Staying Afloat with some help!

I'm linking up with my OWL-Ways girls... they are some of the most talented ladies I've ever met. I use so many of their ideas and packs in my class...I'd be lost without them! So, I'm linking up them to show you some resources that I just LOVE and help keep me afloat throughout the year. 

First, I want to show you one of the fraction packs from Dana (3rd Grade Gridiron) that I'll be using soon! 

I'm super excited to get working on some fractions!!

Another go-to that I have for each season is from Halle...I have all over her seasonal reading passages packs - I LOVE them!!

She has fiction and nonfiction in her packs. I love using them as my small group instruction, and then sometimes we compare/contrast the similar fiction and nonfiction passages! 

You can even get a freebie on her blog {here}! sweet!

Now let me show you a few things that of mine that I'm totally reliant on. 

First...my new center packs that I've been making - a whole month of centers. If I prep them before the month comes, then all month long, I'm ready! Just pull them out and they are ready to go!

Monday, I took off the day to visit with family at Disney (shhh!), and when I got back to school yesterday, to get ready for centers, all I had to do was pull out from my center drawer the already prepped centers and voila! Done and ready!  

This round we're doing the first row of centers..

and we're actually going to start on a new set of math centers on Thursday. 

Another thing I use ALL the time is my Math with a Deck of Cards pack.

I have a binder that has a class set of copies in plastic sleeves ready to grab whenever I need them! Check out my blogpost HERE on how I keep it organized!

I hope you've seen some things that could help keep you afloat!! 

To help  you stay afloat, I'm giving away any item from my store! Enter now, and the winner will be announced Friday morning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

P.S...have you seen the sale that's coming up!? Make sure you enter the code when you check out to get your extra 10% off! My Store will be on sale for 20% off!

Now...make sure you click below to check out more of my friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

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It's a 3-way Giveaway!

 

1, 2, 3 Eyes on Me!

No, not really...

But, eyes on us!

A few of us blogging buddies were chatting the other day and we decided it would be fun to run a 3-way giveaway!

It's much more fun than 3-way calling and way luckier than a 3-leaf clover...So, there ya go!   

We've each picked one of our top 3 super units and we're offering all 3 to you! 

We're picking 3 winners to each win these 3 units on the 3rd school day of the week...AKA Wednesday. ;)

from Traci over at.....

From Christy & Tammy over at...

And, From me....

Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win!

Be sure to check back on Wednesday for a 3-way call announcement!
Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Real quick - I just wanted to let you know that I FINALLY finished the March MATH Common Core centers too...which also means the BUNDLE is up too!

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Squiggle Stories...and a new blog!

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope everyone got to sleep in...me?? Not so much. My little cuties always get us up by 6:00.  But that's ok. It just means I have more hours in my day to get things accomplished, right?! 

Sure.

Anyway...I wanted to show you one of my impromptu lessons from last week...or rather the week before.

I had a good writing lesson planned, but when it came to teaching it, I really wasn't feeling it anymore, so I wanted to change it...but had no "Plan B" in my drawers to pull out.  

Hmmmm....what could I do??  Squiggle Stories!! 

Now, I know this is nothing new. BUT, I'm always so in love with how they turn out! What I did was just give each kid a paper and told them to make a small little squiggle mark. Then, they passed it around their group (clockwise). Then I came around with a black marker and went over the squiggle line and then they had to draw a picture with the squiggle mark. It could be ANYTHING.  Here are some examples of what some of the kids came up with .....

Here's mine that I used as an example. 

Then it came time to plan. I just folded a paper into 4ths and they wrote out the characters and setting....then they did the beginning, middle, and end. I told them that they had to have a problem in the middle and then a solution in the end. 

Here is my example that I did for them.

And here is their final products...I just LOVE all the different stories they came up with!

Click HERE to get the free writing templates!

Ok...so you may have noticed something different on my pictures....

Yep! I have a name change!!!

AND a new blog design to go with it!!!

