MORE FAB FINDS + SALE

Since the majority of blog land is throwing a sale this weekend, I wanted to share a few more awesome activities that worked really well in my class this past week.  It may just be the perfect time to pick them up . . . see . . . I got your back :)

First up, Hadar from Miss Kindergarten provided nothing but smiles and squeals of delight with her monster craft.  It proved to be the best possible BIG BUDDY ditty for us on Friday and we followed it up with a little creative writing too.  It was perfection I tell ya.  Absolute perfection!

CLICK HERE to get more deets on this awesome craft!

Next up, we ran with a handful of "wicked" centers from the ever-fab Alisha over at The Bubbly Blonde.  I didn't manage to get my butt out of the teacher chair and snap some photos of my kiddos in action (I was trying to assess . . . you know how that goes), but they nailed these centers independently.  Just take one look and you will see why they were a HUGE success.  

CLICK HERE to pick yourself up a copy of this fantastic pack! 

    

Finally, my bloggy buddy Susan over at TGIF (Thank God It's First Grade) offered up the perfect FREEBIE pack to help us end our spider unit.  We spent a rainy afternoon with these arachnids and they had an absolute ball with it.  One babe actually said, "This is the best day ever!"  Now, if you get a response like that after an activity . . . you know you have found yourself a true winner!

CLICK HERE to pick up this freebie!!

We rocked out to a Halloween Party Mix and got busy on our spiders.
**NOTE: I had my kids color their spiders as we don't have a supply closet at our school.
I had the kiddies below give me their best "Scary Spider" face!

Alright . . . off to lesson plan and work on my latest pack.  Just a reminder that you have until midnight tonight to score big in quite a few TPT shops today - all my bloggy besties are participating!!!  On that note, my entire TPT Store is 20% off in honor of our Trick or Treat Sale.   

Here are just a few of the packs I have on sale!

      

      

TRICK OR TREAT SALE + FANTASTIC FINDS

It's all treats this weekend!  NO tricks from this girl.  A bunch of my bloggy besties and I joined forces to bring you the . . . 

Thanks for the cuter than cute button, Bubbly!

At first I was just going to put all of my Halloween goodies on deep discount. Then, I decided that wasn't a killer deal . . . so . . . I put the whole darn thing on sale.  Snag any of my packs for 20% off today and tomorrow.  Not to shabby, huh?  Here are just a few of the timely collections up for grabby-grabs today.

     

Alright, moving on.  I have to show you what we have been up to this week.  I found some FAB-U-LIS things in the bloggy world for Halloween and I just have to take a moment to share them with you.  

First up, Kristen over at A Day in First Grade has a doozie of a Halloween pack. We have been using bits and pieces this week and the kids have loved it.  Our favorite had to the the creative write . . . would you rather drink spider sweat or frog spit?  Now that's one tough question if you ask me!  The kids were crackin' up and were really using their noggins on this one.  

Next up, sweet DeAnne from First Grade and Fabulous has a "spookified" Noun Town ditty in her Spook-Tacular Centers Pack that my kids truly loved completing this week.  All of the words are easy to sound out and the kids were able to do this with very little to NO support.  I didn't have a parent helper the day I used this sweet set either . . . and I didn't want to pull my hair out.  Now that's what I call a successful center activity :)

 

Be sure to hop on over to the Trick or Treat Sale Linky and check out all of the other fabulous bloggers throwing sales this weekend!  I am off to work on my latest Thanksgiving packet a little bit before my BIG birthday date :)  Since I will be working on Tuesday, the lovely hubster is taking me out tonight.  I can't wait to live up my last few days of 32 over dinner, drinks, and endless laughs! 

GOOD MORNING WORK - MATH + FREEBIE

Oh.  My.  Goodness!  I don't know what my problem was this week, but finishing up this month's Good Morning Math Packet was much easier talked about than actually done.  In between a hair appointment, coaching Jump Rope Club, my weekly acupuncture appointment, preppin' for the next days' lessons, and about 5K meetings this week, I couldn't seem to stay awake long enough at night to wrap this baby up.  However, after a cat nap in the hubby's pit on Thursday, I finished cranking this thing out.  Thank heavens . . . I made it just under the October wire :)  

I tried to be very mindful of what kids can and can't do independently at this time.  As always, I chunk my topics.  In other words, they will work on a skill for five days in a row before the pack shifts gears and covers another 3-4 common core standards.  I have found that the kids feel much more successful when they know what is coming at them . . . and it frees up more morning time for you.  After you have taught it once, you don't have to answer many questions throughout the rest of the week.  Oh yeah . . . Ms. D knows what all you busy teacher's need . . . a few more UNINTERRUPTED minutes in the morning to deal with parents, office phone calls, roll, lunch count, homework/reader collection, reading/testing kids, etc.  See . . . look at my kiddies.  The are quiet, working hard, and best of all . . . doing it oh so independently!  BOOM!!! 

OH MY . . . I love my babies so much!

This month's math packet covers a little bit of everything.  Skills include: addition, subtraction, introduction to fact families, word problems, skip counting, place value, comparing/ordering numbers, tallying, graphing, months of the year, days of the week, times of day and date writing.  Boy, that was a mouthful :)

As always, I am all about "Try 'em before you buy 'em."  So, here are three pages you can take with you to try out with your kiddos.  If you like what you see unfold your classroom, pop on over to my TPT Shop and pick up the whole GMW Math Pack!  A Good Morning Reading Packet is also available (I give a page from both packs each morning).  

