Nightmares and Notebooks

Shhhh...I am supposed to be on vacation with my family and not blogging but I just had to jump on and tell you I had my first school anxiety dream last night. Have you had one yet? I am not the only wacko who gets these, right?

It wasn't the showing up to school naked kind, more of the wide awake at 2 AM with lists of things that still need doing rolling through my head kind. It was probably triggered by the email I read from my principal yesterday listing the zillions of meetings and trainings I will be required to attend rather than work in my room next week. Less than a week left of summer for me :-(

I am a planner and like to get things ready early. One of the jobs that always drives me crazy is labeling anything with student names because it has to be done as close to the first day as you dare. Do I go ahead and start labeling and hope there aren't too many name changes?  I used to type the names on the labels but it was inconvenient when I got a student change at the last minute to go in retype since I would have to print out a whole sheet of labels. So, I switched to making cute labels and doing all the sticking on the notebooks and folders ahead of time. Then I write the names in when I am feeling daring desperate.  If I was less Type A, I would have the kids write their own names on everything the first day but I'll be honest, I'm not there yet. What can I say, I am a work in progress.

I uploaded the labels I use for folders and notebooks and made a few more trying to anticipate what others might need and uploaded them to TpT. They are formatted for Avery 2x4 labels. Click {HERE} to save yourself some time and grab yourself a set.

I had a few requests to change the wording on my Decoding Strategies for Parents letter to make it gender neutral. In the letter I refer to the parents' student and saying he or she every time was WAY too wordy so I reverted to the old-fashioned he. My gut instinct was to use they but I was afraid other teachers might not like it since it really is a plural. After doing some research, it seems this continues to be a problem since there is no appropriate pronoun and my gut was right and using they is deemed acceptable. So, to make a long story longer, I edited the letter using they and hope those that didn't appreciate the he will be happy.  Click {HERE} if you missed my Decoding Strategies post and have no idea what I am talking about. Click the picture below to go download the revision if you already bought it (THANK YOU!)

 If you have not entered my MEGA GIVEAWAY you still have time! Click {HERE} to enter. You could be one of 24 lucky winners!!

I'm off to the beach but I'd like to giveaway a copy of my labels to a lucky follower so enter below and I will sneak on again later to announce a winner.

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MY MEGA GIVEAWAY

To celebrate reaching 2,000 followers, I am thrilled to host a

Some of my favorite bloggers agreed to join the party and YOU could be one of 24 lucky winners!!!!!
Sorry for the super long post but I think you will agree it is worth it!

 Click on each picture to visit these awesome blogs.

 

Isn't that an amazing list? My bloggy friends really are the best! Good Luck!!!!!

I'm not getting sales notifications from TpT anymore since the upgrade. Does anyone know if that is a bug or are they not doing that anymore?

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Pencil Basket FREEBIE and a winner!

With just 2 weeks until I go back (nooooooooo) I am starting to work on those nitty gritty details. Today I redid my pencil baskets.

I bought these black baskets in the Target Dollar Spot. If you'd like a FREE copy of the labels click {HERE.}

Last year I used 2 that looked like this:

I borrowed this pic from http://www.youaremyfave.com/ since I forget to take a pic.

They worked okay but I have 30 students so I wanted to be able to keep more pencils in there. Plus, my students sometimes knocked it over so I was hoping the larger base on the black one will prevent that.

Do you use dull/sharp baskets? Yes, I have to teach them the vocabulary word dull but rather than avoid it, I embrace it as a teachable moment! I can't stand the sound of the pencil sharpener so I ask parent volunteers to do it in the office or at recess to keep the pencils stocked. I train the kids that they must leave a dull to get a sharp so they don't end up hoarding pencils!

I would also like to announce the winner of my Decoding Strategies Giveaway.

Congrats to Janina!

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I am happy to say my TpT store issues have been resolved so you can click {HERE} to go grab your set for only $2.

Decoding Strategies for PARENTS & more!

 I am pretty excited to share with you something I have been working on all summer!

As a first grade teacher, I have had parents tell me that they WANT to help their child learn to read but they just don't know HOW.  Most parents rely on saying, "Sound it out," or simply correcting the word for the student. One parent said to me last year, "I didn't go to school for this like you did. I don't even know what you mean by decoding."

So, I made a Decoding Strategy Quick-Reference Guide for the parents to keep at home. The parent of one of the boys I tutor tried it out for me this summer and she said it was SO helpful!  She comes in every day telling me which strategies she was able to suggest he try when he got stuck. Yea!!!

I will go over it at Back-to-School-Night and show them the hand gestures I use. For example, flipping my hand from palm up to palm down for "flip the sound." I also included a parent letter to send home.

I am also excited to have copies laminated to refer to when I am teaching or coaching students during Guided Reading. Copies will also be available for partner reading since I already teach the students to suggest a strategy rather than tell their partner the word.

I made matching icons to put on my CAFE board when I teach the strategy. If you don't use CAFE you could use these on anchor charts.

 I also made Flip the Sounds Posters for my phonics bulletin board. In the beginning of the year we review letter sounds and I make a BIG deal about the letters that can make 2 sounds and teach the "flip the sounds" strategy. I will refer to this poster and go over these OFTEN!! I am always shocked when I tutor 3rd graders who cannot accurately identify vowel sounds!!

I made a separate poster of the more complex sounds to introduce as we get to them.

I went with a simpler frame to save on ink and I backed it with scrapbook paper. I am a little obsessive about "framing" things like this. I can't stand laminating a plain white page and will often add a "frame" on a math game, etc for my own pleasure even though it totally isn't necessary. I know...it is a sickness.

So what do you think? I am feeling like this may really make a huge difference for my families.
You can start printing and laminating by grabbing your copies for only $2 in my TpT store. As usual, I'd also like to give a copy to a loyal follower so enter my new giveaway below!
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Congrats to Dana for winning one of my Common Core Assessment Packs in my giveaway that ended yesterday!
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Common Core Assessment Packs now K-3 & Big Brother

I finally finished the 3rd Grade version of my Common Core Assessment pack. Geesh, there were a lot! You can pick up a copy in my TpT store by clicking on the picture.

The thumbnail generator seems to be down at TpT but you can download the preview.

Just like the K, 1, & 2 versions, it includes all the ELA & Math standards. You can read more about how I plan to use these {here} if you missed my previous post. Thanks so much to everyone who has bought them. I am so glad you think they will be helpful!

I am not sure I have as many 3rd grade followers so to try to reach more people I am going to run a promotion giveaway. To enter to win your choice of a K, 1, 2, or 3rd grade Assessment Pack, please spread the word about them with a link back to me on your blog, facebook. twitter, or pinterest. If you don't partake in any of that, you can still enter by telling someone the old-fashioned way. :-)
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Okay, on to Big Brother...

This group is kinda BORING so far! I'm sure part of the problem is that with the coaches, things got strategic right away. Instead of naturally making alliances by friendship the groups were formed for them right away. Plus Big Brother has restricted the alcohol a lot more since that one year they were kinda crazy. I'm not sure why when it would be a sure way to get more interesting t.v.

I had to laugh last night (Showtime) when Janelle, Ian, and Ashley were trying to figure out how many days were in July and couldn't. Seriously?? Too bad Danielle the supposed Kindergarten teacher wasn't in the room. I would have liked to see if they thought to ask her.

Boogie just bugs me. He seems like such a slimeball! Shane weirdly gets little camera time. They say he works out a lot and doesn't drink or smoke.