Giant Sale on TpT! 3 Million Strong!

Wow – 3 million teacher members! TpT is having a huge site wide sale to celebrate hitting this milestone on February 27th-28th this week. I have loved my TpT journey so far, and am delighted to be celebrating this giant milestone with them – reaching my one year anniversary with TpT this month seems teeny compared to their milestone!

The majority of stores will be offering 20% off for the duration of the sale. If you add the TpT Promo Code TPT3 at the checkout, you will receive a MASSIVE 28% off all of your purchases! That’s a great deal! My ENTIRE STORE will be 28% off for Thursday and Friday. If you are a TpT fan (or are curious about the site) you should head over to TpT and get your wishlists ready – I know I am!

I am linking up with  Mrs Beattie’s Linky Party to spread the news about the sale! Check out the links below to find more fantastic sellers who are on sale!

Lego really is awesome for Education!

Any of you with young children have, most likely, already been dragged along to the latest Lego movie. The unlikely and reluctant hero, Emmet, sets out to save the Lego world, and through his quest children are encouraged to throw away the building directions and follow their imaginations when constructing their Lego masterpieces. The Lego song ‘Everything is Awesome’ is completely catchy, and I have heard at least two adults singing this out loud in public spaces, no doubt having heard it on countless occasions since seeing the movie. After taking my kids to the movie, the very first thing they did upon returning home was to take their Lego constructions apart so that they could find spare parts to make their new inventions.

Lego, the construction, creativity and planning has limitless possibilities. I have seen several ideas for using Lego in lessons, so I thought I’d pull them together in one place, and share a few of my own too.
Tallest LEGO Tower: Here are some Lego facts (and video clips – click on city name) to inspire any budding Lego builders / engineers in your class:

• One of the Tallest Lego Towers in the world was built in Sao Paolo, Brazil, in 2011. It took 500,000 bricks,  6,000 volunteers (mainly children), 5 days to build.It measured 102feet and 3 inches.
• The current word record for the tallest Lego Tower was set in Delaware, USA, in August 2013. It consisted of 420,000 bricks and was built by the students in the Red Clay School district. It measured 112 ft 11.75 in.

The video clips could prompt endless conversations about construction  and design. I wonder how tall a tower students could build of they worked together and planned carefully….

Five Great Lego Posts about using Lego in the classroom areI found online are:

1. Duplo Montessori Number Rods:

Create Montessori Number rods with Duplo. Totally Tots gives a great idea for how to explore numbers, and create Montessori number rods with your little ones. By making the rods in the blue, red, blue red, pattern (creating conversation about patten too), you can create a this traditional Montessori number tool, with Duplo you have at home. And you can explore number in a fun way too.

Montessori Number Rods (image & idea: Tiny Tots)

2. Greater Than or Less Than Lego Game

One Simple Day has a great idea for using Lego to make a ‘Great Than, Less Than’ game! By providing Lego bricks,a selection of numbers from 1-20 and a ‘>’ card, this simple and fun game, makes a hands on and visually effective way for students to explore the concepts of Greater Than and Less Than.

 

(image & idea: One Perfect Day)

3. Counting and Measuring with Lego

This idea of using Lego to make a number stick, with both numerals and dots is another hands on way for students to explore numbers. With a permanent pen write the numbers, and corresponding dots on individual Lego pieces. Students can then make a number stick with the Lego pieces. Counting, ordering numbers and measuring are just some of the fun activities that students can use the Lego for.

(Image & idea: The Imagination Tree)

4. The LEGO Interlocking brick technique:

When you look at a brick wall, and observe the pattern, the bricks are typically not stacked immediately on top of each other, but are placed overlapping each other so as to reinforce and strengthen the structure. I’ve always built Lego structures without thinking  that this is called this the Interlocking Brick Technique. Homegrown Learners has a good post about how to explore this concept with your students as they build with Lego.

(Image & idea: Homegrown Learners)

5. Using Lego to Build Mathematical Concepts

Ever think about just how great Lego is for exploring and understanding mathematical concepts? Part-part-total, Square Numbers and Fractions are all explored and the activity explained clearly in this blog post. It’s a really good read with some great ideas.

