I’m all about crafting and when it comes to my classroom, it’s even better! When I saw that some of my favorite bloggers had teamed up with my favorite craft store… I had to link up:) Joann’s is seriously the best place to shop. They have the best coupon policy I’ve ever seen! I go ... Read More about Classroom Craft Linky Party

We are at the half-way point of the BYSHC Christmas in July Linky Party! Four more days to load your Christmas creations into the gallery for a chance at the prize drawings. Did you see there is also a random drawing with a prize for one lucky person who leaves comments and another one for a hashtag user? The hashtag is #christmasinjuly2022byshclp Today's card uses some new purchases - a cute Holiday Snowglobe stamp from Stamping Bella and a 12x12 Frosted Floral from Echo Park Paper's Winter collection. I wanted some help when it came to my card, so I went into the BYSHC album to look at the sketches. Sketch #17 from last winter was perfect! I love using sketches as a framework and Crystal's sketches always deliver!! The big, bold graphic of the patterned paper helped make the image shine and anchored it with non-traditional Christmas colors. Some TE Drip Drops, another one of her Sentiments in Reverse- Christmas strips (the best $4.50 I have spent in a long time), Distress Rock Candy Glitter and some gold foiling on MFT's Lined By Hand stamp finish off the card. Remember to add your card to the BYSHC Linky Party! You have time to make more than one before the festivities close on Friday night! Hope you are building up your stash of holiday cards along with us! I know it will make the holidays easier for me this year - plus I might get my cards in the mail before December 20th!! Thanks for stopping by my blog. In kindness, Cathy

[back from Low Definition 2 ] Over the last few weeks, I have been trying to pay more attention to the other side of the quilt--the quilt back! I have been perusing instagram, flickr, and quilt blogs, and thought it would be fun to put together a collection of inspiring pieced quilt backs.I ne

 What a CRAZY week and weekend!!! We are finished with our state testing and school fair. Yahoo!!! This past week consisted of finishing up state testing, teaching students a dance for the fair performance, painting a picture for the fair silent auction, (see picture below), making over 50 candy apples for the sweets booth, and practicing for the teacher fair performance! Yes, I am one of 11 teachers who actually dances in front of the parents and students at the fair!!! I think the best part of dancing would be attending all practices after school!!!  enjoying the fair candy apples for the sweet booth silent auction: each student painted a different picture on the canvas End-of-the-Year Linky Party With state testing & the fair behind me, I can start preparing for the end of the year. I am linking up with Clutter-Free Classroom and sharing my end-of-the-year ideas. I can't believe May is right around the corner!! Where did the school year go? I still need to put together portfolios and make a power point presentation. I love making a power point from all of the pictures I take during the school year. I must admit that it takes over a week to construct because I always find a way to mess up something! It never fails that every year I make some kind of mistake!!! For the portfolios, I save the students' work all year and use sheet protectors in binders. I like to put the work in order from the first to last day for the parents. I put all work in sheet protectors. The parents appreciate the organization of the work so much because it saves them the time of doing it over the summer. Also, students complete a summer writing activity. This writing activity is my favorite one of the year. The creativity that flows from the students' brains is amazing! Students are asked to write about a summer trip they have taken already or plan on taking. After editing the rough draft, students write the final copy of the essay on sunglasses. Students glue glasses on large white construction paper and draw a picture around the glasses. I was amazed the first time I did this with my class. I did not instruct them to draw a person. The end results were more than I imagined! summer writing summer writing end-of-the-year presentation set up Click (HERE) to grab your sunglasses template. What a post! Please check out Clutter-Free Classroom Project and join the End-of-the-Year Linky Party! With much appreciation,

Do you love Cheer Cards? Who doesn't love Dr. Jean?! I mean, seriously... The first time I attended one of her conferences, she WALKED by

Fraction Activities and Printables

Are you looking for ways to encourage your child to learn with a little fun this Halloween? Here are some spider themed activities that are sure to be a hit at your house. We're featuring

In Montessori, children learn to write before they learn to read with help of the Sandpaper Letters. After practicing letter formation using those letters, students need to continue handwriting exercises […]

Free parent-teacher conference forms to help guide your conversation and make sure you share everything you want and need to with parents.

