12 Books of Christmas Giveaway!

I'm excited to be teaming up with 11 other AMAZING bloggers to share some of our favorite Christmas and holiday books in a fun 12 Books of Christmas Blog Hop!

Along with FREEBIES for each book, we are also giving away a copy of each book!! Make sure you read all the way to the end of this post to find out how to WIN ALL 12 BOOKS!!

The book I am giving away is

Bear Stays Up for Christmas by Karma Wilson.

This is a fun book with a great theme of friendship.  The main character, Bear, wants to stay up for Christmas with his friends even though it is hard as he should be hibernating :)  The book takes you through a fun weave of rhymes where you learn that Bear stays up and his friends fall asleep!

I have a great FREEBIE to share with you that you can use with this story.  First, there is a summarizing sheet you can use after you read the book aloud to your students.  Also, there are rhyming cards to use with the book or as a center activity with your students.

Please click the image below to grab the freebie.

Thanks so much for stopping by! Before you hop onto see my sweet friend, Angela over at Hippo Hooray for Second Grade, don't forget to grab my number! Each blogger will have a number at the end of his/her post. Collect all the numbers along the way, and when you're done, add them all up and enter the total number in the Rafflecopter below!

Click image to go to the next blog!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A PURPLE sharpener?! YES Please!

Hey Friends!

Happy Fall!

I'm excited to be back to share a secret with you... I'm in LOVE!

With a sharpener that is.  ;)

Can you even believe this beauty:

So, if you know me, I love all things PURPLE.  Did you know that my favorite sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies 

now has a PURPLE sharpener??

Yes they do and I LOVE it!!

I this is my second sharpener from this company and it is by far the best sharpener out there.  I even wrote another review back in 2013 and you can see it here. 

Why is it so great you ask?

Well first, it is designed and made by a teacher.  I love to support teachers.

Second, it sharpens like you have never ever seen a pencil sharpener sharpen.  Like Ever.

Third, it is very quite- unlike my electric sharpener.

Fourth, they are extremely affordable. (and make great gifts!)

Fifth, they come in super cute colors!!

(like: blue, red, green, black and now PURPLE!)

Sixth, it is super easy to use! Even the kids can do it! 

Take a look here:

It comes very nicely packaged and even comes with a clamp to hold it in place if you prefer that.

I decided to try out those dollar store pencils- you know the kind.. the ones that  usually come out in shreds after sharpened.

Just pull it open and it will lock in an outward position.

Then hold the clamps together, this will create an opening for your pencil and hold the pencil in place.

As you sharpen by turning the crank, the pencil will move and then you will feel when the pencil is done- no over sharpening!

Just release the clamp and pull out the pencil.  My heart goes pitter patter every time I see a pencil come out... just look at that tip!  AND no crazy wrapper mess from those dollar pencils- just a perfect sharpen every time.

I even had my seven year old try it out.  His response- this is easy!  

Hahaha... this was his look when he pulled the pencil out.  I think he even said... "holy cow."  

Say NO to broken, unsharpened pencils that leave you unhappy.

Ahhh that's better!

Look no further... this sharpener is super duper great.  I promise.

You can check it out HERE.

I'd love to hear if you have one in your classroom!

Thanks for reading and have a fabulous Monday!

Back to School Giveaway!!

Hello Everyone!

Who is headed back to school?  Who is thinking about back to school?

I'm ALWAYS thinking about school- it is a problem really.  ;-)

Well if you answered yes to either of the above, then I have some exciting news for you!

I am so excited to be teaming up with some fabulous bloggers for a super duper BACK TO SCHOOL GIVEAWAY!

Just take a look at all you can win!

(did you see the prize value?)

I'm giving away my FAV new resource:
Easy-peasy Reward Coupons!

I also explain my complete management plan!

All of the prizes are donated by some of my favorite people!

Just enter the rafflecopter below to enter!  The giveaway ends on July 25!

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Daily 5~ What to do NOW to prepare for the year

Hello Friends!

I am SO excited to be here blogging again!

I plan to continue this into another part as there are more things to do!  I am just starting with some of the more crucial things to do now. :)

First,  get the book and read it!

I am currently reading the Second Edition and I have to say that if you have not read the first edition you don't need to.  This reviews the first one nicely and adds their current thinking.  I have been doing D5 for 6 years and reading this book has refreshed my thinking- it is worth a read!

Check it out HERE.

Then, think about your classroom library.  Is it "beefy" enough?

In the Daily 5 book, it suggests a primary classroom have 750 book titles, but the Sisters strive for 1,000!  Do you have 1,000 books?

Now is the time to hit those garage sales people!

After you beef up your library, decide how to organize all those books.  It will be VERY important to have some kind of order to your books. 

Not to "plug" a product (but I'm going to anyway- ha!) but I explain my entire classroom library organizational system in my newest product HERE

(AND it is on sale right now!)

