October Currently!

YAY!  I't currently time!

I am listening to Grey's Anatomy at the moment.  I am sooooooo excited TGIT is back with new episodes.  I <3 that I now have a reason to watch 3 straight hours of TV on Thursday.

I love this time of year.  Weather is getting cooler <kind of.>  In Texas, fall weather in October means it only gets to the low 80s.  We are in luck this weekend, because the lows are in the 60s!

Yeah....secret....must.not.waiver.  All will be revealed later, or when someone spills the beans (not me!)

OMG> Boots.  Must have.  I am #obsessed with them.  I do limit myself to one pair of boots each fall.....otherwise it's be outta control! These are the ones I'm just itching to buy this season.  I love that they have stretch across the back.  They get so tight when you get multiple layers....I feel like stretch would be more comfortable.  Must. Wait. for Friends and Family Sale.  Must. Wait.

Nuff said.

Last weekend was tons of fun.  All my brothers and I got together and just hung out. No distractions, just our families.  #perfect

We love linking up with Farley each month.
Check out her blog to see what she's up to.

Christmas in July #1

I give...I love a #sale !!!!  I'm joining the ladies over at bloghoppin.com to post a Christmas in July Sale!
I'll post a different item each day that will be 20% off.  Stop on by and take a look!
Today, I thought I'd start with aback to school item.  One of my favorites....The Kissing Hand.  Click the link or the pics to take you to my store!

  
This is a scavenger hunt meant to be a follow up to the read-along story.  I always use it the first week of school.

The kids follow Chester's clues to familiarize themselves with the locations and staff in your school!

This year, I even added some recording sheets to make the experience more interactive! If your kids aren't spelling yet, I included some word cards that can help!

Low on ink?  No problem, i also included some black and white printer friendly copies.

I hope you and your students have fun getting to know your school!
Best of all, EVERY Kissing Hand Hunt is on sale!  (Editable, QR Codes, and Spanish)
#backtoschool

What happens in Vegas.....

Will most definitely NOT stay in Vegas!  Last week was a whirlwind!  I learned so many new things, met so many amazing people...I cannot even begin to relay the awesomeness of the experience!  I went BY MYSELF, not knowing anyone; and I must say....this was one of the best vacations I've ever taken!

This was one of my most favorite nights....we went to see New Kids on the Block!  Great concert, with a great group of new friends!  

Then there was the night we saw this amazing show.....

But #ForReal  Learning did take place.  It was not all just shows, fun, and #debauchery. 

Now to start the sharing process of all the good stuff that was going on that week. I'm linking up with Mrs. Russell's Room to start the sharin'.....

This was an overall theme to most of the sessions.  Ways that we can add value to our products.  Buyers have to trust that the products we create have value.  TpT only allows 4 preview slides, and most of our products have hundreds of slides....how do you choose?  Enter, the preview collage.  This was like a unicorn to me. I know it was out there & I've seen them done, but I couldn't figure out a time effective way to create one.  I was sitting in Cara Carroll and Erica Boehrer's session, and they were doing some Q&A.  Erica quickly taught me this easy tip to add instant value to my products.  Create a collage, so the buyers can see what they get.  

First, Download Picasa.  It's free, online, and is a google product. Click the picture or the link to take you to the website. 

Next, save your .ppt file as pictures.  I save them on my desktop, so they're easy to find.  

Now, open Picasa.  When you open the program, it will automatically find all your picture files.  It will put the newest pictures up top.  

It orders your picture files newest first, so if you were just working on a file...it should be top on the list.  All you need to do is click the red collage button & Picasa will work it's magic! 

Now you have a collage!  You can use the buttons on the bottom to reshuffle, or you can manually drag items

 around and resize them.  

Once your collage is set, click the "Create Collage" button.  This make your collage into a .png file.  

Lastly, click the "Export" button.  This will send the .png file somewhere on your computer.  

This is the dialougue box you'll see.  Just export, and you're ready to upload it as a preview on TpT! 

I don't know about y'all, but I'm working on adding these to all my products!  By doing this, you'll really give your buyers a sense of exactly what they're buying when they add that product to their cart.  

This has been one of my favorite tips and tricks so far....more to come soon!  

#vegasreloaded  #lifeMadeEasy

BOOOOOO to you!

I love games!  Remember that October secret-santa-esque game we play at school....BOO?!  Well, Cynthia over at 2nd grade pad has created a bloggy-version.  Here's how to play.  Choose a fellow blogger that has MORE followers, another that has about the SAME number of followers, and last, someone that has LESS followers.

Highlight their blogs with links to encourage others to check them out.  Don't forget to let your fellow bloggers know that you shared about them. 

Lastly, leave them some love by offering them a goody from your store as their "treat."

 

Here is my list of "must-sees"

Lynda, over at Curls and a Smile.  She has a bajillion innovative ideas AND she is a dear friend of mine from high school....Go Mustangs!! 

Dede, you can find her at a Series of First Grade Events.  Love the blog name, but more importantly....her blog has thparkles!!

And last, but wickedly not least.....Kaitlyn at Wicked Fun in First!  She's new to the blogoshere, she's got some cute ideas AND she loves her some Tom's! 

Happy Boo-ing!!! 