The Lesson Plan Diva is having a Behavior Plan/Behavior Problems Linky party so I wanted to share what I made 2 years ago that helped some ...

Welcome to the Free Resource Library for Montessori, early childhood and lower elementary teachers, parents and educators! I am thrilled to provide you with a curated selection of free printables. […]

Welcome to the Let's Bee Social! So glad to have you join us for the Let's Bee Social weekly linky party! This week 8 little foxes were born in my sewing room.... These little foxes finish at 8" square. And were soon found frolicking among the Birches. This is a new pdf quilt pattern that you can find in my shop here - Fox among the Birches. And there are four options for Quilt Kits also available here. This Quilt Kit includes - Good Natured from Riley Blake - that I am using for my backing . This Quilt Kit has Birch Bark from the Alpine collection for the Background and also includes the Good Natured from Riley Blake Designs for backing. This Quilt Kit includes this wintery backing - Woodland Winter Animals from Northcott Fabrics. And this Quilt Kit includes this cute backing - Animal Toss from Forest Friends for MODA. Hoping to be sharing the finished Fox among the Birches quilt this Friday! Now... It's your turn for Show and Tell!!! What have you been working on? Click on at least a few of the others who have linked up. In your blog post, please include a link back to my blog. Grab the "Let's Bee Social!" button from above and put it on your sidebar. This way others who visit your blog that week can join in the fun! Share the news of this new linky and Let's Bee Social! Following Sew Fresh Quilts is not required. But it sure would BEE nice! An InLinkz Link-up Keep On Quilting On! Follow To follow Sew Fresh Quilts by email.... Enter your email address: Delivered by FeedBurner

Today’s focus is the H-word…. HOMEWORK! Now, I know *most* kiddos are not huge fans of this practice, but it is such a great reinforcement of the ideas taught from the week. That is why I keep homework brief and level appropriate. To help students (and parents) stay organized, my team and I order […]

See how to finish sewing - the neat way. If you want your seam finish look pro, this easy sewing tip is a must-see!

I saw that Mrs. Miracle was taking part in a fun Linky party so I decided to check out Principal Principles blog and decided to take par...

