Swimming into Summer

You may remember in the fall, that I got together with my great friends Tessa (Tales from Outside the Classroom), Nicole (Teaching with Style), and Ashley (Teacher's Treasure Chest) and we gave away some items for free for people who signed up.  Not a giveaway where only a few people got it; every single person received the items!!!!!  We wanted a fun and different way to thank our followers.  Well, we decided to do it again and we recruited some of our best blogger friends!

You can receive ALL of this!

To receive the Swimming into Summer items, all you need to do is follow ALL of our blogs and come back and fill out our form.  That's it!  You can enter now through Sunday, June 9th.  We'll start sending them out on Monday, June 10th.  You can go to each blog, by clicking on each button below.

 

Remember, all you need to do to get all of these is just follow each blog and enter using this form.  Even if you're already out of school, you can use these next year! :)
Hurry up though! The giveaway will only run through Sunday, June  9th. So sign up now and we will begin sending out the products next Monday!

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Proud to be a teacher!

   Our fundraiser was a huge success!!! Words cannot express my feelings right now. A week ago, I had an *idea*. I wanted  to donate $25.00 to the victims of the awful tornado that hit Moore, OK last week. I knew that it wasn't much, but wanted to do my part. Then, I randomly thought, "What if I organize a fundraiser"...I certainly did not expect it to do this well. I am SO proud of the education community. We all came together. From the teacher authors who donated their products and blogged about the fundraiser, to the people who donated and everyone in between...my heart truly is grateful to you. Today, a $29,394 donation was made on behalf of Teachers throughout this great nation. I was so PROUD to be an American, a teacher, a woman, and a blogger. This whole process just goes to show that one idea CAN make a difference.  God doesn't plant the seed for us to waste it! 

I give all of the credit back to you. You donated your hard earned money. You helped me spread the word. We came together and accomplished something so wonderful.

Some people have asked me if I am keeping a portion of this donation. I want to be clear, 100% of the money went to American Red Cross OKC Earmarked for Moore, OK! 

If you donated and did not receive your product, please e-mail me at benoitcreated@gmail.com. Also, PLEASE Check your spam and junk folders!!

So tonight I'm going to  laugh with my family, relax, eat Chick Fila french fries (If you follow my fitness blog you know how big of deal this is) and thank God for the thousands of blessings I have in my life.

Thanks for going on this journey with me friends! God Bless!

Teachers Love Oklahoma

You know when something horrible happens, how we stayed just glued to the TV. All of the terrible and tragic things our world is faced with breaks my heart. But when I saw those little kiddos being carried out of that rubble...my heart literately broke. I just kept thinking about my family, and how truly blessed I am. Life can throw us all curve balls, and we all have days that we think we just have it so bad. Then, something like this happens. Like what just happened across OK.
My hubby kept saying "Ash, how many people do you think are homeless?"
I really, really do not want to think about those numbers. Or the number of parents that are burying their little guys.
I finally decided, with tears in my eyes, to turn to my friends in the blogging community. Within MINUTES..I had so many people offer to help.
So here we are  offering a fundraiser. This is your chance to give back and receive a tremendous amount of teacher created products.

I will take donations until May 28, 2013!!! 

For a $25.00 Donation, you will receive over $250 worth of teaching products! ALL PROCEEDS WILL GO TO THE RED CROSS OKLAHOMA CITY!!!

Button by Journey Of a Substitute Teacher

* I have bundles for K-2, 3-5, and 6-8*

****Donations are now closed****


Hug your family a little tighter and be thankful for all the things we are blessed with. I know this is one tragedy I will NEVER forget!!!

Ashley

Quick Chat

Hey Everyone! Thinks are SUPER crazy right now for EVERYONE! I wanted to stop in real quick and upload this little sight word FREEBIE for you!

Click HERE for your copy!

                            I'm working on a MEGA End of The Year Packet and hope to get it posted soon. When I do, it will be on sale :) So keep an eye on my

 FB Page for the updates! Thank you again for all of your support  this last year :) My followers are the BEST! 

Whew!

