Blog Surfin for FREE Literacy Centers

Every summer I try and spend some time creating, buying and hunting for new literacy centers! I have found some ammmmmmazing centers out on the net and thought I'd share. I went through tons of blog archives on a mission...and here is what I found :) I found these mostly from blogs, but I linked directly to the TpT or file so that you didn't have to dig to find them!! Hope you can find something useful! I know I did!!!


I Love 2 Teach did a great post last year on using standard literacy centers. I like to use thematic ones, but sometimes it's also nice to have centers that the students are familiar with. I Love 2 Teach does a great job with this center! She created centers that can be used with any store. This is a great staple to any guided reading routine! Be sure to check it out at RIGHT HERE!

She did a Making Words, Spelling, Dictionary Dig, Poetry, Partner Reading,  Read and Respond, Comic Strip Story and Listen and Read Centers. These are great! They can be used for 2nd & 3rd grades :)

Here are some great literacy centers:


Sight Words: 1st-Grade-Sight-Words-Dont-Get-Skunked ; Trace-Write-Glue-Sight-Word-Center ; Monster-Oops ; Staring-Sight-Words ; First-Grade-Sour-Lemonade-Sight-Words-Game ;

Word Work: Word-Work-Activities ; Mrs. I's Word Work ; Preview-of-Hi-Frequency-and-Phonics-for-Spring ; Caterpillar-Families ; The-uck-Family-Spelling-Word-Work-Lists-Tests


Vowels : Long-O-Rock-Stars ;We-Dig-Vowel-Sounds ; Flipping-Over-Vowels-Freebie; Silent-E-Word-Activity; Buzzzzing-Vowel-Sort ; Silent E Freebie from Cara Carroll

Blends: consonant-blends-chart-printable.html ;

Antonyms: Wild-About-Antonyms-Center-and-Independent-Practice ; Busy-For-Antonyms-Literacy-Center

Synonyms: Synonym-Roll-Match ; Floating-Synonyms ; Synonym-Toast-Crunch

Contractions: Contraction-Action-Contraction-Games-;Cupcake-Contractions

Nouns: back-to-school-fun-and-literacy-center.html ; Freebies for nouns

Sentences: Dog-Gone-Good-Sentences ; Beach-Time-Sentence-Scramble-Freebie ; Out-of-This-World-Cloze-Sen​tence-Practice-with-Sight-​Words

Writing: Writing Centers by HoJo ; Reading-Writing-Task-Cards

ABC Order: ABC-Order-to-the-2nd-Letter-FREEBIE; ABC-Order-Aloha-Theme ; ABC-Order-with-Penguins

Labels for Centers: Literacy-Workstation-Labels

Themed Centers: Plant Center Freebies ; Back To School Words-that-Describe-Me-Free

Printable Books: Teaching With Love and Laughter

Fluency: Fluency-Folder ; Fluency-Check-Center ; Fluency-Phrase-Spin-A-Differentiated-Fluency-Activity ; Froggy-Fluency-Anchor-Chart

Odds and Ends: digital-frame-center-freebi​e.html



Also, the amazing Laura Candler is doing a FREE Webinar! She is providing free certificates for attending the lesson! This is a great resource! Be sure to check it out HERE!

Freebies!

Be sure to check out this new Facebook Page Top Teachers Freebies! This page is full of freebies from bloggers all over! A MUST resource for any teacher :)


Also...a freebie from my store. Long-O-Rock-Stars is now listed as a FREE product! Go download it now :)

Till Next Time

~Ashley

Summer School and TpT Finds

Summer School is going so great! It's half days, so that is a huge plus :) We finished up our camping unit. I used so many different packets! I used No Monkey Business Michelle's Story-Maps-Collection packet. I also used Primary-Graffiti's alpha cards. This really helped since I have such a variety of academic levels. We have six rotations and they are all over the place.
Last week we worked on Main Idea. I didn't have pictures so I wanted to share a few. I used Amy Lemon's Whats-the-Main-Idea Packet! This is such a wonderful packet!!!!!

This week we are working on Synonyms/Antonyms. So we made these adorable Synonym Flowers!

Here is the template I used to make the flowers:

With my younger group of kids, we've also been working on my Buggy-For-Blends-Literacy-Packet.

  

 My TpT Finds:  be sure and check out this FREEBIEApple-Double-Facts-Addition.

