Back to School Books & Stone Fox Winner

The Collaboration Cuties have their back to school themed mentor texts starting this week. {Crazy how summer flies so quickly!} I'm linking up a couple of books that I really enjoy for back to school time, although, the Collab Cuties have several great back-to-school products posted with their latest post so I'm thinking I will need to add a few more books to my back-to-school rotation!

The first book that I'm going to share I plan on reading with my class fairly early in the year. I plan on utilizing Jivey's Mentor Sentences and similar to Max collecting words, I want my students (and myself) to be a collector of great sentences. I think that this book will be a great spring board for those collections to take place.

Here is what Amazon has to say about Max's Words

Max’s brothers have grand collections that everyone makes a big fuss over. Benjamin collects stamps and Karl collects coins, and neither one will share with their little brother. So Max decides to start a collection of his own. He’s going to collect words. He starts with small words that he cuts out of newspapers and magazines, but soon his collection has spilled out into the hall. All the while, his brothers are watching. Benjamin brags that he has one thousand stamps. Karl is just a few coins short of five hundred. But a thousand stamps is really just a bunch of stamps, and a lot of coins is only a heap of money. A pile of words, however, can make a story. 

A wonderful story that draws children of all ages into the story.


I'm also sharing another story from a previous week: Cookies: Bite-Size Life Lessons. I think that this would be a wonderful story for the beginning of the year when talking about rules and expectations. Click on the picture to find out more.

Last, but not least.... thank you for all the pinning and great feedback on my Stone Fox unit. I'm pretty excited about it. I hadn't made anything quite this extensive for reading, it just sort of kept growing. I cannot wait to share this wonderful book with my students this year.

Congratulations to Amy! You'll be getting an email shortly!

This unit is on sale in my TPT store if any one else was eying it {starting tomorrow through the 4th}

Last Day of Blogger Reader! If you would like to continue to follow please click on blog lovin' on the sidebar. 

There is also a major giveaway going on that ends tonight... over 100 bloggers are participating and if you haven't entered you should! You have a chance to win at each spot! To learn more... click here!  

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Currently, 5 For Saturday & Stone Fox Pin to Win!

I just saw Currently posted and I wanted to join in as soon as I could. Read through for a chance to win a new product at the end! 

Listening: The hubs is watching Predator while I'm plunking around on the computer.

Loving: Harvest time! See below!

Thinking: Two different browsers and 2.5 hours later.. my newest product finally uploaded. Scroll to the very bottom to WIN!

Wanting: We've been looking for a home to call ours for about a year now. Ugh. There is a house coming for sale in the beginning of July, but we may be able to get a sneak peak in July after harvest is over. After all the houses we've been to, offers that have fallen through, I'm ready to find "the one". 

Needing: My room is still chaos. I hate that. I start in there then I see a gazillon and one ideas on blogs/Pinterest I want to incorporate. It's crazy. I just need to get in there and get stuff done!

Tip: Don't be a "no-reply" blogger. One of my blogging besties, has a great tutorial on how to fix this. We (and many other bloggers) have become friends through our ability to converse via email on our comments. Besides do you remember all the blogs that you comment on? I know I don't!

 

Nothing like showing up late the first time to a party... but I'm finally linking up with 5 for Friday!

It's the most wonderful time of the year! I absolutely love wheat harvest. Long hours, heat and all, I love every last bit. Here are a couple of pictures of a field earlier this week before the combines came through.

My husband is an agronomist. Basically, he helps farmers to grow crops to their fullest potential: crop rotations, types of seeds, and treatments needed throughout the growing year. I helped him by baking several dozen cookies to share with farmers/customers of his.

Along with cookies, Tony was able to provide meals to some of the farmers. I was able to come along and snag a slice of pizza one night. So much fun to hang out with this group of farmers.

The lovely cookies above (one from scratch the other "semi-homemade") will be featured on next week's Eating, Drinking, and Linking, Oh My! This week my summer linky has really taken off. Each Monday, I post a recipe or two to share. The linky is left open all week, so join in the fun (and help my recipe rotation!) You can also recommend restaurants too :)

There has been some crazy weather here lately. Tuesday a strong wind came with a thunderstorm. Luckily, the hail stayed away from most of the fields. Unfortunately, the straight winds knocked the roof off of the barn out at Tony's grandmother's home. The barn was built in the 1930's.  I love old barns so I hate to see this one hurt in the storm.

