12 Days of Christmas Day 2!

Why do I keep posting these freebies in the middle of the day, you ask? Because I have been at home sick the past 2 days. Yuck! In fact, I got sick on Thanksgiving and still am not over it. Darn germs! BUT, that gives me time to jump in on the 12 days of giving. Yippee!

I am linking up with DeAnne at First Grade and Fabulous again to bring you a Freebie as thanks to you during this Christmas season! Teacher stuff for free! Yippee!

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Today's freebie doesn't really have anything to do with Christmas, though! Sorry! We are doing fairy tales right now, and I noticed lots of fairy tale stuff being pinned on Pinterest, so maybe you are, too. It's another writing activity today, Jack and the Beanstalk style!

It includes a graphic organizer and the final draft paper. Enjoy!

Don't forget the sale at TpT. Today is the last day! My store is 20% off, plus the 10% savings from TpT. Awesomeness!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

12 Days of Christmas Freebie!

I am linking up with DeAnne at First Grade and Fabulous to bring you a Freebie to help celebrate the Christmas season! Teacher stuff for free! Yippee!


Today, my freebie is about writing. I love writing and have been so excited to bring you tons of writing stuff this year. This freebie contains writing papers for your kiddos' final drafts. There are a couple for the beginning of the year about Friends and Pets, one for September and Apple Season, one about Thanksgiving, and one for Christmas. These are just simple writing pages to help supplement your writing. Hope you enjoy!

Click on the page below to get your freebie.

Plus, it's SALE time on Teachers pay Teachers for Cyber Monday! Woohoo! Check out your favorite stores and use the code TPTCYBER to get 10% off. Plus, all my products are 20% off, making that a 30% savings! Fun Fabulous First  

My very popular Writing is Sweet Packet is on sale now. Go check it out!

Along with my newest packet for December. 

Happy TpTing!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

December Already?!

How is this year just about over? How is it Christmas time? How is the school year so far along?  I had so much to get done these few days off for Thanksgiving Break. I didn't do a very good job at getting them done. I kept doing other things that needed done instead. Sigh. So a lot has been going on around here.

First off, I haven't been observed yet! What?! I have been waiting and waiting and waiting. I don't like to wait. I don't like to procrastinate. I like things done. I NEED things done. Waaahhhh. I don't want to be first, but I don't like to be last. In the middle is perfectly perfect. It's especially hard this year because I only get one observation, ONE, and it's a surprise visit. I REALLY don't like surprises. I am little miss planner, after all. Plus, I don't know who is coming. This is pretty much my nightmare, unexpected, unannounced, secret, everything rides on this one visit test. So yeah, I have been a bit stressed and need this done. You hear that people?! I need this done. :)

Second, um, I'm starting my Masters. What?! Yep, it's happening. At least I think it is. I have done my part. Next week I have my interview, and then I guess that is it. Lipscomb, here I come. It's not online. I can't work at my own pace. I have no time, but somehow this is gonna happen. Why do I do this to myself? I just kept finding myself filling out the application, taking an entrance exam, applying for scholarships, etc. It was pretty much an out of body experience. I know I shouldn't do it. I do too much as it is, but at the same time, I want to do it. I NEED to learn. It's in my nature. I guess there are worse things to give my time to.

Good news! I have partnered with Peekapack.It's an educational storybook that comes to children monthly. It's got props, materials for crafts, a learning guide for the grown-ups, etc. It's so cute and perfect for ages 4-8 to bring stories alive. They are offering a freebie e-book right now. Go check it out.

Finally, I have finished my December Printables pack! I added a few more pages. I used pretty much every single page from my November packet and I can't wait to get started on this one. I got tons of good feedback from my 1st grade teammates. I hope you like it just as much!

Here are some of the pages, so you can see what is included. 

Have a good start to December!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Turkey Freebie!

Look! I'm back already with a freebie to boot! I'm on a roll. :)

I made up this writing page really quickly, so I thought I'd share it with you guys.

We read the book Turkey Trouble this week and are writing an opinion piece about what we think the best disguise for a turkey would be. Normally, we would do some cool art project with it, but our writing time is cut so short, so I'm just going to have them draw a picture.

They are SUPER excited about this writing and have some fabulous ideas. I'll try to remember to come back and share when we are done, but for now, here is the freebie for ya! Just click on the picture.

Enjoy!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Venturing into New Territory!

So, this will be a quick post! I know I'm terrible about blogging this year.

Oops! Hello Friends! :)

I have Progress Reports to finish up, so this has got to be quick, but I posted a new product to TpT. I'm so excited about it! I have gotten my feet wet in the world of printable packs. This is my first time doing this type of product, but I think it turned out awesome. At least I hope so!! Guess we will see what you guys think! Haha.

Since it took me longer than I thought, I'm a little late to the November party, so I put it on sale for the next few days.

I have a bazillion pictures and posts to write. Maybe one day.....

