Do you still have things to buy for back-to-school? I sure do! We have a great giveaway that could help you out. One lucky winner will get a TPT gift card for $75. It could be you!
Rules: Use the Rafflecopter form to enter. Giveaway ends 8/13/16 and is open worldwide.
P.S. ~ There are 2 of these giveaways going on right now! When you are finished entering this one, visit An Apple for the Teacher to enter another giveaway. 🙂
It’s back-to-school time and TeachersPayTeachers is ready with new resources, 2 sales days and giveaways! Many bloggers were given giftcards to help spread the word about the sale. I’m happy to be able to give 1 lucky winner a $10 giftcard code. I’ll make it a quick giveaway so that the winner can spend the money right away!
The Teachers Pay Teachers sale is August 1st -2nd. I will have my entire Teacher Treasure Hunter store on sale. Combine that with the TPT discount (use code BESTYEAR) and you’ll save 28%. It’s time to fill those shopping carts!
The bloggers at Classroom Tested Resources have put together a BIG giveaway! It’s 3 days AND 3 different TPT giftcards. Be sure to stop by and enter each day of the giveaway.
One of my best-selling resources is featured on the Classroom Tested Blog page and it’s on sale for today! It has nearly 300 stories. Kids scan the QR code and the page automatically loads so they can watch someone reading the book. They are perfect for listening centers. If you miss today’s sale then you can still get it on Monday & Tuesday through the #bestyearever sale at Teachers Pay Teachers!
I’m so excited to be a part of this fun blog hop. Thank you, Laura from Where the Magic Happens, for organizing this treat for our blogs! As you hop from blog to blog you can read about each blogger’s favorite things and enter to win a prize package! There are a total of 7 big prize packs and they each are full of wonderful gift cards and products. Also, many of the bloggers have put some products on sale at TPT. You can search for “myfavoritethings2014“.
I will attempt to go through my favorite things without breaking into song ala Sound of Music or adding any references to whiskers on kittens!
Favorite Beauty Product – ESSIE polish
I would say my favorite product is Essie nail polish. I have tried various polishes over the year and I was ready to give up on ever polishing my nails. If I go to the salon a manicure would usually only last a week and I definitely don’t want to pay to have them done every week! I tried the nail wraps and sort of liked them, but they took a long time for me to apply (that was probably just me needing to get used to them) and I found the good ones too expensive for my budget. So, I was thrilled when I tried Essie polish and found that it was thick enough to apply easily and lasted for a while. I tried a few other popular brands in that price range and it just wasn’t the same. For me, the Essie polish is just the right consistency. I also love the colors that are available! I started buying this polish in the summer and have a nice little collection. I’m looking forward to adding more colors. Plus, it’s fun to see the collection of colorful bottles!
Favorite Restaurant – Olive Garden My favorites are Italian & Greek. My all-time favorite is Olive Garden. Our area is small so some of my favorite restaurants are not in the area so I only get a chance to visit them when travelling – Cracker Barrel, Chick-fil-A (coming to WA soon! still will be a drive for me, but much better!), Zoopa – so wish this was closer and they should totally have more locations! I would be remiss if I left out Taco Bell. My mom says that is a phrase I learned right after my first few words! I do tend to make way too many stops there after late nights at school. 🙂
My area doesn’t have a wide range of restaurant cuisines. When we are travelling we try to seek out those little individual places with authentic recipes. While visiting Seattle, we tried out a little Ethiopian place at the Pike Place Market and loved the injera (bread) plate.
I love them for grading, because if I make a mistake I can easily erase it. There have been times when I graded a test and gave 100% and then noticed a mistake. I used to cover it with a sticker and re-grade. Now, I can just erase!
Favorite Tradition – Ornaments
When I was growing up, my grandma sent us ornaments. I don’t remember if it was every year, but she sent each of us several ornaments. I only have a couple that survived the years! I have the one pictured above which was from 1984 and a Garfield one.
