My Northwest Adventure! and an Earth Day FREEBIE!!

Hi Friends! Kerri here...
Yes, I am currently on Spring Break so I'm gonna keep it short, so my husband doesn't JUDGE me too much for blogging whilst on VACAY! I know, I know, I have a problem, but in my defense, it IS 10:00 p.m., the chitlins are in bed, and the hubs is laying next to me watching TV, so I feel no guilt! :)
Here are some photos from our Washington/Oregon adventure so far...

NO rain!! YAY!

Gum wall outside Pike's Market. TOTALLY weird, but cool!

My sweet baby brother who we went to visit! He's such a cutie pie!

And an awesome uncle! I made him take this pic with Katie and he did it for me! 

Aren't gorillas so AWESOME!!

As are orangutans! This girl was chillin like a villain staring at all of us!

Trying to get my girls to take an artsy fartsy picture was like PULLING TEETH! I must have taken 20 and every single one was SILLY! Grrr...

Underground Seattle tour. FASCINATING! Did you know the old city is underneath?

Multnomah Falls. SOOOO gorgeous! YEs, those are bright lime green rain ponchos and yes, I am ROCKIN it!

Ahhh, feel the sisterly love! And the Columbia River in the background!

A teeny tiny flower and a teeny tiny bug! So pretty!

Me and the Hubs! He's the ying to my yang!

Lastly, here is a little Earth Day FREEBIE for all of you, just in time for Earth Week next week!! Number Puzzles for numbers 13-24. 

A sweet follower emailed me with the request and I thought, hey, why not!! 

I KNOW!! I have a problem!! I know I shouldn't be doing this on VACAY, but TinTin was on and I was only semi-into it, so I needed a diversion! Click on the picture below to go to my TPT store and download for FREE!!

Can't wait to share my Northwest Adventure Part 2 with you all later! Tomorrow we go to the Timberline Lodge! Can't wait!!

XOXO Kerri

Winner!! Earth Day Centers and a FREEBIE!

Hi Peeps! Happy Saturday! Kerri here...
My Earth Day centers are finished and posted and they are oh so pretty! Looky looky!!

5 Literacy Centers and 5 Math Centers, enough to last you the entire week (or longer, depending on how you run your stations), with Earth Day culminating on Friday, April 20th! If you are interested, click on the picture above to go to my TPT store!


This Unit is a companion to my Earth Day writing center...

and I will also be back this week with an Earth Day Art Project FREEBIE, so stay tuned, friends!!


The winner of our TIMREE giveaway is...





a Rafflecopter giveaway



Thank you SO SO much for participating. I will be back later this week with a giveaway for this little gadget:

The Hear-All Assessment Recorder from Learning Resources!! This thing is SUPER COOL! You won't want to miss it!

Finally, here is a little FREEBIE for the story BUTTERFLY! from Houghton Mifflin. I am probably too late with this for most of you, but we will be reading this story this week, so I thought I would share. :)
If anything, you can save it for your files for next year! 


After reading the story, the kids cut out the pictures, glue them in order, and write what is happening at each stage of the butterfly's life cycle. Good for sequencing! Actually, now that I think of it, you can use this with ANY butterfly life cycle book you read with your kids, so DOWNLOAD AWAY!! YAY!

Clip art from the fabulous DJ Inkers!

A Bunch of Randomness! And two wee, baby FREEBIES!

Happy Wednesday, Friends! Kerri here...
This post is going to be all kinds of randomness, but I just gotta get it all out there before I start dinner (veggie burgers, tater tots for my Katie Bug, and salad!)
I just finished my Earth Day writing center and it is SUPER pretty!!  Take a looksie...

Aren't the colors delicious?? I am a SUCKER for teal (is that teal??) and pink! I'll be back this weekend with my Earth Day Math and Literacy Centers, which I am super excited about! Stay tuned...


I downloaded a Jelly Bean Math Packet last year at around this time, but I thought I would include it again for those of you who were not following us last year at this time-Don't worry, I forgive you! :)
 My kids go cuckoo for cocoa puffs every time we do math with candy!! Click on the basket below to download...

I also FINALLY took picture of our art projects for the past couple of weeks. Here are our rainbows and kites...

The kites are from Cara Carroll's March Mega Pack, which I LOVE!!

A couple of fun things happened today in my classroom! First of all, my grant for Cuisenaire Reading Rods came yesterday and I couldn't wait to bust them out in reading groups today! My kidlets LOVED it! If you don't have these, you should BEG, PLEASE, STEAL, WRITE A GRANT, something Peeps! They are the BOMB DIGGIDY!

Obviously we are still working on connecting the reading rods so that capitals are in the right place, but you catch my drift, right??

I also got this fun little package in the mail today...

So...Learning Resources contacted me and asked me if I would review their Hear All Assessment Recorder and their Luna Interactive Projection Camera, and OF COURSE I said yes! How exciting!!
They also told me I could do a giveaway for our followers for each of these products! (Insert giddy squeal!!) Stay tuned in the next 2 weeks for 2 more GINORMOUS giveaways for these fabulous Learning Resources projects! Which reminds me...did you all sign up for our TIMREE giveaway? It ends tomorrow, so DON"T DELAY! Hurry up and click on the TIMREE link, so you can win her ADORABLE school set!


Finally, here is the other neato thing we did today. We had a mini inservice about Power Writing a few weeks back, and my first thought was "Too hard for my firsties-NEXT!", but today I had them try it and I was TOTALLY BAMBOOZLED! They LOVED it!!


Here's how it works...You give your students one or more words to choose from on the board and they pick one to write about. I only gave my kidlets one word, because I couldn't deal with the choice thing. Next, they write whatever they want (I told them to write whatever came into their heads) about that word for 3 minutes (in upper grades they do one minute, but obviously 3 minutes is better for Firsties). Our word was rainbow, and here's what they came up with...

Not too shabby for their first try! I had them count up their words and write the number on the top of the paper, but the number of words really doesn't matter. What matters is that they write! Sometimes my kids get so caught up in remembering their grammar and conventions, that they lose their creative spark. This will (hopefully) help them get it back!
After we wrote for 3 minutes, I had them share with their table partner and then I chose 5 to sit in the author's chair and read what they wrote to the class-FABULOUS! They ALL wanted to share, so of course, I had to disappoint 19 of them! So sad. But we will power write again tomorrow and I'll choose 5 more, so YAY!


I had them write in little composition books, but you can use ANYTHING. I also made a little cover for the books. If you are interested in having Power Writers in your class too, click the picture below...

Whew!! That was a long one! Don't forget to get your Rainforest Art and Writing Pack, which is on sale through Saturday. :)

I'll be back on Friday with our TIMREE winner. Remember, the winner also gets one item from both of our stores! YIPPEE!!
Have a great Thursday, my friends! Have I told you lately that I love you? Well, I do!!
XOXO Kerri B