Lining up is easy to do

I got a comment yesterday on TpT saying that when she printed my Mother's Day booklet and cut it in half, the pages didn't line up. This happened to my teammate too so I thought I'd better put a tip out there in case anyone else was having trouble.

****Make sure in your printing preferences the box "fit" is not checked. The box "actual size" should be checked.

I will have to go add this tip to TpT when I'm allowed back in to edit!

Thank you SOOO much to all of you who have already purchased this from my store.  This Mother's Day packet is now my best-seller over my Sight Word Superstars!

My 20% off sale is still going on today and tomorrow. Don't forget to use the promo code to get your extra 10% off!

We have grouping today after school. Is this a long process for you? Our meetings usually go about 2 hours and I can just imagine how long it might take with this group! Like I have mentioned before, we have an unusually high number of  behavior issues to try to separate so it should be super fun (insert eye roll here!)

The Grouchy Ladybug

It is insect insanity around here! Last week we learned all about ladybugs. We read non-fiction books and took notes from a powerpoint made my teamie onto a circle map. Then we wrote about what we learned. This book is kid-friendly and has some great facts in the back.

My students loved making this lifecycle wheel from Lapbook Lessons.

We also read the Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. We made these fingerprint ladybugs and then wrote about what makes us grouchy.

 

Check out these grouchy faces!

"I am grouchy when Ray (her brother) calls me the s word."

I casually asked her about the s word and she whispered it was "stupid."
Phew. Mom and I had a good laugh.

Our Mother's Day booklets are done, now we just need to make the gift bag! Remember how I mentioned that the kids come up with great drawing ideas?  I think this is better than the one I did! They are SO excited and having a really hard time not telling their mom about our secret.

Don't forget my TpT sale starts tomorrow!

Teacher Appreciation

I'm throwing a 20% off Teacher Appreciation Sale May 6-8 and TpT  is offering an additional 10% too! Don't forget to use the code below to get a whopping 28% off!

 

 My wishlist is bursting and I have some money left in my school budget to spend! Woo Hoo! As ready as I am to be done with this year, I can't help already planning for next year. If you are like that too, this would be a great time to pick up my Daily Editing Word Problems

 or Sight Word Superstars.

Maybe you want to stock up on games for your math centers?

Or Book Club Packets for reading groups.

Haven't started a Mother's Day Gift yet?  No problem, I have one for you!

Happy Shopping!

Frog and Toad freebies

 We went on a field trip the other day and one of my teamies got to see my class in action. I believe it was while we watched one guy lay face-down on the floor, spread eagle, moving his arms and legs like a snow angel, squawking instead of listening to the speaker when she said something like, "I know you told me but...WOW, you do have some doozies!"

So I apologize for not posting or commenting quite as much as I used to.  I think my brain knows this exhausting year is in the home stretch...19 days! I plan to really try to recharge my batteries this summer. Oh, after I take two weeks of PD on the Common Core and then try to figure out how I can implement them next year because I am on the Guinea Pig Leadership Team. More on that later.

On to the shares. Do you read Frog and Toad?

In our OLD version of Houghton Mifflin we read The Hat and practice cause and effect. I made some multi-flow maps for my lesson that I thought I would share in case you can use them. Did you know you can do half a thinking map? When I was told I could do only one side of a multi-flow with my firsties it seemed much more manageable! Click on the picture to download.

Also, I also got an email from Patty Rutenbar saying she made an envelope label for the free Synonym Roll read the room center I shared. She agreed to let me share her label in case any of you can use it. Click on the picture to download the label. Thanks Patty! If you missed the original center you can click {here.}

Mother's Day Drawing

I had a request from someone using my Mother's Day booklet to help with drawing ideas.  I snapped some pictures of the one I made with my class last year and added them to the pdf so you can download the revision if you already have your copy.

We read the whole poem, then work on two pages a day so it doesn't get overwhelming. We brainstorm ideas for each page and I draw one of them using the document camera. I encourage the students to use their own creativity but those who find drawing intimidating are comforted to have my model.

The kids' drawing is always much cuter than mine. This one cracked me up last year.

I follow the same procedure with the bag drawing. This sweetie had the good idea to draw her mom's eyes closed.

Hope these pictures are helpful! 

If you don't have a Mother's Day gift idea yet you can get this one {HERE.}