If you're like me, you're soaking up all things summer right now and taking a much deserved break from school life {and if you're still in school - hang in there!!}. It is so super hot here in south Alabama, so we're having to be creative with our summer fun since it's near impossible to stand the heat for very long. {You can check out what I'm up to on Instagram - the one form of social media I'm pretty good at posting on!} One thing I've been doing {with some inspiration from my sister} is trying to take more pictures of my sweet girl that aren't posed. I'm great at getting posed shots, but sometimes I forget to take pictures of her just enjoying her days!
Here's a shot I got a week or so ago at an outside concert we went to {late in the day, so it was not so miserably hot!!

I love how the background is blurred and the focus is all on her sweet face.
Here's another picture I took the same night of my niece...it's edited to be black and white, but for an amateur, I think it is such a sweet picture.

Both of these pictures were taken with my nice DSLR camera and I can honestly say, it is one of my most favorite things! I can't imagine not having it now! I use it constantly at school and home.
Here's the GREAT news - I'm teaming up with some of my most favorite blogging friends to give away an AWESOME photography pack!

This giveaway has an amazing camera {a Canon DSLR T5} that comes with the kit lens {I use mine for everyday use or when we're on trips where I want to see the background}.

In addition, you also get this amazing 50mm lens that allows you to get those beautiful bokeh shots like above.

And that's not it!! You also get this beautiful JoTotes bag {I'm super jealous of this!}

All you have to do for a chance to win is enter using the rafflecopter below. It will take a minute because a lot of us came together to make this giveaway so great, but we're only asking that you follow us one way :).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Vickie

Whew!! Last week definitely threw me for a loop! We had dress up days for the high school's homecoming, so it was a little crazy from the beginning.
Tuesday, we began learning all about spiders and had so much fun! We used this cute spider to chart our schema, new learning, and misconceptions.

We painted a small and large paper plate black to create a spider then carefully added 8 legs and 8 eyes. We added a new fact we learned to the center of the spider.

We also read The Very Busy Spider and sequenced the animals that came to visit the spider. We made sure to go back and check the book to make sure our sequencing was correct.  I let me kids write the word 'the' on the chart since it's one of our words we're working on. This is from my Fall Sequencing Pack. :)

 Wednesday, we went on a field trip to Landmark Park, which is an old farm, where the kids learn about agriculture and life in the past. We had a blast!

Then, when I got home, I found this pitiful baby burning up with a fever. A trip to urgent care, a flu test {which is horrible for a baby!!}, and a prescription for Tamiful later, we came home late Wednesday night and I had to miss school Thursday.

Why are sleeping babies the sweetest things ever???

Friday, I was able to go back to school, which was hectic since we had early release for homecoming. We managed to make our spider hats and eat a cute spider snack we made with 2 ritz crackers, peanut butter, pretzel sticks, and mini chocolate chips.

We also did lots of fun math with spiders from Deeanna's pack, but it was so crazy, I didn't snap any pictures.
If you're still planning your spider unit {or want to get some stuff for next year}, Deeanna and I would love to give away our spider packs. You can win her Spider Math and my Spider Language Arts Centers by making sure to follow both our blogs and leaving a comment below {make sure to leave your email!}.

We had Fall Break Monday and Tuesday of this week and although it was disappointing that the dang flu cancelled our plans, it was nice to have a break at home!! We're learning about pumpkins this week and I can't wait to share our fun!

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Vickie

Happy Fall Everyone!! Even though we don't get much of a fall down here in the deep south, I still love everything about the season...pumpkins, apples, football, everything! To celebrate, Jamie Mayas, from Mrs. Mayas' Kindergarten,  and I have teamed up for an awesome giveaway that will give one lucky winner some great packs that will help your kiddos have fun throughout the fall! The winner will receive these packs (you can click on the pictures for more details):

All you have to do to win is follow our blogs and our TpT stores, then enter using the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!! The contest ends Sunday night!
You can follow my blog my clicking on the "Follow" button on the sidebar and you can follow Jamie's blog here. You can follow my TpT store here and Jamie's here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Vickie

Oh my goodness....I am in love!! I have been wanting my own laminator for quite a while, but with a new baby coming soon, it's gotten put on the back burner. So, imagine how excited I was when My Binding sent me their awesome Papermonster laminator to review! Since it came in the mail yesterday, I have been using it like crazy! The laminator is super easy to use...plug it in, slide a switch and wait for the light to turn blue. I waited less than 10 minutes for it to warm up!

Very compact and does not take up a lot of space...the cord even wraps up into the bottom!

Put whatever you're laminating into a sleeve or "pouch"

Slide your pouch through the laminator (I forgot to use my protective sleeve, but I won't next time...it didn't mess anything up though!). On a side note, I hope to have this 3 Little Pigs pack up soon!

My stack of laminating!

The machine is wonderful and the laminating is thick and not "flimsy" like some of the laminating you can get sometimes. I am super happy! The good news is, you have a chance to win your own laminator too! My Binding (click to check them out) is offering a giveaway and all you have to do to enter is use the Rafflecopter below. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
In other news, some super sweet teacher bloggers and I have teamed up to play in a Fantasy Football League! We are super excited and can't wait for the games today to get a glimpse at how our teams are going to fare. Here's my team (in case you're wondering!):

QB: Russell Wilson (hoping the rookie gets lucky!!)
RB: Frank Gore and DeAngelo Williams
WR: Calvin Johnson and Sidney Rice
TE: Rob Gronkowski
Flex: Demaryius Thomas
K: Nick Folk
D: 49rs

Check out the other ladies who are playing and follow their blogs while you're there!

