Spaghetti and Meatball Spaces

I'm blogging over at Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals next week and offering a special deal for only ONE DOLLAR.  But I wanted to offer it early to the followers of my blog.

Are you looking for a fun way to help your new writers use appropriate spacing when writing?  Here is what I use in my classroom- Spaghetti and Meatball Spaces.  It's a guaranteed recipe for success!

I give the kids a real piece of uncooked spaghetti and we use those to leave the small spaces between the letters in a word.  Then I give them a brown fuzzy pom pom to use as the meatball space.  They love rolling the meatball to the next spot.

To demonstrate how important spaces are in a sentence.  I will write one or two sentences on the board without any spaces and we try to read it.  Not very easy to do!  Then we use the meatballs to rewrite it and voila!  

After the lesson, I glue the meatball pom poms to craft sticks and place them in the writing center.  Kids just grab them as needed to use when they write.  

I tell you- spaghetti and meatballs spaces are very easy for them to understand.

Just print the posters and hang them in the room or put them in the kid's writing folders.

So hop on over to my store and grab these now.

Enjoy!

Leave a Comment Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals, Writing

Oh Snap! It's Almost November!

Oh Snap! It's Almost November!

It feels like it October just started, but when you look at the calendar, November is right around the corner so it's time to start planning.

I'm linking up today with the bloggers over at Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals for their fabulous monthly linky party.  I don't know about you, but I absolutely LOVE that blog.  It's a great place to get deals on some wonderful products.

Thinking ahead to November, here is one of my favorite bulletin boards.  It's my TURKEY GLYPH.

If you don't know what a glyph is, it's a pictorial way to collect and organize data

Kids answer questions and based upon those answers they build a turkey. The turkeys come out really cute and they make a beautiful bulletin board.  We like to decorate the front office with ours.  All the parents who come into the office get a chuckle from the signs the turkeys are holding.

The Turkey Glyph contains:

 directions and black line masters for making the turkeys, a glyph key, a glyph book, a poem, a literacy center idea, a data collection sheet, and photos of completed turkeys.

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I also have a fun Turkey Tail Patterning activity.  

In this activity, kids use pattern blocks to make a circular pattern around the turkey tail.  Then they glue the turkey body on top and add the beak, eyes and legs.  This also looks great on the wall and covers so many skills.  Kids have a lot of practice making patterns in a straight line, but can they transfer that knowledge to a circular shape?  You will be surprised at how this simple activity really stretches their thinking.

Aren't these cute?

Grab them now and get ready for November.

Thanks for stopping by.  You can click here to head back over to the link up.

Leave a Comment Bulletin Boards, Glyphs, Holidays, Math, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Oh Snap! It's Almost October!

I'm linking up with the fantastic bloggers over at Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals for their fun (and helpful) Oh Snap! It's Almost October! linky party.

I know that school just started, but it's already the middle of September and that means that October is right around the corner, (YIKES) so it's time to start prepping and planning for next month. (Some people might find that a chore- but I secretly love it!)

Here is one of my favorite activities for October.

I love having my kids work on Logic Puzzles.  It helps them with critical thinking skills and problem solving.  My kiddos love it because they only have to read simple words and follow the picture clues. The cards are self-checking so when they are done they just need to turn the card over to check to see if they got it right.

I also love this activity for October because the Wild Kids are dressed in costumes (like Halloween) but it's connected to literature so it's not Halloweeny (is that a real word?).  So if you aren't allowed to do Halloween related things, you can still do this!  Win-Win!

Pop on over to my store to grab this for yourself.

Once you use these logic puzzles, you will want them all.  

I keep one of my math center bins filled with logic puzzles.  I change them out to keep it fresh and interesting for the kids, but the beauty of this task is that you only have to explain it once and they can do them all!  Just change the theme of the puzzles and you've got a new center- voila!  Easy peasy!

And the best part is that you can grab these for only $1 for the next two days.
That's the perfect way to try them out to see if you like them.

Thanks for stopping by!
Click here to head back over to the linky party.

