Cyber Monday & Tuesday Sale

It is time for another CrAzY awesome TpT sale. You can get 28% off everything in our store on Monday & Tuesday! Below are some of the items we will be using in these last 3 (yes we said 3) weeks before Winter Break.

 We wrote to Santa last week asking for our own Scout Elf. We sure hope he sends us one this week! If so, we will be ready with some great literacy and math activities!

 Who doesn't love Gingerbread?!? Even though we are ready for Winter Break, we sure do wish there was more time to study all our Gingerbread!

These Literacy and Calendar Journals are in our top 2 things we have ever created. We always struggled with the beginning of the day. Different meaningful activities means lots of explanations every morning. Coloring sheets means no value! We created the Calendar Journals WAYYY before Literacy Journals. The Literacy Journals solved our meaningful morning activities problem. If you love these, make sure to look for the Bundles. It will save you even more money!

 Gingerbread or Polar Express? Hard to decide which we like better! Gingerbread are so much fun, but we love the sweet story of Polar Express.

 Winter study starts just barely before Winter Break. Our winter unit truly starts after the holidays in January.

This is our #1 selling item and our #1 item we have ever created. This has 5 activities (1 for each day of the week) for 18 different word families. We did these same activities before, but now the activities are kept to one 1/2 page book which saves on paper! We love saving paper!

We hope you will consider shopping with us during this wonderful sale. Now is time for us to weed through our wish list and decide what we will be buying! Happy Shopping!!

Sale time

20% off this weekend.

Tricky Teens

 

We did it!! We barley survived the 1st six weeks of Kindergarten!  How are you guys holding up?!  We are getting our activities for our classroom crated.... S...l..o...w...l....y...... lets face it- we have been exhausted!  But the kids are settling in nicely and things are falling right into place.  I have taken everything I have learned about how kids learn teen numbers and put it all into our "Tricky Teens" packet because teen numbers are TRICKY.  These activities really break the numbers down for them to grasp the number sense.  51 pages of SUPER FUN table activities for the kids to rotate through.  Like always- the first 24 hours it's 1/2 off.  If you have used our Fine Motor activities, these activities work in that same rotation way.

Super Secret Words Freebie

My kids love this center! They ohhhh and ahhhh when I introduce this! Gotta love the excitement of 5 year olds!

It is super easy to set up. Copy this page:

Write your sight words (or anything, really) with a white crayon. Students will color boxes with markers to reveal "Super Secret Words". They will then write revealed word on the recording sheet below. The End! Done! Easy enough??

Enjoy this freebie! Click on screenshots above for download.

Science Sorts #2

Hallelujah! Science Sorts Unit #2 is FINALLY done! We love these so much! We promised ourselves we would use our journals more this year. What we love about the sorts and readers is the students can sort and read over and over and over again---all year long! So.in.love!

Unit #2 covers the following topics:
fall or summer
magnetic or non magnetic
hot or cold
melts or does not melt
sound energy
light energy
heat energy

As with Unit #1, you get color sorting pictures, student sorting pictures (2 versions) and a reader for each of the topics listed above.

As with all our new products, 1/2 off for the next day. The picture above will take you to our TpT store.

Pinterest

Last year our team came up with the idea of creating a collaborative board just for us. We were always re-pinning each others finds. It seemed so redundant. Now when we pin something, we all have access to it. We have boards for just about every area of our Kindergarten year. Within each board are activities, games and our favorite YouTube videos. It is such a time saver.

If you have never set up a collaborative board, then today is your lucky day! Here is how:
1. Create a board

2. Edit board and add the Pinterest user name or email address of who you want to share the board with.

3. Those friends will need to accept the request for each board next time they sign on.
4. You are done! Happy pinning! Below is a picture of what the board will look like when it is a collaborative board. You will have the picture of the people in the right hand corner.

To check out our boards, click on the Pinterest picture at the top of the post.

Things are popping!

Whew! We are so sorry we have been MIA since school started. The beginning of the year is so tough. It takes time to get back into things. We have been working on things--slowly--to share with you. This first is Kindergarten Concept Gumball Incentive.