Now that I am only working half days, I am able to really prepare for next year. The very first thing I began to work on was my decor. What theme did I want?? As I looked around, MOST of my things were polka dots...so I found this ADORABLE packet from Kreative in Kinder Colorful-Polka-Dot-Classroom-Decor-Set! I've been printing and laminating every since I got it. And she has tons of other themes too!! Crystal is SO talented! Check out her blog, she is simply AMAZING!

I am also gearing up to reach 100 followers. I am giving away a $25.00 GC to iTunes!! All you have to do is comment with your E-mail, grade level, follow my blog  AND follow my TpT store!!

Be sure to check me out on FB as well :)

Till Next Time!!

~Ashley~

Fishing For Ideas

IT'S TIME FOR THE FISHING FOR IDEAS EXTRAVAGANZA!!!




It's that time of the year! The time when we start thinking and reflecting about last year  and the things that we should have done differently. To help out, a bunch of amazing bloggers are throwing sales and giveaways!!! Of course, I am participating! Please check out my TpT Store !! Everything is AT LEAST 20% off!!!
Visit an amazing Pineterst Board !!!


I  am teaching 2nd,3rd and 4th graders in summer school! What a challenge this is! I thought I would be able to differentiate things I already had and make it work. I was wrong :( I  am teaching reading and wanted to use very little paper-pencil activities. So I asked around and found out some of the skills that the students still needed practice with. The skill that most of the teachers mentioned was Main Idea. So I dug through all of my activities to see what I had. Not much. Not much that I could use with a group of students entering the 5th grade! So I went to the beloved Teachers Pay Teachers. I found some FABULOUS PACKETS!! Amy Lemons from Step Into Second Grade has a wonderful packet that is so easy to use! I purchased her

 Whats-the-Main-Idea packet. It includes loads of cute hands on "craftivities" that the students LOVED! I loved that I could use the same craftivity, just change the stories as needed.

   Another great packet I found, was from Coconut Cuties! Their  Main-Idea-Story-Sacks are great for 3rd and 4th grade strugglers. It's easy to put together and different from anything they are used to. These students work out of work books all year long, so for them, these activities have been wonderful.  I came up with a quick activity as well to go a long with our "Summer Camp" Theme.  My camera is acting up but the kids used these printables, and glued them to brown paper to make our own "Smores". We glued the title heading at the top of the page. Then colored and cut the smore. Finally, they glued the smore under the heading. They turned out so great! Hopefully, I can get some pictures by Monday!

Click here to get your FREEBIE!!!

Be sure to check out all the other great blogs for  freebies, sales and giveaways!!!

Till next time...

~Ashley~

End of School

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted! Ohh my goodness!! We've been  showing our house to sell it and everything has just been insane! My preacher talked about everyone taking a "Time Out" and we soooo need to do that!

The last week of school  was very hectic! We just finished up Friday. We had our school awards, classroom awards and end of the year party. I purchased a few end of the year memory books on TpT before the end of the year came..but the lovely Cara Carroll posted a FREE End of the Year Book and it was wonderful!! Go get your copy here~School-Memories-An-End-of-Year-Keepsake

We made foldable year books. The folded their papers into fourths, then wrote each child's name in a box. Then they drew a picture of each kid and had each kids sign it. They loved this! I'll add pics later, my camera card is still at school!!!!

Since I finally got to 50 followers, I am doing a giveaway! Rules: Comment with your e-mail address, follow my blog, follow my  TpT Store! I will give away my Guided-Reading-Resource-Kit- Commenting ENDS at 6 PM CST on 06/08

I'm also doing a giveway to TWO lucky people...all you have to do is visit Teacher's Notebook to Enter! Click Here!! You can enter to win my inflectional endings literacy packet

Thanks for visiting! Please visit me on FACEBOOK!!~The-Teachers-Treasure-Chest

Safari Time and a bunch of freebies~!

So we are kicking off our two week safari unit! I started by pulling all of my safari animal books out and borrowing some from the library. Here are a few of my favorites:

After we read "The Giraffe Who Was Afraid Of Heights", we did a story sequence activity.

You can get your copy your freebie HERE for Sequencing !

Then, we did a writing activity.

We turned our safari theme into a mini research unit . The students each had one of the nonfiction books that we read aloud in class. I was lucky to find several copies of the Pebbles Plus African Animals Collection. I had a set as well as the library and other teachers. First, they brainstormed all of their thoughts on scratch paper. I let them draw circles and inside the circles they had to write one fact. Then they

wrote a mini research paper. And a little animal to color and cut out, and viola! They really enjoyed this activity!

