Circle of Moms Top 25 Teacher Moms

Hi everyone! 

I am so excited to be competing in the Circle of Moms Top 25 Teacher Moms Contest!  Right now, I need as many votes as I can get, so if you would be so kind as to stop over and vote for me, I would appreciate it!!!  Just scroll down and click to vote next to my blog icon.

 Please make sure to comment below and let me know you voted.  This is such an exciting opportunity for me and I am happy to share the joy with you!  Thanks so much!!!  P.S.  In a few days, look ahead for a "Stuff Your Teacher Files" event that will last throughout the month of August!!! Yippeee!!!!  Have a great day!

Warm Hugs and Loving Smiles,

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500 Follower Giveaway at Kindergarten Korner

If you haven't had the chance, check out the BIG GIVEAWAY Sarah Shelton is holding over at Kindergarten Korner.  There is a chance to win a Pre-Made Template by Dreamlike Magic as well as a subscription to Graphics Factory and all of her TpT store items!!!  Sounds like there are some fantastic prizes!  I already entered so hurry on over and tell her Leanne Baur's Creative Classroom sent you! :)  Good luck and let me know if you W.I.N.!!!!

Warm Hugs and Shiny Smiles,

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Tell Me More...All About ME!

In case you didn't know, the fabulous Amy Lemons is having this fun linky party over at her blog, Step Into Second Grade!  She is telling everyone her quirks and what makes her unique.  She has asked that we do the same.  It's been awhile since I've shared about...ME...so here we go!

1.  I have been married to my wonderful husband Chris since we were 22.  We are celebrating our 10th Anniversary on September 14th of this year!  Hooray for 10 years!!!

2.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and ADORE my 5-year-old son, Sebastian.  He goes with me everywhere and is truly my best buddy (aside from my hubby).  I could seriously hug and kiss him all day long!

3.  My dog, Sienna is a chow-lab mix who is so friendly. She has a black tongue which makes her unique! I consider her my daughter because I don't have any daughters (or any other sons for that matter).  Yes, I tell Sebastian that the dog is his sister...quirky, right? ;-)

4.  I have a best friend that has become my only "sister".  I LOVE her so much and she is into blogging about teaching and making TpT products as much as I am.  She is over at The Convenient Teacher if you want to stop by and see her!!!

 5.  I love to be silly and crazy all the time!  I think it's fun to do the wacky thing- life is never boring for me that way.  I think it's the leftover high school cheerleader in me!  I wake up excited and go to bed the same way!

6.  I ADORE old buildings like this one and have to take pictures of them.  I imagine who may have lived here and what life was like at the time.  I love following up with research because I am a history and social studies buff.   I won the National Geographic Geography Bee in 8th grade. 

7.  Fall is my favorite time of the year.  Each year, I wait for the weather to become crisp and cool and watch for subtle changes in the color of the leaves.  I take my family to every pumpkin farm, we go on hayrides, and we pick tons of apples from the orchards.  If I could bottle fall up and carry it around with me throughout the whole year, I would.

8.  Nature is my thing.  My favorite thing to do is go hiking with my family and friends.  I enjoy a good campfire.  I like stumbling upon waterfalls and little streams.  I am even happy taking a daytrip to drive through nature!  It grounds me and takes all of my stress away. :)

9.  I took Tae Kwon Do during most of my teen years and almost made it to black belt.  Don't mess with Mrs. Baur or I will have to go all Karate Kid on you!

10.  I prefer to spend the day in sweatshirts and tennis shoes.  Even in summer, I take a sweatshirt with me, "just in case it gets cold".  I would love to convince the teaching world that we could do so much more in a day if we just had comfy shoes on! 

 

Of course, I was going to add number 11, but you already know that I LOVE being a TEACHER!!!!  It's my LIFE.  I eat, sleep, and breathe teaching just like most of you!  Well, off to the real world...time to go grocery shopping (something that did not make my list of likes).  I hope you enjoyed learning about me!  Don't forget to link up if you have a blog (click the pic at the top of this post) or leave a comment below if you'd rather tell me about yourself that way!

