Teacher Appreciation Sale

Are you celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week?  Well, I am and I'm offering both a SALE and a GIVEAWAY over in my shop at Teachers Notebook.  No need to leave a comment or do anything special...(although I'd love it if you added my shop to your list of favorites)  ;-) ...but simply click on the images below to check out my sale and see my teacher-friendly materials or enter my giveaway. Be sure to enter the Teachers Notebook Sweepstakes too! ;-)

Click below to enter my Giveaway!

Enter to Win the Sweepstakes!

Painting Blue Horses

I recently came upon Eric Carle's newest book "The Artist Who Painted A Blue Horse". I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I feel it reminds us to slow down a bit...perhaps turn away from the "STANDARDIZED" notion that everyone can fit into round circles...some would even say it's HIP to be SQUARE ;-).
This book opens up a child's mind to express their "inner artist" in ways that encourage thinking outside of the box. I love that the animals in the book are painted with beautiful colors that go outside of the norm.
Due to cut backs in my district, my Kinders are not allowed to have music, P.E. or art with the teachers who are trained to do that work. It pains me so.
But I try to fill in the gaps with the talents I have (which are limited by the way) ;-)
I will say, this year the art work my students have produced is AMAZING!! I am so proud to see their work hanging in the halls, classroom and books they take home. Take a peek at some of our Backyard Birds books.....or our drawings of Abe Lincoln. Didn't they do a GREAT job?

I watched Eric Carle talk about his inspiration for the book and thought it was well worth sharing:

I also wanted to give my students a chance to hear the story, see the images and then be inspired to create on their own. With that in mind, I made this book for students.

 There are two versions of my student book and I haven't decided which one I will use with my kiddos. One book is intended to be copied on full 8 1/2x11 paper and students can paint the animals in the book. The other book is smaller and is more or less intended to be used with crayons. (Painting on such a small space may not be feasible). It is  also one of my EZ-2 Assemble books which are designed to be copied, folded, stapled and distributed to students. Both book options are in one packet and available at my Teachers Notebook Shop!

The book would be a great activity at an independent center.
I would love to see how your students choose to "paint" their horses!



PS...artwork from KPM Doodles and Goodness & Fun

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!

Oceans of Fun!

I am so excited to begin teaching my Sea Life unit when we return from Spring Break! It's one of my favorite units and one my students remember for years to come. Over the break I created my Oceans of Fun packet to breathe some new life (and Common Core Standards) into the unit. This packet is spilling over with all sorts of fun things to do with young learners. First of all, there are 10 little books for Emergent Readers. Three of the books are my EZ-2 Assemble books which are designed to be copied, folded, stapled and distributed with a minimum of time and paper! The other books in the packet are designed to support students with simple text and pictures that are fun and inviting to young readers. The Five Little Mermaids book(s) use rhyming and subtraction/counting backwards to keep readers interested. The Word Work in the packet include word graphs that show students the theme related words in a variety of fonts, ABC order (1st letter only), labeling, cut-apart sentences, pocket chart words, counting syllables and more.
The math portion of the packet include activities to support students as they learn to skip count by 2's and 5's , skip counting cards for the pocket chart,  tallies, working with less than/greater than/and equal using the proper symbols, decomposing numbers, ordering objects by size, and more. There are even a few fun playdough mats included.  Writing activities include arranging words to make complete sentences, writing to share facts about animals, whole and small group writing to make books, and more.
Please visit my Teachers Notebook Shop to grab a copy for your students!

On The Farm

If you're an Early Childhood Educator, you know that nearly every Spring you or someone you know is teaching a unit about the Farm! This packet has a variety of materials for young learners including....

• 4 Emergent Readers topics

• Sight Word activities (including sight words for the farm as well as basic sight words)

• Math Activities that help students count by 2's and 5's

• Measuring in Non-Standard Units

• Counting

• Adding

• Ordering items by size

• Pocket Chart words for both the Big Pocket Chart and table top sizes

• Letter Work

• Word Work including several Write The Walls sheets

• Farm themed Stationary (lined and unlined)

• Labeling

What a fun way to support your young learners and they explore learning about the Farm! Click on the image below to visit my Teachers Notebook shop to learn more....

Graphics from KPM Doodles and Whimsy Doodles

Printable Spring Readers

My kindergartners are really enjoying the printable readers we use in class. I have begun creating sets for use with emergent readers. The books in my SPRING READER set have a "Spring Theme" and allow practice with basic sight words. There are 5 books in the set. The titles are:
" Little Bowed Sheep","What Is Green?" (color words)
Where Is The Bunny?" , "Under The Rainbow". (positional words),
 "Jellies In The Jar",(counting, adding,& color words)
I love printable books. I love giving kids books they can read and keep at home to practice. But, I am not a big fan of rearranging the pages in order to assemble the books and I don't always have a parent on hand to help. With that, I have designed my EZ-2 Assemble books to be taken to the copy machine and printed 1-sided to 2-sided, folded and stapled. No need to re-shuffle pages in order to make the books.
Click over to my Teachers Notebook Shop to get a set of EZ-2 Assemble Spring Readers for your young readers!

