Final Countdown Giveaway!

Teaching Special Thinkers is having an amazing final countdown giveaway where you could win over 100 products!! There are some amazing products in this giveaway! If you would like a chance to enter be sure to check out the rafflecopter's below!!
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My Contraction Puzzles featuring 88 contractions are part of the K-2 giveaway!! These puzzles are a great way to review all those tricky contractions! They are great for literacy centers or Word Study. Score sheets and answer keys are included to allow your students to assess their own work!


I'll be back tomorrow with a nail post!

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Things I Love - April Edition

This has now become my most favorite jacket ever! And that is saying a lot because I have quite the coat/jacket problem. My dear sissy gave me a gift card for my birthday and I was able to get this amazing faux leather jacket!

Not only that, the price tag was incorrect, so I got a $30 refund too! :))) (That is me beaming about that!) I wanted to add a link to this but it is sold out already. It is by BLANKNYC and it is so comfy and it goes with everything. I adore the asymmetrical zipper too, more than I can express!

I got this one at Macys with a giftcard from my lovely parents! Macys is having their Friends and Family sale, so I saved 25% on this too! It is by INC and it is really a deep black but I had to lighten the picture to show all the ruffle detailing.

I got this INC top at Macys too, for 25% off. Mine is a taupey color, but the sequins give it a silver look. I am smitten with this shirt. I feel it will make going back to school on the Monday morning after vacation just a bit easier!

My last Macys purchase was this Fossil handbag. I have not bought a Fossil bag in a few years but I could not resist this one. The colors are so pretty and you cannot go wrong with 25% off and a gift card!

My new dresses!! I love these two so much that I have no idea how I will choose which one to wear first! We have a Dress Barn near us now and I must say I am very excited about that!
Blouses!! I have a lot of blouses and I am so glad that it is finally warm enough for me to wear them again! I love winter but I tend to dress a bit more somberly as it goes on!

Finally we have something that I have wanted to buy for ages but for some reason never got around to getting.

The Conair Infinitipro Spin Air Rotating Styler. I seen a lot of infomercials for this. A lot. Since I have never successfully mastered the art of holding a hair dryer AND a hairbrush this is definitely the tool for me! I have curly hair and rarely straighten it - mostly because I whack myself with the hairbrush when I try to. Plus, my hair gets really frizzy and then I have to straighten it for another half hour.

I tried it yesterday, and again today, and I really really love it! I still have to dry my roots with a regular hair dryer first, otherwise it takes too long. But it really does smooth out your hair without taking away too much volume. I still have to use the straightener too, but it does not take anywhere near as long as it did before. It was so much faster that I will now be straightening my hair way more than two times a year!

What are your current obsessions for this month?

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Sight Word Games

First up, hooray for spring break! Now if only it would warm up a teensy bit more! Of course I cannot complain too much, at least it is sunny out!

This is one of my favorite games to play with my students, it is a fun way to review those tricky sight words. Once you play it with your class or group a few times, it makes a great center activity! I like to have my students make sentences out of each word they land on.

There are four boards, each one with 25 of the first 100 sight words on it.

I also included gray scale copies of each board. These work well for student take home copies and for summer activity packs!

This set is available in my TpT shop!

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Beaded Bracelets and Giveaway Winner!

I have a plethora of necklaces. Seriously, you can see it here if you want to know just how bad it is! My bracelets are substantial as well, but I find they never last me as long. Most likely that is because I have a tendency to whack them against things or snag them at school.

Michaels has been having a great deal on Bead Gallery beads lately - 55% off! I figured that would be a great time to get back to making jewelry!

I love this one so much! It has three of those silver plated beads. It is not really glitter or stones, it is druzy! And I believe virtually indestructible! I tend to be vicious on the stones in my bracelets, unintentionally of course! I had four hearts and black beads left, so I think I may be making a pair of earrings soon!

I was afraid I wasn't going to like how this turned bracelet out, but I do! I had a purple glass bead with a golden tint in my hand all throughout the store. But something about it was not right. Then I saw these gorgeous beads - I love the swirls of blues and greens! I think it compliments the antiqued silver nicely.

Lastly we have my silver and rhinestone bracelet. I loved how the round beads look sand dollarish! It was definitely the easiest to make too, just six beads and some elastic. That is definitely how I like my jewelry making to be!

I am totally smitten with all of them and I think I may have a hard time choosing which one I will wear first! Perhaps I will go for a layered look this Monday!

Last but not least Congratulations to Maria! She is the winner of the Silent E Bunting Games! I will be emailing you tonight Maria!

Have a great night!

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Five for Friday!!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday! Last week I had a Springy themed one, this week....not so much!

31 degrees. Blargh. A temperature that leads to...

Snow on last weeks beautiful crocuses. Not even snow - more of a grimy, gritty, slippery, iciness. Not at all fun to drive in!

The weather led to me needing this for school. This is a happy picture however! I adore this umbrella that my sister got me awhile back. It is perfect for this kind of weather and it never blows back in the wind too!

Now onto more cheerful things! BEADS!!! I have been wanting to make some new bracelets, and Michaels just happened to have a 55% off sale on bead gallery beads! I shall definitely be making a few this weekend!

Lastly we have my ipad case! I took the glitter case I had to school because --- I have a school ipad now too! I never brought my own ipad to school since I am a bit of a spazz/klutz. I just know what would happen if I did. Even my stainless steel coffee mug has battle scars! Since I took my glitter case to school I figured I would break out this one. I adore it!! My students are loving the glitter case too!

So that is my Friday! I hope you all had a terrific day (and hopefully a warmer one too!)  Don't forget to check out this post for a chance to win my Silent E Bunting Games!

