12 Winners!

I will be emailing the winners tonight! Congrats!!!!

***Your Way Giveaway*** , Mother's Day Love, and Summer Busy Teacher

I am currently spending this Mother's Day with my cuties!  I am SO blessed to be the mom to a bright, loving, friendly little man AND a spunky, beautiful, hilarious princess!!! Does it get any better than that??

It goes without saying that I am unbelievably grateful for this lady below.  My mom is an amazing woman, and I have learned so much from her!

In all my free time (get it- that's funny :) ) I am working on a Summer Edition of the Busy Teacher's Best Friend!!!  I get out of school in just a couple of weeks, but I know some of you are in for the long haul still. 

 I didn't forget you!

Keep your eyes peeled for this one!!

And because I am SO lucky to have the BEST readers/followers out there, I want to do a fun giveaway!  I have hit some big number milestones on FB, TPT, and this here blog recently.  Unfortunately I can't share a virtual  cake with you all, SOOO we will just have to celebrate this way!!

All of the lovely ladies above have agreed to give one winner an item from their store.  In other words- there will be 12 winners who get one item of their choice from one store!  Clear as mud???

All you have to do is make sure you are following all of the blogs below- which let's be honset- you probably already are!  

1. Teacher Idea Factory

2. The Moffatt Girls

3. Second Grade Shenanigans

4. Fabulous in First

5. The Inspired Apple

6. The First Grade Parade

7. What the Teacher Wants

8. Kindergarten Smiles

9. Step into Second Grade

10. Thank God it's First Grade

11. Erica Bohrer's First Grade

12. Queen of the First Grade Jungle

Enter in the Rafflecopter below and I will announce winners Tuesday night!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***Lots to Share***

This week was JAM-PACKED with DRA assessments, MAP tests, Mother's Day, and other end of the year craziness! Did you survive?   I am here to celebrate (barely) with Kasey's Five for Friday!

1.  I adore each and every purchase I made during the sale this week.  Please, please, please don't tell my hubby what all I bought.  It's quite a lot.  Oh and you thought you were finished shopping?!?!? Wait until you see all the goodies you can add to your wishlist!

1. Double Digit Addition

2. It's All About the Money

3. Rockin' Math Review

4. You're in the Hot Seat

5. Writing through the Seasons

6. Pairs of Pears

7. Parts of Speech Bundle

8. End of the Year Writing

9. Dollar Store Superlatives

10. End of the Year Memory Book

11. Summer Countdown Survival  Kit

12. Busy Bodies

13.  Ready to Read
14.  Kids Mega Bundle

15.  Surf into Summer

2.  My kiddos have worked their tails off on counting coins this week!  We used my Money Mega Pack and had a blast!!  We also took both the reading and math portions of MAP, and I could not be prouder of my kids! They worked so unbelievably hard all year long and their growth matches their effort!

 3.  I chopped 8 inches off my hair!  The last two years at my school we have had several teachers diagnosed with breast cancer-including one of my beloved teacher partners. Every single one of these women has taught me a lesson on strength and grace in how they have handled their fights.  I donated my hair to Pantene's Beautiful Lengths so that someone fighting cancer can receive a wig free of cost!

4.  My students made some beautiful fingerprint bouquets for their mommies.  They also wrote the sweetest letters to their moms on the back too!

 My own little family remembered me with flowers too!

5.  And last but not least I am finally ready to announce on this little blog of mine that the Kings are packing up and moving to the beautiful state of South Carolina!!!! If you are a frequent reader of mine, you often see pictures of my kids and I visiting Charleston.  Well- we are headed home!  I am experiencing all kinds of mixed emotions....

and it is mainly because I will miss my team like crazy.  I am blessed to work with the most amazing-supportive-enthusiastic-loving women EVER.  They have been my rock for many years and I may just pack them all up to go with us. 

Are you still with me:) 

This weekend is going to be full of catching up around my house! I hope you have a blessed weekend!

***Teacher Appreciation Sale***

Like many of you- I am SWAMPED at this time of year!  TPT products make my life as a teacher a little bit easier!  That is why I have looked forward to the Teacher Appreciation Sale for a while now.

If you are impatient (like me) you can get a 20% discount on EVERYTHING in my store starting today!

TpT's sale officially starts on Tuesday.

 If you are just dying to add something to your cart, check out my Surf's Up Literacy Centers

Have a wonderful week friends!

May Busy Teacher Posted

The May Busy Teacher is posted and on sale for today and Tuesday!!!

Poetry Part 2, Derby Winners, and Run for the Roses Updates

I hope you got to read my last post where I showed off my students' poems, but if you didn't CLICK HERE. 

I need to mention two TPT products that helped me immensely with my students and their poems. I found Amanda's Coffeehouse unit 2 years ago and fell in love!  I begged Susan to put together this Poetry packet because I adore how Susan teaches writing. Please click on the pictures to check them out!

NOW- prepare yourself for my picture explosion!

  

We have always been pushed by our writing coaches to make our students' work is authentic. My students write letters, notes, stories, and poems for a purpose.   I usually like to end our units in some big way so the kids get excited and give me a little more effort.  Meet the coffeehouse:

Treats for my sweets!

Here is my spin on a "Poet Tree"  (thanks for the materials Kate).

In the hallway working out our last minute jitters and details!

Performing our Readers Theaters to add some theatrics to the night!

And last but not least- our poems.  I may or may not have teared up during a few of them. 

I hope you consider creating ways to celebrate your authors whether it be through a coffeehouse or a publishing party!  Make it BIG and MEMORABLE!  

A little housekeeping:

I updated my Run for the Roses pack and can't wait to use it with my students this week (this year's horses are included!). 

The winners from my Derby Giveaway are:

Tania and Katie Mg!  I will email you all tonight with your units!  

And last but not least- IT will be posted tonight:

If you want a chance to win it, make sure you are following me on FB!!!

Poetry Part 1

My love teaching writing to end of the year first graders!  The light bulb has gone on- we spend most of our effort on content, as opposed to spaces and letter-sound correspondence. 

I am a writing workshop teacher---whole-heartedly. I don't know that I could teach writing any other way.  We use Lucy Caulkins as our foundation as well.  When it comes to poetry, I teach my students tools that they can use, but I do not teach form poems.  I did make an exception for for Reagan's Rainbows so we could focus on adjectives and brighten up our hallways at the same time!

The skills that we focus on in poetry include

1. Five Senses

2. Alliteration

3. Onomatopoeia

4. Similes and Metaphors

5. Personification

6.  Repetition 

We use tons of mentor poems.  My students also help me write poems about a suggested topic.  We play music, turn the lights down low and WRITE.  I love conferencing with my students and making suggestions on which tools they should use.

Here are a few of  my favorites from my class:

I was blown away with what they were able to come up with overall.  Tomorrow night I will be back with TONS of pictures and a write-up on our Class Poetry Night. 

This year I was doing some of my blog-stalking, and I came across a fantastic idea to write poetry and nonfiction about the same topic.  We had just hung our published All-About books in the hallway so this was the perfect topic for us.

I got this idea from The Wonder Teacher  (if you haven't happened upon her blog, you are truly missing out friends, because she is the kind of blogger that makes me want to be a better teacher!).  She also suggested having the students water color along with their poems.  Brilliant!

We did our watercolors first and used these gorgeous paintings to draw inspiration for our poems.

Not every child in my class started the year enjoying art, but I know my love has rubbed off on some of them.  They pride themselves on being creative and artistic.  I love being about to teach the WHOLE child :) 

My hallway is BURSTING with our art, writing, and creativity in general.

I can't wait to share pictures of our super cool coffeehouse tomorrow!