Monday Meet Up with The Teaching Tribune

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I love the topic for this week and I know as I read through some of the other blogs I will think of more and more things I am thankful for.  

Most importantly I am thankful for a God that gives me ALL of these things to be thankful for!!!

Two for Tuesday with The Teaching Tribune!

It's time for the weekly "Two for TUESDAY" Linky!

Here is my first product from my TpT store that is 50% off:

Click the Picture to go to the Product!

If you are looking to help your students with their fluency this is a fun way to do just that. Let's Get Buggy is a fun game for any size group of students. There are lot of adorable bugs on every card with the Dolch Phrases on each one. This contains all 150 Dolch Phrases with some "OUCH" cards to put into a container and pass around from student to student. Look out for the "ouch" card because you have to put all your cards back in. 

Click the Picture to go to the Product!

Your students are going to love doing all of these activities in the classroom. All of these activities are interactive and engaging for students to enhance their learning. The activities that are included in this unit are:

1. -ck Word Search
2. My -ck Reversed Flip Book
3. Roll It, Read It, Color It Activity
4. I Have, Who Has Game
5. Word Sort by -ck Vowels
6. -ck Digraph Puzzles

Want to find some really good bargains for 50% off?

Of course you do, so click the button at the top to see all of the products discounted for your convenience!

Have a great day and let me know about all the good deals you grabbed today!

Growing Firsties: Mystery Box...Nautical Style!

Growing Firsties: Mystery Box...Nautical Style!: It is that time again! Our June semi-mystery box is ready to set sail! The summer season has officially arrived and we are celebrating with ...

Click the Image to go to the Giveaway!

Bright Ideas Blog Hop!!!

It is that time again for the Bright Ideas Blog Hop!

Here is a fantastic "bright idea" for every classroom, no matter what grade level you teach.  

It is called "Blendspace" and I just discovered it this week.  I can't believe I had missed it all this time.

Did I tell you that it is free for teachers?  YES, it is free for teachers.  All you do is go to the blendspace website and put in your email and a password and you are ready to go.  I created a lesson on magnets that I or my students can use during our magnet study.  

Blendspace can help you to organize, assess, and track your student's progress.  You can collect resources in one place and share with just one link.  You can measure student understanding with built in quizzes.  You can monitor student progress and adapt to student needs in real-time.  You can add multimedia like YouTube videos, documents and websites simply by "drag and drop".  You can create self-paced lessons and share with just one link.  Your students could research, learn and showcase their projects.  For differentiation students could personalize their learning with online materials.

If you aren't sold, watch the video on Blendspace and see if you think you would like to go and check it out.

  

For more "Bright Ideas", please browse through the link-up below and choose a topic/grade level that interests you.  Thanks for visiting!

An InLinkz Link-up

Two for Tuesday Linky!!!

It's time for the weekly "Two for TUESDAY" Linky!

Here is my first product from my TpT store that is 50% off:

Click Above

This product contains every single vocabulary word that you need for first grade.  This provides a thorough set of vocabulary posters that have been created to go with the common core state standards. 

(Click Above)

The second product that is 50% off is the bundle of my pre-primer, primer and first grade words.  Please visit my TpT store to get more information on this product!

Want to find some really good bargains for 50% off?

Of course you do, so click the button at the top to see all of the products discounted for your convenience!

Have a great day and let me know about all the good deals you grabbed today!

Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching and a New Blog Design!!!

It is that time again to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for the "Five for Friday"!!

Nice blog facelift this week and I am in love.  Thank you Kassie for giving my blog a much needed splash of magic.  

Click Here to Visit Kassie's Blog

It is Friday the 13th, and I am typically not that superstitious, are you?  

It is summer and I am already staying up too late and sleeping too late.  Isn't that what a princess should be doing?  Ha Ha Ha!!!

My son headed to Carvers Gap, NC this week to take pictures with his "professional photographer self" and equipment. I can't wait to see what pictures he takes while he is there. He has had offers from all places on the globe to use his photography.

Last I had to show the video about the goats that has gone viral this week.  Let me know if you watch it more then once, I sure did.  That last little guy coming back into the barn is so fussy! It's just TOO much cuteness to not watch over and over again...

Enjoy your summer and here's to sleeping late and a few celebratory libations in honor of fun in the sun!

How I Organize My Graphics On My Mac!!!

My "Inner Nerd" has been released, so beware!  Mac Users here you go!

Pixa has made my life so much easier in getting my graphics organized and finding what I need quick.  If you are on a Mac and you have hundreds (or thousands, no confession from me) of graphics to keep up with, then you NEED Pixa.  If you are not a Mac user here it is: "Boo and Hiss from windows users".  See I do support you!  

Here is a quick video to pique your interest if you are not 100% sold on Pixa and you don't want to spend the money to find out if you like something or not right?  Of course you don't and I had to be sold too before I could be persuaded to spend the money for Pixa.

Pixa is a file management app for the Mac designed to help those working with graphic files such as jpg, png, gif, eps and more.  The developer of Pixa says Pixa is an image organizer, but really it is much more.  Not only will Pixa organize your images/graphics, but it will also read your design files from Photoshop and Illustrator.  

One of the fantastic features of Pixa is the "Live Folders" feature.  Live Folders reference folders that are already on your computer. Pixa reads the changes to that folder in real-time when the changes happen.  Live Folders make it possible for an image to be tagged, searched and organized without changing the original files on your computer. Before purchasing Pixa I already had my folders divided into Graphics, Lettering, Digital Papers and Frames.  Now those are in Pixa and I can go to the top right hand search window and look for all items that are "chalk" and I get all graphics that are chalk related. (see below)

  

Another feature about Pixa that I love is the way it auto-tags.  Pixa will automatically tag images by size and major color.  I always add my own tags so that it makes creating that much easier.  Pixa is a fantastic app for file organization and I recommend it to everyone who is into designing.  The Pixa developer, Shiny Frog has a 10 day demo available on their website and it is for  Mac OS X 10.7.3+ users.  The first time you use Pixa and load your files, it will take a while and you will want to do that close to bedtime so you can let Pixa do the job.  Once you add folders to Pixa you will see a pulsing icon next to the folders  which means it is working and they disappear when Pixa has finished.  

If you have any questions about Pixa during the trial or if you already own Pixa there is a FAQ for Pixa where you can have your questions answered.  Pixa is available in the Mac App Store for $30.00.  That means you can install Pixa on both your desktop and your laptop.  You can also get some helpful hints on the Pixa Tips blog.  I am not an expert on Pixa but I am certainly sold on using it for creating my products.  If you use the ten day trial please come back and let me know what you think!