I Bow Down To Thee

So with the long weekend I thought I would try my hand at making some clip art. I thought how hard could it be? You just draw an image, scan it to your computer, and voila. Instant amazing clip art that would wow the crowd. Wrong. Not so much at all. After drawing, scanning, copying, pasting into Keynote, instant alpha-ing, exporting as a PPT file, saving the image as a PNG, downloading gimp, adding some color, and then resaving, I came up with this.

All this crazy effort for a measly little fish. And honestly, it still looks hand drawn and not very crisp like the amazing clip art of those graphics goddesses. I realized I wasn't very impressed with my clip art and the amount of trouble it takes to make one image totally isn't worth it for me. I don't know how those professionals do it. Now I know why The 3am Teacher is The 3am teacher. It's really a wonder she gets any sleep at all making all those amazing graphics.

So I just wanted to dedicate this post to all the amazing graphics makers out there that slave over their designs to allow us to make the products we do. We truly have the easy part. I will never take your clip art for granted again. You will always get a big shout out on my products for making the clip art. And when I think $5 is a lot for some clip art, I will never question that price again. It should be more like $500. You are the unsung heroes of blogland and I bow down to thee.

I've heard of Christmas in July... but Christmas in end of August?

So I went to the Dollar Tree the other day thinking I could snag up some back to school items. When I walked in I saw some Halloween stuff which I thought O.K. it's almost September no biggie but then I turned the corner and walked into something I wasn't expecting.

Crash, bang, boom! Walking in a winter wonderland.

(Please excuse the horrible picture quality. I wasn't expecting to have to take a picture in the Dollar Tree and therefore didn't have my camera with me)

Now when did the calendar decide to go January, February, March, April, May, June, July August, December? I had to do a double take and make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Yup all Christmas all the time. Except this wasn't just any Christmas display. This was their pre-Christmas 50% off sale. A.K.A all of last year's leftover rejects that they couldn't sell and want to get rid of before the new shipment came in.

Now I love Christmas. Like all caps scream it to the world love Christmas. But Christmas in the end of August when I am trying to relish every last drop of summer, not so much. Now get this. This scene made my day.

How many seasons can you mix into one right? But where was Fall? Oh yea they dropped that season off the face of the map when they skipped right from Summer to Winter. This was just too much for me. The worst part? It took everything I had not to buy all these cute little winter arts and craft projects. But I refused to buy into this nonsense and walked out with nothing. Probably the only time I ever walked out of the Dollar Tree with nothing in my cart.

How do you feel about this situation? Are you the type who loves holiday items coming a season early or do you like to slow down and relish every season up to the last minute. I am the latter although I have to admit I did want to come right home and make some winter themed freebies for you all. I had to snap right out of that with some Summery corn on the cob for dinner. Take that! 

Weekly Wednesday Freebies #1

*Insert Megaphone Voice* Welcome to Weekly Wednesday Freebies! Where each Wednesday you lucky readers get a fantastic freebie! On Monday, I premiered my first ever freebie: I Have Who Has Tooth Fairy Edition. Click HERE to learn more about that freebie! I was so excited that I decided to make another freebie right away. It's addicting!

Today's freebie was inspired by Amanda Madden's blog Teaching Maddeness. Before reading about her monster themed classroom I would have never thought monsters could be so cute. I fell in love with those googly eyed furry monsters on the spot. Luckily I had the perfect clip art to go along with my monster freebie thanks to Krista Wallden.

Last week I made a freebie for 2nd grade and this week I was inspired by kindergarten. I did another math freebie this week. Next week I'm thinking possibly first grade language arts? But we will get to that later......

TO THE FREEBIE!!!

This freebie is a simple math worksheet meeting the Kindergarten CCSS K.OA.5. Fluently add and subtract within 5. I think it is the perfect mix of material and cuteness which is what I am all about! I made an addition and a subtraction version. I also made one version with just written directions and another version with picture cues below to help.

I hope you enjoy this freebie as much as I do. Pin it, share the link with friends. But most importantly, come back next week for more fabulous freebies! If you want you can also follow me on Pinterest to see what I am up to and where I get my inspiration from.

As always, feel free to comment below or send me an email with suggestions for what my next freebie should be! I look forward to hearing from all of you!

How to survive Wednesdays? Freebies!