Later in the week, storms to the east made the sky turn into a range of colors from orange to a weird cast yellow. At least it never turned green!

I've finally completed my Stone Fox Unit. (I'm so thankful for my wonderful editors!) 42 pages of resources to implement this book through novel studies or reading instruction. Lots of ideas to enhance your unit plans for grades 3-5.  You can find it in my TPT store or pin to win! Just pin a picture of the unit from here or my store and leave the url of your pin. I'll post a winner tomorrow.

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Throw Back Thursday! {K-5 Freebies!}

I would like to welcome all of my new followers! This move to blog lovin' has been an exciting time. I've found so many great new blogs to follow too, it's just been terrific!

Today, I am participating in "Throwback Thursday" to highlight a popular post for those of you who might not have seen it. Last year I was a K-5 special education teacher. When Teaching Blog Addict had a freebie hop for their birthday that I participated with items that fit a variety of grade levels. This coming year I will be a general education ELA teacher in 4th grade, but don't be surprised if some primary posts get thrown into the mix. Enjoy!

 Happy Birthday Teaching Blog Addict-- Freebie Loaded Post from April 5, 2013

I'm helping to celebrate Teaching Blog Addicts 2nd Birthday with a post full of my freebies to date. I am currently a K-5 special education teacher, so hopefully, no matter the grade level, you can find a freebie here to take! I've linked up to both TPT and TN so you can download from either one. Be sure to check back at TBA where hundreds of freebies are being posted in celebration!

Assessment sheets for alphabet

Download at TPT and TN

Game for short A and short A nonsense words game. If you'd like the rest of the vowel, I've got a pack for sale as well. 

Download on TPT or TN

I used this game during Valentine's Day for long and short nonsense words but they could be used any time of the year!

Download on TPT or TN 

A hidden numbers activity for numbers through 20.

Download on TPT or TN

Foldables for common prefixes and suffixes

Download on TPT or TN

Rounding coloring activity to the nearest 10,000. 

Download on TPT or TN 

QR book summary that could be used for students in grades 3-12. Fun activity and a different way to give a book report/summary.

Download on TPT or TN

4th grade Math Standards that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN

4th grade Reading Standards that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN 

4th grade reading standard shorthand that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN 

4th grade math standard shorthand that can be printed on labels to place on folders or binders for organization.

Download on TPT or TN 

Hundreds of goodies are already linked up. Click the button at the top to see more.  Be sure to link up and help TBA celebrate!!

 

Again, so thankful for each and everyone of you! Thanks for bopping by!

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Bloglovin' Giveaway Hop!

Hi fabulous followers!!

You have probably heard by now that Google Reader is going away on July 1st.  Well, Google Reader may be going away, but we don't want YOU to go away, so we hope that you will consider following our blog through bloglovin!  I know that change is hard...so I (and several of my blogging buddies) thought we might sweeten it up for you a little bit!

I am doing a giveaway for all of our fabulous followers that take the leap and switch over to bloglovin.  You may have already switched over!  In that case, this will be an easy entry!

If you have not yet switched or are not following our blog through bloglovin, then there are a few easy steps to follow.  You can go to our sidebar (that's the column on the right over there that shows our followers) and you can click the button that says Follow this Blog with bloglovin.  Or, you can go into the Rafflecopter below and click the link in the first entry, and that will take you to our blog on bloglovin.

You will need to set up an account with bloglovin so that you can follow!

If you want to go ahead and move all of the blogs you follow from Google over, you can go to this link and it will take you through the super easy steps.  BUT, please go to my bloglovin link and make sure that you are following us through bloglovin.  To be sure, make sure that the blue button at the top of our bloglovin page has been clicked (it should be gray with the word following- if it's blue, please click it to follow!)

So, if you follow me by bloglovin, please enter my giveaway!!  I will be picking 3 WINNERS and each winner will get their choice of 2 UNITS FROM MY TpT STORE! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck! Winners will be announced on July 1st!

Be sure to hop along to my blogging buddies blogs! You can have chances to win from EACH of blogs too!! {If you'd like to link up your own giveaway to encourage bloglovin' followers, please link up!} No prize packs for just one lucky winner, but multiple winners + insuring you can still following along with some great bloggers. The best of both worlds! :)

get the InLinkz code
 

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Something BIG is Coming...

Something BIG is Coming Soon!

 Tomorrow morning a bunch of blogging buddies and I are coming together for a fun surprise. Get EXCITED.

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