Using Weekly Homework: Why I Made the Change,.

Thinking back to last year and my first year of teaching, I remember feeling so overwhelmed with the amount of homework I had to look over each week after assigning two things each day! You could never see the bottom of my desk or guided reading table because I was always so behind in checking and giving back homework. Honestly, sometimes I would just secretly throw away some of the less important assignments just because I had no time to get through them all. I sat in my room at the end of the year thinking that their had to be a better way to handle homework that was less work for and less stress for my students and their families that were all so busy with after school activities. Then it hit me, I could give homework at the beginning of the week and make it due at the end of the week!

I spent the summer coming up with my new homework plan. From reflecting on what my previous students struggled with the most, which was retaining skills they had previously learned in other grades or just earlier in the year.  I concluded that spiral review homework should be a big part of my weekly homework. I developed my Spiral Review Weekly homework sheets for both Math and Language Arts. Each week my students have four questions for language arts and four for math every day Monday-Thursday. I don't require them complete the questions on the assigned day. They have all week to answer all of the questions and pack is due Friday morning. 

The second piece of my weekly homework, is a word study packet. At my school we use Words Their Way, so I have several spelling lists between all of my students. The way I handle word study homework is by giving all of the students the same three assignments to complete with their own spelling lists. I suggest a day that the students should complete each assignment, but they can pick when they want to complete each assignment as long as the packet is turned in Friday morning.

The final piece of my weekly homework is a Reading Log. The students are to read for 20 minutes each night and record what they read. Then the students have a list of questions for fiction and non fiction and they pick one to answer about what they read each night. This log is turned in Friday morning with the rest of the homework. 

My Word Study and Spiral Review Homework is available in my store:

Year Long Spiral Review Homework Bundle for Language Arts and Math

Weekly Word Study Homework

I use a Freebie from Third in Hollywood for my Reading Log. It can be found here.

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Guided Math in Action Summer Book Study: Chapters 2 and 3

Welcome back to my summer book study on Guided Math in Action! Sorry for the delay in this post. I've had a crazy few weeks with vacations getting extended and extra travel, but I finally got the time to sit down and write about these chapters. 

Chapter 2: Guided Math in a Numerate Environment discusses why Guided Math is important and how it works well with a workshop model as well as explains each part of the workshop model. There is a huge emphasis on no matter what format Guided Math is presented in, that the atmosphere should be filled with talking making mathematical sense. Teachers should have students ready to hear phrases like "Prove It" or "Show me what you know". 

Dr. Niki Newton describes the different parts and elements of a Math Workshop and how Guided Math fits into this format. Personally this is the format I use for Math in my classroom.  She explains that a home base is needed in the math workshop. It is a dedicated space in the room where mathematical supports are in place, many tools are available and all thinking is recorded. It is also where the whole group mini lesson typically takes place. 

The graphic I created shows the different parts of the Math Workshop model and how long each part should last. The Guided Math portion happens at the same time as Centers and can have between 1 and 3 rotations where each rotation runs 12-15 minutes. 

Chapter 3: Managing the Math Workshop focuses on how to successfully run Guided Math and the Math Workshop model. Dr. Newton has a huge emphasis on how important it is to spend the first week of school establishing the rules, consequences and rewards that will be in place for the rest of the year. Creating Anchor Charts that display rules, expectations and consequences for Math Workshop time are a great way to discuss and record thoughts the first week on how you expect them to work during the Math block. It is also important to have the schedule and rotation order posted as well whether it be a poster, bulletin board or something projected to a smart board. 

The second half of the chapter shows emphasis on how each place that Math Workshop happens in the classroom should be fully stocked and ready for the center or guided math lesson that will be happening there! The big key to guided math is a having a good start with it at the beginning of the year. Students need a lot of practice to have Guided Math be extremely effective for them and always need to have clear guidelines of what is expected of them. 

For these chapters, I created a freebie with Guided Math Prompts. These can be displayed in your room to remind students of what they should be thinking about during math or can be used as cue cards at a guided math table. The uses are essentially endless for these! You find the freebie in my TPT store with the following link: Guided Math in Action Chapters 2 and 3 Freebies.

