Winter FREEBIE Link-Up

Thanksgiving is over and the next three weeks has teachers all over the world counting down to Winter Break.  Let's make life easier for one another and link-up with some freebies.

Rules:
1.  Only link ideas or products that are FREE.  NO paid product links, please.

2.  If you create a blog post, use the graphic above and link back to this post.

3.  Add the link directly to the product from your TPT store or add your post below. Please make sure your link goes directly to a specific post about this linky party, not a main page.

Five for Friday~09-11-15

 It's Friday....who hoo!!!

 So, next week I'm headed to Vegas for the Olympia Fitness Competition.  To watch of course, and attend the expo.  Can we say FREE stuff!!!  The last time we went, we had to ship home a 45 lb box of samples!!!  And that was just the stuff we couldn't jam into our suitcases.  Here's a pic of some of the swag we snagged!

Another fun thing is meeting all the fitness gurus I live vicariously through!

Ashley Horner

                                  Vanessa Tib

Follow me on Instagram for updates on this year's Olympia fun.

Just thinking of being around all those fit people, I decided it was time to detox.  I present to you my Detox Water!!!

Cucumbers, lemons, limes, grapefruit, mint leaves, and grated ginger.  My Pampered Chef pitchers worked great for this.

Do you have a favorite recipe for detox water??

My all time fav skincare is Obagi.  I started using is about 15 years ago when I got a sunspot on my forehead. I still get excited when I get new bottles of stuff.  These came in the mail today.

I also dabble with Rodan and Fields.

What's your go to skin care regimen?

I discovered something new tonight.  While I was cutting up all that stuff to go in my detox water I turned the TV on for some background noise and this was on.  

Of course, I know about and have used Donor's Choose but I'd never heard of Think It Up.  Have I been under a rock?

I got my boarding pass to Mars this week!

Who knew you could do this?  It took about two minutes to sign up and now my name will be sent to Mars on the INSIGHT Mission in March.  You can read all about it here.  Fun, right?  Did anyone else sign up to climb aboard?

Head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to see more Five for Friday.

Assess Me~ A Get to Know You Link Up

 The Tattooed Teacher has come up with an awesome linky to "assess" us teachers.  It's a 'get to know' you assessment!

Okay, don't laugh at the font.  I haven't had time to upload my fonts on my new computer.  And just for the record, I showered last night and I'm cleaning out the attic so I have a good excuse for not having showered yet today. 

Hop over to The Tattooed Teacher and get to know some other awesome teacher bloggers! #teacherbloggersrock

Wonderful Idea Wednesday

I'm back….yeah, it's been a while since I've blogged this has been one busy summer with building a house, moving, and selling another!  Anywho, today I'm linking up with the gals over at Freebielicious for Wonderful Idea Wednesday.

I'm revisiting a post I wrote for another blog about an awesome idea for reviewing skills.  Let me know what you think.
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Looking for a fun way to review for those end of the week tests or just want to do an informal assessment of how much information your students are really learning?  Well, Tic-Tac-Know is an easy and FUN way to do just that!!

In my gifted classes we do mini-studies on various topics.  For example, one of the most recent was on kaleidoscopes.  After we did our research and had some discussion.  Then, I wanted to see just how much they retained and really comprehended, so we "played" Tic-Tac-Know.

It's really simple, but fun and effective.  I use painter's tape to mark off a large, life-sized Tic-Tac-Toe board on our carpet.

I compile a list of questions about our current study or whatever we are reviewing.  Next, I divide my students into two teams (Team X and Team O.)

The teams stand, in rows, on opposite sides of the tic-tac-toe board.  We flip a coin to see which team goes first and I ask a question to the first person on that team.  If it is answered correctly, the person takes a spot on the game board.   X's will stand and O's will sit, so at a glance, we can see who's who.  If the answer it incorrect, no one moves and I move on to the other team.  This continues until one team gets tic-tac-toe (3 in a row.)

This game of human tic-tac-know can be used with any subject and is an exciting way to review skills.

Some other ideas for Tic Tac Know could include:

• reviewing math facts
• comprehension questions about a book
• reviewing antonyms/synonyms
• homophones/homonyms review
• stating facts and opinions

What's your favorite way to review with your students? 

You can find more wonderful ideas by clicking the link below.

Five for Friday~June 5,2015

It's been a minute since I've linked up for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching, but I'm back!!!!  I've been out of school since Friday, May 22, so I'm getting into this whole 'no work' thing.

We're in the process of building a new house, so that means packing up EVERYTHING for the big move. It's crazy how you just collect stuff and aren't sure why.  I think it's worse for  teachers.  We never know when we "may" need something, so we hang on the junk.  Here's the progress so far!