Images from KPM Doodles & LLS graphics

Community Helpers Packet

Teaching young learners about Community Helpers is a staple among Early Childhood Educators. My Community Helpers packet is designed to help make the unit easy for the teacher and challenging and fun for students.
I am pleased to include 11 books that students can color/make and take home for sharing and reading. Five of them are my "EZ-2 Assemble Books" which are formatted and designed so you can copy them back-to-back, fold, staple and distribute to students. There is no need to re-arrange or shuffle the pages to assemble them for student use. This saves both time and paper!
There are activities to strengthen word work, sentence building, and writing skills. Math activities include; pattern work, skip counting, more/less (using the </> signs), place value and more.
Stop in my Teachers Notebook Shop to learn more:

graphics from KPM Doodles

Teen Number Work

I have been so busy with report cards, assessments and the like that I barely have time to blog in the ways that I enjoy. I am beginning to look ahead at the next stage of assessments for my students. I already know there will be many struggles for them as we strive to learn the "teen" numbers (what IS it about the numbers that throw kids such a big curve?) I always think if someone had named the "teens" "one-e-one, one-e-two, one-e-three..etc" we'd have far less issues with teaching them to kids. ;-)
At any rate, as I look ahead, I decided to create some new materials to help my kids. I thought you might find them useful as well, so I created a packet to help us.
 The packet uses a WINTER THEME is filled with activities to help students see the numbers visually as well as build the numbers. Other key activities include:

* practice writing numerals 

* fill in missing numerals (descending, ascending & random order)

* count & make sets of object 11-20

*  Use symbols to show <, >, or = 

* create <, >, or = (Open-ended) number sentences

* numeral recognition (open-ended) 

* numeral recognition games with optional challenge levels included

* Game cards can be used in pocket chart to work on number order or          combine with tens frame game cards for a matching game

* make book(s) to show quantities 20-11 or 11-20, or random order

I put in several open-ended games, and sheets to help challenge those students that easily grasp the concept. There are game cards that show the numeral as well as tens frames to show quantity. The cards can be used in the pocket chart or to play matching games. 

There are also activities for working with the <,>, and = signs. My kids really enjoy learning about the signs and these games will extend that learning.

Visit my Teachers Notebook shop to see more images and grab a copy for your kids as well:

Letter Sounds Added to Packet

The other day I posted the Fall & Winter addition of ABC HIGHLIGHTS to my Teachers Notebook Shop. As I check my students for letters and sounds, I am noticing there are several in need of more practice with the letter sounds. Therefore I updated my Fall and Winter ABC Highlights to include 4 sets of letter sound cards. The price is the same but now you get 16 sets of game sets in all. These games are great for use in small group or partner work. They also make a quick activity for Parent Volunteers or others working to assist your students. Check out the UPDATED version here:

Perking Up the ABC Highlights

If your students are like mine, there are several who still need practice with recognizing the letters of the alphabet! They’ve played ABC Highlights and they LOVE it...but the graphics have gotten a tad boring. I decided to perk things up a bit by creating ABC cards that are theme related. I have a new ABC Highlights Fall and Winter Supplement packet. 
There are 12 sets of ABC cards (6 upper case and 6 lower case), with fall and winter themes. The whimsical images keep the games interesting and timely. For the fall there are chalkboards, apples, scarecrows, squirrels, school supplies and back-to-school kids. For winter there are snowflakes, snowmen, elves, and penguins.

You can use the sets alone, or combine them for longer playtime and fewer shuffles. :-) 

Either way, your students are bound to enjoy adding the new cards to this popular game! Go over to my Teachers Notebook shop to grab a copy for your class! While you're there check out my FALL SALE!

I LOVE Candy!

OK, I will admit, I LOVE candy....Twizzlers, Reese's, Hershey's Kisses, Mr. Goodbar and more! What's YOUR favorite candy? I would love to know! ;)
Rare is the child that doesn't enjoy a little candy now and then. This packet is timely enough for Halloween, but generic enough to use anytime of the year! Using a CANDY theme, children can practice graphing, counting, ABC's, writing, bookmaking/reading, sentence building, sight words and data collection. Visit my Teachers Notebook shop to get your copy just in time for Halloween! ;-)

Halloween Fun Packet

I have been sick in bed for several days now....coughing like crazy and suffering from having little or no voice. What's a gal to do?? Well, I figured I would work on something new for my students....which turned into something to add to my Teachers Notebook Shop! This packet provides students with practice labeling parts of a Halloween picture. The same pictures are used to help scaffold students in their writing. There's also a printable book for students to color and read. The book provides practice for young students as they learn to do "return sweeps" as they read. Check out the packet for more details:

Leaves Are Turning...

