Let's Get Acquainted and Five for Friday!

Happy Friday!!!!
It's been a LONG week, but I'm SOOO happy it's the weekend!! Only 4 more days 'till Spring Break too!! Yahoo!!
I'm combining two fabulous linky parties this week for an extra special Friday post! I'm linking up with Latoya from Flying Into First Grade for her Let's get Acquainted Linky and Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for her Five For Friday linky!

Ok... so the rules for this week's Let's Get Acquainted linky are to share 3 things about yourself that you like or like to do using your initials. As always, the rules for Five for Friday are to tell about five random things from the week. I'm going to combine them! 
My initials are J.P.S. {they have been all of my life... I didn't have to change them when I got married!}. 

1. J- I've mentioned before that J is a hard letter to think of, but I picked JEWELRY! I really like jewelry... I have some OK jewelry and a few nice pieces, but I wish I had more really NICE jewelry. I am fortunate that my Aunt Gen is a super talented jewelry maker, so I have some really personal and special pieces in my collection. She made me a beautiful bracelet for my wedding, and last weekend she gave me this really beautiful tree of life necklace.  I LOVE it!! 

2. P- My husband and I are HUGE Patriots fans!!  We LOVE football!! We count down 'till the season starts and are always SOOOO sad when it ends! We're obsessed. We totally go all out by wearing our Pats gear each week. This week the Pats let Wes Wekler go to the Broncos, so I'm pretty sad about that, but on the bright side we still have Tom Brady and I absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Tom Brady! If Makenzie was a boy, we planned on naming her Brady. If we have another child he OR she will be named Brady. =)  Here's a picture of our sweet girl during the 2011 season... she still had such a baby face and really curly hair! She loves being our little cheerleader. GO PATS!!! 

3. S- Sorority   I'm a sorority girl! I had the BEST time in college in my sorority, Delta Phi Epsilon. I joined as a freshman, and it was the best decision I made in my four years there.  I still have contact with most of my sisters and hope to reunite with them for an alumni weekend some day soon!  My sister, Danielle is also a "Deepher"... she's a legacy. =) She does everything I do. ;-) 

4. Do you follow Gina from Beach Sand and Lesson plans? She's amazing!! It's her birthday WEEK, so she's having an AWESOME week-long Birthday Bash giveaway!! It begins tomorrow, and she's featuring us on Sunday!! Head on over there to check it out!!  

5. I actually WON a giveaway!!! I enter so many of them, that it was only a matter of time, right?? I feel like I hit the JACKPOT of all giveaways!!  Thank you so much, Stacia and Amanda from Collaboration Cuties for having such great giveaway!! I'm such a LUCKY girl!!! I can't wait to print out all of my new winnings!! 

I think it's off to "milk and cookies" for my sister and I. Makenzie is with her Nana and Grandad for the weekend, so it's time for Mommy and Auntie to have some FUN!! 

-Jackie- 

I think I can... and 3 Giveaways!!

I hate crunch time... especially when I've been a slacker. I'm catching up on grades, putting them into our online grade book, working on report cards and putting the finishing touches on my formal observation lesson. We're doing data collection and graphing. Should be fun! Lot's to do, but on the bright side, there are only 6 more school days 'till SPRING BREAK!! I think I can... I think I can... I think I can...

LOVE THIS!!

I wanted to let you know about three fun giveaways!!

Jessica from Ideas By Jivey is having a super cool 200 follower giveaway!! I LOVE that she used our freebie from last Friday!! =) 

Click the picture above to find  Jivey's Giveaway! 

Angela from Hippo Hooray for Second Grade is also having a 200 follower giveaway!! There are tons of bloggers helping her out with her giveaway! 

Click the picture above to find Hippo Hooray for Second Grade's Giveaway!

Nikki from Sent From My iPad is celebrating 100 followers!! Check out her giveaway and her blog! She also has a blogger link up going on as well!!  

Click the picture above to find Nikki's giveaway!! 

Have a great rest of the week!! 

-Jackie-

The winners are...