Leave a Comment Common Core, Linky Party, Math, Math Centers, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Oh Snap! It's Almost September!

Hi Everyone!

I'm linking up with my fun friends over at Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals for their great product linky party.

It's the middle of August and that means that September and a new school year are right around the corner for me.  I know that many of you have already started back and while you probably envy the teachers still on summer break, I envy you for getting the year off and running.  You've already lived through the first day of school butterflies, the criers (both kids and parents) and the runners (that's when I wish I had a clone), you've assessed your kids and now your year is settling into it's rhythm.  I'm thinking about all the things I need to do to get my room ready for the upcoming year. 

So here are a few of the things that I use to get my classroom ready.  

Here is my CALENDAR COMPANION.  It has lots of things to add value to your calendar wall.  It contains shape flashcards, lunch counts, student counts, tooth charts, number of the day, and worksheets for the kids to use as daily calendar work.  I slide them into page protectors and staple many of the pages right to my calendar bulletin board.  Dry erase markers wipe off easily.



Another thing that I LOVE is my Spaghetti and Meatball Spaces.  This helps new writers with correct spacing.  We talk about how the letters need to be close together in a word, but not touching so they need a small spaghetti space. But the spaces between the words need bigger spaces, like the meatballs in the spaghetti.

I glue a brown pom pom to the end of a craft stick and the kids use those sticks to make the spaces between the words. I keep a small container of meatball spacers on my writing table and kids grab a stick if they need one.




Do your kids use too much glue?  Then this little chant is just what you need.  It is bundled with other helpful songs and chants that will make your day run smoothly.

There are line up chants, neat and tidy poems... it's filled with lots of helpful songs.  I have them stapled to different areas of the room.  I also put them in a Sub Binder so my subs can manage my kids easily without me.  The consistency is great for the kiddos as well.

Well, thanks for stopping by!  Just click on any of the photos to get the products that you are interested in.

Leave a Comment Linky Party, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals- Portrait Templates

I'm blogging over at Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals today to bring you one of my top selling products for mere dollar!  If you don't know Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals yet,  we are a group of K-5 teachers that offer daily discounts and freebies on some of our best selling products.  Make sure to follow the Teacher Deals and Dollar $teals blog and Facebook so you won't miss out on any great deals.

So here is my DOLLAR STEAL for this month.

I'm putting my Portrait Templates on sale for the next 3 days.  These can be used by the kids as a base for a self-portrait.  I use these during the first week of school to have the kids draw a self-portrait.  I use these self-portraits as the cover for their writing folders.  At the end of the year, I give the kids another portrait template and they draw themselves again.  The difference in how they draw themselves between the beginning of the year and the end of they year is amazing!

I don't just use these at the beginning and end of the year, I give these to the kids to illustrate characters in the stories that we are reading.  They also use them to draw their family members as gifts for Mothers and Fathers Day presents.  I give them one of these to draw themselves as a writer and I slide this into the cover of their writing binder.


There are so many different uses for these...

I would love to hear how you use these in your classroom!  

And here is my FREEBIE for you.  

Simply print the eggs on card stock, laminate and cut them out, then place them in a center with a real spatula and small skillet (I use the plastic skillet from my housekeeping center).  The kids love to scoop the eggs with the spatula, place them in the pan to cook, say the word when it is finished cooking, then scoop it out of the pan and onto a plate to serve.  

I slid the recording sheet into a page protector and placed a thin dry erase marker at the center.  Kids write the word on the egg that they just cooked.  Now they are getting practice reading AND writing the sight words.  My kids LOVE this activity!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Make sure to follow me on Bloglovin' or Google +.

Leave a Comment Art, Back to School, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Oh Snap! It's Almost August!

Can you believe that it's almost August?  Where has the summer gone?

If you are like me, you are starting to plan for the upcoming school year.  Join this fun link up and find some great resources for the upcoming school year.

The wonderful bloggers at 

are starting a monthly link up where we can all share our favorite resource for the upcoming month.  Isn't that perfect?!  It's just what I need to stay ahead of the curve and on my game.  

