3 Million Strong - TPT Sale!

Congratulations to TeachersPayTeachers who just reached a pretty significant milestone...

3 Million Users!!

In honor of this accomplishment, TPT is having a sale and we are joining in! On Feb 27 and 28 you can save 28% in our stores when you use the code TPT3 at checkout.



Check out our stores by clicking on each of the purple buttons:








Here are some of our favorite products in our stores (click each picture)!



















Thank Goodness for... The PTA!

Teaching is not an easy job. Luckily we have a lot of people helping and supporting us throughout the year. From secretaries, custodial staff, teacher aides, parent volunteers, and many others, teachers don't have to do the job all on their own. 

This week my love is going out to the PTA!

It has been Teacher Appreciation Week at my school and our PTA have done an AMAZING job at making us teachers feel appreciated and loved! They have given us little presents in our teacher boxes every day, fed us delicious lunches, provided yummy snacks all day long, and they even decorated the school, including each teachers' door. 


The theme for the week is 'I Teach, What's Your Superpower?' and the whole school is decked out for the occasion. Just look how our PTA decorated the front offices!



They hung this giant balloon arch near the front doors, welcoming everyone as they come to school.


These are the cute center pieces that sat on the tables. On Tuesday, the teachers were treated to a delicious brunch of belgian waffles, fresh strawberries, homemade caramel syrup, and whipped cream. During that time, PTA volunteers came into the school to watch each class while the teachers were able to have a 30 min break. 


This is my door. My friend {and PTA member} decorated this for me and I love it so much. All day long students have been walking by and stopping to take a look at it. The Minions are a big hit with everyone!


Thank you, PTA members everywhere, for the things you do to help us teachers! We appreciate everything you do throughout the year to help us feel appreciated and supported! 

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Just a little FYI: The lighting in the school is not the best for taking pictures, so I use Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Elements to edit all my pictures. 

Did you know that teachers get a special discount for purchasing software? Click <<HERE>> to learn more about Adobe's educator discount

Super Book Shopper of the Week

We want our students to pick "good fit books" independently, right?  We can't always be standing over their shoulder watching the books they pick from our classroom library or the school library.  It's that time of year in 1st grade where EVERY student wants to be reading chapter books.  I love their ambition, but it's just not doable.

Every student is different and my students know when they are ready for chapter books. I STILL have some students picking chapter books on their book shopping day when they are not ready to read that difficult of a book (it drives me nuts).  Because... that means during Daily 5 they are sitting there during Read to Self struggling over every single word and probably don't even read 2 sentences in 15 minutes.

You can download the Book Shopping tracker {here}





Here are some Pinterest ideas for picking good fit books (click the picture):


To help my students get motivated to pick books that are just right for them...... I started a little competition this week.  Here's what the winner will get...




At the end of each week, I look through their book boxes and I check to see who has a box full of "good fit books".  I pick 2 students per week and those Super Book Shoppers get a cute little necklace to wear and they also get to go "shopping" in my prize box!  It's a great motivator!








Common Core Missing Number Math Game and Much More!


Today we played another version of "Eye Spy" with unknowns, but this time with unknowns is ALL positions of subtraction and addition equations. It's a tricky concept, but my students did pretty well. They quietly walk around and stop at a card with less than 3 people. They write the equation and solve it. Then, they visit another card.  I only did 10 cards today and we'll do the other 10 tomorrow!





Waddle We Learn?



Let's talk about the CUTEST chevron BORDER and LETTERS! I am seriously obsessed with it.  Thank you to Teacher Created Resources!  I really love their new chevron line. Check it out!




How cute are these pennant banners? LOVE!

And another one of my favorites from their chevron line is the computer paper.  I know Natalie will make something adorable with it! Go check it out!!!



And now on to my newest favorite thing (and the envy of all the teachers around me)...my new LOCK SMOCK from Brianna Price.  Our district has required that our door remains locked at all times in case of a lock down (so we aren't in the hall trying to lock up our door and putting ourselves in danger).  But, that means that our students were constantly locked out of our classroom...we tried to use magnet to stop it from "locking", but we were always losing them.  Finally, Brianna saved the day!  This Lock Smock allows us to keep our door locked, but we'll never be locked out.  I can easily unclip the Smock incase of a lockdown drill.  This Smock also makes it SUPER quiet when our door shuts!


February 11th - Safer Internet Day


Tomorrow, Feb 11th, is 'Safer Internet Day' and you can celebrate with your students by going to one of my very favorite websites for kids: NetSmartzKids.

NetSmartzKids is the best website I've found for teaching students about being safe on the Internet. The whole website is educational and entertaining. My students have loved watching the videos, playing the games, and reading the books.



Here are some of my favorite things on this website:


 It's Ok to Tell is a short video that teaches students what to do if they see something bad or something that makes them feel sad on the Internet. It has some really funny parts that my students always laugh really loud at, but it does a great job of teaching students that it's ok to tell an adult if something makes them feel bad.



This song, Know the Rules, is a fun way for students to learn about rules of staying safe on the Internet. Your students will love dancing around while they learn the rules of staying safe.



Bad Netiquette Stinks is a video about using manners and being kind while online. It's also a great way to start a discussion about cyber bullies.


If you have a little extra time this week, I recommend showing your students this website and reminding your students how important it is to stay safe on the Internet.

A Game for Missing Number {Subtraction}



With the Common Core Standards, our students must be able to subtract with unknowns in different places.  Here's a CHEEZY video of my niece and I playing this game with a missing subtrahend.  








If you were so annoyed with my voice that you skipped over the video (hahaha):
For this game, you need googley eyes and this printable! That's all! :)  Player 1 puts out as many eyes as they want.  Player 2 counts them, writes that number in the first box,  and then covers their eyes. Player 1 hides some of the eyes behind their back.  Player 2 writes how many eyes are left in the last square and has to figure out how many were taken away. That number goes in the circle. 



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