Hugs,

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Back to School with Guess Who?

Hello there!  I am so happy to share with you that I am guest blogging over at A Differentiated Kindergarten!  My friend, Marsha, will be doing "Back to School with Guess Who?" for over a week!  Each day, she will have a guest blogger who gives tips, advice, and even FREEBIES for Back to School.  Don't miss out!  There are lots of goodies- it's like an online party over there! 

Today, I am guest blogging and you can click on the pic below to go and grab your FREEBIES!  I have 4 free resources that you can download directly from Marsha's blog.  The offer is on HER BLOG ONLY. If you go to my store to get the resources, you will still see them as priced.  Only visitors to her blog get the code!  Okay, not sure what you're waiting for... go get the 4 FABULOUS FREEBIES, leave a comment over there, and be ready for a great school year!  Talk to you soon!

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Back to School with Guess Who?

Hi there!  Today, I am sharing a secret with you...shhhhhhh!!!  My friend, Marsha McGuire, over at A Differentiated Kindergarten is gearing up for back to school starting on Saturday, July 21st!  Each day for over a week, she is having a secret guest blogger who will bring you tips, advice, and maybe even some FREEBIES!!!  We all LOVE those!!!  Well, just to let you know, yours truly is her first guest blogger for this event!  Check out my guest post by clicking the pic below on SATURDAY, JULY 21st (it won't be live until then but you can check out her blog in the meantime- just click the link above).  I included 4 BIG FREEBIES and links to free clip art and more freebies from my TpT store!  I am so excited!!!  Okay, well I bet you can hardly wait, so go ahead and start spreading the word now!  The more the merrier!  Oh, and when you are there, please leave a comment!  Thanks!  That's it for now...Saturday is on its way!

Love and Hugs,

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SAMPLE from New Packet...

Hi everybody!  Today, I am giving you two samples from a new resource I am working on for TeachersPayTeachers.  It is called, "That's Sum Coloring!" and it will be printable activity sheets that reinforce adding skills K-2.  I'd love for you to download a free sample today and let me know what you think.  Please post your grade level and let me know if the samples would be too easy/just right/too hard for your students.  Hopefully, with your input, the resource will be available by the end of the weekend!  Yay! 

Thanks so much for your feedback- as always, YOU ROCK!!! 

Download FREE SAMPLE below!

Download FREE SAMPLE below!

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Learning on the DS

So, if you haven't read my "About Me" section on this blog, then you need to know that I am not only a teacher, but a mom to a five-year old son, Sebastian.  I was overjoyed when "Santa" brought him a DS and saw that there were many educational games for it.  However, when I went shopping for these educational games, I didn't see many.  I searched all the big stores and some specialty video game stores only to come up empty-handed.  Then, I did what I do with everything...searched the web and BINGO, there they were on Amazon! There are many to choose from that are just perfect for my son to practice skills this summer.  If you're a teacher-mom like me who is looking to boost your child's gaming to the next level, check out some of the games below.  I purchased a few and have some on my wish list.  I now feel better allowing my son to play his DS for a long time! :)

 

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Cute Back to School Book!

I just picked up the cutest book last week!  It's called, "Splat the Cat:  Back to School Splat" and I think anyone who has little learners will LOVE it!  I got it for just $3.99 and I already have it in my back-to- school plans!  If you love cute books that students will easily identify with, you'll love this one.  Click the pic below to check it out for yourself!

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Tutorial: Make Your Own Tutorial

Hi everyone! 

I hope you are doing well!  Today, I am bringing you a tutorial on how to make your very own tutorial! Yay!  There have been so many tutorials out there and yet, there hasn't really been one that I've seen on how to make your own tutorial.  The one I am including here requires you to download some free software on the web and shouldn't take but a few minutes.  I would say that in less than ten minutes, you'll be creating your own tutorials!!!  Go ahead and click on the video below to watch and comment to let me know what you think.  If you have any questions, please feel free to comment or email me at mrsbteaches2@gmail.com  Thanks and enjoy!