Concepts included are primarily Kindergarten. This was created to recognize students as they achieve goals or master concepts. A gumball goes on their machine for each one. Concepts included are:
recognize my abc’s
count to 20
count to 100
count back from 20
tie my shoes
write my name neatly
rhyme
make patterns
sort by shape, size, color
recognize 2D shapes
recognize 3D shapes
count by 10’s to 100
count by 5’s to 100
say days of the week
say months of the year
read the color words
read my sight words
decompose numbers to 5
Editable gumballs are included at the end so you can add your own concepts.

As usual, on sale for first 24 hours!

Sale time

20% off through Monday!

MIA

 We have some VERY exciting things for the classroom we have been working on.  As soon as these children settle down- I mean FOR REAL- we will share the love!  Right now.... we are just a little CrAzY!

Science Notebooks

Do you use Science notebooks or journals in your classroom? This is one place in my classroom that I want to improve upon. Copying that worksheet takes less time than trying to figure out how to incorporate the worksheet content into the notebook. I am trying really, really hard to use less paper in my classroom. 

This summer I worked with my friend, Little Miss Kindergarten, and we brainstormed on how to use our science notebooks better. She is the Queen of Science so I really valued what she had to say. We texted, had working lunches, texted, texted and texted! Whew! What a huge project this turned out to be. 

Her packet will have notebook prompts and experiments for what is covered in our 1st 6 weeks. To say she covered prompts and experiments is a HUGE understatement. Her packet is a.m.a.z.i.n.g! You really could print our packet and her packet and be done-done-DONE! This was really our goal since Science gets pushed aside in a lot of classrooms. (I'll post the link to her packet when it is uploaded.)

Our packet includes sorts and readers for all the topics our district covers in the 1st 6 weeks. These topics are: science tools, senses, big or small, heavy or light, and summer or winter. For each of these topics you get:

*color pictures for whole group sorting

*small black/white pictures to be glued into notebooks

*medium black/white pictures that can be sorted repeatedly in notebooks. Our plan is to glue a small white envelope onto a notebook page and the pictures can be stored in it.

*student reader. We have glued small manilla envelopes onto the back cover of our notebooks to hold the readers so they students can read periodically when time allows.

As with all our new products, it is on sale for the next day (or two)! Click on top picture for link.

Happy Shopping!

We are so happy to finally buy the items on our wish list! Have fun!

PROMO CODE BTS13

Working on your wish list?

PROMO CODE BTS13

Did you hear that it is almost sale time? Sunday and Monday are the days to shop. Here are some of our favorite items. One of our goals this summer was to create packets that are a years worth of activities in a subject area. We took some of the areas that maybe got pushed aside when things got too busy. The items below are print and go and be set for the entire year!

200 Daily Questions. You are set for the entire year!

Each month has activities for each week day the parents can reinforce at home. Print pages 2 sided and you only send home 1 piece of paper!

 35 popular stories to discuss setting, characters, order of events and prediction every single week.

We have bundled our popular literacy and calendar journals. Due to their size they are broken down into 3 bundles.

It is finally here! TpT Sale!

Can we get a Whoop Whoop? We love a good sale! This year the  TpT Back to School Sale will run Sunday - Monday. Our store is 20% off plus use the code below for an additional discount from TpT. This means you will get 28% off our store!! Go ahead and start adding to your wish list!

PROMO CODE BTS13

Dollar Store Finds

This is the time of year that we are all running from store to store trying to find those awesome items our little ones will love! Or the many trips to the dollar store to find those inexpensive items for those great projects.  Well, have you ever searched the school aisle at Dollar General? I will admit, Dollar Tree has been my go-to store the past couple of years. I didn't even realize Dollar General had a $1 line of teacher items. I am going to highlight some of our favorite items shared with us this week. The Learn Motivate Reward line of ArtSkills (www.artskills.com) is available exclusively at Dollar General (www.dollargeneral.com) all for only $1 each.

What teacher doesn't love foam shapes? These foam shapes are 50ish pieces for $1. They come in numbers, circles and letters. The numbers and letters are great for center work. The circles make great counters.

This year I really wanted to incorporate some fine motor skills into the beginning of school time. I think lacing is a great way to do this. This item is 7 lacing cards for $1. Great deal!

