Back to School with TpT 2016

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What a great way to start off a new school year winning stuff.

TeachersPayTeachers is having their annual Back to School Sale by providing you with 28% off of stuff on their site.

Make sure that you check out my store while you're browsing around for some great stuff to get started this year.

On top of all the goodness that TpT is providing, I'm throwing in my own. There's a $10 gift certificate to the site as well as a chance to win your favorite product from my store!

There are several ways to enter below. Make sure to check them all out.

I will be announcing the winner on Tuesday morning and sending out the winnings then as well. So start stocking up your TpT Shopping Cart with everything you'll need for the 2016 school year!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/97c4602/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School 2015 Giveaway

Yep, it's that time again. Teachers go back tomorrow morning!! I can't believe how easy this summer slipped from my fingers. Even after 24 years in the teaching business I still get this anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach when the Great School Machinery begins to turn.

Not sure if you know yet, but Back To School means a huge sale at TeachersPayTeachers. They do this every year to help you get ready for your new kiddos. If you use the code (BTS2015) you will be able to score a whopping 28% off.

I did manage to find time to work on three new TpT products that I am really excited about. The first thing I completed was a total Brain Gem. You know how something just comes to you out of the blue? I love those ideas.

I was thinking of how to get my students more interested in one of our last Social Studies units of the year. We look at Westward Expansion, which I think is pretty cool. The kids are usually in their summer mind mode by now and aren't soaking up any new information. I was tossing around some ideas and suddenly it hit me, "Why not write a Choose Your Own Adventure story?" Do you remember those? I loved them as a kid and could sit for hours flipping back and forth trying new adventures. That's how the Westward Ho! Packet came to be. It has some fun stuff in the full packet. There's a couple of task card sets on Main Idea and Cause and Effect. There's also a ppt presentation to use as a daily writing activity as you study the Oregon Trail.

 

 

My next project was something I've been meaning to put together but never had the time. A Grammar Interactive Notebook would be a perfect addition to my class.  I sat down one day and started on it. As I kept working on it, I kept finding more information that was needed in this packet. I had the Common Core standards handy and kept finding new pages that were needed to cover a 3-5 Grammar unit. By the time I got done with this I couldn't believe how many pages were in it. Coming in at Ninety-Two, it is by far my largest single project to date. Check out Interactive Grammar Notebook 3-5

 



Last, but not least I managed to complete a full year of Mentor Sentence lessons. That's a total of 40 Grammar lessons. If you aren't familiar with Mentor Sentences, check out my post from earlier. A customer had contacted me and asked when I'd be done with a full year of lessons. Since I only had two of the 10 week lessons up, I had no answer for her. So I got to work and found some great Mentor Texts to use for the second half of the year.  Full Year of Mentor Sentences

If you've managed to get this far into my blog post, you are in for a treat.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the annual TpT sale that lasts for only two days. What are you to do after that if you've missed some of your favorite products? Well, I've put together a little Rafflecopter Giveaway to help you out with that. It ends Saturday night (Aug. 8) at 11:59 P.M.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hope it helps make your week just a little easier.

Leave me a blog post below and let me know what you were able to work on this summer.

Friday Fun - 100 Follower Giveaway

I've been dreaming of this moment since July. I wasn't expecting to have it happen so soon though. I owe thanks to so many amazing people for this honor. But most of all to BBBB (Best Blogging Buddy Beyond Infinity), Jivey. She has held my hand through this entire process and shared her talents and tips and tricks to help me get to this point. I can't thank her enough!

I can thank y'all though. I can thank YOU a lot. Actually I think I can thank you 10 times over. I have scoured the ends of the Blogosphere to find ELEVEN of the most amazing people to ever set their fingers to the keyboard. And each one of them was completely generous enough to donate a prize to my little giveaway.

Can you see the grin on my face? Uh-huh.

Here is a list of the ELEVEN prizes that one Grand Prize Winner will receive!

PLUS

The Grand Prize Winner will win TWO items of choice from my TpT Store. 

Is that all? 

Of course NOT. 

There will also be two more winners. I will have a Second and Third Prize Winner. 

The Second Prize Winner will get two products from my TpT Store of their choice. 

The Third Prize Winner will get one product from my TpT Store of their choice.