Happy Monday! This is going to be short and sweet!! We have 11 lucky winners for our 400 follower giveaway!! WOOOHOOO!!! Thanks to all of you who entered!! A HUGE thank you to our AMAZING bloggy friends who helped us make this such a fantastic giveaway!! We could NOT have done it without you!! xoxo If you are one of the lucky gals who won, you will be receiving an email soon from the blogger whose prize you have won. Congratulations!!! Now I have to watch the Bachelor and write my lesson plan for my formal observation... oh what fun!! =)

Five For Friday and a Freebie!

This was a really short week for me! I had off Monday and Tuesday to take care of my sick girl, and today I only had my kiddos for less than half  the day. I have to buckle down next week to finish my end of the quarter testing and get report cards DONE before we go on Spring Break. Oh yeah... I have my formal observation in there sometime, so I have to prepare for that too! Still haven't picked a skill yet... kind of dreading it {biting nails}. I'll be happy when it's over. =)

I'm linking up with Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching for another week of her fantastic linky, Five For Friday!! This is two weeks in a row for me! I'm so proud of myself. =)

1. Last week I told you all we were going to see Wicked during that weekend. We did, and it was FABULOUS!! It was my third time seeing it, and I swear it gets better every single time! It was Makenzie's first time seeing it and she LOVED every single second of it. She positively lit up as soon as the music began. She was also such a well mannered little lady and she really took what I taught her about theater etiquette to heart. For being just four and a half, she really acted like an older kiddo. I was so proud of her. After the show, the cast collected money for their charity, Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights Aids and Makenzie was able to meet a flying monkey in person! She was so excited, but was a little shy when she met him. =) Here are some pictures of that awesome day!

2. Today I was out of my classroom the majority of the day for CELLA testing. CELLA is Florida's Comprehensive  English Language Learning Assessment. I administered the listening, reading, and writing part of the test to half of our ESOL second graders. One of my teammates administered the test to the other half of the second graders this past Tuesday and another teammate did the speaking part of the test this past Wednesday and Thursday to all of our ESOL sweeties {that's a lot of kids!}.  I like switching up my routine and seeing different kids for different reasons, but it's really tiring!! I think I talked way more today than I do on a regular basis... and I think I say A LOT! Needless to say... I'm spent! 

Click this picture for your freebie!

3. Since it's almost Springtime {wooohooo}, I thought it would be nice to give you all a Springtime freebie!! Enjoy these two springy colored frames and two pretty digital papers! You can find the full Springtime Digital Paper Pack  , Spring Swirly Frame Set, and Clip Art Frames in our TPT shop.  I hope you enjoy it and make lots of stuff!! =)

4. Do you follow Lindsey, aka. the "Teacher Wife"? She is so sweet and so talented! She blogged about the cutest craftivity ever last week called "Who is worth more to you than gold?". Best of all... she put it up as a freebie!! How awesome is that? I absolutely loved it, and I knew my kiddos would too! We worked on it all this week and our results were super! Here are some picture from my class. I had them write an eight sentence essay complete with opening and closing sentences. We went through the entire writing process and they were so thrilled to finally publish their work. They turned out so cute!! Thank you so much, Lindsey for sharing such a fantastic freebie!! If you don't already follow her blog and TPT store, please do. She's great!! 

Click the picture to find this craftivity on  The Teacher Wife's blog!

5. The other morning I was on my way to my classroom in a not so great mood until I walked down this hallway...

It automatically put me in a great mood!! The 5th grade team from our school put together this science hallway. It's hard to see, but there are stuffed brains hanging from the ceiling and tons of interactive and informational science posters up and down the hall. It's a really nice change from what was here before. I wanted to give our 5th grade team and 5th graders a huge shout out for their hard work and dedication to brighten up the hallways of our school!! 

6. A bonus!! My Dad is a snowbird... he lives in NY half of the year, and South Florida {kinda} for the other half of the year. This weekend, my Sis, Makenzie and I are going to visit him!! I'm so excited because I haven't spent much time with him this Winter. They're not very techy down there though, so I may or may not have access to the internet. AHHH!! It's ok... I'm happy for family time! I should go pack a few board games while I'm thinking of it. 