Check back here on Wednesday for Chapters 4 and 5. 

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Guided Math in Action Summer Book Study Chapter 1

Welcome to my summer book study on Guided Math in Action. I really hope you have a great time studying this book with me over the course of the summer and learn a lot about how to implement and use Guided Math in your classroom. 

Today I will be covering Chapter 1: Guided Math An Introduction. I've created some fun visuals that highlight what I think are the most important details of the chapter and will include a freebie I've created that supports the content in the Chapter!

Chapter 1 provides a general overview to what Guided Math is and how it works in the classroom. The chapter opens with an overview of a Guided Math Lesson in Action and describes each part. 

The author describes how a typical guided math lesson would work, including that it would take place at a kidney shape table in a leveled group. 

The first part of the guided math lesson is the Introduction. The Introduction is the part of the lesson where the mini lesson is housed as well as guided practice time. It is key to the teacher to tap into prior knowledge of the students, so you can really grab the students attention and bring them into the new lesson being presented. It is also important at this time to make sure the students have a pretty clear understanding on the important vocabulary, so they can describe their thinking in math language. The teacher then present the topic for the lesson and model as the students are following along. After the initial modeling, the teacher will prompt the students and have them describe what they should be doing and modeling. 

The second part of the guided math lesson is the Student Work Period. This is the time of the lesson  where the students work on problems by themselves, or they can work in pairs. It is to give them a chance to have some independent practice after the guided, but still while they are sitting and can be supported by the teacher. It gives the teacher time to check in with each student, take anecdotal records and ask the students questions. During this time each student has two problems that they need to solve (I do this by giving each student two different problems so they can't copy off each other). When they finish, they share the problems they solved with the group. 

The final part of the guided lesson is the Share period. This is a very crucial part of the lesson. It is a time for the teacher to facilitate more discussion about the math concepts, strategies and ideas that have been worked on and to clear up any confusions the students might have. At the end of the Share period, the teacher will give directions about the center work, as well as differentiated homework that is specific to the group she is working with. Once everyone in the group may ask some questions to wrap up the lesson. 

Once the lesson is over, the teacher may choose to watch the students work at center, take anecdotal records for students she selected that day, or have math interviews with students. 

The second half of the chapter focuses on the Beliefs about Teaching and Learning Mathematics That Frame Guided Math. 

To support planning a guided math lesson with all of the needed parts, I have made a free resource for my readers that supports Chapter 1. For Chapter 1 I created a lesson plan template for a Guided Math lesson. The lesson plan template comes in both a PDF and a editable power point version. The template can be found at the following link. 

Guided Math in Action Chapter 1 Freebie

 

Each chapter provides a few reflection questions that have you think about what you are already doing in the classroom and how you can work towards doing what the chapter says. I'll post the reflection questions here and then tonight at 8 PM EST I'll be on Facebook Live at my business page reflecting on the chapter and answering these reflection questions. 

1. Currently, do all the students in your class feel that they can learn math?

2. What do you do with the students who are frustrated?

3. Does everyone participate in mathematical conversations? Who does, how, and under what terms?

4. How do you promote perseverance in your classroom?

Here is the schedule for when I will be posting the rest of the summer. I have moved my book study day to Wednesday, instead of Fridays. Also please note there will be no post next week. I will be on vacation and will pick up after that!

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Teacher Throwback Thursday June 23rd, 2016

Hello everyone! Welcome to my new weekly linky party!

I started this new linky party so teachers can reflect and share past idea, projects, lessons, projects, units, crafts, etc and link up with others and see what they have done in the past as well. This will be a weekly linky party that you have until the next Thursday to link up with. Then a new linky party will be posted for the next Thursday!

Start by downloading the image about and including it in the post!

There are two options for posting. You can either recap a previous post and post a link of your old post on your throwback, so you don't have to retype all of the details or if you never blogged about your throwback before, you can type up a blog post about what you did in the past and link it up. After you write your blog post, come back here and link it up at the bottom of this post! Then go explore what others are sharing in the linkup!

