Time for a GIVEAWAY!!!!

So. I promised a giveaway when I reached 100 followers, and the time has come.

It's time for...

Drumroll, please.

I've teamed up with some AWESOME ladies to give away a ton of goodies!

Are you ready?

One lucky winner will get:

$10 Starbucks gift card (I'm jealous!)

from Kim

Farley is donating her AMAZINGLY CUTE new parent communication pack

Elizabeth is donating her Poetry and Figurative Language Lapbook kit (which looks awesome!)

Katie donated her set of Problem Solving Task Cards (which I have and LOVE)-they come with directions and an answer recording sheet, too!

Lauren in pitching in with her super-awesome Literature Circles Information Guide (which I also have and happen to find AWESOME!)

And I'm giving away my Morning Memos, Independent Reading Journal, Metric/Customary Conversions Cheat Sheet, and my Assignment Board Printables!

Whew! That's a total of $33 worth of goodies! And heck, I may even throw in something new that I'll announce along with the winner!

I'll be back (hopefully tomorrow!) with a normal update-y type post (because it has been a CRAZY week), but until then, get busy entering the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New look, new resource!

Ok, I know that I promised a freebie when I hit 50 followers, but, well, it took A LOT longer than I thought to finish it up.

And I mean A LOT longer.

And it certainly doesn't help that I'm a perfectionist and spent a insane amount of time moving text boxes around the page-and not big moves, mind you, teeny tiny, minuscule nudges around the page.

I know, I'm ridiculous.

Of course, it didn't help that halfway through my awesome resource (see how I'm building suspense?) I got momentarily distracted inspired and ended up redesigning my entire blog.

Oh yeah, I made this from scratch. By myself. Google helped out, too.

No more generic template for this girl-my blog now has a one-of-a-kind design. And I love it. (Can you tell?!?!)

Wouldn't you know, my freebie that I made just for you is pretty darn awesome, too! (Not that I'm going to tell you what it is yet. Suspense. Duh.)


Charlie and I had a lovely walk this morning-it was nice and cool, the birds were chirping, he barked at every dog in the neighborhood (and the nice old man that was just trying to say "Hello").

This afternoon while I was creating, Charlie took a nap. I'm pretty sure this dog should be named "Pretzel"-I really have no idea how he gets himself into some of his crazy positions. Stranger yet, he actually sleeps while contorted. Weirdo.

This position doesn't actually look all that weird at first. But then you realize that there's something crazy going on with those front paws. And the dangling leg. He's just too cute for his own good.

Anywho--I know you're just DYING to know what I've cooked up for my 50 Follower Freebie! So without further ado, may I present to you...

The Laura Ellison

Independent Reading Journal of Awesomeness!!!!!

(What? Too much?)

You get:

• 4 color covers (with a super cute chevron background
• 2 black and white covers (one with chevrons, one without)
• A journal checklist
• Book Fact Sheet
• Daily reading log
• Character Portrait
• Setting Snapshot
• Point of View Postcard
• Book Review
• Journal completion/scoring sheet
• 2 Daily Journal pages (4 designs)

Basically, your kids can use this with any book that they're reading independently. Consider it...an alternative book report. And, it's an easy way for you to hold them accountable for their independent reading. 

On the daily reading log, they can log how long they read and how many pages they read. After the finish reading, they fill out (half) a journal page. Because there are two entries on a page. In their journal entry, they write a short summary of what they read that day, and then make a connection to the text (which is GREAT practice for those pesky extended response questions!). 

There is a TON of fun stuff in this set! Seriously, I am in LOVE with it! 

Since you were one of my first 50 57 followers, you get it for free!!! Yay, you!!!

You better hurry and download it, because it won't be free forever! It'll be $3.00 in my TpT store starting Saturday, so spread the word! It's too late for this freebie, but you can still get buy it in my TpT store!

Enjoy your evening!

Almost...there.....

Am I the only one who can't focus without music? I've been planning on blogging all afternoon, but until I get some music playing, I'm so distracted! I check Facebook, I check Pinterest, Yahoo, read blogs, check Facebook and Pinterest again; I am in no way productive. Heck, I tried listening to music on my computer and it was distracting me. Ok, I have a record on now. I should be able to focus now.

 (Yeah, I said a record. I have a record collection because I'm cool like that. Charlie, however, decided that he wanted to try one out as a snack the other night. Not cool. )

I feel like I need to make an outline for this post, I have so much that I want to talk about!

Laura's Blog Post Outline

1. End of the year motivators
2. Memory books/advice to next year's class
3. Character trait word clouds
4. Update on classroom organization
5. Preparing for next year (already!)
6. A really awesome website (for next year)

Whew! That's quite the list--let's get this started!

A totally scatter-brained post

Let me apologize ahead of time in case this post is slightly incoherent. I'm watching the Lakers/Thunder game, and the Lakers are getting destroyed. Not cool. Fingers crossed that things start turning around soon.

Anyway, I thought that my post today would be photo-centric. I mean, who doesn't like pictures. I like pictures. Surely you must like pictures. So, my dear 5 followers, today you get pictures to look at.

So, I don't know about your kids, my mine are getting a serious case of summervacationitis. It's a highly contagious infection that quickly spreads through your classroom, causing bouts of daydreaming, frustration, agitation, and desk drumming. The only remedy I've found so far has been a small dose of extra recess at the end of the day. I write "Extra Recess" on the back board, and erase a letter each time the class is too loud or off task. If they have any letters left at the end of the day, we go outside. If the letters are all gone, we stay in.

Me being me, and having the need to make things pretty...well, I might get a little carried away.

Only *8* more days!!!

I can't believe that we only have 8 more student days left in the school year (plus an extra day for report cards, but I don't have to write lesson plans for that)! This year has just flown by. I remember thinking in August, "This is going to be the first school year, in the history of schools, that will actually never end." Now here we are in May, and there is an end in sight--crazy!

One of my goals for next year is to (finally) get organized. In my defense, I'm doing way better than last year. (I actually forgot to turn in my kiddos' spring picture money because my desk ate it. And, I didn't realize it until the orders came in, and my students wanted to know where their pictures were. I then panicked and fled to the office, hoping that by some miracle, the photographer would be able to still get them their prints. Not my finest moment. But, the kids did get their pictures. And I did not lose the picture money this year. Lesson learned). Despite the fact that I'm doing better and can typically see my desk at least once a week, I have a long way to go. For example, this is what my desk looked like around 3:00 on Friday:

Yeah, not good.

I did at least uncover a small area before I left.

Free end of the year poster!

I told Matthew that I was just going to finish uploading a file to TpT and then I would get off of the computer, but I really wanted to share my newest resource with you! It's free for now, but will be $1 in a couple of days.

Enjoy!