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Teaching With Love and Laughter Giveaway!

Hey everyone!  You need to check out the Teaching With Love and Laughter Giveaway !  She is giving away an awesome HearAll Assessment Recorder.  There are so many things you can do with it.  I signed up after reading that it would allow you to monitor one small group while teaching another!  Now, that is technology I need!  Check it out and be sure to enter in as many ways as possible.  Good luck!  I know you'll love my friends blog- I DO! :)

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Back to School Clip Art

Looking for Back-to-School clip art?  I thought so!  I was, too!  Instead of picking through different clip art sets, I just made my own.  I tried to include everything a teacher might want when designing resources for back-to-school time.  This set has 23 images and is priced at $3.00  Check it out by clicking the pic below (you may find some freebies as you are perusing- I have a few you might like).  I am always open to feedback and suggestions!  I hope you enjoy my clip art! :0)

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The BIG Summer Giveaway Has Ended...

Congratulations to everyone who won and thank you so much to all those who participated!  I hope to bring you a new giveaway in the next month or so.  Stay tuned!

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BIG RED, WHITE, AND BLUE SALE!

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Blog Swap and Hop (Part 2)

Hi there guys and gals!  We had some technical difficulties during the Blog Swap and Hop the other day.  Below, I am sharing the wonderful guest post Staci wanted to share with you!  Be sure to read it and visit Staci's blog to let her know how you like her post! 


I have so many ideas of new procedures and systems  that I want to try in the classroom-
and I have gotten them from these lovely ladies I follow:)

I have made many changes to the way I set my classroom library up- so many in fact,
that I think I have changed it more times than the total amount of years  I have been teaching!

There have been so many wonderful ways to organize and label and distribute and store the books that the children use in the classroom. Today I would like to talk to you about how I organize, store, and FIND the books that I use for instruction.

My second year of teaching, our academic coach gave us a little snippet about
Library Thing. com.
Have you ever heard of it?
OH.MY.GOODNESS!

Library Thing is a way for you to "inventory" what you have, tag it, share it, review it, and most importantly- FIND it!

When I log in, this is what I see:

I can choose to see my books by author, title, genre or other tags that I can create. I can also see them as book covers or just listed titles.
This page happens to be by author and cover.

If you will notice, up there in the corner it shows that I have over 800 books listed in there.

How did I get them in there?

Easy.

I can either click on ADD BOOKS and type in the title or the ISBN number.


I will use this new book I got from CBMC-
C.R.Mudgeon to take you through the process-
First I type in the name of the book I am trying to add.

Next I click on Quick Edit.

Then I want to type in some tags so that I can find this book later. I will most likely use this for some type of feelings, friendship type lesson.

Now, let's pretend (I love to pretend)
that we are in the school year and I am planning and I need to find my books about friendship, emotions, feelings- etc.
So  I go to Library Thing, type in feelings- and VIOLA!!!

There it is, along with 14 other books that I might want to use this week.

Now, where do I physically find the book?


I have my books (the ones that are for instruction) organized in bankers boxes, alphabetically.

Don't worry- I am not "cray-cray" !
They are not in the boxes alphabetically- just by title.
So when I look for those books about emotions/feelings, I see the title on the screen
and I know which box to look in and which title I am looking for in there!
I have to tell you.
I LOVE IT!
Not to mention- every book that I own (for school) is in there.
So if I am planning from home, I have all of my resources right there!

I know what the next question is-
How much?
Well.....Free- if you have 200 books or less listed.
They have different rates- but I paid $20 for a LIFETIME membership!!!
LIFETIME! and UNLIMITED amount of books!
I also invested in the little CatScanner that they sell to scan bar codes-
I don't think that really makes it too much faster because you still have to go in and
type in your tags.

There are resources on Library Thing that I don't use that often, but you can explore!!!

As soon as I purchase a new book, I add it to my library and put it in the correct box- Easy Peezy!!

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