Let's Get Acquainted... and I now have a FB for my blog!!! :D

Ok, so I'm joining a tad late, but hey, that's my style.  I'm joining up with 99 other bloggers to a super fun "get to know you linky party!"  I'm #100!! I wonder if I get a prize...  It started with Latoya reed at Flying Into First Grade.  The game is that you have to write 3 things you like/love, one for each letter of your initials.  Here goes!

K - Kitties!  Who doesn't love kitties?!  Plus, K is a hard letter.  I don't particularly love kangaroos.  Or kites.  This is Tardar Sauce.  I'm sure you have seen her.  She lives in Arizona, in a town not too far from where I lived when I was born.  I would post a picture of my cat, but I am at work and don't have one.  I'll update it later. ;)  BUT!  I really do love Tardar Sauce.  She makes me smile (hehe get it?!).  If you ask her owner, she's really a happy cat. 

C - Children.  Awww.  ;)  Yes, I do love children.  I bet we all do.  I love my students but I will share a picture of my own children. :)  Not my students... because that's illegal. haha

This is Nathan, my 2.5 year old. He was a preemie, and has CP.  He's my miracle baby. 

This is Bryce, my 1.5 year old.  Yes, I have two kids a year apart.  Holy busy mama! 

L - Learning!  I love to learn, and I love watching students learn!  Yesterday we learned about the parts of a letter and I found this guy on Pinterest!  Isn't he cute?!  No face.  The kids have some issues with this, but I told them that I can't draw a face haha. 

We have also been learning about time.  I made an AWESOME time bingo game!  You can get it here. The picture is tiny because I don't have the original file on this computer.

And... Guess what?!  I now have a Facebook page for my blog!!  I don't have any likes yet, though :( So go like it! :)  Here's the link: The most awesomest FB page ever!

Did I hear a "Bingo!"?

I love making game.  I guess it's my "thing".  You know, you've seen teachers who mostly create big units?  Well, I create games.  And I love bingo.  My kids love bingo.  So I decided to make a time bingo.  Easy peasy, right?  WRONG.  Not hard, per se, but so time consuming!  I am trying to make it start to finish during nap.  Hahahaha I'm funny.  I got the analog cards done, but I think that's all that is going to get done because I hear little people stirring.  But I'm so excited about it, I wanted to share a sneak peak with you!  In the end, I will have 25 cards with analog times, 25 cards with digital times, a set of analog calling cards, and a set of digital calling cards.  The idea:  show the kids the digital time, and have them find the analog match.  Oooooo I should make a concentration game!  (squirrel!)  Thanks to The 3AM Teacher who had time clip art!!!!!  :D

Don't you just love those little clocks at the top?! :)

EDIT::  I'm done!  Go grab it at my TpT store! Here are some more pics...

Click me to get the game!

Calling cards for analog game

sample digital card

calling cards for digital game

Compound fun!

As promised in the previous blog's hint, this blog has to do with eggs.  Easter eggs, to be exact.  I have created a super fun, super cute concentration game where the kiddos have to match a baby chick to an easter egg to create a compound word.  If there is anyone interested in a Spring version (non Easter), I am considering adding one of those to my store as well.  Just click on the link to go to the game on my TpT page. :) 

Cowboys and Caterpillars! (Dos freebies)

Here in Tucson, AZ, we do not get to have President's Day off from school.  Boo.  However, we get something better.  RODEO DAYS!  Rodeo Days are big in Tucson.  The rodeo comes to town.  Wait, that sounds like the circus.  Does a rodeo "come to town"?  Or does a town just "have a rodeo".  Haha who knows.  I have never actually been to the rodeo here.  (gasp!)  Anywho, it's a huge deal with a parade and everything.  It's also supposed to be a big point of revenue for us, and we get the last Thursday and Friday of February off of school.  During our three day week, we learn about cowboys, and do activities related to western culture and cowboys/cowgirls, etc.  This week I decided to do some writing activities with the kids. We got a printout they could color, cut, and glue together to make a cowboy or cowgirl.  Then we wrote sentences about what our cowboy/girl's name is, and what they can do (review of verbs).  I forgot to take a picture of them before we left for the little break, but I have added the writing paper here for FREE! I will add a picture of the finished projects on Monday.  I also have some other cowboy related activities that will be going up on TpT.


