Featured Teacher Tuesday - Week 3

Our fabulous first grade teacher this week for "Featured Teacher Tuesday" is... Jenny Kramer!

Do you use songs in your classroom? If not, now’s the time to start! Introducing Jenny Kramer, also known as “Miss Jenny.” Her “Edutunes” make singing with children as simple as pressing “play”—No musical experience necessary!

Teachers Pay Teachers Store

Jenny began creating her “Edu-tunes” nineteen years ago, after learning about the research. According to study after study, children learn more, remember more, and ENJOY learning more with educational songs. Along with teaching full-time for almost two decades, “Miss Jenny” has piloted her songs with 80 teachers and 1500 students South Bay Union School District in San Diego, CA. She has also given professional development speeches across the U.S. for the Bureau of Education and Research, the Institute for Educational Development, and Staff Development for Educators. Her work inside the classroom, along with her work with other professionals, has helped her to make the songs truly teacher-friendly, fun for kids, and effective as learning tools.

Halloween Literacy Fun

Jenny just created a NEW “Halloween” song, along with lots of materials to promote literacy. Preview her new song here, or click here for her giant DELUXE “Halloween Literacy Fun” package, including the song and dozens of additional materials—currently on sale for 50% off!

Common Core 1st Grade Math

Miss Jenny’s “Edutunes” educational songs help children to learn every aspect of the curriculum. Common Core 1st Grade Math teaches EVERY SINGLE first grade standard in 38 songs. You can listen to song samples here.

Phonics Time

Her Phonics Time CD-book set teaches everything from simple letters and sounds to advanced phonics concepts through 28 songs.

Ready for some FREEBIES?

Magic "E"

Miss Jenny has posted the “Magic E” song from Phonics Time for FREE here.

She is also giving away her “Butterfly” song and packet for a limited time here.

This fun song—complete with motions—makes high-level concepts comprehensible to young children.

Miss Jenny has started giving MONTHLY $25 TpT Give-Aways. You can enter to win in 5 ways:

1. Follow her on TPT.
2. “Like” Edutunes.com, Inc. on Facebook.
3. Follow her boards on Pinterest.
4. Follow her on YouTube, where she has over 1,000,000 views!!!
5. Check out her blog here.

Finally, send a note in response to her blog, or to missjenny@edutunes.com, to let her know you want to enter 5 times.

Happy Singing!

Caring, Sharing, and Preparing: Advice from Amber

Holy guacamole!  I actually did it!  I posted two weeks in a row with a blogging idea that I had (to post a weekly teacher tip).  Go me.  Hehehe.  Now let's see if I can go for three weeks...

So here is my quick tip:  When your students have birthdays, recognize them "publicly" by placing some sort of sign in the hallway for all to see.  (Not going to lie - I stole borrowed this idea from one of my fabulous first grade teammates, but this is my rendition of it - see below.)

I used a memo board that I already had, stuck some birthday trim around the edge, displayed the birthday printables that I use for Open House photos, and then placed the memo board on a stepping stool.  When my birthday kiddos approach our classroom door, they are greeted with this.  How is that for CARING!?  :)

In addition, my students get a birthday card, "balloon," book, treasure chest toy, toothbrush (I know...random...I found them on clearance in the Dollar Spot at Target), sticker for their shirt, and a crown to wear on their heads.  I also offer the birthday vest that they can borrow for the day and I take their picture holding a toy birthday cake.  Their pictures get posted on our (private / closed) Facebook page for our parents  and family members to see.

What do YOU do to honor your students on their birthdays?  I would love for you to share your ideas in the comments section below!

Thanks for stopping by!

Trendy Teacher Linky Party

This is what my bed looks like every Sunday.  I love picking out my clothes for the week as it makes me feel that much more prepared!

dress and leggings - Old Navy

cardigan - New York and Company

shoes - Nine West

necklace - boutique in Spain

ring - Old Navy

earrings - Kohls

belt - I can't remember!

red ballet flats - Old Navy

grey dress pants - The Gap

white button-down shirt - Ralph Lauren

"Reading Rocks" shirt - I bought this at a reading convention a few years ago.

necklace - Banana Republic

I.love.these.shoes.  I bought them on clearance at Charming Charlies.

watch - Fossil

t-shirt bracelet - local artist / crafter

purple collared shirt - H&M

cable knit short-sleeved shirt - The Gap

khaki capris - Old Navy (I think)

Thanks for stopping by!  :)  Be sure to stop by the Trendy Teachers linky party to check out other cutie patootie outfits to inspire you!

