Featured on Sunny Days

Denise at Sunny Days in Second Grade has graciously allowed me to post on her blog for her readers. Sunny Days is a great blog with such fun ideas. Come by and check out my post today.

Leap Year Sale on Teachers Pay Teachers

I just wanted to give you a heads up that Teachers Pay Teachers is doing a Leap Year sale with 10% off in all stores. That means you can get BRAIN TOWER for less!

What's Brain Tower you may be wondering? Follow this page to read more about it. Currently, you can buy Brain Tower directly from me for $17.00, but if you go to Teachers Pay Teachers and buy it there you'll get an even bigger discount on this special sale! I marked it down from $20.00 to $17.00 and then TpT will kick in 10% off that. That means you can get Brain Tower for $15.30 plus free shippping

I kicked in an extra 10% off on all my digital products! Be sure to check out my latest unit, "March Madness Basketball Unit for 1-2 grade" and all my freebies that go along with basketball. Click on the coupon picture up above to take you to my shop. I hope you have a great Leap Day!

Book Review: Quitter

It's no secret among my friends that I am a Dave Ramsey fan (or is that junkie). About a year ago, I was listening to Dave Ramsey on the radio while I worked in the kitchen and heard him interview Jon Acuff.

Jon was coming out with this new book called, "Quitter". I listened to him talk about how he habitually quit jobs. That really he excelled at that! My mind immediately thought of my husband who had been struggling with what he really wanted to do when he "grows" up. (Maybe he was having a third life crisis. He's only 34)

I ordered the book. When I opened it to read (I had to be a supportive wife to push a book such as this!), I did not expect the book to feel like it was speaking directly to me!

Why did I choose a book called "Quitter" for a bunch of teachers who most likely love their job?
It's simple, because most likely if you are reading this post right now....you are into blogging. The author Jon Acuff wrote Stuff Christians Like Blog before he was an employee for Dave Ramsey.

He talks about the ups and downs to writing a blog. The obsession we get about things being perfect before we post something. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

Jon's thoughts on perfectionism..." 90 percent perfect and shared with the world always changes more lives than 100 percent perfect and stuck in your head. That's it. I admit it's simple. But it's also true. The things you create and share will always out perform the things that stay stuck in your head or your desk or your laptop. You might love the ideas you have inside you. You might be proud of them than any other project you've ever put together. But if you don't follow through with them, they don't do much good."

Jon also confronts the myth's of why people don't strive to live out their dream job or even try. The one that spoke to me was the myth, "We are too busy to pursue our dreams."

"You have the perfect amount of time each day for the things that matter most. The key is spending time on those things. Few would boldly declare, 'Today, watching television for two hours was one of the most important things I needed to get done.' Yet that's where we sometimes spend our entire evenings. The operative word in the phrase "enough time" is not time. It's enough. And the truth you should accept is that you will probably never have 'enough' time to pursue your dream. But every day somebody somewhere is making magic with less-than-enough time he has. So can you."

He also tells you what it looks like to achieve your dreams. He says, "You got to hustle!" So here I am now the person who loves sleep....waking up most mornings at 5 AM to work on my blog before my children wake up for the day.

I have found that I have enough time to do what matters. Television has fallen to the way side. I only watch one show and I don't usually even watch it (I don't have DVR...shocker huh).

The cherry on the top in this book is Jon is hilarious! He makes me laugh at the silly things we do and the worse case scenarios we come up with when faced with living our dreams. Please get yourself a copy of Quitter and give it a go. My husband loved it, my sister loved it, and I loved it!

Listen to the Radio Show Live!

Today I will be on TBA Radio with host Charity Preston at 6:00 PM Mountain Standard Time. Come by and check it out! Use the widget below or the one in my sidebar to listen.

Doing a Radio Show Sunday!

Lucky me... this Sunday, I get to do a radio interview with Charity Preston from the OCBlog on TBA Blog Radio. Click on the promotional ad here. If you want to hear it live, call in, or listen to it later, just visit TBA's radio station page.

Permission to Pin?

Laura Candler of Corkboard Resources just posted up some information about Pinterest that everyone should know. Please read her post here.

