New Domain!!!

I'm finally at a point where I feel comfortable publishing the new site!!!  Yay!  It's not completely filled up yet, but I've put a lot of great stuff on it.  I'm going to leave this post up for the next week or so.  If you visit here often, just know that it will soon redirect you to.....

www.theschoolsupplyaddict.com

Go on.  Check it out.  It's gonna be awesome.  Maybe just for me, but that's ok.  At least I'm staying sane while living 4,000 miles away from home.  :)  Haha.  I hope you find it useful.

PS:  For my handful of followers, you can still subscribe to the new site (rss, email, & facebook).  I bought the site through Google, but am having some issues getting Google Friend Connect to cooperate with me.  If anyone knows a trick, let me know.  

Thanks, 

Ashley

Cheering for the Unibrow

As a UK (Kentucky... not Kansas) graduate, I've been a little preoccupied lately.  There's this big tournament going on.  Maybe you've heard of it?  Hahaha!

My husband and I met at UK and are huge fans.  We've been wearing our blue for the past week and going to bed at odd hours throughout this entire season.  There's a 6 hour time difference, so a 6pm game means midnight to us.  Tonight, we'll be going to bed at 10pm and getting up at 3am for the championship game!  Tomorrow will be interesting.

Anyway, we will be cheering on 'the brow.'  Mr. Anthony Davis... along with the rest of our boys.

  

Yes, we painted a unibrow on one of our nephews.

 

I have to say I'm a little sad that we can't be at home during this crazy time.  We beat down our biggest rival, Louisville, the other day and the city went mad.  Couch-burning type of mad.  I don't get it, but I miss it.  We've had trouble finding a March Madness equivalent over here in Switzerland... maybe the chocolate festival?  

We went skiing this past weekend and had to show our enthusiasm.  It's sad that people think UK means United Kingdom... :(  Here's our team spirit in Chamonix Mont-Blanc, France.  

 

So, needless to say... GO CATS!!!  

Now for a couple of school related items...

• I've been working away on the custom domain I told you about a while back... I know.  I'm way behind (3 weeks) the date I initially gave.  I've been busy and it's been taking a lot of time to get it ready.  I'm pretty excited because I think it's about a week away from being ready to go.  

• My EFL kiddos are working on some Spring things this week.  I couldn't find any word wall cards that I liked, so I went ahead and whipped some up.  There are 80 cards in all: 45 seasonal (weather, plants, animals, etc.) and 35 Easter (including Christian terms).  I even included Peeps and Cadbury eggs.  They're FREE for you!  Yay!  Go to TPT to snag your copy!

Happy Monday! 

Ashley

Vocabulary Sets

I hope everyone's had a great weekend!  We got the chance to go see some dog sled races in the Alps and it was so amazing.  Hundreds of dogs, amazing views, and not a cloud to be seen.  :)

 

 

  How pretty is this guy... and his two different colored eyes?

I've posted 2 new vocabulary sets to TPT in case you're interested (just $2 each).  My kids have been learning about community places recently, so this has been a big help. Click on the picture to go to the listing.

 

The cards are the perfect for word walls, sorting activities, centers, bulletin boards, etc.  I've even included two adaptable templates so you can make your own... in case there's a word that's not included.  Check them out on TPT.  

Here's a free sample of each:

16 pet vocabulary words from the Animal Theme 

21 directional vocabulary words from the Community Theme

Click the Images to Download

     

Have a great Monday!

Ashley

News

I'm a little excited about this.  Since I'm putting a lot of time and energy into this blog and have read a couple of horror stories recently about content being wiped away, I went ahead and purchased my own domain.  I can't really do what I want with just this blog.  I have so many resources and links to share and it (the blog) just isn't as accessible as I want it to be.  I figured I should just bite the bullet.  It was $10 from Google and pretty easy to do.  A little more technologically advanced than I was prepared for, but I worked it out.  I've been working on it throughout the week and here's a little sneak peek...  

