Targetaholic Here and Great Giveaways!!

Happy Friday! It doesn't quite have the same meaning as it does during the school year. Anyhow, I have to make a confession. I am a Targetaholic. Target was one of my stops two days ago and I picked up some great things.

The white boards and file folders were in the dollar section. The white boards are for my students to practice cursive during Work on Writing. I picked up two packs of the file folders. There are 3 in each one. I haven't quite thought of how I want to use them just yet. The best deal - the post its for 30 cents. I picked up about 8 of them. I hit another Target today and they were one dollar. Guess where I will be going next time? I also picked up spiral notebooks for 17 cents. At the Target I hit today, I picked up cute monster snack bags in the dollar section. They will be great for my students to hold their Isham Bucks.

I have been dreading going back to my laptop. I started long range reading plans two days ago and got five weeks done. They were so detailed with assessments and read alouds. Somehow I lost the document. I think I deleted the wrong thing off my flash drive and now I can't get it back. It made me want to cry so back to the drawing board I go.

I'm super excited about my theme for this year. Last year I got a lot of Dots on Turquoise goodies from Creative Teaching Press. I was already going to order stuff and then I won a contest where I got about $50 in free stuff. My husband made some goodies for me and painted them in the same theme. I used a sweets theme since it went with the dots on turquoise. This year I am going to use a sweets theme as well. My room is going to be based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of my favorite books. It will be Mrs. Isham's Learning Factory. I found wonderful clip art and I can't wait to get started. I bought yellow raffle tickets from Oriental Trading to use in addition to my Isham Bucks. 

As we near the end of July I realize that my time is running out. I have so much to do and do not know where to start. My cute little munchkin decided to take a short nap so I can not get everything done like I wanted to. My wonderful husband is in the garage finishing up the table for her room. Then he is going to make a small white board easel for my guided reading table. He is also going to make a Writing workstation. Gotta love him! :)

I found two awesome giveaways that I wanted to share before I go. Joy in the Journey is celebrating a Blogiversary. Anyone that comments today gets a packet of goodies. You could also win a great sharpener. Be sure to head that way!!  Hunter's Tales from Teaching is also having a giveaway. You can win the quietest classroom sharpener,  an Applebees gift card, a fun package of classroom supplies, and two things from her TPT store. Good luck!

Have a great day!

4th of July and Awesome Giveaway!

I hope everyone had a great fourth of July. My two year old daughter is terrified of  fireworks so we stayed inside and watched Disney Jr. while everyone else was outside. The same thing happened last year. My stepdaughter was in town from Florida and she was here for awhile. It was nice for a bit until she left and didn't bother to say goodbye to me. They are heading back today.

Head on over to Tori's Teaching Tips for a great giveaway! I think the Erin Condren teacher planner is awesome but way above what I am able to afford. Maybe I can make something similar. I already have plans in the works for my Charlie and the Chocolate Factory theme in my classroom this year. Anyone else already planning for the upcoming school year? It is always in the back of my mind. Right now though I am enjoying reading. I found a new author that I adore - Emily Giffin. I am in the middle of Love the One Your With. 

My cousin is in town from New Jersey for two weeks and the girls have been bickering and hitting each other. I don't know if it because they are couped up in the house or because my 8 year old is younger than the other two and is driving them crazy. I think I will take them to the library later today as well as my favorite place - Target!

Happy Friday!

The Book Whisperer, WBT, and Sweets

I am almost done with The Book Whisperer and I am so intrigued. I agree with everything that Donalyn Miller says but there is a question that always looms in the back of my mind. How can I get my students to read that much and still meet the requirements of my district? We use the Trophies series which goes against what Mrs. Miller believes in. I totally get not having all students read the same story. I am one that plays the CD and has students following along in their books. I know that for some it is too easy, and for some it is too difficult. I would love to have my students reading more. The question is always "how?" I vow to figure out a way to make this work!

I am currently starting chapter 15 in the book Whole Brain Teaching for Challenging Kids. This is going to be a great addition to my classroom. If you are interested in implementing this, I recommend reading the book and participating in the book club. I have already earned 200 WBT certification points. Each chapter has a question or prompt that you answer. You can earn up to 25 points. Sometimes there is a five point bonus. Save and date all of your posts in a word processing file. In August, you turn your posts in to redeem your points.

This leads in to my last thing - sweets! I am going to have a sweets theme in my classroom this year. I have already been on Pinterest to get ideas but I really want to create my own stuff. One of my goals this summer was to create things on TPT. I have created a few freebies. I want to do more though. I am currently working on making the five classroom rules for WBT in a sweets theme. Next I want to do classroom jobs and who knows what else. Hopefully you will be seeing me soon on TPT!

Have a great Tuesday!