Spring Fever!

Ahhh...I got my first pedicure of the year a few days ago, I've had my sunroof open, and my flip flops on for about a week now.  It's spring!  I love it!  This spring weather makes me want to stop straightening my hair every day and let it be all wavy/crazy curly.  But I need some new product recommendations.  Any curly/wavy girls out there who use something AMAZING in their hair care to share?!  I hear Sephora calling my name... 

In addition to being excited about spring, I'm also excited to be the featured teacher over at Teaching Blog Addict today!  Head over there and check out my post to grab some spring freebies!

Aaannddd...I was excited to find the time to update some of the items in my TpT store to be all springified!

Bee, Bee: A Book About Flat Shapes

Dragonfly, Dragonfly: Number Words

Butterfly, Butterfly: Time to the Hour

Bunny, Bunny: A Book About Flat Shapes

Bunny, Bunny: Number Words

Bunny, Bunny: Time to the Hour

Spring Numbers: Counting to 10

Spring Numbers: Teen Numbers

I'm also thinking it's going to be time for another fun teacher blogger exchange soon!  Our spring break is in eight school days, so I'm sure Sarah and I will spend part of our break getting a new exchange ready.  I'm kind of thinking about either a Pinterest-inspired exchange {Thanks to Lisa from Live, Laugh, and Learn to Love for the idea of "A Very Pinteresting Exchange"!} or an Oprah-esque favorite things exchange.  Any other fun ideas out there? 

Oh, back to those fun springy things I just posted in my store...I'll be giving ALL of those away to one lucky person.  Just say anything in the comments {say hi, suggest a hair product, tell me I'm wonderful, leave an idea for the upcoming exchange, anything goes!} and I'll choose one lucky winner tomorrow when I get home from school! 

I {Heart} Number Bonds...

{...well, that's not entirely true.  Our relationship is more on-again, off-again.  I heart number bonds when all of my sweet little friends are pickin' up what I'm puttin' down.  But when the number bonds throw them...well, that's when I don't heart the number bonds.  Thank God this year's bunch is getting it.  Otherwise I would have pulled out all of my hair by now and I'd be forced to wear my Jessica Simpson hair every single day.  And I'd have a permanent bruise on my forehead from banging it against the wall.}

Anyway...I just wanted to share a new little game I posted on TpT for just $2 {this includes all game cards and 3 fun worksheets}!  There are several different ways you could play/use this fun little valentines-themed number bonds resource.  Take a peek...

And because I heart you, here's a freebie from the I {Heart}Number Bonds activity pack!

Grab yours here!

And because I really, really heart all of you party people, I'm going to give away two copies of these little games!  They will go to the two people whose comments are the numbers of tonight's winning score.  Soo...if the score is 21-17, my friends who posted comments number 21 and 17 are the lucky winners!  {Make sure you leave me your email address!}  I'm not ashamed to admit that I will have to google to find out the score.  Because I for sure will not be watching the Super Bowl.  The only sports I care about are shopping and running Lifetime movie marathons.  So I will be watching the Nora Roberts movie marathon on Lifetime AND shopping online.  Who says you can't have it all?

Oh!  I'm also super excited to be part of this AMAZING giveaway for second grade teachers!  There are like a KAJILLION bloggers teaming up to give away sooo many fun things!  Head over and check it out:

Make sure you enter the I {heart} 2nd Grade giveaway at Swimming into Second {not here!}!

This & That... {updated with winners!}

{I used the random number generator to choose 3 winners: Sandra, Marlana, and Kristen check your email!  Also, thanks to everyone who gave feedback for a Valentine's exchange.  We are planning it right now and will let you know when all of the details are worked out!  Can't wait to do it again!}

I'm finally home from the annual Christmas Extravaganza.  I think I had about forty Chistmases, saw two movies: New Years Eve {great!} and War Horse {aka a 2 hour and 45 minute NAP.  Very seriously the longest, slowest movie ever.  I think I only laughed 3 times.  That's not good.  I like to leave the movies nearly peeing my pants from laughing.}, ate about 30 pounds of my mom's infamous chex mix, won one out of five games of dominoes, and had fun eleventy million different times with my family!  We also had family pictures made for the first time in for like ever.  Some of just the five of us, then the rest of the gang came along and suddenly the photographer was trying to squeeze all 15 of us into a picture.  Fun times!  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your families!  I've been slowly catching up with everyone.  Being out of town and not constantly connected can get you way behind in blogland.

