Timer Winners Announced... and IDIOMS Giveaway!!!!!

Congrats to Krystal, Kim, and Sally... you've won a TimeStick in your choice of color!  Woot Woot!

If you missed the giveaway, check out my review and see pics of this timer.  I LOVE IT!  Just click the pic!

Now for an Idioms Giveaway!  I finished this pack up last week as we needed a resource like this in class.  We started it today and my kiddos were so excited!  It's on sale for $1 off until tomorrow but you can win a copy!  It has 24 idioms with pictures and passages for students to read to decipher the idiom in context.  There are also 8.5"x11" posters of each idiom to display.

Click to check it out on TpT...  You can get one poster and practice page for free when you download the preview file!

OR... leave a comment that uses some sort of idiom.  I'll choose a random winner tomorrow and send you the pack for free!

Character Trait Laughs and a Super Cool ThermoWorks Giveaway!!!

It's been quite a WEEK... and it's only Tuesday!  There's no better way for me to feel better than to share some funny character traits laughs and hosting a GIVEAWAY for some super cool timers!

First up... character traits!  We've been working on them for a few weeks now, and we've gotten pretty darn good at determining them.  We made this little chart...

And have been doing activities out of my character traits pack:

Today we did this "What would you do..." activity where students had to think about a trait and write how someone with that trait would respond to a situation.

These two were my favorites!

In the first one, the student got "sneaky" as the trait and had to respond to how she'd handle her brother playing music loudly when she needed to study for a test {she's going to sneakily hide her brother's musical device and then pretend to be very innocent!}... click the pick to enlarge and read!

The second one cracked me up!  She got "creative" as the trait and had to respond to how she's react it if she took the class hamster home from the weekend and lost it!  {She's so creative she's going to make a robotic hamster that looks and acts like the class' hamster!}

I loved grading these and seeing my students thinking critically about how different character traits make people respond to situations differently!

Now... who doesn't love a giveaway???

Look at what Jesse at ThermoWorks sent me last week... I even got some jellybeans!

In the box were three amazing timers (Timesticks) in pink, blue, and purple.

Can I say how much I LOVE these timers????  Not only are they MAGNETIC, but they have a lanyard and are super lightweight.  They're incredibly easy to use, can count up AND down, and... if you look at the pic above with the yellow arrow, they have a bar that gets smaller as time decreases.

I'm loving using these as visual reminders to some of my kiddos who need help to complete tasks on time.  They know how to set the time, put on the lanyard, and can keep track of how much time is left for them to complete their task

You seriously MUST get yourself one (or two or three) of these timers.  They come in so many colors and are seriously one of my new favorite classroom gadgets!

My friends at ThermoWorks are even going to give away THREE here on my blog!  Just enter the Rafflecopter below to enter!  Be sure to check out ThermoWorks' website and Facebook page too!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Birthday Sale!

Real post coming soon... suffice it to say that this has been an odd year for me.  If you follow my blog, you know I've had some big life changes and this is my first birthday after the changes... so it's an odd one!  I am headed out for some fun this weekend... yay!

So to celebrate the birthday and the fact that, after this birthday, I never have to have a birthday like this one again...

Click the pic to check out my store and thanks for celebrating the end of the birthday of 2014.  Can't wait for a different birthday next year!

Classroom Pics... Better Late Than Never!

So... we've been in school for four weeks now... how crazy is that?!  What's even crazier is that it's taken me four weeks to do my classroom reveal post!  Yikes!

Welcome to room 108!

View from the door...

Ok, so it's now September 29... but this is proof that I had this pics on my iPad and was ready to do this post a few weeks ago!  Every day students read a "Did you know" fact that ties in to the number of days we've been in school.  This is for day 6!

At this time, we were reading "The Chocolate Touch" and making predictions before each chapter... you can find an extension unit for this book in my TpT store!  Click the pic for more info.

My Homework Club display... so far, we're still all in for the month!  Kids will get their awards on Wednesday!  Click pic for more info.

Our writing center...

More of the writing center...

Work on Words activities...

Our meeting area and part of the class library...

BRAG TAGS!  Click the first pic for some bag tag freebies!

This was the welcome BB in the room...

Area for students to check out books to borrow...

 Three years ago, I went deskless and LOVE IT!  This is my little nook and where I meet with kids.

More of the board and library...

Listen to reading stuff...

And our table caddies with supplies...

Phew!  Welcome to Room 108!

Football Sunday Funday Freebie!

Happy Football Sunday, friends!  My Lions are playing at home today and I'm hoping for a win!

Next week we'll be working on types of sentences and end punctuation and I've got a fun football themed freebie for you!

The freebie pairs PERFECTLY with "Scoring with Subjects and Predicates", which we'll be doing the week after next!

Click the pic below to head to the freebie and please leave some lovin' if you enjoy it!  The freebie allows you to do a group sorting activity, which is what I do, or use it as a center or classroom/hallway hunt.  There's even a follow-up worksheet that asks students to both identify the sentence type and add the correct end punctuation!

Enjoy... and GO LIONS!!!!!

