Every Teacher Loves a Sale!

It's time for the annual back to school sale on Tpt!  This adorable button was made by More Than Math by Mo.  You can download it free from her Tpt store here.

All of my products will be 20% of during the sale, but you can use the code BTS14 for extra savings on everything in your Tpt shopping cart.

The most recent additions to my store...

Super Spelling Forms 

 forms to use with any spelling words + easy Super Spelling Power Stations

Autograph Bookmarks

bookmarks + autographs = increased accountability 

Turquoise and Lime Green Book Bin Labels

Fact Power Folder Set

Some of my other products...

Writing My Opinion 

opinion writing prompts, graphic organizers, book covers, rubrics, anchor chart pieces 

Fall Math Journal Prompts

(winter and spring prompts are also available)

Personal Reader Sight Word Stories

(Short Vowel Personal Readers Stories, Long Vowel Personal Reader Stories 

and a BUNDLE are also available)

Activity Pack for Back to School

Sharing My Writing Through the Year

No time for show and tell?  

Let students share their writing with these fun prompts and turn it into a keepsake book to send home at the end of the year.

Digraph Activities

Funky Fun Vowel Games

Funky Football Fan Fun

Daily Classroom Schedule Words

Camp Read A Lot  Classroom Campout Fun

Information Highway 

Informational Text Unit for March is Reading Month or anytime of the year.

 (passport registration for the Information Highway)

Here are a few of my favorite products from some of my teaching blogger friends.

Sight Word Poems by Jodi from Fun in First.

You can buy this set as part of a bundle as well.

Shark Close Read by Jennifer  from First Grade Blue Skies.

Jennifer has several different close reading sets that are amazing!

September No Prep Math and Literacy Centers by Annie from The Moffatt Girls.

Spring Is In the Air Digital Papers by Corinna from Surfin' Through Second.

She has several sets that I love!

Time to fill up your cart with great deals!

Happy shopping!

Don't forget to use the code BTS14!

Time for a Super (Bowl) Sale!

The groundhog says 6 more weeks of winter...that's SUPER. Ughhh...

 So, let's focus on all the Super (Bowl) Sales!

Here are some of my favorite products...

Writing My Opinion

(includes rubrics, motivating student prompts, anchor chart pieces)

 (based on the common core, but can be used even if you are not using the common core standards)

 Camp Read A Lot Classroom Campout Fun

Great for March is Reading Month and end of the year celebration!

Nonfiction Penguin Unit 

 I use this unit to introduce animal research.

We study penguins as a class in February to prepare for our animal research in March.

 Digraph Activities 

(literacy work stations, literacy centers, working with words, 

small group work, individual word work)

Animal Research Book

My students use this book as a framework for their own animal research projects.

Funky Fun Vowel Games

(literacy work stations, literacy centers, working with words, 

small group work, individual word work)

Wanna have some football themed fun with your students?

Funky Football Fan Fun

(how to writing, list making, poetry, opinion writing, making words)

Everything in my Tpt store is 20% off today (2/2) and tomorrow (2/3)!

If you stop to visit my store, please become a follower.

You'll find lots of freebies there!

 
 

Technology Tuesday (6th edition)

Welcome!  It's Technology Tuesday!

Today, I'm sharing a list of my favorite long vowel apps 

and a few other resources that I learned about recently

You can read about how I use mini iPads in my classroom for individualized word work here. 

In the post above, I also shared my favorite short vowel apps.

My Favorite Long Vowel Apps

CVC Sorts 2 by JFK4SDK

Pocket Charts! Long and Short Vowel Sounds by Good Neighbor Press

*Pocket Charts has lots of great iPad apps for different skills (inexpensive and worth the money).

ABC Spelling Magic 4 Silent Final e by Preschool University

Little Stars Word Wizard by Innovative Mobile Apps

*My favorite thing about this app is that two students can turn the iPad sideways and play against each other.  Or, I can challenge a kid to a game as a reward!

Last Friday, I attended a conference about using iPads in the classroom. 

 The presenter, Kelly Harmon,  was great!  

She was truly a wealth of knowledge 

and I left feeling like my head was going to explode from all the ideas.  Ha!

As I explore the things she taught us, I'll share some of those on my Technology Tuesday posts.

Here is one of my favorite apps that she shared.

Educreations Interactive Whiteboard by Educreations Inc.

You can use this app as a white board (goodbye whiteboard/eraser/marker drama).  You can also use this app to create presentations.  It allows you to add photos, voice recordings and text to the screen.  I'm  planning to use it for mini lessons for reader's and writer's workshop.  If I take a screenshot of a page from a book that I want to use to model something, I can use the voice recording option to highlight something that I want students to think about or to give directions for the students to use during independent practice.  The things I create can be saved and/or emailed for future use.

It is easy enough for first grade students to use to make their own presentations as well.   

Speech Buddies also contacted me last week, to ask me to share a link for an article on their blog.

Since it is technology related and I have a speech and language background I agreed to share it.

Top 10 Online Sites for Building Language Skills

Looking for little 100th day of school fun with your iPad(s)?

The app below will allow you to take a picture of your student

 and "age" the photo to show what that person might look like at a certain age.

Aging Booth by PiVi & Co. 

Next week, I'll be sharing more about what I learned at the iPad conference along with my favorite apps for blends and digraphs.  Have a great week!

Technology Tuesday (5th edition)

I promised myself when I started Technology Tuesday that I wouldn't stress myself out if I skipped a few Tuesdays.  I just didn't really want to commit to one more deadline.  This is supposed to be fun, ya know?  I met that goal...skipped several Tuesdays.

Our literacy centers each week focus on the spelling words and the word family of the week.  The whole class practices those, but I also have time for each student to do individualized word work built into my plans for each week. 

I've been using my mini iPads for individualized word work with my students.  First, I use the Ganske Developmental Spelling Inventory to determine the type of word work that I want each student to focus on.  The categories I have for word work include:  short vowels, blends, digraphs, long vowels and basic sight words.  At the beginning of the year, I might also have a few students working on beginning and ending consonants.  

Once I know which skill each student needs to work on,  I make a chart to keep on a clipboard.  The chart is kept in our iPad "home" (the place we keep the iPads when we are not using them), so the children can find their own name and look up which category they are supposed to choose games from on the iPad.  Most of the students don't have to check the chart, but it helps them stay independent since they rotate the iPads while I am working with small groups for reading. Our rule is that each student plays 2 games with a partner from the same category, before they pass it to another student.

Here are our favorite short vowel apps.

ABC Phonics Make a Word Free

ABC Phonics Short Vowel Words Lite

ABC Reading Magic 1 Short Vowel Words Deluxe

ABC Spelling Magic

ABC Phonics Word Family Free

CVC Sorts 1

Spelling 3 Letter Words by Good Neighbor Press

Do you have favorite short vowel apps?  

I'd love to explore some new apps with my students.

A few are free and a few I purchased.  The ones I purchased were worth the few dollars I spent.  Over the next couple weeks, I'll be posting our favorite apps from other word work categories.

It's -13 degrees, with a windchill of -35,  here in Michigan and we are snow day #2.  Yesterday, I enjoyed a lazy day.  Today, I'm hoping to be productive and get some things done.  Oh, how I love to cross things off my list...

  Stay warm everyone!