Teacher Appreciation Sale!

Teachers Notebook is celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week with a big sale!  They are offering 10% off in addition to the sale prices, as well as Oriental Trading gift card giveaways!  My entire store is 15% off all week, so click on the picture below to take a look!

                       

Click on the next link to enter the giveaway.  If you click through this link from my blog and win, I win too!  (You could win a $100 gift card.  I could win a $25 gift card.)  

  

When you visit the site, be sure to enter my giveaway, too!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!  

Mandarin Workbook 1: Practicing at Home

As my children continue their Mandarin lessons, we have started practicing more at home.  Instead of just a couple of days a week, we actually sit down for half an hour or more EVERY night to work on writing characters and vocabulary. (This is, of course, encouraged by sticker charts and a pretty decent prize box!  All worth it, in my opinion, because their teachers are seeing improvement, too!)

Tonight they were working on pages from a new set I just posted, "Learning Chinese Characters:  Workbook 1 (simplified)"  The set focuses on 28 different characters.   It contains a mix of characters that both occur frequently and others that would allow me to create some easy beginning sentences.  

This set has tracing sheets, cut-and-glue sheets, a matching game, and color by character sheets.

After the product was posted, it occurred to me that I should have beginning books to match the set.  That way, students (or my own children) can really apply what they have learned.  I'm working on these now.  (Three are already finished!)  And, of course, all of the materials have been reviewed by native speakers. :)

P.S.   My pictures were enhanced with the app "Pic Stitch."  You should try it out!

Second Grade Math Journal Prompts Combo Pack and a FREEBIE!

Whew!  I am so happy to announce that I've finished my last set of common core based second grade math journal prompts!  I've been working on them for a while now, so it feels great to finally finish the set for all year.   

First of all, I have found math journals to be so helpful in my own classroom.  

CLICK HERE to visit my blog post on kindergarten and first grade prompts.  While you're there, be sure to  download the FREE SET of prompts! 

We do math journal prompts almost every morning.  It's great to know that students are getting some common core review first thing.  Students enjoy the prompts because they usually take only a few minutes and almost always require a little drawing, coloring, and creativity.  Parents enjoy seeing the finished pages during conferences and at the end of the year.  I enjoy seeing the progress students have made in math over the course of the year.  

I enjoy providing you with a FREE set so you can check out how I arrange my prompts and get a chance to try them in your own classroom.  While the larger set addresses ALL of the Common Core Standards, this sample set only addresses a few of them.   Click on the caption below the picture to grab a set!  

CLICK HERE TO GET A FREE SET!   

As for the second grade prompts COMBO pack, you can click on the caption below to take a look at it.  The pack includes 8 different sets of prompts with 60 prompts each (differentiated), for a total of 480 prompts!  The best part is that it's cheaper---$12 cheaper than buying each set separately.  (FYI:  When you download the Combo Pack preview, you get 6 more prompts for FREE!)  

CHECK IT OUT HERE!  

Well, I hope you enjoy the FREE set and take a look at the combo pack, too.  Math journal prompts have worked well in my classroom.  I hope you and your class will benefit from them, too!    

Ending the Year "Write"!

     The end of the year is almost here!  (Rhyme intended, of course!)  Oh, my!

So, even though we do write throughout the year, I am trying to focus a little more on writing as the year draws to a close.  We are writing just for writing practice, writing for the holidays (We'll be writing for Earth Day soon.), writing for our reading responses, writing for science, and for any other reason I can think of!  

Writing during science

    I can't tell you how glad I am to have these writing journals handy!  I just run off a set that matches our theme (or a blank one) and we're ready to write!  I always give an example at the beginning (spelling by using our "kindergarten sounds"), especially one that encourages them to write MORE.  I remind them to use our word wall, invented spelling, and ask friends.  And, like I have to every year, I remind them that they are not as old as so-and-so's big brother, so they don't know how to spell everything yet and aren't expected to.  