It's not all cowboys and ponies all the time here in AZ. (another gasp!).  We have been learning about compound words.  We made a compound word caterpillar.  This was one of my "ok, quick, they're coming in in 10 minutes and I want to do something crafty" kind of ideas.  I happened to have a jar of salsa in my room (don't ask), so I quickly traced out 5 circles for each student, and when they got back in, they cut them out.  I also had them draw/cut their own feet.  This made SOME of them cute, but it was also stressful because they didn't understand the feet had to be BIG.  Lots of re-dos.  So I made a template for it, and I'm sharing it here ... for FREE!  They had to write a compound word in 4 of the body pieces, and each leg/foot had the words that made up the compound word.  For example, the body would say butterfly, and one foot would say butter while the other foot says fly.  I also forgot to take pictures of this, but I will add pictures on Monday.


Enjoy your weekend!



Your next blog hint... crackin' eggs.  (Make you think of the BabySteals emails? Any of you get those?)

Everyone loves a sale!

 This super cute button was created by Ashley Hughes.

Guess what tomorrow is?!  Yep, the Super Sunday TpT sale!  Oh, apparently there's some sort of football game, too.  ;)  As you all probably know, there's a huge TpT sale tomorrow.  Enter the code: SUPER at checkout and get an extra 10% off my store, which will already be 20% off!  So tomorrow you can get up to 28% off.  In addition, I am throwing a 20% off sale on Monday, too!  You get TWO days of sales at my store!  Yep, TWO!  So go over and stock up on those things you've been wanting!  I have a cute Valentine's Contraction Memory activity you can snag just in time for Valentine's Day!

I also recently uploaded a new game I call Grammar Slap.  It's played like SlapJack, but they have to "slap" the part of speech you choose (noun, adj, or verb).  It's super fun!  This game has an owl theme. 

Enjoy shopping!! :)

Help!! :)

Ok, y'all.  I want to be able to make more stuff for TpT to make more monaaayyyy.  I want to be a TpT super seller.  I didn't even know this existed until Dana Lester (she's so awesome) posted a pic of her store and it said super seller... I was like, huh? I WANT THAT!  I know I'm not on here enough and that's problem number one.  Gotta circulate and promote!  Single mommy of 2 toddlers means not much time for this.  I understand I won't be the next million dollar teacher, or even the next 20,000 teacher.  But I feel like I am full of awesome potential.  So here's where you come in.  Our reading program leaves very little wiggle room for creativity.  Read: ZERO.  It's scripted, and we have to stay to the script (blah).  Now, as much as I'd like to be able to just create things for other teachers to use since I can't, I don't even know what other teachers need/want.  Also, I have created little "helpers" for the program I teach, but don't know how to post them without messing with Copyright infringment.  Anyone know how that works?  I see LOTS of units being posted for different animals, different themes all around.  We don't teach anything like that.  I am the ELD (english language development) teacher, and we are required to have one hour of grammar, one hour of writing, one hour of reading, and one hour of vocab/speaking/listening per day.  And I have like 30ish  minutes for math every day except wednesday.  No math on wednesday (nuts, right?!).  I feel like I'm stuck.  How can I get around all of this and create things OTHER teachers will want/need?  I do sell stuff in my store, but it's really honestly only like 3 different products that sell.  Brainy ideas annnnddd.... GO!

Valentine's ... already?!

Ok, let me start by saying this: I hate Valentine's Day.  I could even say loathe.  However, my students always love it, so I play along ;)

I have created one (of two) contraction memory games with a Valentine's Day graphics theme.  This one is uber cute little penguins from Scrappin' Doodles .  It has 6 penguin options to choose from, or print one game of each so they don't get mixed up! :)  There are a lot of contractions included, so you can use them all for a longer, more challeging game, or you can pull out just the "not" family contractions, etc.  It also has a recording sheet to write down 10 "matches" you find.

I have another game in mind that I will be creating, too.  I am excited to make it!  If my kids would just stop using my leg for a trampoline...

ENJOY!