Daily Freebie Giveaway

It's back...The daily freebie giveaway!

Each day for the next ten days, one of our best products will be given away for free!  Just visit our store to see today's freebie!

First up for free, The August Early Finishers Pack.  This is perfect for the beginning of the school year for your early finishers to practice phonics, number sense, beginning addition, sight words, color words, alphabet recognition, patterns, and more!  I use this product EVERY year!

Remember each product will be free for one day only.  So check my store each day to see which amazing product we're giving away for free.

Hi Again!

It’s about time that this little blog was up and running again!  I started writing this blog 6 years ago and let’s just say I’ve been inconsistent at blogging about keeping the sparkle in first grade.  Starting today, you will be able to find new content here on Shining and Sparkling in First Grade on a much more regular basis.

Remember Me?

This will be my 18th (gasp) year of teaching!  I taught special education for 8 years and am entering my tenth year of teaching first grade.  I love to add *SPARKLE* and *GLITTER* to EVERYTHING!!!!  I also love to be creative and I can’t wait to share some of my best ideas here with you on my blog. 

At home, I’m a very busy mommy and wife, which is why I’ve taken an unplanned hiatus from blogging for the last couple of years.  I have a son who is 7 and about to start second grade and a daughter who is 4 going on 14.  These two mean everything to me.  My husband and I have been married for 11 years and he is one of those rare guys who is truly a partner and we share all the responsibilities.  We also have a little dog that we love very much. 

Upcoming Fun!
I'm sure by now you've heard that there's a big sale over at Teachers Pay Teachers!  Take a minute to check out my store.  And keep following my blog!  In a few days, there will be a special announcement regarding daily giveaways of my hottest items.  You don't want to miss out!

Back To School Freebie Giveaway!

Here at Shining and Sparkling in First, school starts in 10 days! The Countdown is on and to celebrate, we’re giving away a different free product every day for the next ten days! Starting on 8/6, check out our FREE DOWNLOAD listed at the top of our TPT store. It will change daily and it will be one of our fantastic resources that have NEVER been offered for free before. You don’t want to miss a single day!

Early Finishers FREEBIE

What do you do with those students who ALWAYS finish early?  From the very first day of school in my very first year of teaching, I’ve struggled with what to do with my fast finishers.  I’ve tried just about everything, but nothing worked well enough to become a routine or an established practice in my classroom.  I always felt like I was punishing the students who finished early by giving them something monotonous to do.  So, two years ago, I decided enough was enough and I worked to come up with a solution that would challenge my fast finishers and maintain their interest, yet still hold them accountable for their extra learning. 
So, after MUCH thought, time, and hard work, I created Tired Teacher Timesaver Early Finisher Packs.  These packs are 20 pages of math and language arts NO PREP printables designed with first graders in mind.  The skills reviewed are directly related to the common core and reflect first grade curriculum goals.  Each packet was designed with the seasonal themes and holidays occurring each month, with cute graphics to match.  I also worked hard to ensure that the skills I reviewed would challenge my students without overwhelming them. I even created a special cover sheet! Click on any of the pictures for a closer look.



Every month I have the packets copied front/back and stapled in packets with the cover sheet.  Then, I hand these packs out as students finish their work early.  The students keep these packets in their desks to pull out and work on when they have a few minutes to spare.  These are not packets the students can just breeze through.  Each page often involves multiple steps.  I make a big deal and celebrate the students who complete the packets. 
The skills become progressively more challenging as the school year progresses.  The pack for August is basically a kindergarten review, while July’s packet is an end of first grade review.  Here’s a look at a few of the pages you’ll find in these packs.  Click on any of the pictures to view the entire packet.

      

While these are designed as Early Finisher Packs, many teachers have told me they use them for morning warm-ups, homework, summer skill review, and a variety of other uses.  The possibilities are endless!
In conjunction with TPT, I’m happy to announce a LIMITED TIME FREEBIE!  I’ve reached an important milestone in my creative sharing opportunity with Teachers Pay Teachers and I’m celebrating by offering my April Early Finishers Pack for FREE!!!!!  Click on the picture to download it today before time runs out!  While you’re downloading, be sure to check out my other Early Finisher Packs!  They are all on sale for a limited time only!

CHRISTMAS COUPONS FOR YOUR STUDENTS~a freebie

If you are looking for an affordable way to spoil your students this Christmas, then you have come to the right place.  How about a Christmas coupon book? 

