New! New! New!

Hello lovelies!

So as the first week of the lovely #tptsellerchallenge {read all about it here} comes to the halfway mark, I am excited to say that the Makeover Madness has really gotten my creative juices flowing! It started with just revamping my Numbers Poster Pack to fit with themes I've seen in many other classrooms and the theme I wanted to put in my own room. {You can read all about the changes I made on my blog post found here or you can check out my TpT store here}

You see, I have fallen in love with the "chalkboard" style of decor and now I want to theme my room that way...but seeing as I just bought a new house, and I am a little short on funds {read: I have no money to buy all the decorations I wanted} I decided to make my own! I am far...FAR from done, but I wanted to share about the products I have created so far. 

First: My Numbers Poster Pack 

(which I know I've already mentioned, but it's going to be part of the huge bundle when everything is completed)

This pack contains numbers with guideline arrows to help students learn which way each stroke goes, as well as how many strokes it takes to form a number. There is also a ten-frame under each number to help students learn how to represent the number with a group or an image {which loosely corresponds to CCSS.K.CC.3.} Each number also has a little poem or saying on how to write the number {which helps students focus on penmanship!} You can print these out and place them side by side on a 12x18" piece of paper, laminate, and put up on the wall as a poster for the kids to see all year! {I did this with the former pack, and I plan on doing this again with the new pack.}

Second: My Weather and Season Poster

This product allows students to identify the season, the weather and the temperature each day. There are pieces that can be switched out as the season and weather change. Most of the weather tiles have little images so students can relate the word (or rather letters in my case) to the physical weather. The pieces help create full complete sentences that can be repeated to work on correct speech patterns.

Third: My Chalkboard Months of the Year

This is separate from the calendar pieces that will be coming soon. I use these so my students can see the months in order. I have included little pictures as well as the abbreviated versions of the months so that students can associate certain holidays or events with different months.

Fourth: My Chalkboard Number Chart Numbers

These are simple numbers made up in the chalkboard style. I have a hundreds chart that I have dyed black {to go with the chalkboard theme} that I will put these numbers into. These numbers go all the way up to 120 so whether or not your students are learning to count to 20, 30, 100 or 120, you can use these numbers to help with that. These numbers are also great for number recognition, and I put them in a rainbow pattern so they are easier to put in order.

There are still calendar pieces, a day of the week poster, as well as word wall letters and sight words that will be coming out in the chalkboard style. When those get completed I'll be doing a follow up blog post about them and making a huge bundle. Keep an eye out!

Always remember every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,
Nichole

TpT Seller Challenge Week 1: Makeover Madness

Hello! In an effort to revamp my image and get my creative juices flowing, I joined the TpT Seller challenge. Each week we focus on a different idea and complete a task. This week we are focusing on Makeover Madness!

I took a very popular product and totally revamped it! Ta da!

I redid the background from just the pretty borders to the chevrons and black chalkboard design. I also changed the fonts to my newest favorite! Also, to help align with common core (loosely anyway) I added ten frames at the bottom of the number pages. The number pages still feature movement arrows so students can see exactly which direction they should move as well as how many strokes each number really should take. 

The rhyme pages I touched up by keeping the original poems and changed their looks. I also added a few other poems as alternatives to my originals. I know my kindergarten team really liked this pack but they used different poems, so I added them for my friends at work because "sharing is caring!" 

If you want to pick up your copy of this product please feel free to stop by my TpT store {here}. Also, please leave feedback if you do pick up a copy. I can't grow as a teacher-author if I don't get feedback from others! 

Thank you so much, and always remember: every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

A Wonderful Fundraiser

Hello ladies and gentlemen! I am stopping by to let everyone know that a good friend of mine is holding this amazing fundraiser! My friend Melissa from A Teaspoon of Teaching is participating in a fundraiser to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation! She has put together 3 different bundles targeting 3 different age ranges!

Each bundle is comprised of different products put together by different teachers that teach those grades. (I donated a set of alphabet flashcards) The products, if purchased, total over $70 a bundle, but you can have each one for $25! The best part? All the profit goes directly to the Make A Wish Foundation! You can read more about the fundraiser on Melissa's blog @

  A Teaspoon of Teaching

or you can click directly on the picture of the bundle and it will take you to her store! This really is a for a great cause. 

There is a K-2 bundle. 

A 3-5 bundle!

And a 6-12 bundle!

Again, EACH BUNDLE TOTALS OVER $70 BUT YOU CAN HAVE ONE FOR AS LOW AS $25! (Have you bought a bundle yet? Cause you really should!)

I hope everyone has been having a great week!

Always remember, every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

Top 5 Teacher Hacks

As a teacher I am constantly trying to streamline my day and make things easier. Managing a class while working with limited space and only so many resources can be a bit over whelming. Today I am going to blog about my top 5 teacher hacks that have made my teaching experience so much easier. 

1. Clear containers for construction paper

I know they're file containers but I use them for my construction paper. I can see exactly what I have!

Ok, so I don't know if this is so much a hack, as I discovered these awesome containers and I love them because I can store my 9x12 sheets of construction paper in them perfectly. I can see inside and know what colors I have, what I don't have, how much of each color etc. These babies have saved me so many times when I needed to quickly pull out some construction paper for a co-worker, project, or what ever I have planned. 

2. Salt/Pepper shakers for glitter

I filled them up about 1/3 of the way with a color of glitter. I have about 1 set of 8 per table. 

Now, I may be crazy for this one, but it actually works for me and my kiddos. Use at your own discretion! I found a bunch of small clear salt and pepper shakers at the dollar tree one visit and I snagged up as many as I could get my hands on. I bust these bad boys out on VERY special occasions so the kids can experience shaking and aiming their glitter on their glue. They have to share a color (I wasn't rich enough to get one set of 8 for each kid) between about 2-

3 kids. Now, I want to put out a disclaimer. I HAVE VERY RESPONSIBLE KIDDOS THIS YEAR! They have really gone above and beyond to show me they know how to take care of my things, their things, their supplies and the classroom. They know better than to waste glitter by dumping it on the floor, or dumping a whole lot onto their paper and then throwing the majority away. I trust them to use the glitter properly, and we use it so rarely that they know it is a treat. I have not had a problem with my kids this year...ask me again next year and it might be a completely different story.

3. Indoor drying rack

I use clothes pins to "attach" student work to the rack. SAVES SO MUCH COUNTER SPACE!

I cannot gush about this product enough. My sister-in-law bought me an inexpensive indoor clothes drying rack for Christmas and I have used it almost every single day in the classroom. It is a super easy way to have kids dry their work when working with paint or glue. Mine is collapsible, so I can easily collapse it and tuck it away in a cabinet or under a counter and then just as easily pull it out and set it up. It holds 22 8.5x11 pages easily with clothes pins, and depending on the size of the project can hold as many as 44 student work samples. It is light weight and I just love it. I no longer have to lose counter space (of which I have precious little). I have been working with my kiddos on how to use liquid glue properly and this has been a great tool. Before they didn't understand WHY a puddle wasn't ok, other than it was just a waste, now they can see that when they use too much glue their paper "cries" and some of the pieces fall off. It has really cut down on glue puddles and wasting glue. Also, I've had less messy hands because they are using the appropriate amount of glue instead of glopping it on all over the place. 

4. Gallon ziplocs

I label mine for the classroom Monday-Friday and then put my papers inside!

My team lead, and good friend, taught me this trick at the beginning of the year. She has little baskets that are about 9"x12" big (perfect for laying paper down flat in) and she uses one each week. I started out with a basket a day, but when you're planning 2+ weeks into the future it can get space consuming. To help get me prepped and ready for future lessons I turned to my friend and what she said CHANGED MY PREPPING LIFE! She takes a gallon ziploc bag and writes the day on it. One for each day and then stuffs all her prepped materials for the day into each bag. She then stacks the bags (Friday on bottom) into the basket. She can get 6 weeks of planning and prepping down to 6 baskets which takes up half of a cubby top for her! It is genius. I have been stock piling gallon ziplocs because I use them so much. She also showed me that I can prep out my guided art lessons and make a bag specifically for those that can be used year after year after year. Fill the bag with all your pieces and then restock as needed, the bag holds the extras so eventually you wont need to prep for that year/activity. Maybe I'm just behind on this trick but it really has changed my life. Because of this trick I was actually able to plan AND prep almost 6 weeks into the future, allowing me to focus on other things like my intervention groups. 

5. Colored stickers

I used smiley faces, stars, push pin and plain dot stickers to code my library.

Ok...this isn't so much a teacher hack as I just use these darn things for EVERYTHING. In particular, this year I have been having a hard time with my kiddos putting library books away in the correct areas. I'm mildly OCD and my library was the biggest expense to me to put together so I want my books to be taken care of and treated nicely. They also need to be put back rather than just tossed on a shelf. I started with the idea of just putting a colored dot inside the front cover, but that wasn't a visual enough cue for me to see without opening the book, whether or not it was in the correct place. I created color coded labels for my baskets (maybe one of my five should have been little dollar tree baskets) and then placed matching colored stickers on EVERY book that belonged in that basket. Now I have and organized library and I don't have to worry about going and rearranging every week. It's a beautiful thing. My kids kind of think of it as a game. They love to match the stickers to the color label and then show me what a good job they've done being responsible. This is especially helpful during our reader buddy time. Imagine 50 kids all trying to pick out and put books back...before my colored stickers it was a nightmare! Now, I have those 4th graders as well as my little TKs matching the stickers and taking care of our materials. It's a beautiful thing. I do still have the occasional student who doesn't care and just tosses a book where ever they feel like it, but between others "reminding" them about the stickers or others correcting the mistake on their own, I rarely have to do any super big reorganization of our library. 

These are my top 5 hacks so far. They have really worked for me to make my classroom function better or to help keep me more organized. I'm constantly looking for new hacks and creative ways to use products. Leave me a comment below to let me know if you have a hack that wasn't featured. I'd love to hear about them!

I hope everyone has been having a great time in your classrooms and homes. Always remember, every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

Not your normal blog post!

Well hello there!! I am full into Christmas mode at school! We're doing reindeer and gingerbread in my class. I cannot wait to show you some of amazing crafts that the kids are doing. It's going to be amazing. 

Anywho, I'm here to remind everyone that TPT is having its annual cyber sale!! Go shop till you drop and enter the code TPTCYBER at checkout and receive 10% off instantly! To go along with the amazing discounts, I am having a sale as well! 10% off everything in  my store. Exciting!

I am also here to promote some good friends and fellow bloggers! My friend Kristen from Easy Teaching Tools has released an UH-MA-ZING writing product for Christmas!! It contains 27 pages of amazing writing prompts and pages for little writers to write their hearts out! Check it out!!

She is a fantabulous blogger and if you want to see what she's doing in the classroom as well as what is going on with her creative and fun products go follow her on her blog here! She really is amazing!

If you're looking for some fun math activities that go along with all the holiday fun, check out Jamie Huerta's (from Laughloveteachlearn.blogspot.com) Common Core Holiday Math Pack for First Grade! This pack is 30 pages of student-friendly math sheets that get your student's brain a tingling! 

This pack contains concepts like: Number Bonds (Numbers 1-15), Word Problems (solve using number bonds & pictures), Creating number sentences using number bonds, Fact families, Solve it making a ten, Doubles plus one facts, Find the missing addend (cut & paste), Is it true? Is it false? Prove it!, and Find the missing number (addition & subtraction)! 

Swing by to pick up your copy before the sale runs out!! Follow Jamie on her blog here!

So, I'm off to go prep for more fun Christmas activities for tomorrow's festivities (OooooO! I rhymed!) and I hope everyone had an amazing break!

And never forget! Every moment can be a learning moment.

Sincerely from TK,
Nichole

I'm on break! (Well...sort of.)

So I officially am on break! Yesterday I stayed EXTRA late to prep everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING)  for the next two weeks. I thought I got it all done, but alas...I did not. I am going to go back to school Monday and stay for a couple hours. I bought some new baskets and made some labels to organize my classroom and *drum roll* MY CLASSROOM LIBRARY!! 

So far my kiddos have been putting books back willy nilly, and often times they're not in the correct area or even on the correct shelf. That all stops! I bought a basket for each "theme" I'm doing and I will color code the books. Each book will receive a sticker that corresponds to the correct basket. I am so, so, SO excited!

I am also really excited to announce that I am having a sale on my TPT account! Everything in my store is 20% off for the next week! 

I have a HUGE gingerbread unit that I'm doing for the two weeks of December. I am also working on my units for January and February. So far I've got a bundle on arctic animals, the water cycle, and  the weather. They're no where near done but I'm already excited to get them out for people to use. I'm also looking for some guidance. I know my kinder team has put in a request for some specifics in a bundle I am making for them and my TK team has asked me to create our progress report forms, but if there is anyone out there who needs something or has a specific request, please feel free to let me know! 

Any who, our Thanksgiving themed crafts post will be up Monday and I'll be posting some of the Christmas/Gingerbread crafts we will be doing a little later as well. 

Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to stop by my {store} and take a look. 20% off sale for a very limited time!

I hope everyone has a good week next week, whether you work or not. 

Always remember, every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

The Turkeys are coming!

So I have a ton of pictures I want to upload to show you the lessons from last week, but sadly with the hectic-ness of this weekend (it's my anniversary and I had to leave work quickly to miss all the traffic) I FORGOT MY CAMERA AT WORK!!! (*sob*) So I'm going to tell you all about this coming week and I'll upload pictures tomorrow after school so you can see all the fun projects we worked on! 

So this week we have a ton of fun projects planned. On Monday we are coloring a scarecrow craft and cutting him out. He will be pinned together and put up on our theme board. Tuesday we will be working on our "What are we thankful for?" writing prompt. Wednesday (my favorite!) we will be doing TIE-DYE TURKEYS!!!!!!! I'm so excited! (Can you tell??) The kids get to color a coffee filter with marker and then we spray it with water and watch the colors blend together. Thursday we will color a big turkey cut out to mount our writing to it, and Friday we will be making Pilgrim and Indian hats and learning all about the first Thanksgiving. Unfortunately because of the new healthy snack act in California (I think I've mentioned it a couple of times) we wont be able to reenact the first Thanksgiving with actual food. Such a bummer! But we're still going to have fun. 

I also wanted to take a moment and let you, my dear readers, know that I have released my Gingerbread Man unit on TPT! It's 100 pages! A complete unit, with writing, math, letters and all sorts of fun activities, all for you to use during your winter months. I will be using it for the 2 weeks of December, but it can be used during many different times of the year. 

 

Now normally I have my products free for the first 24 hours, but because this product took me almost 2 full weeks of work I'm only allowing it to be free for the first 10 downloads. So swing on over and take a look, but be quick! It'll go quickly.

I hope you've had a great weekend, and, as always...always remember every moment can be a learning moment. 

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole 

"Gobble" up the learning centers!!

I have officially posted BOTH my turkey math center {0-20} and my turkey beginning phonics center {A-Z}. The phonics center is free for a limited time! (New products are free for the first 24 hours, then they must be purchased!)

Please swing by to take a look and as always, feedback is greatly appreciated!

Always remember: Every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

Ready for Thanksgiving!

I have a new product listed on my TPT store! It's Thanksgiving themed and free for a limited time only! Please pick up your copy and leave some feedback! Thank you much and I hope you enjoy it!

Check out my store to pick up your copy!

Always remember: every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

Everything for Free

EVERYTHING IS FREE!! EVERYTHING IS FREE!! (Did I mention that everything is free?) To build trust in my work and hopefully help others create fun learning opportunities I've made everything in my TPT store completely free. The only thing I ask is that you leave me some feedback in the feedback or comments areas so I know how my products are doing. I would love to know exactly what everyone likes or dislikes about my products so that I can keep creating fun new things for everyone to use. =]

So please, stop by my TPT store and take a look at what I have.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/A-Learning-Moment

Thank you! And always remember: every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole

Flash Freebie!!

Alright, so last night I got creative and now YOU get to benefit! I created a cute math center that (I feel) can be used all the way up to 1st grade (as a review or a foundations check.) It's called Candy Corn Number Match and it's going to be free for the next 2 hours.

What I have included in the pack is a set of colored candy corns that can be printed out on card stock, cut apart and then laminated. For those with very limited color ink (when I have to print in color I watch my $$ fly out the window) I have also included black and white pieces that can be run off on construction paper, card stock, any color your little heart can imagine! The colors typed on the pages are ONLY SUGGESTIONS. You can leave them as plain paper or laminate them for extra life and use them again year after year. 

Students must match the white part of the candy corn (that has a number and number word on it) to the ten frame in the correct orange section, to the correct set of tallies in the yellow part. Once they have matched all three parts they have correctly identified that specific number in 4 different ways!

I printed out five sets of the colored candies, cut them apart, laminated them and VOILA a new math center that my kids love to play at. 

I hope you love this (or just like is cool too) as much as I loved making it, and I hope it helps make identifying numbers that much more fun and simple!

So, until next time, always remember: every moment can be a learning moment!

Sincerely from TK,

Nichole