Next, we put it all together in an official "research packet"!

For literacy centers this week, I used my Safari-Literacy-Math-and-Writing-Packet. It includes:

Literacy (8) Centers

Monkey Memory

Literacy Activities/Centers

Elephant Word Sort nouns, verbs ,adjectives

Safari True/ False

Giraffe, Zebra, & Elephant Writing Activity

Writing Prompts

Safari Word Sort IE & IGH

Safari ABC Order

Noun Word Sort ( Pronoun, Proper, Noun)

Math (2 Centers)

Zebra Addition

Zebra Number Match

Writing Research Packet

Fun Facts:

Giraffes, Elephants, & Zebras

Of Course I have to tie in some freebies :)

Safari Sight Word Freebie

Writing Freebie

This week we are finishing up with Elephants, Lions and Zebras!

I think we have 8 Mondays left of school! I am kinda of sad, though, as I am still unsure if I will be at my school or in a whole new state. God always has a plan :)

Happy Teaching!



Does anything ever go as planned??!

We finally have our house listed on the market! It has been one thing after the next trying to find the time to finish all of our little "projects" but...we are done :)


This week was a busy week, both in the classroom and in real life :) First and foremost! My husband Re-Enlisted in the Navy for 6 more years. This will finish up his career. It was a such a beautiful ceremony and I am so very proud of him!


                                 

Now to the stuff ya'll came to see :)

This week we were supposed to start our camping unit. The back bone of my plans came from Cara From The First Grade Parade. However, I ordered a bunch of books to go a long with the unit, and they didn't come in time. So I had to come up with other ideas as the kids were pumped about starting this unit.

First we started off with Amelia Bedelia! You can never go wrong with Amelia Bedelia!  We read Amelia Bedelia Goes Camping. The kids loved this book! 

This week, we can start out camping unit as I originally planned. The kids are so excited about this unit.

Last week we started  Long O words. 

I am used Made For First Grade's Long-Vowel-FUN Packet!  I love this packet! I needed more station activities though, so we started using my Long O Packet. The kids really love these cute rock stars! They thought it was such a blast.  Check out my LONG O Packet on TpT! It's on sale! Long-O-Rock-Stars



And Since I had such a WONDERFUL Week, My Circus Literacy Packet, is FREE :) Go over and get your copy of my  Circus-Literacy-Packet and rate my products!

Another GREAT TpT Find this week---Fun-in-the-Sun-Literacy-and-Math-Center-Game-Packet This packet is soooo adorable and I can't wait to put it to use soon!

Where have I been?!?!

Luck would have it that as soon as I start  a new project, sickness would run through my family! In the first two weeks of February, my family has had Strep, the flu, uveitis, viral meningitis, and now my youngest child has a full body post viral rash! We are all on the mend and everyone will be okay. It's just been a long two weeks!

So, we are all recovering from illnesses around our house, but I have so much to share with ya'll!! I want to give away a few of the Didax Puzzles to random  followers of my blog and Teacher's Notebook Store.*** All you have to do is follow my blog, AND My Teacher's Notebook Store and comment below with your e-mail address to verify that you have followed! ***Once everyone in my household is back to 100% I'll update ya'll on all of my adventures in the classroom for the last two weeks :) Thanks for hanging on until then!

<3
Ash

Freebie Alert

Whew, what a week! After winter break, our grade level moved to departmentalized instruction. In the past, I've really struggled with this. I didn't like doing the same things over and over again :) I also had my doubts, because I am still not convinced that it's age appropriate..however, I am giving it a fair shot! So far so good! Of course, I am the ELA/Reading teacher (my passion)!

So I started off by going a little crazy at my favorite little one stop shop--- Cara Carroll's TpT Store! If you have not checked out her work, please please do so! NOW! It's soo addicting and she has great stuff! I've made about twenty new centers this week! I really REALLY love her Frost & Friends Centers! The kids really enjoyed them as well :) They LOVED the Ski Trip Scramble!

I still can't believe it's the middle of January, this year has flown by! Time flies when you are having fun!

Aspiring to be more like the fabulous bloggers out there,I am getting my TpT store up and running and posted a little freebie! Go check it out my TpT Store! I'm in the process of putting my first major center packet together, but would love some feedback on the freebie!

I've also added a few of the literacy centers for the book "Full Color Social Studies Literacy Activities"..I have this book in Science as well! You can get your copy (& at a discount) @  The Teacher's Treasure Chest!

Thanks for stopping by!