Cruisin' and Salein'

Senior-itis may have just turned into teacher-itis after stepping back into reality--the classroom. So...I've been MIA for a couple weeks--hubby and I decided to take our first "alone time" vacation. We went on our very first cruise to the Bahamas and visited Freeport and Nassau. Let me just tell you how beautiful the beaches are in Nassau!! The sand was the softest, whitest sand I have ever seen and the water was the bluest, clearest. We stayed at Sandals for the day and relaxed in the peace and quiet pool/beach area all day. The weather was absolutely amazing as well! It was absolutely the paradise that we needed. Ever since we got back I have been stuck on summer and am totally ready to go back to the beach. Check out my pics below. :-)

In the meantime, while I'm anxiously awaiting the last day of school (I think I'm more excited than the kids :-D)! While I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, I'll be having a sweet little sale at my TPT store that will run through Thursday night. Take the opportunity this week to stock up on beginning of the year themed classroom materials and other posters you may need to decorate your classroom in the fall. I have several items that coordinate well with any classroom theme.

Have a wonderful week and enjoy your last few days/weeks of school.

Spring Break and Cocoppa App

This week I'm on Spring Break and I have been taking it easy...trying not to do too much.  I reorganized/cleaned my house, enjoyed some family time on Easter Sunday, and have been messing around with a new iPhone app.  I was browsing through pinterest and came across a pin for an iPhone app called Cocoppa.  When I clicked on the pin, it sent me to a blog for Cindy Emerson's Photography and she had the entire tutorial {with pictures included} for using the Cocoppa app.

 

 Click HERE to view the blog and the tutorial.  

You're probably wondering, "What in the world is Cocoppa?"  Well, it's this *ah-mazing* app that will allow you to turn your iPhone app tiles into different colors.  I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the pink and this Tiffany blue chevron.  My husband said that I "girly'd up" my phone!  HAHA!  I totally did and it is soooo cute now!  Just look:

This app will also let you choose different backgrounds for your iphone as well as many different colors of app tiles.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes.  

I was going to try to get some products done so I can get them posted by the end of the week...but, I keep getting distracted by the internet.  I keep finding more cool things that I want to use...like something called "Comment Love".  {Not sure how it works or even if I'll like it.}  Has anyone used it or even heard of it?  I guess the next thing I need to figure out is how to get the Pinterest logo onto each of my photos on my blog. If you have any thoughts or ideas, it'll be appreciated. See what I mean...totally distracted.  I guess I have 5 days left to get some stuff done...eeeeeeeee. :-) Have a great week!  Check back this weekend to see if I actually got some work done. 

Cookie Graphing and Spring is in the Air

Who would've thought that the anticipation of Spring Break was just as wonderful as getting out for Christmas Break?  Just the thought of having a week off to *try* to do absolutely nothing makes me grin.  Here's what I plan on doing...staying in my pj's (for at least 3 of the days, haha), getting a few more units done (hopefully at least through May), and of course, catching up on some family time.  We just had the best weekend ever, just lounging around watching Disney movies!  I just <3 my little family!  If there are any units that you would like to see, just give me an idea of what you need and I'll add that to my list.  I love to do custom orders, so whatever you might need...just let me know.

We're just now finishing up our graphing unit in math and my kids just adored my cookie themed graphing activities, "Who Stole the Cookie?".  This unit contains full size posters to display while teaching, as well as 10 graphing activities for pictographs, bar graphs, and tally graphs.  Click HERE to preview each of the activities.

My class really enjoyed the "Soggy Cookies" graphing game where they pretended they were pulling cookies out of a glass of milk before it got soggy. 

 

I printed and laminated the cookies (from the graphing unit) and put a paperclip on each one.  I had them use a popsicle stick, fishing line, and a magnet to pull the cookies out of a container (to simulate a glass of milk).  Once they retrieved all of the cookies, they sorted them on the "Soggy Cookies" sorting mat, and then filled in a graph to display their data.  They talked about their graphs with their groups and answered various questions about their graph.

We have just 3 1/2 days left of school this week and then a 1/2 day professional development meeting on Friday before breaking for a week.  In anticipation of Spring break, I created this SPRING themed literacy center packet for your kids to enjoy!  I am IN LOVE with the glitter graphics and letters that I found from...Glitter Meets Glue Designs!!  Absolutely IN LOVE!!  I would probably put glitter and lamination on absolutely everything if I could!  lol.

 

 

 

Well I hope you like all of my new creations!!  Let me know what your plans are for spring break and I'll give the first 10 people your choice of the Cookie Graphing or Spring Literacy Centers for FREE!! 

**My health update: I recently started new meds to help ward off any seizures and my memory is about 99% back.  I'm happy with the results and am very lucky to have such a controllable diagnosis.  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click HERE to view my past blog post.

Have a wonderful week everyone and thanks for being such amazing followers!!  I'm up to 450 followers on my TPT which means we will have a massive giveaway very soon!!  WOW!!  It seems like it was yesterday that I was getting excited to reach 100!!  My little blog has certainly BLOOMED...and I owe it all to YOU!!! 

