New Products...{GIVEAWAY}

I just wanted to let you know that I have posted my Spring Stations Pack.  I know it's a little late...I'm working on wrapping up the Summer Pack too!  I have also included it in the bundle so you can get the Fall, Winter and Spring Packs now and then Summer when it is added in the next week.  
The Spring Pack is half off for the next 24 hours!!!  What a great deal!  $2.50 for 43 pages!   

The bundle is also discounted from $17.00 to $12.50 for all 4 packs!!

I am also going to give away one copy of the Spring Pack and one copy of the Completed BUNDLE!!!  The first one to comment will get the bundle!  The fifth to comment will get the Spring Pack! Please be sure to leave your email address!

Kindergartener Diagnosed with Brain Cancer - Hear her Story!!

Hello!  I'd like to share a story with you about one of my sweet, sweet kindergarten students (from the Richmond, VA area).  Follow her story in Facebook HERE

This is Sawyer.  She is a five year old little girl who was enjoying her time in kindergarten when her family and teachers noticed her eyes were bothering her.  She started seeing double and complained that her eyes hurt.  For a 2 week period at the end of April, Sawyer got sick at school (throwing up) and was sent home.  It wasn't until the weekend of April 22nd that Sawyer would not stop throwing up which made her mom rush to the emergency room.  

After doing some scans, doctors at the ER in Richmond found a tumor on her brain.  Sawyer was then sent to the University of Virginia hospital in Charlottesville, VA for surgery to remove the tumor, additional testing and a diagnosis. The doctors there diagnosed her with Anaplastic Ependymoma, which is a stage three (very aggressive) brain cancer.  

Sawyer stayed in the hospital there for several weeks for the team of doctors to develop the best treatment plan for her.  That plan was to get her a spot at St. Jude's Children's Hospital in Memphis, TN.

Sawyer is now at St. Jude's where they have agreed with the diagnosis from UVA but have even added that she has one specific strand that makes this disease even more aggressive.  Because of this diagnosis and the aggressiveness of the cancer, the doctors at St. Jude have said they are not able to treat the cancer.

Sawyer's parents have been given the choice to treat her with radiation which will deteriorate Sawyer's little body or they do nothing and the cancer would take continue to take over.  Sawyer's mom posted about this choice on Facebook and how hard it will be for her to choose what is best for her little girl.

I wanted to share her story for several reasons.  I am so sad for her and her family but so hopeful we can get a miracle!  But also, because her Mom and Dad are no longer earning an income in order to stay home with Sawyer.  Her mom, Jamie, is a teacher in Henrico County here in Richmond.  She has used all of her sick leave and is now on leave without pay.  Her dad, Nathan, is self employed and does not make money unless he is working.

Some of their friends have created a Go Fund Me page to help support their financial needs.  The local community here is also taking meals by their house every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

There have been many fundraising efforts here in Hanover County!



Here is just one of them

And here is another

Please take a moment to visit the Prayers for Sawyer page on Facebook to keep up with her story.  You will be able to see posts from her mom about her progress as well as posts like the one from Friday where our class FaceTimed with Sawyer on her ipad!  It was so fun!

Best of luck to all of those teachers ending this school year and here's to a very relaxing summer!

Five for Friday 3/8/16

It's been a little while since I've blogged....but for good reason.  Check out what's been happening!! I'm linking up again with Doodle Bugs to share what we have done this week.

I don't usually share personal information here....but we are expecting our second child!  I'm due in October and am so elated to add one more little one to our family.  My 5 year old daughter will start Kindergarten in the fall so this will be a perfect time to bond with my new little addition.  
I have even started making copies for the first 2 months of school next year for next year since I will be going out on maternity leave in October. 

Our writing time has been fabulous!  I have been so pleased with my kids writing!  This is their third nine weeks writing assessment and the progress we have made is AMAZING!!!!!!

We started our Fundraiser for this year.  We are using Boosterthon which has a Big World Recess theme.  And what is a competition without a door decoration contest!  So here is our door!!