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For my first Teacher Throwback Thursday, I am sharing a post/product that I am very fond of and is one of the my favorite projects I ever created for my students. When I was student teaching, I wanted my students to start practicing research skills and I decided to implement this skill into Social Studies, by having each student select a state, research the state and create an informational book about the state. I created a template of what I wanted the students to include in their books. After I did this unit with my students, I posted it in my TPT store and it has become one of my best selling products. Follow the link below to read all the details about one of my favorite projects I did this year  with my students!

State Project Post

An InLinkz Link-up

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

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Spiral Review Weekly Homework--Why I Use It

So when I started teaching third grade this January, one of the first things I noticed was how my students were not able to recall how to use skills they had learned earlier in the year in both Language Arts and Math. We started to get into test prep season and I found myself reteaching every basic skill that they had been taught in previous grades or even just at the beginning of the year! I sat down and thought about what I could do to help my students this year, to keep the skills we are learning fresh in their minds! The thought came to me that I could use my math warmup time to do daily spiral review questions. And that is how this whole line of products started to come to be. This year, I used powerpoints with 4 questions a day. This worked really well and after about only two weeks of doing this with my students, they were starting to remember and easily recall the skills they had previously learned! 

I started to then plan ahead of what I could do better in terms of keeping skills fresh for my students in the next school year, and it dawned on me! I could incorporate spiral review as a small portion of my students homework! This product line has been in the works since around March and the first set is officially released and ready! My students struggled in remembering important skills in both Language Arts and Math, so I knew I wanted them to review both subjects daily! I came up with the concept that I wanted to keep it short, so each day Monday-Thursday the students will have 4 Language Arts and 4 Math Spiral Review questions to complete. The sheets will build on each other, so skills will be added as the students learn each one. 

I have just published the first installments in this line in my store! I have a few different packaging options for these products. The homework is split up in months. Since many schools start at the end of August, I made the first packs August/September packs so they include 5 weeks of homework. Every other month, each pack will include homework for 4 weeks. 

If you would like to preview what comes in these homework sets, you can download two weeks of homework at the following links:

Language Arts 2 Weeks Free

Math 2 Weeks Free

Each individual  Language Arts and Math Weekly Homework Pack (each month) will be available in my store for $4.00 each. I will also be putting together a few bundles as well. I currently have a bundle already posted in my store that is a Year Long bundle for both Language Arts and Math. It is a growing bundle, so the price will rise every time that I add new products to the bundle. This bundle is 20% off the list price of the individual homework sets. I will also be adding Year Long Language Arts and Math Individual Bundles as well. These will be posted once the October sets are completed. You can find these products at the links below:

Language Arts-August/September

Math-August/September

Year Long Language Arts and Math Bundle

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New Layout and a New Linky!

Hi everyone! I am here today to show off my new blog/brand layout and also bring you an awesome and fun linky party I have come up with! 

So to start, how to you like my new layout for my blog/my new brand images? I am in love with them! I had my layout done by Rachel at Rachel A Tall Drink of Water. She did such an amazing job and was really great to work with. She is very professional and very helpful! She gives you exactly what you need! If you are thinking of redoing your brand or website layout, you need to check her out! She is currently running some awesome deals on her blogger layouts and marketing packages this month and she is very reasonably priced! 

The second half of this post is all about the new linky's I am starting up! First off, right now I am having an Instagram linky where you share what your teacher summer reading list is this summer! You can use the image below to participate on Instagram! 

I am also starting two linkys that I am hosting now on my blog. The first one will be happening every Thursday on my blog and will be a throwback linky to your favorite products, lessons, ideas, projects etch. I will post all of the complete info for that this Thursday!

The third linky I am creating is going to be a monthly linky where we will all share our personal and professional goals for the month, such as workout goals, product goals, business goals, etc. This will be starting July 1st, so be on the lookout for that one!

