NJ Blogger and more!

Look what i found!!! I've been wondering where everyone gets their cute state bloggin' sign from and after hours (and hours) of blog hopping i found it here at Fifth in the Middle!!!! FINALLY!!!! 

Then i made my way over to Caffeine & Lesson Plans to find these adorable grade level icons!!!! WOO-HOO!! KNJ create products for 3rd to 5th grade (sometimes even 2nd) based on our overall teaching experience.  However, we blog most about our current grade level activities and experiences!! 

first entry

so it's my first time entering in giveaways and i reallllllly want to win these! I'm not really sure how they work yet so i'm following all the steps and one of them for extra is to blog about it! Does that mean i have extra chances to win it?!?! i sure hope so!! 

1. Kelly over at Teaching Fourth is hosting a blog birthday bash giveaway and it is all CHEVRON themed items!!! OBSESSED!!! I even love the chevron "Alabama Blogger" icon she has on the side! KNJ needs one to represent JERSEY bloggers!!!   Congrats, Kelly on 1 year of your blog!!! We are only about 6 months in but we hope we continue to get more followers and supporters as we continue.  
2. Megan over at I Teach. What's your super power? is hosting another one!!! (BTW I have a poster outside my door because teaching truly is a super power!!!) She is giving away a Silhouette Portrait and i just MUST. HAVE!!!! 

i am just so super excited to win one (could i be so lucky to win both?!) of these prizes that i just can't contain my excitement!!!!!!!!

Good luck to KNJ and hope we win your FABULOUS giveaways :)

Trashketball FREEBIE

So i finally found my Proofreading activity that i mentioned last week when i purchased the basketball hoop thing.  You don't need a basketball hoop to make it fun!  Seriously, all it took was giving the kids a chance to throw garbage into the can as if it were a basketball to make them try their best and have fun with it!  i just showed the PDF as a slideshow, told the kids to make corrections if necessary, and if the team got it correct - a representative got to shoot.  to add a "twist" i put down some masking tape and labeled at different distances: 0.5 points, 1.0 points, 2.5 points, etc (we were also working on decimals at that time) and they could choose where to shoot from. there is no answer key, but hopefully you upper elementary teachers will find the errors and guide your students as needed ;-)
leave us a little note hello if you download (just click on the word FUN below) and tell us how YOU make the "boring" things FUN!!!!!!!! 

And the winner is.... *plus* news about our UPCOMING SALE!

The Teachers Pay Teachers Back to School Sale is about to begin! Don't forget to visit KNJ's spectacular store ! All of our products will be 20% off!! We currently have a lot of Common Core Materials for Grades 3-5 (perfect for adhering to the standards in your classroom this year!). Hope to see you there!

And on an even more exciting note....Congratulations Toni Nicholson! You are the winner of the Jungle Themed Genre Posters! I hope you enjoy them as much as I will this year. Expect the posters in your e-mail shortly :)

To all raffleteers...We love hearing other bloggers'/teachers' ideas and support! Please keep following, and stay tuned for future giveaways and *freebies*.

Flippin' Excited

I. CAN. NOT. WAIT. TO. SHOW. YOU. 

i am just so flippin' excited i've been talking about this purchase all day every day since wednesday.  As Natalie mentioned - did you see her AMAZING Win it Wednesday post vvvv below vvvv?? i'm OBSESSED with everything jungle so I mayyyy just try to shmooze her to get a set, too ;-)

ANYWAY so as Natalie mentioned (was that even a complete sentence above? I'm just so excited), KNJ took our annual trip to Lakeshore Learning on Wednesday and of course we each set a budget (THANK YOU TPT!!!!) and OF COURSE i passed it. BUT i absolutely had to. LOOK. AT. THIS.