Subject Page

Patriotic Theme page... just a little section of it. :)

You'll now be able to go directly to pages with permanent content.  Yay!!!  So, if your looking for resources on  Snow, then you'll go to the snow page... Math ideas?  Go to the math page and then narrow it down by focus.  Want to check out awesome blogs?  Go to the blogs page... with buttons for each blog sorted by category.  There will be something for everything.  Blog posts from me still, subjects, themes, assessment, management, sites/blogs, products, cross curriculum activities, and even Christian resources.  

It's only stuff that I like and think others would use... good looking, well made, useful, and awesome resources.  No ugly things!  I can embed videos, photo galleries, TONS of pictures, and you'll even be able to purchase my products (currently on TPT) in the future via PayPal.

I'm so excited!  My little fingers are working as fast as they can go when I get a chance to work on it.  I expect to have it up very soon.  Hopefully by the middle of March (St. Patty's Day might be a good goal)?  

The site will be www.theschoolsupplyaddict.com of course!

Happy Monday everyone!

Ashley

President's Day Ideas

Some great President's Day resources for you!  I hate reading sometimes, so I like to just do pictures if I can.  Click the links below the picture to go to the source.

Free Printables:

My bingo set!  Free... check it out!

From me as well... word wall cards!  Yay!

How cute is this!?  Go to Fun in First Grade to Download!

Building Words: President's Day (TPT)

Packet: Word search, venn diagram, writing prompt, poem, etc. (TPT)

Vocabulary matching

Crafts:

FreeKidCrafts

Bahahahaha!  How cute!?  

KabooseCrafts

Lincoln Hat

KabooseCrafts

shine.yahoo

Crazy Mommy

A Cupcake for the Teacher

BigActivities

The First Grade Parade

I LOVE this blog.  

FunFamilyCrafts

MNN

The Crafty Classroom

There's something hidden inside this hat... so clever.
Head on over to Fun in First Grade to see!

Another from Fun in First!  Such a fun blog.

Units & packs to check out:

Primary Junction $7.00

Gr. K-3  TONS of great stuff, 174 pages

Rachelle Smith TPT $7.00

K-2  AWESOME pack, 81 pages

Melissa Freshwater TPT $8.00

K-1, Lots of goodies, 81 pages

Other cool stuff:

DoodleBugs Teaching
Are you as tall as Abe?

Making Words

Making words is one of my favorite activities to do in the classroom.  It's perfect for a variety of levels and you can use it with literally anything.  If you don't know what it is then you might want to check out one of these books below... awesome buy.  I promise you'll use it.  I have the second grade one.


I use this activity every other week in my EFL classes because it gets them thinking about what words they already know in English.  Here's how we used it last week:

1.  I adapted this sheet below to say 'happy valentines day' on the bottom.  You can't see my lines very well because I copied it too lightly... :(

  

Tip:  Draw a straight line in the bottom of your boxes if you have kiddos who will mix up P's with D's and U's with N's.  They'll know which way the letters are supposed to face.  

2.  I made enough copies for my kiddos.

3.  When I introduced it, I modeled how to do the activity... cut apart the letters, made blends we've learned, added vowels, etc. until I had made a few short words.  I also wrote my words down.

4.  When I handed it out they got right to work and it took them about 25 minutes to get 20 words.

5.  I made a grid on the whiteboard and invited each student to come up and write 3 words they made... not duplicating words that were already written.  They're o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d. with writing on the board.  I mean obsessed.  So, the ending was their favorite.

There are tons of ways to adapt this activity.  It can be done as whole group, small group, partner work, centers (after they've done it once before), etc.  You can make paper letter tiles each time or use some you already have.  I used little plastic letter tiles when I had this as a cernter.  You can choose any word (6 or more letters works best) and it's easy to make it relate to your current unit of study.  Studying animals?  Use the word animal!  You can even use a phrase... "we love animals."  More words that way!

I even use it with my high school EFL students.  It's great for any English language learner... gets them thinking about all the English words they already know.  I put a minimum letter count so they avoid writing down a ton of short easy words.

Sites to generate lists of words that can be made from a specific word:

ScrabbleFinder.com (up to 12 letters)

WordSolver.net (up to 15 letters)

Wordplays (up to 16 letters)

Wordles (up to 30 letters)

I posted all of the adaptable sheets I use on TPT fo $2.  You'll get a zip file with...

