It's Been Quite A While....

It's seems like it's been forever since I came here to blog. I'm not really sure why... perhaps because it was an extremely busy school year, coupled with a serious and very scary eye surgery...toss in a bit of Common Core,  and scoop of RtI and it all adds up to having to set some things aside for a while.
Take some time to regroup!
I was content to wait until school started up again before returning to blogging....but I recently met up with my BBB (Best Blog Buddy) Fran  of Kindergarten Crayons . She was in Chicago over the weekend for a convention and I wasn't about to pass on the opportunity to meet her face to face! It's always interesting when something like that happens... the person is shorter or taller than you imagined, or the voice is different.... I'm sure I'm MUCH taller than she expected...but the connection was just PERFECT! ;-)
 We had a lovely dinner and HOURS of FANTASTIC conversation! (Our poor waitress must have thought we were NEVER going to leave.LOL!!)
 We traded lots of stories about kids, teachers, principals, families and more. We talked about developing children, Common Core, and blogging! Fran gave me a GREAT pep talk! It was JUST what I needed to be (re)motivated to get up and start blogging again. Fran is even nicer, more knowledgeable and fun that I imagined she would be. Thanks again Fran....I really needed that!
You are PRICELESS!

Having shared all that, be sure to check back here later for some great ideas to get you going in the coming school year!

Happy Blog Birthday (to me)

Today my teaching blog turns 1!! I can hardly believe it was a year ago that I started this blog. I can't begin to say how much I enjoy meeting and sharing with so many talented teachers. I appreciate all the support from my family and friends and people like Fran, Tamara and Leslie; as well as Debbie & Steve at Teachers Notebook and the many wonderful teachers at TBA and beyond! Thanks to all of you for all you do! Another HUGE THANKS to Pam at  The Posh Box for her talents and patience as we worked together on making the design of the blog fit just what I wanted! THANKS also to all the folks who take time out of their busy schedules to check in to my blog to see what's-what and share thoughts and comments!
I appreciate you all more than you know!
And with that....here is the final BLOG BIRTHDAY FREEBIE! ;-)
All week I've been sharing Ocean-related freebies in celebration of the 1st anniversary of my teaching blog. (Sea Life is one of my FAVORITE units to teach, and I LOVE going to the beach, so the materials have all been related to that!)
This is a book for Emergent Readers. It contains simple sight words coupled with pictures to support the text. It's also one of my EZ-2 Assemble books which are designed to either print 2-sided from your computer's printer, or carried to your copy machine and printed 1-sided to 2-sided, folded, and stapled and it's ready to give to students. No need to shuffle pages around, just fold and go! It saves both time and papers. I hope your students enjoy the book.  And once more....THANKS for all your support!

Check my earlier posts this week to see more of the freebies I offered!

Fran has Pete Rockin' Again!

My good friend Fran over at Kindergarten Crayons has done it again....she has taken Pete the Cat and created a plethora of great activities to rock your room. Her newest packet, Pete the Cat MORE "Rocking" Activities for Primary Leaners  has tons of fun & adorable lessons for your students. There are games and activities for balanced literacy, math, art and classroom management.
Every time I think she can't possibly make a better packet than her last one, she proves.... if any one can....Fran CAN!! ;-)
Rock on over to her site to learn more!