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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year Blog Hop--and a Winter FREEBIE!




Happy New Year! 
First of all, I want to wish you a prosperous, happy, and healthy New Year. Then, I would like to invite you to "hop" through our blogs, grabbing some FREEBIES and taking a look at our winter and New Year themed items. 

My featured item is one of my all-time favorites, the Kindergarten Math Cut-and-Glue Workbook for Winter

I LOVE these sets for 3 reasons:
1) This workbook (and similar sets for each season/holiday) covers ALL of the Common Core Standards for kindergarten math. So, using all of the pages lets you know that your students have practiced every CC concept! 
2) These sets help students practice their math AND fine motor skills! Plus, my littles always enjoy cutting and pasting! 
3) These are prefect for reluctant writers. Some of the pages require no writing at all! That's huge for students who struggle with writing. While writing should not be overlooked, I think it's nice to have a resource every now and again where students are not required to write in order to demonstrate their knowledge.  


Click on the picture above to find this resource on Teacher's Notebook.
CLICK HERE to see it on Teachers Pay Teachers. 
Plus, ALL OF MY RESOURCES ARE 15% OFF from January 1-4, 2015!


Here's my featured winter FREEBIE
This one has been in my stores for a while, but it's a good one! It has worksheets, games, and even a game board for winter-themed addition Bump! Click on the picture below to grab a copy for your classroom!


Thank you "snow" much for stopping by!
Click on the blog button below to hop on to the next New Year post and FREEBIE! 




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Sunday, December 28, 2014

11 FREE Winter Math Centers for Kindergarten!


If you are looking for new kindergarten math centers for the New Year, look no further! I have put together a list of 11 winter-themed centers that are available on Teachers Pay Teachers and Teachers Notebook for FREE! Just scroll down, take a look at each description, and click on the pics of the ones you like!

1. Math Mitten Number Match-Up


Here's a mitten match center activity (6 pages) from Sunshine and Lollipops. In this center, students will match each number with the correct quantity of snowflakes on a mitten. It also includes a page for students to write each number and draw the correct number of pictures! Click on the picture above to grab a copy! 

2. Winter Olympics Bump and Memory

This sports-themed winter FREEBIE was created by Sweet Integrations. It comes with a memory game and 2 different versions of Bump addition games. Just laminate these for an easy yet engaging center! Click on the cute cover pic to take a look! 

3. Kindergarten Winter Activities 100 Follower Freebie


This adorable winter FREEBIE (11 pages) is by My Fabulous Class. Your students can work on +1 and -1 using this set of snowman cards. The great graphics are sure to make this a student favorite! Click on the picture to take a look! 

4. January Snow Theme Addition Plus One
Here's another great FREE addition center (14 pages) from Fern Smith. Students can match each "plus one" addition problem with the correct sum. Click on the picture to grab a copy of this fun math activity for your classroom!

5. Wonderful Winter Math


This FREEBIE (8 pages) is from the "I Love My Kinders" store. It includes some printable counting worksheets AND a full-color counting center where students can pick a number and draw the correct number of snowmen to match.  Click on the picture above to grab this cute, wintery set!

6. Winter Math Tub Sample


This FREE winter write the room set (9 pages) was created by Cady Mullennex Hearn. The activity has students writing number words around the room. What a great idea for the new year! You can click on the picture above to grab a copy for your classroom. 

7. Snowy Bear Count


This is another FREE numeral to quantity matching activity (16 pages) from iHeart Teaching. Here, students can match each number with its correct representation on a ten frame. This center activity is just too cute to miss! Click on the picture to get it for your students! 

8. Snowy Shape Bump
Thanks, Brittany Lynch, for such a great FREEBIE (8 pages)! With this freebie, students can use spinners to play the popular Bump game with 2D or 3D shapes. How creative is that?! Grab it by clicking on the picture above. 

9. Winter Math Sampler Pack


This math activity (10 pages) was created by Jennifer Knopf. This set actually includes 4 different math games: 2 spin and graph activities, a roll and cover addition game, AND a roll and cover shape game. This set is sure to be a hit in your math centers! Grab a copy by clicking on the picture above. 

