December Pick 3 Pinterest Linky

Happy December!

Are you ready for all-things holiday??

If you are - then we've got the linky for you!

I've joined Lisa at Pawsitively Teaching and Marissa at The Inspired Owl for their Pick 3 Pinterest Linky.

In this linky you will see my top Pinterest picks for use in classroom during the month of December.

First, we teachers can never find enough holiday craft ideas - do you agree??

I love to hit up the craft stores this month to look for some inspiration.

Last year we made these cute holiday wreaths:

Click here to find out more about how to make them.

Just use craft paper cut into mitten shapes and arrange them on a paper plate with the center cut out.

Add a ribbon and you've got a beautiful holiday decoration.

Need a cute gift for the volunteers in your classroom?

Check out this site for a free printable and suggestions for putting the gift together.

 Students love inquiry experiments, and this one is perfect for this time of year!

Check out this freebie science activity here!

We would love for you to join up in this linky, and share your holiday ideas too!

Hope you've found something you can use!

If you have - pin it!
Follow me on Pinterest here!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tech Talk Blog Hop - Spelling City Website and App for Differentiating Word Work

Today I'm joining up with my friend Tasia from Great Minds Teach Alike for the Tech Talk Blog Hop!

I now have 7 iPads and 10 Chromebooks in my classroom, and my students are so excited to get their hand on these devices.

I have lots to share with you in future blog posts, but today I'm going to tell you about a site that provides an easy way to differentiate word work for your students.

Some of you may be familiar with the website called Spelling City.

Did you also know that there is a related app under the same name?

This site has a free version and a paid version.

I have only used the free version.

You set up an account under your name and school.

Recently I set up two word work lists for two different groups in my class by accessing the site on my desktop computer.

You can see in the image below, and I labeled them with the date of the list, and the letters S and P.

One group primarily works with me on their word study, and another group works with a parapro so I labeled the lists with the beginning letters of our last names (S and P).

 It took me about 10 minutes to set up the two lists.

At small group station RTi time students used the iPads to click on the free app I had downloaded to the iPads.

I had to log into our school's network on the iPads so the students could access the Spelling City site.

I did not have to log into the Spelling City site each day - our lists popped up each day after using it the first day.

In the free version of this site students are provided many options for reviewing the word work lists.

There is an option for word and sentence unscramble.

There is an option for alphabetizing the words.

The students click on the word and move it into the right spot.

There is a game for choosing the missing letter.

The students can also do a spelling test on the words.

A voice states the word aloud and students spell it!

The students can even access this site at home by doing a search for their state and teacher's name.

My students were excited to look for the app and site on their iPods and tablets at  home.

Check out all the great tech ideas on Tasia's site - Great Minds Think Alike.

And stop back here for more tech tips!

Currently - November

Lucky for me the first day of November is on a weekend, so I have time to join up with 

Farley and this month's Currently.  Honestly, I am so swamped during the week that I rarely have time to compose a blog post.

Here goes......

 \

My beloved Packers have a bye week this week so I have the Cowboys/Cardinals on as background noise while I catch up with schoolwork and blogging.

My sweet dog has a birthday today!  I am so thankful that he has been with me for 12 years.  

I can't imagine a day without him!

This past week I heard about some changes that are coming to my team at school.

The news left me feeling down, and I'm hoping it all turns out okay.

I have been perplexed about what to wear for a coat since we're in that in that not warm/not cold weather.  

I'm heading out to TJ Maxx later to check things out.

OMG - wouldn't it be nice to have an extra hour every Sunday?

An extra hour = less stress.

My book club just finished reading The Alchemist, so I needed something lighter to read.

A friend gave me the Mindy Kaling book for my birthday, and it's just the fun read I needed.

Do you need an easy to implement spelling/grammar unit next week?

Check this out in my TpT store:

Winner of my 1000 Follower Giveaway and Reflections on the Midwest Bloggers Meet-Up

Thanks to all who entered my 1000 Follower Giveaway!

The winner selected through Rafflecopter was 

Julie Goode Smithe.

Thanks, also to the wonderful bloggers who donated prizes for this giveaway.