(Image & idea from Scholastic)

And finally…….supercomperssor.com has 12 random facts you probably didn’t know about Lego. Did you know that over 4 billion mini figures have been produced to date? Or that Lego is the largest tire manufacturer in the world (producing more tires per year than Goodyear and Bridgestone combined? For more facts check out the blog post:

(Image & Facts: Supercompressor)

Liebster Blog Award! (or All about Me)

I’m very happy because the lovely Vilena at ‘Classroom in Paradise’ has nominated me for a Liebster award. Thank you very much Vilena! Of course, the initial excitement of realizing someone had given me an award, was followed quickly by the question, ‘What is a Liebster Award?’ Basically a Liebster award is a peer nominated award given by bloggers, to their favorite up and coming blogs (which is defined as a blog with under 200 followers). The ‘Liebster’ award gets its name from the German word ‘liebster’ which means ‘dearest’.

In accepting the nomination I’m asked to answer 11 questions, post 11 random facts about myself and name 5 or more other bloggers whose work I find inspiring, interesting, and fun. As I haven’t actually got around to properly introducing myself on my blog, and this award involves me answering several questions about myself, I thought that this would be the ideal opportunity to do that!

Here are my 11 questions posted for me by my nominator (Vilena)
1) How do you spend your free time? 
My ideal way to spend free time is traveling and taking photographs. I love to travel and see different places cultures, and at the weekends nothing makes me happier than heading out exploring with my family and taking photographs.
2) How do you juggle your family life, teaching, blogging and creating lessons? Do you use a planner?
I think I haven’t yet managed to find the perfect balance, but I’m getting there. I find that late at night is often my best time for being creative. My kids quite like the idea of creating products, so sometimes family time consists of me creating a product, with both kids at a laptop creating their little ‘products’ too – it’s very sweet!
3) Do you work out?
Well…..there’s the theory and the practice. I am signed up at my local gym and I go far less than I should. I can’t wait for the summer to get back sailing and swimming – I’m more of a fair weather outdoors person.  I am walking a half marathon with some friends at the start of April, so I’m hoping that will be a motivator to at least get myself semi fit!
4) Are you scared of anything?
That someday my daughter, Little Missy, will want me to sit through a Justin Bieber concert with her
5) Describe yourself in 5 words.
Sociable (a chatterbox), creative, loyal, happy and a lifelong –learner
6) Cake or chips?
Chips! Although, if the question had been ‘Chips or chocolate’, the answer would have been different
7) What was your favorite toy as a kid?
Lego – I loved building lego towns and taking over the living room table with my creations.
8) What is your biggest achievement in life?
Two of my biggest achievements in my life are my kids…. Little Missy and Ninja Dude. In the past year one of my biggest personal achievements was learning to ice skate. I wouldn’t say I’m great by any means, but I can now get on the ice without feeling like it’s an extreme sport – which was my aim.
9) Your funniest moment in the classroom.
Gosh, where to start……I think probably one of my funniest/embarrassing moments was when I was team teaching in 3^rd grade. We did a full unit on ‘Inventions’ and we had an amazing speaker come to the school who used to work for NASA. I was so in awe of him (his stories were fascinating), that I was actually struck dumb, and acted more like a star-struck teenager than a professional .One of the funniest moments with students was when I took my kindergarten class sledding – let’s just say when I headed off down the hill it wasn’t one of my more graceful moments on a sled. Luckily I had opted not to take one of the kids on the sled with me when I ended up in the giant pile of snow!
10) Your celebrity crush.
Chris Hemsworth (a.k.a. Thor). My brother was always into Superhero comics and I used to read his copies when he was finished. I always loved Thor   – and Chris Hemsworth, certainly fits the bill as a rugged Thor.
11) If you were granted 3 wishes, what would they be?
1. To visit the Galapagos Islands
2.  I have ALWAYS wanted to swim with a dolphin
3. To have live in ‘house elves’ to do the housework

Here are 11 Random Facts about me:
–          I love sailing and am a qualified day skipper
–          I enjoy diving and have dived in some beautiful places
–          I LOVE snow but I am finally fed up with snow for this winter!
–          I like to change things up regularly and am constantly changing  my work role
–          I love hands on projects and making things
–          Because I am tall people always thought I should be good at the high jump, but I was terrible!
–          I am gradually getting hooked on Pinterest!
–          I don’t think I’m old enough to have my childhood games in an ‘Old Time games’ book, but apparently I am!
–          Chocolate is my absolute indulgence
–          I usually manage to kill any house plant that I am given as a gift

Here are my nominees:
I found it hard to be sure of the exact number of followers of all of the blogs, but I’m going to go ahead and post them all here, as I have enjoyed reading their blogs.