10. Winter Number Match-Up


This FREE matching activity (12 pages) is brought to you by Linda Nelson of Primary Inspiration. Your students can match numbers, ten frames, objects, and number words with this set. What a great way to add a little winter fun to your math center! 

11. Snow Much Counting!


And, here's some FREE wintery fun (10 pages) from my store! It can be used as a card game or students can simply create different quantities from 1-20 or above. The colorful cards are very appealing to students and matching worksheets are included. Click on the picture to get a copy!


I hope this list makes planning your kinder math centers a breeze! Thanks for stopping by!

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Thursday, December 25, 2014

Wonderful Winter Resources Linky Party with FREE and Priced Items



Happy winter! I don't know how happy I am about the prospect of snow, but I know that my kids are SO excited to make snowmen! I do love the adorable winter clipart, so it's always fun making new winter resources. There's nothing more fun than creating some new winter classroom fun on a snowy day! 

Below, you will find some adorable winter-themed resources from several teacher-authors. Take a look to find something "snow" fun for your students!

Teacher-Authors
1. Feel free to add 3 winter-themed links to the linky below, 1 paid and 2 FREE! Please, to keep it fair, add only 1 paid item. The links will be added in RANDOM order! 
2. Putting the word "FREE" at the beginning of the description would really be helpful to those looking through the resources.
3. Please share and/or pin the linky on one or more of your social media sites. 





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Saturday, November 29, 2014

Cyber Monday Sale Linky Party and Gingerbread Telling Time Task Cards!



Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) will be the perfect time to find some wonderful classroom resources ON SALE! You can even get an extra 10% off by using code TG2014 on Teacher's Notebook and TPTCYBER on Teachers Pay Teachers! (On TN, the code is good now thru Tuesday. On TPT, the code is good only Monday and Tuesday.)

You can also grab my latest resource for 50% off. Scroll down to see my Gingerbread Telling Time Multipurpose Task Cards in action! 

Click on the picture to see this item on Teacher's Notebook.

I am very partial to games as center activities and homework, but I know that other teachers enjoy using task cards and playing Scoot. So . . . this set of of task cards can do all 3! 
Play Scoot with them or use them as task cards. It's easy because this set is numbered and comes with recording sheets! 
Use the cards to play a game. A directions sheet and extra game cards are included! 
A t home, we use this set to play a game.   
One large gingerbread-themed clock and some small clocks are included!
My new items are usually 50% off for 3 days, but I left this one at 50% off just for the Cyber Monday Sale. Take a look at the linky party below to find more greatly reduced items! 


Thanks for reading! 

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Saturday, November 22, 2014

Gingerbread Cut-and-Glue Math and Literacy for Kindergarten and a FREEBIE!


Guess what?  I just added 10 new pages to my kindergarten gingerbread set!  It now has 47 pages: 24 pages of literacy activities and 23 pages of math, as well as 3 pages that are EDITABLE!  

Here are a few pictures of the set "in action."  My kindergartener finished 3 pages (even though he was only asked to finish one!).  My first grader thought that the gingerbread house activity was just too cute not to color!  Even my preschooler wanted to do a page, so he did the letter sound sort. 

For this page, students cut out objects to decorate a gingerbread man. Then they write a few sentences about their creation.

My daughter enjoyed making the gingerbread house. Similar pages will be added to the first grade set, too. 

For this page, students cut out cookies with objects (the picture shows the page before revisions). They sort them according to beginning sounds. 


