What I'm Doing and What I Got For YOU Today!

Thanks for the tips on the teacher bag!  It looks like the 31 bag is a must have for me!  I actually have one of the utility totes that I got from a parent for Christmas last year... I never thought of using that for my teaching stuff, but I'm going to give it a try.  The one I really want is the "Cindy".

Now... what I'm doing...

I've been using spelling "boxes" as the format for my spelling tests this year.  You know- the boxes where there are tall boxes for letters like d and b and long boxes for things like g and y.  It has greatly helped my visual learners and has helped my kiddos so much.

Well, I've been re-vamping my spelling stuff for TpT and it has been a HUGE undertaking.  That's what I was asking for feedback on yesterday.  Well, it turns out that Adobe wasn't embedding my fonts into the documents so now I have to do Word Art to bypass that... which means sizing each piece of Word Art.  But wait!  If I print it with PrimoPDF, it appears to accept the font!



So far, I have Unit 5 and 6 completed for first grade.

So... now (four hours later) I am done with first grade!  I'll be putting it up on TpT and Teacher's Notebook later tonight... I would be so thankful if a 1st grade Treasures user would agree to look at every single one of these packets... it's 252 pages in all... just to make sure everything is correct as, after about 10 hours total of working on this, my brain is totally FRIED!  Which would also mean you're getting it for free!  Drop me a comment with your e-mail if you would do that.  And, I hate to be pushy, but the sooner the better!

It looks something like this:

Each week has word cards (for a word wall or focus wall or sorting activity center or whatever!), two different word lists (vertical and horizontal), spelling handwriting practice, a practice page for writing words in frames, and then the spelling test form.  I have my kiddos write a sentence each week on their test.  Sometimes I dictate it, but most of the time they can write whatever they want.  They have to use at least one spelling word and I check the sentence for caps and ends and spelling.

You could use the lines for whatever- have them write more words that follow the spelling pattern, do a grammar check for the week, have them correct a sentence, etc...

So... I'll be working on Units 1-4 today for 1st grade and *hopefully* I can get them done!

Now... what I got for YOU today...!

Learning Resources sent me a package... here's what is inside:

A "Luna" document camera (which Rachel is having a giveaway for on her blog RIGHT NOW!!!), an Easi-Speak USB recorder, and a "HearAll" voice recorder!  Over the next few weeks, I'll be testing each of them out in my classroom and then offering you one for free as part of a giveaway!

I am so excited!  I'll also be getting another item in the mail to do a test and giveaway with... more on that later but I think you'll love it!

Alright- off to work on the spelling stuff!  Have a good Thursday!