With that being said... I probably won't be back on this weekend, so don't forget to enter our giveaway! It will be over tomorrow night at midnight. I'll be back Sunday to pick our winners!!! 

Also don't forget to set the clocks ahead... uggg. Losing sleep is not my favorite, but watching the sun set later on is! Have an awesome weekend!! -Jackie- 

Workshop Wednesday, Facebook Linky, New Spring Frames and a Freebie!

Happy Wednesday!
It's nice to say that. For a while this morning it felt like Monday to me. I was pleasantly surprised when my specials alarm on my phone went off at 10:35 reminding me that it was in fact Wednesday and not Monday! I took the last two days off with my sicky daughter. She had a pretty yucky cold and I thought she had pink eye.Thankfully she does not! I'm so glad she's feeling better now... I always feel so bad when my baby is sick.

Jessica from Ideas by Jivey is hosting a new weekly linky party! Her theme is Workshop Wednesday!
Today's topic is: What is your must-have in Writer's Workshop? While I completely forgot to take pictures of my notebooks, I can still give you an idea of what my notebooks are like because "tried" to model them after them AMAZING Beth Newingham. Her website and Scholastic Teacher blog are fantastic and are FULL of ideas which can be implemented in classrooms. If you've never heard of Beth, you MUST go see what she's all about. I don't know how one teacher does so much... and so successfully! Click the picture below to see how she does writer's workshop in her room. You should also bookmark her page and browse when you have time... there's SOOOOO much phenomenal information on her website and blog. Check her out today!

I also like to use the Lucy Calkins "Primary Units of Study" in my classroom as much as I can. Of course I have to elaborate a lot since much of it is written for new writers. On my list of teacher books to buy is her new book "Pathways to the Common Core".  With Common Core being fully implemented next year for 2nd grade next year, I think this will be an invaluable tool to have. 

I came across this awesome Facebook linky party today. If you have a Facebook page for you blog, be sure to link up and "like" other blogs' Facebook pages! Head on over to 1, 2, 3, Teach With Me to link up and "like" some new pages! 

We've made some new frames just in time for spring! I'm LOVING them right now, and I can't wait to create something with them! =) You can find them on our TPT store by clicking on the picture below. =) 

If you'd like two freebie frames to try out, click FREEBIE! 

Don't forget to enter our giveaway... there's just 3 days left to enter!! Click the picture below. =) 

Wooohooo... 2 days left of the work week!! Make it great!! 

-Jackie- 

Did someone say... Giveaway??

Holy Moly! There are quite a few fantastic giveaways going on right now!! Here's a rundown of some that you should check out today!!

Amanda and Stacia from Collaboration Cuties are having a SUPER MEGA 300 follower giveaway! There are over 40 bloggers participating... including us!! They have three different giveaways to win! =)

Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching is having an  AMAZING 100 follower celebration and giveaway with a ton of bloggers as well! We're also a part of this giveaway! 

Erica Bohrer is hosting a "Lucky" Giveaway with her amazing bloggy friends. There's LOTS of St. Patty's Day resources to be won!  

Have you heard about this "Ginormous" Giveaway? Sarah Mackey from Mackey's Classroom  and Michelle from Our Sweet Success along with a BUNCH of other fabulous bloggers are giving away TONS AND TONS of teaching resources! 

Don't forget about our giveaway!! It'll be up until Saturday night!! 

GOOD LUCK!! 

-Jackie- 

Feeling Lucky? Our 400 follower giveaway!

We {yes, even my sister who is on a blogging hiatus because of blossoming LOVE} are so excited that we are celebrating another milestone! It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating 300 friends and now 110 new, very awesome, and wonderful new friends have joined our blogging lives. We are overjoyed! To celebrate, we're throwing a giveaway, rafflecopter and all! We are also putting all of the items in our store up for a 15% off sale for the next three days! This giveaway will last until Midnight Sunday 3/10/13! Enter today for your chance to win prizes from 8 AMAZING bloggers and a $10 gift certificate and 4 different winner's choice items from our store! We'll have 11 winners in all! Check out the cool prizes you can win!