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Silent E Bunting Games

This is a updated version of a Silent E game I created back when I first opened my shop. I really did not like the bunting I had used - I made it myself and it was dreadful! I also did not like the font, it was way too swirly to read easily.

I am slowly updating all the items in my shop to make them easier to read. I just started a Facebook and Twitter page that will have updates on all these changes! You can find them on the right-hand side at the top of this page! Thanks to my fabulously talented sister for making these adorable buttons!

This set has five game boards all with Silent E words (a, i, o , u and a mixed vowel board for reviewing.)

They are great for Literacy Centers and small group work! I have been playing this game with my first grade group all week. We were using the Candy Colored Long Vowel Team Games - but I noticed that when they were reading their books they were not reading Silent E words with the long vowel sound. I figured it was time for a review!

They really enjoy discussing each word that they land on and what it means. They especially like when they can act out the words too! I like taking the extra time to do this when we play these games, it really lets me see how well they are comprehending the words they decode.

I included gray scale copies of all the games, as well as the rules. I am going to put a pack of these gray scale copies together for them to take home this summer! That way I will know that they can keep on practicing these skills!

This set is available in my TpT shop!

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Five For Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching's Five for Friday! This is my first one and I am very excited!

The snow is almost gone!! Really and truly gone! This is the sad ugly pile that is left. A little over a week ago it was more like a mountain! (Seriously, I could have skied on it!!)

Flowers! Real blooming crocuses! (Or crocui?) I think this made me even more excited than the diminished snow pile!






Sneakers on a school day! Since we have a dress code now I never get to wear them to school anymore. We walked downtown to see a play today and sneakers were allowed! Yay! An excuse to wear my new neon sneakers! <3

56 degrees and sunny! I think this one speaks for itself!

My pups! The two on the top are Jack and Nick. On the bottom is Phoebe, who turned 3 today! (Here's to hoping that we are done with the terrible twos!) That is her "Birthday Elephant." He has a party hat and Happy Birthday written on him. I bought him for her 1st birthday, but he has lasted so he gets brought out on all the pups birthdays now! It was very hard to get them all to pose! In fact Jack's tail is a blur!

So that is my Friday! I hope you all had a wonderful one too!

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March's Nail Art and Giveaway Winner!!

This was a lazy nails week!  I loved how the gold and black turned out awhile back so I decided to try it out with China Glaze Draped in Velvet combined with Sally Hansen's Fractured Foil on half the nail. I love these colors together!

I was totally inspired by these amazing nails I saw on Polish Obsession - I adore the way Marisa's came out!!  I have a tendency to space my dots out too much. I want to try this one again soon with the dots closer together, or even overlapping like she did. I used Rimmel Lasting Finish Wild Orchid for the base. The dots were done with Essie No Place Like Chrome, Zoya Charisma, and a Confetti Periwinkle color that I can find no link for! I bought it on a whim years ago at some drugstore. I really like the shade though!

This week I decided to try sponge art again. I used Essie Go Overboard for my base, Essie No Place Like Chrome for the petals and China Glaze Champagne Bubbles for the centers.







I chopped a cosmetic sponge into little triangles to make the petals. I  dipped it in the polish (on a plate) and lightly dabbed the tiny corner against my nail. Some came out nice...some rather horribly!

(Take note of the pinky!)  I was informed by a someone that it bore no resemblance to a flower!! However, I love them, in fact I have been admiring them all week!

Next up we have my Spring Matching Games winner! Congratulations Cherie, you are the winner! I will be emailing you tonight! Thanks to everyone who commented!

So what is on your nails this week? Let me know below!

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April Currently!!

Hooray - it is April! I am thrilled that March is over and I am desperately hoping that Winter is over too!

Listening: To my black labs barking away upstairs while I am typing away downstairs. I think it is time for a trip outside!

Loving: The Spring-like warmth we had here in New England for the past few days. (I am choosing to ignore the arctic wind that is blowing insanely outside right now!)

Thinking: About why I made the foolish decision to stay up so late last night!!! I cannot possibly yawn another time today!

Wanting: Vacation to arrive ASAP! Especially if it comes with really warm weather!

Needing: To practice taking pictures for my blog. Especially my nail pics - I have the hardest time taking good pics of my nail art!

Advice: Focus on the task at hand. I refuse to get overwhelmed and stressed, so I am sticking with taking it one thing at a time!

Now it is your turn to link up with Farley!

Don't forget to leave a comment here for a chance to win the Spring Matching Games with ABC's and Numbers 1-20!

Have a great night!

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Spring Matching Games

We switched up our Intervention groups recently and I have discovered that while my new first grade crew are at a higher reading level, they are lacking on recognition of many of their letters! There is a lot of b and d reversals and confusion over j, g sounds as well as names of letters. I thought I would put together a quick matching game we can use to reinforce each letter in both the uppercase and lowercase style.


I included Rules for both Go Fish and Memory. I play Go Fish with my students in our small groups but everyone now and then we have a technology crisis! (The rest of my crew is working on Raz-Kids.com, reading stories on their level.) If I have to go off to help someone with a computer mishap I like to have a game ready for the ones who are waiting ever so patiently for me! I find that Memory works great in this case. They are pro's at laying out the cards for whatever skill we are on and they match away while I tend to the computer issue!

I also included a set of cards with the numbers 1-20 and pictures representing each number. We used to play with one dice but recently I switched to two - it helps to speed up the game when we are short on time! I noticed that many of my students are unable to recognize groups of numbers! I thought this might be a good way to help with that!

There are 20 cards with numbers 1-20 and 20 cards with the pictures for 1-20. We are going to be trying this game out this week and I am hoping that it will help increase their ability to recognize how many are in a group!

This set is available in my TpT shop!

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