Last Saturday I attended the Midwest Teacher Bloggers Meet-Up in Chicago.

I had dinner with a friend the night before I went, and she said it seemed like I was going 

to meet an internet date.

I can only hope that people have internet date meetings as great as this event was!

We met at a Lakeshore Learning Store in Palatine, IL.

The event was planned and hosted by Jameson at Lessons with Coffee, and Lindsey at Thriving in Third.

Thanks girls!

These are some of the Wisconsin bloggers that attended.  I was so happy to finally connect with some of my favorite teachers from the Cheesehead State. We hope to have a meet-up in Wisconsin sometime in 

early 2015 (or whenever the snow lets up!).

Kudos to Kayla from Top Dog Teaching for coming all the way from North Dakota.  I have been following her for awhile, and she always shares great tips on how to use iPads in the classroom.

What a sweetie!

These are some of the great freebies we received for attending the meet-up.
Creative Teaching Press was very generous in sending bulletin board sets, letters sets, number sets, a calendar,quilt square project templates, and more.
Lakeshore Learning supplied us with bags, teacher cups, a literacy product, and a coupon to share with you!
We also won door prizes, traded favorite things, and were awarded with donated digital products for our classrooms. WOW!

My brother and his family live near Palatine so I was able to spend time with them.

Luckily we found a spot to watch the Packer game on Sunday!

If you're a football fan you know the Pack won big last Sunday, while the Bears lost another game at home.

It was a memorable weekend for sure!

1000 IG Follower Giveaway!

Hurray!

Recently I reached 1000 followers on InstaGram!

Connecting with so many awesome educators has really inspired me to be a better teacher.

Because I am so honored to reach this milestone, I have put together a giveaway with the help of some fantastic teacher bloggers!

Check out what you can win!

This giveaway will end at 10:00 CST on Sunday, October 19.

Please follow the fabulous bloggers who have contributed to the giveaway!
Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back in the Blogging Business for Currently!

Well hello there!

Long time - no see!

Yes, I've been wrapped up in everything school related, and have neglected the blog.

Well that stops here and now, thanks to Farley and this month's Currently.

Yay - my Packers are ahead at this point - 14 to zip!

I recently had my closed redone - I love it!

I even have a jewelry drawer!

We have a field trip to a nature center tomorrow and it's pouring right now - yikes!

Is it too much to ask that it dries up by 10 AM???

I realized today that there is a hole in the dryer vent in my basement that was caused by a mouse.

WHAT?

Don't they make dryer vents out of material that is mouse-proof?

This is not good people - not good.

Click on this link to get a simple October Book Log.

Can't wait to check out all the tricks and treats!

Monday Made It - Book Pick Sticks

The craziness has set in - today was the first day back for teachers.

Tomorrow we have meetings all day (yawn), while thoughts of all we have to do back in our classrooms race through our minds.

Then on Wednesday we have Open House in the evening.

I'll have more to share later but wanted to jump back into Tara's Monday Made It hoopla with one project I completed recently.

I love that my students love books, but sometimes some of the kids hoard favorite books in their desks, even though they are finished reading them,.

So, each student will get 2 of these book pick sticks to put in the book boxes in my classroom library when they take a book.

They can only have 2 books from the classroom library out at a time.

Hopefully it will work as well as the plan I have in my head.

Thanks to Lowes and Sherwin Williams for the free paint sticks!

I painted the sticks first with some paint I had leftover from a bedroom redo at my house.

I added some washi tape, and then ran the name labels on sticky-back paper.

The font is from KG Fonts, and the apple clipart is from Krista Wallden.

I did have to secure the ends of the washi tape with some Mod Podge.

I put this picture on Instagram and got lots of feedback.

I love that you can buy pocket charts that are a color other than blue.

The black charts just seem to make colors on sentence strips pop!

Sorry for the blurry picture!

I discovered that these pocket charts are on sale on the Scholastic site!

You can find them here.

I purchased mine at our local teacher supply store.

Even though they are not on sale at the store, it was still cheaper for me because I didn't have to pay shipping, and teachers get a small discount at our local store.

Hope all your back-to-school activities are going well!