Before break, I posted a new pack in my TpT store but I don't think I ever told anyone about it!  Crazy, I know.  It's just a wonderful Wintry Mix of Math Fun!  You'll have to check it out; several winter themed math activities that are perfect for a K-2 classroom.  Especially since I'm having a 20% off sale from now until January 1st!

A few of you party people have requested more gift exchanges.  Mrs. Miner from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business suggested a Valentine's exchange and the sweet girl even offered to help Sarah and me!  And if you guys are up for it, I'm up for it!  I never miss a party, because I keep them going constantly... 

I would love your thoughts on a few things:
-Do you just want one partner or would you want to send a homemade valentine to a group of grade level partners?  How many people would you be willing to send a card to?
-Do you want to do just cards or a gift along with it?  {In which case, you would only be assigned one partner.}
-Would you like to involve your class in the project and exchange valentines with a fellow blogger's class?
-Other suggestions?
I'll hang on your every word and do my absolute best to make it something everyone totally hearts.  {Get it?  Hearts?  Valentine's Day?  Yeah, I'm cheesy.  What of it?}

There are a hojillion linky parties out there that I'm itching to participate in.  So I'll be back tomorrow with something brilliant to say, for sure.  But in the meantime, I'm in a giving mood... I will give away 3 copies of my new Wintry Mix of Math Fun unit!  All you have to do is comment on this post about something {make sure you leave your email in the comments}!  The giveaway will end at 9am on Saturday, December 31st and I will use a random number generator to select 3 winners. 

Black Friday Sale!

I hope you all had a wonderfully yummy Thanksgiving!  I don't know about you, but I'm always searching for good deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  I used to enjoy going out and braving the crowds, but now I like to stay home where it's warm and crazy-free.  If you're surfing the web looking for fabulous deals over the weekend, stop by and check out my Black Friday-Cyber Monday Sale!  Everything is 20% off now until midnight on Monday!

You will also want to check out Jennifer at Rowdy in First Grade and Rebecca from Teaching First to see what kind of great deals they're offering on Black Friday!

Happy Shopping!

Assist, please!

OK, you guys are like the biggest, bestest staff lounge EVER.  So I know you'll have some tips and tricks for me on this one.  My team is in the process of hiring a new kindergarten assistant.  We love the sub we have right now and hope to make her a permanent part of our team.  Even though things have gone very smoothly over the past couple of days, I'm still a little uneasy about this transition in the middle of the year.  Have any of you ever hired a new assistant mid-year? 

I am also really interested to hear how all of you use your assistants.  In the past, I've just had mine kind of hang out in the room and help as needed.  But this year with half of my 28 kindergartners needing interventions, I know I can use her more wisely.  Please tell me what you do!  Does she pull small groups?  Does she lead some whole group instruction while you do small groups?  My 90 minute math block with kindergarten looks like this: 20 minutes of calendar, 40 minutes of whole group, and 30 minutes of stations.  Thoughts?  Ideas?  How do you use your assistant?

And instead of a penny for your thoughts...here's a freebie for your advice!  We're working on teen numbers right now in kindergarten and this will be part of our stations next week.  Enjoy!  I also have a fun Turkey Teens counting book in my TpT store.

Math Feast!

I've been busy working away on my Thanksgiving unit for the past couple of weeks.  It's finally up in my TpT store!  Check it out:

Here's a preview of some of the activities included (all activities are also listed for individual sale):

Four different Race to the Turkey activities: numbers to 10, number words, teen numbers, and shapes.

Counting Cornucopia: Fun counting book for students to practice representing a number on a ten frame, writing the numeral, writing the number word, and drawing objects to represent the number.

Fact Family Feast!  Great for practicing sorting math facts into fact families!

Turkey Teens: My students are loving making this teen numbers counting book in stations right now!  They are working on representing the number in a ten frame, writing the numeral, and drawing objects to represent the number.

Thanksgiving Feast game to practice finding missing addends.

Two versions of Turkey Trot are included: numbers to 20 and basic subtraction.

And since I'm so very thankful for all of my wonderful followers, the first person to correctly guess this vegetarian's favorite Thanksgiving food gets a copy of my Math Feast for free!  {I know, I know...vegetarians aren't much fun at holiday gatherings centered around a big ol' turkey...}