Math Fluency Common Core Pack!

I am so excited to unveil my latest creation for my kiddos... a pet shop themed math workstation pack that is aligned to the 2nd grade Common Core!  Of course, my firsties will be using this too as some of them are ready to do the centers in the set.

The pack is 62 pages and has 7 different centers!

Tonight I'm going to see "In the Heights" and I am SOOOO excited!  I've been memorizing the soundtrack for a month and can't wait!  Next month we have "Jersey Boys" AND "Memphis" (which we saw in NYC last summer and it was AMAZING!!!).  Anyway, I want to share my joy of the theater with you in a weird little way that doesn't really convey anything about the theater, but is still me sharing something none-the-less.  I'll have this pack- and all the rest of my math stuff- on sale for 20% off in my shop for the weekend... AND... I'll choose 2 random winners tomorrow to receive the pack for free!

Just leave a comment and say something for a chance to win!  Preferential treatment will be given to a comment relating to musical theater!  :)  Just kidding!

Giveaway Time!

I'm doing a little impromptu giveaway because... well, just because!

I have a few bloggy things to celebrate... first, I haven't had a giveaway to celebrate new followers in a while, my blog Facebook just hit 731 followers (thanks to that "and 1"!), and the "flippy book" thing has exploded and I want to share them with you if you haven't seen them yet!

This giveaway doesn't have a definite "end" time (am I breaking a giveaway taboo? I don't know!)... I'm just going to see what the response is, but it will definitely be before the end of the weekend. And you can enter as much (or as little!) as you like... it will require you to leave lots of comments, but if you want to, go right ahead! Each comment is one entry.

To enter:
1.) Leave a comment giving an idea for a new flippy book... something that wouldn't be too crazy to put on a single page.
2.) Leave a comment saying you "like" my Teacher's Notebook Store as one of your favorites.
3.) Leave a comment saying you "like" my Facebook page.
4.) If you share about this giveaway on your blog, you can leave TWO comments. Feel free to grab the image at the top too, if you want!

So, that's five chances to enter!

You will win a copy of every one of the flippy books I have made up to this point. They are appropriate for 1st and 2nd grade, but some of them could probably work in 3rd too. One winner will get all 26 and a second person will get to pick 10 of them!

Here is a list of what I have made to date:

birthday
100th Day
St. Patrick's Day
Halloween
Valentine's Day
Christmas
Thanksgiving
first Day of School
mammals
birds
fish
amphibians
reptiles
butterfly Life Cycle
frog Life Cycle
matter (solids, liquids, and gases)
magnets
plant parts
water cycle
nouns
verbs
adjectivescontractions
coins
time
New today! fractions

That's 26 pages of flippy goodness! If you aren't sure what my flippies are, you can click the button below to go to my store and see pictures of all of them!


Ok! I'm hoping to get my hair done on Thursday, work on some of your flippy suggestions, and then R&R for the weekend before heading back to school on Monday! As much as I love my days off, I am ready to get back to work and see my kiddos again!

New Freebie... Time Flippy Book!

I had no idea ya'll liked the flippy books so much! I just figured out how to look at the downloads on Teacher's Notebook and those are, by far, the most popular things I have in my shop right now!

I just wanted to thank everyone for their support of the new shop (which just got a facelift thanks to the fabulous Alicia at Dreamlike Magic Designs!), the blog these past 6 months, the Facebook page, and the Teaching Oasis so I added a time flippy for FREE! Any other "flippy requests"? I'm off of school until the 9th, so I'd love to hear what else you'd be interested in.  The time flippy is no longer free... but it's still only $1!  :)


And, last night I finished the most fabulous book- The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Now I'm a lover of teen fiction (ie. City of... series by Cassandra Clare, Blue Bloods series by Melissa de la Cruz) and this was similar, but more adulty. I LOVED IT. READ IT! Please! And if you have read it, let me know because I want to talk about it... I'm the first one of my reader friends to get it, so it's my duty to lend it so no one I know has read it yet! Anyway, after I read it, my brain was buzzing with the ending of the book and just a desire to actually GO to The Night Circus. Why does it have to be fake?! I love to read, but usually about mid-way through the year, the pile of books on my nightstand exponentially grows, and never gets any smaller. This year, I resolve to read more! So, this book was finished on January 2! I started Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close last night and am about halfway though... it is also excellent.

Anyway, I couldn't sleep because I was too excited about the book. So, I also added a flippy on coins. You can view that here if you'd like!

Have a happy Tuesday! I'm off to school today. I'm going to copy and laminate and re-organize the cupboards that were emptied to fix the leak last week. I *might* re-arrange some furniture too... if I do, I'll take some pics and share what I accomplished! Tomorrow I'm off for a day of scrapbooking with my group, the SWANS (scrapbooking women at new stores) tomorrow, so I'll be organizing my bag when I get back from school this afternoon!

