TPT Seller Challenge Week 2: Dare To Dream!

Happy Weekend!

I'm having a great summer,

but the days are packed...packed...packed....

and it seems like I have a small window

to do some blogging... nap time and weekends!

I'm excited to be here for week 2 of the 

TpT Seller Challenge hosted by

Third in Hollywood

Sparkling in Second

Peppy Zesty Teacherista &

Teach Create Motivate

This week's TpT Challenge is Dare To Dream

I'm fairly new to the TpT world and haven't made a ton of things. I try to focus on one or two things at a time that I need for my students.  As I get more comfortable I hope to expand and do more. Some of my dreams are...


Family Time- I would love to use TpT earnings to do fun family things with my husband and son. Not just the usual go to the park, have a picnic, etc.  Those are all super fun things to do and we do them a lot... what I want to do is those special extras.  Maybe going to a water park for the day, or to a special place for the weekend to get-a-way spontaneously. I'd love to just always jump at the chance to meet up with people and do things to make memories and not worry about money.   

TpT Conference- I really want to go to Vegas for the TpT conference.  I have met so many wonderful people through blogging and IG that I really would love to meet them and see what else I can learn. I'd love to save money from TpT to be able to join in on the fun.  Maybe next year???

Fun- I just want to be able to go out and do something for myself, my family or a friend.... to have fun.  Offer to treat someone to something special or just to be making memories.  I guess that goes along with my first goal, however sometimes I feel that us teachers don't get enough time to spoil ourselves or the people that we love.  

New House- My husband and I are in the process of building a new house.  We don't have an eta yet but it should be sometime this fall (you know, the perfect time for a teacher to move!!!) I'm hoping that we can really take the time to put into it what we want to get it started and off on the right track.  Sometimes money can hold you back from doing certain things to the house or adding certain decorations or splurging on something new like a comforter set.  I'm hoping that I can use my TpT earnings to help that process out a little bit more!


Be sure to stop by one of the blogs I mentioned above to read and connect with all of the other dreamers out there.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Makeover Madness: Week one TPT Challenge

Hi there! Happy weekend. I am excited

to be a part of the TPT Seller Challenge

hosted by 4 fabulous bloggers. 

See Below!

I have been absent from my TPT world lately.

Life has just gotten in the way. 

I have on my summer list to do some makeovers,

so this was the perfect way to get started.

One of my best sellers is a set of task cards

that I use at the beginning of the school year. 

I have three sets of them. One for addition with 

regrouping, one for subtraction with regrouping

and one for place value. I also have them linked together

in a bundle pack.

My goal is to revamp the whole entire bundle,

but for now I have the first set done. 

Here is what I started with----

In my defense, it wasn't a bad start.

I use them a lot with students,

especially when I'm trying to do some assessing

at the beginning of the year. 

I decided to change it up a bit and

I LOVE how it turned out. 

I would love for you to check it out!

Click Here!

It's going to be FREE for a flash and then 

discounted. I'd love some feedback too!

I'm super excited to get on the next product

for this bundle. :)

I'm Still Here! Five For Friday {4.24.15}

Happy Friday Friends!!!  I know that I have been absent for a really long time.... I do apologize for that. I am thankful for the connections I have still been able to keep through twitter and instagram though!  I needed to take some time to focus on life and school. It sure has been a very hectic year with getting back to work after having a baby (who is one now!!!yikes!!) and selling our house.... moving in with my parents and have had almost everything go wrong in the last 5 months to move on to a new adventure.  I'm happy to say that school in winding down, after a fabulous year and a wonderful group of students. I have a lot to share from what we did and I have a lot of great news in terms of our future--- we're building a house! I'm linking up for one of my favorite linkys today.... Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs teaching to give you a little look into what I've been doing this week, and maybe a little from last week.... it's been so long since I've blogged I have so much I want to share!! Enjoy!

I've been plugging away on fractions with my kiddos. We're using math expressions, anyone else?  I missed this part of the year last year b/c of being on maternity leave so it's been a little scary for me!  However, I have to say that it's been going very well.  My team is amazing and I've also teamed up with our ESL teacher, math interventionist and another teammate to do some team teaching and small group work with fractions.  My kids are doing well, but let me tell you, it's hard!  I'd love to know some of your suggestions for resources for fractions. We've been doing a lot of hands on activities. I've found that to be best, but I'm always on the lookout for more!