Hi Friends! This is Julie from Mrs. Lee's Kinderkids. Thanks so much for hoppin' over to read the great things we have going on here at Blog Hoppin' this week! Today's theme is Activities Like…so my title would be: Activities Like This Make my Prep Life Easier or Activities Like This Keep my Students Engaged I began our Alphabet Journal this year and I absolutely love it…so do my kiddos! They are totally engaged in this hands-on journal. I've seen ABC journals before, but haven't really found one that was very hands-on. I didn't want simply a tracing journal, but one that was fun, hands-on, and one that was a little unpredictable from week to week. Now, for the part that makes my prep life easier…once these are made, it is something that's always there and ready each week. I prep most all of the materials for the year at the beginning of school. I keep the letter manipulatives in a drawer caddy that I got at K-mart years ago. I forgot to snap a picture of it, but I got it in the tool section. It has 12 drawers that are see-through. A few of the things I do have to pull out each week like cotton balls, glitter etc. Once my kiddos got the hang of how to complete the journal, they rarely have to ask for my help if ever, which maximizes my teaching time. Here are a few examples that my students have done this year… Each letter has a decorate it, trace it, write it, dot it, and build it section. Here, we used apples to decorate our Aa and we built it with torn paper which is great for fine motor skills. For Tt, we decorated it with triangles and built it with toothpicks. For Pp, we painted the Pp's with pink and purple, and built our Pp's using pipe cleaners. *************************************** Elizabeth here from Kickin' it in Kindergarten. This is my all time favorite sight word game. The kids beg to play it on Friday. Word Wall Wizard. I read Word Wizard at the beginning of the year to introduce the activity. We play this game every Friday to review the sight words introduced from the week and all year. We all cozy up in the library...since that's where the word wall is. One student is the wizard and they get to wear the wizard hat (which is falling apart) from Party City. I think I paid a whopping $1.50 for it. The wand was in the dollar bin at Target. You could also use the wooden spoon as a wand since that's what the girl uses in the book. Once they put on the hat (and tell me the word they are thinking of...), they wave the wand and say: I used to have this as a poster next to the word wall, but there I don't have room for it this year. If you want a copy of it, feel free. Just click on the picture to get the PDF. So here's how it would go down. One lucky wizard is picked, I have them whisper their word to me. They put on the hat (and it always falls off) and wave the wand and do their schpeel. For example, the word is "you". They stand in front of the word wall and wave the wand and say "Words, Words, I know them all. I'm the wizard of the word wall. I'm thinking of a word that has three letters and begins with a "y"." The wannabe wizards raise their hands until someone says "you". Rinse and repeat. I love this activity 1. Because they love it and 2. Because they are all activley engaged in finding words on the word wall. ************************************ Hey ya'll! Erin here from Eberhart's Explorers. Today I'm bringing you "Activities like....Family Projects." I know I've discussed this before on my blog, but I cannot stress these enough. They are so great because they encourage family involvement and everyone loves them! I've had a few teachers show concern over some students not bringing the projects back, but honestly - I've never had a problem. I make such a HUGE deal out of them that all of my students are dying to share their project. Granted, some are better than others and some students receive more help than others...but usually, everyone has SOMETHING to share. Here are just a few samples of what my kinders put together... August: All About Me page. Pages are shared and combined into a class book. Students LOVE looking at this book during their classroom library time. October: Pumpkin Book Reports November: Decorate a turkey feather to add to our class turkey. December: Disguise the Gingerbread Man and help him hide from the hungry fox! February: Decorate a Valentine mailbox March: Design a Leprechaun trap If you've never tried something like this, I totally recommend it. Give it a whirl one month and see how it goes...then pencil them in your schedule for next year! You'll love them - promise. ************************************ Hey there!! It's Katie from Little Warriors! I've got....Activities like this are inquiry based! Activities like this are engaging, challenging and fun!!!! I was lucky enough to be able to participate in a STEM grant a few years ago and it really got me thinking about how I could include Science more often in my curriculum. Sadly, Science is often overlooked in the primary grades. But, it is so important for us to spark their interest and imagination when they are young. It is so important in our ever-changing world today to inspire critical thinkers and problem solvers. Science plays a huge roll in that. So, it's important for all of us to try to integrate it into our current curriculum. Here are a couple of my favorite science lessons that I do throughout the year... The first one is Where Does Garbage Go? I do this activity around Earth Day. They have a cup of Cheerios that represent tires in their dump. They have to crush them up so that can actually see and have a fabulous visual of what it means to REDUCE waste. Then, we use our smashed up tires as one of our ingredients to make a road. Another one of my favorites is Cheeto Pollination! I like to throw this in during my insect unit...but, it would work equally well during a plant unit. For this one, they use their little bee puppets to fly to a flower. The kids are allowed to each their Cheetos (remind them NOT to lick or wipe their fingers.) They notice how the Cheeto dust (pollen) sticks to their fingers. When they are finished with their Cheetos, they fly to a friends' flower and land on it to see how the pollen is transferred and pollination occurs. Now it's your turn! Link up and share your Activities Like.....

Five for Friday is a weekly teacher linky party where you post five random things from today or this past week and on your blog. Then, you come back and link your blog post up at the bottom of this po

Thanks so much Jenna from Speech Room News for hosting a What's In Your Cart Linky Party! Get your carts ready, my friends! Teachers Pay Teachers is having their Back to School BEST YEAR EVER sale August 1st & 2nd! Save up to 28% site wide (with the stores who are participating) with promo code BESTYEAR. My cart is already stuffed with new resources and clip art! I'm glad that they decided to have the sale earlier this year so that we can get things printed, copied, laminated, etc. before students come back. New in my store: I have some new products in my store that I'm excited to share with you. I'm most excited about My IEP and Me, mainly because my first two weeks of lessons are covered with this product as well as all of my students questions regarding why they receive services and what they can do to take ownership of their learning. I have to admit that this product was totally inspired by the adorable clip art! I mean how cute are these little weiner dogs!!! Shades of Meaning is common core aligned and great for students needing help understanding subtle differences between words. What's in my cart? I'm needing to update my articulation materials and these products are anything but basic. Activity Tailor has a super unique product for tackling /s/blends. Check it out: These Artic Pix from Gold Country SLP are age appropriate for the upper grade students whom I work with. Looking forward to having these beautiful pix to pull from. Jen from Speech Universe has this new comprehensive Articulation Progress Moitoring Kit which I can't wait to get my hands on. I believe this will make data tracking so much easier. I was blown away by Jenna's blog post on her new Speech and Language Learning Targets product. Check it out and don't miss this great deal during the sale! Let's shoot for the stars and have The BEST YEAR EVER! My entire SLP Runner store will be 28% off including already reduced bundles. Remember to use the code:BESTYEAR

Busy Hands Quilts quilt patterns for modern and traditional quilters in all sizes, precuts, fat quarters FQs, layer cakes, jelly rolls, & charm packs.

