Spotlight Saturday 10-3-15

I'm so sorry about last week, friends! I was laid low by a stomach bug and didn't get out of bed much, so was in no shape to put together Spotlight Saturday! I apologize to my regular followers who look forward to each week's installment, and I promise to do better in the future.

I have GOT to get back into the routine of blogging, my poor blog has definitely suffered since school started up again! Hopefully now that I've been back for a few weeks I'll be able to get back into the swing of things!

Without further delay, here is this week's installment of Spotlight Saturday!

In case you're just now stumbling across this little link up, let me break it down for you.

This link up is designed to act as a sort of Teacher's Show and Tell/Show and Share. This is where you can post your favorite activities, products, ideas, lessons, tips, tricks, techniques, and anything else that could make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both! You can share pictures as well as a description of the idea, and even suggestions of how to use it in the classroom or how you yourself have used it!

This week I am veering slightly away from teacher tips and tricks to talk about a little piece of technology that is slowly changing my life, and can be a benefit to your life too!!

As many of you already know, I was severely injured in a car accident in January. I spent close to 8 months on the recliner, unable to stand up and bear my own weight. Towards the end of July, I was finally able to being putting weight on my injured leg. However, during those 8 months of immobility, I put on quite a lot of extra weight!

In order to try and motivate myself to be moving as much as possible, I invested in a Fitbit. I had heard so many wonderful things from friends and coworkers that already had one. 

My injury is still bothering me and I cannot do nearly as much as I would like to. The extent of my walking comes from what I do around the classroom and school, and even that is limited since I am still in so much pain. I use a roll-about scooter to go up and down the hallways, since that much walking is still much too painful for me.

However, I am able to walk again!! I cannot tell you how exciting that is! In order to encourage my progress, I began to research the Fitbit. There are several different styles, including the Fitbit Zip, Fitbit One, Fitbit Flex, Fitbit Charge, Fitbit Charge HR, and the Fitbit Surge. There is literally a style of Fitbit for everyone!! You can learn more about each style by visiting the official Fitbit site <click here>.

I had no idea which would be best for me, so I did some research on their website and read some comparisons. I wanted something that would track my sleep as well as my movement, and also something that would help track my heart rate. I poked around on the Fitbit site and found a really awesome page, 'Find Your Fit'. This page laid it all out for me, allowing me to compare each device side by side.

After a bit of reading, I decided that the Fitbit Charge HR would be the best fit for me. It would track my sleep, my activity, as well as my heart rate. I opted not to go with the Surge, because that seemed to be a better fit for a serious fitness guru, and I'm just not there yet.

I am very pleased with my choice, and ordered mine through Amazon. I put it on as soon as it came and proudly hobbled up the stairs and down the hall just to get my very first reading.

I know it's not much, but for the first time being mobile in 8 months I was very proud of myself! I have worn my Fitbit faithfully every day since getting it, and have used it to encourage myself to walk as much as possible. While I have not yet come close to the recommended 10,000 steps a day, I have earned two badges! One of the badges I earned is the March of the Penguins, which means I have walked the same amount of miles as the Emperor Penguins do during their migration. How cool is that!?!?

There are lots of different color choices, even more since I purchased mine.

I may have purchased the tangerine one, had it been available when I ordered mine.

I can't tell you enough how much I love my Fitbit, and how instrumental it has been towards my recovery. Not only am I able to track my steps each day, I can also record the amount of water I drink as well as my sleep patterns. Apparently I am a very restless sleeper, and only average about an hour and a half of solid sleep each night before I grow restless. Could be why I'm so tired all of the time!

I am not getting any kind of royalties or reimbursements for this post, I just wanted to share something awesome with you. This little gadget can really help up your workout game, and keep you on track with your goals. There is an AWSOME app you can get for your Smart Phone that syncs up with your Fitbit and records all of the important information. You can even link up with your friends and have weekly contests to see who walks the most steps or is active the longest! I have yet to win, since I can barely walk, but it is awesome to have the support of friends through this journey!