This set includes the following pages:

*Cookie Sheet Sort--Students read and sort CVC words from the an and at word families.
*Sort Some Yummy Treats--On this page, students sort et, en, and eg words.
*Run Home, Gingerbread Man!--Students read and sort words from the it, in, ig, and ip word families.
*Eating Cookies!--On this page, students sort op and ot words.
*Hot from the Oven!--Students sort cookies with words from the ug and ut families.
*Sight Word Sorting, Sight Word Candies, and Sight Word Cookies--On these 3 pages, students sort sight words according to the number of letters each word has. EDITABLE versions of these pages are also included! 
*Making Words and Making More Words--Students add an onset to each rime, making real words.
*Scrambled Words and More Scrambled Words--On these pages, students cut out individual letters to make CVC words from 2 word families.  
*Cookie Mix Up, Gingerbread Mix Up, and Candy Cane Mix Up--Students cut out mixed up sight word sentences, glue them in order to make a sentence, and write the sentence.
*Cookies and Candies--Here, students match rhyming words.
*Fluency Fun & More Fluency Fun--On these 2 pages, students add candies to gingerbread cookies while reading each sight word sentence twice.
*Sweet Syllable Sort & Cookies, Cakes, and Pies! Oh my!--Students sort words by the number of syllables they have.
*Baking Beginning Sounds & Baking More Beginning Sounds--Students sort cookies with pictures according to their beginning letter sounds.
*My Gingerbread Cookie & My Gingerbread House--Students decorate objects and write about them. 
*Sorting Shapes--Here, students sort 2D and 3D shapes.
*Counting Candies and Counting Gingerbread Cookies--Here, students will cut out a number of objects and use them to represent numbers less than 10.
*Adding Gingerbread Men, Adding More Gingerbread Cookies, and Adding Candies--On these pages, students cut out objects and use them to solve addition problems.
*Making 10 and Ten Candies--Students figure out how many more they need to make 10.
*Count On With Cookies! and Counting Lots of Candies!--Students practice addition using the “counting on” strategy.  
*"Ten and Ones" and "Tens and Ones: Candies"--Students use groups of tens and ones to construct teens.
*Subtracting Cookies and Subtracting Candies--Here, students glue numbers in the correct position to construct subtraction problems.
*Addition Word Problems, Adding Candies: Word Problems, Subtraction Word Problems, and Subtracting Candies: Word Problems--On these pages, students solve word problems using objects.  


While you're there, don't miss my Gingerbread Bump FOREVER FREEBIE!  

Click on the picture to find it on Teacher's Notebook.

As always, thanks for reading!

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Monday, November 10, 2014

Veteran's Day Sale! 20% OFF for 2 Days AND 3 Items Not to Miss!


I'm joining Sassy Savvy Simple Teaching and a few more teacher-authors for a 20% OFF SALE!  Click on the picture above to take a look at all of the shops that are participating.

Everything in both of my stores is 20% off on Tuesday the 11th and Wednesday the 12th!


Here are 3 of my items that you won't want to miss!

1) Sight Word Books (Paste, Trace, and Write) COMBO PACK
This COMBO PACK has all 8 sets of Sight Word Books. It includes sets for back to school, fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, winter, spring, and summer.  Each set has 3 books. Students must "make" each book by pasting, tracing, and writing the sight words. When you buy the combo pack, you are already getting 2 sets for FREE!  


Click on the picture to find it on Teacher's Notebook.
Click HERE to find it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

2) 45 Science Book for Beginning Readers
This set already covers 45 different science topics for K-2.  I will be adding 5 more by the end of the year to make it even! There are 2 versions of each book to help you with differentiation. Just click on the link below to see a HUGE list of the topics that are covered.  

Click on the picture to see it on Teacher's Notebook.
Click HERE to find it on Teachers Pay Teachers.

3) Reading Fluency Game Bundle
This set is only available on Teacher's Notebook right now. The BUNDLE contains 10 games to help students work on reading fluency. Games are an engaging and motivating way to practice reading--especially for reluctant readers.  Click on the picture to take a look at what's included!  


Thank you so much for taking a look at my items.  Remember:  both of my stores have a ton of FREEBIES for you, too!  My favorites are the math and literacy sets for fall, winter, spring, and summer.  Don't forget to grab a set while you're visiting one of my stores!  

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Friday, October 24, 2014

Fall Favorites Blog Hop! Spice Tea Recipe and a Kindergarten MathCenter FREEBIE!



