First Day Jitters, Monday Blues, but a Light at the End of the Tunnel!

Wow!  What a Monday!  After spending a restless night tossing and turning, I (Stacy) headed back to school today for my first teacher workday.  I have to admit, I didn't accomplish close to what I set out to do!  Instead, I spent time catching up with my colleagues and sharing summer stories.  I love the way that everyone is energized and refreshed after coming back from summer vacation.  It's contagious!  I'm hopeful that when students start back on Wednesday they will also feel the energy that I did today!  I'm also super excited about some new initiatives that will be starting in my building.  I will definitely share more about them in future posts.

All in all, my day was awesome until I got a text message from Colleen stating that someone just rear-ended her car then took off on her.  Ugh!  I feel so BAD!!  The poor girl has a classroom to work on, beginner teacher training starting tomorrow, and now has to start physical therapy because her back is messed up!  And what kind-of person drives off after hitting someone so badly that the neighbors come out of their house because of the loud crash?  Just terrible!

In Colleen's words, the day "turned the corner" when our Slant Box was waiting on my doorstep when I got home!  Thank you, Terry!  It couldn't have come at a better time!!

Terry from First At Bat was such a good sport about having both of us for the Slant Box Exchange.  We know it was a challenge and we really appreciate the thought you put into our fantastic package!!  Terry started off by writing each of us a beautiful letter.

Knowing about our love of literacy, Terry included a handmade magnet with the most beautiful and inspirational quote.  I definitely am going to post in my classroom!  Thank you, Terry!!

 

Love of reading and writing is not taught, it is created.

Love of reading and writing is not required, it is inspired.

Love of reading and writing is not demanded, it is exemplified.

Love of reading and writing is not exacted, it is quickened.

Love of reading and writing is not solicited, it is activated.

-Russell Stauffer

But Terry didn't stop there!  Wait to you see what was in our box!!

We love, love, LOVE everything that she included!  Gigantic erasers, anti-bacterial soap, writing notebooks, stickers, and student award coupons!  And for some of those crazy teaching days...an Angel of Peace and Morning Devotions book to keep us grounded.  Finally, The Best Place to Read book for me, a cute stuffed pig for Colleen (her favorite) and a colorful alligator to remember our new Florida friend made the box complete!  THANK YOU, TERRY!!

If you want to join in the fun, check out Lesson With Coffee's Slant Box Exchange below!  The September sign-up will be posted until September 3rd.

 

Before we say goodbye, we wanted to share one of our newest products that I can't wait for my students to play.  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz reinforces r-controlled vowel sounds and includes THREE games and WEEK of reinforcing activities.  The bundle addresses the following Grade 1-3 Common Core State Standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3, 2.3, and 3.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.



 We hope that everyone has an awesome week!  Please keep Colleen in your thoughts as she mends an awfully sore back and starts her beginner teacher's training this week!! 







Slant Box Mail-Off, HUGE Back to School Sale, and New Products!!

Hello Friends!  We hope that everyone is enjoying the last few days of summer!  Up here in the Northeast, the air is definitely starting to change with cooler nights.  Makes for good sleeping weather, though!  Colleen and I are starting to gear up for the start of school!  I had a chance to peek in at her classroom yesterday.  It is looking magnificent with all the cool Melonheadz inspirational posters and quotes.  Her students are blessed to have such a positive teacher next year!!  Stay tuned for her "after" classroom picture that will be posted soon.  It will knock your socks off!

Speaking of positive teachers, we met two FABULOUS ones through the Slant Box Exchange this month!!  Thank you to Terry from First At Bat and Anisa from Creative Undertakings for opening their classroom to us through an exchange of email, Facebook posts, and blog comments.  We are happy to have two new friends to share ideas and inspiration with!  Here is a picture of Anisa's slant box...SIGNED, SEALED, and ready to be DELIVERED to Texas!  Anisa, we hope you enjoy some "Favorite Things"!

If you would like to participate in Lessons With Coffee's Slant Box Exchange next month, Jameson will be posting September's theme soon!  DO IT!!

Now, for the BIG NEWS!  Who doesn't love a sale?  A HUGE SALE?  A GIGANTIC SALE?  Well, GET READY because Teachers Pay Teachers is having their Back to School Sale starting tomorrow, Sunday August 18th and running through Monday, August 19th.  We have joined thousands of educators by slashing our prices to give you some great deals!  Yes, you heard right!  Everything in our TpT store is 20% off starting Sunday!  And get this!  Because TpT is so incredibly awesome to teachers, they are offering an additional saving with Code BTS13 which equates to 28% off!  We can't wait to fill our carts tonight with some of the FABULOUS products created by teachers for teachers. 

