Five for Friday, Sale and Give-A-Way!

It's that time again! Five for Friday! 

I've had a busy week at home with little Jackson, getting the house in order and working on some products. 

1 My good friend Hannah asked me to make her a set of Dr. Seuss ABC/number posters. I'm using blue and red with different patterns: polka dot, zig zag and chevron. So far, so good! We're doing red vowels and blue consonants. I'll help her get these up in her classroom when school starts in July. I'm thinking I'll add some sight words, shapes and colors as well. Here's a pic of what they look like so far:

We can't decide which ones we like best, so I'm just making a set with all patterns and we are thinking of mixing and matching the shape, number and alphabet posters. 
2. I got a present from the hubby! He ordered me an adorable necklace on Etsy. It has my son's name, footprints, a heart and his birthstone. LOVE!! (I may have given him a FEW hints here and there...)

3. I got a STEAL on some toys at a resale shop. Ok, normally I don't go to kids' resale shops,  well I haven't since I was a kid and my mom dragged me there! But my son is 9 months old and growing by leaps and bounds...he's my first so I don't have a stockpile of toys handy. He is very very active and in order for me to work online or on the house while he is awake, I need this guy to be busy! I don't let him watch TV other than maybe a Baby Einstein video here and there for 20 minutes, that is only if Mommy is about to lose her mind and has no other option!!! 

Since I resigned, our budget is much tighter so I gave in and went to a resale shop looking for more toys to keep this guy busy. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised. The toys were really nice and clean and you couldn't even tell they were used already. I got all the toys below for about...$25? Yah! The little dog in the picture is still available at Target, he is about $20 new...take that Fisher Price! ;)

4. Also, Jackson is getting to be more and more fun! He is mimicking everything we do! I'm going to have to do a little mommy bragging now, I just love my baby so much! All you moms out there know what I'm talking about! Here is a nice pic of him sticking his tongue out at me (I was doing that to him):

I just realized this might look weird because he is sitting in a laundry basket! Ha! He loves that thing!

And here he is eating lunch. He is starting to feed himself, making a mess...but that's alright. Big boy!

And my favorite...a pic of Daddy and Jackson reading. This kid LOVES books. Seriously, he will go to books before toys. *Proud Momma*

5. And last but not least, I found this adorable dress and HAD to buy it!! It's on its way home to me right now! I'll take this when we go visit family in Alabama next week. Woo hoo!! I found this at an online boutique my friend told me about. 

Oh and before I forget, I'm throwing an early Fourth of July sale on TPT! Make sure you stop by and take a look. Don't forget about my Give-A-Way! It ends July 3! Make sure you follow me on Bloglovin and enter the Give-A-Way!

And that's a wrap!! Hope y'all have a fantastic Friday!!

Dr. Seuss Style Number Poster Freebie!

Hey Y'all! Jackson is napping, PRAISE THE LORD, so I wanted to upload a quick freebie for ya. I'm working on a "Dr. Seuss Style Classroom Decor Pack" for a kinder friend of mine. She's trying the Dr. Seuss theme in her class this year and I'm helping her with some custom stuff. Here's a pic of some of the posters. I'm doing red and blue polka dots. The freebie has just the blue.

I've made numbers 0-20 and an alphabet. I'll be adding sight words, colors, shapes and desk tags as well. Here's the preview/freebie! Don't forget to enter my Give-A-Way! Follow me on bloglovin' and enter to win a TPT gift card! There will be 2 lucky winners, contest ends July 3rd.

Another Freebie and a Give-A-Way!

Hey Ladies!! 

Alright, I'm posting the final part to my beginning of the year All About writing craftivity. This is super easy peasy and can be done in 1st-4th grades. Here is the final part. Have your students create themselves out of the patterns. I show my kids how to glue the head onto whatever color hair they want and just trim around it to add some easy peasy hair. Although, my kids usually get way creative and have a blast with the hair and other details. ;)

I always glue or staple the kids pages onto one those large pieces of construction paper (the 12 by 18 inch ones). Then I hang them up as one big piece. See pics below...

I glued my head on brown paper then trimmed around it to make my hair.

Here's a finished example. I glued my head on the shoulders and covered the corners with the hands. Sorry the pic is dark, I took it from my phone while Jackson was napping and I didn't want to dare turn on the lights!

If you didn't download the brainstorming and publishing pages, they are in my last two posts.  You can pick up the craft pages here.

Okie dokie, now for the Give-A-Way! I'm sure you all know that Google Reader is going away so make way for Bloglovin'! If you haven't transferred your blog reading list over, do it now! It's super easy. Once you setup your account, they even give you a list of recommendations based on the list of blogs you already have. I found a whole bunch of new blogs I had never even heard of. And the more blogs you have on your list, the more awesome ideas you'll come across, of course!

