**Winner and announcement**

So the winner of my hidden words packet is Mrs. L. Congrats!! Email me :)

On another note, one of my close friends and colleague was diagnosed with cancer. Please send your thoughts and prayers this way. She's a third year teacher, 25 years old, and is one of the strongest and most passionate people I've ever met. With this said, I've been very preoccupied so probably won't have many sparks of creativity to share for a while. I also want to donate next quarter's Teachers Pay Teachers earnings to help her, so any purchase you make will be going towards a wonderful cause and person. 

Thanks :) 

Hidden Words and Giveaway

Whew! I can't believe how long this took to make. Last week I gave my students the word "caterpillar" and asked them to find as many hidden words as they could. They LOVVVVVED this. I decided I needed to milk the enthusiasm for this fun activity. I made 50 hidden word sheets and an answer key. To make this more challenging for my higher learners, I decided to not give them the word and they had to see if they could figure out what the big word is. This is similar to Patricia Cunningham's "Making Words" but it's an independent activity (great for homework, morning work, and literacy centers). What I love most is that it's differentiated and I don't need to find and make 4 different worksheet copies to accommodate all my learners for homework. I'm going to send one of these home each Thursday for homework (as per student requests!). If you're interested you can get it here for only $3.00! 


Do you want to win it?? All you have to do is "like" me on Facebook then comment here and on my FB page. I don't want to be totally embarrassed and not have anybody "like" me ;D I'll announce a winner on Tuesday evening. 

Apostrophe Showers Bring May Flowers

I absolutely can't take full credit for this super cute and creative idea. I got the idea and tweaked it a little from a talented teacher on the Second Grade Teacher's Club website. I don't think this teacher has a blog or website so I can't give her direct credit. Cute, right?? Oh, and yes I have a clock intruding on my bulletin board (ugh, don't ask!) ;)

P.S. There is a space in my garden because I'm waiting for an absent student to complete theirs. I'm very obsessive compulsive about things like that :x

The leaves have the 2 words before the contraction. Ex: would not and the flower has the contraction. Ex: wouldn't

Easel Situation Please Help! :)

So I FINALLY got my first easel and I'm soooo excited, even though it takes up most of my room! Except I'm struggling with figuring out how the chart paper is supposed to go. It seems kind of like a hassle to flip pages. Can anyone describe how to put the paper on the rings or send me a picture (I don't think you can post pictures as a comment so via email is just fine). Please please help so I can enjoy my new toy!! :D 

Differentiation Daily

I just found myself on this website. I've never heard of it before but there is some other great ideas on it too! Check it out :)

Homophone Friday!

If you haven't checked out my guest blog yet on Once Upon a Time in First Grade doooo it! :)

I also made these last night. I think they're super cute! It's a homophone matching game!



A Big Thanks and a Great Giveaway!

First of all, I got my Vera Bradley change purse today. A HUGE shout out to Mrs. Farley. I won her giveaway last week :) 

If you're not sick of giveaways, because who can be sick of free stuff??!! head on over to Mrs. Schroeder's blog because she's giving away one of those freakin' awesome electronic butterflies and a unit. One of my students brought one of those butterfly jars in and I SCREAMED because 1. I'm petrified of butterflies and 2. It looks soooo real!

Good luck :)