Since it is almost August, I'm thinking about the start of the new school year.  I contemplate what worked well last year and what things can be improved.  

Last year I really LOVED my calendar wall.  Why, you ask?  Well, I took my old standard calendar and updated it with more math stuff.  I began with the standard monthly calendar where we turn the cards over each day to reveal the number and the pattern.  We do Yesterday was ____, Today is ____, and Tomorrow will be ___, (those are the teddy bears).  I also have the daily add a straw count that groups ones, tens and hundreds.  I have the months of the year (train) and the days of the week.  The teddy bears in the trains are the kid's birthdays (they each decorated a die cut teddy bear and I put them in the train far for the month).  And of course we have the 100 chart and the weather.

Most of the items were purchased at teacher stores, but I got the weather from here and the day, month, year strips and the days in school from this website.

The number of the day and the shapes are part of my Calendar Companion.  I also have worksheets that my students use to learn about the different parts of the calendar.  

I also have a daily schedule cards that we review in the morning so the kids know what things we will be covering that day.  You can grab these for just $1 for the next 3 days!  I laminated these and put them on velcro.  I can rearrange them based on the day and the things that we will be doing. (The schedule cards are the pencil shaped cards that are hanging under the clock).

I encourage you to browse around the links to see what things you can add to your calendar wall.

Click here for a FREEBIE!  It's just one small part of my Calendar Companion.

Just slide it in a page protector and staple it to your calendar wall.  Use a dry erase marker to count the number of girls and boys at school each day.  I have my calendar helper do this each day.

Check my Freebies section for more fun FREE stuff.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  Hop on over to the next great blog and get more great STEALS AND DEALS for August.  Link up your own great product/tip for August.  Enjoy the rest of your summer!

An InLinkz Link-up

Leave a Comment Back to School, Bulletin Boards, Classroom Set Up, Common Core, Math, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals

Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals- Get Organized

Hi everyone!

I'm joining the folks at Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals on the 10th of each month to provide you with a fun and amazing deal.  Be sure to follow both blogs!

This month I am sharing my absolute favorite system for organizing all my teaching units.  I have been teaching for over 20 years (I'm not going to say how many years over 20- I'll keep that my little secret) and I have tried many different organizational methods.  I've purchased big Rubbermaid tubs and stored all my things for the month in there.  That was great, but boy did it take up A LOT of storage space.  I ended up storing those tubs at home in my garage which meant that my car lost it's inside home. (Boo hoo)

I've tried to put things into filing cabinets.  Once again, this takes up a lot of space and it seems like stuff was constantly getting mis-filed or not filed at all.  I could never find what I was looking for until I found it weeks or months later in the wrong place.  My blackline masters were always getting torn and crinkled as well.  I currently have 3 filing cabinets full of stuff!

Last year, my coworker began putting her blacklines into 3 ring binders.  I waited to see how she liked it before getting my own binder system going.  Well, she LOVED it.  So mid way through the year I began to slowly organize my stuff by units into 1 inch binders.  I also purchased a few bigger binders for those huge subjects that needed more space.

As I finished or planned a unit, I would put my blacklines into page protectors and into the binder they went.  My blacklines stayed pristine and organized.  They were easy to find when I needed them and I no longer got them mixed up with my stuff when I was making copies.  I simply copied them and then they went right back into the page protector for safe keeping.  It was super easy to find what I was looking for, prep it, and then get the precious masters back into the binder.

I'm still in the process of getting rid of those 3 filing cabinets.  I'm going in to school one day a week during the summer and going through each drawer.  My goal is to have only one filing cabinet left at the end of the summer.  I will use that to hold the sample projects that don't fit into the page protectors.  I am so excited about the amount of classroom space I will be gaining!

So, if you are interested in getting organized using 3 ring binders, then head on over to Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals and get the monthly binders for free and the thematic binders for only $1.

Make sure to follow that blog because you'll get a daily Deal or Steal (or both) from fabulous TpT authors and bloggers.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Leave a Comment Back to School, Classroom Management, Classroom Set Up, Organization, Teacher Deals and Dollar Steals