Fall Printables

The last two days have been crazy!  We had picture day yesterday.  Have I mentioned that I hate pictures?  I don't know why, but I just don't like them.  Probably because you can see that extra donut I grabbed or the fact I have chipmunk cheeks.  They have just never been my idea of fun.  They were also in the room across from me this year which stressed me a little.  I kept thinking that it was going to be loud or that my students' work would be on the floor.  I also kept thinking that my kiddos would definitely get into some sort of trouble.  The good thing is I have learned in life that 99% of things you think will happen, never do.  Well, in this case it was true.  The person helping with photos was a champ!  I swear I had no idea that anyone was across from me.  To top it off, my kiddos stayed focused and on task.   Outside of HAVING to get my picture made, it was a pretty great day.

Then, today was just an awesome day!  One of my kiddos got to the end of our math fluency wall.  She literally is fluent in all of her addition math facts.  Since that's a pretty big deal, we went to visit the principal and she got TWO surprises.  She also got an ice cream and a note home telling her mom.  I don't think I've ever seen a kid with a bigger grin.

We also got to work on one or two fun little projects which I will definitely be blogging about tomorrow.

Now, I have a little good news.  I finally finished my Fall Printables packet.  Below are pictures of a lot of the pages.  You can click on any of them to go check it out on TPT.  Four of the pages are free in the preview, so be sure to go check the preview.  If you are wanting it, definitely get it by Saturday morning.  I have it on sale.  It's really on sale until tomorrow night, but since I'm telling you guys a little late, I'm going to leave it until Saturday morning.

Oh, and just so you know the common core standard is at the bottom of each page.  Typically, I use some of my printables as review or morning work and some as assessments.  I created two sheets for almost every standard, so you could use one as a review and one as an assessment or you can use both as an assessment.  Really... it's completely up to you.  I try to make it where it can be adjusted to be whatever you need.  I know that I'm posting tons of pictures, but I know I like to see what I am getting, so I'm guessing you guys are the same way.

Up next, Winter Printables (Crazy, huh?) and Morning Work: 3rd 9 Weeks.  In case I haven't told you guys lately, thanks for your feedback and support.  I know I haven't done great with answering, but I read everything and your comments are making me smile :)  If you aren't following me on FB, definitely think about doing that.  In around two weeks, I am going to be in a Facebook 1st Grade Hop that will have TONS of freebies (If you follow our pages).

See you guys tomorrow and don't stay up too late!  It is a school night y'all!

A Day in the Life Link Up

One of my best blogging friends is Jessica at Second First Grade Nest.  Every month (or two), she does a fun, little link up called A Day in the Life.  So, tonight I am linking up with her.  Fortunately, I was smart enough to message her on Friday and say, "Hey!  Are you planning your link up because today would be a great picture day for me."  Well, after twisting her arm a little, she decided this would be a good time, so below is a picture of my Friday.

8:00 - 10:30 Candy Crush
I know, sad, but true.  My hubby asked several times if I was going to start getting ready, but I'm slightly addicted... again.  I had quit playing, but then my Mom sent me a request, so I had to respond, right?  I mean she texted me and everything, so once again I am living in Candy Crush world.  Now, I'm on level 377 and determined I'm going to beat the whole game.

12:30 - 2:45 Outlets
Oh, I love shopping!  My hubby and I planned this day trip over a month ago.  There's nothing better than spending just a little and getting a lot.  I think I have my fall clothes covered now.  Here's a picture of a few of my new shirts.  Sorry it isn't the greatest picture, but I loaded up at Talbots.  That's my favorite store in the world.

2:45 - 3:45 ???????
It wouldn't be a trip with me if we didn't spend some time lost.  The funniest part was I was using a map APP and I told my hubby that if he turned left, it would take us back to the Interstate.  Well, we turned right and it took us to the Interstate.  We drove right over it!  Something like 30 minutes later, we were finally heading in the right direction.

3:45 - 4:30 School Box and Hallmark

Okay, I LOVE School Box, but I don't get to go very often.  It sounds silly, but I have been really needing some tape and some paw print stickers.  I ended up buying like 5 rolls of tape and 5 packets of stickers.  I can't stand regular tape because things don't stay on walls for more than 2 days.  Mavalus tape always works.  I also grabbed this little Common Core notebook that has all the standards.  It's probably not worth what I paid for it, but I really needed something small that would fit inside my lesson plan book.  Plus, I have an app on my iPad, but it never fails that I need my iPad for something else when I need that APP.


5:00 - 6:30 Cheesecake Factory
This was probably one of my favorite parts of our day.  I haven't been here in years.  We both LOVED our dinners, but honestly, our desserts were even better.  My hubby got red velvet cheesecake and I got some sort of chocolate truffle cake.  Both were good and gone by the next day.

7:00 - 7:45 Barnes and Noble
Oh, how I LOVE this store!  We found a two-story Barnes and Noble and I was in immediate Heaven!  I've been trying to buy more books for my kiddos and I've tried to spend some time figuring out what they enjoy reading.  I ended up getting several books that my kiddos had requested, plus some more books to use for Guided Reading.  My boys really have gotten into these National Geographic books, so I'm trying to get all of them.  Several of the National Geographic books, I got three or four of that specific title so I can use them with some of my higher kids.

8:30 - 9:00 The Academy
It sounds silly, but when it cools down, I like to have one sweatshirt that's cute that I can wear on weekends.  I found one, but it's a little small, so definitely will be running it back home.