Last year I gave these out and my students LOVED redeeming them throughout the rest of the school year.  It was really cute to see who spent them all in the first week and who saved them right up until the end of the school year.  Those coupons sure did burn a whole in the pocket of some of my students. 
This book of coupons is completely free and you’ll only have to print, cut, and staple to prepare your booklet.  The following five coupons along with a cover page are included:

• No homework pass
• 20 Minutes free computer time
• Eat lunch with your teacher
• Switch seats with a friend for the day
• Bring a stuffed animal to school

I have updated the coupons with an expiration date of "last day of school" and I have changed my name to “your teacher.”  The pictures shown are from last year, since I’m currently on maternity leave and won’t be seeing my students this Christmas. Just click on the picture above to download the coupons. 
Since I love all that glitters, I also gave my students a set of sparkly pencils with a cute gift tag. 

Again, I have changed the date to 2015.  Feel free to click on the pic to download your free set of gift tags!
Time for me to get back to my sweet bundle of joy who is one month old today!!! OMG, where is the time going??
Disclaimer:  This post is a blast from the past and basically an update of a post I wrote last year after receiving requests to change the dates

Cyber Monday and A Special Delivery

Hooray! Tomorrow is Cyber Monday and I know I’ll be glued to my computer/phone/tablet trying to snag some good deals. Did you hear that Teachers Pay Teachers is having a Cyber Monday & Tuesday sale?  All day Monday 12-2 and Tuesday 12-3, you can save up to 28% off every item in my store!  Woo hoo!  Be sure to enter the promo code CYBER at checkout to receive the full 28% discount!  Click on the picture below to head to my store.

 

Just added to my store is a resource I’ve been working on for my classroom for quite a while.  I’ve created a student dictionary for my students to keep in their desks to use as a spelling helper.  They use this dictionary when they write and they add to it as new words are introduced in class.  Anytime I introduce new spelling words or word wall words, the students highlight them or write them in their dictionaries.  Included in this book are the first 300 Fry words and the first 220 Dolch words.  Click the picture below to check it out!

And I’ve saved the best for last!  I gave birth to my precious baby girl three weeks ago!  She is absolutely perfect and I’ve been enjoying my time at home with her and her brother.  So, if you’ve been wondering where I’ve been for the last nine months, the answer is “pregnant.”  Now I’m just loving every second I get with my sweet family. 

Back to School Sale

clip art courtesy of Zip A Dee Doo Dah Designs

Has school started yet for you?  Whether you’ve already met your new students or you’re lucky enough to go back after Labor Day, this is the perfect time to stock up on your teaching resources!  Tomorrow and Monday, August 18th and 19th, everything in my store will be 20% off.  But wait, it gets better…if you enter the promotional code BTS13, you’ll receive an additional 10% off.  Wow!  Huge savings!  The next sitewide sale won’t be until November, so don’t wait! Click the picture above to head right over to my TpT shop to stock up for the school year ahead.
For all of you who use my HM Theme Resource Packs, I have great news!  I’ve finally finished Theme 10 and it’s in my TpT shop.  Click on the picture to check it out.

Now that Theme 10 is complete, I was able to put together two new HM bundle packs.  Click on either of the pictures to have a look.

I CANNOT wait to empty my wish list right into my shopping cart tomorrow morning!  I have at least 20 things I’ll be purchasing!  Don’t forget to use the promotional code BTS13.  Happy shopping!

Meet the Teacher

So, it feels like months ago, but recently I was nominated by two different bloggers for the Liebster Award.  I figured this was the perfect way to help you get to know me a little better.  Vanessa from The Educated Crown nominated me, so thank-you, Vanessa!!!  I was also nominated for this award by Caitlin from Always Sunny in First.  Thank-you, Caitlin!  Click on their links to check out their cute blogs. 
According to Vanessa’s blog, The Liebster Award is defined this way:

Liebster is German and means "dearest," "lovely," "cute," "beloved," and "welcome".  What a great word!  Since blogging is about creating community, this award is a fabulous way to spread the word about new blogs.

