Diana's Paint Dot Sight Words!!!

Ok, I am going to tell you about something AwEsOmE! These are Cole's Little Pups Paint Dot Sight Words! Do you need a way to reinforce certain sight words? Maybe during word work? These are perfect for you!!!

The kiddos are able to highlight the word and then "dot" the stars with bingo dotters. They will also re-write the word and on Diana's first grade words, she has added a spot where the students can write a sentence that has their sight word! PERFECT!!!
They LOVE this word work activity! I used these ALL last year as a word work activity (in Daily 5). They are super easy to maintain and I can't wait to start them again this year!
Last school year, I was using the first grade Fundation sight words and Diana made me a special set!!! She is awesome!

Click on over to Diana's blog: Cole's Little Pups. She has some great ideas and is super sweet!

This year, I am doing sight words in my room a little bit differently! My teammate is using 11 sight word lists and they are individualized to each student to make sure that the students learn them all (that's another post!! Coming Soon!!) but Diana is making me a set just for those words!!
Click {HERE} to check out her Kinder sight words for only $1.50!!! and click {HERE} for her first grade sight word set for only $6.00!
Hop on over to her blog and check out her ideas!! :) Let me know if you have any questions about using these in your classrooms!

Lovely Three Day Weekend! Catch up!

I must say I was BEYOND excited when I found out Labor Day was on Monday and that we wouldn't be going to school that day. I very much needed this 3 day weekend.
All last week, I was super super sick and still went to work (I know I should have stayed home to rest but I HATE sub plans!). I also had a lovely MAC-Ro training (school-home math program) and I had a morning of looking at my DIBELS data and setting up my small groups so I did have to plan for a half day sub! Blah!
Overall, it was a very successful week!
Let me go back and talk about the first week of school. We started on a Wednesday and we went over procedures, rules (WBT), and did fun "about me" activities. The following Monday, we started going over the Alphabet, sounds, and the Kinder sight words my firsties are SUPPOSED to know.
My kiddos were so cute and kept saying that they already knew their letters and sounds and it was too easy... that's when I let them in on a secret... We were working on Kinder stuff!!! That first grade wouldn't start until we reviewed all of their kinder work so they had to do their best. WORKED LIKE A CHARM!
2 weeks later (this past Monday), they were super excited to start REAL first grade.
In my district, we use Harcourt's StoryTown so after the 2 week inventory (working on letters and sounds) we start the first lesson.
The first lesson is on short a words and my kiddos rocked it!
I'm so excited to work in an Intermediate SEI class this year! It is such a huge difference academically than my Pre-Emergent to Basic class that I had last year. I struggled very much last year just getting some kids to know their letters and sounds in first grade!
...
I'm pretty sure I forgot to mention this but on the first day of school, I got an amazing email. It was from Donor's Choose and they told me that my project had been funded!!!
A week and a half later, I had 2 iPod Touches in my hand!!! The kiddos are so excited about them and I can't wait to show you guys what I'm doing thanks to a wonderful new teammate!
Talking about teammates... My school is huge! As in we have over 700 students in a K-3 school so there are also a lot of teachers (not enough)... There are 7 teachers in my first grade team and 3 of them are new! One taught kinder last year, another one taught kinder for the last half of the year last year, and one is brand new!
They are soooo awesome because they love cute stuff like me and they are all into really TEACHING the kiddos and making it a fun experience!
I mean, they shop on TpT... How awesome is that! I am not the only one!!! :)
I'm really excited because we have also been planning together and really talking about our assessments and scores and making goals.... LOVE!
This year is going to be awesome.
That is enough blabbing... I feel like I need to catch everyone up since I haven't been blogging!!!
I hope to be back sometime next week to show you some pictures of my room! It feels like it isn't done but it does look pretty good.
I'll leave you with a beautiful pic of my very own Kindergartner...

Love that little lady!

<3

First Week of School! New Products!

I am super enjoying my Saturday after my first full week of school!
I'm ALIVE!
I ended up with only 27 kids on my roster (instead of the original 29) and only 25 showed up!
Oh and they are so cute.
We have been practicing our letters, sounds, and our kinder sight words!
I'm excited this year because I have a class full of intermediate kiddos. Big difference from what I had last year (pre-emergent to basic)!
I've already noticed how those language levels are so so so different.
I can't wait to share more experiences.
I'm so so sorry... I don't have any pictures to share but I will soon!
I have been super busy and all of us teachers are rushing to get everything perfect.
I have been working on some great stuff... take a peek!

