Teachers Pay Teachers Cyber Smile Sale

Good Morning,
Just wanted everyone to know that Teachers Pay Teachers is having their annual Cyber "Smile" Sale going on tomorrow through December 1st. Most of the stores will be having sales. My shop will be included. All my printables are 15% off. When you use the coupon code SMILE from TpT, you get an additional 10% off your purchase. I think that is a smiling deal--don't you??

 Toodles,

Rudolph, Rudolph With Your Nose So Red, What's the Shape of Your Head?

It has been a long time since I created anything but I got to thinking about this printable. I was wondering why it was not selling as well as I hoping it would, and I thought maybe it was the layout sooooo, I gave it a makeover. I changed the orientation of the pages. Here is the grand reintroduction to:

Rudolph, Rudolph With Your Nose So Red 

I love the color of the cover. The red just makes it POP!!! And I am not even a fan of red--remember it is ????????  (see a previous post on my favorite color). 

You can find it at my TpT shop. Just click on the name under the front cover above. The clipart images are from Graphics From the Pond.  I just love all of Mel's clipart. These guys are so stinking cute!! I couldn't resist. It has three different books: a student book (two printing versions), a class book, and a teacher's book. 

Here is the preview of what is in the file.

There are several more that I am going to transform because of the layout.I am also in the process of making a turkey one. I hope to get it done by Thanksgiving, but I realize it will probably be too late for sellers. Maybe next year.

Toodles,

Tutors and Back to School

I have just joined Always a Teacher and Forever a Mom linky party to promote tutors and back to school. It is also coordinated with Teachers Pay Teachers site wide Back to School Sale on August 3 & 4. You can save up to 28% using the code BTS15. My shop is having a sale.

 

 

I am a tutor. I am striving for a teaching position for next school year; that is my heart's desire but in the mean time I have been a tutor for about a year and a half. It has helped and been a blessing since I finished student teaching. I have learned just about as much as my students. Now in order to link up we have to give a tip and a resource that we use. Here is mine!!

Okay, I mainly work with students on their reading. Majority have issues with phonics and have pieces to the puzzle that are missing or weak. They also have issues with knowing their sight words. These skills are crucial to becoming a excellent reader. That is where I come in. I perform pre-assessments so that I know where to begin and what skills are weak. We start right to work on those skills. 

Since little minds have a short attention span, I have hands-on activities that we do. I feel that making learning fun takes the boredom out of learning. Learning takes place without their knowing it if you make it fun. We do reading practice, some worksheets (not many), file folder games, board games, card games, and creative activities.

One strategy that I use when we do play games, like sight word cards or file folder games, is that I fake that I am frustrated when I am losing. I tell them that their goal is to get more cards or pieces than me and to try to beat me at whatever game we play and boy do they try their best to do that. If they get it wrong, then the card or pieces is mine.  They get so tickled because their pile is growing and mine is not that they just explode with laughter. They are having FUN! Now, for certain games, like sight words, I make sure that I have a lot more cards in the pile that they know plus a few of the ones that we are working on. My goal is that their pile has more than mine but they do not know that. I want them to be motivated to learn. Sometimes a healthy competition is a good thing!!

One of my resources that I use is my making words printable. I have two so far. This printable reinforces phonics skills by making words using onset and rime (word families). Each child will pick a mat. They will also pick four letters to put on their cones or trees. Those will be the beginning sound of their words. All scoops and ornaments should be turned over on the table. When it is their turn, they will turn over an ice cream scoop or ornament. If they can make a word using one of their letters, they can keep it. If they can’t, they put it back. When they get the predetermined amount of scoops on their cone or ornaments on their tree, then that column is done. Their goal is to fill all the cones with ice cream scoops and trees with ornaments. 

Toodles,

TpT Back to School Sale

Top of the Morning to Ya!
Just wanted everyone to know that Teachers Pay Teachers is having their annual Back to School Sale starting August 3rd and 4th. Most of the stores will be having sales. My shop will be included. All my printables are 20% off through August 5th. When you use the coupon code BTS15 from TpT, you get an additional percentage off your purchase. I think that is a sweet deal--don't you??

 

Toodles, 

Summer Greetings!!

Well, it is July already. Can you believe it??? Pretty soon school will start back. A little bit of an update on the home front. I have started back to school to get my Master's in Reading and Literacy. Yes, I did not want to start the homework thing again but there were so many benefits to starting it now that I just couldn't pass it up. I will be done in about 18 months so that is not too bad. Not like six years. It just checked so many boxes off the list.