To accept this award I must do the following:
1. Link back to the blogs that nominated me
2. Nominate 5-11 blogs with fewer than 200 followers
3. Answer the questions posted for you by your nominator
4. Share 11 random facts about yourself
5. Create 11 questions for your nominees- my nominees can answer the same questions I did. 
6. Contact your nominees and let them know you nominated them 
Here are the 11 questions presented to me by Vanessa at The Educated Crown.
1.  What grade do you teach? Is this your favorite? I teach first grade.  Yes, it is my absolute favorite.  I love the age of my students and their sweet personalities, I love the curriculum, and I could not imagine teaching any other grade.
2.  What's your favorite season? Without a doubt, it’s the fall/back to school season.  There’s something about seeing high school football practice outside my classroom window that just puts me in the fall mood.  I love the temperature of the air in fall, the changing color of the leaves, everything pumpkin (especially food), and the many festivals and markets that pop up in the fall season.
 3.  What is your favorite sweet concoction? I just LOVE New York cheesecake.  Sometimes with strawberries or cherries, but usually plain.  I also LOVE Diet Coke with cherry syrup, like the kind from Sonic.  Yum!
4.  Do you have children? Yes! My son turned two in February and he is the apple of my eye!  Every day I am amazed by the smart things he says or remembers, like finding octagons when we go on walks!  We are also expecting a little girl this fall!! 
5.  Do I have any pets?  Yes, our first “child” was our dog, Mr. Pooker Boo.  He’s a poodle mix.  He is 7 years old and was our only “baby” for five years.  He’s adjusted well to the role of big brother and now lives a life more like a dog, but he’s still pretty spoiled. 
6.  What is your favorite subject to teach?  Definitely math!  Even though I have my master’s degree as a reading specialist, I really enjoy teaching math.  I love moving from point a to point b with my firsties and making it fun and meaningful along the way. 
7.  What is your favorite TV show? Breaking Bad, which starts tonight!!!!  I also like Homeland, Boardwalk Empire, Modern Family, and Parks & Rec. 
8. If you weren't a teacher, what career path might you have chosen? Nursing.  My husband was seriously ill many years ago, which really interested me in medicine.  For much of that time, I was his nurse at home.  That experience taught us both so much, but most of all it taught us to appreciate every single second we have and not to take anything for granted.  The fact that we are now able to have children and raise a family is honestly something we at one time were sure we’d never get to experience.
9.  Do you use a MAC or PC? I use a PC. 
10.  5. How do you relax? What?  Relax?  This does not happen with a two year old.  I do however, fall asleep from exhaustion on the couch most nights! Lol!
11.  If you could learn something new, what would it be? I would absolutely love to get a “good” camera and really learn how to use it.  I am terrible at taking pictures. 

11 Random Facts About Me

1.  I LOVE glitter, sparkles, & sequins!

 2.  I love RAINBOWS, especially rainbows with puffy clouds. 

3.  I also love pretty much anything else from the 80’s. 

 4.  I love Jay-Z!  Who would guess by looking at this 35 year-old mama that I love rap?!

5.  I know how to drive stick!

6.  I cannot whistle.

7.  I am obsessed with pop music from the summer of ‘91.  Weird, I know!

8.  I am extremely self-reflective, almost to a fault. 

.  I run into people I know ALL THE TIME in random places, like Boston and Philadelphia.  We just moved to a new town and I ran into an old friend, right in front of our house, about an hour after we closed on our house!  I had no clue she even lived in this town. 

10.  No one I work with knows about this blog!  Shhhh!  Actually, only my mom and husband know about it!

11.  I HATE steak!

Here are the 5 blogs that I am nominating for the Liebster award:

Sent from my iPad

Sample’s Superstars

Look Who’s Teaching

Over the First Grade Rainbow

One, Two, Three Math Time

These are some really great blogs that you should definitely check out!

A Back to School Center *FREEBIE*

Hi loyal readers!  I know I’ve been absolutely MIA from this blog for a few months!  To make it up to you, I’ve just uploaded a brand new freebie to start the new school year.  This is a math center that focuses on patterning.  Use the pretty cover sheet and student directions to display at your center.  There’s even a recording sheet included to hold your new firsties accountable for their work. 

Click the picture to download.

We’ve had quite a bit of excitement for the last few months!  I have exciting news to share!  I’m expecting a baby girl this fall!!!!  And…we moved into the house of our dreams last week!  Woo hoo!!!!  It’s been a rough road getting to this point and it certainly looked like it could all fall apart quite a few times, but here we are and we couldn’t be happier!  I hope that helps to explain why I’ve not been blogging for a while! 

Since yesterday was the first day of August, the official “back to school month,” I went into my classroom to work all day yesterday.  I mainly spent my time purging all the junk I’ve accumulated over the last 12 years (gasp!).  I have SO much more to do before school starts!  I’ll post pictures as soon as things start to look presentable.  Enjoy the freebie!