What it looks like:

I also need to update the pennants I have in my room, my dolch words, and word wall letters!!! 

Ahhh... so much to do and so little time! :)

See you next time (could be next weekend!!)

Laters!

2nd Grade Common Core Aligned Weekly Graphs PLUS TpT/TN SALE!

Hello hello!! It feels like I have been working for WEEKS!! I am exhausted. I officially started working last Tuesday and had my first day of school with kiddies this past Wednesday. Let's just say that I am STOKED that I only had kids for 3 days!
I can't wait to really tell you about my first day! {I have a GREAT group of kids!!!}
But, I'm really here to tell you about the amazing TpT sale and my newest product!!
I have FINALLY finished my 2nd Grade Common Core Aligned Weekly Graphs per request!
I apologize for taking sooooo long but yay they are done!!!
They correlate to the following Common Core Standards:

• 2.NBT.3
• 2.NBT.8
• 2.OA.1
• 2.OA.2
• 2.OA.3
• 2.MD.10

They are the same graphs as my first grade pack just more rigorous and aligned to the 2nd grade Common Core Standards!
Here are some pics!

Here are some preview pages (color cover, bw cover, and a preview of a graph!)

You can purchase this on TpT {HERE} or on TN {HERE}. It will be 9.00 after the BIG sale so take advantage!!

Now, for the deets of the sale {in case you haven't heard}!

One of the biggest sales of the year! TpT only has like 3 sales a year so this is BIG!

Not only will you enjoy 20% off ALL of my products but you can also get an extra 10% off with the code: BTS12!!!

Wooooh!!

Go add to your wishlist... mine is wayyyy too long but at least I will be set for a few months ;)

You can grab my Common Core Aligned Weekly Graphs for 2nd and 1st Grade and other fun stuff!! Click the following pics to take you to my store!

Plus, more! Go check it out!!! It has already started!!! YAYYYYY!!

I'll be back with some very exciting news!! :)

August Currently!

I'm linking up to the August Currently! Thanks Farley for putting this together!
Ok... so I'm sitting at a Professional Development training... DON'T WORRY WE ARE ON BREAK! LOL
We are listening to Doug Reeves on PLC's and some interesting research. All I can say is... INTERESTING... I wonder how our school is going to go with this.
So at this training, there are a TON of teachers... like from 32 elementary schools (k-6)... CrAzY!
I am loving that my family helped me with my room... I was at another P.D. all day yesterday and they finished painting my room while I was gone!! YAY!
My cousin and sister also organized my classroom library and labeled all of my books with my name... they didn't really enjoy that job! LOL
I'm excited because my mentor has bought me a ton on Really Good Stuff tubs and baskets so I was organizing all that stuff. Especially my classroom library! Woop woop! ExCiTiNg!
Ahhh! I can't wait to show some pretty classroom pictures!
I've been working in my room since Wednesday (they finally cleaned the carpets on Tuesday night) and now that it is all painted... I'm soooo ready to get it all set up! Yay!
I'm thinking about all of this PLC stuff... HMMM!
I'm wanting this famous laminator! Ah... I might go today to get some stuff laminated this weekend!
I am needing to get my nails done... going tomorrow with a Kinder teacher friends... need a haircut (maybe this weekend), and the wax... ouch but then your face looks so nice and crisp... haha weird word to describe your face but it seriously just changes how you look! So nice and clean! LOL
B2S (Back to School) Must Haves... I need to feel good (nails, hair, eyebrows), I also love Mr. Sketch Markers... they just smell so good and make me soooo happy! I actually bought so many last year (like 5 packs... oops) so I won't need to buy any yet! I love chart paper and sentence strips... I just have to have a ton of packs ready for the beginning of school! LOVE... I just need to LOVE what I do, where I'm at, and who I'm with! I just have to appreciate at how lucky and fortunate I am!
Yay... Ok, the break is over... so sorry if there are any typos... I'm rushing! LOL :)
Buh-bye, LOVES!!

The Magical Product Swap!!!

