Happy Halloween!

The move is complete and the kids started their first day at their new school. I have to say... I am impressed and love the changes. First, I found out my sister-in-law is the school psychologist at the Junior High. =) I knew she worked in the district but not where. She has been helping out my oldest and making sure he has everything he needs.

The elementary school is no less spectacular. It has an A+ rating... the best possible in the state and meets AYP! All the classrooms have smart boards, there is a school library with a librarian! The kids actually have P.E. There is a full-time school nurse... a REAL RN on staff! The teachers and staff are super nice and the boys are in love. OH! And the kids dressed up for Halloween and had parties in their classrooms complete with sugary snacks.

I know... it is soooo weird for me to list these things as a bonus but where we come from we had none of these things. I can't wait to get some time in a classroom to learn some more. Oh and the school district is hiring so I am applying. Wish me luck!

What are your plans for Halloween? My kids opted for no costumes and trick-or-treating. Instead they wanted to buy candy that they could eat themselves and watch scary movies. I am totally loving this ultra relaxed version of Halloween.

Hubby brought home some dry ice, conducted a mini science lesson, did an experiment or two, and now the living room is covered in fog! Its ultra spooky for the night ahead... now only if it wasn't so hot outside!!

The Together Teacher Winner

I was thinking this past week about how I could make my life easier. After selling off most of our belongings in preparation for our relocation out of state, I realized NOW is the time to plan, organize, and recreate our lives to make things simpler in the future.

One of the things that I realized I was lacking on the most was a schedule for my blog posts. Right now it just depends upon my mood what I share with all of you but there really is no rhyme or reason to it. In an effort to make things easier I created a schedule for me.

I love my Melonheadz calendar! So simple to plop things into and plan. So... anyways. This is what I plan/hope to accomplish each week.

Monday, Tuesday, and Friday's I left open for whatever I want to do. I am learning so many new things that I want to share with you but I haven't ever scheduled them in. Now I am. =)

Wednesday I scheduled for my freebie day. I am hoping to share more with you or share some of my favorite freebies from other teacher-authors. I also want to start doing a monthly linky party. I LOVE linky parties.

If you have a free item you want me to feature... send me an email.

Thursday is my blog stalking day. I have to schedule time to blog stalk and this is the perfect day for me. My classes always start a new week on Thursday so it is the day of the least amount of homework and thus the most free time each week.

I have been getting a lot of requests for guest posts so I will post these on Thursday as well. I love reading what others have to say and sharing some of my favorite bloggy authors with all of you.

If you would like to be a guest blogger for me... send me an email.

On Saturday, I am planning on sharing new products with you. I have been working hard with Melonheadz Illustrating and we have soooo many ideas and things we want to share with all of you. I am hoping for a product every other week. I have listed as weekly but that is being extremely optimistic. 

If you have a product request... send me an email. 

Sunday is my day for reviews. I get a lot of request for these or perhaps it is a new book or supply or something awesome that I just want to share with all of you. Sunday is my day for this. 

If you would like me to review your product, app, or book... send me an email. 

I feel so much better having a schedule. And I love that I have blog stalking time available as I have missed that in the chaos lately. Plus... my blog is getting a make-over soon and I am planning on trying to make things even easier for you to find. It just seems like making it easier to know what I will be posting will help as well. 

 

So moving on... the winner of my new favorite book is:

Congrats! I will be emailing you shortly for your information.

The Enriched Teacher

Life for me has been chaotic since I was laid off in 2010. Cancer, adoption, unemployment, career changing, and bankruptcy are a few words I would use to describe my life. In short... chaos.

As I continue to clean up the mess left behind from an unstable economy... I have begun to view things differently. I started searching for ways to be economy-proofed. I never wanted to be here again and then I discovered a great site for teachers and well just anyone!

I asked the author of this blog if he would be our guest speaker and he agreed! I hope you enjoy his wisdom as much as I do!

How to Create Money Saving Habits That Actually Work

This is a guest post by Steven Daar from the Teacher Retirement Help blog, a site that has been featured  by CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, Yahoo News, & Morningstar.

Have you looked at your savings & checking accounts and wondered where your paycheck went? What about the last 3, 5, 10 (or more!) years worth of paychecks?

Did you resolve to change your spending habits to save more money? Did it work?

Alright, that’s enough questions for now. Changing your lifestyle is a very difficult thing to do and it is why so many people struggle with saving money or exercising more or eliminating a long term habit.

It’s why the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions don’t last beyond Martin Luther King Day. Think about how you probably went about trying to save money: looking at where you spend a lot of money and try to eliminate that expense as much as possible.