Starting tomorrow, I will be featuring a freebie for you all each Wednesday. *Fingers crossed* that I can keep this up. I am really excited for this series! I am going to call it Weekly Wednesday Freebie. I am going to check around on different TOU's but I am hoping to make a picture for the weekly series and everything! I might even venture as to make a blog button too. Say what??? I already have a freebie set for tomorrow that I am very excited about. Wednesdays can seem so close to Friday yet so far. The only way to survive the dreaded hump day? By coming here and picking up a great freebie of course! Stay tuned til tomorrow to see what goodie I have up my sleeve!

Until then, head over to Tonya's Treats for Teachers and enter her fabulous 500 follower giveaway. Some of the most amazing bloggers are giving away great products for this. And who wouldn't want to win a $50 to one of four fabulous places. What are you waiting for? Click HERE to find out more!

Lions and Tigers and Bears...Oh My!

Sometimes I feel like I am in The Wizard of Oz when I think of how wonderful this blogland has been to me. I have reached double digits in followers. Shout out to all my lovely followers! You are the best! I have won some fantastic giveaways. And I have gained invaluable knowledge as a future teacher. I hope I never have to wake up from this dream.

Today I am doing a three part post.
1. A back to school books linky.
2. Letting you know of an amazing giveaway.
3. Asking for some suggestions about what to make for you all next.

This linky hosted by Blog Hoppin' is another one of my favorites because it has to do with books! I can never get enough book suggestions!

1. The Kissing Hand - This is the best book to make everyone more comfortable knowing their Mom is always with them.

2. If You Take A Mouse To School - This is a very cute book and can be used to have the class write their own book about if you take a mouse to school.

3. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - I love to follow this book up with an activity where the children glue the letters of their names on the palm tree and hang it up for display.

4. David Goes To School - I did an author study on David Shannon and I just love his books. They are so funny. This is a great book to teach what not to do at school and write class rules from.

5. Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes - This is a true crowd pleaser! The kids love this book. It is a fabulous way to teach colors and about not sweating the small stuff because "it's all good!"

 Next up! This great giveaway by Sara at Smiling in Second Grade.

This is a follow-up giveaway to her personal laminator giveaway. This time she is giving away a Duo Trimmer. It is half a paper cutter and half a paper trimmer. It works wonders from the pictures! Head HERE to enter her fabulous giveaway!

So I am thinking of having a weekly freebie for you all. Gotta come up with a fancy name for it because I'm just like that. I have to wait and see how things go once I get my workload underway but that is my plan. For you, I want to take suggestions so I know my products are actually useful in the classroom. If you have any suggestions as to what I should make let me know by leaving a comment or sending me an e-mail. I have a more limited supply of clip art than most of you but I am up for the challenge. I can't wait to get this blog rolling! Thanks for hanging on with me and enjoy the ride!

Better Late Than Never...FREEBIE!

Here it is! The time you have all been waiting for! Only a day late. I think Monday is the perfect day to link up since I can link for Classroom Freebies Manic Monday and 4th Grade Frolics Made it Monday! Hopefully I will get better at this posting on time thing now that I have learned the proper way to secure clip art thanks to the lovely Hilary over at Rockin' Teacher Materials. Click HERE if you want to learn how to secure your files.

This summer I have been blog stalking away accumulating well over 700 freebies and hundreds more pieces of clip art. This wonderful place called blog land has just been absolutely amazing to me. I'm sure I will become a way better teacher as a result of learning from the best. I have always wanted to give back to the blog goers out there for all that they have done. After doing further research, I finally learned how to make those ah-mazing resources you see out there. The trick that I would have never thought of, using Powerpoint. It is the simplest thing to use and so teacher friendly! I mean if I can do this anyone can. It is seriously that simple.

To make this freebie I was inspired by the clip art of Lita Lita and The 3am Teacher.
I downloaded the free Tooth Fairy clip art by Lita Lita and I won the currency clip art by The 3am Teacher. It seemed like a perfect fit. I remember being in elementary school and being so excited that I had lost a tooth so that I could put it up on the lost tooth chart at school. I figured that pairing the tooth fairy with learning about currency would be a winning combination.

This links with the CCSS 2.MD.8. Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately. Example: If you have 2 dimes and 3 pennies, how many cents do you have? I hope it will help you all making the transition to using the CCSS.

Without further ado, I give you my FIRST EVER FREEBIE!
I Have Who Has Tooth Fairy Edition.

 Click HERE or the picture above to download

Comment below and let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions for the future!

I'm not gonna lie, I am super proud of this product. Pin it or share it til your heart's content! I think it is super cute and will be a fun game to play with the children. I look forward to providing you with many more freebies in the future to come! Be sure to follow my blog so you never miss a freebie again!