Hello bloglovin’!

In case you haven’t heard, today is Google Reader’s last day.  If you follow hundreds of blogs through Google Reader like I do, you’ll want to make the switch to bloglovin’

click here to Follow my blog with Bloglovin

bloglovin’ is easy to use and making the switch is super quick.  You’ll just need to use your email to create a username and password and bloglovin’ will transfer all of the blogs you follow.  Seriously, less than five minutes is all it took for me to make the switch.  Click here to head to bloglovin’ to read Shining and Sparkling in First Grade and all of the other great blogs you follow before it’s too late!

And I PROMISE to be a better blogger really, really soon!  Life has been VERY hectic at our house with a move and a new baby on the way.  Blogging, Teachers Pay Teachers, and other school-related happenings have been on the back burner for a few months, but I plan on being back and better than ever before too long!

A Brand New Freebie for You (No foolin!)

No, this is not an April Fools joke.  I’ve created a great freebie for you to start the month of April.  Hopefully this will help those of you who are suffering through spring break withdrawal.  This is my last day of break, although we only had off Friday and today, so it’s more like a long weekend.  I can’t believe the spring break some of you get.  This girl is JEALOUS!

Onto the freebie.  When I looked at my students’ most recent MAP test results and also as I discussed their report cards at my most recent set of parent-teacher conferences, I noticed a recurring theme: We need to work on computation.  It seems that as we’ve gotten into other math skills, such as money, tens and ones, etc. I haven’t been reviewing addition and subtraction enough.  So, this teacher is making a change.  I’m finding addition and subtraction worksheets, centers, and games wherever I can to help my students review these skills.
Of course I wasn’t completely satisfied with what I found, so I created this freebie to use at my math center and I wanted to share it with all of you!

You can click on the picture to get from google docs.  It is also available in my TpT store.
If you download, please become a follower of my blog.
I've linked up with the wonderful blog Freebie-Licious for this post.  Click the pick at the top of this post to head over there for more great freebies from all sorts of bloggers.  PS~If you did not check out their blog hop yesterday, you must do it now.  Sooooo many awesome freebies!

Hippity Hoppity, a sale is on its way!

To celebrate the {finally} warmer spring weather here in PA, I’m slashing prices in my TpT store for the weekend.  Hop on over to my store for 20% off of all my products!  Fill your basket shopping cart full of the eggs teaching resources you’ve been eyeing up. The sale starts tomorrow, 3-30 and runs through Sunday night, 3-31.

While you’re shopping, be sure to check out my newest product!

I’m just in love with these cute pages to teach the sounds of y!

Five for Friday

We had a great week this week.  From 19 parent-teacher conferences in one day to cooking pancakes for my students, we did a lot of learning and had a lot of fun too.   

1.  Swooning over spoons!  This week our phonics skill was the oo sound like in the word spoon.  So, we made this adorable anchor chart. 

I wrote on plastic spoons with a black Sharpie, then taped them to chart paper.  Easy-peasy!

2.  We held Traffic School in our classroom.  An important concept of print is interpreting environmental print.  The MAP test we take has a bit of a focus on street signs.  So off to traffic school we went!

 

I posted 10 traffic signs around the classroom and the students used clip boards to draw pictures of the signs and try to interpret their meanings. 

3.  Parent-Teacher Conferences

Well, no more parent-teacher conferences until next year.  I had 19 conferences on Wednesday afternoon/evening.  I was sp-ent by the time I got home that night.  Lucky for me I only had 2 conferences on Thursday. 

This is the sign above my classroom windows, that they parents faced as they sat with me at my table. 

4.  This baby came with our class book order this week!  I spent pretty much every bonus point I had on this sweet puppy.  Cannot wait to use it!

5.  And finally, today I made my first graders pancakes.  Our main story this week was If You Give A Pig A Pancake.  So, of course we read a recipe so that we are understanding how to read to perform a task.  Then I got busy and cooked pancakes for my class. 

I had some toppings to pretty up our pancakes (cherries, whipped cream, syrup, chocolate chips, and sprinkles).  The students were allowed to choose 2 toppings. 

The students had to complete this paper to write about what they asked for when I gave them a pancake.  I’ll compile all their responses into a class book to add to our classroom library.

I’m looking forward to next week, when this will be at our pocket chart center!

Enjoy your weekend!