14 recording sheets (similar to the one above, but different styles for various needs

5 different word/letter strips to adapt before copying

1 workmat for the kids (I laminated a few to use when I do this as a center)

Here's a FREE download so you can check one of the sheets out.  This one has adaptable boxes at the bottom.  Just write your letters, copy for students, and they will just cut the strip off the bottom.  :)

Happy weekend everyone!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Vday

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Valentine's day!  I've been away for a few days.  The husband and I went to Barcelona for a weekend trip.  It was our joint birthday & valentine's day gift to each other.  It was about twenty degrees warmer than Geneva, so it was welcomed even though it was still just 45 degrees. I didn't have to wear gloves though!  Beautiful city.  I think I could live there and eat tapas for the rest of my life.  Soooo yum.

Our Valentine's day wasn't overly exciting yesterday.  We made pizza together and cuddled up on the couch.  We've never been huge vday people.  It's kind of weird... cute... but weird.  We try to show our love, eat chocolate, drink wine, and buy flowers weekly.  No sense in waiting all year for only one day of it.  I always love reading the posts on Facebook from the Valentine's Day haters.  It's so entertaining.

Anyway, I just posted another FREE Bingo set to TPT... it's St. Patrick's Day!  I'm getting excited.  It's such a fun holiday!  You can click the picture to download here or go to TPT and snag it.  I should mention that green beer is not one of the images despite being an integral part of any St. Patty's Day celebration. I have a St. Patrick's Day post coming soon with more fun ideas.

I'm also working on some fun adaptable labels & sign sets with cute borders.  I currently use them for word wall words, vocabulary sets, and a ton of other stuff.  I should be done this week (with two patterns).  I will post a Freebie for you to check out and the whole pack on TPT.  I've got a ton of cute border patterns and colors!!!  So exciting! 

Happy hump day!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Valentine's Day Bingo

Valentine's Day is coming!  Here's a FREE Valentine's Day bingo set in case you need a little fun.  My kids always loved it.

It includes:

24 different cards (20 different images)

6 bingo game example cards (up & down, across, diagonal, 4 corner, postage stamp, & cover)

20 small picture 'call cards'

20 large picture 'call cards'

20 word 'call cards'

Click to download!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll

Dental Health Ideas

It's that time of year again!  Here are some amazing resources I've come across that can help you teach all about teeth...

Click on the pictures to go get these awesome resources!

By Edible Crafts
How cute are these?!  Of course I find the food first.


Paint with toothbrushes

Crest teaching materials



Lots of cute Pre-K dental stuff!

Colgate resources for teachers, parents, & kids



Awesome website with diagrams, vocabulary, and more


Crocodile Dentist
~$10 on Amazon  Remember this little guy?  Loved him!  You could create an educational card game to go along with the regular version.



Edible Crafts
Marshmallows, red tongue, movable mouth

A kid-friendly site to explore... maybe make a little 'treasure hunt'?

Tooth Brush Game

You're the zoo's 'tooth brusher'

Art and Fun

Make a set of teeth... Gross or cool?

Lots of cute online dental games

family.go.com

DIY Toothbrush Bracelet: Start for Streetlights
Boil old toothbrush, bend

Mrs. Wheeler's First Grade

A great unit and a free little booklet of poems, songs, etc.

~$17 Pearly Whites Dental Health Game

Listerine Agent Cool Blue

Tints teeth blue so kids brush more thoroughly

Made for 1st Grade (TPT Store)

$8 pack of centers, 81 pages... looks awesome.

Clutter Free Classrom (TPT Store)

$3.95 pack of K-5 differentiated materials 

Smart Chick (TPT Store)

$1.50 Grades 4-6 Enamel experiment packet

Cara Carrol (TPT Store)

$3.50 for 42 pages of center activities (K-2)

Human Tooth
~$18 on Amazon

Whoa... awesome.
$34.95 at Lakeshore

Get some of those ugly fake teeth... hilarious picture about dental awareness?


  
     

Ok, that's all!  Hopefully you can use some of these.  I'll update this post if I come across any more fun things!

{ashley}lllllllllllllll