 

Finally, speaking of some FABULOUS products, I am in love with two new bundles I uploaded last night.  Sweet Tooth Crush was inspired by my addiction love of Candy Crush Saga.  The hours time I have spent playing this game is unreal.  I really do need to get a life!  LOL!  Anyway, after Logan came home from camp to share he saw Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that day, I knew I had to incorporate Willy Wonka and his pals into my design.  Love the Melonheadz!  Grandpa Joe kills me! 

Sweet Tooth Crush focuses on the digraph sounds of ch, ck, sh, th, and wh. The package includes THREE games and WEEK of reinforcing activities!  The bundle aligns to the following Grade 1 and Grade 2 CCSS standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3a Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.3b Decode regularly spelled one-syllable words.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.2.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words.

 

 

And for our second new product....meet MR. AND MRS. FIX-UP!  Colleen's idea to incorporate them into our Which Tool Will You Use? fix-up strategy bundle was brilliant!!  I can't wait to introduce my students to the Beanie Baby Decoding Strategies in this product.  The visuals are adorable and will be easy for them to remember and use when they get stuck on a word.  If you are not familiar with the beanie baby decoding strategies, you can find more information here.

 

The bundle aligns to the following Grade 1 and Grade 2 CCSS standards:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.4c and CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.2.4c  Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.  

 

We hope you enjoy our new products!  Grab them until MONDAY at a 28% off saving!!  Don't forget to use the coupon code BTS13.  Have a FABULOUS weekend!!

SLANT box update, a peek into my new classroom and a look into what we've been workin' on!

Happy Friday, friends!!! We are both actually living it up in the woods this weekend. Stacy is camping with her family and I (Colleen) am heading up to my family's house in the Adirondacks in a few short hours BUT we thought we would get one more post in before we head out! (cue huge round of applause!)

First, we'd like to give you a little update on our SLANT box friends because they are just so awesome! We will be sending a package to Anisa at Creative Undertakings. Like us, she's addicted to pinterest and loves crafting! Something that I both love and hate about Pinterest is that it's so easy to find these wonderful, grand ideas.... See, I get so happy and excited and decide that it is exactly what I need to make or do or bake or find... So I pin it onto one of my many boards and then more often than not, I forget it's there and don't follow through on the creating of these grand ideas... What I LOVE about Anisa from Creative Undertakings is that she follows through with her pins and actually makes this stuff!! I also found out recently that she was born in Kenya which is probably the coolest thing she could have told me- (if you don't know, you can find out why this is so exciting here!!

Stacy and I are also both so excited because our package will be arriving from Terry, a teacher in Florida! She's already started school and you can read about her first grade happenings here! The connections we are already making in this August SLANT box project are wonderful! Want in on the fun for next month??? Check out Lessons With Coffee! The post introducing her genius project can be read here! We're already scheming and planning on things to send to Anisa after learning about her favorite things!! :) SO STINKIN FUN!

Another update I'd like to give you is that I finally got to see my classroom for next year! I'll be teaching 2nd grade next year and am so excited! I got my class list yesterday and I just can't wait to meet my little munchkins! I have a class of 24 kiddies and I've been working to get the room ready and I feel like I get more excited (and kinda nervous) each day!! Here's my empty room! I got the furniture in this week and am beginning putting the other pieces together, too!

Do you remember your first year of teaching? Any words of wisdom or advice that you'd like to give me? If you could pin-point it, what would be the one thing I need to know or remember?

Please leave some comments with your thoughts because I'd sure love to hear them!!

... and just to give you a little hint and clue into what we've been working on....

Be on the lookout for these fun games soon!!

Have a wonderful weekend dear friends! We'll be back next week with some more goodies!

The Slant Box...Sending Love Across The Nation to Teachers

Today we wandered over to Teaching Maddeness, a second grade teacher from South Carolina.  When you have a chance, check out her primary TpT store, Teacher's Clubhouse or her intermediate TpT store Lightbulb Minds for intermediate resources.  She has great units of study for all subject areas.

While looking through her blog, we were so excited to learn about a really fun idea called The Slant Box from Lessons With Coffee.  Would you like to get a box of goodies in the mail EVERY MONTH??  We sure did!  And you get to connect with teachers all across the world... how exciting! All you need to do is click the Slant Box tab at the top of her page, sign up, and follow the directions.  Every month it's your birthday!  First month's theme is "A Few of My Favorite Things"!  How ironic because Colleen and I JUST shared some of our favorites here.