We Have a Winner!

The giveaway winner is...

I'm sorry that I didn't let you know sooner. Hopefully I'll be back to post again tomorrow! Jen, I will email soon! :)

Learning Spots Review and Giveaway, Weeding and Pigeon

My arms are sore. Did I work out? Lift weights? NO, I weeded the front yard. It looks so much better, but I can't believe how sore I am. Maybe if I do that more often I'll have the arms I've always wanted. It probably won't happen! :)

This week, I'm passing out my last book orders and we're making our summer stacks.

We're also starting our economics unit and using the Pigeon to help!

                                                           Pigeon Needs and Wants!

And now for the giveaway! I don't know if I ever told you, but I <3 my projector. I try not to say too much at school because not everyone has one, but I really love it.
Here is a pic of it:

Isn't it beautiful? I use it every day! :)
Now I MUST tell you about Learning Spot Lessons! From the first time I tried Learning Spot lessons, I knew they were perfect for meeting the needs of my first graders. They are from Carson-Dellosa and are awesome! They are made for interactive whiteboards and they have lessons in math, language arts and science that are Common Core based! Each instructional unit includes teacher notes to help you meet the needs of all students, interactive activities, student activities and practice pages. You couldn't ask for more!!! I've tried the skip counting unit, long and short vowels, blends and digraphs and shapes. Each one was just what I needed and my first graders loved it! I love all of the practice that they provide in such a fun way.I can't wait to try some more. Fact Families and Map Skills are next on my wishlist! To take a look at Learning Spot lessons, visit this site: http://bit.ly/JLdDJs

Would you like the chance to win not 1, but 5 Learning Spot lessons (Valued at $14.99 each!) +

Jaime's King of the Grill +

My Math Carnival Center Activities?

You have up to 5 chances to enter by doing the following:

1. Follow my blog.

2. Follow my TPT store ~Here

3. Follow Jaime's TPT store ~ Here

4. Like Carson-Dellosa on Facebook.

5. Blog about this giveaway and link back to this blog.

(You will need to leave a separate comment for each item you complete to serve as your entries.)

*You must leave your email address with your comments so we can quickly email you to get your mailing address.

The giveaway will end on Thursday at 11:59 p.m. EST. I will announce the winner on Friday!

RULES: Giveaway open to U.S. residents only. Must be 18 yrs or older. Giveaway ends Thursday, May 24, 2012 at 11:59 PM EST. Rules must be followed. Winners will be selected using Random.org and will be emailed no later than Saturday, May 26, 2012 and given 72 hours to respond with a mailing address. In the event of no response, a new winner will be chosen. Blogger is not responsible for prize fulfillment. Prize fulfillment comes directly from participating sponsor. By entering this giveaway, you agree to have read these rules.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

This is the time of year when the time goes by so quickly and we have something planned every weekend! (It seems like every minute of every weekend!)

But that's just the way it is! My school fair was last night. The kids love to see us outside of school so it is a great event. It wipes me out though because it makes for a LONG day!

I didn't get to post any Mother's Day project pics so here is one:

This is what the girls, (and even some boys - running the cash register), have been doing this week during play. I didn't get to get my hair straightened...maybe next week!

I don't know about you, but my kiddos have been super squirrels lately and we do not even do a countdown!!! I don't even talk about the end of the year. Honestly, it stresses me out because there is SO much to do! Here is something I just finished for the end of the school year:

It is on TPT right now! I will write again tomorrow to let you know about a giveaway that I am having, but I have to head out right now. Before I do, however, you have to check out the CUTEST $1 craft on TPT.

It is so stinkin' cute and we're totally making it for Father's Day! (Many of us are still in school until the middle of June!)

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday. I'll be back tomorrow with giveaway details! :)

Everyone Needs a Magic Pencil Sharpener

A few months ago, I heard about this pencil sharpener that was supposed to be amazing, but I must tell you, I was a little skeptical. I have had so many electric sharpeners that broke very quickly and the sharpener in my classroom - well, we don't even want to go there.

But I really needed a good sharpener, so I decided to try it out.



Guess what? It really is amazing! My kiddos call it "the magic sharpener" because I put their pencils in and they come out perfect every time! They are used to standing at the class sharpener on the wall for 5 minutes only to have a pencil that still isn't sharp. They love that they can come to this sharpener, and in just a few seconds, their pencil is perfect. They really think it is magic!