CLICK HERE to download these "tester" pages!

Alright folks, I am off to have a dinner date with the sweet hubs.  He has been patiently waiting for me to finish this post, but I think my time is about to expire :)  I will see you tomorrow!  Thanks for visiting.

Don't forget to head on over to TBA and check out all of the other fabulous freebies that are up for grabby-grabs!

A BUSY TEACHER'S BEST FRIEND - HALLOWEEN STYLE

Despite rushing home after jump rope club to work my Good Morning Work Math Pack for November, I just had to take a moment to write a little post about an UH-MAY-ZING resource that has saved me as of late.  And, the best part is . . . it is all "spookified!"  

My beloved bloggy buddy, Katie King, over at The Queen of the First Grade Jungle has outdone herself this time.  Seriously folks!  Her Busy Teacher's Best Friend Halloween Packet has saved me hours and the kids are LOVING every minute of it.  

Just take a little look-see at my sweet babes in action today!  We used pages both whole class and in centers.  They were all a HUGE success . . .

One of Katie's right on target adjective pages went into all independent folders today.
From the bottom to the top groups, these kids nailed it!

During our whole class writing time, we wrote predictions today using another one of the Queen's
handy-dandy pages.  I hung the book on the board with the above cloze and let them go.
It was magical . . . you could hear a pin drop!

Working hard  . . . what sweet babes I have! 

CAUTION . . . PICTURE OVERLOAD AHEAD . . . what can I say?
I am so proud of their work!  They always go the extra mile for me . . . and themselves :)

From my writing rock stars to my kids who struggle, it was a wonderful activity.
Everyone did a super job and felt
oh so successful!

Katie's super fun Magical Addition Sentences Page.
It was a great game that helped us transition after the whole group math lesson :)

Look at this page . . . uh . . . she asked to color it too.
About 10 or so of them did when they finished before the others.
Can you say . . . WIN-WIN??!!

Sound like something you might be interested in adding to your Halloween arsenal?  I am soooooo glad it's in mine now :)  

CLICK HERE to check out the "deets" collection.

Alright friends . . . I HAVE to finish my Good Morning Work (Math) November Packet.  I know.  I know.  I thought it would have been up sooner than this, but my post-surgery digestive system has been giving me absolute fits as of late. Not that I am using this as an excuse mind you . . . it's just slowed me down a bit.  I promise to have it up by the weekend if not sooner.  Oh, and check back tomorrow or Thursday for a few more Halloween resources that I am really lovin' as of late!  Hugs and thanks for visiting!

GOOD MORNING WORK - NOVEMBER + FREEBIES

Let me shout it from the rooftops!!!  I FINISHED NOVEMBER'S GOOD MORNING WORK PACKET!  Please excuse the shouty capitals, but I am so excited that I stayed up late  and made my personal deadline with this one.  Okay, so the math pack still isn't done yet, but I am all over this one today.  I digress . . . let me introduce to you . . .   

JW Illustrations - you make me smile!

The name of my game is INDEPENDENT work.  We all know that mornings are crazy with homework collection, parents, taking roll/lunch count, and everything else.  With this said, I attempt to be very mindful in my creation of these packs - which standards are covered and the way they are presented.  Not only do I want your kidlets to feel successful and not mind the work, but I also want them to need little to no support from you!  Sound like a good idea? 

As with the last two packets, my goal with Good Morning Work (GMW) is to spiral review basic reading concepts, standards,  and stills in a straightforward and non-threatening manner.  The September and October sets focused on more kindergarten and beginning of the year common core standards.  This set continues to step things up a bit with the introduction of verbs, adjectives, blends, dirgraphs, detailed sentence writing, and contractions.  Just take a little peek at the pages below.  And, oh yeah . . . here are a few FREE pages to take with you today.  As I always like to say, "Try 'em before ya buy 'em!"  If you like what you see, visit my TPT Shop to pick up the new pack before November sneaks up on ya.  How ya like them turkeys??

CLICK HERE to download these free "tester" pages!
Again, thank you to JW Illustrations for your darlin' little turkey dude :)

Here's the "grand view" of this packet . . . 25 pages in all!
Skills covered include: sight words, ABC order, nouns, verbs, adjectives, blends, digraphs, detailed sentence writing,
sentence editing, compound words, and contractions.

Personally, my kiddos have done an amazing job with my GMW collections.  The work is spot on for my first graders and they actually seem to really enjoy it! They rush to start every morning.  Could I have died and gone to teacher heaven . . . maybe . . . just maybe??!!

Just look at the quality INDEPENDENT work I am getting and they are smiling!  What . . . what??
The doll on the bottom left always colors the whole page to make it her best work.
The sweetie on the right always goes above and beyond when it comes to the Super Student Challenge!

A huge thank you to all of my wonderful editors who broke out the "red pen" for me yesterday - Susan at TGIF (Thank God It's First Grade) and Lori from Teaching with Love & Laughter!  I value your opinions like NO OTHER and I seriously heart ya to the moon and back!

    

To learn more about my November Good Morning Work (Reading) Packet, click here.  I will have the math set for this month up shortly - sometime this week.  

Alright friends, I am out of here.  Thanks so much for visiting and I will see you all very . . . very soon!!!