For those kiddos I still like to whip this little, but useful tool out.

I've printed mine on colored copy paper just to make them pop a little bit more.  And let's be real.  Everything is just a little more interesting in color.  Bright colors, preferably.  And you will not believe how much fun my firsties have with a simple strip of laminated colored paper and a clothespin.  Totally motivating!

Not only are they super easy and quick to make, but they are super easy and quick to implement with just about anything.  You can use them in a multitude of ways- one-on-one, small group, whole group, small group games or whole group games.  

Here's one way to play.  Each child has a laminated strip of vowels and a clothespin.  {I have a full class set already printed, laminated, and with a clothespin on it.}  I say a CVC word like "dog".  The kiddos listen to the word and then put their clothespin on the vowel they hear in the CVC word.  You can also do it with CVCe words.  What is really amazing about this is that you have an instant informal assessment for each child when they hold up their strips and you can quickly check to see who is "getting it".  You could also do this whole group as a game by splitting your class into two groups and have them race to move the clip to the correct vowel sound first.  Or if you're in table groups or want more kids active and involved with the game at a time, you could also do it that way.

I always have a set of 5 or 6 behind my little easel at my guided reading table.  The rest of them are stored in a nearby container.

Hopefully you will be able to find this useful in your classroom also.  To download this freebie simply click here to go to my store to download it.  If you're not already a follower, I would love that!

There's "SNOW" Better Time for a $1 Sale!

Well...let's hope that this is not the return of the Polar Vortex that we came to know so well last year.  We had our first snow day yesterday due to the 5-6 inches of snow we got last night and we have a two hour delay today.  What's better to do on a snow day than go shopping...in your sweats...from the comfort of your own home?  That's where the Indiana teacher bloggers come in with yet another $1 sale.  There are tons of great products marked down to just one dollar for the next two days.  Be sure to hop along to each of the products to get some great steals.

Here is what I've marked down for the next two days.  If you're new to my blog I would love it if you would follow my blog and TPT store.  Thanks for visiting my little ole blog and happy shopping! I know I'll be getting some steals!

An InLinkz Link-up