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Saturday, August 1, 2015

Spotlight Saturday: Recipe for Teaching

Welcome to Spotlight Saturday!! I'm so glad you stopped by to take part in our Teacher's Show and Tell link up!!

This is a link up where we get to share our favorite resources, products, activities, ideas, tips, tricks, and anything else that makes our classroom lives that much more fabulous!!! (or easier!!)

This week I am Spotlighting a fellow Marylander and kindergarten teacher, Heather from Recipe for Teaching! I found Heather's blog through a link up party, and when I found out that she was in Maryland too I was so excited!!! I see so many other states having blogger meet-ups and I have always wanted to attend one, but didn't know any Maryland bloggers. Even more awesome, she is a Ravens Fan!!! We have Purple Friday at our school every football season, and it's my favorite day of the week!

Heather has a lot of incredible products in her TPT store, so many amazing resources! I'm sharing two of her creations with you today!!

In the Recipe for Teaching TPT store, there are pages and pages of so many incredible freebies! Heather has created so many awesome resources I had a hard time choosing just one to Spotlight!
I chose this awesome math freebie because we do a similar activity with 2D shapes, and I think it would be so fun this year to do a 3D shaped food sort! This little freebie is perfect for an incredibly fun and engaging math lesson on the attributes of 3D shapes! Heather has provided a really great recording sheet that kinders will be able to complete independently. After they sort their food shapes, they are to write a sentence about their favorite! Pretty nice how she included a writing activity too!

As I was 'window shopping' through Heather's Recipe for Teaching TPT store, I came across an activity she created that made me stop right in my tracks.
My mom's most favorite animal was a turtle. You could say she was obsessed and be right on the mark! House full of turtles, and she created a turtle-themed nursery for my niece! Mom unexpectedly died in August of 2013, and there are times where it's still hard to deal with. However, there are other times when I come across something that makes me think of mom and smile. These little turtle cards of Heathers did just that.
She created number cards for 1-10 that have an adorable little turtle on them! She also included a set of 1-10 ten-frame cards, as well as practice pages for the numbers 1-10. As soon as I saw the cover of this packet, I thought of mom and smiled. So naturally it went right into my cart, and I can't wait to use them with my kinders this year!
I am going to have them use the cards to play number memory 1-10 at the pocket chart center, and I am going to laminate the practice pages she made and have my kinders use those during our Math with Self rotations. I'll be on the look-out for tiny turtle erasers that my kinders can use as counters to make each number on the mat.

I would definitely recommend visiting Recipe for Teaching's TPT store to check out all her awesome creations for yourself! Here are the different ways you can find Heather through social media.

Find her 3D Shape Food Sort by clicking the image below:

For her Turtle Ten Frame Cards, click on the image below:


CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO GO TO HER BLOG:

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO GO TO HER TPT STORE:

CLICK HERE TO VISIT HER FACEBOOK PAGE:

I hope you take the time to Follow Recipe for Teaching, you won't be disappointed!!

You can link up for Spotlight Saturday too!! Show and Tell us about your favorite classroom product, activity, resource, idea, tip, trick, technique, or whatever else makes your classroom life all the better! Feel free to use the graphic at the top of this post, or use the one below and fill in who/what you're Spotlighting. If you are Spotlighting another seller who has a Facebook page, go over to their Facebook page and leave them a message with a link to your post letting them know you Spotlighted them!! You could really make someone's day!!

