Hello Mrs Sykes

Whew!  I finally finished the most recent addition to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, Rainbow Phrases !  I am super excited to share them with you today.  First, a bit of background... Y'all know I was a Literacy Specialist for years in my district, and I use this system (though it din't look so pretty then!) with my kiddos in grades 2-5 who needed fluency interventions and already knew their sight words.  Teachers in my district have been using Rainbow Words extensively for years, and I thought that Rainbow Phrases were the next logical step. My at-risk kiddos loved these!  They each got a "book ring" with their phrases on them, and as they passed each "level" they received more phrases in another color.  The parents (who were typically the ones who weren't sure how to help their child at home) raved about how easy it was to help their child learn their phrases at home.  Then I moved back into the classroom, and these fell by the wayside as I

As a teacher, y'all know I'm kinda broke, and you may have figured out by now that I love, love, love anything that helps my kiddos with reading, so this was a fabulous opportunity for me!!   The day after Samson's marketing director contacted me, I had access to this incredible reading resource!  Since then, I have had an opportunity to explore this on-line reading software resource with my students and with my own green beans at home. Here are the highlights of this program and then I have an incredible giveaway for you ! First,  Samson's Classroom   offers three different products in their package:  Sight Words, Spelling, and Reading.  All are for learners from kindergarten to grade 5. Sight Words:  This part of the program offers 224 commonly used words.  I plan to use this with targeted 2nd graders, as many of my kiddos already know their sight words . There are five different activities:  learn the words, build words, identify words, spell the words, and fi

By now, you all know how much I {heart} Vistaprint !  Today, I wanted to share another resource I use for printing in the classroom - Zazzle!   They always run great deals for business cards, mugs, t-shirts, etc.  If you sign up for a free account, they will send emails (just like Vistaprint ) with deals. ~~~~~~~Squirrel~~~~~~~~~~~ A bit of advice: use a "throwaway" email account for the emails from both companies.  That way you just check it when you feel like shopping, and don't have clutter in your inbox.  My most recent email was $10 off any order of $10 or more!  Love it!! ~~~~~~~Back on Topic~~~~~~ Here are a few things I've created for my classroom with Zazzle .  Feel free to pin, or hop over to Zazzle  and check them out yourself. Skinny Business Cards make fantastic bookmarks! You can even customize the back with no additional charge, and skinny cards come in a cute little plastic dispenser. Assorted Business Card Designs for the classroom...

Omigoodness, y'all!   I know I've got some issues with my clipart addiction, as I'm looking for clipart instead of Christmas shopping!!  :) I just had to share this very cool freebie I found from the blogger  Crunchy With Ketchup .  {{Love the name!!}}  He is a self-proclaimed Monster Wrangler (5th grade teacher) who is sharing some of his cool clipart with the blogging community.  Go visit to snag this super-cute multicultural clipart. Krista Walden has a fabulous set of Doodle Borders - love these!  I could use these borders on everything!! :)   What fabulous freebies have you found lately?

I get asked this a bunch - "How did you add that cool link to your comment on my blog?"  Well, here's the trick... (Doncha just love the graphics from The 3AM Teacher !?!) Here's what it looks like when I leave a comment: Here's the code: <a href="PUT THE LINK HERE">TEXT HERE</a> Happy Blogging!!  :)

It's officially December, since Currently  is here!!  I seem to be addicted to ellipses lately, so... My family is amazing.  Right now my kiddos are running around giggling like mad.  It can mean they are playing... (fingers crossed) or they've just done something I'm not supposed to find out about...  I'll just believe they are giggling because they are playing!!  ;) My awesome team mate, Casey , is the person who single-handedly saved me yesterday.  Thankfully, she planned an amazing afternoon of craftivities for our classes to do as we became "roomless" before dismissal.  {I work at a year-round school , and I had to move out to give the next teacher an afternoon to move her stuff in... make a seating chart... ya' know)  It was awesome!!  All activities came from the unit by MOM Printables .  I can't tell you how great it was to sit back and watch over 40 kiddos work away at this.  :)  Highly Recommended!! I'm trying to think of some add