$10 TPT Giveaway

*****GIVEAWAY CLOSED*****

How would you like a chance to win a $10 Teachers Pay Teachers gift card to use during the sale on February 7th and 8th?  All you have to do is enter below and a winner will be picked Wednesday morning!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

WINNER

When you shop Teachers Pay Teachers on February 7th and 8th, be sure to use code: LoveTpT to get the discount! Happy Shopping! 

13 Clip Art FREEBIES

If you are anything like me, you are a sucker for anything that is cute, free, and will help you make colorful and interesting items for your classroom! I have an embarrassingly large collection of clip art and a lot of I found for free! Since I have been a clip art connoisseur for awhile, I thought I would share some of my favorite spots to get free clip art!  Be sure you check each designer's terms of use before using their products.

# 1 - Touch of Winter Bundle

It is no secret that Educlips is one of my favorite places to get clip art! I own way more than I care to admit! I love it because it is bright, detailed and the color palettes are always spot on.  You can see what I mean by checking out this freebie made with Educlips clipart. 

# 2 - Reverse Color Circle Frames

These cute frames from Ashley Hughes are so cute for making alphabet headers for word walls, labeling cubbies or coat hooks, or adorning the covers of binders and product covers.  My good friend, Theresa, at Trifecta Book Reviews, used these on the cover of one of her literature units. Adorable! 

# 3 - Jumbo Rainbow Seller Kit

This kit is seriously adorable and filled with coordinating papers, frames, and ribbons.  I love the bright colors and all the patterns! You can download this mega awesome pack from Instruct and Inspire. 

# 4 - Riley Mini-Digital Set

This super sweet mini-set is from I Teach What's Your Superpower. I love all of the elements that come with it including the banner, the frames, washi tape, ribbon, and the paper. I could see these being used to make digital cards or for designing your next classroom theme.  So cute!

# 5- Lazy Lemons

This cute set just screams summer! Offered as a freebie from A Little Piece of Africa, it features all the clip-art you need to do a lemonade stand themed party or resource.  The summery colors are just right to get you out of a winter funk!

# 6 - 100 Black and White Papers

Sonya DeHart is another one of my go to ladies for digital paper.  Can you believe she is giving away 100 papers for free? Amazing! You can't go wrong with a classy colors like black and white.  

# 7 - Summer Fun

When I came across this set from P4Clips, I immediately fell in love with all of the beachy elements. You can see what I designed with it here and here. This set would be awesome as embellishments to summer photos!

# 8 - Colorful Mugs

I chose to share these mugs with you because you just never know when you are going to need a cup of coffee to adorn a thank you card or attach to a gift certificate for your favorite teaching buddy.  I love the variety of sizes and colors in this set from Lockless Creations.

# 9 - Candy Floss Design Kit
Sculpt Designs brings us the next freebie. As a math specialist, I particularly love the number paper and will have to incorporate it into an upcoming project! I also adore the whimsical swirly paper! I guess by now you can tell how much I love bright colors, too!

# 10 - Navy and Coral Paper Set
This super trendy set is compliments of Teresa Lewis.  I adore navy and coral together and to get 27 different papers is a real treat!

# 11 - Back to School Bundle
Artifex designed this back to school set that comes in color and in black and white. Sweet little kids with missing teeth, stacks of books, erasers, pencils and apples make this a quintessential back to school set.

# 12 - Tartan Plaid Digital Paper
This is my first attempt at creating digital paper.  This is my second. It really is fun to experiment with all the different colors and ways to get effects.  Hope you can use the freebie!

# 13 - Patriotic Themed Digital Papers
Since this is number thirteen on the list, I decided to go with this patriotic sampler from Little Miss i. This pack is perfect for Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Veteran's Day.

I hope that you found some new goodies.  Please remember to be kind and leave feedback if you download the freebies.  I am always on the look out for new freebies and clip art designers.  Give a shout out in the comments if you have any favorites!

Who are your favorite designers?

What is a great freebie you have found?

Reading Speeds

Many times I have noticed my students reading every detail when they should have been skimming for one piece of information or skimming when they should have been reading for pleasure. 

As fluent readers, you know that we read at different speeds, or gears, for different reasons. Sometimes we read very slow- like when we are doing a close read or learning new information. We read even slower when we want to memorize something.  You also know that learning the art skimming and scanning can save you valuable time as you study or look for information.  As a teacher, I skim and scan EVERYDAY - especially using technology!

I have found that my students have not mastered when to use each speed.  In an ever-changing world, where technology is becoming more and more present in our lives, I know that my students really need to know what the speeds of reading are and more importantly WHY we use them.

I will be doing this lesson during the first few weeks of school this year and then I will store one set of sticks in a cute vase close to my desk.That will make it very easy for us to review which speed we should use before we take on new texts.

I have created two versions of this lesson that are for sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store:

One for K-2: http://bit.ly/1zGU8NY

and

One for Grades 3-6: http://bit.ly/1t0G7WP

I hope this helps your readers choose the right speed for the text they select! 

What is one lesson you teach in the first few weeks of school?

I'm Back!

Hi there! Long time no see! It has been awhile since I have done a post! I can't believe how time has gotten away from me! I have been so busy working on a new adventure (more of that in an upcoming post), that my blogging has been put on the back burner!

We finished up the school year the first week of June and what a great end to the school year.  We celebrated with a 4th grade graduation and then invited all of the student's families and friends back to our classroom for a small presentation.  We handed out classroom awards, watched a slideshow of all of the fun things we did this year, and had plenty of treats for everyone!

The end of the school year is always crazy! I am always looking for things that make that hectic time of the year a little easier! Featured below are two products that made my life so much easier at the end of this school year! First off,   these awesome awards from Teaching With A Mountain View were a hit at our graduation reception!

The students loved being recognized for their individual strengths! The parents were so proud that their child's strengths were recognized and celebrated. One of the things that I love most about these awards is that it was easy to find the perfect award to fit each student. There are enough choices that you don't have to struggle to find just the right one! It was amazing to have that many options.  It was so easy that I was able to print and fill them out in less than 1 prep! To me, that was just icing on the cake! 

The next thing that made my end of the year so special was our slideshow.  I wish I could show it to you because I think it would have you in tears, even though you don't know my kiddos! The best part is the website does all the work! All you have do is capture picture of your students throughout the year and upload them. From there you can choose music and a theme that matches the look and feel that you want for your slideshow.  They have a free membership that allows you to try out short slideshows, but for a few dollars a month you can upgrade and get many more features and the ability to have longer shows! I also love that you can upgrade one month and change it back to free for the next month!  Check it out at 

www.animoto.com! 

Next, I would like to give you a little gift to apologize for my month long absence! Even though the weather here is gorgeous, and I am in the middle of a wonderful summer break, I am still thinking about back to school.  I haven't created any FREEBIES for awhile, so I thought I would think ahead to our Fall poetry projects that we always do and make some cute stationary to go with it! There are 6 different adorable designs! I hope you love how they look adorning your hallways and bulletin board with your students seasonal writing! See below on how to get them!

Get your own set by clicking on the picture below to download them!  (Be sure to be logged into your Google Account.) Don't have a Google account? No worries! You can get them from my Teachers Pay Teachers Store! 

I am linked up this week at 

         

Leave me some comment love and let me know 1 great thing from the end of your school year!

Teacher Appreciation

Do you have your wishlist all ready to go for the TpT Teacher Appreciation Sale?  EVERYTHING in my store will be 20% off! Then, you can use the promo code TPTXO to get a total of 28% off!

Thank you for making a huge difference in the lives of children everyday!