HUGE Leap Day Sale!!!

I don't know about all of you but I am SUPER excited for the sale tomorrow.  I have 112 things on my wish list and I hope to buy quite a few of them!!!  I'd still love suggestions for items to purchase if anyone has any!  :)

Just a reminder that I am doing a little extra- buy 2 of my products (which are already 20% off plus the extra bonus code at checkout) and get 1 free!  You just need to email me at daniellelasota@gmail.com with the name of the product that you would like me to send you for free after you purchase 2 of my products.

Here are a few alright MANY of my products that I spent a lot of time on and use A LOT in my classroom:

Happy Leap Day to everyone!  ;)

WINNERS AND What are your Favorite TPT Items?

Here are the winners of my giveaway! :)

I will be emailing hcarp with both units as well as asking for her mailing address!  She will receive 8 picture books in the mail!  The books should be ready for me to pick them up tomorrow!  :)

I also will be emailing Mrs. Richling, Maryellen Reagan and Jean to ask them if they would like the writing prompts or literacy activities!  :)

---------------------------------------ON TO THE GOOD STUFF :)-------------------------------------

Since I am planning on breaking the bank on February 29th at TPT... I thought that it would be nice share a list of favorite TPT items that I have purchased. 

Here are some of my favorite purchases:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fabulous-Fairy-Tales-Unit-ideas-for-10-Fairy-Tales
I use my Scholastic Fairy Tale Videos, Books and some other online sites for this.  I just love the creativity!  For example Cinderella has writing paper, a story map and telling time worksheets (You know because of the midnight thing?)  Oh I LOVE this!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fix-It-Up-Sentences-for-Grammar-Sight-Words-Handwriting
I have used these for morning work.  They really have helped my students with editing! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Candy-Corn-Bandit-A-Making-Predictions-Activity
Oh my gosh!  My kids and I had so much fun doing this!  It reminds me of the Kissing Hand type of scavenger hunt around the school. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Ice-Cream-Unit-Math-Literacy-Science
That Cara Carroll sure does make wonderful things but this is my ABSOLUTE favorite of hers.  I used many of the activities when we were learning about raw materials to product.  Super cute stuff.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literature-Circles-Reading-Response-Journals-primary-lines
I have always wanted to have literature circles in my class but most resources that I found were too difficult for my little ones.  These are simple enough for my 6-7 year old students to complete.  This is a great product!

Please leave a comment with your favorite TPT items and why you like them.  I need to create a list of all of the items that I will be buying soon!

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P.S. Just a reminder that I am having a sale at my store too!  I am offering 20% off everything in my store on Leap Day.Here is a link right to my store.  :)
As an added bonus...
if you buy 2 items- email me at daniellelasota@gmail.com with a name of a third file that is of equal or less value you would like me to send you for FREE!  :) 
So not only is there a discount on Leap Day but it is a buy 2 and get one free sale for my blog readers!  (Because I appreciate each and every single one of you for reading my ramblings.)  ;) 

20% off Leap Day Sale! ;) And Giveaway Reminder!

Hi friends!  I know that I just had a sale last week but I just had to join Tunstall's Linky party!  Look at how cute the flier is... how could I not join??? 

I am offering 20% off everything in my store because I like you all so much!  ;)

Here is a link right to my store.  :)
As an added bonus...
if you buy 2 items- email me at daniellelasota@gmail.com with a name of a third file that is of equal or less value you would like me to send you for FREE!  :) 
So not only is there a discount on Leap Day but it is a buy 2 and get one free sale for my blog readers!  (Because I appreciate each and every single one of you for reading my ramblings.)  ;) 

Now on to the FREE stuff!  ;)

PLUS 8 picture books to go with EACH theme for the GRAND prize winner!  :)

I'm also reminding you about my giveaway!  I am giving away my 8 fiction writing prompts and activities.  There will be 3 winners and 1 GRAND PRIZE winner that receives both products AND 8 picture books! 

So far everyone is a winner!  :)  I was hoping to get more followers by this giveaway because I REALLY want to have a 100 follower giveaway!  I seriously have been collecting all kinds of goodies!  ;)

Have a great Monday!

Language Arts Activities and Mini- Mega Giveaway!

I have been working on items to go with my Fiction Writing Prompts.  I have 8 writing prompts that go with book suggestions, 8 reading response prompts and 8 word study activities.