it's a basketball hoop thing!!! it was ON SALE marked from $99 to $47 to $31!!!!!! so let me explain the excitement.  we play TRASHKETBALL in our class. yes, TRASH-KETBALL. and my kids students are OBSESSED. here is how i get them excited for ANYTHING. seriously, ANYTHING at all. it started with a grammar lesson.  I made a quick powerpoint of sentences with writing/grammar errors.  I put the kids in small groups and gave each group ONE whiteboard (hey, they gotta co-op-er-ate!).  they had to either make the corrections or write "No Error".  If the TEAM got it correct, one person from the team would take a small square of scrap paper (RECYCLE!!!!), crumble it into a ball, and shoot into the trash can.  (the next round, another person "represented" to shoot for the team).  that's it.  and they were OBSESSED!!! they could only shoot if they got it right, and then after each sentence we would make the corrections on the board so everyone could see their errors. the kids asked me every subject every period every day, "can we play trashketball can we play trashketball can we play trashketball....." (aaaaah!) but i didn't have another grammar slideshow made!! BUT WAIT!!!! who said i had to limit it to that?? let's see if this works with..... MATH! (yep!) ...SOCIAL STUDIES? (no way!!...wait....YEP!!!!!!) now I was obsessed. so when we went to lakeshore and found ^THIS^ gem, i couldn't pass it up!!!! let me figure out how to post a document and i'll share the grammar slideshow i did with them to start trashketball.  it was one of those on-a-whim lets-just-practice quickly-done docs so please don't expect anything spectacular!!  i plan on putting the basketball hoop over the garbage can but NOT permanently there (can you imagine used tissues being thrown through the hoop?! NO THANK YOU!!!) and im sure it will be "rewarding" when i take it out!!! CAN'T WAIT!

here's my second excitement:

i'm sure there's a gazillion ways to use this....but i just don't know what i'm going to use it for!!!! any ideas??? what do YOU use this for? i'm going to try really hard to not use it to store JUNK.  But i, (like natalie!!!!) also got rid of THIS hunkometal: 

i just couldn't take it anymore it took up SO much space.  please please please share your thoughts on what i can use my FABULOUS colorful organizer for :-) 

HAVE A FANTASTIC FRIDAY and a WONDERFUL WEEKEND and good luck winning our Win It Wednesday contest!!!! winner will be announced later today!

Win it Wednesday! *Genre Posters!*

Wow! It's already Wednesday again! Where has the past week gone? Well, KNJ made our annual trip to Lakeshore today and could sum the shopping spree up into one word--overwhelmed. There were so many cute things out and great materials for common core, literacy stations, math stations, etc. To be honest, the bags are still in my car and I have no idea what I just walked out with! Opening them up is going to be like Christmas morning! I do know that I got a lot of important things (to decorate with) and probably NOTHING that I truly need. It's officially that time of the year for us, and I'm feeling many different emotions, especially after shopping today!

For this week's Win it Wednesday, we will be giving away a new item in our Teachers Pay Teachers store--READING GENRE POSTERS! These posters are jungle themed, and even if you do not have a themed classroom they are just so stinkin' cute (if I do say so myself)!

 

Here are a few shots of the posters.

(There are 2 headings *nonfiction and fiction* and 10 "sub-genres")

To check out some other samples, visit the item in our store: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Wild-About-Reading-Genre-Posters-Jungle-Theme-824525

To win this product, you must follow one simple rule! Leave a comment below telling us your NUMBER ONE, CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT, MUST BUY product for this school year. Don't forget to leave us your e-mail as well! A winner will be announced this Friday.

Win it Wednesday!!!

Welcome back to Win it Wednesday, fellow blog-hoppers!!!! We have got a fantastic treat for one lucky follower!  It seems as though EVERYONE is getting ready to go back to school.  A-U-G-U-S-T can be a very scary word!  Our best sellers right now are our Back to School Packets!  We have created these packets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade.  JUST ADDED (well...i'm proofreading right now so it'll be up and ready to go by the end of the night) is a 5th grade back to school packet!  Each packet contains activities for the corresponding grades.  These are great activities for students to work on the first week in class to interact with each other, as well as good independent activities if you need time to collect supplies or get things in order in your classroom!  All the back to school packets are currently our featured items on KNJ Kreation's TPT Store so please click to check them all out!  ONE LUCKY WINNER will win one of our back to school packets of choice!  

We will announce the winner on Friday morning!  All you have to do for a chance to win:

1. Leave a comment and include:
2. Your name & Email
3. Grade level packet you want
4. tell us what's YOUR favorite "back to school" activity to do with your students!!

We will email one packet of your choice on Friday!  ENJOY & GOOD LUCK!!

The First AUGUST Made It Monday!

I can not believe it is August already! Summer, slow yourself down! I love linking up to Fourth Grade Frolics Made It Monday, it kind of gives me a deadline on working on things so I can post them for everyone! I have 2 things to post for this week. First, this cute little craft I made that I saw on Pinterest. It was very easy (and cheap!) to make. It only took me about 20 minutes or so to make and cost about $4. I bought a tiny round glass vase at Michael's, as well as the ribbon and the flowers. (Plus I had a 20% off your entire order coupon!) I hot glued the pencils onto the vase, glued on the ribbon, and added the flowers! Easy! Now I just have to decide if this is going to decorate my desk, or my guided reading table :)

Next up is an addition to something I made for another Made It Monday. I made nice designer clothespin clips to go with my mini clip charts. Click HERE to go to the post about those if you want to read about them! Anyway, I bought some washi tape at Michael's (which I think is my new favorite thing) and used it on some clothespins to decorate them. Again, very easy! I think I might modge podge over them to keep them from getting destroyed.  Here are a few of them finished, and on the mini clip charts. 

