Handwriting Help... Giveaway

Do you have students who struggle with their handwriting and it's so hard to read? I have found the best product. It doesn't come with just one pencil grip, but three. Each pencil grip step helps correct the way they were holding the pencil. My daughter is very bright but has always struggled with handwriting. We've tried teaching her the correct way to hold her pencil and as a teacher this has driven me nuts. What teacher wants to hear at their child's conference that their child has bad handwriting and it isn't legible. So when the pencil grip contacted me I was ready to try anything. Honestly I have to say this is one of the best. It has different stages to help your students become better at their handwriting. The colors are fun and bright and my kids were fighting over who got to use them

.

 This is my daughter doing her homework with the first step pencil grip.

Honestly I wish I had a before and after but I can actually read what she is writing. This is huge difference.

 This is my son using one of the other grips on his homework.

 I love how it shows them the correct way to hold the pencil. Plus it's soft so it doesn't hurt their little hands when they're trying to hold it correctly. . I know my students in my classroom are going to love this product too.

The pencil grip is being so generous and is giving away 2 packets with the three pencil grips inside them. I'm going to draw the winner from my Instagram Account. If you want the chance to win one, go over there and enter. I'm excited to see who wins.

https://www.instagram.com/hive2nd/

If you're interested in getting some pencil grips for yourself. Check them out: http://www.thepencilgrip.com/

Pie Face

My son got this game from Santa over Christmas Break and we can't get enough of it. If you haven't heard about it. It is called Pie Face. It comes with a spinner and you crank the dial, it's kind of like Russian Roulette you never know when the whip cream will hit you in the face. It also comes with a sponge you can wet and have that hit you in the face instead.

I had to think of a way I could incorporate this into my classroom. So I decided to come up with a sight word game that would correlate with the game. Sorry you won't be able to play the sight word game unless you have the Pie Game. In class we use the sponge instead of the whip cream. But you could totally use the whip cream too. My students ask me every time we do guided reading if we can play this game.  Click the picture for the link.

 Good news TPT's is having a BIG SALE today too.

Eating My Children's Halloween Candy.

So if you're dreading going back to work tomorrow. I hope this video will give you a little chuckle to get over those feelings.  I don't know if you watch Jimmy Kimmel. But we love staying up and watching him. He has this challenge the day after Halloween to trick your kids into thinking you ate all of  their Halloween candy. Well here is our version this morning. As you can see I couldn't stop laughing as I was taping this. Have a great Sunday night, and enjoy!

Popular Purple Pencil Sharpener

Oh my goodness, I was so excited to review the new POPULAR PURPLE pencil sharpener. Don't you just LOVE the color? I'm in love, SERIOUSLY. Purple was always my favorite color growing up. People used to call me the purple people eater because I loved purple so much. Have you heard that song? I actually play that song in my class and the kids love it.     Anyway,

So this came in the mail and you would have thought it was Christmas Morning. I opened it so quick and couldn't wait to try it out. 

 This is my lovely dull pencil that has been sharpened with our good old regular pencil sharpener.

 So I decided to give it a whirl and try out the new quiet purple pencil sharpener.

 And LOOK at the difference. You could barely even hear the pencil sharpening and LOOK at the difference. Now guess what I'm doing? At the request of my kids and students, I'm sharpening every pencil in my house and all my pencils at school. But I really don't mind because this pencil sharpener is so Awesome. You should so go get one. www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com

Giveaway and Freebie

Big Event fundraiser is having an awesome giveaway. They're giving away a $250 dollar gift card to Target. Go and Enter

 http://bigeventfundraising.com/big-event-fundraising-giveaway

Also if you're looking for a last minute thing to do with your class. Check out this freebie. I made it up this weekend and were going to do it tomorrow in class.

I'm going to have my little Firsties read it a total of 10 times by themselves and then they have to play with a friend 10 times. There is also a graphing freebie so grab that too.

Are you looking for a new app for your I-Pads?

Do you have I-pads in your classroom? I'm so lucky to have two in my classroom. I have found an awesome app for your I-pads. It's called FarFaria. It has over 750 children's stories and five new ones are added each week. This app is created for the younger grades. I have two kids of my own and I have introduced them to this app and now I can't get my I-Pad back. It has so many unique stories and my kids can't get enough of it. What I love about it is that it reads the story to the kids and highlights the words as it's reading the story to them. It also uses a wide variety of voices as it is reading the story, it keeps my children entertained.

It also has a reading level badge on every story cover. So you know that the story is appropriate for the child's age. I have a few students in my classroom that really struggle. I'm going to pull them during some of our whole group instruction and have them listen to these stories online to help with their reading skills.

 Here are a few of the cute stories they have on their app.

You can download Farfaria for free and read one story each day. Or you can have unlimited access to all the stories on the site for just $4.99. This app will reach all of the levels of learning in your classroom. 

Here is the link if you're interested in downloading the app for free: Http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/free-childrens-books-farfaria/id491771721?mt=8

Free Manipulatives

I'm a cleaning freak and I'm trying to clean out my basement while I still have time off. I have tons of manipulatives and I don't need them anymore. I hate to donate them to Deseret Industries because I don't know if a teacher would check there. I would love to give them all away to a good home. I know there are teachers that are just starting out and don't have a lot. If you would like any of these manipulatives let me know. You would have to pay shipping and handling but that is all. Or if you live in Utah you could pick them up from me. Let me know if you're interested.                                    

 big pocket chart

 These are laminated and ready to use.

 silent phones

 I have two containers of place value blocks.

 Geo boards