Teacher Appreciation ... The Beat Goes On!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

I hope this week has started out in a wonderful way for you!! We know all too well that teaching is a tough and often undervalued job. I think it's great the way recognition and appreciation has grown in the past few years, with the celebration of Teacher Appreciation Day growing to a week. You work hard every day, and everybody needs a pat on the back once in a while, right? :)

And so, to celebrate... it's time for the great big Teacher Appreciation Sale at Teachers Pay Teachers1

Everything in my store, including bundles, will be 20% off on Tuesday and Wednesday, and you can get an extra 10% with the checkout code ThankYou. That adds up to 28% savings for you!

Plus, for the procrastinators out there (soulmates, kindred spirits, my kinda people, you know who you are), you can still get 20% off at my store on Thursday!  Which gives you a bit of extra time because I KNOW that you're going to want to leave feedback on the great things you buy at the sale. Feedback = buying credits= more sale shopping on Thursday, right?


Here's a whirlwind tour of the resources that I've posted to my store since the last sitewide sale in February. Click on any picture to see the resource at my store.

16 riddle cards, board game, and writing activity.

Enough cards for 30 players. Two levels of difficulty.

Great way to build descriptive vocabulary! Also a nice addition to your writing center.

Super for math coaches and tutors, this set includes 40 games from K-3.  $$$ saving bundle!

Seasonal picture prompts with guided questions turns each of these 58 prompts into a writing lesson!

Did your late second through fouth graders like Fishing Around Place Value Riddles? Then they'll love this brand new set of 50 more riddles for three-digit numbers!

A group of sharks is called a shiver. Don't you just love that?  Opposites cards and games with cute shark graphics from Dandy Doodles.


There's just one new freebie in my store (but tons of them here on the blog, as you regular visitors know!). I hope you'll find it handy to use when you do your spring planting with your class!

Please take a moment to visit my store.  Follow my Facebook page for lots of Teacher Appreciation treats this week!

Happy Teaching, and have a wonderful week!

Heads Up for a TpT Freebie!

Hi, Teaching Friends!

Are you a follower at my Teachers Pay Teachers store?  If so, head on over to collect this thank you freebie, just for you! You can get the link by going into your TpT Inbox (log in and look for the little dark green oval with a number in it) and then clicking on the email titled "A Freebie to Thank You!"

I'm celebrating the fact that there are now 2,222 followers at my store  ( how fun is that??? thank you, thank you!!! )  by reserving these as follower-only freebies from now through November 12th. After three weeks, I'll be removing it from Google Drive and posting it as a paid resource in my store.

Not a follower yet? Well, you never know when another freebie like this one might pop up! ;)


Happy Teaching!

New for Spring... Plus a Bunny Freebie!

Dear Teaching Friends,

After a stretch of doing lots of revising but really losing steam on posting new products, I've finished a few new resources, and want to share them with you.

I love these sweet snails from The Hazel Owl, and just knew I had to use them on some kind of card set. Well, here's the little card set that grew and grew...

 

Your students will match ten frames, tally marks, numerals, number words, dimes and pennies combinations, and  Base10 longs and cubes for the numbers one through 24. The numeral card set actually goes all the way to 60, so you'll find lots of other uses for it (sequencing, comparing, war games, etc). Plus, to heighten your students awareness of the pattern of skip counting by twos, all of the even number cards in each set have a cute little snail on them!

Click here to see it!

 

  

 

 

Next up is a literacy item, "Building Sentences: Baby Animals in Spring". The building sentences resources at my TPT store have been popular among K-1 teachers. I hope you'll click to take a look at this set for the pocketchart center.

 

 

 

The last item is actually a collection of two other math game sets. The bundle includes 12 games and center activities, with options that will extend it into even more activities.

Here's what's inside!

What busy little bunnies your students will be!


Now for the freebie!
Here's a partner game for adding one. You can get it free when you download the preview of "Mr. Cottontail on the Bunny Trail", but since you've been so patient through this very long post, I thought I'd give you the alternative of just downloading it right here! Enjoy!

 

 

 

Happy Teaching!

