A Dab of Glue Will Do

The Real Housewives of TpT Vegas Meet-Up

Last week at the Teachers Pay Teachers conference, I cohosted a Real Housewives of TpT Vegas Meet-Up with my blogging buddies Elissa and Sara. When we were originally planning this meet-up we envisioned having lunch with maybe ten to fifteen other women. Little did we know that this would turn out to be something so much bigger; we had 71 people attend our event. Our goal in holding this event was to create a community for women that are no longer in the classroom and that now juggle their time being a mom and doing TpT Full-Time.

Elissa and I had previously read Moms Mean Business by Lara Galloway. This book was instrumental in helping me better juggle motherhood and being a TpT entrepreneur. This can be so challenging and we really wanted to be able to provide everyone with this resource to help them on their journey. Lara was such a pleasure to work with and she even offered us the opportunity to skype live with everyone during the meet-up. I cannot begin to tell you how many people came up to us after the event so grateful for this opportunity. This quickly become the highlight of our meet-up. If you would like to purchase Lara’s book you can click {here}. We will be hosting a podcast book study with this book in the upcoming months. Lara also has several free podcasts on iTunes and Snitcher. Search for Lara Galloway or look at Mom Biz Coach.

We had some great donations and giveaways that helped to make this event such a success and I wanted to give everyone a quick shout out for their generosity.

Here is a picture of our giveaway table and swag bag table.

A Plus Images creates teacher shirts at a fantastic price. They are beyond supportive of the teaching community and I cannot recommend them enough when you are in need of a shirt for yourself or your classroom. Doug donated shirts for every single person that attended the event. In addition to that he also provided several giveaways. One lucky lady walked away with a set of classroom faces t-shirts valued at $200. To check out A Plus Images, you can click {here}.

Tailwind was a HUGE sponsor for this event. They gave us over $10,000 worth of prizes. If you are not using Tailwind yet, you need to check it out. This is a great tool for scheduling your pins on Pinterest. With the included analytics, you can target prime times when your followers are on Pinterest and schedule your pins days, weeks, or months in advance. Click {here} to sign up for Tailwind today.

You cannot have a meet-up for Full-Time TpTers without some AMAZING clipart, right?! Some of my absolute favorite clipartists were so generous for this event. So many women walked away with some great clipart, which is perfect timing since the back to school rush is about to start. A HUGE thank you to Whimsy Clips, Graphics from the Pond, Melonheadz, Educlips, and Teaching in the Tongass.

Yellow Bee Boutique donated their adorable pencil teacher nameplate for one lucky winner.

Apple of their Eye donated a couple of their adorable coffee mugs. I have been following these girls for months, patiently waiting for their Etsy store to launch. They are finally in business and that means you can finally have all of their adorable mugs. They made a Real Housewives of TpT mug just for the event. You can now purchase that mug {here}.

My friend, Amanda Vargas, sells Rodan and Fields. She got me hooked on their products several months back and now I am a loyal customer. She donated a ton of mini facials to accompany the giveaway bags and one lucky person got several of their most popular products for a giveaway. If you want to check out their products go to Amanda's website by clicking {here}.

Becky Higgins and the Project Life Team donated some of their products to one lucky winner. This person will be all ready to start their online scrapbooking journey.

Martha Moore donated adorable little Jamberry baggies for EVERY attendee. This was quite the feat, since we had 70+ people RSVP. You can check out her store by clicking {here}.

Melissa Chase also donated Jamberry items for the giveaway. You can find her store by clicking {here}.

Miss Squirrel's Shop donated several of her adorable coffee cozies that accompanied all of the giveaway bags. How cute are these?!

We have a few extra Real Housewives of TpT shirts leftover from the event and thought that maybe YOU would like to have one in your hands. Elissa, Sara, and I will each be giving one shirt away to a lucky winner. To enter for your chance to win this shirt complete the Rafflecopter below.