How to make scrappy fabric.

Click HERE to view our Teachers Pay Teachers Promoting Success store. Note: This blog post contains resources from our TpT store and Amazon Associate store. Click HERE to follow us on Instagram. Click HERE to follow us on Facebook. -------------------------------------------- My how have times changed. No longer do we believe children must sit absolutely still and quiet in order to learn. There is so much research on brain development, movement, time on task, and more. Research shows that movement fires the brain and increases achievement. But how do we encourage movement without losing learning and time on task? Here are some ideas: 1. Flexible Seating 2. Student Centered Classroom 3. Project Based Learning 4. Positive Behavior Supports 5. Brain Breaks Hip Hop Style There are also some resources you may purchase from our Amazon Associate store to help students focus. The first item is a Balance Disc. It is typically for exercise and fitness. However, this air filled balance disc is fabulous for proprioceptive sensory input. Student with autism, attention deficit disorder, and many other students will benefit from these discs. Just place these on the students' seats to help focus and increase time on task. These could be used on the carpet for opening group times, in each student's chair, or in special learning centers. They are also great at home at the dinner table or the home school learning table! You may also wish to use fidgets. According to Zentall, an activity that uses a sense other than that required for the primary task — listening to music while reading a social studies textbook — can enhance performance in children with ADHD. Doing two things at once, she found, focuses the brain on the primary task. Mesh-and-Marble Fidget Toy (8-pack) - Stress / Anxiety Relief for Adults and Kids - BPA Free Kore Patented WOBBLE Chair, Made in the USA, Active Sitting for Toddler, Pre-School, Kids, and Teens; Kids don't have to sit still anymore - "The BEST seat in any Classroom"! Gaiam Kids Stay-N-Play Balance Ball Bouncy Bands for Chair (Blue support pipes) --------------------- Task cards also support movement in the classroom! Check out this freebie at Teachers Pay Teachers Promoting-Success! ------------------------------------- Please click HERE to see more books and resources from my Amazon store. I've searched for the best-selling and/or highest rated teaching resources for you! (I earn a small commission.) --------------------------------------------------------- Click HERE to view our Teachers Pay Teachers Promoting Success store. Shelly Anton is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. ** This means there are Amazon affiliate links in these blog posts. This does not mean you pay a dime more when you purchase a product through the link. It just means I am trying to save you valuable teacher time by making it easier for you to find valuable resources for your students, and I earn a few cents for my research and time. Thank you for all you do for kids!

This tornado in a bottle is a quick and easy weather science experiment. Learn how to make a tornado in a bottle with a few simple materials.

Busy Hands Quilts quilt patterns for modern and traditional quilters in all sizes, precuts, fat quarters FQs, layer cakes, jelly rolls, & charm packs.

Montessori geometric solid activities and free printables.

Boat activities and free printables for tots and preschoolers.

Hello my long lost friends!! I can't believe it has been four months since I blogged last! Once summer hit I spent all my free time with m...

 What a CRAZY week and weekend!!! We are finished with our state testing and school fair. Yahoo!!! This past week consisted of ...