First and foremost---I cannnnnnnnot believe it's been so long since I've posted ANYTHING! Whew! Where does the time go???

Well, when you are as darn clumsy as I am--it goes by slowly! I had a horrible thing happen a few weeks ago. I was microwaving water, and the bowl exploded in my hands causing 2nd and 3rd degree burns! I was  in an incredible amount of pain for about 10 days..but I'm finally feeling better now! I am just hoping it doesn't scar too badly. This might be *tmi* but I did NOT know this could happen! I wanted to share it with you because at the hospital they told me, it's actually pretty common and most people never knew it was dangerous! The water did not even appear to be boiling and was only in the microwave for less than 3 minutes!! Major Ouch!

So once I was able to back to work  as a long term sub in a Pre K Classroom..I was ready to dive right in! 

First, we finished our garden unit! We used my Garden Unit and Caitlin's All-About-Plants-Math-Literacy-

Here are a few samples from my Garden Unit :

This thematic unit contains 8 literacy centers, printables and word wall cards! This unit is great for differentiated instruction as activities vary in difficulty. 

*Garden ABC Order

*Garden Vocabulary

*How to Plant a Garden (Sequencing Activity)

*Garden Memory Match Up

*Beginning Sounds Match Up Literacy Center

*Sizing Up Tomatoes (Sorting Activity)

*Shape Match

*Color Match

*Plant Life Cycle Sequencing Cards

*Plant Parts 3 In a Row (16 Game Boards)

*What's Your Favorite Vegetable? A class pocket chart graphing activity

Printables: Making Words, and Numbers 

Now we are ready to move onto our Zoo Unit! So much fun! I love this time of year! 

We are using my Zoo-Literacy-and-Math-Fun packet and Arlene's At-the-Zoo-Grades-K-1

Here is detail of what comes in my Zoo-Literacy-and-Math-Fun 

This zoo themed mini packet includes:

*word wall cards
*Zoo Picture Bingo
*Zoo Memory
*Zoo Vocabulary Match Up
*Zoo Number Match Up


Arlene's contains great early emergent readers that will fit perfectly into our unit!!! 

I have just a few more days in my PreK Class, then I finish the year out in First Grade :) 

You can enter to win my zoo packet here:


a Rafflecopter giveaway



Be sure you are following me on TpT and Like My FB Page in order to enter!

Before I forget...head on over to TpT and check out this MEGA Sale happening! It ends tonight!

I have got to get busy with this messy house! Being injured for a few weeks, the house work has gotten a *tad* out of hand!!!

Till Next Time

ABC Order

I know this probably comes as a ~huge~ surprise  but I love teaching ABC Order. It's such a great way to challenge students to use their critical thinking skills. My oldest kiddo and I have been working really hard on ABC order  the past few weeks and I wanted to share with you some of the resources we are using! I created a "to go" set of centers. These are small, compact and we can use them ANYWHERE! I made them with Spring Break in mind, because we were road tripping. I gave my kiddo a set of these cards, and he went to town in the back seat! It was perfect because that way they weren't in the backseat watching movies for an entire 8 hours! 

 My ABC-Order-Rings-To-Go-Literacy-Centers are so easy to use. They contain 6 different literacy centers. Four sight word ABC Order centers, one color word set, and one number word set. They are also so easy to make. You just print, laminate and cut! Then, you secure the cards with a binder ring. They are also good for flash reading. You can send these home with your students for extra practice at home! I have these cards on sale through tonight, so get them while they are a little bit cheaper! 

Here is another great resource for Spring and ABC Order! Check out my Spring Literacy and Math Packet Spring-Mega-Literacy-Math-Center-Packet-22-Centers

Also, I am not sure if you've stopped by my Fitness Blog but be sure to check it out! We have several collaborators that are posting helpful fitness and healthy eating tips!

My hubby has asked me about nine times if I've started planning our trip home to the sunshine state this year...I better get to planning because if I don't pencil in Mickey Mouse..he sure as heck won't just appear at our doorstep! 

Thanks, Friends!

Till Next Time