Sunday, April 29, 2012

Antonym Ants {Freebie}

Last week, my firsties worked on synonyms. They had a blast being synonym chefs {Thank you...Cara Carroll}. This week I thought that we would work on antonyms. My mom who is a 2nd grade teacher, gave me this wonderful, terrific, fantastic idea...


It's an antonym picnic ant...get it? {hahahah...} Ok...maybe I'm the only one laughing at this slightly corny word play but I think that it is adorable. If you would like to snag this freebie just click here...




Included is this freebie is the antonym ant picnic craftivity and a recording sheet to write pairs on antonyms. Also, I'm excited because I was able to create the little ant graphics on the recording sheet myself with my new Bamboo Tablet. {yay!} I hope you like it! 

Also..if you haven't checked out my previous post click here...Flower-rama freebie to snag some of my flower graphics I posted the other day on TpT for free. 

Have a fantabulous week of teaching! 

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Flower-Rama! {Freebie}

I was just able to post my first clip art creation pack on Tpt. It's a freebie, so go check it out and let me know what you think. I'm afraid that the graphics may seem a big blurry if they are sized to be bigger. :( If someone out there could give me some pointers on how to not make this happen, I would totally appreciate it! I hope that these can be useful to all of you.

Here it is...

Flower-rama!


Friday, April 27, 2012

A Winner & My Newest Endeavor {help needed}

And the winner of my Fiesta Fun! {Math & Literacy Mini Pack} is...

I loved your Spanish phrase Rachel. I can't wait for summer beach days! I'll be emailing the pack to you shortly.

Now, on to my newest endeavor....creating clip art. I've been doodling some things on my new Bamboo Tablet {love it!} I'm ready to save and post some freebie clip art to TpT, but I have no idea how to go about doing this. I'm stuck...I've been using the program Sketchbook Pro. Any help that any of you out there could give me would be very much appreciated! Here's a preview of my doodlings that I can't wait to post...


Have a fabulous weekend!


Tuesday, April 24, 2012

hola amigos del blog! {Hello Blog Friends!}

I've been attempting to learn some Spanish (I totally used google translate though for that sentence). Ha! I got a nifty little app for my iphone that has been helping me learn some basic words because I'm going to Bogota, Colombia this summer for a second time. I am determined to know more Spanish than I did the last time I went! I'm going with a team from my church to teach a VBS style camp at an orphanage.  I'm co-creator of a road rally that is coming up very soon that is a fundraiser for the mission team. If you've never heard of a roady rally it is like the amazing race. You go from place to place, finding and solving clues that will get you to the next location. Anyways, the road rally we are having happens to fall on Cinco De Mayo and... the theme for the rally is a fiesta. So, in the spirit of learning Spanish and co-creating the fiesta road rally...I put together a little fiesta pack that you can check out here: 
Fiesta Fun! {Math & Literacy Mini Pack}





And wait, that's not all...I'm going to give away one copy of my Fiesta Fun! {Math & Literacy MIni Pack}. On Viernes {Friday}...probably in the evening, I will choose a random winner. All you need to do is be a follower of my blog and leave a comment with a spanish word/phrase {with an english translation por vavor} to add to my Spanish vocabulary! 

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Riddles and a sale!

My firsties had some fun this week reading and writing riddle poems. At the beginning of the week we used Christina's fun Poetry Predictions activity. Then, we wrote our own riddle poems. Here's a little freebie to help your kiddos write their own insect riddles...


 Click Here: {Insect Riddle}


I'm joining in on the Tax Break 15% off sale tomorrow on my TpT store. Thank you JenniferRachelle (thank you for the banner!), and Hadar for the fun idea! 




 


Sunday, April 8, 2012

Tag! & More!

I was tagged by Tessa today from Tales from Outside the Classroom. I decided to wait to participate until I had all my stuff around for school tomorrow! Now for the fun. :)

Here's the scoop {rules}!...
Post these rules.
*Answer the 10 questions that the tagger posted for you.
*Create 10 questions of your own to ask the people that you're about to tag. (I'm missing how many people I'm suppose to tag, so I'm going to make up my own number!)

Here are my questions...