My 2 boys each have several ornaments of their own on our tree. Some of these are shown in these pictures. They have a few that were give to them when they were younger. Of course, there are also ones that they made for the tree like the clay stocking in the top picture. As they grew older, I’ve let them choose an ornament for the tree almost every year. I write their name and the date on each one. It’s fun to see the things they choose each year. It shows their personality and what their interests were during that time. This year, my oldest chose the burger and fries. We tease him about wanting to eat all the time! Welcome to the teen years! My youngest chose the red cardinal. He loves animals. Last year, he chose the Arctic Fox that looks like a little stuffed animal. We don’t have a designer tree that could be featured in magazines, but it’s a tree full of memories! That is precious to me!
Favorite Store – Amazon
I love Amazon prime! My prime membership expired and I tried going without it for a few months. Then I needed a baby shower gift. I could not get it to ship w/ free shipping and kept adding items to my cart to get it to work. I was also nervous that it wouldn’t make it in time. I finally gave in and renewed prime. Presto! Delivered super fast and no shipping charges.
You can win a $20 gift card to Amazon along with the other fabulous prizes! This gift card is part of prize pack #7. It will be emailed to the winner. It is in US funds and can only be used at amazon.com.
My 4 featured items are 1/2 off during this blog hop! These are bundles that are already discounted, so to get them an extra 50% off is a big treat!
The Animal Research Papers Bundle includes pages for kids to research 99 different animal. It even includes my best-selling Arctic Animal Research Paper pack. They are written for early readers and feature photos rather than clip art. They have been used successfully with kindergarten – 5th grade. I’m a 1st grade teacher and use them in my class every year! The kids love writing their own report and becoming an “expert” on an animal.
I also have my Healthy Habits Mega Bundle on sale which features several food group activities and other activity to promote a healthy lifestyle. The healthy habits posters in this bundle have been used by many teachers and have been used for cafeteria bulletin boards.
TheQR Code Story Collection is a recent addition and has become very popular. Teachers love to use these for centers. There are many similar items in the TPT store. I think this one is unique because: *each collection features a theme – this makes it easy for you to rotate the books to match your curriculum or the season *unique picture on each card – I’ve seen many sets that have no pictures or the same picture on everything. I try to put a picture on each card that goes with the story and is unique from the others. This makes it easy for pre-readers to find the right story. It also makes the card visually appealing. *Playing time is listed – This is important in my classroom. I give my students a set amount of time. This helps them to choose a story that is not too long. *SafeShare – The QR codes link to the video through safeshare. This means that the students do not see comments or ads that show up on YouTube. Most of the other TPT sets also do this, but please make sure before you buy a set.
The Literacy Poster collection includes poems that can be posted on the wall and a matching student version for a poety notebook. The poems used are traditional poems for the season in a range of levels for kindergarten – 2nd grade. They are great for building fluency. Color and black/white versions are included for the student notebooks.
Here is the info. about the giveaway. There are a lot of stores and mine is near the bottom so make sure you keep going to get your points for following the Teacher Treasure Hunter store at TPT. To go to the next blog in this hop, you can scroll down the blog buttons at the bottom of this post. Find the Teacher Treasure Hunter logo near the bottom and click on the next logo. You can do this at each blog so you keep “hopping” and don’t miss anything. 🙂 Also, it would be wonderful if you could leave comments on a few blogs – we love to hear from you!!
Because we value our followers and wanted to treat you to our favorite things Oprah style, we have put together the best giveaway of the season! My bloggy friends and I welcome you to the best, biggest, most cheerful event of the season:
7 winners for 7 prize packs!
Come and enter the giveaway and check out my bloggy friends’ favorite things:
Today is National Dice Day! Dice are a part of many fun family games — including Monopoly, Boggle & Yahtzee. They are also a fun part of many educational math games.