Pinterests terms clearly state that you need to have permission to pin someone elses photos! Oops, I guess I didn't read that very closely...this doesn't mean I am going to erase my stuff and stop pinning. I will just be asking for permission and expect the same from you as well.

So here you have it, you have my persmission to pin from Kidscogworks.com, my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop, Teachers Notebook Shop, and Pinterest Boards.

Silly Syllables

Syllables can be tricky for kids, but is a great skill for them to work on. Knowing how many syllables there are in a word can also help with spelling.

To make this game, gather pictures of items with 1-3 syllables. For example: bee, zipper, hose, robot, candy, rake, etc. Have the child make piles and sort the words by how many syllables there are.

For a different twist or a child working on spelling have them figure out how to spell harder words using the syllables to help them figure out the correct spelling with the letter combinations that they know.

In example, show a picture of a zipper. Tell them how many letters this word has in it. Then they figure out the syllables and then decide what letters to put together for the sounds.

Teacher: Zipper has six letters in it. How many syllables?
Student: Two
Teacher: In the first syllable, what sounds do you hear? Z-I-P
Student: Writes down the sounds.
Teacher: What are the sounds you hear in the second syllable? P-R
Student: Most likely writes down just a P and R
Teacher: We have six letters we need to use to spell zipper. What letters could you be missing?

After discussing, student then writes the word zipper.

Thankful Thursdays #1

I wanted to begin consistent theme post once a week. The other day I was pondering on all the things I am thankful for. Education being one of them. We are so blessed here in America. Even though it seems that our education system is broken at times, we are fortunate enough that our children have an education.

Earlier in the week, my sons scout group had a Blue and Gold banquet. The theme for the evening was patriotism They invited a gentleman to come and speak about his service in Iraq. He showed us pictures and video of what life is like over there. The picture that moved me to tears was one of a school they had refurbished for the children that lived close to base.

The walls were crumbling...it was just four walls. The children that came for the ribbon ceremony had never been to school in their entire life! They were children as old as 11. What a blessing for them to go to school.

It made me embarrassed for even complaining in the past about my children's school. We have so much to be thankful for.

I would like this to just be a place where each week you can share a thought about the good things we have going for us in education. I want us to be the glass is "half full" kind of people. Please keep all your comment positive. :)

What are you thankful for today in our education system?

Featured on A Modern Teacher

Today I had the pleasure of writing a guest post for April at A Modern Teacher. Please go by and check it out. A Modern Teacher is a great blog! You don't want to miss it. :)

K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.

Lego Picture Prompt

Hey all I joined up with a Picture Prompt Linky Party. Do you have some great pictures to share? Click on the the cute little bulletin board up above to add yours.

Boys are often hesitant to write. Free writing can feel like pulling teeth. I came up with a picture prompt that would appeal to boys...Legos. My oldest son love to build with Legos. He generously allows me to take pictures of his creations. I have shared a few here for you to use with picture writing prompts.

Swimming is lots of fun. Tell about your favorite swimming place. What does it look like? Where is it? Why is it special to you?

What do you think is being said between these two people? Where do you think they are? What are they going to do next?

Kids Co-Op Linky for YOU! Fri. Feb. 17, 2012

I adore card games! There are so many fun ways to play. Starting in Kindergarten, you can have kids play with a deck of cards. Teach them simple games like Go Fish. As they get older, teach them pyramid solitaire or addition war. Even teenagers don't tire of card games. Visit my card game page for game ideas.



I am part of a new linky group called Kids Co-Op. We share one of our favorite activities and then ask you to share some of yours. Link up here until this next Friday. Anything goes, my blog focuses on older kids. Feel free to share anything educational or just plain fun!

Ouch! You got me-

I have been tagged!

Here are the "rules":
1.You must post the rules.
2.Post 12 fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
3.Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create 12 new questions for the people you tagged.
4.Tag 12 people and link them on your post.
5.Let them know you've tagged them!