You see many so-called “Money Experts” give advice that talks about extreme cutting of discretionary spending. They’ll tell you to participate in the “No Restaurant Challenge” where you don’t dine out for a whole month. Or even more extreme, they recommend an intense limiting the number of times dining at a restaurant for perpetuity (which for those of us who like eating at restaurants, just can’t be done).

The problem with the “No Restaurant Challenge” is that some days you don’t feel like cooking, there are special occasions or dates with friends or loved ones that shouldn’t be missed. But more importantly, let’s say you eat at a restaurant twice a week so 8 times each month.

Even if you complete the challenge, you save the expense of 8 restaurant meals. What happens after that month? You’ll probably feel pretty good about accomplishing something and then go back to your old spending and dining habits.

What if instead of depriving yourself completely for a month, what if you simply kept track of how many times you dined out and made sure you never dined out more than 7 times per month? You don’t have to deny yourself of the pleasure of being cooked for and waited on AND eating out 1 less time per month saves you the expense of 12 restaurant meals.

That is 50% more savings than the “No Restaurant Challenge”. As you get comfortable with dining out a little less, you can reduce your limit to 6 times per month. That would be saving the expense of 24 restaurant meals per year.

Assuming you’re only paying for yourself and spend $20 per visit, that is an extra $480 each year……and a whole lot more if you have a whole family dining out or spend more than $20 per meal on average.

This doesn’t just apply to dining out at restaurants, you can use this in a whole ton of different areas: Entertainment, Clothing, Night Life, or whatever it is you find yourself spending money on regularly.

This is just the tip of the savings iceberg! If you would like to get a copy of the Enriched Teacher Guide with 5 more insanely practical money saving tips that are focused on saving you as much money as possible with as little effort……

Then Click Here To Get Your FREE Copy of the Enriched Teacher Guide!

Novemeber... ALREADY???

Yes... November is indeed right around the corner. Tuesday is Halloween... the start of Holiday insanity here. It does not end for me until mid-January as we not only have holidays but birthdays galore to deal with.

That is why I am truly loving my new monthly series and I know many of you are as well!! It is now in stores and ready for your use.

I took a poll on FB and election information was not included in this package by request. My election unit and freebies are also in stock. Just a few more days until the move is over and I am hoping to complete a few more items I have been working on. =)

Instead - we are focusing on families, harvest, fall, and Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoy it. If you have any suggestions on additions you would like to see in future packages, leave me a comment. I am trying to add more to each one to make it truly one stop shopping.

I polled my children and this month they wanted to make 3 different sets of calendar numbers and letters. I also changed it by making the vowels a different color than the consonants.

One of my personal favorites of these packages are the monthly sight words. I included an easy way to track these with my Sight Word Magic set as I use the same method for both. We all know how important vocabulary is.  We have all seen and used the Fry's list for sight words but I wanted something more.

Each monthly kit includes 50 seasonal "sight words"! These are words that are specifically related to the season and the events that occur in this month. These are words your students will encounter while reading seasonal books. By creating a list of words for them to learn, I know that no matter what they check out of the library, they will know these words.

It is also a great way to challenge your "gifted and talented." =) 

As a bonus... my students know that these words MAY show up as challenge words on their vocabulary and/or spelling tests. I may require them to use these words in their writings this month. There is so much I can do with these lists!!

Just like last month... this kit includes calendars, journal prompts, newsletters, center labels, stationary, and interactive notebook pages. Some of the fun this month includes:

Creating a family tree! Writing about our families and traditions. Exploring our origins and learning more about the trip to a new land.

Math in action... recipes! There are 2 different versions. I am hoping to complete a freebie to go with this to take this one step further math wise. =)

Speaking of math... I have been working a lot on a math project lately! But I realize that many students are still struggling classifying numbers. So this month's packet focuses on identify odd, even, and prime numbers.

In addition I spent A LOT of time this month going through my personal library (well the boy's library anyways), polling teacher friends, and researching to find books for this months collection! I found some new favorites and hope you will as well.

Please leave me a comment with your book suggestions for fall, Thanksgiving, or the upcoming elections and I will be sure to add them.

As always... there is a lot more inside but this is just a sneak peak at what is in this month's  packet o'fun! You all enjoyed my freebie weeks this month and so I am going to try and schedule another freebie week and linky party too!

As always - leave a comment and I will have one of my boys pick a lucky winner! =) 

Words and Numbers - Halloween FREEBIES!