Dice found at Cantonment Clinch (1823-1834) in Pensacola, Florida
Dice have been around for a very long time! In Iran, archaeologists discovered the oldest known dice. They are over 5,000 years old! I couldn’t find a picture that I could post, but you can see a picture of the oldest dice here. The picture on the left shows dice that were likely used during the American Civil War. Historically, dice have been made from bone, wood, ivory & plastic. There are many more materials available today. A little trivia – –did you know that the dots on dice are called pips? This is also the word for the dots on dominoes.
We have been taught that die is the singular form of dice. However, according to the Oxford dictionary, dice is now used for both singular and plural. I wish I would have know that at the beginning of my research for this post! While looking for graphics to use, I typed “dice” into the search field of a graphics site and when there weren’t any results (should I say – “no dice” LOL!) I quickly typed in die. Then, I started laughing thinking about the absurdity of finding a graphic for die on this cute graphics site that caters to scrapbookers– not to mention what will the site owner think when they look at the history of search terms. I’m pretty sure that I will be the only one who used that search term!
There are many great classroom resources that use dice. I’ve provided a little list here of some freebies. Read to the end of the post for a few ways to organize your dice collection!
Here are some great ideas to keep your dice organized: *Put dice in magnetic containers that are put on a hanging cookie sheet (cutesified!) *Plastic craft boxes with multiple compartments *Plastic bin storage made for organization nails and other hardware (repurposed!)
Keep the dice QUIET with these ideas: *Dice in a water bottle *Glue felt or foam to the bottom of a container
Happy dice day! Now, go “shake” things up in your math lesson today!
It’s the BIG Cyber Sale at TPT! Many sellers have discounted their stores AND TPT will add an additional discount when you use the TPTCYBER code. When you shop in the Teacher Treasure Hunter store AND enter the TPTCYBER code you will save 28% on everything in my store – even the big bundles that are already discounted!
This is an excellent time to get the products that you need for the next few months or even to prepare for the rest of the school year! Some upcoming holidays and events are: *winter themes *winter holidays *Black History Month *Valentine’s Day *100th Day *President’s Day *Easter & Spring
Think about the units that you will be teaching during these months. Some of the additional themes that I will be covering are Holidays Around the World, Arctic Animal studies, Health & Nutrition and Fairy Tales. I’m going to show you some suggestions for you based upon upcoming events and the items that are the best-sellers in my TPT store. There are also links to several FREEBIES!
Arctic Animal Research Papers
The Arctic Animal Research Pages are the most popular item in my store! If your students write Arctic research papers this is an excellent resource. They are also available for other habitats – ponds, ocean, etc. Each page features a different Arctic animal. It includes information about the animal that is written for beginning readers. There are also research recording forms so they know what to look for in the informational text. It features real pictures of the animals! This pack includes information on 24 animals. The Mega Bundle includes 4 habitats (99 animals!).
Patriotic Bundle – This bundle has activities that could be used with any patriotic holiday.
Fairy Tales Fairy Tale Fun – Kids create a fairy tale mad-lib style by spinning or rolling words! The picture above is of the spinner from this activity. BTW, the picture above shows a great way to make a spinner that will actually work! Just use a large paperclip and put a pony bead on top of it. Use a long brad (a little longer than the standard size) to go through both of these. This makes the spinner move smoothly and your paperclip doesn’t come off and get lost!
Wow! There is so much going on right now. Can you tell it’s back-to-school season? My head is spinning with all the things that I need to do!
There are only a few days left until the huge TPT Back-to-School sale. It’s time to go through your wish list and figure out what to add to your cart. Think about what you need for the next few months. My entire store, Teacher Treasure Hunter, will be marked down 20%. Add the TPT promo code of BTS14 and you will save 28% on everything from my store. Don’t forget the code! This is an amazing deal. The bundles are already a good savings and you will still get the discount on those.
To help you get ready for back to school I’m linking up with John Hughes @ An Educator’s Life to share FREE back to school resources and the item that is the most wish-listed from my store. Just click on the picture above to see what everyone has shared.
