New Year's Sale!!

It's almost 2015!! To celebrate, I'm throwing a sale in my lil TpT store!!   I just posted about all kinds of goodies I use in January on my post {HERE}.

Don't forget to check out and link up to my Most Popular 14 Posts in 2014!!

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Most Popular 14 Posts in 2014

2014 is coming to an end! 

Now is a good time to look back at all the awesomeness you have done in 2014! So take a look at your posts in 2014 and see which ones had the most views! I was surprised when I looked back.  But here are my most popular 14 posts in 2014.

First Day Freebie!

Keep track of data

Managing Centers - this one was from my first week of school. You can check out my "centers, revisited" post to see how I switched them up a little bit later. Some freebies in this post!

LOVE Bat week! Some freebies in this post, too!

My newest version of my behavior plan.

The BIG classroom reveal for this year! 

A brilliant idea for getting students to put their names on their paper!

Freebie name tags

10 Ways that using student numbers in your class can help you out!

Getting ready for next year! Lots of goodies in this post!

Vocabulary Journals - Wishlist Wednesday!

Pete the Cat fun!

Freebie Poetry Journal Covers

Apple Week!

2015 is almost here! I can't wait to see what happens in the new year!

Want to show case your most popular posts? Link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Getting Ready for January!

January is right around the corner! ack! Man, time flies - December is always such a whirlwind, isn't it?  Well, if you're looking for some printable calendars for your home or school walls, I just posted a FREE 2015 calendar printable on my A Splash of Life Blog. 

Get the calendar {HERE}.

I may not be back in the classroom yet, but I am still sending my sub my stuff to do in my room, to keep the flow of the classroom going! (it might be a slight control issue! lol)

I just finished and posted my 1st Grade January Literacy and Math Center packs. You can check them out {HERE}.  Here is a preview of what's included in the packs.

I also have my 2nd grade packs. These were the first sets of these packs that I made last year....what started it all! You can check them out {HERE}.

I also like to do my Bear Snores On unit.

And one of my all-time favorite units is my Learning with Penguins - using Tacky the Penguin and non-fiction penguin books together!

Here are some of my favorite books to use with my penguin unit!

And some more....

I also have the bookmarks ready for January. Download this freebie {HERE}.

And before I left I copied all of the calendar activities in my Ultimate Calendar Bundle.  You can check out {THIS} post to see how I have it all organized for the year!

Label and Write About It! January pack - great for differentiating!

And one of my favorite activities each month is my Monthly Family Projects. And January is one of my favorites! They usually turn out SO stinkin' cute!

Happy planning!

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K&L Bows Giveaway

Hi friends, I just wanted to share an awesome giveaway I'm doing on my A Splash of Life Blog.  Head over to win the giveaway!

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Hyperlinked Credits Page

I wanted to share with you a file I made for myself which makes my life easier, as a blogger/creator.   I'm sure some of you already do this, but just in case it could help some of you...

I like to make a document file in powerpoint for credits, this way all I have to do is copy and paste for each new document!

One of the pages I have is a "thank you" page for the purchases. I also have one for downloading a freebie, I just changed the wording a little but.

But my BIG time saver is the clip art and font credits page. It took a while to make, and when I lost it in the great crash of 2014, I was pretty devastated. But it's one file that I have to have. 

I took all of the buttons for my favorite clip artists and font makers and put them in a file, then I hyperlinked them in the document.  So now, whenever I need to credit someone, I just copy and paste the button in my document and it's already hyperlinked for me!

I know some people just like to keep all the buttons on the page and just put them all in their pack. I personally don't like to do that because if I see some clip art or frames that I like in the pack, I want to know specifically whose they are.  So, I just keep all the buttons on a template and then I have a separate "Credits" page where I copy and paste the already hyperlinked buttons that I used in that document.

Something so simple, yet such a time saver!   And make sure you head over to Kristen's blog to check out how she did the default fonts!  Her post is what inspired this post!  She's seriously a genius. She's been one of those ladies that I have loved since the beginning of blog-stalking...almost 4 years ago now!

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Letters to Santa Freebie!

Before we start writing our letters to Santa, I like to have the students do their wishlist pre-writing. Depending on the grade, I would have them describe the item or "want" or tell why they want it. I've a few tear jerkers before...honestly, such sweet and selfless wishes! I would have them do this page first:

Then, I like to read The Jolly Postman to my class.

Then we start our talk about how to write letters. Of course, since my computer crashed, I don't have any pictures to show you of my anchor charts, but I found one from one of my favorite ladies!! Lyndsey, over at A Year of Many Firsts, has a fabulous post on it. 

I also found a few more on Pinterest for you, if you want to check those out.

PIN

PIN

Anyway, back to letters to Santa!

We then write our letters to Santa. When I taught 2nd and 3rd grade, I would have the students address and "stamp" envelopes to Santa at the North Pole.  I have TONS of envelopes that I use throughout the year...we always tried to address our pen pal letters in envelopes too. 

Where did I get the envelopes?? Well, I beg from my local grocery and Hallmark stores. They always have a TON of leftover envelopes...some places like to sell them, but I play the "teacher" card and they usually will just give them to me - just a handful.

(these are old pictures...with my old blog name on them, but since I'm home for the month of December, I had to steal old pictures. Shhhh... don't tell on me!)

Then, my friend's family would write all the kids letters back! I know... I love that family. I love that they did that for my kiddos.   After all the letters were written back to the kids, her husband (who actually worked for the post office) would come and deliver the mail.. and he did such a great job pretending he just came from the North Pole! 

I don't work with her anymore. I'm very sad about that on many levels and for many reasons, but this is one of them! ha!

Anyway, if you want some wishlist writing, click the pictures to download the prewriting and the letter pages.

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