A SUPER GIVEAWAY

Happy Super Bowl Sunday! I am so excited to be linking up with some of my blogger friends to celebrate the Broncos' trip to the Super Bowl. We have got some SUPER classroom tips, SUPER resources, and a SUPER giveaway!

First things first...let's talk about a SUPER classroom idea. At the beginning of the year, I linked up with Ashley from Schroeder Shenanigans in Second and Angie from Lucky Little Learners for their #2getherwearebetter Classroom Reveal. (You can check the original post out HERE.) I mentioned these colored sticker dots I use in my classroom. Y'all...they are a total life saver. I use them to assign jobs, to call for answers for table discussions, to get supplies, to line up...the possibilities with them are endless. But...

Then these little beauties came into my life. Look how they MATCH!!!

Now, after Winter Break, I strategically moved students around the room. These colors became even more significant to our learning. I paired students together for a myriad of reasons, and I wanted to make sure that even when we transitioned to the carpet, they would be near their talking buddy (and not their BFFs). I had seen Sit Spots on different teachers' blogs and Instagram, and I immediately bought a set that matched our desk stickers.

(#truth...It bugs the ever livin' bejeebers out of me that they're BRIGHT colors and everything else in my room is very muted and calm. But it's FOR THE CHILDREN! At least that's what I keep telling myself.)

So here's how it works...desk buddies must be next to each other when they come to the carpet area. If you have a pink sticker, you sit on a pink spot, and your green sticker buddy sits right next to you. If your buddy gets there before you do, you go sit by them. No questions asked. I don't care where they sit...as long as they are on the correct color and right next their buddy. If a buddy is absent, move over to the nearest pair and join them. No more of me saying, "Scoot up!!! Move over! Why are you behind that desk???" It's a huge time-saver and they're still paired with a "successful" buddy.

Oh! One more thing! I taught my kids to sit with their bottoms directly on the spots. I shouldn't be able to see the spot when they sit criss-cross. This prevents them from messing with it. I have not had to say ONE THING about messing with the dots. Seriously...I am so happy these Sit Spots came into my life! I bought a few extras for some games I have in mind!

I'm all about making transitions smoother in my classroom, and that also includes my students being prepared for our lessons. We go to specials first thing in the morning, and when they get back, I want to get straight into our lesson. Kids trickle in from 7:50am-8:05am, and I don't want to repeat directions over and over again in regards to what they need to get out to use when we get back from specials. I could write in on the board, but usually whatever our skills lesson is has already been written on the board, and...well, I just don't want to! So, I created these supply labels for my white board:

Every morning, before the kids come in, I stick up on the whiteboard whatever supplies they need for our lesson when they come back from specials. That way, they have everything out and ready to go for when they get back. No more digging for workbooks or dry erase markers when I'm ready to teach. If they can't find what they need, they have 10 minutes to figure it out before we leave the room. Can you say LIFE SAVER???

I laminated my set and put magnets on the back. I even made a special one to represent our curriculum workbooks! They're about 5" around. Here are a few examples of what's included:

 

You can head over to my store at Teachers Pay Teachers to see the entire list. I keep adding more as I catch myself needing more in my room. Just click HERE to go check them out!

Now...how about that SUPER GIVEAWAY??? Want to win a gift card for some Sit Spots and a set of my Supply labels??? How about even more that that?!?! One lucky winner will win this fantastic GRAND PRIZE, which includes a Tieks giftcard!!!

And two more lucky winners will receive these prizes! Like the grand prize, it includes GoNoodle Swag, A Knowledge Bound Gift Card, a set of Grips From Pencil Grip Inc., a Classroom Friendly Sharpener of your choice, Educational Resources from your giveaway participants, Sit Spots Gift Card, a bling whistle from Champagne and Polka Dots and a $50.00 Amazon Gift Card.

All you have to do is enter in the Rafflecopter below! I'm so jealous because I would LOVE to win this prize pack! And don't forget to head over to my friends' blogs to check out their SUPER classroom tips and resources.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday

I've bene neglecting the little blog lately, so I decided I would link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday! You can link up too by clicking on the button below.

Here was my short week...

We've been using these place value mats I made to help with our addition and subtraction. The kids love them because they get to use Expo markers. I love them because they are reusable thanks to the plastic sleeves I picked up at the Dollar Tree before school started. I wasn't able to get an entire class set, so the other kids just use a regular document protector, which works just as good. I found some page protectors like these on Amazon. You can check them out HERE. It's a set of 25 for $31.88, which is a great price!

I have no idea what I saved that file under for the place value mat, but I will put it here to download as soon as I find it!

I wanted to have some of my kids start taking home fluency strips and passages to practice reading at home. I needed a central location for them to store everything so it wouldn't get lost and would be easy for parents to get to. While I was visiting my family in Texas over Thanksgiving, I noticed that my niece's kindergarten teacher had made pencil pouches using gallon sized bags. She reinforced the bottom where she punched holes, and then she clipped them in the binders. Genius! 

 *The fluency strips are from Jane Loretz from See Jane Teach Multiage. My kids LOVE them. It helps that they're Star Wars themed. The kids progress through different levels that involve the characters. You can check them out HERE. 

The passages are from Christina Decarbo. I like them because they help my kids practice their sight words, but they are reading them in text which is so much better! You can check them out by clicking HERE.

Let me start by saying that I absolutely LOVE Amy Lemons' and Katie King's new Rooted in Reading series. I have a comprehension group for 40 minutes in the afternoon, and these activities have been so great for them. I haven't been using the grammar pieces as much, but we have plenty of engaging activities to do with just the comprehension pieces. So...I wanted to make an anchor chart for the MLK Jr. week. While I can make a pretty decent anchor chart, I really liked the one Amy made and shared in the set. I blew it up using my projector, slapped my chart paper on the board, and TRACED it. Now I have a beautiful anchor chart to go along with our lesson. Not only am I using the great materials they created, I can also use the same eye-catching anchor charts! (Oh! Go check out Amy and Katie's newest Rooted in Reading set for February by clicking on the picture below!)

My last classroom was really big. So I had to be creative in my new classroom because I wanted all the same components of my old classroom. My meeting area is super important, and I knew I had to make it work. It's been fine for the most part, but recently, I've noticed I have to start every group meeting with "Scoot up! Fill those gaps! That's not an acceptable place to sit. If I can't see you, you can't see me! Are you sitting by a successful buddy?" It's driving me nuts! So, after stalking Chris from Famous in First's giveaways for Sit Spots, I finally gave in and bought some for my room. They seem random colors (trust me, it's killing me on the inside!), but they match stickers on their desks. Each pod (4 desks) has 4 colors (pink, green, yellow, and white) that the kids are strategically placed at. My thinking is that they will still have to sit on their assigned colors. I might make them sit by their current elbow buddies, but we'll see how it goes. The ultimate goal is to get seated quicker and start our lesson.Go check Sit Spots out by clicking HERE.

I've said this before, but I love our CKLA domain studies. We just started Cycles of Nature, and the kids are already loving it. The curriculum called for us to complete a seasons chart as we read one of the listening pieces. But I am really big on engagement, so I thought it would be more fun to take all the chart details and divide them up among my 6 pods and have them work together to determine where they went on the chart. Each table took a turn coming up, and as they stuck their cards up, the other tables discussed whether they were correct or not. The best part was when they had to move other misplaced cards because they had to determine where that it was supposed to go. It was pretty quick and was way better than me standing up there and writing them all out.

And of course, a new domain wouldn't be complete without me dressing up for it! 

I hope you're having a great long weekend! Stay safe and talk to you all again soon!