I'm teaming up with a ton of other bloggers to get everyone Bloglovin'! I'm giving away 2 $10     Teachers Pay Teachers gift certificates to two lucky bloggers. All you have to do to enter this contest is follow me on Bloglovin'! I have to buttons on the right side of my blog that say "Follow me on Bloglovin" or you can just click here. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy! Enter below and good luck!

If you are a blogger, head over to Collaboration Cuties to link up!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All About Me Publishing Pages and Target Cartwheel

Hey ladies! As promised I have the publishing pages for the "All About Me" writing activity as promised! You can pick them up here. I always taught in an inclusion classroom and I know the importance of having differentiated writing activities. I've included three styles for you to choose from based on the ability of your students. I would probably use all 3 in my 2nd grade classroom last year. We had levels literally from A-Z in there. 

Also, I just found out that Target has a new coupon system. I am obsessed with Target...I'm sure many of you teachers out there feel the same. The system is called Target Cartwheel. You basically search for coupons for the stuff you want. I llllllllllllove it because I go there so often it saves me money on stuff I would purchase anyway. I also love that I can use my Target Red Card and get 5% off, then a cartwheel coupon and a manufacturer's coupon and save even more. It's pretty awesome...y'all need to check it out!

Tomorrow I will be posting another "All About Me" freebie, make sure you come back to grab it!

Freebies, Coupon Awesomeness and a Naughty Napper!

Hey Y'all! So my house is still a work in progress...my 9 month old decided he wants to try walking so mommy is chasing after him every second making sure he doesn't hurt himself. This kid needs a helmet!! I decided that the house can wait and I've been spending time working on some freebies for y'all and some teaching materials for friends of mine.

I began an "All About Me" writing packet. This is a basic writing activity for 1-3 graders to do at the beginning of the year. It's a great way for the kids to get to know each other and for you to assess beginning of the year writing levels. Today I'm posting the brainstorming sheet. You can pick it up here. I created two versions a blank one and one with simple sentence stems. Tomorrow I'll post the publishing page, so come back tomorrow and grab it! 

If you read my last posts, you know that I am not going back into the classroom next year, I'm staying home with my baby boy Jackson. It was a very hard decision to make, but it's one that I knew I had to do. My mom never got to stay home with us and I always swore I would do that for my kids, no matter the sacrifices I would have to make. It's going to be rough in this economy, but my husband and I are going to live frugally! I've been surfing the web looking for ways to save money and become a "Coupon Mom." I found this awesome website: www.fabulesslyfrugal.com. It's awesome!! I'm learning how to save money at grocery and drug stores. The ladies who started this site are incredible! It takes time to figure out how to save the most money but I think it's totally worth it. So far I've saved about $70 off my normal grocery bill for the month. Here's a shopping trip I took to CVS yesterday:

I got all of this for $10. One bottle of mouthwash, two tubes of toothpaste, two packs of Huggies Wipes and a CVS pack of hand and face wipes. The mouthwash itself is usually $7. I'm proud of myself, I never knew how women saved so much money using coupons, it's kinda fun! I've found I'm shopping more but I'm spending less. Crazy huh?

Between couponing, creating and chasing after this little guy I've been very busy. I get a lot done when Jackson naps, but unfortunately that is not very often. He HATES naps. He will nap at most 2 hours in a day. He sleeps all night but will wake up every now and then. Any ladies out there with kiddos who have nap skills? I rock him and put him in the crib when he's sleepy but he wakes up quickly and just cries. I've done "cry it out" and it doesn't seem to work, he just gets more worked up and cries louder and louder and never sleeps. He's had recurrent ear infections so my doctor has advised to try and keep crying to a minimum so as to not irritate his already sensitive ears. I'm at a loss! I need him to nap so I can work (and regain some sanity) but he just doesn't want to. Unless, of course, I hold him the whole time. Which would be nice, but I just can't do that...any suggestions lades?! 

Ok gotta get dinner started, make sure to come back tomorrow for another freebie!!

Awesome give-a-way, my new job and organizing this mess!!

Hey ladies!! I just found this awesome summer give-a-way I joined through Rowdy in Room 300. Check it out for some awesome freebies!! :)

May was super crazy!! I think my husband and I are going for the officially longest move in ever! We moved into our home at the end of March and still have boxes to unpack and things to organize. I also had to pack up my entire classroom, I mean EVERYTHING had to be cleared out because at the end of this year I am resigning to stay at home with my baby boy. It was a hard decision because I love teaching so much, but having a child changes everything doesn't it? He is my first priority. I'm really excited about this opportunity to be with my baby but I'm going to have to get my "teaching" out through my blog, subbing and tutoring at my old school. 

Part of my new duties as full time mother and homemaker is to get this house together. I'm starting in our office. Here is what it looks like so far:

Not very impressive so far, I know. We have two large desks and a file cabinet. The caddy corner mini desk is going to have to go. We don't have need for it in this new office. My mom is going to be helping me organize this room first (that's her in the pic), so stay tuned for updates as the room comes together!