 

First Linky Party: What's your favorite reward or Incentive to use?

thanks to the 3am teacher for the frame!!

With first graders, it's all about motivation.  While I really try to instill that intrinsic need to do your best; there are always a few who will benefit with a little outside motivation.  I have a few that I use...I try to mix it up so no one gets bored. 

click picture to claim your freebie!

  My favorite right now is actually one that a colleague of mine learned about in a training, thanks Mrs. Garcia!  It's called "My Personal  Best."  It's played similarly to the superbowl square game.  You decide what behaviors you're looking for, and to reward the students that step up to the challenge; they get to write their name on a mini post-it & choose whichever square they like to stick it to.  On Friday, or whenever we fill it up; I have them draw a number and a letter & whoever's name is in that square....DING DING DING...they're the big winner!  I usually choose 5-6 students, but this is a great lesson on being a good sport AND probability.   So far, it's worked really well.  The kids would do anything for a sticky note (provided by the school,) and I'm not buying a million prizes! Assembling is easy, I created the board & it's a freebie in my TPT store.  Just print out and glue together.  I included blank squares to piece together, but I'm way to impatient for that--I actually bought a blank calendar and cut off one column to make it 6x6 squares.  It's an instant grid!  Then, just laminate & you're ready for the kids to show you their best!!

Now for the PAR-TAY.  What's your favorite way to reward  your kiddos?  I can't wait to see and hear about all y'alls  great ideas!   And if you're still reading....the first 3 people to link up can have their choice of ANY 1 item from my TPT store!  Just leave me a comment with your choice :)

TBA Open House Week Ketch-up!

So....I know this is hard to believe, but I'm kinda behind on Open House Week.  Oh the Horror!  I'm going to post some bulletin boards, AND a freebie for freebie Friday!
Thursday: Bulletin Boards
I got this!  Here are a few of my current boards.....

 The owls are for my helpers and behavior clip chart.  The snapshots board is to display those lovely IB Learner Profiles.  We're going to add poloroids of us displaying these traits later on, as they are introduced.

And here's our Husky, Hector welcoming all my Firsties to a brand new year!!

Now Friday.  Freebies?!  Hmmmm....how bout a Pete the Cat letter-word-sentence sort?  My kids love love love Pete; so I've been creating all sorts of Pete-like products to use in class here's one of the latest ones. Just click the pics to rock your way all the way to my Pete sort. 

And now, you've stuck around long enough.  Here's one of our activities this week.  The kids really loved it.  It was a read and write the room with the HFW from our Reading street Story, Sam.  They feel so grown up when they get to grab a clipboard, and wander (with a  purpose) around the room. You can find the original here.

Tour De Class 2.0

First of all, I wanted to link up on the rocking back to school linky party thrown by Jeannie from Kindergarten Lifestyle.  Here's mine.  Important because I heart shopping!  I am often taken aback by my shopping cravings come August.  I am no longer drawn to the allure of the malls; instead I seek out the biggest and baddest teacher store around....Teacher Heaven!! 

Back to business.  I've spent almost 2 weeks in my classroom.  Unpacking, painting shelves, and waiting on construction workers who'd rather siesta in the lounge.  I'm not saying my room is finished.  Just finished *enough* that no one will notice that I'm not finished.   I still have quite a few projects on the horizon, but for now--I give up!  So here goes....Tour de Room 128....the elusive first grade classroom on the corner.

And I will start in the corner of my room.  Here is the required IB board.  You will notice the sink that doesn't turn on, along with my turn in buckets & bins that house my handouts for the week. 

Next we move on to my computers.  One I still can't find the cords to, whoops.  That should be fixed by the time I have kiddos.  Did you see my naked tree.....see, projects! 

I'm skipping my teacher cabinet corner.  Nothing exciting, short of a boggle board and some file folder games.
My Smartboard is BACK!!  And my favorite thing ever with this construction, they mounted my projector from ceiling!! 

Here is Bertie's corner.  She could probably use a new bed, but she's happy enough just to be at school and in the mix of things! Those shelves are the reason I was walking around with lime green hands yesterday.  Thanks Rustoleum!

 

Here's my word wall; which has still not been taped off into boxes....project.  My computer, also not set up.  Oh yeah, I guess this is my desk.  It's actually just my small group table, but I got rid of my teacher desk last year.  It took up WAY too much space in my little room, and all it ended up being was a graveyard for piles.  Piles and piles of papers. 

Moving along, this is my unfinished calendar spot.  Along with the tiniest focus wall ever!  I'm missing 2 of my odd number finger pics...I guess if they don't show up I'm taking pictures again.

My favorite tree....not naked.  Helpers, behavior chart, and listening center.  Future home to my Daily 5 board.  Again, projects.

This is the only workstation board I have up....math.  And of course, homeworkopoly--a class favorite!

And finally.... my clean desk fairy, Deskerella.  But what I really wanted you to see was my favorite find of the summer....mustache duct tape!!  See...it's on the hanging bucket for office notes.  I heart mustaches of any form.  And who doesn't love duct tape?!




I believe I'm finished enough for kiddos to come in week after next.  Also finished enough not to lay awake at night thinking about  it.  We shall see.....


So how are all y'alls classrooms coming along?  I can't wait to see pics!!