Featured Teacher Tuesday - Week 2

It is time for another week of Featured (First Grade) Teacher Tuesday!  Our teacher in the spotlight: Liana Davis.

Liana Davis from "Love Learning with Liana" is living her dream as a first grade teacher. All her life, she has dreamt of teaching little kids to dream big and love learning, and her dream has been a reality for 4 years now! She teaches with the core concept of providing social justice to students that were just like her when she was a child. An immigrant, a non-native English speaker, and from a family that lived modestly.  She knows that every student has the capacity to learn, and she harnesses that ability to see her students shine. To read more about her teaching philosophy, you can read it HERE!

Only two of her 4 years teaching have been in first grade, but she couldn’t imagine teaching anything else. She loves the unscripted feel of first grade.  Besides first, she has also taught Kindergarten, and high school English.

Liana is also a newlywed, and she got married in January 2015 to her college/bible study sweetheart. If you would like to see pictures from her wedding, click HERE.  At that time, she was teaching high school English, and she didn’t spend quite as much time cutting, pasting, and creating fun activities for a primary classroom.  With so much free time on her hands, March 2015, she decided to sell on TPT. She was always creating products for her classroom, and she thought why not share them with the world!

If you know Liana, then you know that she never sits still, much like every other teacher who takes on the task of teaching full time, blogging about it, and creating products for Teachers Pay Teachers. To find Liana’s store, click HERE!

Other than teaching, blogging, and TPT, she loves to spend time with her family in Los Angeles, and explore her new city with her new husband in San Diego.

Liana’s most popular product is the Book Report for Grades 1-3.

Her latest two products are Unit 2: Addition Math Printables...

...and Fall Fluency, Phonics, and Writing Activities.

Wanna know more and have access to freebies?! Follow her at:

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lovelearningwithliana

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lovelearningwithliana

Teachers Pay Teachers: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Love-Learning-With-Liana

Blog: http://lovelearningwithliana.blogspot.com/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lovelearnliana/

Bloglovin:https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/love-learning-with-liana-14331685?/

Email: lnazaret@gmail.com

Be sure to stop by again next Tuesday for our next fabulous featured first grade teacher! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Caring, Sharing, and Preparing: Advice from Amber

Anyone who knows me as a teacher knows that I LOVE to share!  I like to share my books (I have too many to count...my book app stopped counting at 1,000), my products, my resources, my ideas...anything that will be helpful to another teacher.  After all, none of it is any good if it is kept to myself.  Sharing is caring!

My hope is to share a teacher tip or idea with you each week.  I know this might not seem like much to those of you who blog often, but for me, it would be an improvement from the status quo.

Every morning, I greet each of my students at our classroom door.  Wherever they stand gives me a clue about how they want to be greeted:

number 5 = high five

heart = hug

hand = handshake

smiley face = just a smile (no touching)

After I greet each student, they get to do something fun.  Here is an example: the secret password.  They have to check the secret password and whisper it in my ear before they can enter the classroom.  (This week, I am using CVC words, but in the past, I have done numbers, equations, high-frequency words...)

Here are some other fun activities my students have done this year as they cross our threshold:

 * pop bubbles (I have done this from a wand and also from a bubble machine.)

* walk the red carpet (I have 3 red bathroom mats that I lay down.  In years past, I have also offered the students over-sized glasses, feather boas, and other fancy accessories.  Bonus - Pump up some music during this threshold activity!)

* crawl though a tunnel (I have one of those spring tunnels.) 

* answer a trivia question (I use a stack of 1st grade trivia cards that I found in Target's Dollar Spot.)

I used to have a slide for my Kindergarten students last year, but my first graders were too big for it.

I also used to have a blow-up limbo stick, but one of my Kinders popped it last year.  :(

Be creative with your threshold activities!  As long as your integrating that "joy factor" into your school day and putting a smile on your students' faces... mission accomplished.

Do YOU have any cool threshold activity ideas to share?  I would love to hear them!  Please comment below!

As always, thanks for stopping by!  :)

Trendy Teacher Linky Party

First let me say...I'm so sorry for the terrible lighting in these pictures!  You should have seen me running around between the bedroom, bathroom, and hallway...trying to figure out how to take a picture without the blinding light in the background.  No luck.