1)      Mrs Burgen’s Sign Me Up

This blog has a great mix of classroom stories about teaching deaf and hard of hearing Kindergartners.  Mrs Burgen’s chatty style makes you feel like you really know her!

2)      High Flying in Fifth:
High Flying in fifth has some great ideas and shared a fantastic TED talk that has become my latest favorite! She also has a really touching post about why she became I teacher.

3)     Teaching Momster

Teaching Momster has started posting Mentor Mondays and Math Madness Wednesdays which have great tips and ideas for teachers.

4)       C is for creative classroom

The list of ‘Top Five Books That Will Have You Reaching for a Box of Tissue!’ has some really great books to choose from, and her ‘Pinterst gone wrong’ post will make you smile.

5)     Evil Math Wizard

I was hooked from the moment I read the name of this blog. The content doesn’t disappoint – lots of great ideas for math games and explorations in the classroom.

6)     Mrs E Teachers Math:   I really enjoyed some of the posts about classroom activities and her ‘Never Give Up’ post about trying to keep up student motivation and persistence during problem solving

7)  : PerfettoWritingRoom:
Perfetto Writing Room is aimed at writers and teachers alike. This blog got me thinking about language. The guided short short writing idea was really useful and the ‘make your verbs sweat’ post was really enjoyable to read.

Here are my questions for my nominees:
Q1: What is one of the most beautiful places you have ever visited?
Q2: If you could go to three places in the world – one for a week, one for a month and one for a year – where would you go?
Q3: If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Q4: If you could rewrite the ending of any movie what would it be?
Q5: When did you decide you wanted to be a teacher?
Q6: What app can you not live without on your phone? Why?
Q7: What teaching supply could you not live without?
Q8: What got you into blogging?
Q9: How many years have you been teaching for?
Q10: What advice would you give your 18 year old self?
Q:11: If you could change a movie ending what would it be?

I’m looking forward to reading the answers from my nominees!

HUGE Spring Giveaway

I’m excited to let you know that Teach2Love is having a HUGE ‘Spring Into Learning’ giveaway. There is over $150 worth of goodies up for grabs, from over 50 TpT sellers. I’ve donated my ‘St Patrick’s Day Math and Literacy Activity Pack’ –  which is perfect for celebrating St. Patrick’s day with your class with Math, Literacy and Fun activities! For a chance to win sign up here: Entry Form

A year on TpT ……some things I’ve learned

This week I hit my TpT-versary – one year since I started my Teachers pay Teachers Store! I have learned a lot in the past year, both about myself and about how the world of online stores and marketing your materials works. I have so much still to learn, but I thought I’d pause to look back and reflect on the past year. I have had so much fun and I’ve discovered just how much I enjoy making teaching materials. It’s something that I can lose track of time doing.

Here are some lessons that I have learned that might help you on your TpT adventure if you are thinking of starting, or have recently started, a store.