This little rascal had cataract surgery about three weeks ago. She developed cataracts shortly after she was diagnosed with diabetes.  As some of you may know, she was born deaf, so when she went blind from the cataracts, surgery was no option.  Turns out she only has about 20% vision in one eye now.  So we are doing tons of eye drops, and tons of pokes for glucose testing, and even more pokes for insulin injections.  But she's happy so that makes momma happy!!

I've been dragging myself out of bed everyday and heading off to our local cross fit gym. It's addictive!! I was very intimidated at first but I let go of that.  I'm not gonna lie, I'm deathly afraid of straining and getting a hemorrhoid!!!  But so far, so good!!  Here's a glimpse at me working on my front squats.  Ignore the "just out of bed" look!

Anyone else into cross fit?

I had an appointment at the Apple Store this week because I have an older iMac desktop, that is now apparently "vintage." Anyway it won't turn on and I need the pictures and documents off of it.  Turns out they can't even get parts for it or pull off my data.  I then had to go to an Apple Authorized Dealer to have this done.  Grrrrrr..... over $100 and three days later, I have the data on a flash drive and the repair shop gained a "vintage" computer.  

While I was at the Apple Store I took it upon myself to pull up my blog on a few computers and just walk away!! #freeadvertising

For all of you that signed up for a chance to win the $100 Stitch Fix gift card, I'd like to say THANK YOU!!  It was so fun  working with A Trendy Teacher and a few other awesome bloggers for this giveaway.  The lucky winner is Bre Simons. 

FYI, I have a new fix coming next week, so be on the lookout for a new Stitch Fix review.  You can follow me on Instagram for a heads up.

Head on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching and see what everyone else is up to. 

Five for Friday~April 17, 2015

TGIF and I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again.

I've finally gotten back into the gym and have found my new love.....Cross Fit!!!  I love the competition, the bare bones of a gym (aka "box"), and the fact that it's at 7:00 at night and I can take a nap before I go!!  Sad, I know!

Here's a few of this week's WODs.  We do a few warm-up exercises and several strength exercises before we hit the WOD or METCON.  I'm usually in the "box" about an hour and a half and leave feeling amazing!!  (FYI: in Cross Fit the gym is a called a box.)  I'm still trying to learn all the lingo.

Anyone else have a love for Cross Fit?

My second graders are studying bridges and we did a STEM bridge building challenge using marshmallows and toothpicks.  I walked around eating marshmallows uncontrollably the entire time!!! I have zero self-control.

We used a product from Teachers Are Terrific for this challenge.  She has ton of STEM Challenges in her TPT store.

We are still working on our Earthworm Study in my first grade classes and I ran into a bit of a snag when my lunch looked eerily like the worms!!

YUCK!!!

I finally loaded the "All About Earthworms" unit in my TPT store.  Check it out!

Have you ever wanted to do something and just get out of the house, but you don't feel like getting dressed up and putting on make-up?  Well, when I feel that way.....I go to Bingo.  It's called Boxcar Bingo Hall.  It's located beside a railroad track, so I guess that's how it got its name.  It's a total smoke pit and no one talks because they are so serious about their cigarettes and bingo cards.  I need a few hours of no interaction every now and then...do you?

I'm perfectly content with my 21 bingo cards and my little blue dabber!!

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that we are building a new house and the process is moving very slowly.  Between the ice/snow and now the constant rain, we've had very little progress.  Finally, the past two weeks they've really made some moves and I'm getting excited.

 Head over to the linky and see what everyone else is up to.

Five for Friday~March 27, 2015

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Five for Friday.  This is an easy way to catch up and get in a quick blog post.

If you're looking for an awesome designer for your business cards, Laine at A Little Peace of Africa, is GREAT and she works fast.  Here's what she came up with for me.

 Tell her I sent you, if you decide to contact her. ;-)

My kinders are working on the lifecycle of frogs, so I whipped up a little cut and paste lifecycle sudoku.  I made two versions, one is a little easier than the other.  I added them to my Pond Research and Creative Writing Activities.  If you already own it, you need to download the updated version.

I have NOT added the two sudokus to the preview pictured above. :-(

During the BIG Teacher are Heroes sale I purchased way too much clip art.  I heart Educlips stuff and one of the new sets I bought was her spring clip art set.  I couldn't wait to make something with it, so I came up with these cute spring themed book marks.  You can print them on colored card stock or white and allow the littles to color.  Either way would be super cute.  Here they are and they are FREE, just for you!!!  Let me know how you decide to use them.

Click the pic below to grab them.

Those of you that follow me on Instagram already know this but, the Starburst flavored jelly beans at Target jumped into my basket.....darn it!!!  I managed to eat all of the strawberry ones out of one bag before I even made it to school.  Oops

I've been working on a big earthworm study with my 1st graders.  We've been having so much fun.  I'm trying everything out and making some tweaks before I post it to my TPT store.  Here's a sneak peek.

UPDATE:  All About Earthworms has been added to my TPT store.  You can check it out HERE.

Hop on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching for more Five for Friday linkups.