Welcome to our super fun, fall blog hop!  I hope you find some great ideas, FREEBIES, and giveaways as you hop on through.  First, take a look at my favorite fall recipe.  Then, grab my kindergarten math center freebie at the bottom.  Last, click on the blog button at the bottom to keep on hoppin'!  

SPICE TEA:  My Fall Favorite 

I recently made a batch of my favorite fall treat (well, one of them).  It is oh so good on a cool, fall day!  Disclaimer:  I just sort of "eye" this recipe, so it's a tad different each time.  I did the best I could at guessing the amounts, but tasting it while you make it will help.  Plus, I have been adding less sugar lately (which makes it a little more sour).  The orange juice and lemonade are already sweet, so add sugar with caution and try it as you go!  (The graphics are from Creative Clips, Teacher's Scrapbook, and Educlips.)


Here's the kindergarten math center activity.  Just click on the picture to download it from Google Docs.   

Now, click on the link below to HOP ON OVER to visit Sweet Integrations and take a look at Sandy's fall favorite! 


                                                                          

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Saturday, October 4, 2014

Super Saturday Sale!


Do you need some new fall-themed products?  If so, then you won't want to miss this awesome sale!  Several teacher-authors have teamed up to offer one or more of their featured items on Teachers Pay Teachers for 50% OFF for today only!  

Just click on the picture above to visit "The Learning Highway" blog.  Scroll down to see all of the shops that are offering the ONE DAY ONLY discount.  

My store is included!  CLICK HERE to visit my TPT store.  Look at my 4 featured items.  They are ALL on sale!   

I hope you find some resources that you need!  


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Saturday, September 20, 2014

An Apple for the Teacher Blog Hop!



I am so happy to be participating in this weekend's fun, apple-themed blog hop!  Don't miss some of the great freebies, ideas, and giveaways.  Take a look at my idea and grab my apple game that's FREE thru Thursday, September 23rd.  (Sorry, but after the hop, this item is no longer free.  Be sure to follow my blog to catch the next freebie!)  Then, click on the link at the bottom to hop on through!  

CLASSROOM GAMES

I have been making and using games in my classroom for many years.  I love using games because:

1) Games are developmentally appropriate for my littles.  They are learning academic material through play, as well as working on turn taking and social skills.
2) They are great for homework.  Games allow parents to see what skills students are working on at school.  They are often short bursts of practice that also allow for family time.
3) Games are perfect for center activities.  They can be easily differentiated to address the needs of various groups of students.  In fact, most of my games address at least 2 skill levels.  This way, groups of students working on different skills can even play the same game!  
4) They are FUN!  The students are having a blast AND learning at the same time.  Everyone loves games!  

MATH GAME: ADDITION, SUBTRACTION, & MULTIPLICATION

Here's my latest game, an apple-themed math game created just for the hop!   It has three levels of cards to practice addition, subtraction, and multiplication.  Two of my own little ones played it today.  My son (kindergarten) worked on addition while my daughter (first grade) did subtraction.  It's great that they can play the same game and yet focus on different skills.  

FLASH FREEBIE

This math game will be FREE only for the hop. Click on the picture below to grab yours thru Tuesday, September 23rd!  (Sorry, but after the hop, this item is no longer free.  Be sure to follow my blog to catch the next freebie!)  Then, click on the blog button to hop on to the next great apple-themed idea!  

Click on the picture to grab this FLASH FREEBIE on Teacher's Notebook.



Thanks for reading!

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Monday, September 15, 2014

Technical Problems with Teacher Files and How to Solve Them

I frequently get technical questions regarding downloading/opening/printing my teacher-created materials.  Although I am no technology whiz, here are some ideas about how to solve a few common problems.

PROBLEM 1:  HELP!  THE FILE LOOKS OR PRINTS WRONG!

