Come SEA what keeps me AFLOAT at TPT!!!

All this week there has been a building excitement!  Sellers from TpT were informed that there are now 3 MILLION Teachers working together on TpT!!!  Can you believe that!

So, my blogging group, Owlways Be Inspired got together to talk about how we could best help all 2.99 of you out there in Teacher Land.  We decided to blog from the heart and share resources that keep us going....the packs that we fall back on because they are just plain awesome!  I am going to be short and sweet because I know you don't have a lot of time if you are like me!

Be sure to go check out my store and see what all you need!  

Here are a few of my favorites!

This is my ultimate favorite!  I use this all the time to keep track of mastery of common core standards.  This helps me with my sanity!

Jen Ross has this AWESOME money pack that I have been pulling from.  Money isn't technically on our schedule for another few weeks.  <What were they thinking when they did that??> But, I have gone ahead and introduced it and this is the ULTIMATE pack for beginning with money.  I don't know what I would do without it.

I think I own every packet that Denise has ever created!  I have been following her for years and my kid's even ask 'Is this Denise's?'  haha!!  The Ready, Set, Print packets that she has in her store are great for warm-ups, content checks, and even sub packets.  I honestly couldn't live without them.

Amanda Madden has been one of my favorites for years.  I have been purchasing from her for about 10 years now...before TpT was even thought of!!  I love this Graph a Week Unit because it has all sorts of bar graphs and they are easy to use.

An InLinkz Link-up

100th Day of School

I saw 100!!  All sorts of hats and posters were everywhere as our Kindergarten team celebrated our 100th day!   I took a couple of pictures and thought I would share them with you!

This cute young man was glad to put on his hat to show me how handsome he was.  He said, "It's a little crumpled.  Sorry!".  I think they sort of look like dread locks now!!  Thanks to my friend Kelley Dolling for creating this beauty!  I wish you could have seen all of the hats as the kids walked down the hallway!!! 

This is the great, young Ms. Marbury who just recently got engaged, one of the kindergarten teachers that I work with modeling the latest fashionista style created by another one of our co-workers.

Since she isn't showing it off in this picture, I am including a closeup of her beautiful engagement ring!  Her man did a great job picking it out!

  I told her that I was going to make her the next greatest "pin-up girl"!!  So, get ready to pin her stylin' self.

And I can't forget to show you my favorite project by one of the Kindergartners:  it was made with puffy stickers!

Friendly Letters

It is about time to start friendly letters in my classroom!  I've been modeling how to write letters for some time now, so it is about time for my kids to take the plunge and get started themselves!  So, I've been working on finding some resources that I can use to help them and I decided to share them with you!

First up is the "Friendly Letter Song"

Next is this great little ditty "Write Me A Letter".  Last year when I used this, my kids would sing along!  It is on You Tube, but I couldn't get the movie to come up on the blog.  Just go check it out for yourself.

Another blogger, Holly at Crisscross Applesauce in first grade has some printables that I use, also.  Just click here to go to her site!

                                                         Click here to go to Holly's site!

I also found a Friendly Letter Board on Pinterest if you want to go follow it!  

I am done scouting the web for Friendly Letter Resources!  Ta Ta!!

Jenn

The Thing About November...

The thing about November is that it really makes you stop and think about what you are thankful for...and it is a time when you can share your thoughts about what you are thankful for (especially now that Facebook is around!).  I am so thankful for so many things...I am thankful for my family, friends, the blogging community, and you.  Yes you!  You give me a reason to write and a reason to share when I'd be just as happy if I crawled back into my shell and sat back and watched life happen.  Thank you!

Speaking of watching life happen, I am the world's worse when it comes to schedules.  I have a HORRIBLE time following them when it comes to the classroom.  So, when I heard about the linky that Susan Jones was linking, I figured I might as well join up. 

 There has been a lot of talk about RTI and how it fits into schedules and I have to confess that I am REALLY worried this week as I begin teaching 2 different RTI groups while trying to put the BALANCE into Balanced Literacy with only 120 minutes to teach literacy.  That gives me an hour to do all of my guided reading groups, my read aloud, my shared reading, throw in some social studies and science, teach some phonics, create my anchor charts,oh, and I forgot....writer's workshop.  And to think, I stopped biting my fingernails years ago...anyway...here is my schedule.

My Schedule 

8:15 Folders are out kids 'Read to Self'

8:30-9:00  RTI

9:00-9:30 Whole Group

9:30-9:45 Small Group

9:45-10:15 2nd RTI Group

10:15-10:45 Small Groups

10:45 Related Arts, except on Friday. 

11:30 Clean Up 

11:40 Lunch 

12:05 Recess 

12:30 Math and math activities 

2:40 Clean up and get ready for dismissal. 

This week I am using Lemonade for Sale by Stuart J. Murphy as my read aloud!

I also wanted to show you what I am using in my classroom this week!  I'm not big on visual plans, but how about a visual list??  =)

Here is a fluency pack from none other than the NUTTY AS A FRUITCAKE, Missy Squirrels!  

This packet was created by Amanda Madden from Teaching Maddeness!  We are teaching about producers, consumers, needs, and wants this week.

And, of course I am using my old standby to teach sight words!  Lori is awesome!

I don't have any big ideas for a craftivity.  Any suggestions?  Just leave them in the comment section!

Literacy Anchor Chart Linky

Hi friends!  I thought it would be fun to put together a group of Anchor Charts for Literacy.  If you are like me, you are always looking for a great 'hook' to use to teach your students.  Here is one that was sent to me by Susan, a 4th grade teacher in North Carolina.  Thank you, Susan, for sending this to me!

This type of chart is GREAT to us to pull together the different of a theme or idea and summarize it.  A few teachers and I were talking the other day about how our charts aren't as 'pretty' as some charts we see on Pinterest or Blogs.  Never fear!  There is a time to go back and 'publish' your charts and then there is a time when you forge ahead and go on to the next skill!  If you would like to read another post about anchor charts, just click here!

Feel free to join in on this linky!  Also, if you aren't a blogger, but you want to share your anchor charts, just email them to me and I'll be glad to share them!