***Make sure you leave me a comment below to let me know what you've got your eye on in my store.

Whew! I'm tired from just typing this all. 

Here's a set of links for each of the Prize Donations so you can go and check them out yourselves:

Hunter's Tales from Teaching is offering up her Pilgrim dice.

Collaboration Cuties is offering up

-->one item- winner's choice from their TpT store. 

Ideas by Jivey is offering up her Knots on a Counting Rope Mentor Unit.

Head Over Heels for Teaching is offering up her Character Analysis Posters. 

Sweet Rhyme&Pure Reason is offering  up his Monster Math.  

Fourth Grade Flipper is offering up any item from her TpT store.

Pinkadots Elementary is offering up her Stop, Note, Notice.

E-Z Class is offering up some exotic goodies all the way from New Zealand.  (I'm so jealous!)

Comprehension Connection is offering up her unit on The Fall Festival.

Covered in Glitter and Glue is offering up one item from her TpT Store.
Digital Divide and Conquer is offering up one item from his TpT Store under $10.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

As an added bonus, I've asked all of the fabulous souls to link up here with a blog post about what it felt for them to reach that first 100. Since some of them are far beyond the 1,000 Followers mark, I'm definitely going to be taking notes! Make sure you visit their blogs to find out how they achieved their success.

Thanks for playing! See you next Friday with the winning announcement.

Personal Goal - 100 Bloglovin Followers - Friday will be F.U.N.

Ahh, what a great way to start off my morning. Not only did I reach my personal goal of 100 followers, I surpassed it! I currently have 104 Followers!

Totally needed this. Thank you ALL!!

Do you want to know the first thing I did when I saw that this mornign?

I immediately logged onto Classroom Friendly Supplies's website and requested to do a review of their WICKED COOL pencil sharpener!!  If you know my summer, I have been stalking every single blog giveaway and Rafflecopter I could that was giving away one of these. Now I have my grubby little hands all over one! HA. I'm such a teacher.

And guess what? I got the approval letter this afternoon. Oh yeah! So stayed tuned for that review to come out.

Oh, and also stay tuned for this Friday when a little bit of goodness is going to be given back to all you fine, fine people!

Friday Fun - Bingo Board

A bunch of my colleagues use a Positive Reward chart in the form of a Bingo Board. Kids who portray great behavior get a chance to put their name in one of the spaces on the board. Then on Friday, the teacher calls out one (or two, or three) squares. Whoever has their name in the square wins a prize.

I'm about to try it this year to get my kids excited about behaving well. I thought this would be a perfect thing to try out with y'all. You can earn ONE square by leaving me a comment below with your choice. You can earn a SECOND square if you bring a friend to check out this blog. Your friend just has to mention you in their post and then you can leave me another comment with your second request.

Sounds easy, right? Oh, wait! I haven't told you the prize yet. How about this?

Here's the Bingo Board. I will fill in with those folks who leave their comments below. Make sure you aren't a No Reply Blogger. If you are, you can check out this tutorial by Jivey, or make sure you leave me an email in your comment.

Since there are 24 (plus the Free Space) it would be awesome if I could fill all of them by next week. So spread the news around. If the entire board does get filled EVERYONE will win my set of I Have-Who Has Synonym Antonyms Set 01.

Annnnnd GO!

Friday Fun - Last Summer Weekend Sale and Giveaways!

OoooOoooOhhh, it's here. The last Friday of Summer vacation. I saw this coming a long time ago, but was hoping it would get lost.

It didn't.

School begins for teachers next Wednesday. Even though we won't get paid for it, most of the staff will probably be in their rooms sometime on Monday and Tuesday as well. I know I will. I've got to put my huge beginning of the year pile together to send to the printer. Can't wait!

Since it's the last weekend right before my 23 year of teaching, I thought what other time than now to have my first sale in my TpT Store. So, rush right over there and grab all the things off of your wish list because the 20% Sale (they wouldn't let me type in 23) will end on Sunday, July 28th at midnight!!

 Now for an even better idea. How about winning some of those things on your wish list for FREE?

I've put together a little Giveaway to make up for the last 3% I couldn't tag onto my sale. This means there will be three prizes given away next Friday. Go ahead and enter as many times as you can below. Can't wait to see who the lucky winners are going to be for:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


The Winners are: