Back To School Blog Hop and a GIVEAWAY!

Since I will return from my cruise in 24 hours and Back To School Reality will set in, I joined a Back to School Blog Hop to make coming back to reality a little more fun.  I just love Blog Hops and this Blog Hop has LOTS of giveaways so keep hopping by clicking the picture when you get to the end!

A few days ago I blogged about First Day Tried and True Activities. One of my favorite First Day Activities is to play an educational game. It is fun, helps build your classroom community and is an easy way to teach classroom rules and procedures.

We play a LOT of games in my classroom. Especially in Math! My students do Math Stations every day of the week. I keep the most of the stations the exact same all year. I just change out the manipulatives and increase the skill. This means I am not spending hours each week changing out my stations! {{{insert angels singing here}}} It also means I am not teaching the rules and directions to new games every week.

Two favorites are BUMP and Roll & Color.

And let me tell you...simply changing out the dice and markers/crayons is a BIG deal. You hear "Awesome" and "Oh, cool" and "You are the best teacher EVER!" Who knew big foam dice could make you so popular.

If you would like a sample of these games, click the picture below. (It has 31 pages of Math Games and is free!) There are versions that will work for kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, and even some third graders. Talk about differentiation at your fingertips!

 If you liked it and want to purchase 162 pages worth of Math Games grab it here...

 Want to win it and all of these goodies????

Enter the Rafflecopter below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Now you need to keep hopping for more ideas and PRIZES....... There are four different prize packs!

First Day Tried and True Activity

It is time for a Back to School Linky....even though I am setting sail on a cruise at this very second! I just finished Summer School last week and have 2 weeks before PrePlanning starts. I know one of those weeks will be spent in my classroom so I thought I should spend the other one in the middle of the ocean where I could NOT work on school stuff! (No matter how much I need and want to.)

But, since I will be THINKING about Back to School I decided to link up with Undercover Classroom and Education Electrification for First Day Tried and True Activities!

Even though this will be my 12th year teaching, I still get a little anxious over the first day of school. I don't think a teacher can ever be TOO prepared or have TOO many ideas the first week of school.

I am going to share a few of my First Day Tried and True Activities with you!

1. Play a Game

This can be a fun and easy game but make sure it is an educational game. It keeps them busy while you are sitting and sipping your coffee sorting though mounds of supplies, finding out how everyone gets home, helping a little one who had an accident, drying tears, reminding friends to share, encouraging parents to leave...... Most importantly it shows your students that learning can (and WILL) be fun this year!

I always play a Roll and Color game on the first day of school. Not only will this give them a chance to use those new sharp crayons they are just dying to open, it also introduces an activity that stays in my Math Stations the entire school year!

I have a sample pack of Apple Math Games for free. It is 31 pages of differentiated games! Grab it for FREE by clicking on the picture below.

If you LOVED the freebie and would like more, check out my Apples Everywhere Math Unit by clicking the picture below. It contains 162 pages of activities for only $5.

2. Team Building Activity

Last year my goal was to do a lot of STEM  activities with my class. We started on the first day of school! I got the idea from Ivy Taul. She has a STEM Starter Kit freebie! (Click the picture to check it out!)

I tweaked her idea a bit to fit my class's needs. When our students go through the lunch line they have to say their name and lunch number. In the past I always made super cute little name & number tags for each student to wear. Of course they matched our classroom theme. Last year I challenged the students to make their own name & number tags! Not all turned out great, but the students enjoyed it and they really helped each other out. (Which was my goal..team building to start building our classroom community!) And yes I had back up name tags already made for each student! We only needed 2!!!

3. Have Fun

This is the most important. Enjoy the day. Share the kid's excitement. Relax! If you don't get to all of your activities, don't worry and do NOT rush through them. Do them tomorrow! The students will not mind if you do a Day One activity on Day Two. Trust me they will simply remember the activity. You are setting the expectations and tone for the next 180 days. Make them count!

Check out other First Day Tried and True Activities at the Linky below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Good luck on your first day.

Assess Me! A Get to Know You LINKY!

I am linking up with The Tattooed Teacher for a fun little linky! (And she said we don't even have to elaborate...perfect since I am ready for bed.....Don't judge that it is not even 8:00! Tomorrow starts my last week of Summer School. I'm being proactive!)

Stop by to meet some new bloggy friends or to link up!

Portable Word Wall UPDATE

A couple of years ago I blogged about taking down my Word Wall. Not only was it taking up SO much space, I found that I didn't really know if my students were able to spell the words on their own or if they were always looking on the Word Wall. To help with both issues I created Portable Word Walls. They take up less space and I can see when the students are opening them up and using them.

I gave this freebie a MAJOR update. I added new pages, made the font easier to read and streamlined each page. Best part? It is still

**FREE**

Here are a few OLD pics of them being used in action.  These are the ones I made a few years ago.  Don't worry, I have "cutsied" them up for you!

Mine are kept in a plastic 3 pronged folder.  Nothing fancy but they are durable! The pages are placed in plastic sleeves....again...durability!

Here is a preview of the new and improved Portable Word Walls!

Here are the pages included.

 My tips and tricks for making them work well....
** I do not add a page until that season/holiday.  Before I add it, we talk about the words on the new page, so the kids are easily able to find the words they need.  

** I have one folder at each table, one at the Teacher Table, and a couple more in baskets around the room.  The kids do great sharing them and reminding each other where to find words!

** These would be most useful in a Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade classroom.

Click {HERE} if you would like it for FREE.  (I would appreciate feedback or a blog or Facebook follow!)

If there are any words you would like added or pages, please let me know and I will add them!

Winner, Winner....Chicken Dinner?!?!?!?!?!

Not the most original title, but you get the picture. There has been a lot of winning around here!

First up...the winner of the Interactive Phonics Readers in my Flippin' For Summer Fun Giveaway did not contact me so I chose another winner!

Congratulations Maureen! I will be emailing you shortly!

Next up....I was the winner of More Than Math by Mo's Stars and Stripes Celebration. And let me tell you, I was a WINNER! Take a look at my prizes.

Go visit Monique here:  {blog} {TPT store}  She is super sweet and has great products!

Last but NOT least.....when I was at the SDE Reading, Writing, Math and More conference in Orlando, I went to the little Meet and Greet they had one evening.  Because I am social. Okay, not really...They gave us drink tickets!
I have to admit, I was a bit star struck (I mean, Laureen Reynolds, Kim Adsit, Catherine Kuhns. Who wouldn't be star struck?!?!). They had a raffle and I won 2 days to any National Conference next year. That means Vegas, baby! I went to the Singapore Math Conference in Vegas 2 summers in a row. My principal paid the conference fee. The rest was up to us. That didn't happen last summer or this summer so I am definitely READY TO GO BACK! Especially with all of the TPT activities and sessions offered now! I was a tiny bit jealous of all of the fabulous Vegas pictures on Facebook an Instagram. Next year I will be there and maybe meet some of you!

And speaking of the conference...... SDE sent an email out after the conference. My teaching besties and I made the cover.  We told our principal that she now had celebrities on staff. Lol!

Flippin' For Summer Fun WINNERS

We have winners!

Congratulations! I will be emailing you shortly.

July Currently

It is time for Farley's Currently!

Listening to Morning Drive...on The Golf Channel....
Yes there is a Golf Channel. And YES they have a morning talk show on EVERY morning. I am not a golfer but that channel is always on in my house!  (Let's just say I RARELY have control of the remote.)

Loving all of My New Followers!
In case you haven't heard, I am having a Giveaway. There are 4 fab prizes, including a TPT gift card. Click {here} if you want more details. Here is the Rafflecopter if you just want to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thinking that Spin is Tomorrow!
I went to my first Spin Class on Monday. It was fabulous. It was tough, but fabulous! I think it was extra rough not only because it was my first one, but also because I did an hour of Boot Camp right before Spin.

Wanting To Write in My NEW Planner!
I love organization and am a bit OCD. I ordered a new planner from Plum Paper on Etsy. I cannot wait to write in in, color code it, etc! It took a month to arrive but it is perfect so I can get past the month long wait!

Needing to Do Laundry.
Does anyone ever not need to do laundry?

All Star at Organizing!
Like I mentioned above, I love to organize and I am a bit (extremely, according to my family and colleagues) OCD. Oh, and kind of a perfectionist. But don't worry, I do not expect my students to be! Because of my "skills" I am teaching a combo class and seem to get assigned lots of extra duties at school. That is okay, I love it! This summer I am putting my skills to the test. I have taught summer school almost every summer since I started teaching. This summer I am going to be the Summer School Coach. It starts Monday but we had a couple days of Preplanning this week. I am enjoying it but I also quickly learning that "coach" in the summer has a different meaning. Apparently coach means in charge. Lots of planning, organizing, paper work, supply finding, decision making. Also, I was assigned a huge summer school site. There are as many kids in the program as in my whole school during the school year! I have a feeling I will be very busy and the 16 days will fly by!

Go see Farley to link up yourself while I start on that laundry!