Rules:
1) You need to spotlight an educational resource that either you have created or you have found from someone else and love! This means you must link up with a blog post you have written putting an activity or idea in the Spotlight. Please do not link directly to a product in Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook or similar sites.
2) If you are Spotlighting a product from your own TPT store or that of another seller, make sure that in your blog post you Spotlight a freebie or a paid product. If you have a freebie and a paid product from the same seller, feel free to use both in your post. If all you have is a freebie, then post about the freebie and how you used it. You can also Spotlight a freebie that someone else created along with a product that you created.
2) Make sure to give credit where credit is due! You will need to include the name of the creator as well as a link to their TPT or Teacher's Notebook store where others can get a copy of the resource as well.
3) Include pictures of the product in your post, either screen shots  or photographs of your kiddos actually using the product. Give us a snapshot, just a brief glimpse into how the product or activity works. Just an image of the cover and one of the pages you have listed in the preview of the activity on TPT would be fine. It gives readers a visual and helps them better understand what your product is all about.
4) Make sure to leave a comment on the post of the two people before your post and the person after. This will help get conversation rolling, and will make sure everyone feels recognized for their efforts!
5) This is not the place to share your frustrations or disappointment with an activity or how you would have done it differently. If you are unsatisfied with your purchase that is a private conversation you need to have with the seller via email. This is not a link up to bash any sellers or their products, and any posts like that WILL BE DELETED!!
6) Follow my blog with Bloglovin' to make sure you are kept up to date on all the latest link up additions. Don't forget to follow my Facebook page too to keep up with all the notifications I send out!
7) To Link Up, you will need to click on the small blue button underneath my closing signature. It is directly under my name on the left hand side of the blog.

4 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness Erin THANK YOU!!!!! The story of your mom liking turtles seriously gave me goosebumps and it made me tear up when I read that seeing one of my products made you think of her! I am so sorry for the loss of your mom, but it is so nice that you see little reminders of her around and you are able to smile. Thank you for sharing!

    Like I mentioned on my Kinder Tribe Meet This Kinder Teacher post, you always have the sweetest things to say and you leave the most thoughtful comments. I'm so glad to find another Maryland teacher on here! You share some great ideas on your blog!

    By the way...I've been slowly updating my products and product covers and I realized I wanted to add a color option on the practice pages so make sure you re-download the Turtle Ten Frames because now there are pages with a black and white turtle and a color turtle clipart!! I always try to think about printing options because sometimes I like to print in color for a math station, but I know if I was going to make copies of it I would want the black and white option! haha! So many things to think about when creating products!!

    Thank you so much for spotlighting me on your blog!! So sweet of you!!

    ~Heather :)

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    1. You are so very welcome!! I couldn't believe it when I came across the turtle cards, I literally stopped in my tracks!! I'm so glad to be able to use this is my room and think about her whenever my kiddos use it!
      I'm so super-glad to have found another MD blogger too...someday we'll find enough of us to have a meet-up! :-) Thanks so much for your sweet words, I try to be as encouraging and uplifting as possible, we teachers should definitely be each other's support group! Thanks for letting me know about the update, I will definitely be redownloading it for the color version! I agree with you about always trying to include different printing options, creating new activities can be overwhelming!! :-)
      I'm so glad that you enjoyed the Spotlight, I hope I was able to introduce your awesome creations to some people who hadn't heard of you before!
      Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving such incredibly sweet and wonderful feedback, I really and truly appreciate it!!

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  2. Dear Erin, thank you for another week of Spotlights! I enjoyed tremendously reading and learning about Recipe for Teaching. I will be checking her products!
    My dad in Argentina has two turtles that a neighbor gave to him, and they are actually a couple. Last year my brother found some of their eggs in the back yard where these two turtles live completely free. My brother put the eggs in a container with sand, and guess what! After a year, when my dad and my brother almost forgot about the eggs, they found 4 little babies! They sent me some pictures, and they were absolutely adorable! My brother found out later that this particular kind of turtles is actually endangered. Isn't that something! Anyway, I had to tell you the story! All the turtles are still there, healthy and happy as they can be.

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    1. Marta I'm so glad you enjoyed reading today's Spotlight, and I would definitely recommend checking out Recipe for Teaching's TPT Store, she has PAGES of freebies perfect for the kindergarten classroom!!
      I LOVED reading your story about your dad and brother hatching turtle eggs. That is so incredible that they hatched after such a long time! You have the best stories, and I love how your family spends so much time taking care of animals! Kudos and thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful story with me!!!
      I"m so glad you stopped by to read my post and leave such incredibly sweet and kind feedback!!

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