The UH-MAZING Jessica Stanford from Mrs. Stanford's Class has organized this amazing product swap!! LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Click on the button to go to her blog and check out all of the awesome link ups with other product swaps!!!

I was {SUPER} lucky to try out something from Christy and Tammy over at Fluttering Through First Grade!

First of all, have y'all checked out their blog!!!??? It is awesome... they have some awesome ideas and products. LOVE!
Please go and follow {IF YOU DON'T ALREADY}
This is the awesome product that I picked out of their TpT Store to check out!!

It is amazing!!

Here is the product description from TpT:

"My Letter Sound Dictionary" will be your students' favorite way to practice those letter sounds! From reading, printing practice, illustrating, and sentence writing, this interactive dictionary covers it all. Your students will love choosing words from the Class Posters and Word Cards provided to write in their very own Letter Sound Dictionary. 

Whether you use this resource whole group, in your centers rotations, or even as homework, your students will quickly learn and look forward to their Letter Sound Dictionary routine. 
Ok, here is my take on it!
It is AwEsOmE!
First, these ladies included CRYSTAL CLEAR directions!! They mention all of the different ways you might use them in your classroom AND the ways that they use it in their classroom!!
They even included pictures to SHOW you what it looks like!
I LOVE THAT! I am a visual learner so being able to see an example was perfect.
The contents of this pack: detailed directions, letter sound pages with words for each letter (including LONG VOWELS) in a small scale for you to be able to put them on a ring, full-page posters of each letter sound pages with words (for a word wall or sound dictionary), and workbook pages for each letter (including LONG VOWELS) with a cute cover that is available in color and BW. Did I say that they included long vowels??? HAHA That is awesome but even more awesome is that you can take out the long vowels and use this letter sound dictionary with Kinders!! :) YAY!
Here are some pictures of mine!

Here are the word cards all cut up and put on a ring! When you print them you get 4 to a page!

Here is a marker next to the long A card just to give you an idea for the size!

All of the cards!

Here is the full size short A card with a marker on the side!

Here is the Letter Sound Dictionary! Isn't the cover precious!! I'm loving the colors!

These awesome ladies have also included the cover in BW in case you can't print in color. AWESOME!

I had to borrow my SWEET girl after her bath before bedtime to try this out!! She was having a ball!! :)

She loved loved loved it!

She is starting Kindergarten on Wednesday (AAAHHHH!!!) so this packet can be adapted K-1!

She's all done with her name!

All by herself!! I'm so proud of her... she doesn't have an easy last name. LOL {the d is backwards but that's OK!!!}

She traced the A's with 3 crayons!

Here she is using her first color!

Look at her concentrating!!

She then started writing her first word that she chose... apple!

Then drawing an apple!!

{Ok, we only had RoseArt crayons in the house and I find it super super annoying that the colors don't really look like the color they are supposed to be!! Aly thought she had a red but it looks more orange}

The second word she did was ant... look at that beautiful ant drawing... LOVE!

Aly did an alligator and an astronaut. She was a bit confused with the astronaut so I modeled for her! :)

She loved loved loved this activity! 

There is a spot for a sentence using A words but that was a bit too high for my little one so we just skipped it! 

Here is Aly's alligator! She didn't have enough space to write the word "alligator" so she overlapped some letters... we just need to practice a bit more!

Overall, my child LOVED this activity! This is her after I told her we were done!!

Hahaha she is so silly! She was trying to do a sad face! LOL

We ended up working on the letter Bb and then went to bed!!! HAHA I'm at work so Aly stayed with her aunt this morning and that pack went right with her!! I wonder what letter she is on now!? 

You can find this amazing product {HERE} at Fluttering Through First's TpT Store!

Check out Christy and Tammy's store... it is seriously amazing!!! So many cute things!!! 

I am soooo excited that I got paired up with these 2 awesome ladies that have an awesome blog full of awesome ideas... seriously?? Can I say that they are any more AWESOME!!

Please, please, please, check out their blog and check out their awesome ideas!!!

I'm kinda bummed that it's already UGH-UST {hehe I love that from these girls} but I'm super excited about this link up!

Go check out their blog and check out what they have of mine! I was super excited to share something with them that they would be able to use in their classroom!

GO GO GO GO!!! Check out Fluttering Through First Grade's blog and then check out the link up over at Mrs. Stanford's Class!
YAY!
BYE!