Do you have a Fitbit? I would LOVE to be your friend, and you get the added bonus of adding a friend you are guaranteed to walk more than!! :-) I would love to link up with you, just leave me a note in the comments of your username or email and I'll friend you!!

I would LOVE to hear if you have a Fitbit and how you use it! Leave me some feedback love!! :-)

I welcome each of you to link up for Spotlight Saturday and share some of your favorites! Please feel free to use the Spotlight Saturday graphic from above or below, and if you're posting about someone who has a Facebook page make sure to give them a shout out and let them know you Spotlighted them!

Please read the rules and link up with us!

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.

Spotlight Saturday 9-19-15

Happy Saturday everyone! I hope you have all been having an amazing year so far! My year is going well, I'm just so very tired every day after school! My ankle aches and I sit down on the couch when I get home and end up falling right asleep!!

I apologize for the late start to Spotlight Saturday today! I can't wait to see what you link up with!

It's been a while since I've Spotlighted anything of my own creation, so I decided to be a bit selfish today and share a few things from my store! 

These are some activities my team mates and I will be using this week. We are going to be focusing on shapes in math, so my Basic Shape Roll, Trace, and Color FREEBIE is PERFECT!

This is an activity we'll do as a small group, and then it will get added to a Math with Someone station. It's a pretty simple activity. Print out the shape cubes, one for each kiddo in your group. Assemble them by folding on the dotted lines and taping them shut.

Students roll the cube and find that shape on their recording sheet. Starting at the smiley face, they trace the shape they have rolled. To keep it fun, I let my Dragons use a crayon that matches the color of the shape they rolled.

You could have students work on this on their own, or in pairs. In pairs, you only need one sheet and one cube. Students choose a color of crayon (Student A chooses blue and B chooses red) and when they roll a shape they trace it in their color crayon. Once all the shapes are traced, count up how many each student traced and compare.

During our ELA and Social Studies times, we'll be learning about the jobs of an author and illustrator. Students will focus on the definition of each job as well as the tools each job needs.

There is a set of color and black and white sorting activities. Students can use the color set at a pocket chart center, and the black and white version as an assessment piece.

Have students sort the circle cards without giving them parameters, just telling them to sort the cards how they think makes sense. Ask them why they sorted their pieces the way they did, and compare how different students sorted them.

Then, give them the category labels and ask them to resort the pieces. After the second sort, have students justify why they put each piece in the category. Many tools pictured can be considered to be tools used by both an author and an illustrator, and as long as students can reasonably justify their sorting, the pieces should be accepted.

Another assessment activity has students drawing and labeling three different tools used by each job. Students then choose one of the tools they drew and write about how an author/illustrator would use it or what they would use it for.

Another assessment you could use would be a cut and paste sorting activity where students are given a few sheets of tool images that they must sort into whether or not they would be used by an author or an illustrator. There are two sorting sheets, one where students have an option to have a 'Both' category. 

I think that these activities are really going to help my team and I decide if students truly understand the concepts we are teaching them!

Click on the images below to head to my TPT store and get a copy for yourself!

I would LOVE for you to link up for Spotlight Saturday too! This is a Teacher's Show and Tell where we can share any resources, products, tips, tricks, ideas, activities, and anything else that can help make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both! Please feel free to use either of the Spotlight Saturday images in your post, and if you Spotlight someone with a Facebook page make sure to give them a shout out and let them know!

Please read up on the rules and then link up below! I can't wait to read what you share!

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.

Spotlight Saturday 9-12-15

It's the weekend!!! I now many of you have been in school for several weeks while others have just started. Today marked Day 12 for me, and we have YET to have a 5-day week!!

Since it's Saturday that means it's time to link up for Spotlight Saturday!

My Spotlight today is short and sweet, but definitely from the heart!!

