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Sunday, April 15, 2012

Furry Friends Linky Party

I am SO excited to be linking up with Sandy at Soaring Through Second Grade. Since my husband and I don't have kids yet, our puppy is like our baby. We spoil him, discipline him, and love talking about him to anyone that will listen! I often have to hold myself back from saying "Hey! My Teddy does that too!" when people are telling stories about their kids because I realize that people may not be thrilled about their child being compared to my dog.

Sandy is keeping this party educational by asking us to discuss something we've learned from our pet. I would say the biggest thing I learned from my pet is what it feels like to be a parent. It can be difficult to view school situations from a parent's point of view since I don't have kids. I would often get frustrated with parents for not supporting classroom discipline or being reluctant to accept what I was telling them about their child's classroom behavior/learning. I know it sounds weird, but now that I have a dog I understand how it feels to have someone that you love and see the best in and having to take advice from professionals who may not recognize how wonderful that loved one is, despite their behavior. I know that my parent communication will continue to improve as I have my own children, but for now I am content learning to understand through the eyes of my adorable puppy Teddy.

These are pictures of our wonderful 9 month-old Boxer puppy named Teddy. He is playful, sweet, energetic, and loving. These pictures were taken at the photo shoot that my hubby and I had for our 1 year anniversary back in February.




Don't forget to link up here with my Font Linky Party!

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Friday, April 13, 2012

Favorite Font Linky Party

I enjoy fonts so much! I can't help it. It looks kind of nerdy and weird to read that in print, but they are so much fun! The right font can completely change the look of a document. As teachers, we are constantly creating activities and worksheets for our classroom. I have found that the right font can make a plain worksheet look more inviting, less overwhelming, and fun. I've noticed that sometimes when I re-type a worksheet with less typical, more intriguing font, I'll get an eagerness from my students when they are asked to do it, even if it's just a sheet of math problems. Since I started selling products on TpT and TN, I have also noticed how font can make a product more appealing to customers. That being said here are my current favorite fonts (click here to see some of my other favorites):

(All fonts can be found at Da Font)

Please link up below to share your favorite fonts. I am eager to find out about new places to download font. Have a great weekend!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Today's Number Morning Work FREEBIE

So, last night while I was spending my Spring Break staying up late pinning and watching Golden Girls, I stumbled across a pin that took me down a rabbit hole.

I came across this picture on Pinterest from Our Aussie Homeschool
I have been thinking about putting together bound notebooks for morning work next year so this caught my attention and I clicked on over to see more of the notebook.

This post led me to more about Calendar notebooks from

Mama Jenn

The Teacher Wife

Aussie Pumpin Patch

As I was mulling over how to adapt these for 3rd grade, I got really excited and decided that I want to at least start the Today's Number and Sentence Editing portion this year. After Spring Break is the perfect time for new routines! Next thing I knew I was creating a morning work sheet for my students in PPT. I'm pretty excited about beginning this routine in my classroom and giving my students the mixed skill practice everyday that will help them with state tests in just a couple weeks.

The finished product is pictured below and available for free at my TpT and Teacher's Notebook stores.


I am eager for feedback so please let me know if you do something similar, how it works, or what you do for morning work. Thanks! Image Map

Friday, April 6, 2012

Multiplication Game FREEBIE

I have been using a math workshop model in my class for a while now and you could not get me to go back! I love being able to work with students in small groups while the other children are busy and engaged at other learning centers. One of the biggest struggles for me was planning for math workshop. Finding enough games for all the different units was easy at first, but became more of a challenge as time went by. For each game I needed to introduce it whole group, model how to play it, and then observe and help the students as they played it the first couple of times. This ended up taking a lot of time for each game.

Then I had a light bulb idea, keep the game the same and switch out the content!

I brought in some old board games from home and ones that I purchased for $2.00 a piece at the thrift store (Candy Land, Monopoly, etc.) and got busy teaching my students a new game. All the students need to play is the board, player pieces, and dice (everything else I removed from the box so the kiddos wouldn't be tempted). The students simply roll the dice, answer a game card question, and advance if they get it right.

The students LOVE using the game boards to play with the math game cards I have created. We have found many other fun ways to use the cards as well, but this is by far the favorite. Below I attached 8 multiplication game cards FREE for you to download. I will be uploading more to my TpT and Teacher's Notebook stores soon.

Download the Game Cards for FREE at my TpT shop or my Teacher's Notebook Shop! Image Map

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

5+ Fabulous Pins

I've been finding so many wonderful things on Pinterest lately and I wanted to share some of my most helpful pins. There is no official Pinterest app but I have an unofficial app for my tablet so I am constantly pinning goodies, which as you may imagine, leads to much inspiration but many unproductive days.

1. K12 Reader: This is a wonderful site for reading worksheets, articles, games, and activities. I enjoy the weekly content-related reading comprehension worksheets by grade-level.


2. How To Make a Bulletin Board Awning from Teacher Stuff

3. Transition Music from Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives

4. Organization Tips from Mrs. Terhune's First Grade

5. 100+ Writing Sites from KB Konnected

Other Great Pins


* Bunny Dog

* This is so my dog Teddy!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Show off your classroom! Linky Party!!

It's been a while since I posted pictures of my classroom, or perused pictures of other wonderful classrooms, so I am super excited to link up with Christi's Show Off Your Classroom Linky Party over at Ms. Fultz's Corner. Head on over to link up, find inspiration, or cram some more pics into (if your like me) your already overflowing Pinterest boards. :)

WARNING: These pictures were taken right before I jetted out the door for spring break so not all areas of my room are the neatest or most organized. ALSO these pictures were taken with my tablet so they are not the best quality.


The view from my desk
My desk corner BEFORE some spring tidying
My desk corner AFTER some tidying
Our Class Library
My room isn't too spacious so I try to get creative with spaces.
My reading and math group table covered with stacked chairs and our FIT balls
 Computer Corner

Data Wall & Daily Objectives

Views from different spots in the room
 I hope you enjoyed the tour! I can't wait to see even more amazing classrooms. Link up if you can!