Sparkling in 2013!

2012 was a great year for me.  My sweet little guy turned 1, the Mr. and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, I started my 12th year of teaching, and it was my rookie year in bloggy world!  Wow, when I get it all out like that it's no wonder that I am exhausted!   I tried to enjoy every minute of 2012 and upon reflecting I did have a bit of an epiphany.  Being a mommy, wife, teacher, and blogger is HARD WORK!  (I'm sure you're thinking, "duh!") It feels like in order to do one of these duties well, the rest get completely ignored.  I think I need balance...but I also need to jazz it all up a bit.    ` 

Will 2013 be my lucky year?  Join me on my quest to balance it all...work, family, blogging.  Follow my blog to receive updates and freebies as I embark on this journey to s*p*a*r*k*l*e in all that I do.  If you're looking for sparkle, you've come to the right place.

My first step is to always be prepared.  Sounds so simple, especially when technically we start each week with lesson plans.  But...do you ever have lesson plans that could've used a little more tweaking?  Or do you ever get to school in the morning only to realize that you don't have the copies you need for the day?  I'll be honest.  This happens to me.  Too much.
So, problem-solved.  I have a new plan of attack to stay on top of the planning and prep work that goes into teaching.  I've created daily, PRETTY checklists that I'll use to keep track of what I need to do to prepare for the following week.  My goal is to leave school on Friday afternoon ABSOLUTELY prepared for the following week.  Check them out!

One set is personalized for my needs (and just maybe they're your needs too!) and the other set is blank for you to personalize. Click on either picture to head to google docs for your own set.  If you do download, I ask that you please follow my blog by clicking on the join my site link on the right side of this webpage.  The lovely graphics are from  

 I'll check in later this week to let you know how this is working out for me!  I'm motivated to really s*p*a*r*k*l*e in all that I do.  I truly want to be the mom/wife/teacher/blogger who doesn't just do it all, but who does it all with glitter.  Follow my blog to join me on this journey and receive weekly tips, printables, and plans all for FREE!  I'd love to hear your comments about how you plan to s*p*a*r*k*l*e in 2013.

Welcome to those of you who found me through the awesome freebielicious linky party!

 

Christmas Goodies *FREEBIE ALERT*

Oh my goodness!  The Christmas gifts I made for my students this year just might become a yearly tradition.  That is how much I am loving them.  Check out these super simple, affordable gift ideas.
First up, a coupon booklet.  Oh, how I love coupons!  And how my students love special treats like eating lunch with me.  I combined these favorites to create a coupon book for each of my students.

 Next, another obvious love of mine....SPARKLES!!!  I bought sparkly, glittery pencils at Target in the dollar bin and was very tempted to keep them for myself.  Okay, so I did keep a few packs for myself, but the rest are going to my littles to help them *SPARKLE* in 2013. 

Since I'm in the giving spirit, I'm giving you these coupons and sparkle tags for free!  Click here for the sparkle tags and here for the coupon book.  Merry Christmas!  How about keeping the Christmas spirit going by becoming a follower of my blog?  Just click on the join this site button.
Stay tuned for more posts soon...and a very special series starting in the new year!

Fall Harvest Party Freebie

I've always thought it was tough to come up with unique ideas for my annual Fall Harvest Party.  Some of you may know this as a Halloween party, but at my school, it's a Fall Harvest Party.  All parents always want to send a treat and we just don't need that much food.  So, I usually have a lot of them send of bag of wrapped candy.  But...what to with all of that candy???  A candy scramble is too old-school, unstructured, uninspired, not curriculum-related, etc. 

Then one day last year, the "Autumn Blend" idea was born!  For this station (it's only one of many of our rotations), I place a large assortment of wrapped candy and let students choose 6 pieces of candy (no more than 2 of any kind), and create a recipe along with this cute little saying:

Great news, this year I made this activity into a freebie packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Click on the picture below to head on over and download.  If you decide to download, please leave your feedback and consider following my store and my blog.

Fall Fun {Freebie}

Happy weekend!
I am thrilled to tell you that I'm celebrating the first day of a four-day weekend!  Yay!  Today, my husband and I took our son to the pumpkin patch.  Tomorrow is a day spent shopping at an outdoor market in our town.  Such fall fun we will be having!
Celebrate with me by downloading my new fall freebie!  Just click on the picture to head over to my TPT store to download for free!  Enjoy!  If you like it here, become a follower!

Fun with Color Words {Freebie!} + Giveaway

Happy Sunday! For the last few weeks we have been learning color words in my class.  This has been soooo much fun and surprisingly is helping to build a family atmosphere in our room.  Let me explain:

Each day, we focus on one color word.  The first color was red.  So, on red day everyone wore red, we had Hawaiian Punch as our red snack, we read Clifford, The Big Red Dog, we did the two red pages in our "Color Word Packet," and we drew a red food and wrote about it in our "Taste the Rainbow" mini-book.  We are following this pattern for each color, which lasts for 11 days. 
My students really love our color days.  On pink day, lots of them walked in asking, "What will our pink snack be today?"  Sadly, we are finishing this unit tomorrow and Tuesday.  I know my firsties will be sad to see it come to an end.  Another sad part of ending our color words is that some of the unity that comes with dressing alike will be lost.  It was so nice when other classes noticed we were all in the same color.  Even nicer was going to an assembly and knowing which kids were mine by the color of their shirt, lol!

Here are some pictures of what we did:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the pictures below to head to Google docs and download your free copies of the parent letter telling parents what color their children should wear for each day.  Also included is a list of the books I use for each color as well as the snack I provide for each color.

 

Why not go all in and check out my color words packet in my Teachers Pay Teachers store?  For only 4 bucks, you'll have plenty of activities for each color of the rainbow!  Click on the picture below to head to my store and check it out.

 

In other news, I'm participating in yet one more giveaway!  You have another chance at winning Bushels of Learning {Math Centers to Practice Dot Patterns, Ten Frames, & MORE}.

 

 

 

To enter, click the picture below to head on over to Diving into Learning and check out the rest of the great prizes up for grabs!

 

 

Good luck, thanks for looking, and keep sparkling!

 

Bushels of Math Fun and a {Freebie}

Here in PA, it is apple harvest season.  While the weather outside is still pretty muggy, before we know it we'll be enjoying apple festivals and feasting on locally grown gala apples, fugi apples, and lots, lots more.
Speaking of apples, I just so happen to have an apple-themed math center packet featured in my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  It is packed with 5 math centers perfect for the skills our firsties are learning at this time of year.  Check them out:
 

This is our current math center.  We are practicing using ten-frames to count easily.

 
We definitely need to practice dot patterns!
 

 

 

 

Just looking at these pies makes me hungry!

 

 

Check out these tasty centers by clicking the picture below 

 

Onto the freebie:

This year I created my own center signs.  Here are some snapshot of a few:

 

If you'd like my center signs, bundled right along with mini-versions to use on your center work board, click below to download them from Google Docs.

Center Signs

 

Enjoy and Keep Sparkling!

 

Freebie Friday!

Freebie Friday

TGIF!  This was my first week back, although without my students, but I am drained already!  Last night was our orientation and I got to meet all my little sweethearts!  So cute, funny, smart, and sweet.  I'm looking forward to Monday, when I get to spend my first full day with them. 

Here are a few Houghton Mifflin-related freebies to help you get off to a great start using the Houghton Mifflin reading series this year.  Click on the pictures to head to my TPT store to download them.  Enjoy and keep sparkling!