Leaves are turning...Time for learning....
You can rake up a nice set of Falling Leaves activities over at my Teachers Notebook Shop! The packet has activities to build Letter Recognition & Letter Sound Skills, Graphing, Patterning, Numeral Recognition, (1-20), and Reading basic sight words and sentence building.
There are 3 printable student books that include practice with 1:1 word to text practice. I saw some books Fran Kramer created and LOVED the notion of putting dots under the words to help guide young readers! It's a simple, yet powerful boost to their skills. THANKS Fran, you have some of the BEST ideas!
Before the leaves are all gone....Make your way over to my shop to learn more!

Books on Coins

I've added books about introducing coins to young learners in my Teachers Notebook Shop.
The first set, Intro to Coins Books has 3 books in one packet. Depending on what your students need,  you can present the books to your students over time or all at once.

The second item is  Say & Stamp Coins. This book shows the student a picture of the coin and the student uses stamps to spell out the name of the coin. There is a WORD BANK provided if students need a little help.

All books contain high resolution images of coins to help with proper identification. They make a great addition to your Math Center or Stations.
Step over into my Teachers Notebook Shop to see more and get them for your students.

Sight Word Cover Up

As we wind down the dog days of summer and prepare to return to school, you may be looking for a fun and easy game for your students to play. Sight Word Cover Up gives students practice with common sight words in a fun format. The set includes 34 sight words, (in 5 fonts including a traceable font), 10 game boards that can be used year round, and best of all, because the students choose the words on their game boards, they can play time after time and never play it the same way twice! Step over into my Teachers Notebook shop to learn more and get a copy for your students to enjoy!

County Fair Freebie

If you enjoy going to the County Fair, then you just might enjoy this freebie as well. Using a County Fair theme, this pack has activities for graphing, gathering information, and word work. Step into my shop at Teachers Notebook and download your copy.
While you're there, check out a few of my other packets for sale!

Anatomy of a Student

My students always seem to enjoy labeling parts of things. This activity provides plenty of practice labeling parts of "students" (including themselves). The packet contains images of 6 different/diverse "students". Each has a Word Bank labeling parts of their body/clothing. There are worksheets for your students that allow practice cutting and gluing on the label, or filling in the blank where the initial sound has been provided, or they could use a regular fill in the blank sheet. Each "student" also has a Write to Describe page. You can choose between sentence strips to ease young writers along, or blank lines for your more confident writers.
Lastly there are blank pages for your students to draw themselves, label the parts and write to describe the picture they drew. A word bank is provided to assist students with labeling and writing. The word bank can be cut apart to provide young writers with the words to label their parts. There are spaces to add new words if needed. I think these self-portrait pages would make a GREAT class book for students to read over and over again!
This is a great back to school activity that takes into account various learning levels.
To learn more and get a copy for your class, head on over to my Teachers Notebook Shop!

Say and Stamp

Check out my latest addition to my Teachers Notebook Shop. It's a book to help students with letter recognition, beginning sounds, and sight words. Here are a few sample pages from the Color Words Book:

Be sure to check out my other downloads while you're there!

iGive-Away

Click on image to learn more about each App

I am hosting another give away.
There will be 10 winners for this one! Yes...TEN! I have an opportunity to share two different Apps.
5 for BUILD A WORD- Easy Spelling and 5 For MEMORY GAME-Letters and Numbers. 10 in all!
 Please note these are Apps to be downloaded from iTunes.
Please be sure to read the system requirements before entering/downloading.


Now for the fun...to enter sign up as a follower to this blog and leave a comment,  FAV my Teachers Notebook Shop and leave a comment here, blog about this give away on your site and leave a comment here. That's 3 chances to win! A Random Number Generator will select the winners.
I will announce them on Saturday, July 23rd.
Each winner will receive one of the two Apps in the give-away!

Highlighting Letters

If you haven't made it to your local Walgreens this week, hurry! They are selling small highlighters for 9 cents!!! Mind you, they are the mini-highlighters but....9 cents! I nabbed several sets in different colors.
I made this game to go with them:
(You can find a copy in my Teachers Notebook Shop)

When I went searching online for a link to the mini-highlighters I came across this gem....Look at the price for 8 Sharpies!! WOW!  Hurry because the sale ends Saturday!

By the way, I didn't find the mini's online!