Word Wall Cursive Alphabet Letters

Good afternoon! I am sure that many of you are doing what I've been doing lately...preparing for another school year.  My summer was crazy busy so by the time I was done taking care of the litter of pups and getting them into their new homes, I had exactly 6 weekdays of summer to be "off."  Sheesh!  Don't get me wrong, they're a blessing to be around even though it was nonstop work, but they are now a blessing to their fur-ever mommies and families now.

As I was taking inventory and beginning the set up of my room this week, I got to my Word Wall letters.  They are super duper cute, but they were in print and it reminded me of last years' students often asking me how to write something in cursive.

So, to avoid that this year, I have created a new set using a cursive font.  I've continued my beach theme (because I simply cannot imagine the amount of money it would cost to change my theme at this point) but also really added a lot more pops of color in my color scheme of bright fuchsia, teal, and lime green.  But to make it quick and easy, I used the Just So Scrappy Lil' Red Brag Book Pages found here.

You can get your own copy here:
Cursive Alphabet

That's all for now!  I'm heading to my room to work on the chaos I left behind two days ago. :)
 

My Sabbatical is Over!

Wait, I was on a sabbatical?  You mean you thought I'd fallen off of the face of the blogosphere?  NEGATIVE!  I won't go into the myriad of excuses I could conjure up because I think we've all been to Overwhelmville.  And my blogging wasn't the cause nor a contributor.  However, I can say it was certainly missed by me as a creative outlet getaway escape from reality.

SO, after a terribly challenging day from school related events/people/(mis)communications, I'm back.  :)  And BOY did I need to be.  I packed four, yes FOUR bags of things to bring home tonight because I had every intention of taking a mental health day tomorrow.  Because that would show those colleagues, wouldn't it?  Take the day off.  Let a sub come in and teach my plans.  Hope for the best.  Because the only people who have paid the price for said colleagues' (mis)communications so far are the children and my inconveniences (and of course, the poor trees that died in vain).  Why not take the day off, right?  Grrrr, teacher guilt kicking in in 3, 2, 1.

After deciding that the children have already paid a high enough price, I decided to finish something I've started (CHECK) and I'm glad that I did.  If you missed my previous posting with Amy Benjamin's video, I recommend you check it out.  Regardless, I finally finished creating posters that have the basics of her teachings of Parts of Speech.  They are available to you for FREE (my favorite type of printable) below:
A Verb is
An Adjective Is
An Adverb Is
A Preposition Is

My Scratch Offs are DONE!

I am so excited to tell my students about them and share them, but there wasn't a good time yesterday (Mondays are SO busy).  Today my Gifted students are out for their enrichment class (7 out of 21 in one group), and I don't want them to miss out.  Maybe tomorrow...but since I'm chomping at the bit to share them with SOMEONE:

Here they are in the process...

A close-up.  It only took about 2 to 3 layers.  

Thank you, Pinterest, you've done it again! Click here for the source and the how-to! :)

Here are a couple of general (with my name removed) free printables you can use in your room:

Classroom Lottery Blank 2
Classroom Lottery Blank 1

Special thanks to Rebecca Morris (source) for posting her format that I modified to suit my needs (you guessed it...COLOR)!

Have a great day,

kvk

FREE breast cancer awareness printables

The Susan G. Komen 5k is coming up and I am looking forward to running in CELEBRATION of my mom and her courageous battle with the C word last year. After years of being involved with this cause and not knowing too many people that well who had it, it his close to home and now I'm REALLY involved in the cause!

 Thank you to Heather at Chickabug for such generosity and beautiful work!

Free Breast Cancer Printables HERE

Freebie Friday (A Day Late)

Sorry for the delay in posting my very first Friday Freebie.  To be honest, I was just too tired to create last night and so that's why you got a pic of my handsome Golden boys instead.  I wasn't happy with the format that I was using for my "penciled in" plans because it didn't offer all of the shortcuts that I'd like.  Some things are a definite for me every week, given that I'm a fifth grade reading teacher.  I also teach social studies and language (and in language I'm incorporating reference and research skills to help ready our fifth graders for sixth grade science fairs).  SO, a ready made one wasn't cutting it.

So I looked around at other formats that I'd bought on TpT inthe past as well as some  that were posted on Pinterest and decided that I would just create my own.  There was no sense in paying for another format when I could create one to suit my needs just as easily--I'm just not that dependent. ;)

For me, color is a must, and the brighter the better.  I also wanted to be able to just check things off that were being done on specific days.  That way when I was typing plans into my excel spreadsheet, I wouldn't feel like I was writing and typing everything twice.

Of course, since it's designed to accommodate my needs as a teacher, it might not help you...but you are welcome to it either way.

So, without any further ado, my very FIRST Friday (+1) Freebie:
Written Lesson Plan Format

Have a GREAT Saturday and GO BLUE!
kvk