Here is my Mini- Mega Giveaway:
WINNER 1: I will be giving away 8 picture books (1 to go with each theme), my Language Arts pack, my Fiction Writing Prompts. 

Cupcake by Chase Miracle Harper

Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band by Kwame Alexander

We’re Going on a Picnic by Pat Hutchins

Stanley in Space by Jeff Brown

If I Ran the Circus by Dr. Seuss

Curious George and the Birthday Surprise by Margret & H.A. Rey’s

Race to the Finish (Disney Cars) by TK

The Night Before Summer Vacation  by Natasha Wing

WINNERS 2-4: They get to choose my Language Arts pack OR my Fiction Writing Prompts.

Here is a peak of what 1 of the 8 topics looks like:

Here are the entry rules:

*Follow my blog gets you 1 entry (comment with your email and tell me that you follow my blog.)

*Follow my TPT store http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Danielle-Lasota earns you 1 entry.  (Comment with your email and tell me that you follow my TPT store.)

*Blog about my giveaway earns you 3 entries!  (Comment 3 times with your email each time!)

I will be drawing names on February 26th!  I am emailing my favorite local teacher store (Fundamentals) now so she can order the books for you!  :)

P.S. I hope that I can get up to 100 followers so that I can have my MEGA giveaway full of Lia Sophia, 31 Bags, Amazon gift card, TPT gift certificate, fun paper clips, chocolate, Fairytales leave in conditioner, one of my favorite inexpensive rewards and MORE!  :)

Fiction Writing Prompts, Giveaway and a SALE!

I just finished my fiction writing prompts.  That means a GIVEAWAY!  This time I will give it away to the first 3 comments!  (Please leave your email!) 

Here is a peak:

You can see a larger preview file here.

I also updated my new coin posters to have the half dollar.

All of my products in my TPT store are also on sale for 20% off until Monday! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Family Fitness and Health Night

Tomorrow is our first annual family Fitness and Health Night.  Big Kuddos to my amazing teammate for pretty much organizing the entire thing by herself!  :) 

I told her that I would help but unlike me I procrastinated until last minute!!! 

I told her that I would make the CD for the fitness stations.  I waited until tonight and hopped on itunes.  I was really disappointed that there were only a few radio edited versions of popular songs!  I also looked up "workout music for kids" and only found the music that is sang by kids.  In an act of desperation I texted one of my former student teachers and begged for help.  He is a D.J. and within 15 minutes he emailed me an hour long play list!  Bless his little heart!  He always hooks my school up with his D.J. services.  So- procrastination paid off!  (Perhaps I should do it more!)

I also made some signs for the fitness stations, am picking up my friend Angie to teach Zumba (My PURE workout obsession!), bringing blenders for the smoothie stations, assembled things for the raffle (not the items but just the buckets and signs!) and best of all I GET TO WEAR WORKOUT CLOTHING DURING WORK ALL DAY TOMORROW!

I am the teacher who wear high heels almost every day but give me a chance to wear sweats- and I'm all in!

I am really excited for tomorrow and hope that we have a good turn out!  I will be working (sampling) the smoothie station for the first hour and then working it all off for 30 minutes of Zumba and karate after! 

Have a great night!  ;)

First Grade Emergency Plans WINNERS!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I was a day late posting the winners so I just decided to send it to all who entered the contest!

Elizabeth- I wasn't sure if you wanted to enter or not- if you send me your email I can send it to you as well to share with some deserving first grade teacher in your building.  :)  (I'm sure they are all deserving because they do teach FIRST grade after all!)

I don't know about you but any party day feels like 3 days in 1!  WHEW!  What happened to the snow that should have hit Ohio?  I was feeling a delay on a party day- it would have made it seem like 1 day!  If you are from Ohio- I'm sure you are feeling me- it has really only snowed on NON school days!  I know I have only worked 6 out of the last 10 work days but those were sick days and WAY different. 

Well- enjoy the rest of your week friends!!!

Accountability Buddy Chart and giveaway reminder!

I feel terrible! Someone emailed me a few days ago and asked me for a copy of it! I checked it on my phone so I just got on to email it to them and I can't find the email! I must have accidentally deleted it!

If you are reading this- please resend your email!

If I somehow deleted an unanswered email- please resend it as well! I have 5,000 messages in my inbox mostly from all of the seller updates from TPT! I need to force myself to delete them as I receive them but I am VERY bad at it!

