500 IG Followers Giveaway

Hey guys! I am skipping my normal Wednesday Writing Tip to bring you something special. I was so super blessed to have made it to my 500th Instagram follower. To celebrate, I have decided to have a little giveaway. Once you get to the end of my post, you will see what you need to do to enter to win.

I wanted to take time to give the three reasons I love what I do and what has been helping me in this journey.

I am thankful for YOU!!!! It is because of all of my followers that I am making myself a better teacher. Every night I think about my students and what they need to be life long learners. When I do this, I think about YOU and YOUR students. I hope that when you visit my blog, FB page, TPT store, or IG you are seeing that hard work. YOUR support means the WORLD to me!!!!!!

The next thankful moment is TBTS. If you are starting to blog, then this is the place for you. Just click here to find out information. Teaching Blog Traffic School has helped me to learn about this whole blogging thing, branding, selling, pinning, etc. It has been such an amazing adventure. It does cost money but the yearly fee is well worth it.

The last thing I love is all the blogs before me. I read blogs for years and never thought this country girl from Kentucky would have the followers I have. I am just so blessed with this journey. When I'm frustrated or completely happy, you guys are always there to hear it and give me encouragement. 

Now let's get to why you are here. I am giving away 2 gift cards. $10 to TPT and $10 to Amazon. Just enter below on the rafflecopter. ON Saturday night, I will declare the winner. Thank you for your support and GOOD LUCK!!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It's a Wrap!

Welcome to my Monday Wrap Up! 

Well it has been a whirlwind weekend and Monday. I have been going nonstop since Friday night. I went to my church Friday and Saturday for a women's conference. At first I didn't know what I was taking away but after a day to reflect, I got it! 

Serving others is not just serving in a mission field but it is serving in your own home. I forget sometimes having small preschool age children that sometimes their needs to be met immediately. I sometimes let the needs of my husband fall. I need to serve within my home as well as outside it. #truth

Anyway, after being up all night with my puppy (who btw, peed in my bed last night all over me after I had taken him outside.) I was ready to teach my kids at school. 

I know it's hard for people to grasp that I teach K-2 Writing but I do. I truly miss having one grade. BUT, I knew that teaching new concepts I have double up on what and how I present. I knew I was gonna be teaching contractions to 2nd grade and stronger sentences to first. I found to awesome products from First grade Fever and Simply Creative in Ky. The Contraction Surgery and Sentence Surgery was fabulous choices for me. 

I needed to really step up and make this fun, so I asked on my personal Facebook page if anyone had some scrubs. I had a wonderful response. So, I laminated and cut and laminated and cut. 

I got myself ready go Monday morning. 

It was fun to hear the kids whisper about what I was wearing and why was I wearing it. I believe it was a hit. 

Here are a few pics from today. 

I even made an anchor chart for before I left for work. 

I absolutely love it!!! 

It has been a great day for surgery. 

I just wanted to remind you of the pet kinky party that started Sunday. There is prizes worth $225. You can't beat that. I hope you have linked up. 

I will say you definitely want to come back here 

Wednesday because I will be having my own giveaway for hitting the 500 followers on Instagram. I love you guys and want to do something to celebrate that. Y'all come back now!!!! Check it out!

My Sweet Fur Babies & GIVEAWAY

Hey everyone! I am here this fine Sunday to link up with Julie from A First at Everything and several other bloggers. 

We are coming today with something a little different. We are here to talk about our other loves and that is our fur babies. I am super excited because I love my fur babies. 

First let me introduce you my first love and that is my dog Gracie Trinity King.

When my husband and I got her 9 years ago, I was not wanting a dog. Our dog at the time Taco had passed away and I was still extremely sad. My husband just didn't think he could live with out a pet so off to the pound we went. 

Gracie had a sister but my Grace followed me every where. I have always regretted for not taking Lana her sister. Anyway, Gracie was a fun dog as we got to know each other. 

She got her name honestly! Gracie Trinity. She would run so fast that she would jump up on the couch and run along the top. It look like the Matrix when Trinity would run the wall. Hence how she got her name. LOL!

This sweet girl is my love although right now she is upset right now because of.....

Bingo! This is our new puppy. I husband had kept talking about how he wanted our kids to bond with their own dog. He had a colleague at his job whose dachshund was having puppies. Not just any puppies but Chihuahua dachshund puppies. That's right Chiweeney!  