We end the school year with a great project in 3rd grade. I talked about it last year here.  We do a pioneer simulation where students are assigned to an identity and a group and they 'travel the trail' west.  We have a heavy emphasis on non-fiction reading and learning for 4th quarter and this fits perfectly with it.  One of my favorite activities is this interactive word wall.  We've done a lot with words and parts of speech this year, so it was a great activity to familiarize students with some of the pioneer vocabulary.  I love using vocabulary boxes with them as well.  It really helps them understand the words.  

Speaking of pioneers, we have changed up our teaching of it this year and have added some STEM activities to go along with our learning. It's been wonderful.  I will do a longer post when I have time, but here is a look at what we had to do this last week. Students had a limited amount of time and resources to create a shelter for their pioneers to protect them from a coming storm. I was very impressed with their creativity and teamwork. 

We're doing a school wide writing project this year at school. It's been going amazing and also everything can't get enough of it. We're all making cardboard books or cartoneras and publishing them for a celebration at the end of the year.  The process has been amazing. I'll share more at a later post, but wanted to let you know in case you wanted to get involved. You can check out more from my co-worker's blog Books Del Sur here!

We did a twitter challenge at school this week. It was amazing. I got to step outside of my box and do some things like a twitter chat, selfie with my co-workers and share ideas to those that I don't know.  It got people on twitter that didn't know much about it and it also got us collaborating from across the halls.  We always do a great job with collaboration but this was a different way! It was so fun.  If you want to know more let me know.  My coworker Jennifer set it up for us! She blogs at Mrs. Laffin's Laughings and also be sure to follow her link to her writing blog! Are you on twitter? I'd love to connect with you. I can be found @MrsBentin3

Happy Friday!

Have a great weekend! :)

Currently... Tired.. But It's October and I have a TREAT for you!

Happy October 1st! It's way past my bedtime... like hours past my bedtime but I had some serious stuff to get finished tonight.  Just as I was going to close down the computer, I noticed that the one and only Farley from Oh' Boy 4th Grade has put up her Currently linky! So I had to jump in and do it now, or I fear it won't get done!!

Listening- To Conan in the background, but I have to say I'm not a huge fan. It's just on. It's not that I don't enjoy a good late night show, I just never am up to watch them, so they aren't my first choice to watch!!!

Loving- The Fall weather that has hit Wisconsin.  I got to wear leggings and boots today! SWOON!  I might even wear a scarf tomorrow. How's the weather where you live?

Thinking- I'm crazy... it's too late to be functioning. I hope the baby sleeps through the night. I am going to be super tired tomorrow!

Wanting- I'm still not feeling ahead of the game, even though I feel like I am working non-stop. I seriously give so much credit to every hard working mom and dad out there. Working full time and having a baby is hard! I'm so lucky for my support system... I just want to feel ahead. 

Needing- I usually stay late on Wednesday to plan for the next week. I didn't get any planning done tonight. I spent my time organizing my new class set of chrom books. I know, I know.. I'm super lucky to have them... I just don't know how I want them set up in my room yet, so it's been a bit frustrating!!! 

Treat- I just finished (which is why I'm up late) my math centers for Fall. They are review centers that I use for students to work on if they are finished with centers early.  They cover the concept of addition with regrouping, subtracting with regrouping and place value concepts. I'm putting them up in my store for free for a limited time just for YOU!  Please leave some feedback if you do download. I would greatly appreciate it!!

I'd love for you to follow my store for updates too!! :) 

TpT- Mrs. Bentin's Blackboard

Be sure to stop by Farley's blog... to check out of the currently linkys!! It's always my favorite time of the month in bloggy world!!

Have a wonderful end to the week!!  

A Peek at My Week 9-1-14

Hello There and Happy (sun) Monday..... 

I am a little late, but school hasn't started yet so in my world that means that I'm right on time. 

I'm gearing up for my first day of school this week and want to link up with...
Jennifer from Mrs. Laffins' Laughings for 

A Peek At My Week!

                                                                                                                                                                       

There it is.

The first week!

I know that I have way too much planned.

I always do that. 

Here's my plan.

Reading/LA- The first couple of days we're going to be working on some small projects so I can get an idea of where the kids are coming in at. We'll be doing some writing and reading and trying to have fun. One of the first things we will create are All About Me posters.  As the week goes on and we finish that, my plan is to dive into some of my new purchases from the TpT sale.  I'm going to use a popular Mentor Text for some basic reading and writing activities. I know you've heard of it!