Finally, My book study for Guide Math in Action will officially get started this Friday. I am very sorry for the delay in getting this started, but I got crazy busy last week with the last week of school and didn't get to finish up my freebies for chapter one! I will post about chapter one this Friday, as well as a reading schedule for the rest of the chapters! There is still time to get the book and join in. Follow the link below to get the book from Amazon! 

I really hope you all join me in some of my projects this summer! 

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Guided Math in Action Book Study!

I am going to flip flop my plans for today and tomorrow, so I can finalize a few more details with my Spiral Review sets tonight! Today is going to be a short post where I am just going to bring some details about my upcoming summer book study. 

This summer I will be hosting a book study about the book Guided Math in Action by Dr. Niki Newton! I originally purchased this book in November when I was finishing up student teaching and was thinking about what teaching styles and methods I wanted to try out and I fell in love with it! The first time I read through it was pretty quick since I was hired for a mid year teaching position, but now am ready to really go into detail with it over the summer! I would love for you to read along with me!

Each week starting next Friday, I will be posting a review/summary/my thoughts on each chapter. I will also be creating some freebies that go along with the chapters, based on what I find helpful in each chapter to share with my readers. This book is a really easy read and I would love to have as many people as possible join in reading it with me!

If you would like to purchase the book, you can find it here:
 

If you use the Amazon link I provide, I receive a small stipend from the link! It is a great deal for such a useful book that I will use for many years to come! I hope you all will join me. I'll be here next Friday with the first post about chapter 1!

If you haven't already make sure that you are entered in my amazing giveaway that end Friday night and also make sure that you have signed up for my newsletter to stay updated and receive some awesome Freebies each month!

Also as a special thank you for following me through my blog launch my store will be 20% off from now until Sunday Night! Stock up on some great deals!

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Why Scoots Work For Me!

Before student teaching, I had never heard of the concept of a scoot. Then my second week in my first placement, my cooperating teacher asked me to hang up some scoot cards she had printed out for a Math Review. I was confused at what they were for, but she explained it as a math scavenger hunt to get the kids up and moving while they were practicing their facts! This idea sounded fantastic to me and I was hooked from that second. 

Fast forward to the end of the school year, and I have become a scoot fanatic! I have a slight obbseion with them and now love creating them! I am always looking for ways to have kids use their extra energy while still getting school work done, and for me scoots are the way to go!

Many teachers do scoots by just setting a card on each students desk and giving a time limit and then having the students rotate to the next card. For me that is too slow paced and does not benefit lower students, because they may need more then two minutes per card. I didn't want my students to feel entirely rushed by any card. 

The way I run a scoot in my classroom is in a scavenger hunt format. In the morning before the students come in I prep the room for the scoot, by hanging the cards up around the room! I'll put them anywhere from on doors, boards, my desk, reading table, computers, etc. I basically put them anywhere that the students would be able to see. Dependent on the amount of cards in the scoot I set a timer for anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. During this time, the students are working silently on the scoot. Their directions are to not talk during the scoot, unless they are whispering to someone about where a card they can't find is. I have piano music playing softly in the background, reminding the students that they are to work quietly. 

The scoots give the students an opportunity to be out of their seats for a decent amount of time during the day and the students love it. They don't even realize they are practicing their skills or reviewing for a test! I have seen my students skills and confidence really improve and it has sent my math test scores through the roof! I plan on creating many more scoots, based on my math curriculum for the next school year, as well as starting some language arts/word study scoots. 

I currently have some scoots in my store. For Math I Have a Mental Math Scoot, A Data and Probability Scoot and a 4 Digit Addition and Subtraction Scoot. All three of these are also available in a growing bundle! This bundle is 20% cheaper then buying each one indivually, and once you purchase the bundle, you get all future scoots for free! This bundle will go up in price after each scoot is added, so buying now is a great option because their will be lots more added in the coming months!

I also currently have one word study scoot posted called Cupcake Contractions. I plan on making many more to support Words Their Way curriculums that I follow for my Word Study program. 