We have only had him for a week and after several sleepless nights. I convinced the hubby that he needs to sleep with us. Now we have had 2 wonderful nights of rest. Now if only I could get the potty training nipped then I will be home free. 

Here is a few more pics of the puppy!

Now that you have read about my fur babies, let's get to a fun giveaway. We are giving away a gift card to Amazon. $225 worth...... WHO would not want that?! First Prize is $100.   Now fill out the rafflecopter and read some blogs. I can't wait to see who wins!  Good luck!!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Informational Writing Complete

Hey guys! It's me, Melinda. I am here to let you know about my Informational Writing that I am finishing tomorrow. 

I will tell you it has been a LONG laboring process but as we wrap up our final drafts in the morning, it was well worth it all. 

My school had decided back in the summer the order that we were to teach the 3 types of writing. From December-March was to be informational writing. I spent December discussing Christmas around the word and the features of informational writing and texts. By the time we got back from Christmas Break my 3 classes were ready to go. 

I began by doing a couple group projects were we looked at nonfiction text and discussed items that had to be in our own pieces.During the class writing projects we discussed penguins and polar bears. I spent one week on penguins and one on polar bears.

Here are some pictures of some books that I used to help teach penguins.

I started by having a picture on chart paper. We discussed things we knew about the animal. Next, I gave the 1st and 2nd graders post it notes. As I read the books, they were to write facts that they thought were very interesting to them. Once that was finished, we placed them on the penguin chart. 

The next day we looked through all the stickies and decided what went together. Then we talked about what they had in common and made categories for them. My kids came up with 3. How they eat! How they live! How they look! 

From those categories, we began to write our papers. With 1st graders, we discussed Polar Bears. They had to write their own information into their book. We 2nd grade, they pick an animal of their choice and we researched the heck out that animal.  They were amazing. I created some graphic organizers to help them to build their paragraphs. (Especially since we had writing boot camp in August. Read about that here!) 

Tomorrow I will finish conferencing with the last 4 students and they will complete their final drafts. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!! Those 2nd graders have worked so hard. 

Now I know you are probably asking, "What about the kinders?" We did ours as a class book. They helped build every part of an informational book. 

I thought that since you stopped by tonight, I would let you grab the organizers that I used with my students for FREE! That's right a FREEBIE!!! I hope that you find it helpful in your pursuits of informational writing. 

Click here for your FREEBIE!

I just wanted to take time to say thank you so much for all that you have done for me. I just wanted to let you in on a give away that will happen starting on Monday. Since I have made it to my 500 follower on Instagram, I am going to have a small give away. Stop by Monday and see what I am giving away and join the fun.

Wednesday Wrap Up..... Supplies

Hey guys! Sorry about missing last week. It was a wild week. I am trying to get my brain wrapped around what I need and want to share and schedule those. I would love if you would tell me what you would love to hear in the the Wednesday writing tip.

So let's get started. Today I wanted to share some things that use and do to organize my writing room. 

Now I understand most classrooms are not like my situation but maybe some of the things you see will inspire you and your room. 

I have 4 tables in my room and beside those tables are these rolling carts. You can see that I have K-2 all day. I have the kids color coded. Kindred are yellow. 1st grade blue. 2nd grade is red. They each have a writing folder in their drawer. I have writing word dictionaries that found at jmeacham.com. They have been super helpful. 

Now the white tub on top hold their leadership binders. At my school, they want every child to have a leadership binder. I can tell you about those another day. Anyway, when my sassy pants come in they place them in the tub and get ready for minute to win it. It's works great. When they have an assessment, we use the binders as dividers. This makes life simple. 

This picture shows what is on the table. I bought the basket and caddies at really Good Stuff. In the caddies, I put the pencils, markers, & color pencils. There is two glue sponges and crayon baskets. The blue empty basket now hold scissors for when we do interactive notebooks. The table stays neat and organized and I don't lose my mind. Lol!!! 

Now I know everyone says have different writing paper out. I'm all for that but I have no where for it to go. Plus, I just don't have the money for different types of paper. I won't even be getting any school money to purchase supplies. So with paying student loans, it just doesn't happen. It's the sore spot for me. :(

I'm not the best at organization but these are some things that really help me. It is the start of me making my room better. I hope these can help you too. 

Thx for stopping by. I can't wait to chat soon.