Big Heartland Blogger Giveaway + $1 Deals!

It's back to school for a lot of us and our new bloggy group, Big Heartland Bloggers, are here to make it easier on YOU!  Through Sunday, you can enter our Rafflecopters for a chance to win awesome back to school products!  Wait, it doesn't stop there...We are also doing $1 deals on Saturday, August 1st!  For a buck, you can find some fantastic resources to start your year off right.  

Writing can be hard, I mean really HARD for students of all ages.  Read on for tips on how I organize Writer's Workshop in my first grade room and enter for a chance to win my pack, Little Writers!: Writer's Workshop for grades K-2.

Here is my writing corner, and I really mean corner!  I have a very odd shaped room so I had to create a bulletin board display with lots and lots of hot glue!  My WRITE banner is included in the writers pack, as well as my Writing Tips posters.  

Tips include: 

#1-Think What You Want To Write About

#2- Draw A Picture

#3- Write 3 Sentences About Your Picture

#4- Use 5 Colors In Your Picture

#5- Make 5 Labels For Your Picture

#6- Add Details To Your Writing

At first, I thought it was too many steps.  But, these are steps to add as you go through the year.  For example, in the fall we will work on tips 1-4, but by spring, our goal will be to be able to do all five steps while writing.  And these are great tips to differentiate for those students who have a lot of trouble.  Maybe have them focus on one sentence and picture.

Next, is my writing tools to get the kiddos where they need to be by the end of the year!

I think the very first time we do writers workshop, I always hear, "But I don't know what to write about!!!"  Oh my goodness, child!!  

Well, I will have no more of that this year!  I created these writing topic cards that will stay in a cute little caddy on my writing table.  If I hear a kiddo say those dreadful words, I will silently point towards my writing table.  End. Of. Story.

Here is my storage for daily writing papers and fun extras, like postcards.  My portfolios are on the top, but I plan to keep those in hanging file folders in a cube.

I've included a portfolio cover for each month, that way you can staple it all together and when you are done, put it away to build a year long work sample for your kiddos!

Other parts of this unit include mentor texts that have descriptive lessons + anchor chart labels!  Super excited about this part since my kiddos usually love to create anchor charts!  Here's another pic of some writers workshop awesomeness :)  Just a few pages out of the 125 page unit!  This will definitely get you through the entire school year.

Now, how about a dollar deal???  Grab my Meet The Firsties unit today only for a buck!

I used this last year during the first week of school and I loved how it introduced my new students and built our classroom unity.  

Here's what's included:

"Meet The Firsties" pennant banner

Individual All About Me pennants

Get To Know Your Neighbor Interviews

Firstie Face (draw pic of your neighbor)

First Grade Freckles graph

Eye Color tally graph

Hair Color bar graph

First Grade Quality cards

How We Treat Our Friends writing papers

My Friend List

Firsties In The Future 

Whew!  That's a lot to cover for the first few days of school, so I've made this pack to be used anytime during the year!  Anytime you need to build on relationships, come back to this! :)

Wow guys, that's a lot of good stuff in one blog post.  Make sure you enter to win my Little Writer's Workshop unit below in the rafflecopter and check out the other Dollar Deals from my friends!

Monday is the kick-off for this bad boy:

Come back for more tips and tricks!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up


For my friends at Big Heartland Bloggers with giveaways only, please link up here:

An InLinkz Link-up

Monday Made-It: Paper Bag Poms!

One thing I love about summer is this linky party!  Fun, fun, fun!!  I can't believe I had time to do it this week, but I whipped one up. :)

My first Monday Made-It is paper bag poms.  I am spending a few hours a week in my classroom, decorating and organizing and this just popped into my head the other day.  I love how burlap tones down the bright colors in a room.  My two main colors are turquoise and lime green.  I just love the brown in the burlap with the other two colors, so instead of making a bright colored tissue paper pom, I decided to try a brown paper bag one!  And it's super easy :)

Supplies:

paper bag (I used one but you can use two to make it fuller)

scissors

stapler

burlap (or you could use tissue paper or other fabric scraps)

               

1. Cut the bottom of of the paper sack.

                                                    

2. Cut the edge off of one side.  I used a scallop on mine, but you can do zig zags or small waves.

2. Cut your piece of burlap if you want to add it.  I added scallops like my sack. Then fold it accordion style. This is what will add texture to the sack and make it easier to form a pom.

