Back to School Teacher Clothes Giveaway! {LulaRoe Party Time}

It's a Back to School Sale - Teacher Clothes Edition!  My BFF is a LulaRoe consultant and we are teaming up to bring you a party of epicness!   I'm passing all my hostess presents on to lucky winners in the form of giveaways.

A little background...

Kia stared selling LulaRoe this past December, and I was hooked from the beginning.  I basically wear it almost everyday.  It's comfortable, affordable, and looks professional.  What are my favorites in their line of clothing?  

Irmas and Leggings

Irmas are a longer shirt that completely cover your rump.  I don't have to be self conscious. Best part - you go down 2 sizes for the perfect fit.  :)  Leggings are called Butter Leggings because they are so soft, like you want to keep feeling your legs (but you can't because it would look weird).  

Classic Tees

These are perfect to wear with pants, capris, and jeans.  I love that they are a little longer in length, so you don't have to worry about your shirt lifting up when you are erasing the board, hanging up papers  on the bulletin board, or when you are leaning over to help a student.  

Perfect Tees

This is my new favorite - I love that these are roomy around the belly and are so form flattering.  I can wear these with leggings, pants, or skirts.  

Maxi Skirts and Azure Skirts

Both kinds of skirts have that stretchy top that makes them super comfy.  

There are so many other styles, but I haven't tried them yet, like these Amelia dresses.  Absolutely darling and perfect for a busy day!

 

Here are some perfect, comfortable looks for the classroom:

Skirts, tops, and leggings...

LulaRoe is famous for their choices of patterns.

Get ready for this weekend's FB party sale - Go and follow her Facebook group so you are prepared... Everything starts bright and early (PST time) on Saturday morning.  

I LOVE Back to School! {Giveaway}

It's official!  Summer is over. I was at a training this last week, but today I get to start setting up my classroom for this coming school year.  District meetings start later on this coming week.  The fun is about to begin!  

Several of us bloggers have come together to give you some awesome ideas for Back to School Books! These books can be used to set up your classroom community, begin a good lesson, or just as a fun read-aloud.

The book I'd like to share with you is...

I read this book every year with my 4th graders during the first 2 weeks of the school year.  It is set up as a picture book, with one story for each habit.  Each day I take about a half an hour to read the story full class, and go through the discussion questions afterward.  We complete an activity together as we read - sometimes we create our own skits to show comprehension, sometimes we draw a picture, write up a goal, etc... something to turn the habit into something personal to easily remember.   In my classroom, I then display these posters (one per day) as a way to remind students of the Healthy Habits we have learned, as well as our Character Pillars and Classroom Rules.

Have you heard? Teachers Pay Teachers is having a site-wide Back to School Sale August 3rd and 4th, so you will be able to get the Eagles Classroom Poster Pack 28% off using the promo code BTS15!

We know what else really "lights a fire" in you, and that is fabulous technology! We are giving away a brand new Kindle Fire HD6 to one lucky winner! 

Enter the rafflecopter below by hopping through each of our blogs and entering the secret word that can be found on the tablet in each of our posts. Also make sure to follow our TPT stores because the winner will be announced through a message in your TPT inbox! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We are also giving away a $25 gift certificate to Creative Teaching Press!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! We hope you have a successful start to your school year! 

Let's Be Stress Free! {Tips and Giveaway}

Stress Free... What is that again?  It's that time of year again when deadlines are quickly approaching, my class is presently testing, and Open House is one week away!  Can we take a moment and all scream!?!  So how do I keep sane, especially when I am never alone?

At home I keep things pretty organized (as much as possible) with 3 boys - ages 11, 8, and 5.  We have a shoe cubby thing that the boys know to put their stuff away.  I finally learned to do each boys' laundry separately so it was easy to toss all their belongings from hamper to machines to basket, and it took away the sorting aspect.  Each boy has their own "desk" (it's really just a folding table), but it keeps all their paperwork in one place.  Our downstairs hall closet has been taken over with toy organization, and the whole mentality of "out of sight, out of mind" keeps me sane.  My boys do a lot around the house in terms of chores - dishwasher, pets, laundry away, dusting, cleaning up, yard work.  It's nice not being the only one that is tackling the house anymore. :)    

At school it's the same kind of thing.  I need to keep things in their own place, and the kids have to take responsibility for cleaning up.  I'm wrapping up my 15th year of teaching, so by now some spring type of things are just routine.  I know what I need to buy before vacation, what I need to copy for next year, what I need to plan for... I'm organized like that.  I also know that when I get stressed I get forgetful and things get overlooked, which led me to last year creating an end of the year binder to keep all my random lists together.  I shared this freebie over on Google Docs last year, so I wanted to share it again.  These are 5 pages from my full pack, I hope it helps!   

  

   

   

Here's the whole pack if you want to take a peek.  Just click the picture.