My district has this incredibly wonderful amazing department called Print and Distribution. In this land of awesomeness, there is a team of 3-4 men and women who spend their days fulfilling the printing requests of people in our county.

Anyone who works in our district, from custodian to teacher to administration, can make a request from Print and Distribution.

The amazing folks who work here are so incredible I just had to share their awesomeness with you all!!

Here's how it works. I fill out a request form, which instructs P&D with what I want. I attach my document and email it to them with the request form. Now the magic happens!

P&D will print WHATEVER I want, HOWEVER many copies I want! They will print it on whatever type and color of paper I want, literally any shade you can think of. My go-to has always been thick white cardstock.

They will print my documents IN COLOR on the cardstock, however many copies I request.

Hold on, it gets even better!! Not only will they print my resources in color, but they will then LAMINATE every. single. page. No joke, it could be 300 pages (and yes, that has happened before!) and they will print each page on cardstock, in color, and then laminate each and every one. After each page is laminated, they slice them apart and trim up the edges. Finally, they send me my documents through our school mail system.

How INCREDIBLE is that??!! They will even create giant posters and bound books. We can send them things to be laminated, too. If I have a stack of resources I mounted on construction paper, I can send them the whole stack to be laminated. They'll laminate and trim up every page then send them back to me.

I'm sorry I have no pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it that these folks are so incredibly wonderful. They have saved my life at the beginning of each year, helping me to get my classroom ready by printing and laminating everything I need. I am so incredibly grateful for this department in my district.

Do you have anything like our Print and Distribution? I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

You can link up and have a Teacher's Show and Tell by showcasing your favorite products, ideas, resources, tips, tricks, activities, and anything else that will help make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both!

Please feel free to use whichever Spotlight Saturday images you would like in your post. Also, if the person/company you are Spotlighting has a Facebook page you should give them a shout-out and let them know about your post! Follow the rules and then link up. I can't wait to read about all the awesome resources you are showcasing!!

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.

Spotlight Saturday: Early Childhood Education Tribe

Happy Saturday!! I hope you have all had an amazing back to school experience this year, and if you're headed back to school this week I wish you nothing but the best!

Saturday means it's time for Spotlight Saturday!

This weekly link up is a Teacher's Show and Tell where we can showcase our favorite tips, tricks, ideas, products, resources, and activities that can help make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both!

I have such a great time reading each post of bloggers who link up, I look forward to learning about something new each week!!

Have you been around social media lately? If so I'm sure you've heard about the #findyourtribe movement that was basically started by Schroeder's Shenannigans in Second and Lucky Little Learners, where teachers are encouraged to connect with other teachers and educators in their grade or subject area.

I am a proud member of several different tribes, including the Kinder Tribe, TPT Maryland, and Kindergarten Teachers Who Blog. You can find us on Facebook! Today I am showcasing a new tribe that I'm pretty proud of!

This tribe is a meeting place for all educators who are in the magical world of Early Childhood. It is a group where we can meet up and share ideas, where we can use our knowledge of early childhood to help build each other up. It is an amazing supportive group where thoughts and activities are shared, and we can post questions about things happening in our classroom.

Such great pieces of advice are shared through the group, like this little gem! I forgot how much I loved this quote until it popped up on the Tribe's page!

I would like to welcome all Early Childhood Educators to come over and join our tribe! No one understand what we go through better than we do, so what better place to meet up and share ideas and vent when we have to! Just click on the image below to head over to our Early Childhood Tribe Facebook page and request to join!

Want to share something awesome with us? Then you need to link up and share your Teacher's Show and Tell with us! I can't wait to read all about it! Feel free to use either of the Spotlight Saturday graphics when advertising your post! If the person/company you are Spotlighting has a Facebook page, give them a shout out on their page to let them know you have Spotlighted them!

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.

Spotlight Saturday 8-29-15

Happy Saturday everyone!! I have survived the first four days of kindergarten!!! I am excited for the new year, and yet completely wiped out!! 

