Sparkle in Second

STEM education

We are loving all of the STEM education going on in our classroom! It has been amazing to watch my little engineers grow this year!

Hey guys!! Happy BACK to SCHOOL time!! I've teamed up with some amazing teachers to show you all some LOVE. We know how hard teachers work and how they could use a little bit of extra love this time of year. So we decided to show our love and appreciation by giving away a $200 Tieks gift card (THE most comfy shoes available) AND a $150 TpT gift card.

You can enter the contest 41 times.. yes 41 TIMES! You just need to enter through the Rafflecopter link below. GOOD LUCK

ENTER CONTEST HERE

You have until August 12th to enter. The winner will be announced and contacted on August 13th.

A special thank you to Tina Peyerl, Social Studies Success, Primary Fairy Tales, Elementary Me – I Heart Teaching, Pocketful of Centers, PrintablePrompts, Elementary Island, Kindergarten Rocks, Tara Hardink – My First Grade Zoo, Lindsey’s Classroom Creations, Rainbow City Learning, Read Write Teach ELA, Little House Lessons, Primary Planet by Hilary Gard, Kadeen Teaches, Bethany McClure – Teaching for Fun, The Primary Post, Kim Hauer, Teaching in My Flip Flops, Mrs. Richard EE Resources, Elementary at HEART , Firstieland , Learning Inspired , Primary on the Prowl , Littlesandlit , Teach Without Tears , Sparkle in Second , Learning with MAI , 1stgradefireworks , The Resourceful Apple , Kinderbrations , Bilingual Teach and Tell Us , Teach Love Autism, KooKoo Kindergarten, Learning and Loving It – Andrea Rodriguez, Southern Drawl, Julie Davis – Big Ideas for Little Hands,Anchored in Reading, Sparklle SLP, and A Library and Garden for participating in this fabulous teacher giveaway! Be sure to check out their TPT stores!

It's all about the Busy Bins!!

You guys!! I am obsessed with how amazingly well my kiddos do with Busy Bins! Have you heard about them yet? WELL, they are the bees knees! I was so bogged down with silly morning work worksheets. I was over the fact some students would finish in 2 minutes while others would literally be rolling around on the floor because one they didn't want to do a worksheet or two because the material was too hard for them. So, over the summer I came up with a genius (in my humble opinion) idea to create something that would be: hands-on, follow the standards, incorporate science (which is always a task), and allow for students to stay engaged at their level of learning. What I came up with was "Busy Bins". These aren't your typical STEM or STEAM learning boxes, these are SO much more. Busy Bins incorporate it all! BONUS they are free to be changed up as you see fit for your kiddos!!

Please, I am begging you to PLEASE try to spice up your morning routine. Students are bored with worksheets and I know as a teacher I was bored of them too!! As my gift to you, I am giving you a free look into Busy Bins as well as a FREE Busy Bin starter of your own. All you have to do is sign up for my email list and your freebie will immediately be sent to you. As a subscriber you will also get my free Busy Bin starter kit within the next few weeks. What do you say? Are you ready to make a change!?

Here are a few photos of Busy Bins:

Happy Halloween!

With Halloween just around the corner, I thought it might be fun for you to see some of our *adorable* pumpkins we created while playing our pumpkin glyph game. I love how these turned out!!

These pumpkin glyphs are part of my Pumpkin Bundle! Check it out while it's on sale!

CHECK this out! Our friends at Andy Mohr Speedway Chevy in Indianapolis, IN sent me these AMAZING trick or treating safety reminders!

New School Year- New School STUFF

YOU guys! I am totally obsessing over The Artsy Apple's amazing font bundle!! I scooped the bundle up as soon as I saw her work. She is amazing. Check her out!
The Artsy Apple

After purchasing her incredible font bundle, I couldn't sleep! I NEEDED to channel my inner creative being. I made THESE! EEEP!! Now, I am going to go an print these babies off and continue conquering my classroom (which is taking way longer than anticipated). I can't wait for the final reveal--- COMING SOON! =)

Hundreds Day Fun!

Hundreds Day was an amazing day filled with learning activities and fun! It felt like I was working in a nursing home haha! My kiddos dressed up as old 100 year olds! They brought in walkers and canes and played the part all day. I dressed up as a crazy old cat lady and matched one of my students.
Here's what the day included:
*Dressing up as 100 year olds (almost all students participated)
*Writing 100 words
*Writing 100 reasons why we love first grade
*100 item mystery bags with clues (we tried to figure out what was in the bags)
*Building a structure using 100 blocks
*Counting to 100 several different ways using Bingo dabbers and creating gum ball machines
*Counting and sorting snacks to make 100 day snack mix
*100 day crowns- adding 100 stickers
*100 chart number puzzles

The kiddos were split up into partners and they visited each station. SO much fun! It was one of my favorite days yet! <3

Piggies!!

EEEP! I am obsessed with these adorable funtivities! The kiddos have LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the Three Little Pigs portion of our Fairy Tales unit! Today, we retold the story using our retelling puppets. Then we wrote a letter to the Big Bad Wolf. To finish up, students wrote a summary of the story and then completed the the piggy craft. We've had a lot of fun! I can't wait to introduce our new fairy tale tomorrow! Check back to see what fairy we will cover next!

Click the photo link at the bottom if you are interested in any of these activities!! <3

<CLICK HERE

Fairy Tales, Freebies, Followers, oh and a little rant =)

Hi guys! So today I started brainstorming some ways as to how I could gain some more followers on my TpT store. I just feel like I've hit a wall or something. I've been feeling really defeated by the fact that I put in so much time, energy, and love into my products and I am not seeing the turnaround that I would have thought would be happening. So, I decided to do a fun giveaway for the month of February!! Below is the advertisement I created to help promote my giveaway for February. Basically, all one has to do is follow me on Teachers Pay Teachers and at the end of February all my TpT followers will be sent a link via TpT messages. The link will allow my followers to enter the contest. One must be following me on TpT to receive the special link =)! Then, I will announce the winners through my social media platforms. I am excited to get some more followers and traffic to my store! I am hoping some of my fellow TpT friends will support me in this effort by sharing the advertisement I created!! (*wink, wink*)

<Click and follow me!

I've also been SUPER busy creating a fun fairy tales unit! We are learning about fairy tales in first grade, and what better way to teach fairy tales than to teach them with craftivities?!? YAY!! I can't wait to post photos of the kiddos completing these adorable little crafts and learning activities that go along with some of my favorite fairy tales! Check out the unit here:

Also, in the middle of what *might* seem like crazy times in our world, remember our kiddos are looking to US everyday as their role models. - please remember to be kind, calm, and composed. I know it's easy to be depressed, angry, grouchy, etc. STOP. We are teachers. We are everything and more to a lot of our students. Our kiddos have enough stuff to worry about, don't let them see you off your game.

OK.

End of rant.

Love to you all.