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Vickie

I know these super neat recorders have been all over the blogging world lately, but I am super excited to get to offer one to my awesome followers!

Learning Resources graciously offered one of their recorders for me to "test" and then giveaway and let me tell you, it is wonderful! My head is already spinning with ways to use it in my classroom when I get those sweet kiddos in just a little over a week.
I think it would be perfect to practice fluency when I can't always be there, record buddy reading partners, and even to record the kids to let their parents hear them read {I think I'm most excited about using it that way!}. I think it would be so neat to play back different children's recordings to let them hear and compare each other's expression in their reading {which is something we struggle with in K}. The other neat thing is that the microphone plugs into the computer...no extra wires to keep up with! How great is that?


It's super simple to use and not huge, so I think it will be perfect for my "babies." Want to win one of your own? Check out more about the Easi Speak here then come back and enter using the Rafflecopter below. You can see more Learning Resources products here.  a Rafflecopter giveaway
On a random note, a teacher at my school who teaches first grade needed some alphabet cards with a frog theme, so I made some for her and they turned out pretty cute. I uploaded them to my TpT store for any of you who may have a "leapin" theme. You can get them by clicking on the picture.

 

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Vickie

I seriously need a school supply intervention...I get more excited about Wal-Mart putting school supplies out than I do about almost anything else!

Exhibit A:

The good news is I got all of this for less than $100 (and yes, there are over 100 notebooks and 150 folders!)

Close up: The confetti was on clearance and I'm going to use it for this

You can never have too many crayons or too much glue, right??

While we're talking about school supplies, I am so excited about getting to test this:

This is Learning Resources HearALL Assessment Recorder and I cannot wait to use it with my kiddos this year. You can read more about it here, but I am already thinking of a million ways I'm going to use this. When my kids leave my guided reading group every day, they have to go buddy read to 2 partners. Since I'm not where I can hear and make sure they are reading correctly (or for that matter reading the whole book), this is going to be a great tool to use. First, they will LOVE recording themselves and second, I can really see if they're applying what we learned in reading group. I also think it would be great for some of my kiddos who don't realize what they sound like when they read. You know the ones...I call them my little robots :). I can use this to record their reading group so they can really get an understanding of how they sound. I'm telling you - this is going to be great! Now for the good news...you can win your very own! I'm so thankful to the super nice people at Learning Resources for giving me this opportunity to review their product and offering a free recorder for my followers. I'm trying Rafflecopter for the first time, so here goes:


a Rafflecopter giveaway You can check out more products from Learning Resources here.

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Vickie

To celebrate Spring Break, I have finished my pack of Spring Fever math and language arts centers! It is PACKED with 7 language arts centers and 8 math centers that meet lots of common core standards. You can see more by clicking the picture.

I will give a FREE copy to 2 lucky people who comment on this post...I will pick the winners tomorrow hopefully by noon. :)

We are off to the beach for a few days (we're super lucky to live only a little over an hour away!), but I do plan on posting some subtraction practice pages this week similar to the addition ones I posted a little while back. Hope everyone has a great week!

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Vickie

Wow!! I was so excited to wake up this morning and find that I have reached 200 followers! I can't tell you how thankful I am that each of you take the time to follow my blog...I truly appreciate it! In honor of my appreciation, I'm giving away a copy of everything in my TpT store to one lucky winner! You can see everything you will get here. You can enter 3 ways: 

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment saying that you do.

2. Follow my TpT store and leave a comment saying that you do.

3. Leave a comment telling me your favorite thing to teach in the spring.

Leave your comments by tomorrow (March 11) at noon (central time) and then I'll pick a winner. 

In other news, I finished my Easter math and language arts centers...you can see them here. 

I have included variations of games that will hopefully meet all of your common core needs. 

I'm off to get a copy of The Hunger Games...apparently it's a must read and I've finally decided to do it :). Happy Saturday!

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Vickie

Since we've had no cable all night {meaning no Revenge....Boo!}, I managed to finish my Presidents' Day pack and upload it to TPT. This pack includes lots of literacy and math centers that cover a variety of skills {all common core} as well as lots of writing ideas. You can click the picture to see more details or to purchase. 

I also posted a freebie Presidents Day Flip That Penny graphing game that you can get here.

It seems like this year is flying by and to me, this time of year is busier than most because there are so many fun things to cover. Right after Presidents Day will be Dr. Seuss week {can't wait}. So, as a thank you to everyone who has purchased my packs on TPT and to everyone who reads this blog, I'm giving away my Dr. Seuss pack and my new Presidents' Day pack! To enter, you just have to do the following: 

1. Follow my blog and leave a comment telling me {don't forget your email}

2. Follow my TPT store here and leave a comment telling me {don't forget your email}

Hurry, I will pick a winner Thursday night at 8:00 {central time} :)

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Vickie