Be fun and Fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Spelling

It's always interesting to me to see how everyone does Spelling in their room. It's so varied for each classroom. I have had several teammates ask me lately about my spelling plan, so I thought I'd write it out here.

I want  the kiddos to become better spellers and not just memorize the words for the week. We focus on spelling patterns, rather than the individual words. After practicing the pattern, students should be able to encode the words (spell) and also decode words (read) that follow the same pattern. The goal is to master the spelling pattern and not just memorize individual words. This helps not only in spelling words, but in reading. I also think it's very important to focus ont he meaning of words, so we really delve into what the words mean so they remember it better and can see the pattern in words.

  

We take a spelling pre-test each Friday. These are over the regular words from our Wonders Reading Series for the next week. These words haven't been taught or practiced yet, so I for sure know if they already "get" the spelling pattern. It is a quick pre-test just to see what they already know. If a student gets all of the words correct, then I know that they are familiar with that spelling pattern. I don't want to just test them to be testing them, so I give them challenge words. These words follow the same spelling pattern, but in a harder format with more advanced spelling patterns. For example, if our regular spelling words were short u and we had the word "mud", then a challenge word might be "club", which sticks with the same pattern, but adds a blend to make it more challenging. I like this because I can differentiate spelling just like I do everything else. 

If they have challenge words, I write it on their pre-test, and circle their challenge words on their newsletter and homework, so they know to practice those words for the week. Some weeks, I have several on challenge words, other weeks, I just have a few.

I give the weekly spelling test on Friday after practicing it in class and on their homework. I call my challenge words friends back to my table and I whisper their words to them as I call out the regular words for the rest of the class. I also give everyone mystery words. These are words that they haven't practiced, but go along with the spelling pattern. This way I know for sure that they have mastered the pattern and not just memorized the words. I also give 2 sight words from our weekly story, so they are practicing them each week as well. Finally, I give 2 bonus words. These are much harder words that follow the pattern. They aren't expected to know these words, but if they get it than yippee! I have given bonus points in the past, but the last 2 years, I have just given a skittle for each bonus word they got correct. They LOVE the skittle! Haha! They love the bonus words and can't wait to see what they are each week.

I love doing spelling this way and I love being able to differentiate and make it fun for them. How do you do spelling in your classroom?

My packet this week is all about spelling! Check it out if you'd like some cutesy spelling pages each week.

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney

Famous?

Another month come and gone! What happened to all my free time so I could blog?! I'll catch up one day.

This year is off to a good start. We are settling in to the routine and chugging right along! I can't believe it is the end of the 1st 9 weeks already! Fall Break is next week! Craziness!

We did lots of our fun apple stuff last week. This week is all about Maps and communities. I haven't gotten the pictures off the camera yet, but hey, that's a good reason to blog again this weekend!

This past weekend, my Partner in Crime and I went to the 2nd writing training for SRSD this past weekend. We had to go on a Saturday, which wasn't our favorite thing to do, but we liked getting to hang out with each other anyway.

The day started out great. Partner in Crime ran across an old friend that she had taught with 15 years ago. She was excited about that. Wouldn't you know, she just happened to be our trainer, too!

We got going with the training and everything was moving right along. Because we had already planned out the whole year of writing, there wasn't much more to add, but we did get a few ideas, mostly for the Math portion. Well, listen to what happened!

We were working in partners, looking over our writing examples. Our trainer came over and started talking to us. I don't remember how it happened, but she ended up asking if we had heard about the "Writing is Sweet Packet". Um, yeah, I'd say we had heard of it. I just happened to create it! Haha! I am sure I turned instantly bright red. She couldn't believe I had created it. She told us that it had been the talk of the training the day before. Many people had the packet and were talking about how great it was! What!! I was completely shocked!

Welllll, the trainer proceeded to go over to every group and told them all that I had this fabulous packet for writing that they should check out. Then others started coming over to me saying they used the packet every day and they loved it! What! I was so embarrassed, but so honored at the same time. I had one girl come over and say that I was a celebrity and that she loved my blog and my products. She said she was a TpT groupie and she just couldn't believe that she was meeting me. Hi, TpT Groupie! :) Again, I was shocked. Who would have thought in the anonymous world of the internet, that I would actually be recognized?! I am not used to so much attention, and don't like the attention, so I was definitely out of my comfort zone. Craziness!

I spent the whole day red and embarrassed, but I am so glad that my packet has helped so many! That's my goal with my TpT store, and I guess it's been accomplished.

I don't want to be famous, but I guess if I help a teacher's day be a little bit easier, then I will take it. :)

I made the posters in my pack into their own little packet. I noticed a lot of guidance counselors, principals, and other non-first grade teachers were pinning my posters like crazy. I figured this would be a way for them to get the posters without having to get a whole packet of first grade writing to go along with it. The Positive Self-Talk poster, in particular, is a big hit. Here are some of the posters in case you want to take a look.




Thanks for reading my blog and brightening my day. I am so glad you can use what I put out there. Thank you!!

Be fun and fabulous!

~Mrs. Sweeney