I'm excited to share with you our TOP CHOICES of Activities to do with your elementary aged child selected by the After School Team. Thank you so much for visiting our sites every week to

We are so excited to be linking up for this fun App Linky Party! I can't wait to see all of the ideas from others! I have many apps that I love to use in my classroom. One of my favorites is Class Dojo! I love using Class Dojo with my students, and they love it, too!!! I use a variety of different rewards/incentives along with the Class Dojo. They love the cute characters and they love the positive points! I do not display any negative points but you can. The parents love that they can check on their child's behavior daily. It is a win-win! Here is a picture of the little monsters: What I love about this app: 1. It is FREE!!! 2. My kids tend to love getting points and view them daily at home to see if they earned or lost during the day. 3. I can use my phone for the points, so I try and keep my phone close. 4. The kids love updating their monster and it becomes their own creation. 5. It is great for use during conferences or for parents to instantly know if their child is having a good or rough day. Parents can see it is they have been invited. My frustrations with it ... 1. Sometimes the system does not come up right away. I have created a page to help deal with that but it is still not fun. 2. If students "buy" a prize using their points, I can not just deduct those points and I have to clear them to zero. I have a created a sheet for this, too. I wish it would be easier. 3. Some days we are just so busy I do not award points at all. This really is all me, but I am trying to make sure I get them on their. We are just so immersed in our learning and it is hard to break free and put those points on. Click on the picture below to start your own Dojo! Here is a freebie to go along with your Dojo! We hope you like it and we would love your feedback! We are working on a complete Class Dojo product! Comment below with anything you would like to see in it. You can also email us with any questions! Head back over to Jen's Blog and enjoy the other link-ups! Have a very "APPY" week! Karen and Alison

Hi friends! I have a lot to talk about today and I'm combining a few linky parties to get it done (no need for multiple posts in a day!). I'm joining Kacey for her Five for Friday (er, Sunday?) and Tara for Monday Made It! My kids made some cute snowman art projects out of paper plates (because I don't like close ups of my students on here, here is the example I found from Meaningful Mama). Each student made one, then I took their picture, and now they are decorating our classroom door with the title "We are learning 'snow' much in first grade!" Super cute! This year I have a student that requires a one on one aid. This is the first time that I have had an aid in my classroom because it is not something that my district does often. This little guy has autism and is very limited verbally. The start of the school year was a rough transition...but then October through December were GREAT! He was making awesome progress verbally, academically, and behaviorally! Since coming back from winter break, it has been a tough transition again. So I came up with an idea for him to have a Mario behavior chart. He LOVES Mario. So the awesome Sped teacher at my school made this up! The first day, he didn't care at all...until he went home and realized that he only got so many game minutes at home based on how many coins he earned at school. It is so great that he has supportive parents! I have done A LOT of laminating this week! This picture was done while I was laminating at home-with my old model laminator. It still works wonderfully! :) At school I have the updated model which can be found {here}. And I was able to get this huge pouch of laminating sheets when they were on sale {here}. We have a laminator at school, but laminating is only done a few days a week and the film is thinner. So when I need something done quickly or I want it with thicker lamination, I do it myself! I have also been busy making some new products this week! (This is where my Monday Made It comes in!) Since the school year started, I have been blogging about using Math Reads in my classroom (check those out here).I LOVE them...and so do the kids! (picture above is one of the activities) See it {here}! I have been creating things to use in the classroom (some whole group, some small group) with these books and I am finally ready to list them! They are currently ON SALE in my store! And I plan to continue to add to it as I use more books, so get it at a great price now and re-download later when more is added!! :) I have also been working on some new things for Valentine's Day! This is a set of 7 Valentine's themed activities and games! These are just in time for February and include the following skills: true/false addition, 3 addend addition, addition doubles, place value, word problems, number order. Check it out! We also had our 100th day of school this week! This kids were super pumped! I was pretty terrible about remembering to take pictures, but here is a list of things we did! Morning Work: 100 Circles The kids follow a color code to color in the 100 circles in groups of 10. It can be found {here}. Math: Number Hunt I have the numbers up around the room and the kids have to color their number chart accordingly to see the magic picture. You can pick it up for FREE in my store! Writing: 100 Theme They had a few different writing options (I would buy 100..., I would eat 100..., I wouldn't want 100..., etc). But this one was by far their favorite! I used the aging app to edit pictures of them to put inside the zeros of 100. Other: 100 Sign, 100 Snack This was hanging in the doorway when they came in. They also got to enjoy a special snack! One last thing...I posted about this freebie last time but snatch it up if you missed it! This is another item I plan to continually add on to later. Have a great week!!