Troubleshooting...Help?

Alright so today I had planned to give you all my first freebie. I thought I was all set but it appears that I am not. I am trying to make a secure PDF on Adobe Reader so people can't copy the graphics I used. When I go to properties there isn't an option to change the settings from allow copying to don't allow copying. If anyone knows how to make a file secured I would greatly appreciate it. I am using a Mac and I don't know if that makes a difference. I really want to give you guys this freebie so any help would be amazing! Thanks!

Great Giveaway to share!

So one of my favorite bloggers, Miss Nelson, has an amazing giveaway going on to celebrate reaching 1,000 followers on TPT. She will be giving away either this canvas:

or a personalized stamp from PJGreetings and $10 to her TPT store. It's a hard decision but I think I'd go with the canvas. It is really beautiful and would give you a boost on even the toughest teaching days. Click here to hurry on over to enter!

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for my first freebie! I don't think you will want to miss it!

New Blog Look...And Surprises to Come!

So I have a slight problem. It is called have to be unique syndrome. I was clicking through some blogs last night...ok who am I kidding I was totally blog stalking like I have nothing better to do with my life. So I stumbled upon another blog that had the same premade template as me. Now what would a rational person do? Say ok it was free, the design blog had a lot of followers, it was very cute, obviously other people have this layout. What do I do? Spend the entire day freaking out looking for another premade layout that no one had. Obviously this is virtually impossible to do since I'm sure there isn't one premade template out there that isn't shared by another blogger. Well I decided that I had to take down this template and get a new one. After searching all day and having many problems with coding, designs and much more, I just decided to customize a blogger template. I am definitely not 100% satisfied with it but for now it will do. Since I am not yet a teacher I want to wait to get a fancy schmancy custom blog layout. Those blogger have serious talent! My favorite sites are Honey Bunch Blog Design and Dreamlike Magic. Don't you guys just love their work?

On another note, I am really excited to try my hand at some custom clip art and some teacher freebies. I have been stalking blogs all summer and am well over 600 freebies collected. I figured since these teachers have been helping me out all summer, I seriously need to give back. So be sure to keep an eye out for these in the near future!

Community Building Books

So here I am linking up for my first ever linky party. What better topic to link up for than children's books! I am linking up with Kimberly over at Funky First Grade Fun for the Community Building Books Linky Party.

After long deliberation, here are my top choices for community building books.
1. Tacky the Penguin. How can you go wrong with a penguin who totally rocks being his unique self?

2. Enemy Pie. This is a wonderful tale about how even the worst of enemies can become friends.

3. The Juice Box Bully. A book that needs to be on everyone's must read list.

4. Whoever You Are.  This is a wonderful book that connects to children all around the world.

5. My Box of Color. This book touches my heart. It is so simple yet has such a strong impact.

I hope you have found some new books to use to teach community building and I hope to find many more too. Be sure to head over and link up too! Thanks so much Kimberly for hosting!

Sweet sweet back to school

Back to school time is always an exciting time. I could spend hours wandering around a school supply store. The sweet smell of crayons and Mr. Sketch markers fill the air. I can't help but smile if I wander down the dollar aisle and see a great teaching steal. Target Dollar Spot is an obsession lately. Have to stop at Target on every shopping trip I take. Yet, my number one obsession is children's picture books. I stalk yard sales and take trips to used book sales like it's my job. People know me as a book-a-holic. So obviously, my favorite part of back to school time is book orders. Scholastic is my ultimate weakness. How can you pass up a $2.99 book like Pete the Cat: Rocking In My School Shoes? This is a teachers dream. Hopefully you can all grab some great deals too! What great books have you snagged lately?

I love the teacher week linky that is going on at Blog Hoppin'. It might be my favorite one yet! Yesterday was a great day to get to know what other teachers are obsessed with but today is by far my favorite one yet. Being new to this whole blogosphere, there are a ton of tricks and tips that I have yet to learn. With the help of this linky, I have learned so much in just a few minutes. My favorite trick that I have learned so far is how to match your font color to one of your pictures. Thank you so much Ladybug Teacher Files for that gem of information! I'm sure I will continue to learn more as the day goes on and I am very thankful for that! Can't wait to see what else is out there for me to learn!

First Post as an official blogger!

Well folks, the day has finally come! After spending the entire summer stalking teacher blogs, I have finally taken the plunge into bloggerland. I cannot wait to share my adventure along with you. These fabulous teachers have given me countless ideas and tricks to implement in the classroom. I only hope that I can share some of my ideas with you all too.