1. Making materials is harder that I thought it would be but I LOVE it! I can’t say that I ever thought about just how much I enjoyed making materials before starting my TpT store. I’ve always enjoyed curriculum design, I have always enjoyed hands on projects … but designing materials that other teachers would find useful, and that are quality products, is a whole different thing. I think that’s because the last time I really thought about creating a complete product with full layout, instructions and teacher directions, was probably in college. I mean, it’s not like you ever really fully write out clear directions for yourself when you are creating materials for your classroom. You have a purpose for creating it, and you make it to fit that need. Even if you share it with your team, you are most likely going to talk about why you are sharing it, rather than writing down all of the directions. Creating a complete product takes a while, but when it’s complete you feel a great sense of satisfaction.
2.  Ideas can come at the strangest times….so now I always carry a notebook with me! Sometimes something happens which helps me make a connection, or inspires an idea, when I’m in the strangest of places. Like in the grocery store comparing cereal boxes and you might notice how much math there is on the side of the box. I have also discovered that for me, late at night, when everyone else is asleep (and when I should be sleeping myself), my mind goes into creative hyper drive and I can spend much longer than I think working on an idea. I’m trying to be good about that now – too many 1-2am nights, with an early start, are not good.
3.  Making a quality product takes time. Sometimes it can take quite a while to make a product. Take your time. The ideas will come. Sometimes leaving it for a couple of days gives me a fresh perspective, and it helps me to make the changes or add the final details that just weren’t coming. Producing a quality product is worth taking the time for.
4. Make attractive product covers and use clip art. This will help you make a quality product.  Have a look at any of the bestselling products, and one thing that stands out is just how appealing they are to look at. With attractive covers and well-designed pages, they are great examples of just how important the design of your product is. Every week TpT highlights 10 freebies in their newsletter – this is also a great way to see quality products. There are lots of clipart stores on TpT, and also on other websites, that sell clipart to TpT sellers. They also have some free clipart too, so it’s a great place to start when you’re getting setting up your online store.
5.  Upgrading to Premium Membership makes such a difference! When I first joined I decided not to sign up for Premium Membership until I had earned the money to pay for it. Then I sold a few products and realized the earnings on a $1.50 product, after the TpT commission and transaction fee, was SO tiny it was disheartening.  I looked on the forums and saw so many threads about whether or not to upgrade – each of them with comments from experienced sellers saying they wished they’d upgraded sooner. I upgraded after a week and it was a great decision! You see a return on your investment so much quicker than if you wait to earn it with basic membership. Look at the math: On a $1 product with basic membership you pay 40% to TpT AND a 30cent transaction fee on each sale – Profit 30cent. On a $1 product with Premium membership you pay 15% commission and NO transaction fee. Profit 85 cent. Taking the leap and believing in myself that I could earn back the $60 investment was SO worth it! I promise I have not been encouraged to say this – this is just my personal experience.
6. Social Media: Social media is really important when you’re promoting your store. It took me a while to figure out Pinterest and to start pinning. But once I did I quickly noticed a difference in the traffic to my store. There are SO many products on TpT that promotion is important, especially as you establish your store. Pinterest is a great way to start. One thing that I have noticed, both as a pinner, and also as a follower, is that pages and pages of product covers are really not appealing for followers to look at. A wide variety of product pages and interesting teaching ideas or tips, or even non related teaching topics like recipes, will be far more appealing to followers. I try to keep the balance of at least 3:1 for non-related product pins to products. You can also vary your pins for the same product so that you followers don’t see the same pin multiple times. And then when you have got to grips with Pinterest there is always, Facebook, Twitter, blogging…
7. Get the app! TpT has a handy little app that makes a ‘Ca-Ching’ every time you make a sale. It is so much fun to hear the ca-ching during the day.  There were some bugs recently with the app but that seems to be fixed now. So if you open up a store, download the app and let the ca-chings begin!
8. Blogging: I have been told that Blogging is essential for spreading your words and ideas . I have just started this blog. I’ll let you know how it goes……

Making materials can be harder than you think, but it’s really rewarding – jump in and give it a try. You might pleasantly surprised!

An Analog Relic in a Digital World

I laughed when I found this quote on Pinterest, but unfortunately it’s so true. How much does it ‘age’ me when I tell my kids that I was born before the internet, and that I was 11 when I saw my first computer? My 9 year old paused to take in the reality of the situation when she heard that, and her friend explained to her that her mom grew up in the dark ages! Lovely.

When I think back, the first computer I ever used was at school. It was shared among all the classes, and there was great excitement when it arrived. I found out years later, when I was a newly qualified teacher and met one of my former teachers at a conference, that our school had in fact taken part in a computer initiative. Had it not been for the efforts of one far-thinking teacher who was deeply involved in this initiative, I might never have seen a computer in my elementary years. That might have ‘aged’ me even more – YIKES!