    I thought maybe your class could use a set of these journals, too.  So . . . I'm putting them on sale!  They're 20% off all week (thru midnight CST on April 24th)!  You can find them HERE.  If you want to try them out first, download a FREE SET of 5 HERE.

If you download the freebie, please take a minute to leave a little feedback to let me know what you think.  I hope your students like them!  

Thanks for reading!

Spring FREEBIE Linky Party!

In this post you will find:    

Links to 3 great FREEBIES and even more at the bottom of the page!  

  

The first one I'll list is my latest FREEBIE, "Spring into Subtraction!"  With this center activity, students can practice subtraction with differences of less than ten.  It is  appropriate for use in preK to second grade.  

 

The second great FREEBIE is from Mr. Hughes.  It's a set of April Stationery with pages for both primary and upper grades. 

You can get the third awesome FREEBIE at "From the Pond."  It's an addition game for PreK to first called "Peas and Carrots."  Although it's not exactly a spring theme, rabbits eat carrots, so I think it should count!  

Now you can share one of your great spring freebies (or one that you found) by adding a link to your blog post below.    

There are only 2 rules:  

1) Your link MUST go to your blog and NOT directly to your store.

2) The items in your post must all be FREEBIES!

If you don't have a blog, then just have fun checking out all the FREEBIES!   

Spring Has Sprung Sale!

Well, for some places it has--just not here!  It was a balmy 30 degrees here today with a windchill of, say, about 10!  I really don't know, but it was so windy it felt like the middle of winter!  So I doubt that the first day of spring tomorrow is going to be much different in terms of weather, but for me it's a sign that warmer days are not far off!  

To celebrate, I thought I'd throw a SALE!  I'm having a sale just for one day, March 20th, and everything in the store is 10% off!!!  Be sure to drop by my TPT store!  

Here are a few SPRING ITEMS that you might like.  Just click on the picture to take a look!

This set helps students practice reading fluency AND addition!
PreK to 3rd.

This set helps with grammar, punctuation, AND sight words.
PreK to 1st.

This set helps students with grammar, punctuation, AND sight words.
2nd and 3rd.

In addition to these, I have 2 new items summer-themed items that are still 50% off.  You can always find my latest products by visiting my store and choosing the "Most Recent" option for filtering items.  

Again, thank you so much for following my blog and store!  

Happy teaching!

Common Core Based Cut-and-Glue Math for Kinder, First, and Second

Just in case you haven't seen these yet, I wanted to tell you about my cut-and-glue math workbooks.  I have always enjoyed doing a lot of cutting and gluing activities in my classroom (hence, my cut-and-glue sight word sentences), but the idea came to me for 3 reasons:  

1)  For the past few years, I have had several advanced students who could read fairly well and do math, yet they had NO idea how to cut or how much glue to use.  

2)  I wanted to cover the standards in a way that was more engaging than your run-of-the-mill worksheet.

3) My students really enjoy cutting, gluing, and coloring but don't have enough opportunities to do these things.

So, I combined my goals and came up with Common Core Based Cut-and-Glue Math Workbooks for kindergarten (Some of the pages also work well in preschool.), first, and second grade.  I use the kindergarten set both in my classroom and at home.  Here are some pictures of my son (newly 4 years old) and my daughter (recently 5)  doing a couple of pages at home:  

My son did a counting page.

                                               

My daughter did an addition page.  

Plus, you're in luck!  I just finished my "Second Grade Math Common Core Cut-and-Glue Workbook:  Summer Version!"  I'm giving away 3 copies in my Teachers Notebook store!  CLICK HERE to enter!  The giveaway lasts thru Thursday, March 14th.  If you don't win, you still have thru midnight on Friday to get a copy at 50% off!  

Here are my cut-and-glue workbooks for spring if you would like to take a look:

Oh, and I almost forgot . . . I have a FREE set available for K & 1st if you want to try before you buy!  Just CLICK HERE!  

As always, 

thanks for reading!