I adapted the accountability buddy chart last week to include just non structured times which are the times that my little one has the most trouble. This was a great idea and I don't know why I didn't think about it before! The IAT team met last week and it was also decided to add two simple but measurable goals to the chart as well. This way the chart can be used as good measurable documentation as well. ;)

Just a reminder that I posted a new product on TPT: 1st Grade Emergency Plans! That means a giveaway. If you would like a chance to win this product please leave your email on the giveaway post! :)

First Grade Emergency Plans and giveaway!

Two weeks in a row I have missed 2 days of school!  :-O <---- screaming face!

I felt like I was barley catching up from the week before and then BAM- another stomach flu!  I swear the first one was just a warm up for the second one!  The second one I was so weak that I could barely crawl out of bed.  About 15 gatorades later- I still feel out of it but my husband came down with it.  (I will be kind right now and not call him a baby because he sometimes is so kind to read my blog!)

Well- I have the world's BEST teammates in the world!!!!!  I ended leaving my room a giant MESS and was planning on coming in early Thursday morning to clean it up and prepare for my personal day on Friday. (which turned into a sick day)  I had stacks of fairy tale unit stuff all over and who knows what else!!!

Through jumbled text messages I told them where my applesauce, spoons, video, fairytale video, books, worksheets etc. were sitting (because of course they were not on my shelves designed for my daily work!!!)  Ugh- those ladies must have worked their rear-ends off to make sure that my substitutes could find SOMETHING to do with the kiddos!  I am so grateful for them!!!

Well- I always thought that I was semi- prepared because I have a very detailed substitute notebook with filler items and generic Monday-Friday plans.  However (I didn't have it out- YIKES!) and it often doesn't seem like enough for those BIG emergencies.

So lo and behold between naps and fluffing my husbands pillow (which in all respect I really don't mind too much because he normally does most of the cooking and house stuff so I really owe him!) I created a true emergency plan that can easily be pulled together by me or my lovely little first grade teammates in the matter of minutes.  All they have to do is fill out the first page with important information like lunch time and then choose the instruction pages and put the time it should be taught at the top and copy the resources behind. (Well most I will already have copied- I have had THAT year that I seem to always be sick with Vertigo or a stomach flu!!!)

Here is a peak at it below:

As with all new products:  it will be a giveaway!  I will draw 1 name in about 2 days to receive this for free to share with your teammates!  ;) 

Please leave your email if you would like a chance to win!  ;)

You can find it here on TPT.

P.S. *I ordered 2 small 31 totes for a big giveaway that I'm planning!  It is all about my favorite things- teaching and non-teaching related!  I want to wait for the totes to come in for photos!  If you read a few weeks ago- you probably learned that I love helping and giving away or buying things for others. 

So I am super excited for this!  :)

Back to sleep because it took me about an hour to type this!

Mystery Sticks

A few years ago this idea was in mailbox magazine and a colleague pointed me towards it!

This is a really easy and fun little trick for tough behavior days.

Materials Needed:
-A cup or container to hold sticks
-1 popsicle stick for each student in your class
-a permanent marker

Directions:
-Write a student name or class number on each stick.
-Place them in the container.
-Pull out 3 and read the names secretly. Tell students that you are watching only these three students to make sure that they are following the rules.
-----If one of the stick kids is not following the rules-you put it back (without saying the name- but make a big deal and tell the class, "Oh no, unfortunately have have to put one of the sticks back because I saw that someone was walking around the room when they should have been working."
----- At the end of a selected amount of time the sticks left over will be announced and they receive a prize.

I always will be a little silly and look really wide eyed at certain students and glance at the names on the sticks.  I usually do this right as I pull out the sticks and as I look at my "behavior" kids.

This is just a fun little trick to keep in mind for really tough times! Just don't use it every day. It is more effective when you just use it randomly.

One of my favorite websites

Each week my students are expected to finish pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing on a story. If they finish early during the week they are allowed writing choice.

One of the websites that use for blank and fun writing forms is Sparkle Box.

I accidentally brought my master copies home so I got on the website to print off some forms to copy. I was really excited to see that they had some new templates!

If you haven't been to the website before- I definitely recommend it for k-2 teachers!

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/literacy/writing/frames/#.TzHswP15nTo

I just downloaded blogger on my phone last night and am loving it! I don't know why I waited so long to do it!

Have a happy Wednesday!!

common core math standards

I have started looking at the common core standards and breaking them into quarterly expectations.

