A New Year!

Can you believe it's already 2014?! With the year flying by I took some time to reflect on all of the positives, the challenges, and the blessings of 2013. Time of inner reflection and sharing is, in my opinion, a big contributor to happiness! Reflecting on your blessings and all the positive things can really put life into perspective. This is a habit I try to get my kids into as well. Each Friday at the end of the day we'll talk about what we learned that week, favorite funny moments, what was challenging, and what did we love. The students have come to love this time (and so have I).

To help the reflection and goal setting run smoothly this year I created a fun New Year 2014 Resolution and Reflection Writing activity packet! It's posted and you can follow the link below. Plus, it's only $1 and was based off my 2013 Reflection Writing unit. It includes this fun craftivity inspired by pinterest!

You can grab this reflection resource here!

Classroom goals for 2014:
Do more interactive notebooking with the students
Find more relative webquests
Stop taking home loads of work that I know I won't get to every night ;)

What are some of your goals?

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Back to it!

This holiday season is going by so quickly! It's been wonderful to be home enjoying family, friends, and all of the snow! Despite l-o-v-i-n-g my time off I'm getting excited to go back and use all of the wonderful products I bought and created over break too!

One project that I just finished updating is my Boggle letter freebie. I saw this idea all over pinterest last year and fell in love! I'm going to introduce this engaging game to my students our first week back. Last year my students did it as a literacy center and after I rotated it out they begged for it back. Annnd as a teacher we all love when students beg for educational activities! ;) Then, for the rest of the year we used it as a weekly challenge that I posted on my door. After a few weeks the other classes got in on it to and we did a grade level challenge. Winner was rewarded by a lunch with the teacher of choice and friends :) I'm hoping my kiddos this year take to it as much as my class last year did.

You can download a free copy of it below!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Boggle-Letters-Freebie-1033621

Other than starting up new activities we'll be taking a step back to practice: procedures, procedures, procedures! (Don't you get sick of hearing that by the end of the year?)

I've been using these reward coupons that the kids love all year but will be using them with more frequency once we're back!  I'm hoping that by handing them out more abundantly will help catch any of those off task behaviors.

You can snag a free copy of my reward coupons here!
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reward-Coupons-1003278

Hope everyone is enjoying their holiday break!

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Winter Writing Prompts

Want to spice up your writing centers? Get students excited about writing again? Use these adorable free writing prompts to let their creativity shine through! (and to help you get through the holiday season intact!) I find that around the holidays that is all the kids can think about anyway, so why not have them focus on it and learn at the same time! 

Click here for my TPT Winter FREEBIE :) 

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