Granny’s Garden was the first game I ever played. I still remember the drill:  insert the giant floppy disc into the oversized slot at the front of the computer; wait a few minutes to load; spend a precious few minutes finding the children, avoiding the evil the witch and solving the puzzles – then move to make way for the next student! Our first home computer was an Amstrad. The game took its sweet time loading up from a cassette which we would then have to turn over after about ten minutes so we could wait a little bit longer for it to reload. Manic Miner was my obsession. It was just a pity that every few levels I had to load the next part of the game which involved, yup, even more waiting – oh, and the sound of broadband ringing out loudly in the room (remember that?).

I’m sure you’ve probably see the ‘age test’ below on the internet – how did you do?

Even in university the phrase, ‘always copy onto a floppy’ was constantly cited to us in our educational technology class, where one student had earlier lost an entire project by forgetting to back-up her information. I know the need to back up is still, there my recent coffee spill on my laptop proved that (and I owe a huge ‘thank you’ to my dear husband, who is always able to solve my technology hiccups. Can I call a coffee spill on a laptop a ‘hiccup’?). But the fact that floppy discs were still the main form of backup 19 years ago just shows how far technology has come (I’ve just had a brief ‘eeek’ moment – 19 YEARS!!)

Anyway, scroll forward to 2014 and the world is such a different place. The internet is constantly at our fingertips, and if I leave my cellphone at home I feel like I’m functioning without a body part. News, weather, trivia, Facebook, Vine …. the amount of information available all the time is growing at an exponential rate, and new social media is constantly emerging. I have to confess to trying out Snapchat, just out of curiosity (as opposed to thinking I’m a teenager). Everything is instant and fast-paced, and our children are used to constantly changing information and media. Even a two year old typically knows how to navigate an iPad, and will quickly switch between screens.

Educational author and speaker, Marc Prensky has coined the terms ‘Digital Natives’ and ‘Digital Immigrants’ to describe this phenomenon – Digital Natives being those born into the digital age, whilst Digital Immigrants were born into the analog age (and, hence, are immigrants in this new digital era). I’m not too sure if I am wild about being considered a ‘relic’ in a digital age by Mr. Prensky, but I will graciously (reluctantly) accept his point. Our children and students are boldly going where none of us have gone before, so we need to be conscious that the ‘goal posts’ have shifted and that the world as we knew it, is just SO different to the one we grew up in.

But then, it’s different for us too, I guess. Even just over a year ago, this relic from the analog age would never have imagined that she would be blogging, running an online store and creating a digital presence for her store through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram…..and probably any other platform that presents itself. The possibilities just keep on growing, and if you want to really think of how quickly things are changing, have a look at the “Shift Happens’ video clips. Even more food for thought, if our analog era brains can handle it!

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Math fun for Valentine’s Day

The season of love is upon us, when the kids start talking about all things cupid. My first grader came home from school the other day and announced that he was marrying ‘K’ in his class, and that she also wants to marry him, and showed me several pages of drawings covered in love hearts that ‘R’ had given him. He also explained that Cupid was very crafty, and that if he hit you with his bow you would fall in love. He didn’t seem too concerned about this possibility though! His drawing from school that day showed the inevitable, with crafty cupid in action, firing his arrows at him as he slept.

As the run up to Valentine’s day is well under way, I thought I’d share my FREE Valentine’s game, to encourage your students to have fun exploring the 10 frame, counting on and addition!

The game comes with a ten frame, illustrated number strips from 1 – 5, and a recording sheet.

(**Before playing the game, cut up the number strips and for best results laminate the strips before using).

How to play:
1) The player rolls the die. They cover the number of spaces on the ten frame that they have rolled on the die, by using the number strips. (e.g. if they roll a 4 they cover 4 squares with the 4 strip). I have included 2 die which include numbers from 1 – 9.

2) The player then solves ‘How many more to make 10 Valentines Pictures?’ by counting the remaining squares to see how many are left.

e.g. Player rolls 4. They cover 4 spaces on the ten frame. Player then counts on to figure out ‘how many more do I need to make 10’?

3) The player then records this number sentence on their recording sheet.

This will encourage your students to count on to 10 and explore number bonds that make 10, in a fun and engaging way. It will also encourage conversation in your class about number work.

The freebie is available in my TpT store or you can download it directly here