From now until 11:59 on Friday Night, I will have my favorite scoot-My Data and Probability Scoot posted for free in my store as a thank you for reading my blog launch! All of my other scoots will be 50% individually and also the bundle will be priced at 50% off. This is a great time to stock up on some scoots and thinking about purchasing my scoot bundle to receive many more scoots in the future. Shop my store to take advantage of these great savings!

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Brain Breaks in the Classroom!

Let's me just start off by saying, currently brain breaks are currently keeping me sane! We still have nine more days of school left, but my kids have checked out already! I am trying to keep them entertained by doing book clubs on their DRA levels, creative research projects and STEM projects, but what really gets us through the day is constant brain breaks! They get the extra energy out the of kids and helps them refocus! 

I have been using brain breaks since I started and they were a nice break during the day. I have my students do one in the middle of the day, between our Social Studies/Science time and the start of our Math Block. They really help get them refocused. We typically do two songs/videos and the break is never more then a total of 10 minutes.

Most of my brain breaks come from Go Noodle but I have found a few on Youtube that my kids love! We are big fans of Zumba Videos! To pick what videos we are going to do that day, I currently have the names of the videos my kids love and put them on sticks! This summer one of my projects though is to put together cards with QR codes and bit links to our favorites to put in a box and let a kid pick them out each day! Next year I also am planning on creating a reward coupon where the kids can pay in Gems to pick their favorite brain break! I will be posting the cards in my store sometime this summer!

Now I am going to share my top five favorite brain breaks to do with my kids! I hope some of these will be helpful for you next year in your classrooms!

1. Uptown Funk Zumba for Kids Video

This is one of my favorites and for the kids too! It is a fun high energy dance, that really gets the kids moving. We do this at least once a week. This channel also has a really fun video for Cheerleader and Bang Bang!

2. Watch Me Exercise Video

This video was created by a Gym teacher and incorporates a workout routine with the Watch Me Dance moves! It is a really cute video and my kids are moving the entire time! It exhausts them! I love doing this on the days we don't have PE to still keep them exercising a little!

3. Shut Up and Dance Just Dance Video

I didn't realize that Just Dance videos were on youtube and one day one of my kids told me to put one on for a brain break! These work great because a lot of my kids have the game and know all of the moves and want to teach the other kids who don't have the game. You can find almost any current song in a Just Dance Video! My favorite song is Shut Up and Dance which is why I am sharing that one!

4. Pop See Ko 2.0

This is probably the weirdest song that I have ever seen but my kids are obbssed with it! It is on Go Noodle and features alot of the different performers on the site! My kids go crazy for this song! They would do this song every day if I let them! Beware-the song gets stuck in your head really fast and it won't ever go away!

5. The Maxarena

This is exactly what it sounds like! It is Go Noodle's Macarena! It is the original song, but with one of the Go Noodle's character doing the dance! I had played this song for my kids just on Youtube right after I started with them and they had no interest at all in it! As soon as it made it's way to Go Noodle, they thought it was the greatest song and dance ever! 

I have many other favorites too, but these are just a few of my current favorites!

Make sure to come back each day for more blog launch fun and subscribe to my newsletter to stay up to date! Don't forget to enter the giveaway in the previous post by Friday!

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My Blog Launch!

I am so excited to finally have the official launch of my blog Creative Teacher Resources! I have been planning this launch for almost 2 months now and am so excited to be finally be here, sharing with you all.

Let's start off with some information about me! My name is Anna Hines and I am originally from right outside Pittsburgh, PA. I attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where I received a dual major in Early Childhood Education (Pre-K-4th Grade) and Special Education (Pre-K - 8th Grade). The program their is supposed to take about 5 years to complete currently, but I finished early in just 3.5 years and graduated this past December! I was hired for my current teaching position just 4 days after graduating, and started teaching a week after the New Year! Between Christmas and  New Year's I made the move to the Northern Virginia area just south of Washington D.C to teach in a 3rd Grade classroom and it has been a fantastic experience so far. We still have 2 weeks left in the school year, but I can totally say it has been an awesome 6 months since I started!

