Five for Friday: 4/24/15

This post is going to be full of random tidbits from the last two weeks and it's going to be short and sweet since I have to head back up to school for bingo night.  It's also going to contain a lot of freebies to save you time and money. ;)

We've been learning about plants.  My favorite new-to-me craft has been I Love Carrots.

It's also a freebie which makes it even better. ;)

You could also use this watermelon craft during your plant unit. I'm personally saving it until our watermelon day in a few weeks.  

How adorable are these directed drawings from First Grade Blue Skies?

One of my students said his mom never believes him that he drew it.  She thinks I drew it for him and just let him color it in. You can download the instructions HERE.

My students actually cheer when I pass out these printables from Hollie Griffith.  They are great because it's interactive - they color, the unscramble words, they roll dice.

We also played this game. (Not free, but it's only $2).

I planted my garden this week!  

I planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and zucchini.  Fingers crossed that it grows.

Hey, Call Me Crazy

If you know me in real life, you know that I love coupons and saving money while shopping.

I've got a great deal for you!  I've bundled all of my current I Have, Who Has phonics games.

The bundled price is $11.20 but until tomorrow (4/5) at 1pm, this bundle is 50% off!

This savings is really unbelievable because the bundle is a GROWING bundle and I'll be adding more games. That means you will pay $5.60 for a year full of phonics I Have Who Has Games!!  What?!? Every time I add a game to the bundle, you'll be notified.  All you have to do is download it again and the new game will appear.  See the schedule below to know when new games will be added.

It currently includes:

R Controlled Vowels 

I Have, Who Has Game: AR Edition 

I Have, Who Has Game: OR Edition 

I Have, Who Has Game: ER, IR, UR Edition 

Vowel Digraphs & Diphthongs 

I Have, Who Has Game: EA Edition 

I Have, Who Has Game: AU, AW, AL Edition 

I Have, Who Has Game: OU, OW Edition 

I Have, Who Has Game: OI and OY Edition

Coming Soon!
Short Vowels:
Short A - May 2015
Short E - May 2015
Short I - May 2015
Short O - May 2015
Short U - May 2015
Short Vowel Review - May 2015

Long Vowels:
Long A - June 2015
Long E - June 2015
Long I - June 2015
Long O - June 2015
Long U - June 2015
Long Vowel Review - June 2015

Hard C & G - July 2015
Soft C & G - July 2015

Blends:
L blends - July 2015
R blends - July 2015
S blends - July 2015

Y as a Vowel - September 2015
Silent Letters (kn, gn, mb, wr) - September 2015

Beginning Digraphs - September 2015

Each game includes enough cards for 24 students.  If you have less than 24 students, pass out the extra cards.  My students get excited if they get two cards.

Want to try out an I Have, Who Has Game before you purchase? Download a FREE copy of I Have, Who Has Game: Middle & End Digraphs to see the quality of my work. The free version has enough cards for 20 students.

Workin' Hard on the Weekend

After passing out at 9:30 on a Friday night, I've managed to work on school related stuff all weekend.  We have our accreditation team coming this week and I wanted to make sure that my room looked amazing and everything was super organized for the week.  It was really telling that there were still three teachers left on my floor when I left at 6:30pm Friday.  (This never happens.) I went back for a few hours on Saturday.  As I was leaving around 4pm, three teachers were coming in to work.  If they would have been there earlier, I probably would have stayed longer!  

My students are head over heels in love with "I Have, Who Has?" games.  I made a set for r-controlled vowels.  

It includes three different games - one for /ar/, /or/ and one for the sounds of /er/, /ir/, /ur/

My class really loves unicorns this year.  The girls gasped when someone read "I have core. Who has unicorn?"  

I also made sure to read Uni the Unicorn for a lesson introduction.  It's a sweet story - I highly recommend it!

I finished up my literacy centers for the beginning of March.  I don't really do anything Dr. Seuss related and skip straight to St. Patrick's Day.

It has five centers that cover synonyms, present and past tense verbs, long and short vowels, r-controlled vowels, and making sentences.

Both are on sale (50% off) for the first 24 hours.  (Click on any of the above pictures directly to the item you want.) Make sure you follow my TPT store and Instagram (polkadotfirsties) so you can see when I upload things.

Want to check out the quality of my centers?  Look at Category Sort: March Edition.  It's a freebie!