 I love these classroom posters. They are not too big and also not too small where no one can see it from across the room. There is a cute cat clock poster. It can be whole group and then put into a center. I think adding some time flash cards and the students can move the hands to match the times on the cards. The I Spy Spinner is one of my favorites. We always play I Spy but this variation on it allows you to spin in order to pick a color. Love it! Dry Erase Shapes are great for those areas where content changes.

 Puzzles! Need a I say more? I love small puzzles for center areas. 

 I saved the best for last! STICKERS! I love stickers. I have always loved stickers. Did you have a sticker book when you were a kid? The shiny pages that made the stickers "movable". I don't remember them being that "movable" but I loved my sticker book anyway. I love stickers! The kids love stickers! Win-Win! My students have always been motivated by stickers and I had already been thinking of ways to incorporate more into my day.

Here is one idea. Do you use journals or notebooks in your classroom? I do! I have journals for math, science and work work. One of the things I struggle with is getting and keeping the kids on the right page. In a perfect world we will start at the first page and continue, without skipping pages, through the year. Well, the world is not perfect! So my thought was putting a small sticker on the page the students will be recording on at that time. I always discuss, model and walk around pointing to where I want them to be but it never fails, they somehow changes pages when I turn my back. Am I the only one that happens to? I am going to try placing a small sticker on the page as a visual reference as we work on that particular prompt. Some of these $1 packets have 400 stickers each. That really is a great deal!

The products above don't even begin to show you what Dollar General has to offer. We couldn't show you everything but wanted to spotlight some of our favorites! The Learn Motivate Reward line of ArtSkills (www.artskills.com) is available exclusively at Dollar General (www.dollargeneral.com). 

Teachers Notebook Sale

Our store is also 20% off this entire week! Happy Shopping!

(Picture will take you to TN. Sentence above will take you directly to our store!)

Almost Sale Time

We know some of you are already back to school and some of you, like us, have a few precious days left until returning. We wanted to spend the next couple of weeks highlighting some of our favorite products as we all count down the days until Back to School sale time at TpT and TN.

Our first one is Tamara's most favorite. It was definitely a labor of love because it was not an easy packet to make. What drove us to finish was that our team needed it BAD. Our district has 18 word families we work on every year. Our team always has 4 worksheets to help practice the family for that week. Tamara is a big proponent of cutting down on the amount of paper used. So we combined the activities we already do into a nice half sheet page booklet. Students can work on one page a day and send home at the end of the week.

We truly are in love and can't wait to start using it this year with our babies! So, click on the picture below to go to our TpT store to buy now or save to your wish list and buy once the sales start!

Click here for Teachers Notebook link

Shopping this Summer

One of my frustrations this summer was the lack of "teacher" stuff in the Target Dollar Spot. There are 2 things I really, really, really wanted to get for my classroom this summer. One was plastic book bins. The other was plastic baskets to put inside my student desks.

I bought a lot of books from a retired teacher and needed more book bins to put them in. I used some larger tubs last year but the kids just piled them in and they looked horrible. I have to admit, I am a bargain shopper and sometimes that makes the process a little crazy. I will drive to 5 million stores just to save money. I know that I probably wasted the amount saved on gas but shhhh! :)

As for the baskets for the desks. I know that the majority of you prefer tables but I am really a desk lover. I have done it both ways. I found that the students having their own space outweighs the craziness of the desks moving. I know these babies need to talk and interact with each other and that is why the desks are grouped together just as they were when the kids sat at tables. I have 4-5 students in each group.

My big frustration last year was my kids didn't like to return the supplies inside their bag or box. They would just throw them inside the desk. Not only would it be messy but it would take them forever to find something. These new nifty baskets will hold all their "small stuff". This will be their bag/box, name tag, sight word rings, space bar and anything else that won't stack nicely on the other side.

I really wanted to find the best deal because, ideally, I needed at least 20 book bins and 20 baskets. That is quite an investment but I think it is worth it. I was super excited to read about a company called Steps to Literacy. They have some really great prices. Not only did I find what I wanted but their prices were unbeatable. They have a free shipping code so it made the deal even sweeter!

Here are my goodies that arrived today:

 So, please stop by Steps to Literacy and check them out. Click on any of the above pictures to be directed to their site.  (BTW, this is not a sponsored post, just a post by someone who loves their products.)

31 days of Giveaways

Educents is having an amazing Back to School Giveaway starting today!  For the entire month of August they will be giving away a total of $35,000 worth of products.  Yes, you read that right, $35,000! 

Here's an exclusive sneak peak of the first 10 days of giveaways:

              


There are multiple ways to enter and win! There will be daily giveaway winners, one grand prize winner, and two runner ups.

Here's how it works:
Enter each daily giveaway for your chance to win the daily prize.
Enter the day of each daily giveaway to be entered in the Grand Prize Giveaway.
Share the giveaway on Facebook to increase the Grand Prize to $1000.  That's a $1000 shopping spree on Educents.com!

Link to Educents is at the top of our blog! Don't miss out on all these goodies!!

Daily Questions

Do you do a daily question in your classroom?  We have seen it done lots of ways by lots of teachers.  We really like THIS way- it's quick, painless, gives the students more practice with their names and opens up great conversations with our students.  This packet is 200 daily questions to cover your entire school year- pick the questions you like best to use!  All the questions are 2 answer questions with most being yes/no.  Quick mini lesson covered for everyday of the school year? Check!  Remember the first 24 hours.... it's 1/2 price! 

Flash Sale!!

Flash Sale today only! 20% off everything in our TpT store!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/2-Crazy-Texas-Teachers

Textbooks, anyone?

This post is a little off topic but I think could be useful for many of our followers. This summer I decided I was ready to go back to school and get my Masters in Library Sciences. I have always wanted to be a Librarian. I was just waiting for the need to return to school. I realized that I am not ready to leave the classroom yet but, if the opportunity arose, I wanted to be prepared. On top of this, my youngest daughter just graduated from high school and has enrolled in college. So, can anyone guess what is on my mind? Saving money!

That gives you some background as to why I wanted to post about this company, Campus Book Rentals. Here are some of the perks of renting from them:

-save 40-90% off of bookstore prices
-free shipping both ways-can highlight in the textbooks-flexible renting periods-we donate to Operation Smile with each textbook rented
What is Operation Smile? Operation Smile is an international children's medical charity that heals children's smiles, forever changing their lives. Check out their website for more details: Operation Smile
Have textbooks lying around? They have another program just for you.  RentBack is a new initiative that allows students to rent the textbooks they own - to other students... which is awesome because it makes them 2-4x more money compared to what they'd make through buyback options! 

Thanks for indulging me off topic for a bit. I decided if I could save just one person a little money then it was worth it!

Educents

Have you heard about this website? It is kinda like Groupon for teachers and parents! The deals rotate and if you don't find something you like today then check back next tomorrow or even week because it will all be different!

Here are some of our favorite deals from this week. Click on the link at the top of our blog to take you there and to read more details.

This deal starts today July 29th. Join The Magic School Bus Science Club and make science come alive! Each month your child will receive a kit. Each kit includes a colorful manual based on The Magic School Bus characters, as well as everything you need to complete at least seven experiments related to that month’s theme. For kids ages 5-12. Topics include: Magnets, Acids/Bases, Human Body, Weather Station, Water, Light/Rainbows and Mirrors, Volcanoes, Air, Fossils, Stars/Planets, Bacteria/Fungi, Solids/Liquids/Gases.

This deal starts today, July 29th, and is my favorite! What could make make-believe even better if you’re a kid? Dressing up in a costume you’ve designed, of course! Your children start with the creatively designed outline of an outfit for a princess, pirate, superhero, or other favorite pretend character. Then, using the markers included – and their imaginations – they color the clothing any way they like to create a truly unique and personalized costume. From there, it’s on to hours of pretend play!Choose from four different two-costume bundles. Geared for kids ages 4-8; grades PreK-3rd. What are your choices? Oriental Dancer, Queen, Princess, Nurse, King, Knight, Pirate, and Superhero.

This deal starts July 31st. Art, handwriting, and reading lessons come together in the perfect combination to motivate and inspire your children. This complete set includes all 8 books in the Draw Write Now series. Each one features 21 theme-related drawing and writing lessons with step-by-step instructions on 64 full-color pages. Intended for kids in Kindergarten through Grade 3.

Hope you will check out this amazing website. Don't forget the link will always be at the top of our blog for easy access.