Celebrating Students with Printable Brag Tags {Freebie Alert!}

I've blogged before about passing out awards on Friday in my classroom... but I also pass out Brag Tags on Friday too!

In the past, I've ordered Brag Tags from School Life and I love theirs!  But I decided this year to try printing my own.  I bought some great ones on TpT but also wanted to customize some of my own, especially to give as holiday gifts along with the other goodies I give my kiddos!

My Brag Tag board displays everyone's necklaces and kiddos can wear them at any time during the school day.  We also earn beads for things like hitting AR point milestones and making it to the top of the clip stick!

Here's a peek at the board and a close up of one of my sweetie's necklace.  I made both of the tags hanging here!

I wanted to give my kiddos tags for a few holidays, so I made a set.  Here is the set of holiday printable tags I made- I just printed on regular paper and have a parent volunteer working on cutting them out along the large rectangle, laminating, and then cutting them individually and sorting them.  So far, this has worked perfectly for the other tags I've passed out to my students!

If you print this out and enjoy it, I'd love some comment lovin'!  It's been quiet around here lately... mostly because I've been slacking off in the blogging department!

Take Your Favorite Book Anywhere... On Your Wrist!

I was so excited to receive this package in the mail last week...

And, when I opened it up... this was inside.  Seriously.  When someone takes the time to make the wrapping of the product look this good, you KNOW something wonderful is inside!

I was excited enough just by that amazingly cute wrapping job!  But the amazingness did not stop there.

I carefully ripped untied the string and gingerly tore peeled off the paper to reveal this:

A set of beaded bracelets made by the Trashy Crafter!  The beads are made with pages from one of my FAVORITE FAVORITE book series: Harry Potter!

Kimberly (aka The Trashy Crafter) has amazing jewelry made with pages from your favorite books... all are hand-crafted and allow you to show off your love of reading with a flair!

She's generously offered all of my bloggy friends a 15% off discount on any orders this week too!  Just use the code tc2014 when you check out.  It's not too soon to scoop up some goodies for Christmas... I know these would be a hit!  Click on any of the pics above to check her out!

Don't Run Out of Copies... Quick and Easy Idea!

Happy *almost* Monday, friends!  Tomorrow starts my first full week of school (we had 3 1/2 days last week) and I'm so ready!

I spent last week getting my kiddos acclimated to the rules and routines of my room and getting things we'll use all year set up with my little friends.

As we were setting up our RRJs and passing out our nightly reading logs, I just ran tons of copies of the reading log so kids can easily get a new one when their old one is filled.  I have a spot in my room with a pile of these copies and my kiddos are trained to take one from the pile when needed.

What makes me so sad though... is when someone takes the last copy and I don't know about it!

So, I have a quick solution!

The last piece of paper in the stack has this on it:

Last copy!  Do not use... give to Ms. Bainbridge!

And... problem solved!  When the kiddos get to the end of the pile, I know right away and can quickly copy more!

To check out the RRJ pack that this page comes from, click the pic below!  Now is a great time to get this routine established in your classroom... mine could NOT wait to get their RRJs set up and were so happy to know they'd get to start taking them home tomorrow!  I even had kiddos do RRJ entries on notebook paper at home last week and bring them to me the following day... they were so pumped!

Friendship Friday... Fun Idea & Freebie!

First week of school = finished!  It was only 3 1/2 days, but I have a GREAT group of kiddos and I'm so psyched to be working with them this year!

Today was FRIENDSHIP FRIDAY in my classroom.  We played lots of learning games with different partners, read together, and made the ultimate friendship snack mix!

Each student brought in an item that is special to them and talked about their item to the class.  Everyone also brought a baggie with their favorite snack item inside... check out this messy desk with all of the snack items...

Each kiddo got to come up, tell us what they brought, and then pour it into the container.  The container on the table is the one I brought from home to mix this snack mix in... I quickly realized it would not be big enough!

After everything was mixed together, each kiddo got a cup of the mix in the baggie they brought their item in.  Then everyone got a second baggie to give to a friend... thus keeping Friendship Friday alive and well after school was over!

You can snag a copy of the letter I sent home explaining Friendship Friday by clicking the pic below!  I'd love to hear what you think if you use it!

It's a Party... and YOU'RE Invited!

Hey bloggy friends!

Wanted to put out an invitation for you to buy some super cute Jamberry nails at my online party!

If you haven't heard of Jamberry nails, they are super cute nail wraps... that last for about 2 weeks and are simply adorable!

I keep pretty short nails and am really hard on my fingers.  Polish chips off pretty easily for me, but these Jams are super durable.  I've tried other nail wraps (from Kohl's and Avon) and they just don't have the staying power that these Jams do.

They're super easy to put on and just so dang adorable!

Here are two of the Jams I've rocked lately...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE using Jamberry as accent nails!  The purple is polish and the others are just plain CUTENESS!

This is one of the full Jamicures I did recently... and got LOADS of compliments on!

The great news is...

These are just some of the amazing new designs that have just come out!

If you're interested in joining my online party, you can click the pic above to get your Jam on... just be sure to choose my party (Christina Bainbridge) when you check out!  :)

Thanks for Jamming with me... I hope you'll try some!