I survived parent-teacher conferences. Do they have a shirt for that? I mean, I spent hours prepping, worked 7am-5pm, and hardly ate a thing all day! With that said, I've only done 1/3 of my class

Some nights I struggle to think of what I should write about, but tonight is not that night. I found a linky party that looks like a blast. Even though it isn't quite February it is coming up fast! This linky party is a little different. I have to post about something I've created or found, post a freebie, and something funny. Make sure you click below and go join in the fun! I never thought the word "linky" would be in my vocabulary since it's a little 'fru-fru', but I have to say linky parties are a blast! Fabulous February Feature: I'm going to go in a different direction this time - clip art!!!! There is a ton of great clip art out there, but one of my blogging friends I started following towards the beginning of my blog just started creating clip art. The first thing she created was Valentine cupcakes. The minute I saw them I had a million ideas run through my head. I can't wait to use them! So, I'm sharing them with you. Below is a picture of them. If you like them, then you need to go visit Erica at Blooming in First. A Fantastic February Freebie: This is my newest freebie and I have to tell you, I created it just for you and this linky party. I've been wanting to make a few Valentine items, so I ran with it tonight. By the way, one of the sheets I had to make twice. I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing (I'm blaming Abby on Dance Moms) and I accidentally deleted the entire page. However, I already had it in my mind, so I just couldn't pretend like it didn't exist. Oh, and I decided to go with Valentine monsters. I thought our sweet boys would enjoy these. If you like them, click on the pictures to get them and definitely let me know what you think and if there's anything else you've been wanting. I'm always looking for some good freebie ideas. A Funny: Today was one of the funniest days I've experienced this year. Do you ever have days where you can't punish your students (Even when they deserve it) because they are so funny you can't help but laugh - today was that day! Honestly, it wasn't even the whole class. It was the red table. First, you have to understand, we are still in the middle of table battles. Yes, believe it or not, table battles are still working. Who knew? I would've started this months ago if I had known how competitive they were. Well, the red table was a little chatty today, so we commented that they needed to calm down since they were Chatty Cathy's. One of my students, with a grin, said, "We're special!" By the way, this is where I wish I could insert tone because it was hilarious. Later today, our speech teacher came by to pick up a few friends. One of them hopped up without asking, so she commented that maybe she was taking my T.A. and me. Without missing a beat, a friend at the red table said, "It's time to get down and party!" Where do they get these things? You'd think they had a silly first grade teacher or something. Last of all, I made a comment this afternoon and apparently my voice went from normal to a high pitched chipmunk voice. My T.A. couldn't resist pointing it out. Well, the next thing I knew the red table was "mocking" me by saying things with high pitched chipmunk voices. I realize that mocking probably isn't a good thing to promote, but I was laughing so hard, I ended up rolling with it. Not sure what was up with my red table today, but love that teaching is so full of laughter. Well, that covers everything for the linky party. Now, if I can figure out how to lengthen a day, I will be in great shape! Have a great hump day tomorrow!

Fraction Activities and Printables

You only need wheat grains and water to grow wheatgrass without soil! Growing wheatgrass for fresh wheatgrass juice at home is easy, cheap and so much fun!

My sweet friend Elizabeth is hosting a linky party all about my favorite social media....INSTAGRAM! You link up your 3 favorite instagram photos, but there are a couple of rules: 1. You can't link up a product. 2. Make sure to check out three others who linked up. If you would like to follow me on instagram, my username is @mrs_pauley. It was so hard to choose only 3 favorite photos, I wanted to break the rules and choose 5 ;) Without further ado, here are my 3 favorite photos: This photo was taken during our vacation in the Ozarks. I just love going there because it is so relaxing. This is pretty much what I did most days. Or I was on a float in the water doing the same thing....haha! My son LOVES playing soccer and I LOVE to watch him. (Yep....I am one of THOSE moms who yell from the sidelines...don't hate me!) I took this photo this fall during a soccer tournament he was playing in. My daughter is such a girly girl and I have a sneaking suspicion that she will want to be a cheerleader in high school. This is from the cheer clinic the high school cheerleaders put on. She had so much fun and looked absolutely adorable! I hope you will head on over to Elizabeth's blog and link up! I can't wait to see your instagram photos and don't forget to include your username so we can follow you on instagram as well! I am also going to link up with Simply Kinder for the Teaching Blog Round Up. I am excited to find some new blogs to follow through this linky as well! I have formed many wonderful friendships through blogging and I am so thankful for that.