We have been very busy with report card assessments but also with these wonderful Fountas and Pinnell assessments.  I only have 3 more students left to read to me on Monday!  Whew!!!

This was a cute math station my student teacher came up with.  We cut ovals out of the Ellison Press, she used a bunny stamp to make pictures and then subtract a number.  We laminated the ovals so the students could then use a dry erase marker to x off the ones they "took away."  So far, they have loved this activity and I have enjoyed watching them !  

Now you can head over to see what everyone else was up to this week!

Easter Eggstravaganza Sale - 20% off my store!!

I'm having a SALE!!!!!  I'm teaming up with tons of other TpT sellers to throw a sale for the Easter holiday.  You can check out my store and get 20% off - Sunday ONLY!!!!  A huge thank you to Glitter Meets Glue Designs for the amazing graphics and idea for the collaborative sale! Happy shopping!!!!

Springing Into Learning Blog Hop!!

I LOVE SPRING!  It is one of my favorite seasons!  The weather starts to get warmer - but not too hot.  Playing outside, rolling the windows down in the car, getting fresh air in the house!  I love everything about spring!!  Even the units I teach!  

One of my favorite things to do is teach strictly about spring - the season.  Here are some of the things I use to do that.  

FREEBIE!!!!

This is my freebie for you!  Click {HERE} or the picture to get your copy from Google Drive!

I love using these magazines from Scholastic.  They are so informational for the kids and you can tell that the people in charge at Scholastic have done a great job researching these topics and asking teachers their opinions of the materials they provide.  Our students pay this fee at the beginning of the school year (it's usually no more than $6 for the whole school year).  The kids get 4 magazines each month and we pay the extra $.99 to get the Science Spin portion of this offer too!  

These are some of the books from our school library that I enjoy to read during my spring unit.

These are 2 new math games from Deedee Wills's new March Black and White Literacy and Math Stations.  I chose to use the addition and subtraction game.  

Then of course, there is St. Patrick's Day!  Here are some of my resources for that.

This is always a challenging activity for my kids.  They have to use their knowledge of word families to color and then put together this rainbow.  This is my example of course.  It's interesting to see what the kid's project looks like at the end.

Usually during this time, I teach about magnets too.

And finally, we wrap up the month of march with teaching about oviaprous animals and bunnies (all to celebrate Easter) before we leave for spring break!  

These are our bags we use to do our egg hunt during our spring party.  

This is such a fun activity. I enjoy seeing the creativity of each student and telling about their bunny.  

Now you can click below to see what everyone else likes about spring and collect some more freebies along the way!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five for Friday 2/26/16

It was finally a full week of school for me!!!!  It has either been a 2 hour delay or no school at least one day in the week for the past 2-3 weeks.  So this week was long....yet rewarding because I feel like we accomplished a lot of learning!!!!  I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching to share what we have done this week!  Enjoy!! 1.  We have been busy playing our word work games this week.  I have given my kiddos a lot of choice and they seem to enjoy that part of it!

2.  I recently purchased Deedee Wills's Math Work Stations - Black and White Bundle.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!   They are so easy to just print, cut and laminate to add to a station.  She also makes each month consistent with the previous so there isn't a whole lot of reteaching the skills - the pictures and themes change.  My kinders thrive with predictability!!

3.  We have been working with word families over the last several weeks.  Each week has a different word family sort (I follow the Words their Way philosophy) and the students complete daily activities to practice spelling and looking at the patterns in the words.  At the end of the week, I give them this quick "assessment" to see if they were able to grasp that set of word families.  This is very helpful especially when the students are working with the short i and short e sounds.   

4.  Our reading centers work has changed just slightly.  It was very overwhelming to see so many students struggling to get their work finished - and I'm not a huge fan of "worksheets" anyway!  So.......now that my kiddos can read - we have fully adopted the Daily 5 and the kids are thriving on the fact that they get to choose and be responsible for their learning.  

5.  This week was the 100th day of school!  We had lots of fun activities to help us celebrate!



Now head over to see what everyone else was up to this week!