Help me? and Handwriting

Wow things are crazy, busy right now for me!  How about you?  I know many of you have already wrapped up your school years and are currently enjoying your summer!  Please relax a little for me too!

Right now I am in the midst of finishing up assessments with my students as we enter the last few weeks of school.  I am feeling very overwhelmed with everything that is coming down the road.  

Maybe some of you can help me?

New York State has a new APPR process that will begin for me starting next year.  I will be learning how to write Student Learning Objectives (SLOs), which will be a part of my APPR.  Do any of you out there have experience with the process? Any advice?

I will also be trained to use AIMSweb next week.  This is a brand new assessment system for me and I would also love to hear your thoughts on it.  Do you currently use it?  Love it?  Hate it?

Now for something completely unrelated, 

how many of you use Handwriting Without Tears?  

It is used in my district, however many of my students are still starting their letters from the bottom.  To help remind them where to start with their pencil, I placed stars at the starting place for each letter.  I just updated this little pack to use with my students.  It now includes a capital, lower case, and a mixed version for students to practice writing their letters in alphabetical order.  

Click on the picture below to head to my original post:

HearAll Winner and Reminders

Good morning!!

MyCuteGraphics.com

Thank you all for entering the giveaway for the 
HearAll Assessment Recorder.

The winner chosen by Rafflecopter is

Brian H!

for leaving the following blog comment:

CONGRATULATIONS BRIAN!!
Please check your inbox for a message from me!

I also wanted to remind those of you from Upstate New York that we are going to have a little bloggy get together on 
June 9th!  
Let me know if you are interested in joining us!!


Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Happy Memorial Day!

Today is the day we will honor those who currently serve for our country and take the time to remember the brave men, women, and even dogs who have sacrificed their lives for us and our country.

Thank you!!

I hope you all enjoy a happy, healthy, and relaxing Memorial Day!!

Also, my current giveaway for the HearAll Assessment Recorder ends today!  Don't forget to enter!

Enjoy your day!

HearAll Recorder Giveaway

Here is the second giveaway provided by Learning Resources.  It is for their HearAll Assessment Recorder.  

Please note again that even though Learning Resources has provided me with a HearAll to review, the opinions listed are all from me!

The HearALL is a recording device that has not 1, or 2, or 3....but actually 4 microphones.  How cool is that?  Each of the four corners has a microphone built right into it!!  (Can you see them in the picture below?)

Here are the points I love about the HearAll:
~  All you have to do is place it down on the table, turn it on, and it records the voices heard around it!  The kids do not have to worry about how close it is to their mouths, holding in a button, or anything at all about the recorder.  This is great for me since I use it to record my students as they read and it allows them to focus solely on their reading and not the device. 

~  The HearAll does not require batteries.  It charges right up through your USB port on your computer!

~  The buttons are pretty easy to use.  I did get a little confused a few times, but was able to easily figure out what I needed to do.

~  You can record multiple recordings!

One thing I want to note is that I work with small groups of children outside of a larger classroom setting, so I am not sure how much background noise it picks up, if any at all.

This is another tool from Learning Resources that can be used in so many ways! 

Now I get to share a HearAll with one of you!  

All you have to do is enter through Rafflecopter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


And don't forget to check out Learning Resources on:
YouTube
Pinterest

Good luck and I hope you have a 
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Stress, Bluebird FREEBIE, Question, Reminder

So how many of you have already or will soon be wrapping up your school year?  I still have another month full month left.  I still have SO much that I want to do with my little ones, and am feeling that stress.  Do you ever feel that way toward the end of the year?  Then things both at home and at school have been so busy!  So I am hoping to have a nice, quiet weekend.  We will see though...

I finally realized that I have had my Bunny Alphabet Board (which is included in my Bunnies and Chicks Early Literacy Pack) hanging up for my Kinderkids for entirely too long now.  So I sat down and created a new Bluebird Alphabet Board and am sharing this FREEBIE with you.  

Just click on the picture below!

Speaking of birds, a I heard from a little birdie that our school district will be adopting AIMSweb next year.  Do any of you use it?  What are your thoughts?  Love it?  Hate it?  Please share!!  I would love to hear from you about this!!

I also wanted to remind you that Tara from Second Grade is Splendid and I are looking forward to having a little Capital Region Blogger Get Together for those here in Upstate New York on June 9th!  I am really excited about it!  We have heard from a few people, so if you haven't yet, please let us know if you are interested so that we can go ahead and choose the location!

Samson's Winner But NO Losers Here!

Hi all!  Thank you all for entering my 

Samson's Classroom Giveaway.

I announced the winner of the membership via the Rafflecopter, but in case you missed it here it is! 

Congratulations

Kari S!

(Kari, please check your email inbox for a message from me sent yesterday.)

Now for those of you who did not win but are still interested in the program, the company is offering an amazing deal!

They have provided me with a code that will give you $70 off of the purchase price!  That means you can get the Samson's Classroom Plan for only $10!  Isn't that fantastic?  But hurry, this is only good until 07/31/2012!

So what are you waiting for?  Click here to head over to the Samson's Classroom website.

The code is:

LLLSC

(Make sure you enter the code in all capital letters!)

And if you still aren't sure, click on the picture below to watch a demo of the program!

Thank you all and THANK YOU Samson's Classroom!

Introducing...Reminder...Offer

Want to meet some new bloggy friends?
I met these ladies around the block recently and just had to share them with you!

I would like to introduce you to  Sara from

Sara is a newbie on the bloggy block!  She is a Pre-K teacher and has shared her first FREEBIE, which is an adorable Ladybug Alphabet Match game.

(Picture from Teaching Munchkins.)

Another fellow Upstater (like me) is Laura from

Laura shares resources and ideas that range from 2nd grade and up!  Check her out!

I also wanted to to introduce you to Mrs. Pollard from

 She certainly isn't new to blogging, but she is fairly new to me!  I found her through Pinterest and have been enjoying her posts ever since!  She just had a fantastic giveaway that I WON and I am sooo thrilled about!  Woo hoo!  Thank you Mrs. Pollard!

Hop on over to check them out and send them some love!

I also want to remind you about the giveaway I have running right now for
Samson's Classroom!
Below is a screenshot of one of the spelling games.  The kids have to spell the word that is dictated before the Wally the Walrus eats all the iceberg right out from Samson's feet.  If Samson falls into the water he will turn into an ice cube!
I love how the spelling word is not only dictated in isolation, but they also put the word into the context of a sentence.  


Good luck!!


And in case you missed it, you have to check out comment #14 on the giveaway post!!  The president of the company that produces Samson's Classroom will have an amazing offer to those who didn't win but are still interested in the program!!  How's that for teacher appreciation?!

Samson's Classroom Giveaway

I have another amazing giveaway to share with you!  

Have you ever heard of

Samson's Classroom?

It is a fantastic little internet based program designed to help children build their sight word knowledge, spelling, and reading comprehension skills.

Samson is a little dog that both boys and girls love.  He is adorable and quite entertaining!  He is the star of fun and interactive games to reinforce sight words, spelling, and reading comprehension.

There are many activities built into each aspect of the site.  For example, children are able to learn their sight words, build them, identify them, take a quiz, and play games such as the one shown below:

Samson's Classroom even provides you with student progress reports and allows students to log on from any computer.  What a great way to reinforce these skills over the summer months!

Here is the fun part, 
I have one full-year 
Samson's Classroom 
membership to give to one of you!  
You can have up to 4 chances to enter!  


Enter via the Rafflecopter shown below.  
Please make sure you review the Terms and Conditions.


GOOD LUCK!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You are Appreciated!!

In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, there are some fantastic sales going on!  


Teachers Notebook is holding a sweepstakes where they are giving away $100 to one lucky winner each day until May 11th! 

Click on the picture below to enter for the day and then make sure you keep going back because you can enter each day!!

I am also having a sale in my Teachers Notebook shop.  Click on the picture below to head on over where everything is marked 40% off!

Teachers Pay Teachers is also throwing a sale May 6-8 for Teacher Appreciation!  

Click on the picture below to head overt to my TPT shop where I placed things 20% off and you can then use the code TAD12 for an additional percentage off!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!!

"Decorating" Little Literacy Learners

I have learned sooooo much more about coding and hosting a blog than I ever dreamed possible!

This post is simply a housekeeping post for myself, to host some of the images on my blog.

Easi-Speak Digital Microphone Winner

Thank you for all who entered the giveaway!

The winner of the Easi-Speak Digital Microphone is
Michelle S. (#28)

a Rafflecopter giveaway Congratulations!!
Please check your inbox later for either an email from me or Learning Resources!

I have two additional giveaways lined up, so stay tuned!  You won't want to miss either!!!