My goal is to get ready for the day BEFORE my husband leaves for work, so he can take the picture for me.  So far I've been unsuccessful, but I'll work on it!

This was a simple outfit.  Not exactly my favorite, but here it is anyway.

shoes - Nine West

khakis - Jimmyz

button-down shirt - Ralph Lauren

necklace - Hmmm...I can't remember!

 My husband hates this skirt, but I love it!

shoes - Aldo

purple tights - Old Navy

skirt - Express...though I found it on clearance at TJ Maxx for $5 - woot woot!

shirt - Banana Republic

necklace - $3 on clearance at Wal-Mart - yeah baby!

We had Parent / Teacher Conferences yesterday and today (after full days with students) in the evenings, so I decided to look a bit more professional.

shoes - Hmmm...not sure.  I think Old Navy.

black pants - Express

tank top - Banana Republic

blazer - Banana Republic

necklace - I bought it in Spain.  :)

boots - Aldo

black pants - New York and Company

dress - Express

cardigan - Banana Republic

necklace and earrings - Lia Sophia

I am sooooo looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow (our school district does not have school on Fridays of P/T Conference weeks)!  Well...sleeping in as long as my three year-old will allow at least.

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Featured Teacher Tuesday - Week 1

This week’s featured teachers are Samantha Gibby and Lisa Fain.  They are the Primary Sisters!

 (http://theprimarysisters.blogspot.com/)

 Just like their blog name says, Samantha and Lisa are two sisters who teach first grade at the same school in a small town in North Carolina. They feel so blessed to get to teach with each other every day. 

Their TPT adventure began last summer. As Samantha and Lisa were sitting in a hot tub at the Outer Banks, they began to think of resources they needed to best compliment their Words Their Way spelling instruction. You can check out some of the their short vowel word work packs in their TPT Store.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Short-e-vowel-word-work-2008512

 Since July, they have been busy creating products.  The Primary Sisters said no one told them how addicting it (creating products) can be, especially when colleagues come in and say, "Okay, this is great; thanks for making this!"  Even though they are far from their first TPT million, the excitement of creating materials that meet their students needs has been the force that keeps them going. 

Samantha and Lisa are both married and they both have 3 children each.  Their oldest sons are in college at NCSU and Appalachian State, but they are still busy with their other teenagers who cheer and play football for their local high school. They enjoy being active in their churches, traveling, feeding the football team each Friday night and surfing the internet.  They feel so blessed to be on this awesome journey and are thankful for the wonderful teacher friends they are making along the way. 

These sisters are always looking for ways to make learning fun and hands-on.  One of their newest products is a Halloween-themed Boo game working with sight words and math printables working with sums up to 12.  Check them out here!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/No-Prep-Halloween-Themed-Count-and-Color-

Math-Printables-2122240

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-BOO-Game-2115939

 Enjoy these freebies. Students will love these hands-on CVC word wheels.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/No-Prep-CVC-Short-A-Word-Family-Wheels-2095979

AND Sight Word Roll Say Keep is a great addition to any literacy station.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Roll-Say-Keep-Game-with-Dolch-Words-2072369

Be sure to follow these creative sisters on...

Instagram: https://instagram.com/theprimarysisters/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrimarySisters?ref=hl

TPT: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Primary-Sisters

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/theprimarysiste/

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to check back next week for another round of Featured Teacher Tuesday!

Trendy Teacher Linky Party - Say What!?

I really do not have the "extra time" (Does that even exist in a teacher's world?) to be writing this blog post right now, but...did you hear about this!?

I was thinking this past summer that I wanted to host a linky party like this because I wasn't able to find anything out there already.  Of course, I never got around to it (we all know what that back-to-school chaos is like), but it all worked out thanks to Lindsey, Caitlin, Brittany, and Chandra!

Unfortunately because I just learned about this linky party tonight, I don't really have any recent photos to show.  (I will do my homework for next week though!)  However, I do have a couple of snapshots that I randomly took during those Teacher Work Days in August.

necklace - Walmart on clearance baby!

dress - H&M

leggings - Old Navy

shoes- Aldo

(dress and cardigan on the right are from Banana Republic)

t-shirt - Ralph Lauren

shorts - H&M

shoes - Aldo

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to link up if you have an outfit or two that you want to share!  :)