1. Who made the biggest impact on your decision to become a teacher?
My mom is a teacher and after spending lots of time helping her out in the classroom I was inspired to become a teacher. :)
2. What has been one of your favorite teaching moments?
This happened my first year of teaching. I got hired in where I'm teaching now the Friday before school started and it was only part time. I taught first grade in the morning for math, and ELA. Then, in the afternoon they were put in with the second graders for science, social studies, and Bible. There were 12 first graders and I believe 10 second graders. It was about the fourth week into school when the principal called me out in the hallway to tell me that he wanted to see me before I left today. I remember thinking yikes! did I do something wrong? am I in trouble? I think he could tell by the look on my face because then he said well I guess I could just ask you now...would you be interested in teaching first grade full time? I was so excited! :)
3. What is your favorite thing to teach?
I LOVE teaching writing! 
4. What is your favorite thing to do outside of school?
I enjoy volunteering with activities through my church. I help out at Clubhouse, which is a children's program on Wednesday nights and youth group activities on Thursday nights. I also love to shop and play card games. :)
5. What do you plan to do over summer break?
I'm going back to Bogota, Colombia this summer on a mission trip. We help out at an orphanage there for a week and outreach to the community through a church there. I'm also planning on running a fireworks tent at the local grocery store. It's a fundraiser that will help a couple at our church adopt 3 kids from Bogota, Colombia. Oh...and I'm taking another class towards my Masters. 
6. If you weren't teaching, what would you be doing?
I'm really not sure...probably something in a science field? 
7. If there was only one thing people knew about me, I wish they would know....
That it is disgusting to lick your fingers after you eat something like Doritos. :) 
8. What is your favorite tv show?
I use to love The Office...but notsomuch this season. I would have to say now I enjoy Once Upon a Time or 30 Rock.
9. What are you addicted to?  (think Diet Coke, flip flops, etc!) :)
Starbucks anything! 
10. What is the best non-children's book that you've ever read?
This question is hard! I love books....um I guess I would have to say Praise Habit by David Crowder

So...here are my 10 questions...
1. Was there a blog that inspired you to create your own? If so which blog inspired you?
2. What is your favorite place to visit?
3. What are you planning on doing over the summer?
4. What is your favorite kind of writing utensil?
5. Do you create things for TpT? If so which item are you the most proud of that you posted?
6. What do you love to teach?
7. What is your most memorable experience from school. 
8. What have of behavior management system do you use in your classroom?
9. What's your favorite color? (I'm running out of question ideas!)
10. Are you counting down to summer break?

Whew....and here are the fantastical bloggers that I would love to hear all about!
Fluttering Through First Grade

Heather's heart

Photobucket

Mrs. Hoffer's Spot


 Great {First Grade} Expectations



And you're all it! 


Now for the {More!} part of my post....
I stumbled across a giveaway today that I wanted to share it with all of you. One of my favorite clip art artists {Ginger} is having a giveaway on her blog. The winner gets EVERYTHING in her clip art shop! 
Click the picture for all the details.



Good Luck! 



















Drum roll please...

She is the winner of my newest pack Ladybugs & Other Insects {Math & Literacy Fun!}

Well unfortunately my spring break is coming to an end and I have a few things to get around for tomorrow still, so it's a short post tonight. :) Happy Easter! 

Friday, April 6, 2012

Buggy Fun {with a freebie & a giveaway}

Whew... spring break is flying by! I've been spending time working on my master's class, having some fun...

like...

Going to Winter Jam  and hearing a bunch of great bands for only 10 bucks! What a deal! This is the last band on the line up...Skillet. They put on a great show with their musicians on moveable stands, and their drummer on a rotating platform and fire that burst out too! We were close enough to feel the heat. CrAzY! 



That was Sunday night and then on Monday I headed off to Chicago for some shopping fun with my mom and delicious Snickers cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. 


Then, yesterday it's been a tradition to take the youth group to Lake Michigan. It was in the forties yesterday and very windy, but the sunset was beautiful!




Now to the freebie...before starting my spring break I posted a new unit on TpT called: Ladbugs & Other Insects: {Math and Literacy Fun!} I can't wait to use it with my firsties. We'll be reading lots of books about ladybugs and doing a little writing craftivity from the pack. 

I found some great fiction ladybug books too and one of them is ...

The Very Lazy Ladybug

Anyways, I have some freebies posted here: Lazy Ladybug Freebies {just click the link!} that you can check out to go with this book.








I hope that you'll be able to use these in your classroom! Now to the giveaway part...I'm going to giveaway my newest unit:



Click here to check out all of the goodies in it here: Ladybugs & Other Insects {Math & Literacy Fun!}

To enter just follow my blog and tell me your favorite creepy crawly {bug}! I'll choose a random winner on Easter Sunday afternoon and leave your email address too! :)













Monday, April 2, 2012

And the winner is...


Congratulations Lorie! You'll be receiving an email with all your goodies soon! I just got back from a concert {Winter Jam}....so I am super tired. I will blog more tomorrow!