I pinned it on my board on Pinterest and it got repinned 200 times in the first hour.
I immediately thought what a cute bulletin board for the end of the school year. I needed to make it a little easier for first graders. So I made 3 patterns for sunglasses and the insert to fit on each pair. I also created a several writing sheets to go with this art activity. I thought it would be cute if the kids drew and wrote
Mrs. Albanese's Class you are the winner of the thermal tote.
Thank you so much to all that entered. Everyone was so kind to stop by and follow. I have found some great new blogs. Please check back often. I like to share as much as I can.
Is it getting busier by the day or what? My class had fun finishing up their gifts for their moms. They turned out so cute. At the last minute, I whipped up a card for the kids to make to go with their gifts. This year I had the students paint clay pots.
They used their fingertips for the flowers and then painted the rest.
Today they planted the flowers for our big Mother's Day Assembly tomorrow.
HERE ARE THE POTS MY CLASS PAINTED
HERE ARE THE CARDS THEY MADE, SO SIMPLE AND LAST MINUTE!
I found some rick-rack in my craft supplies and some left over fun foam flowers. I traced their hands to create a little flower pot of flowers to match their gift.
Here is a little poem I made up for the inside of the card.
Are you tired of the words Common Core Standards yet? I hope not because here is a great site to explore with all kinds of information, ideas, and activities, all set up by grade level.
Check it out when you get a minute.
Which at this time of year is almost impossible.
Maybe bookmark it or put it in your favorites to check out over the summer.
I know you are just as busy as I am at this time of year but I promised a freebie. I have not finished updating my May Calendar Journal but here are 20 pages of it if you can use it. It is a large file because of the graphics. I need to learn how to compress them or make my files smaller.
Any hints from you experienced bloggers would be appreciated.
I have this on Google Docs. It says there is no preview because of the size, but it downloads fine.
I downloaded so many freebies. Thank you to all of the wonderful teachers for sharing their items at TPT.
But WAIT! More Teacher Appreciation FREEBIES.
Have you ever used Reading A-Z.com?
It is a fabulous resource to assist you in differentiating your reading instruction..You will find thousands of materials to teach leveled reading, phonemic awareness, comprehension, fluency, alphabet, and vocabulary. If you are a regular classroom teacher, special education teacher, ESOL teacher, or a reading intervention teacher, you have to check them out. I have used their materials for years and particularly like the leveled readers and the Raz-Kids website. They are having an Open House with a one week trial for all teachers beginning today through May 11!
Here is a sample of a book I used today from Reading A-Z for our Ocean Unit. It is a Level L book entitled Deep in the Ocean .The kids loved this non-fiction book about the depths of the ocean. I used this book to reinforce my students glossary skills. I created a printable to go along with the book that you can download below. We also used a diagram from the book to create our own crafty ocean zones complete with the creatures that live in each zone.
All of us know what it was like starting out and trying to get others to come to our blog. Many of us are still learning, (like me) but we can all help each other out by taking a few minutes to recognize other teachers that are wanting to share and grow professionally by blogging.
Please stop by and visit Tammy Wathen at The Resourceful Apple. I was her second follower. We all need encouragement and support even when we know we are working hard and doing the best we can.
Show Tammy some Teacher Appreciation by visiting and following.
(I am still... learning how to link a picture! I can not get it for the life of me!)
You still have 3 days to sign up for the 100 followers give away. Scroll down and enter.
I left my freebies up for another day at TPT if you did not grab them already. I had a busy day and weekend and have not had time to download anything new. I will try to get another new item and freebie up tonight.
and there is a group of 150 TPT sellers giving away items today. Of course I read about this group about 1 hour before the the deadline to enter was due. I frantically put in my information, but I missed out. I forget about the timezone differences. Anyway Lori Rosenberg, who is a very talented teacher and blogger has the list for you, so I am sending you to her blog. Lori is a sweet blogging friend that always stops by my blog and gives me sweet comments. Thanks Lori! She has great stuff! Check out her TPT store, her freebie, and the rest of the bloggers on the list.
Even though I missed the group, I can still give something away. Today only I am giving my Ocean Compound Word Center away. You can grab it for free at my TPT Store, today only.
