TpT Seller Challenge: Week 3

I am joining up with Sparkling in Second, Third in Hollywood, Teach Create Motivate, and Peppy Zesty Teacherista for the third challenge in the weekly TpT Seller Challenge.  This week's challenge is called "Make Your Masterpiece" and it asks us to create a 'masterpiece' to add to our store on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

 I was very excited (and overwhelmed) by this challenge.  I did not have any products that needed to be finished, which left me having to start from scratch.  I have had somewhat of a TpT writer's block lately.  After thinking long and hard I decided to create something that I could use next year as the Reading Teacher for K-2.  I know that short vowels are something that all of the grade levels will be working with - whether as a review or as a new skill.  So I created a few worksheets for each short vowel and came up with this:

Yay!  I feel like I may have taken the first step to overcoming this TpT writer's block issue that I have been dealing with.  I am so glad that this was one of the challenges because it forced me to create something that I will be able to use next year (because what is the point of putting all of that time and effort into a product if you can't use it in your own classroom!).  Now I am in the right mindset to continue creating materials and hopefully have a head start on what I will need for next year :)

So enough of my blabbering...here is a preview of the different pages within the set.

The activities are all the same for the five different short vowels.  

• One of the pages asks that students to sort pictures by different word families.  I love to try and incorporate cutting and pasting into as many of the worksheets as I can because these are skills that my students always seem to struggle with.

• Another page has the students use the code to color each picture based on the word family it belongs in.  (There are two versions of this page - one of the options asks the students to then write the word underneath the picture while the other does not).          *Only one of the options is shown in the preview

• On another page the students are asked to read the words and paste the matching picture in the box (There are also two versions of this page - on the first option the pictures are glued on top of the word and on the second option the pictures are glued above the word).
• The final page asks the students to sort pictures by the medial sound (does it have the short vowel sound or not?).

So there it is, my "masterpiece" :)  I hope that this will help you in your classroom.  Click on the preview (or this link) to grab it for 20% off - today and tomorrow only.

TpT Seller Challenge: Week 2

 Alright, I should be caught up now with the weekly TPT Challenge organized by Sparkling in Second, Third in Hollywood, Teach Create Motivate, and Peppy Zesty Teacherista - Yay!  The week two challenge was to blog about your dreams for your TPT store. This is something that I love to do!  For this challenge I decided to put my dreams in order of attainability.  Hopefully I can reach at least the first goal on my list...but it sure is fun to dream :)

 

 

 Pay for daycare each month:

My first goal (and hopefully one that I can actually reach) is to be able to pay for daycare each month using the money that I make from TpT.  I hate that I have to put my sweet baby in daycare come August, but staying at home is not something that will work for my family at this point.  That being said, the price of daycare is...ridiculous high.  If the money I make from TpT could cover the cost of daycare it would make such a difference!  

Be able to work part time:

I would love to be able to work part time!  Maybe one day the money I make from TpT could allow me to only work part time and then I could stay home with my family for part of the week.  I think that this would be the ideal situation for me.  I got stir crazy when I was on maternity leave and felt the need to get out of the house and go to work.  So if I could work part time I feel like I could get the best of both worlds. 

Stay at home and work on TpT:

Now, I know that I just said that I don't think that I could stay home full time because I would get stir crazy - but if I were able to treat TpT like a job I could stay at home with my family and spend my "work time" creating products.  This is a goal that I know many teachers on TpT have been able to reach, but I think that it is a stretch for me.  But, this challenge is all about dreaming, right??

My husband's goal - Buy land:

This is something that my husband loves to dream about.  If I were ever able to stay home because of TpT and we had enough money, he would love to be able to buy land.  He is more of a dreamer than I am and will sit and look at land for sale.  He has found the perfect property - 248 acres for only 300,000 something dollars.  This is definitely the most far stretched goal on my list...but I will let him dream :)

These are some hefty dreams, but that is something that motivates me to continue with TpT.  What are some dreams that you have?

TpT Seller Challenge: Week 1

I am starting a little late, but I have finally gotten my butt in gear so that I can participate in the TPT Seller Challenge hosted by Emily from Third in Hollywood, Ashley from Teach Create Motivate, Jen from Sparkling in Second and Amber from Peppy Zesty Teacherista!

                       

The first challenge is MAKEOVER MADNESS. This week is all about updating an old product to make it better.  When I was going through my products, one in particular jumped right out at me.  What in the world was I thinking when I posted this as the cover for my product?