 First up is Beach Sand and Lesson plans! Gina is a fellow Florida blogger and third grade teacher who is extremely sweet and extremely generous! She helped us with our 300 follower giveaway and she's back to help us some more! One lucky winner will win her Text Features Pack! Thank you, Gina!! 

 Next up is Jenny from Sun Tans and Lesson Plans! Jenny is also a fellow Florida gal and third grade teacher! Check out her super cute blog.! She has lots of very awesome products in her TPT store as well!! Our lucky winner will win 2 of her items!! Thanks, Jenny!!

 Amanda and Stacia are collaboration cuties and adorable Georgia girls who teach 4th grade together! These girls are as sweet as two Georgia Peaches {said with my best southern accent}... and their blog is super cute too! They are also helping us out a second time with our giveaway!! Guess what? They have a 300 follower giveaway going on starting today as well!! When you're done with this one, head on over there to enter theirs too! Thanks Amanda and Stacia!!

Aimee from Pencils, Books, and Dirty looks is so awesome and is giving one winner 2 items from her store! She is a 3rd grade teacher from Indiana who has LOTS of different hands on activities in her TPT store. I love her new "Eggcellent Math and Literacy Centers"... they look like so much fun! Check her out! Thanks, Aimee!! 

Next, is Tania, a North Carolina 2nd grade teacher from My Second Sense. She has an amazing life story! When you get a chance, stop by her blog, and read her "About Me".  Tania is giving a winner one item from her fantastic TPT store! I think her "Tweet Arrays" look really cute and they will definitely help 2nd graders with repeated addition and beginning to understand multiplication. Thanks, Tania!!

Christina and Kathy are Krazy in Love With Kindergarten! These two fantastic ladies are super sweet and their blog is cute too! 1 winner is going to receive their word family puzzles! I should grab them for Makenzie! I'd like lots of things to do over the Summer to get ready for Kindergarten! =) Thanks Christina and Kathy!!

Our next lovely blogger is Terri from 1st grade Princess! Her blog name is perfect!! I LOVE it! We're all royalty in our classrooms!! I also love the tropical vibe of her blog! Be very jealous... Terri has a WHOLE MONTH OFF and she's awaiting the birth of her twin grandaughters!! She's one lucky lady! We're wishing your daughter in law and those sweet princesses well, Terri! 

Next up is Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching! I love EVERY thing about Joanne's blog... polka dots, zebra print, and heels! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE! She's giving a winner her citing evidence posters... perfect for those Common Core response questions!! Joanne is also having a giveaway!! She's celebrating 100 fabulous followers!! Check out her blog and enter her giveaway too!! Thanks, Joanne!!

Last and hopefully not least is...Us! We are so appreciative of all of your sweet words, comments, and never ending support! We are giving prizes away to 3 winners. Two different winners will win 2 items {winner's choice} from our TPT store and one winner will win a $10 gift certificate to TPT! Don't forget to check out our TPT store for 15% off for the next three days! 

Now the fun begins! Use this rafflecopter for 34 entries plus 10 for every extra day that you blog about it! We are asking that you truly follow our friends and that you don't enter without actually following them. Please be honest... it is the best policy.  Winners will not be chosen until all entries are checked and validated. Thanks in advance for your support! Good luck!! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

-Jackie and Danielle-

Currently!

Hi Friends!
I can't believe it's March already! Seriously... this school year is FLYING by. I can't say that I'm sad about it either! =) We have about three more weeks until Spring Break and then after that, it's smooth sailing until Summer!!
I'm linking up Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for her March Currently! Head on over to see what "Currently" is all about!

Listening: I'm sitting in Mak's play room on her floor and I'm listening to/watching her play with her little action figure sized princess and LaLa Loopsie dolls. I sometimes feel bad that she's an only child because she doesn't have anyone at home to play with besides us. She has an amazing imagination though and she keeps herself entertained, so she doesn't seem to mind. Maybe that will change someday... 

Loving: We're going to see Wicked tomorrow! We are all very excited! 