Here is a preview. Get it TODAY ONLY FOR FREE! You have until 4:00 today to grab yesterday's freebie also, Ocean Theme Word Sort - Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives. It goes with this Ocean Theme.
Then go and check out my new blogging friend Sara. She has great ideas and just started blogging. Be sure to share the love and encouragement by following or commenting.
Miss Sara has a cute Mother's Day word search Freebie for you.
It's Teacher Appreciation Week and I want to say thank you to everyone who visits my blog. To show my appreciation to everyone and reaching 100 followers, I am having a giveaway. If you have not signed up for the Thirty-One Tote Bag giveaway, What are you waiting for! You get to pick your color and monogram exactly like you want it. Just go to the previous post and sign up before midnight on May 9.
Some of the newbies like me are overjoyed to have 100 followers. There are people with hundreds, even thousands of followers, but we must all give ourselves a pat on the back for each small step or accomplishment we make. A month ago, I didn't have a blog, a Facebook fan Page, or a TPT store. I don't even know anyone who blogs. No one at my school blogs. And to top it off most of you are my kids age. I was inspired by you, the talented teachers that have been doing this much longer and much better than me. I have been reading and learning about all this blogging technology along the way and making lots of mistakes. Luckily we learn from our mistakes.
There are so many wonderful blogs and fantastic ideas to be found on your blogs. Thank you for sharing your ideas, pictures, advice, and talents. I have learned so much from the hours I spend reading what you have all shared. It is so fun peeking into classrooms around the world and borrowing a trick or two that works for you. I think it helps us all grow professionally.
I would also like to show my support and give encouragement to others who may want to bring some new followers and friends to their blog. I will be posting a list of blogs each day that just may be looking for a few new friends. If you would like me to mention your blog,
just shoot me an email or leave me a comment below.
To show my appreciation, I will be giving away a little FREEBIE each day through May 10, when the winner of the Thirty-One Tote and Thermal bag will be announced.
Here is an Ocean Word Sort for Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives.
The words are differentiated to use in K-2 classrooms.
I used this with our Character Ed program with our buddy class at the end of the school year. Students mingle with each other and build their sundae by answering the survey questions. When they finish the survey they make the real thing.
Smilebox lets you create invitations, collages, slideshows, and scrapbook pages for FREE!!!!
Read to the end if you are a teacher for a special FREEBIE!
It is so easy to use and there are literally 100's of choices of templates, layouts, music, and pages for your to customize with your own pictures.
I have been using smilebox for years.
You can easily post your creations to your website, blog, facebook page,
or email it to parents of your students.
Great for Year End Memory Book or DVD.
Here are some ways I have used Smilebox.
1. Collages - I snap pictures of students the very first day of school. Slide the pictures into a collage template and email it to parents after school to ease their jitters. They see the smiles on their child's face at school and know they are having fun. This is especially great for preschool and kindergarten where mom and dad are letting their babies grow up and go to school.
2. Slideshows - I use this to document project work. I take pictures throughout the project of students at various stages. Parents can see their child applying skills, and new learning taking place.
I insert the pictures as slides and add text explaining the learning that took place along the way.
3. Scrapbooks - I use scrapbook pages to show pictures from parties, special events, theme days, or to create memory pages. These are pages that can be created from templates that allow you to insert several pictures per page, add text, change colors, change embellishments, and add music.
Here are some examples of how I used
Smilebox in my classroom.
Just click on the play button to view. They take less than a minute to download, but they give you an idea on how each creation is different.
This a sample of a Collage.
This was done with pictures from the first day of school.
Now for the best part. If you are a teacher and want to sign up for Smilebox. Go to www.smilebox.com. Scroll down to the very bottom of the page, It looks like this.
You can register to get the upgraded, Premium version for FREE!
I did not know this until a few weeks ago. I always used the free version and it was great. The premium version gives you no ads on your creations that you email. You can also download your own music. You will have access to additional templates. You can also burn DVD's of your creations. A great thing to have for the end of the year memory books or graduation celebrations.
It may take a few days to get your code once you register.
If you have any questions on how to use Smilebox
please email me or leave me a comment.
I am sure you will love Smilebox. It is so easy to use, believe me!