I also am trying to add more Blooms type of questions to my lessons.  I think that it is something that I have to write down or I just always steer towards the easier questions.

Here is what I have so far for 1st quarter:

Hopefully it will go well!  Now- tell me why I am working on things for next year and not what I need to do this week?  lol.

Have a great night!

What is happening to me?!?!?! Crafty Sunday! (and Valentine's Day)

Today was a day for the history books!  Please mark it down in history that 2012 is the year that Danielle was will try to do more things out of her comfort zone!

Seriously- I don't know what put me in the mood to try not 1 but 2 things crafty!!!

I still have to put the wall up for my celebration center.  As I was walking around my house today, I came across this:

(I only use my phone to take pictures so they never look that great!) 
My 2 toned wall- I thought- hmmm... perhaps I can make my celebration center two toned as well. 

Then I went to Walmart and found the green and blue wrapping paper as pictured above. 

My plan is to attempt to cover the top part in the green and the bottom in the multi-colored paper.  I think that I might need a strip of white just like my walls to bring them together. 

I'm really nervous about trying it out!  :)  We'll see how the photos end up!!!

On to #2.  I have been hunting for the small muffin heart pans to make the heart crayons that Elizabeth from Fun in Room 4B mentioned a few weeks ago.  I cannot find them so I think I might have to give up on it for now.

I was searching for fun healthy snack ideas and found an adorable butterfly snack bag that you make with a sandwich sized Ziplock and a pipe cleaner.  They use this for snacks but I thought that I'd try it out for my student gifts.

Here is my attempt!

I still have to add a tag!  ;)

You can find the original version of it here:

http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/fruit-n-cheese-snack-65188.aspx

For my party I plan on making the Valentine's Day Card Scrapbook again!  It was a hit last year.  I just simply buy the $5 tubs of heart and love bug foam stickers and ask for donations of decorating things.

I got the idea from here from Deanna Jump's Valentine's Day unit. 

It has all of the labels that you need to make the book.

What can you try that is out of your comfort zone?

Have a great week!  :)

P.S.  I'm brewin' up a MEGA Giveaway of my favorite things!  (Thanks for the Oprah inspiration!)

My Behavior System

Today is my second sick day!  I have slept a lot!  I still don't feel great but for the past 2 hours I have felt better so it is back to work for me!!!  I have a meeting next week about behavior so I was pulling items together.  I thought that I'd share them with you!   ;)  I think that I have shared bits and pieces before but this should be it all together!!!

I use the clip chart system.  I changed the colors to go with my school wide system.

If you are not familiar check it out:

http://www.newmanagement.com/products/clip_chart.html

1. My students are paid for green- top of the chart.  They spend the money monthly at our class store.
2. Students have to pay when they are on yellow-red. 

Peace Meeting and Peace Jar

We only have 20 minutes after special and before the end of the day.  We use 10 minutes for a daily peace meeting.  We discuss problems (without using names) and discuss how to problem solve the situations.  (USE YOUR WORDS!!!!)  We also end with compliments.

We have a peace jar.  We discuss how sometimes when you are upset that you will do something mean/ hurtful to that person or someone else.  We have learned to write what is bothering you on a piece of paper and crumble it up.  They place it in the jar and I throw all of the crumbled paper away on Friday to symbolize moving on.  It sounds silly but it actually works for some students!

NEW ITEMS ADDED THIS YEAR!!!!

Accountability Buddy Chart- this is used for 1 of my kiddos.

Privilege Chart- 8 of my kiddos use this

A part of the privilege chart requires students to visit the reflection center:

lol... doesn't it look like "fun?" 



Celebration Center- it isn't finished yet!!!!! (Wall coverings are not finished due to be sick!)

I was so inspired by Elizabeth from fun in room 4B to try something crafy for drawing winning numbers.  (That must be one heck of an inspiration because I don't have an artistic bone in my body!)

I have numbers 1-100 in the can.  I wanted to use a bingo cage but numbers only go up to 75.

I'm headed to bed again just to make sure that I get enough rest to be well enough to go back to work tomorrow!

WINNER!!!

I just gotta love that Rachel- she is always willing to comment!  ;)

Rachel is the winner of my reflection center!

I also sent her my behavior chart that I use with the reflection center!


I'm off to bed again!  I went home sick from school and still have a horrible headache!!!

STAY HEALTHY!!!