Absence and LOTS of NEW FREEBIES

I'm sure many of you have been wondering, "Where has Michelle been??" Well, almost a ago month I was on my way back from a mini vacation with my hubby. It was a very sunny morning, hubby was driving...thank goodness, and all of a sudden I started to shake and lost consciousness. I had no clue what was going on and didn't realize what had happened until I woke up in a hospital that was 2 hours from my house. The ER doctors classified it as a "non-epileptic" seizure...meaning it was just a freak occurrence. I immediately scheduled appointments with my regular doctor and with the best neurologist in town because I was terrified about my future. After speaking with the neurologist, he was intrigued with my story and promptly scheduled me for an EEG. I just got the results back this week and I have been diagnosed with JME (Juvenile Myoclonic Epilepsy) which is a rare form of epilepsy. I have apparently had this all my life and it wasn't until the lack of sleep, overworking, and being overly stressed, along with the bright flashes of sunlight that morning that caused the perfect storm for my condition to shine through. That day has changed my life forever and it has taken me weeks to feel normal again. I would still say that my memory is still not 100% yet. I've been trying to take it easy and do less work...basically listen to my body and stop when I feel just a little bit tired. It's scary to think that another seizure can arrive at any time.   My future consists of no driving for 6 months...booooo...but the good thing about that is my hubby does all the grocery shopping for me!  Thank goodness for my very good friend Amanda who has been driving me all around to make sure my kids get to daycare and I get to school.  I don't know what I'd do without her!  She really is a lifesaver!

Sooooo, over the past month, I've been slowly adding to just a few of my products in order to maintain my body levels. So here are the new St. Patrick's Day activities that I have for you (Click on the links to preview).  This new unit, "Lucky Leprechauns" features 10 literacy center activities:

Lucky Leprechaun {Literacy Center Activities}

  This unit features Counting Phonemes, a NEW activity to replace syllable sorting.  Students will count the sounds they hear in each word and sort them onto the mats.  They can use the pots of gold at the bottom of each card to help them count the sounds.  This activity was created to help students master the Phonemic Segmentation Fluency assessment from AIMSweb.  Students should read diagraph and vowel teams together to produce one sound: ea =1 sound, sh =1 sound, etc. Blends are broken up into 2 separate sounds: br =2 sounds, st =2 sounds, etc.  You can download Counting Phonemes from "Lucky Leprechauns" for FREE by clicking HERE:

 The other NEW literacy center activity is just a modification to my previous Nonsense Word activities.  If you have downloaded the Nonsense Word activities in the past, they contained larger words and students would sort them by real words and nonsense words.  This NEW version of Nonsense Words contains basic, three letter nonsense words for students to use as flash cards to increase their nonsense word fluency.  This will help students master the nonsense word fluency assessment in AIMSweb.  Students will record the nonsense words from the cards onto the recording sheet.  I have also added a bonus recording sheet for students to use individually, with a parther, at home, etc. in order to challenge themselves by reading the words quickly.  Use this bonus sheet however you like.  You can download Nonsense Words from "Lucky Leprechauns" for FREE by clicking HERE:

One more FREEBIE:  We've been working on True/False math equations, so I created this Pot of Gold coloring activity to help students practice this skill.  It comes in 3 different forms: addition=addition, subtraction=subtraction, and addition=subtraction.  Students will solve the fact on both sides of the equal sign to determine if they're the same.  Click HERE to download all 3 "Pot of Gold" for FREE!

 

 

 Thank you all so much for being such wonderful followers.  For everyone that participated in the Ginormous Giveaway, Sarah Mackey willl be selecting the winner this weekend so if you entered the giveaway...good luck and I hope you win!!  It's seriously going to be a GINORMOUS prize.  Enjoy your Saturday and try to relax a little.  I've learned a lot about taking it easy and listening to your body.  I hope that you do too.  :-)

A Ginormous Giveaway

It's been a year since our first giveaway together, so Sarah and I have decided to team up again with this Ginormous Giveaway!  We were hoping to set a world record by getting the most teacher/bloggers to link up to make this the BIGGEST linky party/giveaway!!  haha 

(not sure they recognize that category...lol)

Phase 1 - Link Up! (Our Sweet Success)

If you would like to join this giveaway by offering one of your products, then join us in the biggest linky party EVER!!!  The deadline to enter will be Saturday, March 2.  We have several of your FAVORITES that will be joining us!!        

Phase 2 - Enter to WIN!  (Mackey's Classroom)

Starting on Sunday, March 3...Sarah will begin the raffle for the winner!  ONE lucky winner will win:

ALL of the products offered by the most amazing teacher/bloggers on TPT.  

Phase 3 - Prizes Sent!

All teacher/bloggers who linked up will email their product to winner!!

(We are anticipating over $100 worth of products)

 

I will be offering any item from my TPT store for FREE!!  Click HERE to start browsing! :-)

Help us make this linky/giveaway a success by linking up with the product that you would like to giveaway!  Be sure to post about it on your blog to let everyone know about this GINORMOUS GIVEAWAY!!  You may begin entering to win starting March 3, 2013 at Mackey's Classroom by clicking HERE!

Thank you so much to all of our wonderful teacher/bloggers that have agreed to contribute to our giveaway!  Good luck to all who enter!!  The prize is going to be AMAZING...just like a brand new wardrobe!!  :-)