Visual Plans: Better Late than Never!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks so I am going to keep this short. Trying to tie up all of our units so that the 4 1/2 day break does not completely mess with my firsties brains. One Thanksgiving dinner down, and two more to go! I signed my husband and I up for a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning so that should be fun. Then we are spending the day with our cousins. It will be the first Thanksgiving that we are not spending with either set of our parents, but we just couldn't justify traveling home for the 10th time in 2013 when we are going home in another few weeks for Christmas. Then Saturday we are hosting our 2nd annual Friends-giving with 25-30 of our friends! Should be much fun!!

Possible delay or snow day tomorrow in NOVA? We'll see...better where my PJ's inside out!

Tieks for my FOLLOWERS!!!

...well a discount anyway! I bought my first pair of tieks about a month or so ago and I love them. They took a week to break in and at first I was not convinced, but then they literally just stared molding to my feet. I wear them almost every day to school and my feet never hurt at the end of the day.

So, I can send this discount opportunity on to four people...be one of the first four and I will email it along. All you have to do is email it to four of your friends and get them in on the discount too! No purchase necessary, just share four friends emails and then you will receive a code in your email for 20% off! And if you are as crazy on a promo code hunter as I am, you know that it is NEAR impossible to find one for Tieks!

I am thinking I will use my code for these:

CHESTNUT!

ALSO...come back soon to be the winner of a Polar Express Packet freebie! 

H is for Helpful Hints (We are THANK ful for Linky Party)

I'm linking up again with Blog Hoppin' for their Linky Party: We are THANK ful for...and today's post is...

I mentioned in my post yesterday to make sure you stopped in for today's helpful hints! Here are my Top Three Helpful Hints for Teachers:

I have been teaching on and off for the past 5 years...every grade K-6. Last year was my first ever FULL year of being a full time teacher. But not matter how long you've been teaching, it will always be important to plan ahead. This has always been a goal of mine each year: plan ahead at least one week. Not until this year, when I found an amazing linky party, have I been so organized in my planning. I am always a week, if not two weeks planned ahead because I am obsessed with creating and blogging with my Visual Plans. There are easy to make, but for your convenience, I uploaded by template on TpT. Click on Hint #1 to go and download it.

A few of my followers have asked me how I make my TpT products...so here you go! Click on Hint #2 for the download.

And last but certainly not least, Donors Choose! This website used to confuse me soooo much and I would get frustrated and give up. Well it is updated in the last few months and now is SUPER easy to create a project. I am currently running a project for an iPad for my classroom. You can now put things in a project from Amazon, Best Buy and Scholastic. Before it was only teacher stores like LakeShore and others. Took me less than 30 minutes to get this project up and ready to go. You can share the project link on your facebook and friends and family can donate as well. Check it out!

Come back tomorrow and check out my post for:

Wednesday:  ACTIVITIES LIKE... We will post about activities that we just love doing in our classrooms!  Show us those WOW lessons!

Visual Plans and THANK ful For Linky Parties!

WOW! The 3-day weekend sure did go by back. Had a few outings including a birthday party and baptism to fill our weekend with friends and family. I also had a chance to make a couple new TpT products...and as always...be one of the first five people to comment and you can choose which monthly addition practice packet you would like to have as a freebie!

JUST A COUPLE OF LINKY PARTIES!

I love when the bloggers that I follow create new linky parties. This week I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for We are THANKful for...

TIME-SAVERS: Both my husband I are teachers...we like to be at school at least an hour early in hopes that we can both get home and pick up our daughter Addy by 4:30pm. Well that barely ever happens, especially the first nine weeks. So we rely on the crockpot for several meals a week. It is pretty amazing to only have to put the ingredients in and then come home to a wonderful smell and dinner already prepared! 

My other time-saver is TeachersPayTeachers! It truly is a teacher's best friend. Not only does it save time so that I do not have to re-invent the wheel, it is always a great little money maker!

Stop in tomorrow for some HELPFUL Hints! Especially if you are just dying to know how I make my TpT products!

WHOA! Lots of things going on in the post, but I just want to get them all done tonight! Let me leave you with a few things...

Happy Birthday to those in the Marine Corp! I hope that everyone was able to take a second today to remember those that have fought for us and that are still fighting for our freedoms. Veteran's Day is a welcome day off, but let's not forget why!

Make sure you go check out the AMAZING giveaways going on over at one of the blogs (and 14 others!) I follow. They are giving away 3 $100 gift cards (Amazon, TpT and Target) and each of the 15 bloggers that are hosting the giveaway have their own giveaways on their own blogs (think Starbucks, more Amazon, TpT products, Home Depot, Michaels, etc.!!)

Last but not least...I leave you with what I am most THANKFUL for...My Family!

Visual Plans and Autumn Literacy Bundle!

Well I have been QUITE busy today with creating a new TpT bundle and my visual plans...phew...I am exhausted! Good thing I don't have students back in the classroom until Wednesday! I have been looking forward to this week since school began and I realized how much more I should have done over the summer. So tomorrow I will be spending the majority of the day printing, laminating, and sorting my new literacy centers including the 10 from my new TpT bundle: Autumn Math and Literacy Centers Bundle!

Which includes the following 10 centers:

...and because I am so tired...I leave you with my visual plans and nothing more for today...

Oh, AND I watched my first Hallmark holiday movie today...A rerun from last year, but I love it!

and of course, as I always do...the first FIVE people to comment with get the new TpT bundle for free...you'll be able to check it out, preview it and let me know if it needs any edits!

Happy Halloween & November Currently!

 I CAN'T believe that it is November already...went to the store today and of course there are Christmas things EVERYWHERE! But, I have to say that I am super excited about Thanksgiving and the holiday season! The smells, the family and friends, the food (oh boy I better start running more!). So because it is November, of course I am linking up with Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for Currently...

Listening: Always General Hospital! But I created my currently earlier today, so now I am listening to The Heat with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy...hilarious!

Loving: Today was the kick off on the Hallmark Channel for holiday movies! I have a bunch all ready to record to my DVR and a couple of my girlfriends are coming over tomorrow night to watch one!

Thinking: My calendar wall is A MaZing, I have to say.  It reminds me of doing calendar when I was in school, but it takes up A LOT of space. I don't have much wall space and the only bulletin board in the front of the room is used for calendar. I was thinking about moving to an electronic version. Any thoughts?

Wanting: I need to change my room around. My colleague on my team decided to get rid of her teacher desk because she didn't really use it. Honestly, mine just collects paperwork and photos. So I thought about moving it out and doing some rearranging during our teacher work day on Monday. My room is so small with 28 students that I would love to have more space!

Needing: A full day of planning with my team. We have a 45 minute planning period every day, but we ALWAYS have meetings of some kind. We all come into school by 7:30am (students come in at 8:45), but we just have so much to do that we don't have a lot of time to plan. Our weekly meeting usually is packed full of business talk instead of planning. I would LOVE to have an extra plan period once a six day cycle. And I think my students should be in the computer lab or library during that time.

A Yummy Pin from:

Might have to make these for our 2nd Annual Friends-Giving!

And I leave you with a little peek at our Halloween!