Five for Friday

It's been awhile since I linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their Five for Friday, but I figured I had plenty to say and plenty of time to write about it since it's summer!

I have been working like crazy to get things printed and laminated for my new class. Moving to a new grade is a lot of work!

My fish, Bravo, got a clean tank yesterday! Yay!

I made my first homemade pizza the other day. It was delicious! 

I bought these Twistables colored pencils while I was home on vacation. Because everyone loves to color! (Here are my adult coloring pages as well).

I finally started reading this summer. My first novel is Where We Belong by Emily Giffin. I love her writing!

What are you up to this Friday? Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching here.

Have a great weekend!

Michelle

Curtains!!

Recently, I was reading a post over at Teach Create Motivate about her DIY curtains. I thought to myself how great it would be to make my own. I already had fabric from last year that I used around my guided reading table. I already had ribbon from a bunting I made for the classroom. All I needed was two tension rods and a bit more ribbon.

I gathered everything together, turned on Friends, and got started!

In about 45 minutes, I had created these!

Here, I put them up against my window to show you what they would look like hanging up.

I can't wait to put these in my room! Thank you, Ashley!

Check out her original post, here.

Michelle

My Dollar Tree Finds

I finally made it out to the Dollar Tree (it's not far from where I live, but with summer and all, I get very laaaaazy). Anyways, I knew that I wanted to scope out what they had for back to school. And I always prepare myself to spend some money. It's for the kids, right? Right. So I went in and walked right past the baskets. I thought, there is no way I'll be buying so much that I'll be needing one of those. WRONG. I started out small, with the new tubs and containers. But then, I went down the teaching aisle and I honestly think there is something new there every time I go! So here is everything I bought and my plans for how I will use said items.

So I started with some small orange tubs. I already have some round blue ones (my classroom theme is orange, blue, and gray). I don't have a plan for these yet, but they will most likely be used to hold small items for centers.

Speaking of centers, I found these adorable school erasers! I thought they would be great to use with my back to school roll and cover packet.

 Then, I saw these small dry erase boards. I love that I can get 4 of them for $1! Great price!

Now, I'm not sure if these letters are magnetic or not, but it doesn't really matter. My plans are to use them in a sensory bin with rice. The students can find the letters and give the name or the sound of the letter. I can also put them in a small tub for students to spell sight words. If they are magnetic, I would put them in a word work center with my magnetic whiteboard so students can make words.

Another great item for a sensory bin is these foam numbers. Again, students can search for them in the rice bin and then put the puzzle together. I already have an alphabet foam puzzle (also from the Dollar Tree) that will serve a similar purpose.

I always love finding cute games. The first game is for number matching and the second is for matching shapes and colors, both of which I'll need next year in preschool.

This is a chair cover! I thought this was adorable and a great way to celebrate a student's birthday!

These pom poms will also serve a special purpose in a center.

I saw a couple of fun activities that I thought would be great for reinforcing color recognition skills as well as fine motor skills.

http://engagingtoddleractivities.wordpress.com/category/subject/math/counting/

http://ppppizzazz.blogspot.com/2013/03/pom-pom-color-fun-for-toddlers.html

http://theimaginationtree.com/2014/03/toddler-play-egg-carton-colour-sort.html

All of these are on my summer to-do list!

Did you find anything interesting at a dollar store near you? Please share in the comments below!

Michelle

TPT Seller Challenge #2: Dare to Dream!

I am very excited to link up again for the #TPTSellerChallenge! It is now Week 2: Dare to Dream. This week I am challenged to blog about my great hopes, desires, and dreams for my TPT/blog business.

So here they are: my hopes and dreams!

1. Ever since my husband and I moved away from Illinois, we are always looking for ways to visit home. TPT has provided us with extra money for plane tickets to go home. Not only that, but we have been able to take small mini-vacations on the weekends as well.

2. One of my goals is to stay at home with my future children. My TPT business will definitely help with this dream of mine. It will be nice to earn a little extra on the side, even though I won't be in the classroom teaching.

3. It is also a dream of ours to move into a house within the next few years, and growing my TPT business has a lot to do with that dream as well.

4. I also plan to improve my business. When I first started this journey, I felt like I wasn't making anything because I was buying the Premium Seller account on TPT, paying for blogging school, and purchasing clip art. Now, I want to spend a little bit of money to upgrade my blog. At first, it was very difficult to spend that money because it was going into the unknown. I didn't know if my store would take off, or what the results would be. Now that I have been a Premium Seller for over a year, I believe that the initial investment is so worth it. I only wish I would have done it sooner! Now I plan to buy more clip art and a new blog design to keep improving my business. The more I do these things, the more I can feel my creative juices flowing with new ideas!

What a great topic for the second week of the TPT Seller Challenge! Hopefully it will kickstart me into blogging more {after all, that was my New Year's Resolution! Ha!}.

Thank you again to these ladies for hosting such a great link up:

Michelle

TPT Seller Challenge #1: Makeover Madness!

I am so excited to participate in the #TPTSellerChallenge this summer! Updating my products was a big goal of mine this summer, and week #1 Makeover Madness came just in time! I was looking back at some of the first products that I made and I cringed. I can't believe that I put some of my products out there! There was missing information, there was incorrect information, and there were some not-so-pretty covers. Needless to say, I had a lot of work to do. I updated quite a few of my products, but will only highlight 3 here. They all go together anyway.

As you can see from the list, there were many things that needed to be changed and I am so glad that I updated it. I finally feel like these products represent me and my creative style. Here are a few more images from the inside of the packet: 

These three packets will be on sale through Sunday, June 21. They will be 50% off! Here is the link to these items! https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Dabbling-In-Differentiation/Category/Geometry

Michelle

Mystery Pictures

I want to share with you one of my favorite activities that I have incorporated into my classroom. Mystery Pictures!! But not just any mystery pictures....addition and subtraction mystery pictures!! I had used the mystery pictures in the past where students color in the number that is given at the top. But when I was teaching end of the year kindergartners and first graders, I knew they needed a little bit more of a challenge. So I took it upon myself to create my own mystery pictures. I even made multiplication ones for those students in higher grades! My goal is to have mystery pictures, in every operation, for all major holidays, seasons, etc. That is one of my big summer projects.

Here are all of the ones I have created thus far. And the best part is....these are all on SALE through Friday, June 19!! Grab them while you can!

And my first of many subtraction packets:

Click on any of the pictures to take you to my TPT store!

And don't forget this FREEBIE which is a great example of what these products are like!

Michelle