Teaching kindergarten while still very much in the healing process has definitely been trying for me!! I honestly fall asleep on the couch every night as soon as I get home, and today I've spent most of the day snoozing!!! Guess my body needs the rest in order to help the healing process!! 
Anyway, it's time for my

I get so excited to read the different Spotlights of others who have linked up! I'm so glad for this Teacher's Show and Tell where we can help each other to find incredible ideas and products for our classrooms that can make our lives easier and more awesome!

Like most teachers, I am obsessed with different bags and bins I can use for storage. This addiction has led me to become collecting various Thirty-one bags and bins. Recently my Thirty-one representative shared this image with us.

I was immediately intrigued!! I love the Black Playful Parade pattern, and the fact that I could use Sharpies to create my own unique style was just too good to pass up!!

I bought five of the Black Playful Parade Oh Snap Pop-up bins. They looked like this before I started to get creative.

They have snap hooks that can be used to hang them up or to snap them together. I have an idea in mind for ways to use them in my classroom, and as soon as I'm done coloring them I'm going to test it out. If I can get it to work, I'll definitely share pictures with you all!!

I found some awesome Sharpies on sale and scooped them up, because they were huge packs with so many awesome colors!

I got excited about this pack because of the five new colors that it included!!! You know you're a teacher when you get excited about brand new colors of Sharpies!! (Please ignore the Flair pens, I didn't use them to color the bins but this was the only pic of the Sharpies I have!)

I also had my trusty 24 count Sharpie pack. I now have doubles of most of the colors Sharpie makes, and that's just fine with me!!  You can also see the stash of Oh Snap bins I bought in order to color them all in. I LOVE to color, and this activity got me really excited to try it out!!

After I finished the first one I completely fell in love with it! It was so much fun to color in the pattern, and I got to be as creative as I wanted! Sometimes the colors bled together, but that doesn't detract from the overall awesomeness. It actually makes it more personal. I got so excited after finishing the first one that I immediately opened up another. Guess what I found out??

I quickly realized that each bin was cut from the same pattern of cloth, but each bin was made up of different sections of that cloth. So that means that while each bin definitely matches the other, they are all slightly different depending on where they were cut from the pattern. This made me even more excited, since that meant all of my bins were going to be different and yet would still match each other perfectly!! You can tell what I mean from this picture. Each of these three bins shows the same spot on them, and you can tell how different each pattern is from the other!! Awesomesauce!!!

I'm currently working on finishing up bin 2 of 5. Check out this awesome Fire Flower I made!! Reminds me of playing Super Mario Bros. and getting Mario his Fire Power!!!

I'm really having a great time coloring all of these bins, and it's super relaxing after a long day at work! The marker fumes can be a bit intense, so I would recommend taking several breaks when the smell gets too strong. Also, be careful when coloring in the thinner lines. The marker ink tends to bleed a little bit, and it could seep into a white area near where you're coloring. I don't mind when that happens, because it it just another little piece that makes my bins even more unique!!

What are some of your favorite bins or bags that you use as a teacher? If you're interested in a project like this, I can get you in touch with my Thirty-one rep if you don't have one of your own. There are several black and white patterns you can choose from, and they come on all sorts of different bags and bins. You don't have to get the Oh Snap bins if you don't want them. I have a friend whose daughter got a lunch box and had a great time coloring it in!

Now it's your turn to link up and share the Spotlight with us! Feel free to use either of these Spotlight Saturday images with your post. If the person or company you are Spotlighting has a Facebook page, leave them a message to let them know you Spotlighted them!! 

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.

Spotlight Saturday: Fiskars Paper Trimmer

It's time for Spotlight Saturday!! This link up is like a Teacher's Show and Tell, where we get to share our favorite products, resources, activities, ideas, tips, tricks, and anything else we can share with each other to make our classroom lives easier, more awesome, or both!