I linked up my new Back to School Birthday Bulletin Board and Certificates. These are colorful little cupcake posters that you can put up in your class to show all the birthdays. There are also certificates that you can include with a little treat from the teacher to make their day more special.
My most wish-listed item is: Arctic Animals Research Papers. It’s not specific to back-to-school, but it’s great to prepare ahead of time. I’m always amazed when I get a sale of this in the middle of summer! 🙂 I have several other products like this. I think this is the most popular since I have had it listed the longest and also more teachers do this study than some of the others (desert animals, etc.). This item has over 100 feedback ratings! Thank you! Here are a few of my favorites:
Kim said: My students LOVED this packet! They loved picking their own animal to research and turned around and wrote great informative writing pieces! Your graphic organizers were so easy for them to use for their writing. Thank you for a great packet of information! Mary said: MAJOR time saver, and wow, what a product. So useful. Deborah said: The information has been well researched and written in a way that is easily understood, but not dumbed down. Love that there are real photos included. Thanks for this wonderful resource. Reading is Love said: These are very well-organized and readable, and feature a lot of animals that my students wanted to study but about which I couldn’t find books. Thank you!
Last, but not least, don’t forget to enter this awesome giveaway for an iPad mini. The entry options are easy to do. Most of them are just a follow at the TPT store or blog — it just takes a click or two. Good luck!
I’m so excited to announce that the Tech Tips for Teachers Free Ebook was featured in the newsletter and is now available! It is a compilation of free products and tech tips from 47 teachers. There are tips and products for all grade levels! I’ve included my free iPad Task Cards for 1st & 2nd grade using the free app Toca Tailor.
Wow! TPT now has 3 million teachers who have joined this amazing site. To celebrate, there will be a BIG sale on Thursday & Friday (Feb. 27th & 28th). You can save 28% off of ALL products at my store – even the bundles! Now is the perfect time to purchase items on your wishlist. How about some non-fiction units to align with common core and spark kids interest? Maybe some math or reading products to prepare for testing?
My wishlist was in desperate need of sale! I tend to use the wishlist the same way that I do the pinterest heart button – like a temporary filing cabinet. I put it in there until I have time to look it over and decide on the best things to buy. Embarrassing secret…my TPT wishlist has 793 items! Yikes! This is out of control! 🙂 Definitely time to decide! How big is your wishlist? Enjoy these discount days!
I’m linking up with Mrs. Beattie to share blog posts about the big sale.
These are so much fun! Our 3rd graders at school always hatch butterflies every year. This year they laid eggs before they were released so there were lots of caterpillars. My son brought home a jar with a few caterpillars and had so much fun setting up a good habitat and releasing them. So, today’s deal features a good price on the butterfly garden which includes a certificate to send for larvae and food. We made a DIY container for them at home – big plastic tub (I think it had cheese puffs or animal cookies in it at one time) covered with a piece of material from a laundry bag (for washing delicates). This is only helpful if you have your own caterpillars or larvae. Otherwise, you’ll be paying about $15 for 3 larvae to be shipped. That’s why these kits are such a great deal!
I FINALLY finished my safety posters and listed them on TPT! This is a set of posters with tips for
*water safety
*fire safety
*road safety
*personal safety
These are some really great things that all kids should know. It makes a great teaching tool as you teach about safety and helps to make sure you teach and review safety tips for a variety of situations. They also make a great wall display or bulletin board. They are 50% off for the first 24 hours. This applies to all of my new products at TPT so make sure you follow my store so you know when new items are posted.
While you’re there check out my popular Healthy Habits Posters. These have been posted in classrooms and lunchrooms and I’ve received really good feedback.
Our “summer” weather here has been non-existent lately. My son told me today that he is forgetting what the sun looks like! We usually have very sunny days here in the summer and very little rain. We were awakened with a rain storm this morning. Come on, summer! I hope the weather is great in your little spot of the world! 🙂
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