TPT Back to School Sale!

Just letting everyone know that TPT is throwing a huge back to school sale, starting at 11 pm tonight, and I'm including all of my things in that sale!  Hop on over there and take a peek!  Thanks all! 

Another successful Splash Conference and Study Buddies!

Well, another year of Frog Street Splash has come to a close.  It was a lot off hard work, ,but it sure was fun!  I want to say a huge thank you to all who came to my sessions.  I appreciate you coming so much, and I hope you were able to take away a few new ideas to use in your classroom this coming year.  As I shared with you in my session, one of my new faves this past year was the addition of these cute little "study buddies."  I needed something to help the kiddos keep their eyes on their own papers during writer's workshop and during benchmark testing, etc.  So, I found these presentation boards at the Dollar Tree, cut them in half on our school's paper cutter, and then added some cute Duck Tape/duct tape around the edges and VIOLA! There you have it--cute little "study buddies" that only cost a few dollars.  Now, when I introduced these, I didn't say, "OK you guys, you have been copying each other and that needs to stop!"  I just put them over to the side of our writing table, and one day I told them that I had these great study buddies that would help them be better writers because it would help them stay more focused on their work and give them more privacy.  Well, believe it or not, everybody wanted one!  I didn't even make that many!  So, we had to figure out a way to take turns with them, share them, and space them out in the room.  During writer's workshop, I encourage my kiddos to go wherever they would like to write.  Some prefer the table, some like the floor, some like to sit at the writing center, etc.  All this to say, the study buddies really did help during writer's workshop, and they turned out to be one of my favorite classroom additions this year!