I'm always so excited to read all about the amazing Spotlights that are shared through this link up each week! You can link up at the end of this post!!

This week I am Spotlighting my FAVORITE getting-ready-for-school helper! It's that time of year when I am headed back to school and need to get all sorts of different things printed, laminated, and cut out. Last summer I found this little gem in the crafting aisle of Wal-Mart. This is my Fiskars SureCut Scrapbooking Paper Trimmer, and I LOVE IT!!! It is so incredibly perfect to use when trimming papers that have straight lines, even when they are laminated!

This little beauty is a HUGE help when I'm cutting things out for the classroom! I used this to cut out and trim up my number line, alphabet line, shape posters, and so much more!! This cutter is so easy to use! All you do is place the page under the metal bar and line up where you want to trim, then slide then handle up or down. The blade slices right through laminated cardstock, construction paper, and scrapbook paper. It's perfect for trimming up the edges of papers or slicing pages in half. Best of all, it gives you a straight line each and every time!! I'm not one of those blessed people who can cut a straight line. Like, at all. I always end up getting all slanted at the end.

It really helps me save time when cutting things out, like these welcome cards for my Dragons. It only took a few quick slices to get these cut apart and trimmed up!! I would definitely 100% recommend this to anyone who ever has to cut out something on a straight line!!

I also use it to trim down different things I use around the room, like locker tags and hallway work display tags. That made it a bit easier to cut everything out. Once I had it trimmed down to a more manageable size, I could then cut it out with scissors. I'm on the lookout for a really great pair of scissors, so if you have some suggestions I'd love for you to leave them in the comments!!

Now it's your turn!! Link up and share your favorite products, tips, tricks, and anything else that we could use in our classrooms to make life a little bit easier, more awesome, or both!

Feel free to use either of the Spotlight Saturday images to help advertise your post! Read the rules below and then link up to share your Spotlight!!

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.

Spotlight Saturday: Sweet Sweet Primary

It's time for Spotlight Saturday!!

This is a weekly link up where you can showcase your favorite products, activities, resources, lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, and whatever else makes your school year easier or more awesome!

This week I am shining the Spotlight on an incredibly sweet friend, Rachael from Sweet Sweet Primary!!

I'm sure many of you already know how awesome she is!! I'm sharing a few of her incredible creations that are really going to help me this year! 

First up is this awesome freebie I found in her store that will be perfect for the beginning of the year!

These little beauties are going to be perfect for our sensory table during the first few weeks of school! My kiddos will use play-dough to make small balls to represent each numeral in the ten-frame. They are going to love getting a chance to play with the play-dough, plus they'll be increasing their number sense as well as strengthening those fine-motor muscles!!

I got this activity for a STEAL in her TPT store. Only $1.00!!! These cards are so adorable! They fit perfectly with the 'Chicka-Chicka ABC' story, and they are SPARKLY!!! We all know how much I love all things that glitter and sparkle!!

Rachael has created three different ways to use these cards. They are perfect for playing memory to match up the letter buddies, as well as a really fun game to ID the name and sound each letter makes. If they get the coconut card they have to put all their cards back! 

This activity is perfect to use in small groups during the beginning of the year as well as an awesome activity to leave for a substitute!! 

If you want a copy of her FREEBIE, click the image below!

For her amazing Alphabet Activity, that is just $1.00, click the image below!

Here's how you can find Sweet Sweet Primary through social media. Trust me, you need to make sure you Like and Follow this lady, she's amazing!!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT HER BLOG:

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT HER TPT STORE:

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO VISIT HER FACEBOOK PAGE:

I would LOVE for you to link up for Spotlight Saturday too! I really enjoy learning about all the awesome educators out there, and I think this is a great way to do that! I welcome you to use either the Spotlight Saturday graphic from the top of the page or the one below. If you are Spotlighting someone with a Facebook page, make sure to leave them a comment on their page that you Spotlighted them!! Make sure to read the rules before linking up!

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.