Monday Blahs...

We've got snow... but if it can't be here for Christmas and it isn't getting me a snow day, I'm not really interested.

But what can you do? Winter storm warning until Tuesday!

So, to celebrate the Monday Blahs and the impending end to my vacation (why am I celebrating this?!), I've added the Plane Shape workstations to my Teacher's Notebook Store after the feedback from some lovely ladies!

The celebration part is that all of my math activities will be 20% off until the end of the winter storm warning which is tomorrow! Just click the image at the top or the links on the right... see 'em?

This includes anything that could be slightly construed as "mathy" plus the things that are obviously math...

like time workstations,



tally games,


number sense workstation activities,

and the new plane shape work stations,

math games, even the glyphs and the Valentine party candy game!

So, happy Monday... stay warm!

Need a 2nd Pair of Eyes For This...

Happy New Year!

I had a super fun, but late night last night and spent today listening to the Lions get robbed lose against Green Bay while my husband watched it on TV and I worked on school stuff on the computer.

My 2nd graders will be beginning a unit on polygons when we return from break (on the 9th!!!!) and I have been working for the past five hours on polygon math workstation activities for them. I think I have some good stuff and I think it will all logistically work, but what I need is a 2nd (or 3rd even!) pair of eyes to look the packet over.

If you would do that, I would be so happy! Just leave me a comment with your e-mail and I'll send it out. The only thing is that I'm super impatient, so I'd love it if you could look it over and send me some feedback within the next day.

I'll be putting it on my Teacher's Notebook store with my other math workstations after I hear some feedback and make any necessary changes.

HOWEVER... I am putting one of the activities for free right here... but if you download it, please let me know if you think it will work. It makes sense in my head, but I'm not 100% sure that it will actually work like I think it will! Just click the pic below.
So, if you'd review the whole packet, let me know and if you download the game here, I'd love for you to tell me what you think and if you think it will work!

Phew! Off to retire to the couch for the rest of the night!

Ring in the New Year and a New Sale at My Little Shop!

This is probably the last post for me of 2011...

Tomorrow we're having our annual New Year's Eve adult gathering, so I'll be making food and cleaning the house for the better part of the day!

So... things I'm thankful for in 2011:
*wonderful friends and family
*awesome trip to NYC this summer with my husband
*all the new bloggy friends I've met since starting this blog in June
*health, a job I love, and... of course... choreographed dancing and singing in all of the musicals I've seen this past year... I love them so!

Accomplishments:
*60 lbs. lost thanks to hard work and Weight Watchers! My new skinny jeans are feeling a bit snug after the holidays so it might be like 55 lbs. at this time, so 2012 will bring renewed dedication to health and weight loss for me
*I'm still honored to have been asked to present at the webinar for Marygrove College... so that goes on my list of accomplishments!

And, finally, goals for 2012:
*continue on the weight loss journey
*READ MORE!
*work to become more effective as a math teacher
*keep my house de-cluttered!

And there you have it! I hope you have all had a wonderful 2011 and I wish you a blessed 2012!

On a side note, my Teacher's Notebook store had the first 20 items on sale for 20% off until tomorrow... well, I've since added quite a bit more (with some good freebies!), so I'm putting EVERYTHING at 20% off until the 1st!

Click the pic below from the new "MEGA PACK" of classroom awards if you want to check the store out:

Have a safe and happy night tomorrow!!!!

It's Official...!!!

I have taken the leap and have opened a shop on Teacher's Notebook! I am really excited about being able to share items with you on my blog, The Teaching Oasis, and Teacher's Notebook... right now I don't have a lot up, but there are a few freebies!

If you have a chance to check it out, let me know!

For a "grand opening", I currently only have 20 items listed, so I am offering 20% off the first 20 items in my shop until 12/31 while I work to bring new goodies in the coming year!!!!!!

I'm headed in to school tomorrow to do some much needed housekeeping and lesson planning for 2012! I'll be adding new items to my shop tomorrow night and next week!

PS- I hit 1200 followers today! Yippie!

Flipping for Flippies!

So, if you missed my post with the birthday flippy or the 100th day flippy, you might be a little confused... but I'm going nuts for FLIPPIES! I feel like I dreamed them up a few nights ago, but I could be wrong. In any case, I just love making them!

I have been making them like crazy have a ton on my Teacher's Notebook store.

It's almost midnight and I just can't stop making them... time for a flippy-vention! I'm wrapping up a set of five on vertebrates... only "fish" left to go but I have to get to b-e-d!

You can find a "time flippy" freebie at my store!

Hope you liked the attack of the exclamation points... I'm trying to use them more sparingly, but I love them too!!!