I once had a file that looked great on the screen, but printed with all of these black boxes instead of text!  Help!  Printing wrong AND using up more ink than I ever imagined is a teacher nightmare!  
     SOLUTION 1:  Download the latest version of Adobe Reader.  Just click HERE.  All of my files and probably 90% of the files on teacher sites are PDFs.  They are meant to be opened with Adobe Reader.  Now, my Mac with open them with Preview usually, but I have to remember that this program makes the margins, etc. just a bit different.  Opening with file with the latest version of Adobe Reader usually solves a myriad of problems.  
     If the file STILL looks wrong (such as you see it on the screen correctly, but the dotted lines won't print), then open the file with Adobe. Go to "print." Then, click on "advanced settings" and choose "print as image." 

PROBLEM 2:  HELP!  I CAN'T OPEN THE ZIP FILE!  

As a teacher-author, when you have several files to bundle, this is the most efficient way to bundle them.  No one wants to receive one huge file with 300 or 400 pages to scroll through, right?  Instead, we place separate files into a ZIP file.  

     SOLUTION 2: If you have a Mac, just save the zip file to your desktop and double click it to extract the folder within.  It will magically appear on your desktop!   If you have a PC, it might be that simple . . . or not!  When I had a PC, I purchased a program called WinZip.  It looks like there is now a free trial WinZip available on their official site.  Click HERE to take a look.  
Here's a page that offers more ideas for opening these files:  How to Open a .Zip File Without Winzip.    

Another easy solution to this problem is to download the file on another computer.  Some operating systems will open the .ZIP file automatically.  

PROBLEM 3:  HELP!  THE PAGE ISN'T PRINTING CORRECTLY!

Let me just say that I have come to regard printing and laminating as an art form--or perhaps it should be an Olympic sport!  I am constantly looking for ways to use less colored ink, print with different margins, print posters, etc.  

     SOLUTION 3:  There is really no one answer here, I'm afraid.  Your answer to this will depend on the program AND take some searching, as well as trial and error printing.   For example, I like to open my files with Preview on the Mac.  I click "Print," then I look for options.  


If you are missing some of your page (such as missing borders or titles, or the margins are wrong), then click on "Print Entire Image" or change the scale.  
Click on the bar that says "Preview" to find more options . . .


In the picture above, I clicked on the bar with "Preview," then I clicked on "Print Options."  This is where I usually end up.  If you like to print things in grayscale to save ink, click that box.  Printing one page as a poster is great for group lessons or for things that decorate the room.  

If you are having major problems with margins, make sure that you have selected the correct paper size and that the scale is 100% or what you need.    

IF YOU ARE TRYING TO PRINT A POSTER, PLEASE VISIT ONE OF MY PREVIOUS POSTS FOR DIRECTIONS.  CLICK HERE.  

PROBLEM 4:  HELP!  IT SAYS THE FILE IS DAMAGED!

Most of the time, teachers assume that something is wrong with the file.  While this can happen, it is usually not the case.  This just happens.  It is just a glitch in how the file was downloaded. As you know, technology is great, but it never works 100% of the time.  This is one of those times that something failed to come from some server on the other side of the country through your wifi, arriving on your desktop in pristine condition.  If you think about it, I don't know why we don't have more damaged files.  

     SOLUTION 4:  The solution is to just download it again.  Now, if you download it 3 times and there is STILL something wrong, then please contact customer service.  


GENERAL SOLUTIONS:   
1.  Here's my secret "go to" solution for almost everything:  Google it!   It works almost every time.  You might have to search once or twice to find exactly what you need, but there is a lot of helpful info out there, especially when it comes to computer problems.  Keep in mind, though, that programs sometimes change with new versions, so you might find info that no longer applies.   
2.  Shut down the computer (or printer, or iPad, etc.).  Count to 10 slowly, then turn it back on.  I have absolutely NO idea why this works, but it often does!  
3.  Open the file on another computer.  The other computer might have a program that will open your file automatically.  It also works sometimes if you can print the file using a different computer and/or printer.  


Well, I hope you have found something here to help.  If I think of more problems/solutions, I will add them here.  

As always, thank you for reading!  

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