Hello Mrs Sykes

Spring is a wonderful reminder to freshen up and begin anew.  At home, I'm working on closets...  My closet, my kiddos' closets, and the dreaded hall closet.  {{Why does everything end up in the closet??  I found a jump rope next to the paperwork for the refinance of our house...  both in the hall closet for some reason!  Uggggggh.}}   To avoid dusting, scrubbing, and putting stuff where it belongs, I am also "Spring Cleaning" my computer.  My graphics files needed some attention, so I spent 30 minutes reorganizing.  Love how it turned out!!  It's so much easier for me to find the clip art I need when they are organized by artist!  :) Also, I'm making sure I left feedback on my Teachers Pay Teachers purchases to earn my TPT credits.  They add up quickly, and are easy to redeem for free resources!!  Log in to TPT, click on the "My TPT" tab, then select "My Purchases."  It will show you a list of all of the purchases you made, along wit

By popular request, the Academic Vocabulary Word Walls are together in a discounted bundle!  As a special thank you for followers who already bought one of the Academic Word Walls, this set is available for an additional discount - only $8 for the set through March 31!   Had an ice day last week, and began printing/laminating small copies of my new Academic Word Wall Bundle (grades 2-6) .  I printed them with 2 pages per page (one of the options you can choose when printing), to create smaller cards to use during word work activities with my 4th graders - decoding multi-syllabic words. ***Confession time:  I actually finished this bundle last week on a crazy ice day... and fully intended to post the Bundle last week... and then the weather became beautiful again, so I went outside instead.  :)  I'm sure y'all understand...   Want a freebie to try in your classroom?   Here's the link on Teachers Pay Teachers:

Here's a round-up of some more of the best free resources online for teachers and their students.  Enjoy!! Google Scholar - Quick!  Need a quick bit of research about why kids need to limit their time watching TV?  Want to find relevant articles for your Graduate Studies class?  Google Scholar is a fabulous resource to do a quick search for articles, citations, and even case law! NewsELA.com - daily news content for students to hone their critical thinking skills using current events!  I truly can't say enough good things about this site!! Time For Kids - They aren't just for classroom magazines...  Check out their website for free informational texts, and be sure to visit their mini-sites page - tons of resources organized around a single topic! Science In the News Archive from www.ScienceA-Z.com  -  I love the rigorous vocabulary and high-interest passages in the Science in the News!  I used to use these as an occasional special morning work, with the

Time for another Bright Idea!  We all know that teachers are consistently short on time, so this hop is perfect for the busy teacher - chock full of effective, short, and classroom tested Bright Ideas! Since I have 53 kiddos this year coming in and out of my classroom throughout the day, I have a lot of clutter! Today I'd like to tell you about my favorite cheap "tool" to tame the clutter... Actually, they you can use any kind of removable label or even blue painter's tape.  As long as you can switch out the labels easily, you're good.  I label binder clips with the time for the kiddos who use the resources in the clip.  You could label them by subject, to be graded, writing samples, Tier II documentation, etc...  Then set them on the shelf.  Look how easy it is to find the materials you need!  Here's a larger view of my mess   pigsty  reading groups shelf.  I clip together their notebooks, then set them in a stack with the books we are using.