Hello Mrs Sykes

If you sell resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, then you *NEED* these websites.

If you haven't heard yet, Teachers Pay Teachers is an online marketplace where teachers, homeschooling parents, and graphic artists can buy and sell resources for educators.  Interested in opening your own TPT store?   Read on for 5 Skills I Learned as a TPT Seller that I had no idea I needed to know. Button Graphics  from my new favorite clipart artist, Tomato Dumplings . When people find out that I blog and create resources for teachers, they usually ask, "How do you find the time?"  My answer, "I have no idea, but I love what I am doing."  A colleague came to me for advice about opening her own TPT store, and I am so happy she did!  Since I am teaching part-time this year, I was able to meet with her over her track out on a beautiful Friday morning at a coffee shop for a couple of hours and chat in the sunshine about teaching, blogging, and being a Teacher-Author on Teachers Pay Teachers.  By the way, her store is called Tomato Dumplings, a...

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 purcha...

Good morning, teacher friends!  I am super excited to share that the 2013 TpT Holiday eBook is out!  Click the image below to check it out...  {By the way, I'm in it!!  Happy dance!} Download this resource for free at Teachers Pay Teachers.  Don't forget to leave feedback! Want my freebie from the eBook?  Click the picture below to go straight to my Winter Holiday freebie .  Happy Holidays!! A Winter Holiday Freebie - Mystery Word of the Week!

Today was an early release day for my school, which is a more exhausting day than normal, because I still squeeze in reading, writing, math, etc, except that we eat lunch early, have no specials, and have no recess.  Then, I was Professionally Developed for 3 hours.  Whew!! Now it's the weekend, and I'm excited!  I'm throwing a birthday for my favorite soon-to-be 9 year old in the world.  :) I finished my Higher Level Thinking Questions the other day, so I thought I'd share.  Click on the image to visit my TPT store .  Enjoy your weekend!!

I can't be the only one feeling like it should be a bit later in the week!  Valentine's Day should count for at least 2 days.  I'm not fully recovered from the candy hearts everywhere, the surprise cookie cake, and the general hoop-la... a 3 day weekend would be so sweet, but it is not to be.  Oh well!!  ;) I finished my "Magic E" word family game - it's played like the game Uno - to help my green beans learn the common word families with the silent e.  Click on the picture to visit my TPT store.  Feel free to become a follower on TPT, so you get updated when I post freebies and new items.  I appreciate your feedback, and I'm still digging through my "literacy specialist" files to update/post new files.  What are you looking for to help with word work, reading strategies, or guided reading?  Let me know!  :) Click here to view in my TpT store, called Hello Mrs Sykes. Want a copy?  Click the image to visit my Teachers Pay Te...

OK... by now you know I totally geek out about anything literacy.  One of my favorite things to do is to get kiddos excited about words.  My grade level is using "Words Their Way" successfully, but I like to do a bit of word work in my reading groups that is not tied to the spelling list or the specific book we are reading.  These activities are just for FUN!!  If I can get them excited about how words work, and how the letters affect the other letters, then I feel successful.   Click here for a post about how I use Boggle in my intervention groups One of my go to games for Word Work is Boggle .  It's awesome, and the kids *love* showing others the words they found.  My other ab-fab games are my  Word Family Games   .  I made these games back when I was a literacy specialist, and used them at least 1x per week with every group.    My struggling students love this game, and I knew they were practicing the comm...