Click here to find on Amazon

                                                  

The plan is to use this book for much reading and writing through the week thanks to Ms. Jivey's awesome complete pack of reading and writing units. Click the picture to go to her store!

What I'm most excited about is that I also have a mentor text unit and an interactive reading notebook unit for this same book thanks to Jessica.  So this first week of planning was not hard for me at all! I'm so thankful for that especially because I don't know where my kiddos are yet. 

Writing: In writing, along with the story activities from above we will be starting our 3rd grade memory books this week. The first entry is a picture from the first day of school. I love this first entry because the kids are so excited about it and they are really wanting to show me all that they can do when it comes to writing. I give the least direction with this entry to get an idea of where they are coming in at, and I am usually surprised as to all that they share!

Math- This week I'm going to do some review activities. I have a telling time scavenger hunt where I put clocks around the room and they have to read the time. I strategically place the clocks next to important parts of the room so then we can talk about them, like the mailboxes or the extra supplies, etc. There are also mystery letters with each clock so as they complete the hunt, the letters spell out a new word. I haven't updated it yet for this year (YIKES I'm running out of time) so I don't know what my mystery word will be this year yet. We're also going to spend some time doing some basic math centers that I put together to get our math brains going. Again, it's great to see where the kids are coming in at and also have them 'playing games' while they are showing me! I'm just sad, because I don't know if I can get my hands on some iPads so they can use the version that I made with QR codes. They always love those!

Read Aloud- I always start the year with a fun read aloud. This year will be no different. I plan on putting together some activities for this book this year, so stay tuned for that. This week I will be doing a lot of reading of Justin Case: School Drool and Other Daily Disasters.  

I know I've talked about Justin before but if you aren't familiar I really suggest you check it out. It's a 3 book series, but I usually only read the first on to my kids. Maybe I'll do it differently this year. Justin is starting 3rd grade and he is a nervous little guy who is scared of almost everything, including his dog that he begged for. The story just takes you through his third grade journey and how he morphed to a strong, confident, only sometimes scared 3rd grader. 

Oh my goodness---- this post got very long winded, and I do apologize for that. I'm going to stop there even though I had some other things to share. Let's just save them for next week, considering I'm sure I have way too much planned anyways!!!  Hope you all have a great week. 

Monday Creativity- Teacher Toolbox, Product Updates and Gifts **FREEBIE ALERT!

Happy Monday! I'm excited to link up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It today!  I've got several things to share that I'm really excited about. Happy Monday everyone! 

Teacher Toolbox:

I know you've seen a hundred million of these. 

I have too, which is why I wanted one. 

I found this great toolbox at Home Depot for $12. 

It's not the typical looking one, as it's taller vs. wider, 

but I think it turned out great. 

I spray painted it a blue color

and added labels made from Jameson at

Lessons With Coffee.

Product Update:

I had some time this last weekend

and decided to do some updates to a few products

in my TpT store. 

The first one I made was Vocabulary Boxes.

Some examples of activities students will do with new words are they will look up a word in the dictionary, tell the definition in their own words, 

write their word in a sentence, 

illustrate their word, 

or make a list of synonyms or antonyms for their word. 

I kept the template the same,  and also simple but made variations

of the sheet to offer some choice and differentiation to the mix. 

Check it out... You can have it for FREE tonight. 

IF you do download it, I would really appreciate you leaving feedback on it. 

Product Update 2:

The second product I updated were my 

Number of the Day sheets. 

I did something similar to the vocabulary boxes, 

in that I made a few variations of the sheets for choice

and differentiation. 

The basics are, you give a number to be put in the middle 

and then students do different things with that number for the day. 

They add to it, subtract from it, draw it, create story problems, count by 5's or 10's from it, etc. 

I hope you can use it!

You may also download tonight for FREE! 

IF you do, please be a friend and leave some feedback!!

My last Monday Made It

is actually from last week. 

I made some letters for my teammates 

for the new school year. 

I liked how they turned out but needed a little something more.

I was out of ideas. My blogger Friend, Cassie

from Funky in Fourth helped me out and suggested that

I add some ribbon to them. 

I think they turned out great. So I thought I would share them again. 

To see the original post, head here. 

Have a happy week!