12 Random Facts About Me:

1.I am married to a civil engineer and I have 3 sons.
2.Even though I am a college graduate, I never did the cap and gown.
3.I love love love Coca-Cola but just recently gave it up for good.
4.I began my teaching career in an Autism preschool
5.At one time in my life, I wanted to be an architect
6.The human body fascinates me.
7.I taught preschool and then started staying at home.
8.I started tutoring middle school student 5 years ago and discovered that I love it!
9.I am snacking on pretzel M & M’s right now.
10.My favorite singer is Mindy Gledhill, you just can’t help but be happy when you listen.
11.Someday I would love to teach at a single gender school. (I have a knack with boys-go figure)
12.I created Brain Tower (an awesome game)

Here are my answers to Nicole's 12 questions:

1.What subject do you like to teach the most? Middle School Math
2.What is your favorite drink? Was Coca-Cola, now I like Strawberry Lemonade
3.What is one piece of advice you have for a new teacher? Keep it simple.
4.What is your favorite teaching website/or blog? I like Teacher Wife, A Modern Teacher, Math n-spire
5.What is your favorite type of music? Pop or alternative
6.What is one of your guilty pleasures? Spending way too much time blogging.
7.What type of books do you like to read? Informational books. I love being a student and I like reading about all kinds of things.
8.What are some of your hobbies? Card making, decorating
9.What is something you do to stay organized in terms of grading/lesson planning/copies for school/etc.? I am in a different situation being a tutor. I keep a folder for each student with things we’ve done and things we’ll be doing.
10.What is your favorite snack? Pretzel M & M’s
11.What was your favorite vacation? My husband and I went to Oahu for our 10th anniversary two years ago. I didn’t want to leave-I was so grumpy on the plane.
12.How did your spouse propose? We went for a walk, he had a little kids fishing pole and I was casting it in the pond. Then he says, I bet you can’t throw it over the wall. I always like a challenge, so I did. His friend was on the other side and he attached a ring to it. When it came back, he was on one knee. This was pretty creative for a civil engineer.

An Award...

Mrs. Poland at Think, Wonder, Teach awarded me the Liebster Blog Award. I am surprised to say the least. An award? For me? Thanks to Mrs. Poland for reading my little blog and to all of you as well.

As part of receiving this award (I'll save my award speech for my family) I get to nominate five other blogs with 200 or less followers. What an honor! There are so many blogs that I enjoy reading.

I here by nominate:
A Modern Teacher
Growing Up Teaching
Mrs. T's First Grade
Addie Eductaion
Tradtions, Laughter, and Happily After

Now it's your turn to nominate some other fortunate blog authors. Just make a post similar to mine and tag five authors with the award.

I was featured on I Can Teach My Child!

There is this great blog called I Can Teach My Child which is full of great craft, learning, and parenting helps. I submitted an idea to Jenae about potty training and was featured today! Come by and check it out. Click on the blog button below.

Pizza Pie and the Number Line Unit

In this unit, students will learn how to multiply a whole number by a fraction. It includes the freebie about introducing the number line to students and the following:
1. Pizza and the Number Line
2. Interactive Homework Sheet
3. Worksheets
4. Quiz
5. Test
6. Group Project
7. Rubric to grade projects
8. Answer sheets for the test

Come get yours at my Teachers Pay Teachers shop or Teachers Notebook Shop.

Some Valentine Love and Freebies

Happy Valentines Day!
I wanted to share with you some adorable links to Valentine activities, the best part is that they are all free. So go ahead, get yourself some freebie valentine love.

Just click on the link!
Valentines Poetry

Valentines Math and Science

Valentines Centers

Valentine Goodies for Middle Grades

Valentines Word Search and Math

Valentines Euqivalent Fractions

Homework Passes

Valentine Word Wizzard


Valentine Estimate Math

Subway art for Valentines

Tick-Tock-Clock a Heart

Writing Positive Comments: Hershey Kiss Activity

Valentines Main Idea Mix Up

Valentine Adding Sheet

I Have Who Has Valentines
Real/NonSense Monster Words for Valentines

Valentines Making Words Activity

Valentines Rhyme and Spelling Words

Bananas Over You!

Valentine Math Box

Monkey Business

Pizza Pie and the Number Line Freebie

When we teach fractions, we usually begin with pies or pizzas. We cut them up, teach the fraction names and such. Then Common Cored Standard decides that students must know how to put fractions on the number line.