And last, I just wanted to share an awesome recipe that I made for a BBQ party.  It's "Sand Cake" which is just like the Dirt Cake with Oreos, but you use vanilla pudding and Golden Oreos. I think I like this one even better! I had to decorate with teddy grahams doing beach activities and use a pail and shovel as serving dish. I couldn't find mini umbrellas or I would have used those also :) 

Recipe for anyone who wants it: 

2 packages of Golden Oreos

2 small instant pudding boxes

1 eight ounce package of cream cheese

1 package of 12 ounce Cool Whip 

1/4 cup (half stick) of butter

3 1/2 cups of milk 

1 cup powdered sugar

1. Mix together butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. 

2. Mix the pudding boxes together with the milk, then add the Cool Whip. 

3. Add the pudding mixture to the cream cheese mixture. 

4. Use a food processor or Blender to grind up the oreos. 

5. Layer by alternating layers of the mixture and the oreos. 

6. Decorate the top however you would like! 

7. Eat and enjoy! 

and the winner is....

a quick post to announce the winner of the 4th Grade Back to School Word Problems because SHARK WEEK has officially begun!!!!!!!

and the winner is...........................

Congrats, Cherie!!! Please check your email for your grand prize!!!!

Currently August Link Up!

I love, love, love link ups and linky parties! I have not actually done one myself (until now), but see them all the time in some of my favorite blogs. The possibilities are endless! In fact, I just set my own personal goal for September: to create my own linky party from scratch and see how many followers jump on board (is that even how it works? I'm too excited to think!) Until then, here is my first link up to Oh Boy 4th Grade with her fabulous Currently August. I have a feeling I filled this out wrong. It took a lot of Mic word, text boxes, copy, paste, Paint, pdf-ing, etc. Oh well! It looks cute enough for me!

 

 

#3 on my B2s list comes from Oh Boy 4th Grade's TpT store where you can find these adorable seasonal/monthly currently templates to use with your students. I think this could be a very cute thing to use once a month for a different type of journal writing.

 

I really like any project or idea that allows me to look at my students a little deeper. It's interesting to see what they are closely paying attention to and their thoughts! (They'd probably love to see my Currentlys too.) So THANK YOU Oh Boy 4th Grade for this awesome product.

 

 

 

 

Desk Shmesk!

^^^ These were my exact words on the last day of school. While cleaning out my classroom and preparing for a new year of co-teaching (excitement!) my co-teacher and I realized that in order to use our space with small groups optimally, my  Mack truck of a desk would have to find a new home. With the help of a fellow teacher (thank you, July) we proceeded to push the desk with all our might out into the hallway and say farewell. Now, as it slowly turns to August I am wondering if this was a horrible decision. Yes, I have much more space in the room. But the paper clips...the stickers...the pens...the tchotchkes...the papers that need to be graded! Where are they all going to go?! My reaction to all of this was reminding me of one of my favorite "Friends" moments of all time. I'm pretty sure these facial expressions belonged to me in the middle of a Target aisle today...

I ended up pinning for an hour today in hopes of finding ways to utilize a small space while still remaining organized. Fortunately, I found some great stuff from so many dedicated teachers out there. One project I chose to make today came from the Tattooed Teacher and also 4th Grade Frolics (both incredible blogs that I suggest you follow if you are not already!). The idea is to create a small space for papers that need to be graded, filed, or copied. I won't lie...papers have piled up quite high on my desk (R.I.P.). I needed someplace to store them and this was the perfect solution. And since the combination of yellow and gray is my latest color obsession, I went with it!

I started with a set of 3 Sterlite drawers which each measure 8 1/2" by 11" (perfect for papers!) With Powerpoint, I created three labels (Copy, Grade, File) which you can download for free here and get creative with your own fonts! Here is a picture of the materials I started with, along with a picture of my final product!

 

Now followers...share with me YOUR ideas for how I can stay organized without my desk this year. Any tips or good pins that I haven't come across yet? Please share in a comment below, and have an wonderful

weekend! :)