Today is the last day of our week of Halloween Freebies! If you missed it, please link up with our linky party to share your great freebies!

Due to my surprise move, I did not have time to make you all the freebies I was planning on but I am still working on them and will have them ready for next year!! =) Instead I would like to share with you 2 more freebies from a sweet friend of mine, Megan!

If you have been following my blog for awhile, you know how much I love sight word lists. They are so easy to use and so easy to assess. Two of my favorite things! What could be better than lists decorated for Halloween.

She also created this "eye" mixed math practice. My son LOVES anything to do with body parts so this would be perfect!

Creepy Things - FREEBIE

Ahhh... or week is almost done only 2 more days of Free Halloween fun! Are you almost done planning for the holiday next week?

EEK! Spiders! Since I live in Arizona... I have a first hand acquaintance with the black widow. I just wish she would choose to live somewhere else than my garage! GROSS!

Thankfully, Jen at The Teacher's Cauldron has friendly spiders in her classroom!

This is a great fun spelling activity for Halloween and best of all... It's free. She includes 2 different versions in the download.

The day after Halloween, the kids are hyped on sugar and are not quite over the excitement of the holiday. For this reason, I like to continue activities throughout the week. So while we may not be reading ghost stories... creepy crawlies are a perfect thing to study instead. It helps them burn off that holiday excitement while moving forward!

Aren't these ghosts adorable? This matching game is free from Miss V's Busy Bees. I used them this past week with my kiddos and had them spell out their spelling words with them. They loved it! I am thinking of using it for a boggle game next week. So many uses for things...

Stop by tomorrow for the final day of Halloween Freebie Week!

Phantom Ghost Town - FREEBIE

Today's freebie is one that I discovered over a year ago and just had to share!  

I have been striving for years to teach my children that holidays are more about more than what you can receive, it is about what you can give to others. Giving selflessly without expecting anything return is a skill that seems to be disappearing.

To get a copy of their poem check out their blog post from last year called Halloween Printable Fun!

I am planning on doing this at home with my children and at school! This means that I will need to prepare and leave 4 treats. However, I am actually going to make 6. My sister's in law live in another neighborhood close by and I plan on leaving this at their doors. I may even make more and take it over to my other 2 sister's in law and my bff. I will just spread the love around the city. 

I am so excited for a new twist on this holiday. I am planning on starting tonight..... Please leave me a comment if you are planning to join in. 

Stop in tomorrow for another Halloween Freebie! 

More on the saga from home.... 

We made the hard choice to move to a new area. The schools here are horrible and I have been warned about the black hole in our school system. I have heard from 3 different teachers on 3 different occasions that the schools are known to give bad reviews to teachers looking to move to other districts to avoid them being hired away. So with hubby being laid off next week (or so rumor has it), it is time to cut our loses and run. 

If I go MIA... send someone to find me. I will be the one buried under a pile of boxes.

Halloween Stories - FREEBIE

Welcome to my eerily fantastic day 2 of Halloween Freebies! I am so excited about this week and so happy so many of you agreed to share your own freebies with me.

I love books as most of you know. So what could be better than Halloween Book Freebies!

Check out this free vocabulary worksheet on bats!

Jen over at The Teacher's Cauldron created this to go with the book Stellaluna. Love that story!

Diving into learning has this cute pumpkin counting book available for free!It would be great for PK and K! It would have been an awesome resource for my adventures in Kindergarten time!

We have been busy here reading some of our favorite Halloween books. So I created a few different story maps to go along with any Halloween book. To see what we are reading simply visit my Amazon store and check out the books for October list!

Stop by tomorrow for more Halloween Freebies!

In other news....

An error with my financial aid has resulted in a change in my schedule. So instead of graduating in May... it has been delayed to December. Instead of doing my student teaching in January... I will do it in August. In stead of being a finalist for Student Teacher of the Year... I had to drop out of the running. I made it to the final selection!!! Bummed does not begin to cover my thoughts on this but it is what it is. 

Halloween FREEBIE week - Linky Party

So many of you enjoyed my election freebies week but I got a couple emails asking why I waited to invite you all to join in with me at the end of the week. Sooo... this week I am starting off with the linky part!

On another note... is blogger playing tricks on you? I have had posts disappear that I know were published as they showed up on my social media sites. I have had schedule posts not posts and have scheduled posts disappear. Right now I am trying to recreate some of the posts I had for you so please bear with me as I get caught up... again. I will add the freebie to this post again as soon as I take more screen shots.