Business wise, I have been selling on Teacher Pay Teacher since July 2015 (almost a year) and started blogging some during my student teaching experience this past fall!   I really started to put a lot of effort and energy into my store and brand though this past March when I really started to consistently post to my blog and started a business Instagram! These last few months have been so much fun blogging and connecting with other teachers from everywhere! I can't wait to really expand my store and blog this summer! I have so many great ideas for new resources that I cannot wait to share with everyone!

In addition to my Teachers Pay Teacher's store, I recently also became a Jamberry Consultant! Jamberry is an amazing business to work for and is so much fun for teachers! I have loved being a consultant so far and would love to share these products with you. You can find me at annahines.jamberry.com! I am currently taking party bookings and would love to have some of you host parties to earn tons of free product as well! Send me an email if you would like more information. 

For this blog launch, I will be having a week filled with posts about some of favorite classroom things, items, new products, freebies, sales and more! Be on the lookout everyday for new posts with fun information!

To celebrate my launch, I am hosting a huge giveaway! You'll be amazed by some of the sellers participating in the giveaway! There are going to be two winners: A K-2 Pack winner and a 3-5 Pack Winner! Check out the lists below to see who is participating and what you can win! You can enter by following the directions on the rafflecopter

K-2 Prize Pack

Just a Primary Girl---Long Ago and Today-A Journey Through Time INB

Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd--- Grammar No Prep Printables

Pocketful of Primary--- Monthly Editable Task Card Templates

Mrs. Beattie's Classroom--- Guided Math: Basic Addition and Subtraction Centers

Love Believe Teach--- Two-Step Word Problems Task Cards and Word Problem Task Cards

Teach Outside the Box--- STEM Challenges for the Entire Year

Hanging Around in Primary  and Momma with a Teaching Mission--- Winners Choice from their stores

3-5 Prize Pack

Creative Teacher Resources--- 4 Digit Addition and Subtraction Scoot

The Friendly Teacher--- Text Evidence Reding Paragraph of the Day-September

Fancy Free in 4th--- Figurative Language Flower Craftivity

EB Academic Camps--- Reading Response Quilt

Sweet Tooth Teaching--- Place Value Math Centers-Hundreds, Thousands, Millions, Billions

Polka Dots Please--- Ultimate Classroom Labels

Third Grade Giggles---- Making Inferences Activities, Poster, Graphic Organizers and Task Cards

Pocketful of Primary--- Monthly Editable Task Card Templates

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Make sure to be signed up for my newsletter to keep up with new products, posts and more! I will be releasing my first newsletter in July and it will have some awesome spelling freebies that I am working on to go with my new Words Their Way products!

Be on the lookout for more posts throughout the rest of the week

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Five for Friday (On a Saturday)

Here we are again at the end of another week! We are yet another week closer to the end of the school year! We have just 19 more instructional days left at my school and I can't believe the time has gone by so quickly since I started in my classroom in January. I have loved every minute of it, but am looking forward to a break this summer, before I start my first full year in the classroom! This summer will be dedicated to my two small businesses: My TPT business and my new Jamberry business. I can't wait to put a ton of work into the both of them!

This week I am linking up as always with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their weekly Five for Friday Linky Party! I meant to post this last night, but I came home with a crazy headache yesterday and by the time I got up from a nap and took care of some Jamberry business that needed done, I was exhausted again and just decided to call it a night and head to bed. So here goes: five things that happened in my classrooms, personal life and business life this week!

This week we got the first of our two SOL tests for third grade over with! I am very proud of my students for working so hard to prepare for both of these tests! After taking our reading test on Monday and Tuesday, we spent the rest of the week reviewing for our Math SOL coming up next week! I tried to find as many fun ways to review as a I could so I could keep the students engaged and learning through the boring review process. One of the ways I did this was to bring out some of my scoots to practice some basic skills, that students may have forgotten or still struggle with! All of my current Math Scoots can be found in a bundle at my store here. This is a growing bundle so once you purchase it, you will receive all future updates from it for free!