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Winner Wednesday: Interactive Science Notebook

It is time for the third round of Winner Wednesday. This linky will take place the first Wednesday of every month. I will pick a popular product from my store and explain it in detail, with pictures. The best part of it all, is that YOU will have a chance to win that product for FREE. All you will have to do is enter your name to be entered into the Rafflecopter. I was so honored that so many people participated last month. There were some amazing products that TpTers were giving away and I am so excited to see who links-up today.

For this month I decided that it would be a perfect time to choose my Interactive Science Notebook Journal for this month's product of choice. I LOVE this product because it is NO PREP and includes pretty much every topic that is covered in kindergarten and first grade science.

There are two options for every single worksheet. You can either have a full page worksheet or print the pages 2 per page so that each worksheet will fit perfectly into a spiral or composition notebook. Another bonus of the latter is that it saves on paper!

Every year I start science class with a lesson on the importance of having a science notebook and what an important job it is for each student to take care of their very own notebook for the entire school year. We complete the cover page and the contract page the very first week of school. I always make a BIG deal about the contract page so that most of the students will take great care of their notebook. Kindergarteners and first graders love the idea of being in charge of something and will take this job very seriously.

There are two versions of the table of contents for students. I always start with the picture on the left at the beginning of the year with my kindergarteners and move to the one on the right as the year goes on. With my first graders, I just started with the picture on the right. I have students write the title of the page they are working on, along with the page number, every single time they add a new worksheet.

There are over thirty different kinds of topic that your students will be able to complete throughout the school year. They are all interactive and hands-on, and encourage students to have fun while learning about the various science topics. Here are some pictures of some of my favorite worksheets.

If you cannot wait until midnight to see if you are the lucky winner, click {here} to purchase the product now. Don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin so you will be the first to know when Winner Wednesday has gone live each month.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to be a part of Winner Wednesday?

This linky party will take place on the first Wednesday of every month. I would love for you to join in on the fun and have a chance to win some awesome products for FREE!

Here is how to link-up:

1. Save the 'Winner Wednesday' images to your computer.

2. Create a blog post about one product from your store. Try to include authentic pictures, not just pictures from your TpT store, if possible.

3. Add cover page of product to the "Winner Wednesday' product image.

4. Set up Rafflecopter to run for the entire day of Wednesday {Please only require name for entry}.

5. Link up by clicking the 'add your link' button {or you can email me your permalink prior to the link-up going live}.

6. Don't forget to check out the other Winner Wednesday products that have been shared and leave comments on any that you particularly like!

An InLinkz Link-up

TpT Seller Challenge : Makeover Madness

If you have any form of social media, I am sure that you have seen this fantastic TpT Seller Challenge that started yesterday. Each week there will be a different focus and this week is Makeover Madness, which is exactly what I have been doing for the past several months! This just motivates me even more to hurry up and get all of my products updated so I can start making new things.

I started my store back in 2011. I made several products and never touched TpT again until about four months ago. Like with most things I do, I jumped in head first and have been going 150% ever since making the decision to commit to this. Because I had not touched any of my products for the last four years, they were in DIRE need of a facelift (some complete reconstructive surgery).

When trying to figure out where to start with my updating, I decided to start with my best sellers and slowly work my way down the list. I am sharing one of my top ten selling items: Pumpkin Unit. I am kind of in love with the updated version.

As you can see, my original version of this product was in pretty bad shape. I did not even have a cover page (whoops!) If you go through my store, you can see all of my old products do not have cover pages, which is why updating has been my main focus the past four months. I did not have a lot of content in this version, just a few activities and a couple of math and literacy centers.

The new version has SO much stuff and actually looks good. Ha! I updated the clipart and font and added a background print to tie it all together. The new product has pumpkin posters (with real life photos and clipart), one week of pumpkin lesson plans for science and math, daily hands-on, interactive activities, 5 pumpkin literacy centers, and 5 pumpkin math centers. That is a lot of pumpkin material that you and your students are bound to LOVE. You can see the product in my store by clicking {here}.

If you are not a part of this awesome TpT Challenge, then you should click on one of these lovely ladies' blogs and find out more information so you can join this awesome opportunity to help you kick start the back to school craziness.

http://sparklinginsecondgrade.blogspot.com/

Winner Wednesday: Popcorn Words Bundle: Dolch Primer

It is time for the second round of Winner Wednesday. This linky will take place the first Wednesday of every month. I will pick a popular product from my store and explain it in detail, with pictures. The best part of it all, is that YOU will have a chance to win that product for FREE. All you will have to do is enter your name to be entered into the Rafflecopter. I was so honored that so many people participated last month. There were some amazing products that TpTers were giving away and I am so excited to see who links-up today.

I decided to choose my Popcorn Words Bundle: Primer Words for the giveaway this month. They are called Popcorn Words because these are words that often "pop up" when reading or writing. I loved using Popcorn Words to teach sight words because it made learning so much fun and aesthetically it made my classroom look inviting and cheerful. They are built in decorations that the students can use throughout the school year.

There are a TON of activities included in this bundle. It is huge and will provide you with bulletin board/sight word wall materials, literacy centers, assessments, and posters.

POPCORN WORD WALL AND DISPLAY

When I first introduce a group of words, I place these large popcorn words at the front of the room (or where you have calendar time) for the entire week. I either have them in a pocket chart or on the white board. We talk about them and do quick and easy activities every single day. On Friday, I take the words and add them to the large popcorn bag poster. Every week we repeat this. The popcorn continues to grow as the students learn more sight words. By the end of the year, the popcorn bag is busting at its seams and it looks so stinkin cute! I love having these large popcorn words on the wall because students can easily refer to them whenever they would like.

WORD OF THE DAY

I had this set up by the classroom door. Every time we left our room, students would have to say a sight word to exit. Sometimes I just put a sight word on the poster and students would say that. Other times I held a stack of words and showed them to students as they walked out, flipping to the next word with each kid. Students also liked to take on this responsibility and play teacher. That was great because it allowed me to focus on the student behavior in the hallway or grab any last minute things I needed for wherever we were heading to.

LITERACY CENTERS
All of the centers can be laminated and placed in their own tub with the specified tools. I will do a quick review of some of my favorite centers included in this product. If you would rather kids sit at their desks and do these activities independently, you can simply print and have them use crayons or pencils instead.

PRACTICE MATS
This was my product for the previous Winner Wednesday. Click {here} to get more information about these mats.

ROLL, READ, AND RAINBOW

Students will roll the dice and depending on what they roll, they will read a word under that number, then rainbow write that word. They can continue this until time is out or they have done every single word.

GRAPH A WORD

Students will chose a sight word and count how many there are in the box. They will then color the graph accordingly.

PLAY DOH MATS

Using Play Doh, students will roll out the play doh to fit into each letter. The goal will be to have students spelling out the sight words.

SMALL POPCORN WORDS

These are great for centers and there is so much that you can do with them. Sometimes I would have students match the popcorn graphic with the popcorn bag graphic. They can also play memory using both sets. Other times I would just include one of the sets and students could rainbow write the words or build the sight words with magnetic letters. The possibilities are endless.

In addition to the centers described above, these are also included in this product: 1) Build a Word, 2) ABC Order, 3) I Have, Who Has, 4) Dominoes, and 5) Word Sorting Mats. There is also a student assessment recording sheet for you to continuously check your students’ knowledge of the given sight words.

If you do not want to wait for the giveaway to be over and you want to purchase this product now, click {here}. Don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin so you will be the first to know when Winner Wednesday has gone live each month.

You can also purchase these Popcorn Bundles that will be 20% off for today (the Mega Bundle is 50% off because it was just added to my store):

An editable Popcorn Words Bundle is in the works. Follow my store for updates.

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