Today's freebie is... Halloween Stationary! This is similar to the set I gave away for use with the election. This item is only available through TpT at the moment. I am hoping to find time to get it uploaded to TN as well.

See... I can learn new tricks! =)

The Together Teacher

The first quarter of the year has been wrapped up. By now, you have noticed what is and is not working in the classroom for you. The question is how to make changes that will assist you throughout the remaining portion of the year.

I have read A TON of books on classroom organization. As a new teacher (and one who some claim is OCD. I am still in denial.) I need all the tips and tools I can get. When I was asked to review another book on organization, I was hesitant. What could it actually teach me?

I saw the review on Good Morning America and it dealt with a lot of tips on how parents can get their kids organized for school. Soooo... I thought I would review it based upon how it can help me as a parent.

 

The Together Teacher is so much more that what I was expecting! Maia has spent a lot of time doing her research and it shows throughout the book. I was surprised by how many different organizational theories and "gurus" she quoted. She pulls the best of each of their theories into one, simple, easy to use program.

One of my favorite parts is the Comprehensive Calendar. I have always color coordinated my schedule but I have to admit... I have A LOT of calendars. I have one for grad school, one for hubby, one for the kids, the puppy has her own, another for teaching, and another for personal things. Nothing every stays together!

The comprehensive calendar puts everything together and teaches you how to maximize your energy levels AND your time. I love the idea of blocking time for specific tasks. I have been known to lose entire days as I spend all of that time working on a particular project.

The picture above shows my schedule. I added in what the colors mean to kinda help you see what is going on. The purple is me time.... things I do on my own like blogging, design work, creating products, grad school homework, and bubble baths! =)

The blue colors are family time. Different shades of blue represent different things we are doing. Green is my alone time with hubby and orange is my student teaching time. The boys are pink if they have something specific that needs to be done for them.

Anyways.... the colors tell me what I should be scheduling to do during that time. I just put in all of my meetings, etc... on top of the colored section and it all fits in. This was just a quick sample of my schedule so it is missing things like house cleaning and exercise which is also on my to-do list.

This is just one way of many to create a comprehensive calendar. I love how Maia gives step-by-step directions for a paper method, an electronic method, or a hybrid method.

The rest of the book is also wonderful. It gives tips on how to keep track of notes (notability is still my favorite and Maia would approve I am sure!), creating routines, managing email (where does it all come from??!), and how to set up your classroom to contain the chaos.

It also has great ideas for parents and homeschoolers. LOVE the chapter on "the backpack explosion." If only Maia had a way to keep my boys from using their backpacks as collectors for bugs and crumbs. Oh... and a way to guarantee their room does not smell like a locker room but I will digress on those.

The reflection questions throughout the book helps keep the reader focused and engaged. With these questions it is like having Maia there.... talking you through it. Asking you to look around a little harder and guiding you to the method that works best for you.

The book includes a CD with more examples and templates.

The Together Teacher would be great to helping resolve those issues that have been plaguing you throughout the last quarter and now is your chance to win your own copy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Word Families

We have all heard and read about word families and many of us even use them in our classrooms quite often. I love some of these cute word family displays:

You can find links to all 3 of these blog sites through my pinterest language arts board. Aren't they so fun and creative?

One of the issues we had with our ELL students was finding workbook pages that were simplistic for use with our students. When we did find some... they were missing some of the things we really needed.

There are 32 main word families but there are actually hundreds more. If students are able to recognize these families they can spell better, accurately read better, and develop language acquisition skills quicker.

Soooooooooooooo.... I made it! The first version I created has handwriting lines and was designed for my first grade ELD students. They need the lines so that way they can form their letters correctly. I also added a spot so that you can draw a picture to go along with the word.

The next package I made was for my second grade ELD students. They do not need the special handwriting lines BUT they do need more word families. This set has 300+ word families!

YEP! You read that right. It includes a worksheet for each one, answers (as I forget when standing at the front of the class and hate going through letter by letter all the time), and a chart of all the families for each vowel.

I added enough spaced for both real and non-sense words. However, I did not include the non-sense words in the answer guide.

This has made my life SOOOO much easier! I use these sheets for all kinds of things. Reinforcing spelling rules, helping struggling students with specific ending sounds, poetry, rhyming, and literacy centers. The ideas are really endless.

Personally... I like to use these in my interactive notebooks. My mentor teacher prefers to use them in a workbook format. I created 2 covers for this... one to use with my Wordville Series and one to use with my Phonics series. This way it will match either one.

PLUS it is generic enough that you can use with any other activities from your favorite sellers.