Alright, that was my fun day!  I also got to see my family and eat at my favorite restaurant on Saturday, so had a great weekend!  Hope you guys had a great weekend, too.

Winners and Fall Centers

Wow!  So, this blog post is going to be FULL of fun (well, things that I think are fun).  I have had the pictures and ideas ready for a few days, but haven't had the time to get the post done.

First off, I want to tell you the winners of my giveaway.  Now you know why I prefer freebies to giveaways.  I am the world's worst blogger when it comes to being timely with announcements.  Well, the world's worst when it's August, September, October... you get the idea.

Below are the three winners.  Yes, I know, I said two winners, but I figured since I didn't move very quickly, then I'd add another.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I'll be emailing the three of you a little later :)

Now, for the fun stuff.  Last week, I decided to do fall centers and some fall writing.

FALL CENTERS:
Technology - My students used the computers and my iPad for IXL, Education City, and other math games.

Graphing - This was the center I did with my students.  I had baskets of foam fall beads that I got from Oriental Trading.  I created three graphing sheets to go with the beads.  My students sorted their bag of beads and then filled out their graphing sheet.  All of my students started with the leaves.  Depending on how they did I moved them to either the harder graphing sheet where they graphed four items and more items or to the easier graphing sheet which was very similar to the first sheet.

Friends, the foam beads were incredible and my kids LOVED this activity!  It went so well that I'm planning on visiting Oriental Trading today to see if they have more types of these foam beads.  I've never used them before, but they were great.  It was also easy to find clip art that matched up to them which is huge for me.

Anyway, to get these beads, you can click on one of the two graphing pictures.  I'm also including my graphing sheets for free, so if you do get them, then you have an automatic center.  Just click on one of the sheets to go get them.

Addition and Subtraction Cups - I found this center last year on Pinterest.  I did look for the original link, but couldn't seem to get anywhere.  What you do is get some sort of Halloween cups.  I got pumpkin cups, but it could really be any sort of cup.  Write a number around the lip of the cup.  You should have one cup for each number.  I did cups for 2 - 12.

Once you finish making your cups, take Popsicle sticks and write problems on them.  We did subtraction ones this time, but you can also make addition ones.  Students will then take the Popsicle sticks and match them to the correct cup.  For example, 6 - 2 =  would go into the cup labeled with a 4.

This is a quick, simple center that your kids will love.  You can also make true and false cups and have students sort sticks based off of if they are true or false.  I've also had my higher students make their own sorting sticks.

Fall Fact Family Fun - I really am not sure where I got this idea.  I opened up my craft container at school a few weeks ago and saw a box of pipe cleaners.  I started thinking that it would be neat if I could use them with the foam beads that I had gotten from Oriental Trading.  I decided to give it a shot and it worked great.  I cut some of the pipe cleaners to make them smaller.  Once I did that, I slid beads onto them.  What I liked most about this is it was easy to show students how they could flip the numbers.

I created a recording sheet for this and ran it off front and back.  If my students did the front correctly, they got to create their own fact families using their pumpkin erasers.  If they struggled, they kept working with the pipe cleaner fact families.

Oh, and just in case you need it, here's the fact family recording sheet.  Just click on the image below to grab it.   I'm telling you these foam beads can be used for everything!

Now, that's all of my fall math centers from last week, but I also have two writing activities.  Both of these also came from Oriental Trading.  I always like doing scarecrow writing, but I hate spending lots of time on cutting and gluing them.  I know that's funny since I do lots of projects, but scarecrows have so many pieces, so I knew I wanted something that we could finish in fifteen minutes.  My kiddos did great with this!  We wrote the rough drafts, revised, wrote final drafts, and then put together the scarecrows.  I was a little nervous that I would have to do it since they came with little red pieces to hold the scarecrow together, but my kiddos did fine.  The other nice part was one of my kiddos lost one of his red pieces and Oriental Trading always includes a few extras.  Here's what the final product looked like.  I've included the handwriting paper I used for free.  Just click on it to go get it.  To get the scarecrows, click on the picture.

I also grabbed these pumpkin sticker sheets.  My students worked on these at the end of the week, so I took a picture before they started their sheets.  We finished their pumpkins at the end of the week and they turned out great.  One thing I did is told my kiddos that they couldn't do their sticker sheets until their final drafts were done.  I did let them have one to look at, but they didn't attach them to the paper.  If that doesn't work for you, another thing I've done is I've given them a note card to put their pumpkin together and then I've glued the note card to their final draft.  Either way works.  You can click on the picture below to go to buy the pumpkin sheets.  You can click on the handwriting paper to download it for free.

I know this time I did pumpkin sheets and scarecrows, but I have to say I love all of the different sticker sheet options.  I've been using these sheets for the last several years for writing and they also turn out to be some of my favorite pieces for the year.  I know you guys know I LOVE my craftivities, but I like to use these to break up some of those.  I believe writing should be fun and if you are crunched for time, these sheets are a quick way to make it fun without spending a ton of money or time.

Alright, I hope you guys have an incredible Sunday.  I am off to finish my Fall Printables Packet and another little freebie for you.

Oh, and don't forget.  There is a HUGE surprise sale (I know it was a surprise for me) going on TPT right now.  TPT hit 100,000 Facebook followers yesterday, so they are offering 10% off.  Obviously, a sale is fun, so a bunch of my friends and I jumped in to offer sales, too.  My store is 20% off today (That some how equals 28% total) and tomorrow, so if you've been waiting to get something now is the time to get it.

Disclosure: Oriental Trading provided products for this review.  All opinions are my own.