3. Open the sack and place the burlap in the middle.  There might be a little scrap of the paper bag in there to take out, because you trimmed up the side. Use a stapler to staple the 'sandwich' together.  It should be sack, burlap, sack.  Make sure the middle gets stapled. 

4. Turn the sack sides down so that you can see the burlap.

5. Take a short side of the sack and fold it around to meet the other side, kind of like a flower.  While you are doing this, it's okay to wrinkle and rumple.  That's what makes it look neat!

6.  Once it has formed a pom, staple the bottom so it stays together.  You might want to poof it a bit in the front.

Here it is!  I have added my poms to my Fabric and Burlap Tassel Banner and now my classroom door is adorable!  Love it!

Monday Made-It #2 is a surprise for you guys!  YESSSS, don't you love free stuff??  ;)  I created a new Word Wall with headers for my classroom in turquoise and lime.  It turned out pretty cute.

I am a stickler for laminating everything, sorry about the shine!  

In a few days, all of my TPT Store followers will be sent this pack!  I've included some headers too, just in case you want to use them to write on for another section of your room.  

You can find my TPT store here at Mrs. Baker's Dozen, and score a freebie!!  

I suppose I made the graphic, but this one is more like a TEAM EFFORT!  Bloggers from KS, OK, MO, and AR have come together to form, Big Heartland Bloggers!  This is a new FB group and if you live in these states, look us up!  We will be having a huge BTS giveaway, full of products and tips to share!  So stay tuned :)

Have a wonderful last week of July, my friends!

Five For Friday: Bunnies + Weekly Target Homework Newsletter

Yay for Five For Friday, one of my fave linky parties!!  This week was a bbblllurrrrrr of watching my nieces, turning in fair projects, and grooming rabbits. But I wanted to share some highlights!  :)

Number one goes to my sweeties and their bunnies.  All of this hard work has come to an end, kind of . ;)  The Bakers' first fair is now over with and we are still standing.  Hallelujah!  

I have finally posted my new First Grade Weekly Target to TPT and even made ones for K and 2nd!  Third will be coming soon!  I absolutely love this product because I know its going to SAVE me time!  It's editable, so you can enter in all of your weekly spelling and vocab words, plus sight words and a fluency story!  Can you imagine all of that on one paper, back to back, for parents to have for the next week?  Hand it out on Fridays so students can read over it on their *few* minutes of downtime during the weekend.  Copy on colored paper for parents to easily discriminate between other papers.  Yeah, I'm pretty psyched :)

Click on the pics to take you to TPT!  

School supplies are everywhere!  It's time to get the good deals :)  I found this link on Facebook and love how this gal compared prices for us lazy people!

Money Saving Mom

School starts back on August 19th for teachers and the 24th for students!  When do you go back?

Back to school means back to searching Pinterest for me!  I have to scour this board right here and make lists of crafty things I *hope* to create before the first day.  Do some Pinteresting on my boards HERE!

Happy Weekend!!!

Monday Made It: Reading Focus Wall + Zucchini Bread!

 Yay!!  Happy Monday Made-It everyone!  This last week was busy with a capital B!  My girls and I had a lot of fun at the Lake of the Ozarks while Daddy did some work.  Lots of fun but not much finished in the classroom... 

 My first Monday Made-It was with my girls and my two sweet nieces.  We took a candy making class at Richardson's Candy House in Joplin, MO.  The theme was Olaf and it was darling!!  We left the building smelling like the sweetest chocolate, yummmmm!

Next is Zucchini Bread!!  Our garden is doing so well with all the rain we have been getting.  Our showers we get almost every other week has been driving my husband nuts with having to mow All. The. Time.  But, the plants and flowers look super nice.  My recipe I used is by Paula Deen, love that woman!  

This bread is my fave!!  My girls won't touch zucchini unless it's in this bread.  :)

My last Monday Made-It is my Reading Focus Wall.  I had a Focus Wall last year that I put our sight word of the day, number of the day, and vocab of the day on.  The kids really followed it so this year I decided to expand it and include some objectives that are in our new Journeys reading series.

Man my pictures look so blurry!  Sorry about the poor job this photographer does ;) This huge and awkward bulletin board is perfect for a focus wall.  


Have a great week everyone!!