Now shop news, I have been speaking with fellow sellers about the shop. One suggested that I might should consider dropping the price because for one printable, buyers might not think it was a good deal. So, I plan to put some into packs (not bundles) and have an extra item in the packs that you cannot get if you individually purchase them. I have not had any luck with the bundles in the past. Not sure if it is the name or what. I will also be changing the front cover to those. They also suggested that. I do not get enough from the free account to drop the price any. Maybe some that are $2.75 drop down to $2.50. The next thing is to change the description, clipart thank you, and TOU page. I plan to split those up. I always thought it was better to have on one page so it would be convenient for the buyer when printing I think I need to reevaluate that because my description again is lacking as well as suggestions of other ways to play. I do not think people know that I chug a lot of ways to use the printable than what is obvious. I do not think people realize that. There again marketing.

They also suggested that I need an niche'. Something that would make me stand out because what I do so many are doing also. Any ideas????

 Well, that is all for now.

Toodles,

Teacher Appreciation Sale on TpT

Hi All,
Just wanted everyone to know that Teachers Pay Teachers is having their annual Teacher Appreciation Sale going on today through May 6th. Most of the stores will be having sales. My shop will be included. All my printables are 15% off through May 7th. When you use the coupon code ThankYou from TpT, you get an additional 10% off your purchase. I think that is a sweet deal--don't you??

 Toodles,

Graduation

I am very proud to announce that my youngest is graduating college next month. She still has to do student teaching in the fall. Then she will have her certification in Special Education just like her mama. She would love to work with the severe and profound in a multi-handicapped classroom. I pray that we both find the classroom of our dreams!!
Here is the announcement:

Toodles,

Melissa

Update on TpT

Greetings to all!!
I have been lazy with getting to post anything on the blog--sorry! I have been busy with life I guess. Anyway, I just wanted to give a heads up to the shop at Teachers Pay Teachers.  I just finished updating my product descriptions. I found a shop that has tutorials about how to increase traffic and hopefully sales, to your shop. I acquired a tutorial about product descriptions because I knew that is one that I needed at the time. One of the things that it focused on and asked was 'Are your product descriptions effective?' My answer was NO! I have always struggled with what to put into the descriptions and how to write them. I thought they had to be catchy in order to snag buyers attention, and some did to a point, but a lot were not and they were not informative enough for buyers according to the tutorial. I did have some of their components, though, like content and some ideas of how to use it, but not to the extent that they had listed especially the reminder to follow my shop. I did have a signature closing before but deleted it awhile ago. So I put that back on. It also gave html codes for bold print and how to add similar product hyperlinks which I did not know how to do. I liked that! So, I feel I got my monies worth out of this product with all the information that it gave me!!

Here is the cover of the product that I used:

How to Created Effective Product Descriptions

This product is from a shop called Selling Strategies. They state "Selling Strategies takes the mystery out of TpT success by sharing practical tips and tools to reduce the learning curve and help you optimize your sales sooner rather than later!" They have tutorials on how to create product covers, how to price your products, and about what fonts to even use to name a few. It has a lot of useful information I believe.

Next step is marketing. I think my shops would do better if teachers knew about it. I think the prices are okay. Just not sure what else I can do other than getting the word out. One thing is to still pray about it which I do everyday!!

 Toodles,

Another Stop, Swap, & Roll

Jungle Learners is again hosting a Product Swap, and I have been graciously invited to participate. I had so much fun the last time I wanted to do it again. Just click on the picture below and hop over. While you are there, you can hop to other participant's blogs and what they had to swap and also enter their giveaways.

  Jungle Learners

 I was proudly paired with Christin from Shifting Teacher K-2. She is a teacher of Kindergarten (my favorite all time grade) in Virginia.

I got to choose one product from Christin's Shifting Teacher K-2's TpT shop to try and give my opinion of it. She has a lot of fun and engaging activities for math and literacy stations, it was a hard choice!! However, I chose this printable because I have several that need lots more practice with sight words and she graciously allowed me to use it with my kiddos.

Sight Word Sentence Practice

This is what I shared with her. You can go to her blog and read what she had to say about using this bundle of mine. It will also be on SALE for the duration of the giveaway!! You can also buy the individual rhyming printable packets. There is a list of all the individual printables on the bundle page in my TpT shop. They will be on sale as well as the other rhyming printables that I have in my shop. Just click on the links.

 Rhyming Bundle

Now, I do not have a traditional classroom mind you. Yes, I have my teaching license but it was too late to get a permanent job this school year so I am tutoring and subbing for the time being. I am constantly looking for products to use with my students. I do create but sometimes it is nice to find other activities that other teacher have done. It gives you a variety of things to do with your students.