About a month ago, my loving wonderful husband bought me a new car. Being a little OCD I have been paranoid about any little speck of dirt in it. Trying to keep it in its beautiful new state, I decided to make a little trash bag for it and share how I did it. Materials needed 5 leftover Jelly roll strips 1/4 yd. of oilcloth ****ignore the velcro tabs in the middle of the pic. I scrapped that idea and just made a loop for the handle. Sew 4 of your jellyroll strips together. I just took a normal size strip and cut it in half. You don't need the whole WOF that it comes in. Press your seams and trim so that you have 2 pieces that are 8.25" x 10.5". Sew the 5th strip together along the length of the strip. Sew with right sides together. Turn it right side out and press. I ran out to my car at this point and measured how long I needed the loop to be. Mine was 16.5". Adjust to the length you need. Loop the handle around and pin it to one of your exterior pieces. Secure in place by stitching. Cut 2 pieces of oilcloth. You will need them to measure 8.25" x 10.5" Sew both of the exterior pieces with right sides together around the sides and bottom of the bag. Do the same for the interior pieces. After stitching trim the bottom corners to an angle. Just makes things prettier when you turn them right side out. Turn the exterior piece so it is right side out. Place the exterior piece inside of the interior piece. The right sides will be together. I like to match up and pin my side seams together so everything lines up well. Remember when you are stitching the pieces together across the top to leave yourself about a 2.5" opening to turn the bag right side out. This is what you should have. Turn the bag right side out through the opening you left. Now...CAREFULLY press the top edge. You don't want to touch the oilcloth with your iron...trust me...it turns ugly really quickly!! Top Stitch the top of the bag. Wasn't that easy? It took me about 20 minutes to make this one!!! Happy Sewing. I would love to see the ones that you make. Post them to my FACEBOOK page. Have a FANTASTIC day!!

Fraction Activities and Printables

I can't believe the Back To School Sale is happening all ready. Thanks Jenna from The Speech Room News for putting on another awesome linky party! I'm scrambling to get my cart together but KNOW that I really want the following products! I've had Natalie Snyder's upper level progress tool in my cart and this is the perfect time to buy it as I'll have all of my baseline data collected within the first month of school. Language Progress Monitoring Tool Rose is so talented at Speechsnacks! Our school is doing a lot of work in executive functioning this year and I'm sure to be prepared with this great back-to-school product! Back-To-School Executive Functioning And speaking of prepared, I think this planning pack by The Rachel (The Queen's Speech) is going to be so helpful, especially since it's fully editable! Special Education Planning Pack I'm super excited to get my hands on Nicole's Common Core Cans. I love this concept of quick and easy practice of important skills. Common Core Cans You may be interested in my very NEW Fall Figurative Language Packet to get your students back in the critical thinking game. It is CC aligned for grades 3-6 learning levels. This means that I will be using it with many of my 7/8 learners who struggle with higher level language functions. Or- be set for the entire school year with my Year Full of Calendar Activities for Language. This is my product that I go to at the beginning of each month and I love seeing student growth in their understanding of spatial/temporal concepts as well as executive skills and life skill knowledge. The bundle is an EXTRA 28% off of the already reduced bundle price!!!!!!!! Be sure to use the code: BTS14 for a total of 28% off everything at SLPrunner. This includes all of my already reduced bundles (lots of back-to-school shopping). Head back to the Jenna's Linky Party for some more great tips. Thanks for visiting my blog and Happy Shopping!

Adrienne over at Unless Teaching, who was also one of my Clip Art Shop giveaway winners, is hosting a favorite font linky party! I am so excited to participate so I made a collection of my favorite fonts to share. Warning: There are a bunch! I am sure I missed some, but these are the most commonly used ones. I turned it into a pdf so some of the fonts may look strange! That one at the bottom says (This Font Is Empty.) Anyway, I hope you guys link up! Click here to head to her blog and participate! And for those of you who were wondering, my first week back to school went pretty well! They got testy with me, but I got into under control! It sort of feels like the beginning of school again having to go over classroom and school procedures and having them try to test me all the time, but all in all, it went pretty great! Well, Happy Saturday!

Pushpin (or pin poking) activity is one of the popular fine motor activities in the Montessori classroom. I would like to share with you different ways to use pins and […]