This is one of the first products that I posted.  And while the product itself was good, the cover was...unacceptable.  

So for MAKEOVER MADNESS I spruced up the product itself by adding a few different levels of some of the worksheets, fixed the assessment so that it actually aligned with the worksheets in the set and updated the font.  And then I gave the cover a complete overhaul.

I am much happier with how this looks.  And I think that it looks more appealing to buyers.  What do you think?

Click on the picture above to grab the product for 20% off - today only!

It's Been Too Long...

It is hard to believe that it has been six months since I last posted on this blog.  There has been a lot going on since then and I can't wait to share with you all of the exciting changes!

My husband and I welcomed a beautiful little boy into the world on May 2 and it has been incredible and exhausting all at the same time.  It has been a blessing that we are both teachers because we are able to both spend the summer together with Levi.  And for those of you who follow me on Instagram, I apologize for the overload of Levi pictures - I am trying to keep it under control.

Little Levi came two weeks early and was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  My husband and I decided not to find out the sex of the baby so we went in to the hospital with a little girl's name: Bailey Joanne; and a little boy's name: ______ Vernon.  Yep, we did not have a boy's name picked out!  Joanne is my grandmother's name and Vernon is my husband's grandfather's name so the middle names were easy.  We agreed on Bailey early on in the pregnancy but could not find a boy's name that we both liked.  My husband liked Levi the entire pregnancy but I just couldn't wrap my head around it (It is a pair of jeans for goodness sake!).  But when the time came, Levi Vernon was the perfect fit. 

Now our time is spent taking care of this little man - and we couldn't be any happier!

As if having a new baby wasn't enough - I accepted a new position.  I will still be working at the same school, but instead of teaching first grade I will be the K-2 Title I Reading Teacher and I could not be more excited.  (So much for my creative blog name, huh?)  So at the end of the school year, my nine month pregnant self had to empty out my classroom and bring it all home.  Piece by piece, I brought it home and into the garage.  My husband then carried it all upstairs and put it into an extra bedroom, which I now refer to as "The Room of Disaster". 

Well, "The Room of Disaster" ate away at me.  I just could not stop thinking about the mess hiding behind that door.  So I decided to go through and organize it.  Yep, you should have seen me waddling in and out of that room.  I pulled everything out and put it into different piles in the hallway.  I had a donate pile (I can't believe I accumulated so many useless items!), a 'pack away in the attic' pile, a 'give to my teacher friend' pile and an 'I need this for next year pile'.  Then I waddled everything back into the room (except for the donate and give away piles) and organized it as much as I could.  Now I know that there is an organized mess behind the door and it is much easier to live with.

As for my new job, I will be working with Kindergarten, first and second graders on phonics skills.  I am excited for the new challenge and I can't wait to start creating materials to share with all of you!  I had hit a road block with my TpT store because I felt like I had run out of resources to create for the first grade Common Core Reading Standards.  Now I have a whole new realm of materials that I can make so be prepared for an overload of phonics materials! 

I think my favorite part about this new job so far is the fact that I can't work on anything this summer!  I don't know what my students will need because I don't even know which students I will be working with.  It has been such a relaxing summer and I know that I will start the new school year refreshed and ready for action!


Lots of new and exciting changes over here, huh?  For those of you have stuck with me through my lack of blogging over these past six months - thank you.  I can't wait for the new adventures that await me this year and look forward to sharing them (and all the new products I create) with you all.

Christmas Conversation Linky

So it seems that I have fallen off the face of the blogging Earth for the past month or so.  Getting better at blogging is one of my resolutions for 2015 - so please don't give up on me just yet.

I thought I would jump back in with a post filled with holiday spirit, which is why the Christmas Conversation Linky over at The Inspired Apple is perfect.  Especially since it is Christmas Eve!!!

So here it is:

I love the holidays so much - every single part!  My favorite part is that I have two weeks off of school to relax, regroup and spend time with my husband.  We spent five hours in the kitchen today cooking a feast for just the two of us, and it was DELICIOUS.  Now that we have cleaned up we are relaxing for a bit until 7:00 when are going to watch It's a Wonderful Life and drink some hot chocolate. And I always look forward to the midnight church service on Christmas Eve.  We are attending a new church this year so I am excited to see what this service will be like. 

