January FREEBIE!

I've been creating a series of "My Little Books" for each month of the school year and recently completed the January edition. (I LOVE catching up on projects during winter break!) Each book has 23 seasonal words with cute illustrations and matching word wall labels.

For the rest of the month it's FREE on my TpT store! Just for fun, I've decided to make it permanently FREE! :) Just click on the picture below to go straight to my store and please leave feedback! :)

 I use these mini books as work for early finishers. I tell them that their goal is to write at least 1 sentence using the vocabulary word on each page. I've found that my TAG kiddos especially enjoy this challenge.
A picture of one of my students writing in the December book earlier this month:

And while you're there, check out some of my newest products (I've been really productive during the break!) You can also just click on the pictures below for a direct link to my store.

          

And YAY! TpT finally has an app for iPhone users! I've already downloaded mine and it's great!

Happy Holidays!

Great Finds!

Today I was a little nuts and ventured into Target. It was pretty crazy, but I'm glad I did because they had some very cute stuff in the dollar section!

Now I'm ready for Valentine's AND the 100th day of school in February. Love how Target has V-Day stuff before Christmas has even happened! I'm especially excited about this adorable little metal pail. LOVE the design! Reminds me of something Melanie from Schoolgirl Style would use!

I'm also very excited about these Leap Frog addition and subtraction mats that were only $1 each. They can be used with a dry-erase pen and re-used again and again. I bought 3 of each - they will be perfect for the new individual math boxes I am starting for each child in January!

 You may also notice by now that I LOVE owls. This adorable gift bag was also in the dollar section. Not sure what I'll use it for, but I'll think of something. :)

I've also recently discovered the great teacher section they started at JoAnn craft stores. These name tags were 36 for only $4! I used a coupon and got them half off. Love a good deal!

Holiday Freebies Linky Party!

Woohoo, my very first linky party! I'm linking up with DeAnne over at First Grade and Fabulous for a:

My freebie is a cute mini-book I created based on Jan Brett's book Gingerbread Baby. 

You can get the freebie here at my TpT store.

(I just love Jan Brett! I had the opportunity to meet her a few years ago and she was wonderful!)

Holiday Fun!

Since I've just joined the blogging world, I thought I'd share some cute holiday projects I've made with my kiddos the last few months!

In October, we read several of the Old Lady Who Swallowed A... books, created two class books about them, and voted on our favorite version. We also made this cute craftivity to go with it. I saw the idea online and drew the templates for the face and hair myself. One of my favorites was "I knew an old lady who swallowed an elephant" with a little elephant drawing in her mouth. Too cute!

In November we made this "How to Catch a Turkey" craftivity after reading the book Run Turkey Run! This was created with a free template I found online.

We made these adorable pilgrims (both boys and girls with various hair/skin colors) for Thanksgiving. The students had to write what they were thankful for. Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a photo before I sent them all home! This is my teacher demo pilgrim. The template for this project is on TpT by First Grade Blue Skies!

For Christmas, we made these adorable reindeer from TpT by Just Wild About Teaching.

Close up of my teacher demo:

Close up of the mess I made at home pre-glittering the noses and writing pages (I found that baking sheets work very well for this!) I told my students that the glitter fairy came and did this all by herself! 

Here is the writing page I created to go along with the project:

*Cute reindeer graphic from Zenware Designs @ My Grafico*

Whew! And there's a whirlwind tour of some of what we've been up to the last few months. :)

A Few of My Favorite Things!

Welcome to my brand-new teaching blog! I'm so thrilled to be starting this journey! Inspired by my friend Nicole (great name!) at Teaching With Style, I began a TpT account in May 2012. I instantly loved the network of teachers, resources, and blogs that seem to go hand-in-hand with TpT. I wasn't ready to start a blog of my own for quite awhile, but now I am!

Since it is the holiday season and I do love The Sound of Music, I thought a fun way to introduce myself would be to share a few of my favorite things, in pictures!

My yorkie Chloe (yep, my dog has clothes! haha)

ZUMBA!! I'm addicted. My fave instructor also happens to be an elementary teacher!

Making cards! I just joined the S.E.I. card club with my friend. Can't wait for our card-making parties!

Pretty much my favorite store ever. I have an embarrassing amount of hand soap and sanitizer stockpiled.

Gel manicures! I learned how to do my own. I have this exact polish on right now for the holidays. :)

My store on TpT! I LOVE creating cute new products for my class and store.

I LOVE My Grafico and spend way too much money on adorable clip art here!

Alicia at Dreamlike Magic. I had so much fun creating the design for my blog with her!

AND, of course - teaching! A few of my firsties from this year. :)

Silence for Sandy Hook