All of my students that have never done this before completely flipped out on me (so did their parents). It was just too strange and difficult to figure out. I came up with an activity that takes the simplicity of a pizza and adds the number line to it.

Watch the video below to see how I to teach this concept and come by my Teachers Pay Teachers shop or Teachers Notebook shop to download this fun activity for your class.

Word Search Card

Every month, I go to a card group with my friends. Each of us bring cards that we have made and we exchange. I was hunting through Paper Crafts Magazine when I fell across a Word Search Card.

I was so excited because there are so many cute things you could do with a card like that. Kids can even make them too. Here are some phrases I thought kids could make:

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Fathers Day

You are One in a Million

Thanks (repeated several times)

You are awesome

I could go on and on! Well, I made one for my card group and here's what it looks like. The words I chose were: A Baby Brings Joy. I needed more baby cards in my collection.

Create a wordsearch using discovery education puzzle maker. Use the text only option and copy it into word. You may have to fidget with where the words fall in the puzzle to optimize the cute factor. My puzzle is 11 X 20 letters. You could make the puzzle square by doing 15 X 15.

Cut the phrase out and mount on a background paper. Glue to card and embellish. Super cute and fun!

You Know You're A Teacher When...

This Linky party put on by Kindergarten Lifestyle is the best. You just fill in the blank with what make you a teacher.


For me, I am a book nerd. Love them -can't get enough of things about the Brain, studies about differences in learning-you name it...I am on it. So here is mine-
If you have one that you would like to make and link up: Check it out at Kindergarten Lifestyles Blog.

Comic Book Phonics

In conjuction with my guest post for Innovative Connections, I did a phonics lesson for one of my students. I took a page from Calvin and Hobbes and copied it. We have been working on consonant digraphs lately. In this lesson, I chose to have him look for /sh/ /ch/ /th/ /k/. On a dry erase board, I wrote the sounds in columns. Each time he finds a word with those digraphs in them; he circles it and writes it in the according column.

You could do lots of phonic lessons with this idea. Maybe you could have them work on finding words that have these blends in them: /br/ /sp/ /sl/ /dr/. Hunting for different sounds can really help your students focus in on what they are hearing. Good luck and happy reading.

Featured on Innovative Connections!

I am so excited! Today I was given the opportunity to blog over at Anne Marie's blog Innovative Connections! Make sure to go check it out, it's worth your time....there's a freebie involved. :)Click on Anne Maries's button below to see it.

The Sounds of S

S is a strange letter. It can make so many different sounds. We all know simple /s/ sound words like: sweet, small, see. But words like sugar, desert, tension...can really mess up a reader.

For one of my students, I did a lesson all about the sounds of /s/. We practiced finding the sounds of /s/ in the word cards that I had made. Then my student sorted them into piles. I used some paper bowls and wrote the sounds s could make on them: /s/ /zh/ /sh/ and /z/.

I sent my student home with a page copied out of a chapter book we are reading together. I asked them to highlight the sounds of s while they read it out loud with an adult.

I made the word cards myself and it's intended for older readers. Possibly 3-5th grade. We all know there are kids even in 5th grade that still struggle with reading. I thought I would share my cards with you. All you have to do is download it here.


/Sh/ure was great! Hope you come back /sh/ugar. ;)

Guys Read

So I stumbled upon this great website that is ran by Jon Sceszka author of Stinky Cheese Man. I listened to him talk about how reading turns boys off and he gives such great suggestions to pull them in. Watch the video below to hear more. The video is a little long, but I particularly like the last 5 minutes of it. He talks about getting those boys interested in reading.



His website, Guys Read is chuck full of great reads for guys. Jon has even authored a series of books that have the guy seal of approval! Go check it out, there's lots to see and read.

Ouch! A Percent, Decimal, and Fraction File Folder Game

Hey all, I just made a fun file folder game for older kids. Grades 5-7. In this file folder game, students will play in groups of 6.

First, the player rolls the dice. Then they draw a card and convert the numbers according to where they land on the game board.

If the player lands on a square that says, "percent" and the card they are holding says, "3/4" they do the conversion. If they get it right, they stay on the square.

As a bonus to this file folder game, I included to worksheets to do as a follow-up. One worksheet is matching percents to fractions and decimals. The other sheet is answering word problems.