If you don't have one, click on the picture above and get one right now! I promise you won't regret it and like me, you'll be wanting more than one! My teacher friends all want one for their classroom, actually everyone who uses it wants it! (Even my hubby wants one for work and he's not even a teacher!)

Thank you to all of my bloggy friends for telling me about this sharpener and thank you to Troy for creating such a "magical" product! :)

Ahh Thursday...

Leading me to my favorite day!!! I'm ready for the weekend!

We are busy learning about plants this week. We are using the plant unit from First Grade Hip, Hop Hurray and our first graders LOVE it. It is on TPT and only $3.00! If you need a plant unit, this is the one for you! I love it when I buy a unit and it's just what I'm looking for!

We did ACES, All Children Exercise Simultaneously, yesterday. We had the whole school in the cafeteria doing Just Dance 3. Oh my. I don't have a Wii, so I had never played, but I would seriously need to put it in slow motion to keep up. I was so proud when I could finally do some of the arm movements and then they started adding footwork! What? Ok, so I'm totally uncoordinated. It wasn't pretty!!! The kids LOVED it, however!

We are also working on our writing for Mother's Day. I love the ideas they come up with.
 Like this:

Is that precious or what? If you still need a quick Mother's Day craft w/writing, my Mother's Day project is available here.

Jaime, from What's the Buzz, and I made little gifts for our first graders last year that said, "You are O-fish-ally a Second Grader!"
I'm not sure where the idea came from, but we loved it. She made labels and a has a template in her TPT store and it's FREE! Click on the picture below to check it out. Thanks for the freebie, Jaime! :)

 Enjoy your Friday! :)

Winner and Discovery Time!

Okay, so what did I do on my Saturday night? Did I have wild and crazy plans? No, I fell asleep on the couch at about 8:00 before I could post about the winner of the giveaway. I'm sorry! Here is the winner:

I'll contact you soon! Thanks to everyone who entered and thanks for your support of my friend Sara in the TPT banner contest. She didn't win, but it was fun!

Do you have time for your students to play built into the day? I call mine Discovery Time because I don't want it to be thought of as free choice. I want them to have a purpose. While they are playing, I find that I am pulling kids for an assessment or extra help. There is just not enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do!

We have a wonderful Literacy Coach in our district. (Read about her at What's the Buzz in First or New Adventures in First Grade!) She gave our K teachers this idea from another teacher about having a "seminar" during this time where you can can meet with a small group and work on skills/strategies that need extra practice. The day they told me I knew I had to do it so the next day, we had our first seminar. I called it a seminar and told the children what seminars are and why adults attend. I put up a sign-up sheet with 5 slots and it filled up right away! We reviewed /ar/, made pirate patches with paper and string and read pirate jokes. There was a lot of pirate talk going on! Before having any repeats, I wanted to have a few new seminars, so we've also had greater than/less than, (where we made alligator puppets and chose between numbers to eat), and contractions (contraction surgery).

They are EATING it up! They look for the sign-up sheet every day and many who aren't a part of the seminar are watching! The seminars don't last that long, so the children still have time to play, but they really want to be at the seminar.

The kids are loving it and many who didn't sign up, watch!

My hope is that soon, they will start to host seminars of their own during Discovery Time! :)

I have a little Mother's Day craft available on TPT. It looks like this:

 If you'd like to win it, be one of the first three to comment about this post and tell me if you have play at your school and what your kiddos do during this time. Please leave your email. Enjoy your Sunday!

Pigeon Giveaway Ends Tonight and a Freebie!

It's Friday! SOOOO happy! Not sure exactly what's going on this weekend, but I MUST work out! I haven't been feeling well lately and I think that will help. I've been slacking a bit...

If you haven't entered my Pigeon giveaway, what are you waiting for? It ends tonight! See this post and enter up to 5 times!

This week we focused on r-controlled vowels in some of my small groups, so I made a little activity that my kiddos loved. We made eye patches out of paper and cord and then went around to search for -ar words by reading pirate "jokes". I called them jokes, but I made them up and they are really ridiculous! Here is one:

I used library pockets and they had to pull out the answers from the back, say the ar word in their best pirate voice and write the ar words on gelboards. The last one said, "What is a pirate's favorite candy?" The answer was Smarties and of course we had to sample a few!

I really like to do activities where they can move, so another day I had them hunt around the room for ar words and they had to sort them by whether they are real or nonsense. Here is a copy of that:

I only used 15 words, but you could add more nonsense words if you wanted.

Have a wonderful weekend! Giveaway winners will be announced tomorrow! :)