This is such a wonderful time of the year and I feel so blessed.  I can't wait to see what next year brings, but for now I am going to enjoy the holidays and relax.

Enjoy the holiday season with your families!

Interactive Short Vowel Books

Hip Hip Hooray!!!  I finished all of the interactive short vowel phonics books (finally!)  -  I missed my deadline of the end of October by one day, but at least I made it before we change the clocks back.  I can't wait to share these with you so that you can share them with your students.  So here is the big reveal ;)

There is a book for each short vowel (CVC) and they all have the same layout.  They are also in an easy to construct layout - you just copy, staple and cut.  There are two books to a page - the pictures in this post show a constructed book.  Each book has a cover page:

On the first page (although the pages can be put in any order) the students are asked to sort cards by the word families.  There are three options for this sort: all pictures, mixed pictures and words or all words.  In the picture below, I used the mixed pictures and words option:

Then, the students are asked to sort cards by whether they have the short vowel sound or not.  There are also three options for this sort: all pictures, mixed pictures and words or all words - as you can see, I am a fan of the mixed option (:

Thoughts so far?  My students loved these two pages because they were cutting and gluing right into their little book!
On the next page, the students are asked to draw a line matching the picture to the word.  I like this page because it shows that they can read the word and that they understand what that word is.

 

The next page is similar to the previous one...this time the students paste the matching word underneath each picture.

 This next page was my students favorite page.  One sweet student said that it was 'tricky for her brain'... I love first graders!  The students have to unscramble the letters to make a word, then they have to color the picture that matches the word that they just unscrambled.

Are you still with me?  I know it is a lot but this book can be completed over the course of a few days or all in one sitting...it's up to you!
On the next page, the students read each sentence and draw a line to the matching picture.  The students colored their pictures after they matched...but I was a little lazy in my sample (:

The next page is similar, this time the students read the sentence and add details to the picture so that it matches the sentence.  My students got a real kick out of my fan - I guess drawing is not my thing!

Phew!  There are still more --the next page is a simple page in which the students fill in the blank with a word to finish the sentence so that it matches the picture.

This next page is one of my favorites - my students can always use extra practice on rhyming words!  The students read the word in the top of the box and color the pictures that rhyme with that word.

We made it to the last page!!  This one really puts the students' understanding of the phonics skill to the test because they have to read a short passage and show understanding of the passage by coloring parts of the picture.

Voila!  And those are the pages in each interactive short vowel phonics books.  The answer keys are included at the end of the file.  My students absolutely loved this little book - especially since they were able to take it home when they were finished with it.  There are many different ways to use it in the classroom - I used it as a brief review of the skill at the beginning of my small groups.

I would love to hear your thoughts!!  Based on the response to these I have hopes of making interactive phonics books for blends and long vowels (CVCe).

Hooray!  Now I am going to sit back and cuddle up with some hot chocolate - I feel like this cold weather came out of nowhere!!  Click on the picture below if you would like to grab the file - it's on sale for this weekend only.

Have a great weekend (:

November Currently

Two posts in one weekend... mark it down in the record books!!  But I couldn't pass up the November Currently post with Farley over at Oh Boy Fourth Grade - plus, I am already curled up with the computer in my lap - so why not??

Listening
I am curled up by the fireplace and loving the sound.  I cannot say that I am loving this cold weather though.  Where in the world did it come from?  I feel like one minute it was beautiful outside and then BAM the cold weather hit.  Ugh.

Loving
I L.O.V.E. Thanksgiving.  The family, the food, the football, the food, the games, the food...did I mention the food?  I can't wait for some mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole all mixed together with some turkey!  Mmmmm....

Thinking
This month is going to fly by!  This week is a four day week (Election Day is on Tuesday - teachers have to go, but no students), the following week is a four day week (no school for Veteran's Day), the week after that is a full week and then the last week in November is only two days (Thanksgiving break).  Where has all of the time gone??

Wanting
I had a whole two trick-or-treaters.  Yea, I know it was hard to handle all those kids.  But now I am stuck with all this leftover candy and I do NOT need to be the one to eat it.  Maybe I will go give the leftovers to the neighbor kids.

Needing
I need to get a head start on my Christmas shopping this year because I always wait until the last minute.  Not this year!  I am going to make a plan and get started on it early so that I can enjoy the days before Christmas.

Reading
I picked up the book 'Orphan Train' and just started it.  So far I like it!!

That's what I'm doing currently...how about you??  Happy November (: