Whole Brain Teaching Posters:)

I LOVE Whole Brain Teaching! It makes my heart happy! Last year I kept it simple with the Class Yes, Teach Ok, and the scoreboard! I bought the book, started reading it yesterday and couldn't put it down!

Last year I made some WBT posters and I wanted to share them again with you!





Ready? Set. Go! Is from Stephanie from 3rd Grade Thoughts! I LOVED using this last year!!!





Just click HERE to get them for free:)

Enjoy your Monday!
I'll be in another workshop:(

Hello Friday Freebie

Where has this week gone? It totally forgot it was Friday so I apologize for this later than normal post!



I really love doing these freebies every Friday, but I am not sure if you all like them! I hate to sound like a broken record or come a cross as I am begging for comments...because I am not. But I am not sure if you all like these Friday Freebies because I get over 300 page views but 1-5 comments. Please let me know if this is something you all would like me to continue! I also only have a few more bloggers but no one else has signed up! 

If you would like to sign up, please do so here! I would love to have you if I continue to do this! Any feedback would be great!

Today I bring you...


Happy Friday!! I’m so happy that Tonya has opened up her blog each Friday to others. What a great way to grab some freebies and to meet other bloggers!

I’m Nicki and normally I can be found over at my blog….






I taught 3rd grade my very first year teaching but have been in Kindergarten the remainder of the time. I will be starting my 11th year teaching this year! And I have only 3 more Mondays of Graduate School before I graduate with my Master’s in Elementary Education! Whew!! I’m so excited to be finished.


I know I teach the young ones and a lot of you teach older students so I wanted to offer up something that all of us could use. Writing is such a big focus and sometimes (ok, most days) our students sigh heavily when you mention that it is time for writing. 


Well since school will be starting back before we know it (ahem…I try not to think of that…) what better way to get your students to write than to write about what they did for summer vacation.






Brainstorm with your students about a particular vacation that either you have been on, something they have done, or maybe a trip that someone they know has taken. Discuss the Who, What, How, Why, and Where of this particular trip. 


If you teach in an area like I do, many of my students have not and very possibly will never, go on vacation. So this activity can be done like a research activity as well. Provide various places or have students brainstorm places that they would LOVE to visit (Disney World, the beach, etc.) Then have the students research these places and again answer the Who, What, Why, How and Where questions.






I hope that you are able to use this freebie in your classroom. I think writing is one of the most important concepts we need to teach, but why keep it boring! Happy Friday!

Super Improvers Wall Freebie and some Color Label updates

What two days in a row??? You must be joking! Well actually I am typing this early because I have my first workshop tomorrow at 8:30am! YIKES! I am just trying to get settled and I am already back to work. I knew this was going to happen, and I am ok with it. I just keep telling myself...I moved to Hawaii...it is ok:) 

On another job note..two things. Yesterday's shopping at store one...was a 2 hour success! I will blog about it when I take pictures of the 12 bags and 5 boxes of binders I walked out of there with.

And I also got my contract yesterday! Yeah for being an official employee of Hawaii:)

OK, back to the good stuff!

A few weeks back I made my color labels for organization

I got a great response from these and I really appreciate it. Many of the comments were about the paint chip pencils and saying how much they loved those. 

I emailed Krista Wallden from The Creative Chalkboard to see what she could do about doing a brown, black and white set. You know what...she emailed me from Germany with the clip art! She ROCKS!

So I was able to update this set with the new paint chip pencils!!!
I love them! There are different types of labels in this set! 


You can pick them up in both of my stores! 

This year I am going to try and add the Super Improver Wall to my Whole Brain Teaching. I love WBT and I think this is going to be a great addition! 

I downloaded for free these awesome Super Improver Wall cards from Tara at Little Minds at Work.
 
I really wanted the stars to go with it so...I made some:)

For each level is a star that matches the color of Tara's wall! 

You can get these cards for FREE at my TpT shop! 
All I ask is you just leave some feedback both here and my shop! It means the world to me!

Hope you have a fantastic Thursday!

Workin' Hard for the Money-positive classroom management system-flash freebie for fans!

I have FINALLY finished this new classroom management system I came up with! I am really excited about it and hope that my new second grade kiddos will have a firm understanding of money by the end of the year and also hopefully my year will run smooth with behavior!

Today I bring you

As soon as I get into the classroom and have this all set up, I will blog about it again! 

This management system is for individual students, teams or groups of students, and whole class. I will go through each one and explain how I plan on using it!

Individual Rewards


You can either buy the Steno books like I did, or use the ones I made in this unit!
There are many colors, lined paper, blank paper, and black and white copies! 

I also bought these bright pencil pouches from Amazon that students will keep their notebook and their money in. 

Also on Amazon, I got this ID badge carrier with zippers for me. This way, I can keep my coins inside for easy handout:)
I plan on handing out coins to students are going above and beyond. It can be anything from helping a friend pick something up, using polite words, working well together...the list goes on and on. I will have coins in the pouch and just pull one out. I might be a penny, dime, quarter or nickel. 

Students will record their money in their notebooks at the end of the day or week. I have to see how things go. 

Students can use their money to buy reward tickets! I have 32 different free reward tickets included in this unit!

Group Rewards

I found this pin from F is for First Grade and loved it!

I have made different group posters to display like the above picture. I plan on using the TRIBES posters because my new school uses the TRIBES learning community
So instead of the animals I would use these

I have one poster for penny, nickel, dime, quarter and dollar. 

Each time I see a group do something I feel deserves a positive reward, I will give them the money dice and let them roll! What ever they land on, I will place by their group poster. I just made money dice from blank foam dice at the teacher store! 

Or I might just have them pull a coin out of a jar. I haven't decided yet!

At the end of the week, whoever has the most money will will a free item ticket. 

Whole Class Reward

As a class I plan on having students come up with ways they can earn money! I think in the beginning of the year we will set a goal for the day! The goal might be 10 cents and gradually increase.  I made some posters for this to display in the class!





My plan is to stick with the goal for the week. If they make their goal for the week, the class will get a sticker on a weekly calendar. If they can get their goal at least 7 times out of the 9 weeks they will get a class celebration! This is what I am thinking right now! I don't want ot be doing class celebrations each week! 

Here are some of the celebrations I made in this unit.


I made one that I would use and a blank one if teachers don't want to use the one I made. In this unit, it also explains how to make this scratch off style...which I think the kids would really LOVE!

I also made some wheel rewards where they can spin the paperclip around the pencil on the wheel as another option

Of course I added a blank one!

The other part about this unit I made was money cards. You can print these money cards in case you don't have fake money!
They are in color and black and white as well



The only other thing I wanted to share right now about this is another option of rewards. Instead of reward tickets you can use the Decide Now App on Android or Apple!

This is what I plan on doing instead of printing all those cards. I will have an individual wheel, group wheel, and whole class wheel. I played around with this app for awhile and just love it. I really think the kids will too! 

What do you think? I can't wait to get this set up and show you real classroom pictures! 

I will be adding it to my store today! BUT if you follow and like my Facebook page, you can get it NOW...for FREE...under freebies!

You must like my Facebook page to get it! Hurry...it's only free for 2 HOURS! Click the button below to take you there!


Winner and shopping spree help!!!

Happy Tuesday Friends!

I am excited to share with you my two winners of my year long writing prompts!

The winners are...


If you can, please send me an email to tonyastreatsforteachers@gmail.com so I can get you your goodie! 

On a side note, I got to visit my new school yesterday!
I am beyond excited to begin my teaching career here in Hawaii and the staff I met and the principal sure made me feel welcome! I knew this was the right choice for me! Even though the traffic and distance is an issue, I think I have that situation figured out!

As I walked in I was greeted by the two secretaries and principal! They right away got me my room key, id badge, and my mail box. 

The principal then took me on a tour of the school! I got to meet some of the staff...boy, are they sure nice! I also got to see my classroom!!!

It is pretty big with lots of windows! I am in the courtyard too! I have I think  4 fans in the room as there is NO AIR...yes, NO AIR. I hope I can manage this! Maybe I need to go get a portable AC unit;)

I was SO excited to so to school yesterday that I forgot to bring my iPad to take pictures. I was so mad once I got in the car and realized this. Oh well. See...another reason why I need an iPhone;)

The room is older, no carpet, metal closets, metal desk, lots of metal bookshelves, and I have I believe 4 bulletin boards and 4 white boards! I can go in any time and start setting up...I just need the POD to arrive! But it won't for a few more weeks! UGH:( I did mail some stuff to myself here so I would have it:) I really want to get in my room, but our car isn't here yet...my husband and I are using my mother in law's boat, gas guzzler, Cadillac! I have a workshop this week, 3 next week, 2 the following week and then back to work on the 30th. So somewhere in there I need to set up the room. Car is scheduled to arrive the 26th of this month...keep your fingers crossed!

So we walked back into the main office. The secretary handed me a purchase order to two different stores. Now, back in NC I might get $100 a year...not much! She handed me $1,000 to spend...WHAT???

I have a list started of a few things. I am going today! I want to shop before I set my room up! Any suggestions on what to get??? One store is for office stuff and the other is more of an educational store! 

Here's to a fun day of shopping:)

2013-2014 Year Long Writing Prompts-update and giveaway!

Hello friends! 

I need to get this timing thing down or start using the scheduler! Being over here in Hawaii and 6 hours behind what I am used to will take some getting used to. I am going to have to learn to call family and friends super early in the morning! And blogging...it's 10:20 back in NC and I am SURE people won't be reading this tonight when it is only 4:20 here in Hawaii. Oh well, I want to write about this anyways!

I hope to be back in the swing of things soon. Trying to get settled and organized in our room is coming slowly...but it will come:) We are staying with my in-laws for awhile until we can save to for a down payment and  move!

So last year I posted about the year long writing prompts I made! Well, today I updated them to match the 2013-2014 school year! 

There are 24 different calendars you can use in so many ways! Morning work, writing center, homework...are just to name a few!

Each month comes with two calendars, one with dates and one without! I plan to update this file each summer so for those of you that use the calendars with dates can have an updated file!

I will be working on updating the mini packs and the individuals too! The only one I updated so far is the year long pack! Which you can get NOW at my TpT shop for a discounted price and 20% off...until Tuesday!

I am also giving TWO sets away for FREE. Just leave a comment and I will pick a winner on Tuesday!

If you have already purchased this unit, you can go back and redownload it so you have a fresh, new file!

Thanks for stopping by!!!



Washington...FINALLY! And a little July Currently!

We are in Washington! FINALLY! We drove yesterday through Montana, through Idaho, and then finally into Washington. We wanted to get past Spokane to avoid morning traffic but quickly realized that there is NOTHING in the middle of Washington! We saw a Best Western in this tiny town off of the interstate. We stopped to check it out. 

Adam walked in to check it out and came out with a rolling cart. He said, "We got a room hun, but I'm sorry. They are not that great. Small room, with no fridge or microwave. Slow internet too." I didn't care...I had a headache and the cats needed out.

We walked in and he asked me to open the door since he was pushing the cart with all our stuff plus three cats! I was surprised to see a huge king suite! What a prankster!

It has been a long journey but it is almost over! This has been our journey so far. 


We are staying in our room until 10ish to avoid Seattle Traffic!

Then Thursday we fly out of Seattle to Hawaii! SO ready to be off the road and in our new home!

I also wanted to share a picture of Mt. Rushmore! It was just simply stunning! I loved every minute of our very brief trip there!


Ok, now time for a little July Currently with Farley!


Listening
Since we are right off the freeway, I can hear EVERY car:(

Loving
Thank goodness for only 3.5 hours left in our trip! And bless my husband who has driven the WHOLE time! I offered, he declined...uh...OK;)

Thinking
I have a job waiting for me in Hawaii..2nd grade! I don't have much of a summer as I have a workshop NEXT week, two the following week and teachers start the 30th! Oh well...I am just thankful I have a job in a grade I like:)

Wanting
COFFEE...enough said;)

Needing
A new car since I sold mine. That will be on the to do list once we get settled in and Adam finds a job!

tips
Leave a comment or two...especially when you take a freebie! It really makes us bloggers smile! A little thank you goes a longggggggggg way!

Thanks for stopping by today! Time to get ready for Seattle!!!