A few of my students still struggle with sight words and this printable worked just great. I love that there is a variety of things to do on one page. They really did enjoy this activity. 

Here is a sample page of the printable from her blog. Here is the post so that you can look at it and read more about the printable and how it was born (click on word post). 

Each page is repetitive with the same layout--just the words and sentences are different. Students, especially in the lower grades, need that repetition. It strengthens so many skills. The printable works on a lot of other different skills, too, at the same time the students work on their sight words. I like that a lot!!

Here is one of my students working on her page with a helper of course. He held the glue stick for us.

Here she is again gluing her pieces down to make the sentence. She also loved the part where you drew the sentence. She did a great job!!  

Thanks, Christin for allowing me the chance to use it!! 

 
Now you can win your very own copy of Christin's Sight Word Sentence Practice packet entering the Rafflecopter below and filling out the form!!    Good Luck!!

Toodles,
 







a Rafflecopter giveaway

Here are the other bloggers contributing in the Swap:

Teachers Are Heroes!!!

I am joining countless of other shops in the site-wide TpT sale. It all starts this Wednesday, February 25! My entire store will be 20% off. Not only that---enjoy an additional TpT savings by using the promo code HEROES at checkout. That is a total of 28% savings!! Click on the TpT widget on the left and it will take you directly to my shop!! I hope you find lots of goodies!!

Toodles,

Stop, Swap & Roll

Jungle Learners is hosting a Product Swap, and I have been graciously invited to participate. Just click on the picture below and hop over. While you are there, you can hop to other participant's blogs and what they had to swap and also enter their giveaways.

  Jungle Learners

 I was proudly paired with Lisa from First Grade Bloomabilities.

Don't you just love that name??

She also has a clipart shop on TpT called Dandy Doodles.

I love this clipart and have used it but did not know until this swap that Lisa owned it also. Amazing!!

I got to choose one product from Lisa's First Grade Bloomabilities' TpT shop to try and give my opinion of it. She had so many fun games and activities, it was a hard choice!! However, I chose this bundle and she has graciously allowed me to use with my kiddos.

Long Vowels: Read the Room and I Have, Who Has Activities

She has it on sale for 50% off for the duration of this giveaway! It's now an even greater value: $6 for $15 worth of products! You can even buy the activities in individual vowel packets, too.

 Phonics Bundle

This is what I shared with her. You can go to her blog and read what she had to say about using this bundle of mine. It will also be on sale for the duration of the giveaway!! You can also buy the individual vowel printables packets. Each one comes with cards, colored and black and white mats, self-correcting clipart to use, and a recording sheet.

Now I do not have a traditional classroom mind you. Yes, I finally have my teaching certificate but it was too late to get a permanent job so I am tutoring and subbing. I am constantly looking for products to use with my students. I do create but sometimes it is nice to find other activities that other people create to use. It gives you a variety of ideas. 

This product fit the bill for what we are working on. A lot of my students struggle with long and short vowel sounds especially vowel pairs. I love hands on materials and so does my students. They really did love this activity. I also liked that I could vary it to the level of my students. That to me is a plus!!

                                 Just like my partner, I also used the long /e/ printable. 

I used the Write the Room cards since I only tutor one student at a time. If I had a whole class, and when I do get my class, I will use the I Have, Who has cards. I can't wait!!

Here is a collage of my students using the printable. They loved it. I also mixed in some of the other cards so that they had to find the cards with the long /e/ sound. It was not long before they figured out that if they saw the red border, they had the right card. Then it was just a matter of putting it on the right spot on the recording sheet. All the cards are so colorful and I loved the clipart that was used. I will be using the rest of the vowels with my students. Thanks, Lisa!!

Now you can win your very own copy of Lisa's bundle entering the Rafflecopter below and filling out the form!!    Good Luck!!

Toodles,
 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

New "Grab My Button"

UPDATE: 
I did it!! With the help of another teacher/blogger who graciously sent me tutorials and information. Boy was I on the wrong track.  I also had to learn how to resize it because it was way too big. But it is on here now.

I have just been tinkering with adding a logo or button for everyone who wants a link to my little old blog. I have the button but I am struggling with how to put the html code underneath the button so that everyone can grab it. So please be patient while I try and figure that one out. Here is what the logo will look like once I figure it out.

Update: This one is the new logo. I will try and change it for the button but since Photobucket is  different now not quite sure how to proceed. Will work on it. Thanks!!

Toodles,
Melissa