This week my students recived academic and behavior awards from the 3rd quarter! The first picture is the students who received quality student awards and the second picture features my students who received the Principals List (All A's) and the A/B Honor Roll (Two of the honor roll students were absent the day the picture was taken). I am so proud of everything that all of my students accomplish each and everyday!

I have been on the search recently to find the perfect planner for me at an affordable price and this week my search has finally ended! I was shopping at Target one night after dinner at Panera (whoever thought those two in the same parking lot was good idea must be a genius) and they had just put out all of their new planners! I purchased the Day Designer Planner. It has everything that I need to have a successful and organized year for my teacher life, personal life, TPT Life and Jamberry Life. The only bad part is that it doesn't start until July and I can't wait to start using it. 

This week I made an investment in my two small businesses and purchased a Shot Box on Amazon to  create some images of new products for Creative Teacher Resources and Jamberry. I can't wait for it arrive! I am very excited to start using it!

I have some very exciting launch news for both of my businesses!

My online Launch Party for my Jamberry business is starting tomorrow! I would love for all of my readers to attend and learn about all of the amazing products that Jamberry has to offer! We will be playing fun games throughout the week, having giveaways and there will be freebies! Join in on the fun here.

I am also still looking for some more hostesses for Jamberry Parties online. Hosting a party is so easy, you get awesome gifts from me, you can wear whatever you want and the rewards are fabulous. Shoot me an email or leave a comment if you would be interested in hosting a party!

The second exciting bit of launch news that I have is for my upcoming official blog launch! My blog launch is set for the week of June 6th! It will be a fun week full of blog posts, freebies and a huge giveaway I have put a lot of work into planning. The week will end with an awesome kick-off to my summer book study. We will be reading Guided Math in Action: Building Each Student's Mathematical Proficiency with Small-Group Instruction if you want to get a head start and purchase the book ahead of time! It's a great read and for sale at an awesome price on Amazon. If you use the link above, I will also get a small commission for referring you to the book!

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Five for Friday May 13th, 2016

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! I hope everyone had a great week! I am so looking forward for the next two weeks to be over already! My students start their SOL's for reading on Monday and take Math the following week. I can't wait for them to be done so we can move on to some fun projects for our last month in school! 

I am linking up again with Doodle Bugs Teaching for their weekly Five for Friday Linky party. This week was pretty slow school wise, but I'll try my best to come up with five things to write about!

My students brought in their animal research projects this week and they turned out amazing! They had to write a paper about the animal they chose and then create a project to showcase that animal with information they found! I've got a ton of creative kids in my class!

I am getting to be really close to finishing the first installments in a huge resource that I have been working on for about a month and a half. I have started working on Spiral Review Homework for the entire year! These resources will be for 3rd Grade and will be aligned to the

VA SOL's. I have completed the August/September Language Arts already and am putting the finishing touches on the Math for August/September this weekend, so I can have them up in my store soon! I will have a full post about them when they are posted in my store, but they will be available individually and different bundles to help save some money!

My host rewards and starter kit from Jamberry arrived this week! I am so excited to be able to use these awesome new products as I am starting my new business! I love being my own boss in a business!

To go along with number 3, my Jamberry business has officially started! I am currently sending out free samples and catalogs to anyone who signs up. You can find the sign up sheet here. You will receive your sample and catalog in my first mailing if you sign up by tomorrow morning! I will be putting them in the mail tomorrow afternoon! I am also running a special for booking parties! If you book a  online party by May 31st, you will receive a special mani starter kit free from me! Contact me if you have any questions about hosting a party online on Facebook! We really spoil our hosts with host rewards. The above picture shows everything I got for free or at a small cost from hosting a party and the chart shows everything you can earn! You can find more information at my business Facebook page or at my Jamberry website.

I just wanted to give a little update about the list of resources I will be working on for my class and my store this summer! In addition to the monthly spiral reveiw homework, I am also going to be working on the following: 3rd Grade Daily Spiral Morning Work, Scholastic Reading Level Notes, Words Their Way resources for Within Words and up, Monthly Newsletter and Calendar Templates and additional 3rd grade scoots! I can't wait to share everything I am working on with you!

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