 

Free Animal Classes Reference Chart

Hi, Everyone!

Animals are so frequently a huge part of our primary grade science curriculum. Isn't it a happy coincidence that kids love learning about them and we also love to teach this? I really can say that everytime I've taught an animal unit, I've learned something new! Awesome Author Alert: If you don't know Steve Jenkins' books, you're missing out on something great! Check out his great website here. Two of my faves are Actual Size and Biggest, Strongest, Fastest - your little guys will be wide-eyed with wonder!



                                       




I have a freebie for you today that will help your little ones understand and remember animal classification more easily by looking at photographs of animals.

This Animal Classes Reference Chart  has a color-coded background that is keyed to the animal classifications. Teach your students to use the key at the top of the chart... and put another check mark by your standards for Informational Text!

You can print, trim, and glue this into a file folder for use at desks or in centers, or print and attach to a 12X18 paper for an instant wall poster.

Click here to download from my TPT store.

The chart is a part of Animal Classes: A Literacy and Science Cross-Curricular Unit, also available at my TPT store. There are 14 activities, which include comparing and contrasting, fact and opinion, graphic organizers (webs and tree charts), 2 board games, 3 sets of animal cards (pictures, words, pictures/words), story cards for reading, a set of sight word phrase cards, pictures for labeling, and more!   Here's a little peek!

Click on this picture to go directly to the unit at TPT.

Happy Teaching!

Zoo Animal Freebie!

Hi, Teaching Friends1

Is there anything children enjoy more than learning about animals? There are so many exciting things to wonder about... and so many confusions rolling around in their sweet little heads! Like the little sweetie of mine who was excited to be going to gym to do the octopus course (obstacle course), another who wondered how cows get their gutters, and yet another whose dad hauled around a truck filled with woodchucks (woodchips)! Honestly, does anyone in the world get as much fun and laughter in their workdays as we do?

At the end of the day, of course, we're here to help them untangle the facts from the what-they-are-convinced-are-facts-but-well, no.  Here's a freebie for you that will review some facts about zoo animals while providing practice with subject and predicate. There are 12 sentence subject cards, 12 predicate cards, a self-checking card, and a student response sheet, as well as a suggestion for an extension activity for writing.

Click here to download

This activity is from my zoo animal unit. It's a set of cross-curricular activities to practice early literacy skills while supporting your science teaching about zoo animals. Here's a sampling of the activities...

Download the preview at my TPT store for a detailed listing of the contents!

Click here to see the zoo animal unit.

I'm hard at work on a new animal/literacy cross-curricular unit, Animal Groups. Keep watching here for details by the end of this week! (At least, that's the plan... :)   Done! Click here to see it!

Happy Teaching!

                                                           

100 Followers -Woohoo!! Bring on the Freebies!

     You did it! I did it! We did it! Woohoo!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I'm so pleased and proud that you have found my little corner of the blog world to be an interesting place to visit!

As promised, here are the celebration gifts, all with a "100 Theme", which hopefully for most of you will still be in time for your 100th Day of School festivities. Even if your 100th day has already passed, these 3 items should be usable long beyond. The first one even has a slight nod to St. Patrick's Day, without being overly leprechaun-ish, in case March timing doesn't mesh with your teaching calendar!

12/30/12 * NOTE: This resource is now part of the 100th Day Common Core Math Power Pack, at my TPT store. If you download the preview, you'll get "Lucky Numbers" free!


 

The second item for you is an activity to go along with your reading of Wolf's Chicken Stew . It's a great little story for talking about predictions, characters, and stereotypes. This activity is for a math lesson, and will also make a great math center afterwards! There's also a follow-up page for a quick student write-and-draw, using positional words. Click on the pic to download it all!

The last 100 theme item is not free, but will be on sale at my TPT store through January 25th! It's a set of riddle cards, one card for each number from 1 to 100. Suggestions for games and activities are also included. Click on the cover below to go directly to the product page.

Again - many thanks to all of you! Hmmm... wonder what I can give away when the 200th follower comes along? :)

                                                                                             Linda