I know...it's going to be hard to get used to the name. I just wasn't feeling "The Teacher's Cauldron" anymore...and it took me a LONG time to figure out what name I WOULD like. I bothered my blogging friends A LOT about it (they are probably glad I've FINALLY passed that part of my life..haha!) In fact, my friend Lori, from Teaching with Love and Laughter thought of this name. It's perfect, don't you think (those who know me)?! 

I hope this doesn't mean you'll forget about me! I tried to keep my blog button similar (yellow) to the old one...and my face is now on my facebook page...so maybe that'll help!? I hope you'll still love me! Because I really do love my new blog!! Thank you to Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs. She was so patient with me - so wonderful to work with!  

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March Bookmarks

Hey! Happy "almost Friday!" It's been quite a week, but right now I'm just stopping by to quickly share something with you!

I was supposed to be working on my March Math centers to finish them up, but I got a little side tracked and decided since I only had a little bit of time before I went to bed, then I could update my monthly bookmark freebies! Go download the file again to get the new March ones that were added! 

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10 Ways Numbers Make Life Easier!

It's all about numbers!!

No...

Not data numbers. lol

These numbers are the numbers I give students each year.

They get a number that corresponds to them in order.

This makes my life SOOOOOO much easier in SOOOOOO many ways.

Numbers are great because I can reuse things year to year - and WHEN (not IF, but WHEN because our school has a revolving door!) students leave, and new students come, I can just place those students into empty numbers. (yes, sometimes that means they'll be out of ABC order, but it STILL is so much easier)

Let me show you a few ways.....

#1

Turning in work.

This is the little gem of a system that I have used in grades 2-5 and it works PERFECTLY!!! I'm sure it'll work great with 1st grade too. :)

When students are finished with their work, they "file" it. That means they walk over to this.....

and put their work in their folder. Each folder has a number and then I laminated them and put them in this dish rack! That way, all the papers are already in alphabetical order. So when I take them out, they are in ABC order, backwards (Z on top), so as I grade them, I put them to the side and then they are back in regular ABC order - so it's a cinch when putting them in the grade book!! AND I can quickly flip through the files to see if anyone is missing any work.
(it's not very pretty....I've these this files for like 10 years. They last forever! and all of my extra folders that I don't need are under the dish rack so the kids don't need to fumble through them to get to their folders)

#2

Picking centers

Below is a picture of how my student pick centers. They use their "clip" to pick a center - each clip has a number. 

#3

Displaying Work

I have REALLY small boards....so I divided my two boards up using numbers up 1-9, and 10-18.

#4

Missing Assignments

I write the assignment on the board (Cat, Super Sentence, etc) and underneath, I write the numbers of people who need to turn it in. I also use it to record who borrowed one of my books overnight. 

#5

Mailboxes

Their graded work goes in these mailboxes and instead of writing new names every year, I use numbers and I am set year to year.

 

The tabs aren't pretty anymore, but I've had the same ones on there for about TEN years! haha!

#6

Job Chart

See how much less space it takes up using numbers?? And again, I can use it year to year!

#7

One of my favorite usage of numbers....

Library Sticks.

This is how they borrow my books. They have stick (painter stick) with their number, and whereever they take the book, that is where their stick goes. That way, they know exactly where to put it back. Is it a full-proof system? No, but neither is checking them out through the library! lol

 #8

A.R. Points Board

Each Friday, I move their littler person up the A.R. board.

#9

Numbers on pencils.

 I actually started doing this after seeing Kristen's post on it (Ladybug Teacher Files - she's BRILLIANT!). and let me tell you....there is NO MORE "whose pencil is this lying on the floor?", "I lost my pencil!" "she/he had my pencil!"  I give them 2 pencils every interim and report card. And I also have a stash with an "R" on it, so that they know it's my pencil and needs to return to my cup of pencils.

#10

My actual numero uno thing for numbers is my "sticks." This is how I randomly call on people. You can see they aren't the cleanest prettiest, but that's because I've had the SAME sticks for the last TEN years! ha! You'll notice the sticks that are rubberbanded to the outside of the cup...those are numbers that I don't have students for, but I keep them anyway, just in case I get new students.

I hope this post gave you some good ideas on classroom organization!! 

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