When things get super stressful I always try to plan on splurging on a massage or doing something for myself.  I love taking a moment to leave campus for lunch or going to treat myself to a Wild Berry Refresher.  As teachers we work SOOO hard all year, and deserve a little relaxation.  

Now a bunch of my blogging buddies have gotten together to give you a pretty big giveaway.  4 prizes!  Yes, FOUR!! (pretend I'm yelling in a megaphone).  Make sure you click the arrows to see all the prizes and enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There are also tons of other tips that might help you, so please check out the other blogs too!  Have a wonderful day!

Celebration Time - Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

It has been an awesome Spring Break!  I really couldn't have asked for a better one.  I have loved all the support and encouragement over on FB and here on the blog with my fun TPT news.  :)  I hope you will be able to use the freebies and that my TPT sale helped too!  To wrap up this week of celebrating, my blogging friends have helped me with an Amazon Gift Card Giveaway.  We all chipped in money to grab a $70 gift card for one lucky winner!

Yes, Amazon!  I'm sure there are tons of things you want either for your classroom, or just for YOU!  It's easy to enter, just make sure you are following all the stores and blogs in the Rafflecopter.  Rafflecopter will choose a random winner as of midnight on Monday.  We hope it's you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks again for everything!  

Super Hero Time!

Teachers really are superheroes!

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/287174913713242202/

My most favorite teacher (other than my mom) was my 2nd and 3rd grade teacher Mrs. VanMastrigt.  She was firm, but she LOVED us, and pushed us to excel.  I already wanted to be a teacher, but meeting her sealed the deal.   She made teaching look easy...  It wasn't until I had my own classroom that I realized how much teachers do besides teaching.  I'm sure you can relate...

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/284852745155071067/

This coming Wednesday, TeachersPayTeachers is having a quick, one-day sale in honor of all the Super Hero Teachers out there.  Several TpT teacher-authors will have their stores at 20% off, and then you can add an additional 10% off when you enter the code HEROES at checkout!  Super Savings!

I want to say thank you as well to my TPT followers.  I have a freebie that I will be sending via a google doc link to your TPT inbox later on this week.  Please make sure that you are following me over there so you will receive the limited time freebie.  I assure you - it's Super-tastic!  

My Best Blogging Buddies (my BBB's) want to help you find "heroic" products that have helped others in their classrooms. I love hearing how my products work in your classrooms, so I wanted to share some fabulous feedback on one of my bundles.

I wanted to give a shout out about my Whole Class Writing Journals.  They are by far the best thing that has happened in my classroom over the past 4 years.  Every year the kids LOVE writing, and learning about our classmates.  I've shared about them before, I just wanted to tell you that they are still working great.

The premise behind them are that they are community journals.  The covers are easy to print off, glue on the top of spiral notebooks, and they are ready to go.  I have the journals in 2 baskets in my writing center.  During writing time, when students are done with our writing activity or when it's workshop time, they grab a topic to write in.  Throughout the year they write in all of them, each student has their own page in the book.  During silent reading time the students can choose to read the journals and learn more about their classmates.

I contribute the journals as helping students form friendships, as they are helping students make connections with each other.

It always makes me happy to read how they are working in other classrooms.  I chose 4 out of the many feedback comments to share with you.  I'm so glad that people like them!

Click on the image above or {here} to go to the bundle.

Browse around the linky for other "heroic" products, or feel free to grab the graphic and link up your own!

Link-Up Steps

1. Link to a post containing one heroic product and its feedback. Use the graphic if you wish. (No direct links to stores or products, please.)

1. Include the linky button and link it back to this post so others may find great "heroic" products.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Life in the Classroom {Giveaway and Donors Choose}

I love my classroom.  I really do.  It makes me happy.  So much blue and green on the walls that calms my soul.  I realized the other day that I don't know if I ever really showed you a picture of my classroom since the very beginning of school.  Well here are 2 overviews of the room.  It's not a perfect picture, goodness I just realized that one of my kid's whiteboard rags is on the floor... but that's life, right?  

Things I love about this room:

*The colors - the blue and green fabric have lasted for years, and they still make me happy.

*The space - I can arrange the desks in so many ways.

*The 3 drawer storage drawers that line the side and back of my room.  I bought the Sterilite containers over a few summers, but now I'm so organized.  The kids know exactly where to put things back and where to find things. 

*Room for a carpet area - The ability to sit as a group on the ground.

I love so much about the room itself, and that's not even including all the kiddos that I get to work with every day.  

Over on FB, I'm having a giveaway.  Just find the post with my classroom picture, and leave a picture of your own classroom in the comments.  I'll choose a random classroom on Thursday afternoon at 5pm, and the winner can choose whatever task card or research set that he or she wants from my store.  

I'm also looking for help funding my Donor's Choose project.  I just created a new one last night - a class set of Boogie Boards, and this week all donations can be matched by Disney by using the promo code DISNEY.  Please consider helping my class, and get a tax write off in the process!  

Thank you!