Back to School Sale

This poor little bloggy is feeling so neglected, but unfortunately it's going to get worse before it gets better!! I've spent the last month packing, the last two days painting, and the next two days will be moving, unpacking, and settling into our new home. Then I only have THREE DAYS to turn this:

into a beautiful classroom where walls are beautifully decorated, everything is wonderfully organized, and magical things happen!! Three days. I can do it. EEEEEK! :S Then I'm off to Vegas for eight days with the fiance, sister-in-law, and her husband. Sure to be an exciting vacation! School doesn't start until September 3rd for teachers (Admin. Day and Meet the Teacher night) and 4th for kiddos.

I wanted to let you know that even though my body will be beyond busy the next two weeks (and I will be out of internet for a while, except my poor little iPhone), I will still be here in spirit and I am still participating in the big Back to School Sale at TpT!! Everything in my store will be 20% off and if you use the awesome coupon code BTS13 you get an extra 8% off. Click the graphic to go fill up your shopping cart! Enjoy! Can't wait to see what fun purchases you are making this year.

Thanks Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs for the cute graphic!

If you have already gone back to school, good job! Hope it started off well. If you don't go back until September like me, enjoy these last few days of vacation!!!! Cheers!

Birthday Sale!

It's my birthday today! In celebration, everything in my TpT store will be 20% off for today and tomorrow. Hurry up, the sale ends tomorrow at midnight!

August Currently

Time to link up with Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade for this month's currently. I can't believe it's August already. I still have another month before I go back to school, but this month is going to be insane! I have to move houses, set up a brand new classroom, and go to Vegas for a week (ok, that's not a must... it's a want... hehe). It's going to be busy! Here's what's up with me today:

So this has been one of the busiest and most exciting summers ever! Not only are we moving this summer, to big a piece of property where we will eventually build our dream house... but we also just got engaged this week! It was a total shock to me! I mean, we've been together for four years and I've been hinting for the past year, but I never thought he actually got the hints! ;) hehe. Hoping to have a quiet little backyard wedding at our new property next summer. This year is just going to keep getting busier! :)

Well that's it for now... I'm in need of some puppy playtime. Enjoy your evening!

Winner!

Congrats to the winner of my 700 follower giveaway--Amy! Amy, check your email for more info!

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest! I feel bad now for making you countdown how many days of summer are left... Especially those who go back next week!! Oh boy! Well enjoy the rest of your summer and I'll be back again soon! Toodles!

Hall Pass Freebies and Where Are We? Mini-Posters {Plus a Giveaway!}

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen this picture of my awesome Oriental Trading loot that came in the mail last week. I got some awesome Dr. Seuss cut outs, some fun fish counters, an inflatable campfire (have been dying for this forever!!), a cute treasure box, a fun word work centre, tooth keeper necklaces (144 for $7.25!!), and some bright colourful lanyards.

The lanyards I bought because I wanted to make some hallway passes. I like the idea of a lanyard when students go to the bathroom because they don't have to hold on to it while they go! Yuck! :) The pack I bought has 6 fun, bright colours. I made two bathroom passes, a telephone pass, and a water fountain pass.

The other two I used for a fire drill class last. I saw this idea on Pinterest, to keep the lanyard by my door and have my class list on the back, so it's easy to grab when I'm heading out the door.

The final lanyard I made for myself is a classroom management trick I'm going to try next year. My new school is a K-9 school, so we have the juniour high sports teams and our school mascot is a Bengal. Well I just happened to have a cute stuffed tiger (an adopted pet from WWF) that I decided was going to be Benji the Bengal. I'm going to pass out Benji Bucks to students for good behaviour. Those tickets will go into a bucket and each day I'll pull out a ticket and that student gets to be Benji's Caretaker. They get to keep the stuffy for the day and wear the badge. I think this will be a fun motivator for students!

Now, I know not many of you are going to have a "Benji Caretake" in your class, so I have added a "Nurse Pass" to the collection of hallway passes because I know a lot of schools down south have nurses. I have made these passes a freebie, so click {here} to download.

Now keeping with my fun, colourful theme, I wanted to create a set of "Where Are We?" posters to hang outside my new classroom. I just adore Melonheadz clipart and I had the perfect sets to create these fun posters. I always have my special helper change it whenever we head somewhere in the school. These posters are two-to-a-page. I print them out on cardstock, laminate them, and hang them on a ring outside my classroom door. Click the picture to check out the poster at TpT.

As I logged into blogger to put this post together, I glanced at my stats and noticed I had 700 followers! Wow! I can't believe my little blog reaches that many people! So as a thank you, I am having a little giveaway! For 700 followers, you can win 7 items! Your choice of any seven items from my TpT store. Just enter on the Rafflecopter before Sunday at midnight and you can win! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School Word Work Centres

I have put together a few back to school word work centres. I liked using these centres in September because they are so hands on and very engaging for these young learners. Each of my word work packs have similar activities, so when I switch them out my students still know how to do them. Stamping is a centre I have all year round. This back to school centre has a mini booklet of ten school words for students to stamp and colour.

The second centre was a favourite among my kiddos. Who doesn't love to use bingo dabbers? This centre has two sets of cards--lowercase letters and uppercase letters. I put one set out at a time with a recording sheet. Students choose a card, find the matching letter, and dab it! There are two lowercase and two uppercase recording sheets. One is in ABC order and one is random. You could also use the cards to play concentration or as a pocket chart matching activity.

The third centre uses mangetic letters (or foam letters or glitter stickers or included letters). There are a bunch of different sequences that students need to find the missing letters for. There are two possible recording sheets to go with the centre too.

The next centre is a short A word family sorts. Students sort picture cards by the correct word family. There is a cut and paste recording sheet to go with it.

The last centre in this pack is to practice initial sounds. There are 26 picture cards. Students choose a card, draw the picture on their recording sheet, and write the letter of the first sound. I make the recording sheet double-sided, so students have more spaces to draw and write.

If you are interested, you can check out this pack at TpT by clicking {here} or the picture below.

Phonics Cards Updated

I had a few requests to make my phonics cards into full-size posters and I finally finished adding the posters to my pack. I took the same 120 phonics sounds and turned them into large posters. So in the pack you get 120 small cards (3.5x3.5") and 120 large posters (8.5x11"). If you want smaller posters, you could print them off two to a page from Adobe. The price hasn't changed. If you already purchased the pack, make sure you go to TpT, My Purchases, and re-download the pack to get the additional posters!

Click this picture to check out the pack at TpT.

This is a sample of the small phonics cards--six to a page.

This is a sample of a large poster--same colours and clipart as the small cards.

Here is a quick preview of all 120 sounds included in the pack.