Ouch! is a fun game that your students will get excited about. I like my little monsters on there too!

February Book Review

I am sure that many of you have had a conversation similar to this before:

Hubby (on cell): I can't find the house.

You: Why not? I told you it's the third one on the left with
the teal green door and cute little daisies in the front yard.

Hubby: I don't see anything like it, can't you just give me the
address?

You: Oh, I didn't pay attention to the address. I just know
what it looks like to get there. I know it's on that street...it has an
teal green door.

Hubby: I see a house that has a blue-ish green door. Is that
what you mean?

You: Yes! (Sigh...) That's what teal is right?

Hubby: I guess. See ya-(click)

One of my favorite books that I've ever read is, "Why Gender Matters" by Dr.
Leonard Sax. He brings to light for parents and educators that children's brains
are proven to be gendered while they are young but when they are adults male and
female brains are more similar.

Dr. Sax tells us a lot about the differences between men and women's brains in adulthood the first chapter. This chapter gave me a lot of "ah ha" moments about conversations I have had with my hubby. Our brains just think completely different.

"Women typically navigate using landmarks that can be seen or heard or smelled. Men are more likely to use absolute direction such as north and south or absolute distance such as miles or city blocks...gender difference in navigation is well established by 5 years of age."

Isn't that amazing? By 5 you are wired to navigate a certain way. Dr. Sax talks about how important it is to pay attention to these differences when teaching students about geography or geometry.

I do love, love, love this book because he points out how important it is to recognize there are sizable differences between the way boys and girls learn. He talks about how we are over medicating children especially boys because we are placing female expectations (sitting still, coloring, using feelings, listening etc.) that a boy can learn but at a different rate than girls do. I am just warning you that he has a strong opinion about that, but don't let that keep you from reading Why Gender Matters.

On a personal note, this book helped me look at my own boys more objectively as well. My first born son was intensely shy, unassertive, and kind of a mamma's boy all around. While reading this book, I realized that I needed to push him to be more masculine and toughen up. It took about two years, but he is night and day different. He has so much confidence and enjoys being rough and tumble with his friends and brothers whereas before he would drop everything and walk away from anything rough.

I really appreciate the chapters about discipline. He breaks it down into girls and boys and by age as well. So much of what he says is common sense in a way-boys prefer to be disciplined shoulder to shoulder whereas girls want a face to face interaction. Boys prefer a little competition and girls don't as much.

Dr. Sax is a supporter of single gender classrooms. I didn't really know what to think about that until I visited one last year. It was amazing! They took so many things into consideration like blue tinted light calms boys down and girls prefer warmer tinted lights. Sitting is optional (boys are constantly on the move-right?) and the teachers are trained specifically to hone into the beautiful differences boys and girls learning. I will stress though, they don't teach different subjects-just teach the same material in a different way.

I encourage you to read Why Gender Matters by Dr. Sax. I don't think you will regret it and the best part, he gives you much to think about and even a few things you could do tomorrow to make differences for your students in the classroom. Click here to buy your copy today from Amazon.

Brain Tower Give-Away Results!

Hey there! So I stayed up late and did the random give-away for two lucky people. I made a video of me so that you can see that it was totally legitimate. Check it out!





Thanks to everyone for entering. It was great to read your thoughts and ideas for Brain Tower. I hope you come by my shop and get one today for your class. You still can get 15% off your order.

Horray for our two winners! Please come back soon and visit.

50 Followers Freebie!

I wake up this morning and what do I see?

50 great people following me!

Thank you so much for following my blog! It's means a lot to me that I am not posting my ideas for just a few, but a bunch of you. To show my appreciation and follower love, I made you a Valentines Freebie.

Valentines Equivalent Fractions

I made it this freebie so that if you have kids just starting out with fractions, there are some easier ones in there-but I also made it with some harder ones for kids that have been doing fractions for awhile.

I hope you enjoy it! I had a lot of fun making it. Please come by my Teachers Notebook shop and Teachers Pay Teachers shop and rate it. I {heart} feedback.

Because I love my followers so much, I am going to save you an extra click. You can just download it right from here. Have a great day!