Did you get anything good?

I did take advantage of the TpT sale and I am thrilled will my purchases! Did you get anything good? I also loved all my sales WHOOHOO!!!


Now its time for some Dr. Seuss!!!!!! I am gathering supplies and preparing for this big day. I can't wait! I always love celebrating with my kiddos! Its one of the biggest joys of being a first grade teacher they just get so excited about everything and almost everything is new!

I am going to do my app for the week right now! I have lots of great dinner plans coming up with Denver restaurant week starting tomorrow so I won't be back for a few days and I will miss you all! Now the app drum rolls if you will.......................


Bluster!













This little grammar app is awesome. Its starts at second grade and reinforces grammar skills through individual games or timed competition. Pick the skill and practice away! Guess WHAT??? Its FREE!!!!









Tomorrow will be an interesting day for my class. They took all of our iPads to sync them! I won't have them for at least a day. No apple TV only computer projection? Yes I have become really spoiled. I may apple TV with my phone but I haven't figured it out yet. I may out of necessity. I know I sound ridiculous to some of you out there. Comment   and tell me what teaching tool can you not live without?

Grab Your Wallet and Get Ready

Have you heard? TpT is having a big ole Leap Year Sale! I am having a sale in my little store too!

My TpT Store

I can't wait to going shopping! I love to shop, shop, shop. (I actually gave it up for Lent!) 

Okay I feel like I have been part of the blog world long enough to say that I love it. Now even more I love YOU the people that have ideas and share them but also YOU that read my blog! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!! I am super filled with love tonight apparently but honestly. I want to accomplish two things from this blogpost and I need you to HELP.

1.  I would like to get more connected! - Please tell my your blog. If you are following me then I want to make sure I am visiting yours. If you don't have one then tell me your favorite! COMMENT!!! With your links. Maybe you can gain more followers from it win/ win!

2. I want to learn from you!!!! I would really like to hear some tech tips from you all! Do you have any suggestions? Do you have an awesome app I haven't seen? TELL ME!!!! 

Okay now I am going to go ahead and say it. I am itching for a giveaway on my little blog. I love to give presents! I spend lots of time to pick out each gift I give. (It's the perfect excuse to shop!) I especially love to make gift baskets. Okay you need to help me out blog friends!!!! (I know I am demanding tonight!) I would like to have 50 followers in order to do this give away. I will make a gift basket for you!!! I promise you will love it! 

Sooo PLEASE pretty PLEASE spread the word about my little blog and I will be counting my followers!  Then this give away will happen! I can't wait! 

Here is a clue about what will be included in the giveaway ----31----

Also PLEASE PIN!!! You have my permission! If you like my stuff enough to pin it, I would be honored if you do!

Permission To Pin!

Another Snow Day

Yup you read that right! I am sitting here on another snow day! I woke up ready to go to work at 5:30 and the phone call came at 5:40! I couldn't go back to sleep. I wanted to be productive but I got hooked on teacher blogs! I have to say that I just found A Teeny Tiny Teacher and I couldn't stop reading/ laughing! I grabbed her button and I added it to my page! 


It occurred to me today as I couldn't sleep in on a free day off.... that I have a bunch of free time on my hands these days! I do!!!! I couldn't think why! Then I remembered I switched schools and grade levels. Its a whole different ball game now my friends! I hesitate to say this because it may sound like BRAGGING... but I have a LIFE. My life now includes time for:


Cooking--- My favorite hobby ( You create something wonderful, you get to share it and EAT it! 


Pinterest--- Did the world turn before this great invention? If you are interested in what makes me tick you can follow my boards! 


Teacher Blog Reading/ Blogging-- What did I do with my nosey self before I could invite myself into other peoples classrooms??? Comment PLEASE if you have a blog I should check out! 


The Gym--- Now I don't absolutely love the fact I have time for this.... But I am hoping I love the results in time for a busy summer including my 10 year reunion! 


Church--- I have time to get involved with my church! 


MY HUSBAND--- I actually get to see the guy and I kinda like it! 


Did I mention I love my job???? Plus blogging and Pinterest makes me a better teacher right????




Okay back to the purpose of my blog...


One of my new favorite apps is Rover!