Thinking: I'm thinking about our 400 follower giveaway! I'm working on it as soon as I'm done with this post!  Stay tuned for some fabulous prizes from fabulous bloggers!

Wanting: I want a serious shopping day! Is that too much to ask? I'm hoping that our A Plus money arrives soon so I can get a few things. =) 

Needing: I totally need an updated version of MS office. Seriously! I'm using 2003! It's 10 years old already!! I know that there's a good deal/ discount for educators, but I don't remember where I saw that information. If you know anything about it, please let me know!! =) 

like, love, hate: THIS WAS HARD! J is not an easy letter to have! I like jeans... I wish I could wear them to school everyday. I LOVE my morning cup of iced JAVA! I seriously can't function without it. LOL. I think almost everyone can relate to hating Jury Duty (sorry it's 2 words!). 

Well... now you know what I'm currently up to! If you're wondering what my MIA sister is currently doing...well, she's got a new boyfriend. She's been pretty occupied! New love...must be nice. 

Head on over to Farley's blog and link up! Don't forget the rule of 3!! Happy Saturday!!!! =) 

-Jackie- 

My First Five For Friday and a Freebie!

I'm finally linking up with the very awesome Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 random things from this week and I'm also linking up with Teaching Blog Addict to share a cute freebie! Every Saturday and Sunday I check out everyone's posts from Friday and I always say to myself... I'm going to link up next week! By Friday I'm usually completely spent and can barley even lift my phone up to check facebook {shocker!}. This week, I'm feeling strangely awake and ready to rock and roll with my first Five For Friday and freebie Friday!

Here are my five randoms from the week... 

1. I finally finished all of my Second Grade Number of the Week Display Packs and my very last one {primary polka dots} needed a different sparkly bubble frame than all of the rest. My very terrific husband, Mr. Photoshop, whipped up this very cute and sparkly blue one! It's yours for free, just click on the frame! Please see terms of use.

2. On Tuesday I was on facebook when I came across this very AMAZING Technology Tuesday post from Ahsley Hughes of The School Supply Addict. I must have been living under a rock because I never knew the awesome things you could create with Word Art! OMG! Check out her post to see more! I've been slightly obsessed with word art since then...

3. Today many teachers in my school took part in Accelerated Reader's Read The Most From Coast To Coast. I succumb to peer pressure, so we spent the second half of our morning and the whole afternoon "reading to self" and taking A.R. tests. My class took and passed 113 quizzes. I wasn't completely thrilled about it since I am a believer in reading for the love of reading, not reading to take quizzes. My kids had fun though, so I guess that's what matters too... 

4. How cute is this little munchkin? She celebrated this "FUN" day today in pre-k! I love the hats and little bow-ties that they made. SUPER CUTE!  I had to take a picture of her in front of the props that were made for our school's game night tonight. You can guess what the theme is! 

5. This hasn't happened yet, but I'm so excited about it! 

We're going to see WICKED on Sunday!! This will be my third time seeing it, but it will be Makenzie's first musical EVER! She's been listening to Wicked since the day she was born, in fact she was listening in utero and she didn't even know it! When she was a baby she would dance in her car seat to it, and now she sings it with me in the car. Her favorite song is popular! I can't wait to see her face light up as soon as the orchestra plays the first note. =) 

I'm so thrilled that I was able to stay up late enough on a Friday to talk about my Five or Friday! I hope I keep it up next week too!! 

-Jackie- 

Giveaway and Blogs by State Linky

Hi Friends!!
Our friend, Amelia from Where The Wild Things Learn is having a terrific giveaway to celebrate 100 followers!! We are SO thrilled to be a part of it!! We're giving away 2 winner's choice items from our TPT store, and there are nine other amazing bloggers participating as well. Amelia is giving away her WHOLE ENTIRE TPT STORE to the second very LUCKY winner! What a great giveaway!! Check her out and enter today!

Have you heard about this awesome Blogs By State Linky Party? It's great!! Dianne from Fifth In The Middle set up this statewide linky to connect bloggers across the country! Click on our our Florida button below, and link on up!!! 

Enjoy your Friday!!