A big part of Daily 5 is having the kids reading at their independent level and it will be important to have books at their level.  Make sure you have a way of assessing your students' independent reading level and decide how to match your books to that level.  (I use Scholastic's Book Wizard to help me categorize my books by level)

Next, decide on your signal.

You will want a way to transition from one thing to the next in a non-intrusive way.  You will want to "train" your students using this signal.  It should be something that is introduced on day 1.

I love my Music Wand.

It has a soft sound yet powerful enough that the kids respond right away.

It is $4.95

You can check this out HERE

Other ideas are:

wind chimes

rain stick

music

etc.

Next up, decide on what you want to use as word work.  You can check out my detailed post and peek into my word work drawers HERE

I spent the summer before my first year doing D5 collecting bottle caps for one of my more popular word work choices.

I labeled each cap with a letter (vowels are red) and the kids can use these to build words.  LOVE!

The container that store the caps is from Jo-Ann's.

There is also a pretty HUGE word work FREEBIE that I have in my TpT store that you can get HERE.  Check it out and give me some feedback love. <3

Finally (for now ha!), decide on how your students will store their books.

We have book boxes in my class.

They are from IKEA and a pack of 5 is $1.99.  Yes, they do fall apart on occasion, but only a small few did not last all year.  I actually do a lesson on how to grab, hold, and carry your book box!
You can check them out HERE

Other teachers have gone the plastic book box route and that is a great option too.

Others have used plastic zip locks.

It is up to you!

Your students will use these book boxes to store their independent book choices for their Daily 5 time.  I actually have my students read from their book boxes all day long!  It is a beautiful thing!

Thanks so much for reading!

I hope you have a great Daily 5 journey!

Feel free to share some of your prep ideas in the comments! 

 I know I will have a follow-up post coming to you soon... stay tuned!

New Look! {Giveaway!!}

Hello Everyone!

I am so excited to share my NEW and IMPROVED blog!  A huge thank you to Megan at A Bird in Hand Designs for making it SO easy for me!  I literally had ideas swirling and had no idea how to articulate them to her- well she took what I wanted and ran with it!  If you need me... I'll be here... staring at my new design... ahhhh.  <3

I guess that means that I need to start blogging again! Hehe...

I have missed blogging so much and I LOVE sharing ideas with all of you.  So here's to a new blogging year!

To kick things off I have a giveaway for you!

First, just for stopping by today you will be entered to win ANY FOUR ITEMS from my store- your choice!  Just leave a comment of what you think of my new look and I will pick a winner on July 11th.

As a bonus, I will also be giving away one of my new {almost finished} products...

Here is a sneak peek!!

I have detailed ideas for how to gather and set up your classroom library.

There are over 70 book basket labels!

I give details on how to level your books, organize your books, and create a system that will be easy for you and your students to manage!

Included are binder covers for your leveled passages.  I also have a leveling chart to help guide your book leveling and passage leveling.  I talk about assigning colors to those levels too!  (see the red and green colors at the top)

Right now there are about 50 pages in this pack! {and it's growing!}

Oh and P.S....you don't have to do F&P to enjoy this pack- I include a few ways to level your books.

Want to win this before you can buy it?  Just leave a comment below!

And make sure you are following my TpT store and Facebook so you can be notified when it is posted.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I hope to see you back here again real soon!  :)

Educents Launch and Double Giveaways!

Hey Everyone!

So sorry I've been so absent lately.

As some of you are all too familiar, working full time and having a family is hard work!  :)

I'm back to share something super, amazing, fabulous, so exciting I just might burst...news!

Educents is opening a Marketplace for sellers!

AND ...I have a BRAND NEW STORE that has just opened at Educents!

If you have not heard of Educents before, they are an online company that sells educational supplies at great deals.  They now have "seller storefronts" too!  There are over 500 sellers there with amazing products at great prices!  You can take a look at my storefront here:

Just for stopping by my new store, I have an Educents EXCLUSIVE FREEBIE!!

It's one of my new favorite products:

While you are visiting my store, pretty please click the follow me heart. :)

Which leads me to my first GIVEAWAY!   First stop by my store and click follow me, then comment below with what number follower you are (leave your email too) and you will be entered to win $10 in products from me! Easy peasy!

Also, Educents is so excited about this new endevour that they are doing a HUGE giveaway!!  They are offering a $50 credit to spend on anything you want (do you know how many amazing products you can get with that?!!) Just enter below!

Oh, and p.s... there are many different sellers offering the $50 deal... which means you have multiple chances to win!!

Good luck and I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the new stores!

As always, I thank you for your support! <3

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #7 - Second Grade Stores

For those of you who have followed me during my unexpected delivery, I leave you with some new pictures of the little man!  He is doing well and I thank you for all your prayers and love!