Rover is a free  app! It is linked to games and Discovery Education ( a tool I couldn't live without!) Your class will love it. We had a teacher work day on Friday. Our principal taught us how to blog (little did he know). Anyways my teammate and I featured Rover and Discovery in our blog post and made a little video about it. Stroll down the red carpet for the video release!

Enjoy! 

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I love the idea of linky parties! I found this one just in time for Read Across America! Its creeping up on us! Can you believe it is almost March?!!!

Head on over to Little Blog Fish  to see more ideas for this fun day! I love celebrating these ideas with first graders! They love it!!!! 

You can check out my unit as well!

Read Across America

Projects

I blogged about a couple of great units that we have been working on. The World Around Us and Space. My kiddos and their families never cease to amaze me! I just had to share some of our projects with you all. 


We sent out Flat Stanley as part of The World Around Us projects. They are almost all back and I have to say Flat Stanley is such a neat project. I have never done it before and now I can't wait until next year. They all came back so cute! We had them go all over the US and even on a cruise to New Zealand and Australia. The outfits and accessories that came back with them are wonderful! We had several DVDs and books made. Here is my hallway display: 

You can get my Flat Stanley Project in my TpT store for FREE here!!!! 

Next as part of my Space Unit I assigned each student something about space to create a research project on. I had topics ranging from the planets, Apollo 11 to the astroid belt. The students really did a wonderful job. They had to include five facts and two visuals. I had models and youtube videos created! I took a picture of a few of them: 

That project is part of my space unit that can be found here.





I thought I would have a little fun with this post too! I found the cutest linky party over at Buzzing with Mrs. B party so here it is:

I met my hubby way back in the sixth grade! We "dated" back then and he broke up with me! FOR MY FRIEND! He likes to say he had to play the field a bit and I couldn't lock him down at age 11!  Luckily for both of us he came crawling back ( I like to think so!) our senior year of high school and we have been together ever since! We have been together 10 years and married nearly 7!  

This is us at a western themed dance senior year of high school 2002! 

Here is a picture of us around Christmas time at a Broncos game! Both of us being Broncos fans was a huge attraction and has kept the piece all these years later! 

Freebie

I wanted to share a another freebie! Here it is! This was a bunch of fun in the classroom! Freebie

Home Sick

It is one of those days that it was bad enough that I took a sick day and called in a sub! I even went to the doctor! I can't wait until I build up my system to first graders! 


I have spent the day in bed with my computer. It is an attachment from my arm. It's either my computer, my iPad or my iPhone. I know its bad! I just can't tear myself away! Good thing I work at a tech school! 


Today I worked on my Dr. Seuss unit and found some great new sellers in the TpT forums. Have you been there yet? It is just filled with teachers sharing amazing ideas! Did I mention I love technology? Its hard to believe that just last year the iPad came out! Now I use it to teach daily! Just this sumer I had no clue about teacher blogs. Now how would I spend my free time? 


Today I thought I would highlight some of the great teachers that I work with.


 I have a super cute teammate Ashlyn that challenges me to cute it up too! Here is a link to her TpT store and here is a link to her cute blog filled with great classroom management techniques. 


My teammate and I carpool with a kindergarten teacher Chassity and she has just about the cutest room and ideas that you will ever see! Here is her TpT Store!

Freebies

Who doesn't love a freebie!? I have been working on several items but I have also been researching how to be a better blogger and TpT seller.  I beefed up my freebies on TpT and I wanted to share them with you here!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Story-Notes-For-Primary-Grades

Smiles All Around! - My first Giveaway!

This has been a big weekend so far for me and my little blog! Here is what has happened!


1. Cara Carroll at First Grade Parade emailed me back! She is a teacher blog icon to me! I started my blog because of her and her amazing blog! I asked her some blogger advice and she was the sweetest in answering my questions! 


2. I decided to throw a TpT sale and it has been so successful! I will up the discount to 20% and extend it! Check out my items at my http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Mrs-Cook


3. My phases of the moon pin on Pinterest has gone crazy! My little old idea has brought a bunch of traffic to this site! 200 page views just this morning! 


With all of that being said I am going to give my first giveaway a try! It will run now through next Saturday 2/18! I will choose a winner and send them the giveaway 2/19!!!


What will I give away you ask? 10 items from my TpT store! Including the units I am currently working on for March Dr. Sues and St. Patty's Day.


Here is what to do! 


1. Follow my blog! Comment that you do! If you already follow go ahead and comment! Leave your email! 
2. Follow my TpT store here! - Comment that you did! - Leave your email in your comment!
3. Read through my blog and correctly answer why my page is Orange and Blue! Comment with that answer! 


Thats it! Just 3 easy steps! Let's get started! 


Not so smiley!!! It didn't work! But just you watch I will do a great giveaway one of these days and thank you for those of you that joined my blog!

The cutest giveaway!

Head on over to Heather's Heart for a cute giveaway! I think the shirts are so cute! I would love to get one for my teammate and myself!

Space

Finish this sentence: You know you are a teacher when_____________________________. For me it is you know you are teacher when you get so excited about a unit or activity that you live and breath it.

Right now we are studying space. Since this is the first year I have even thought about it since I had astronomy in high school I have learned a bunch! Even more than that the kiddos are so into it! 

Here are all the things that I am so excited about and wanted to share with you. 

Phases of the moon book. I used the die cut to make these circles each kiddo had eight to make the phases of the moon. They turned out really cute. It took a bunch of time but they loved putting it together. 

I have seen that super cute Oreo project but I wanted something a little less sweet and that would last longer! 

Here is a youtube video I made to explain the project to my kiddos

Here is the unit that I created for my kiddos using the 1st Grade Core Knowledge guidelines.  You can check it out in my TpT store.

Astronomy Unit

You probably have noticed that I live for teaching with technology.  I like give the students the experience  outside of the classroom and for space I clearly am not Ms. Frizzle! I looked up several great videos on Discovery Education. ( This is a resource I could not teach with out!) The best one I found was A Closer Look at Space:Planets. I could not believe what has changed since I was in school. All of these "new" planets. Then what happened to Pluto and his moon? It is so interesting. This video told us all about it! 

I have included a ton of space fiction and non fiction in our featured books.  I love books! I am such a book worm but this one of the times that the iPad is the best thing ever! Space apps galore! 

Here are a couple great ones. But honestly there are tons and most are free! 

My kids are so fired up about space and so am I. I looked for the planets in the sky on my way home from work last night! Then I told everyone who would listen about it. This brings me back to you know your a teacher when____________________.  LOL. Next week we will finish the gas giants and then learn about stars! I created a really fun homework assignment for this you can find it here.

I hope to ask the school community to loan us some telescopes and have a star night sometime soon! 

SALE

I find shopping is the pick me up that I need on a crummy day. We all have those once in a while! So I thought maybe I would throw a sale. If you like shopping you probably like sales! Visit my TPT until Saturday for a 15% off sale! My Store!

i,i,i,i

I work at an ischool like I have mentioned before. I have started having my first graders create reports on their iPads. I was amazed that they have figured out how to do countless things on the iPad with out any instruction. I have all the training! My six and seven year olds are teaching me things! Don't even get me started on my middle school student council kids! They are great at the iPad and with technology! 


I have been utilizing iMovie a ton! 


Yesterday I created directions for a project and played them. Today we made announcements and my kiddos created a report to show to the class. 


If you would like to see some of what we are doing you can visit youtube. My channel is mrscooksclass.

  How do you use iPads in your classroom? How do you use iMovie? How do you use youtube? Post below and let me know!!!!


Recommend my blog to your friends! When I have 20 members I will do a give away from my TPT store!

Do you have a blog? I would love to check it out! Let me know about it below!

100th Day, Super Bowl and Snow!

What a week! We had the 100th day of school on Tuesday! It was so much fun!  I found a bunch of great activities on TPT for FREE or you can find them at her great blog http://ateachersobsessions.blogspot.com/

I have not had the chance to celebrate this before since this is my first year with little ones but I loved it! I look forward to next year!

I love LOVE football! Mainly I love my Broncos but I love the sport! I created a football unit to do with my kiddos today. I made all of the copies and I was ready to go!  You can find that unit in my TPT store.Super Bowl Mini Unit I even put it on sale for the big event!

But then the snow came! 

Denver was hit by a big storm! It has be snowing consistently for 24 hours. We have 2 feet outside and its still coming down. Now I love my class, I love my job but I also love an extra day off! 

Here I am on a surprise 3 day weekend!  

Enjoy your weekend and the big game I know that I will!