Sarah Plum

K-5 Resources for Diverse Classrooms

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(wo)Man Behind The Curtain + FREEBIE!

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Let me start out by saying I am totally and completely floored by the amount of support and interest that’s been generated since I started out this little old blog. I’ve gotten such positive feedback, and cannot overstate how much useful advice has been dispensed to me (FOR FREE! Y’all know I love free!).
Part of that support has come in the support of these three awards:

The rules are pretty much the same for all of them, but the Versatile Blogger Award requires that I give y’all 7 random facts about myself. So, without further delay:
  1. My husband and I both completed the same five-year Bachelor/Master program… together. Yep, we even sat next to each other during our graduation ceremony (talk about emotional) and took our official picture together!
  2. I’m gluten intolerant… which can be a real bummer sometimes! I’m trying to gauge how to deal with this in my own classroom — as far as treats for my kiddos — so we’ll see how it goes. Any fellow gluten-free teachers?
  3. I’m a terrible dancer but I love to dance. It’s really the best, and something I came to love when it was the only thing that would calm my fussy baby-turned-toddler down.
  4. I can trace my roots on my mother’s side back to the Mayflower, and on my father’s side back to Mary Queen of Scots. Pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.
  5. I’m mildly obsessed with fonts. And by mildly, I mean I can pretty much identify any font by name in under 30 seconds. (Just ask Ginger!)
  6. I’m probably the only elementary teacher that’s not a fan of Skippyjon Jones. At all. (I’m ducking all the rotten tomatoes right now!)
  7. Shopping for school supplies and organizing things is my version of zen. Big-time.
SO — Instead of nominating individual blogs myself, I’d like to have everyone leave a comment linking back to your blog! I love finding new blogs, and I know others do too — so this is a perfect way to put yourself out there and to also find some new bloggers to follow!
I also wanted to share one piece of decor I finished for the classroom today:

This will hang in my classroom during the first week of school (and then outside our door after that). I am so excited to have it finished — it was actually super easy to do!
I know an Oz-themed room is pretty out-of-the-norm, but I know that many teachers utilize it as a book study, or party-theme, etc., and so I’m offering the pennant in my TPT store (in three sizes; the size I chose is the 7.5″ size) for FREE! So head on over and pick it up!
And just another reminder — if you haven’t already — my giveaway closes at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday! Make sure you are entered!

Hold. The. Phone.

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And shut the front door. The windows, too. Maybe even the garage.

Did I really just list my first product on TPT? Yes, yes I did.

I’ve been feeling a wee bit under the weather in the past day and couldn’t sleep last night. I decided to work on my organizational binders for this upcoming year and put on The Wiz (I know, I know, I’m a walking cliche) and was hit with a ton of inspiration.
One of the things I love most about the Wizard of Oz is how diverse the story is. There are so many lessons you can learn from it, and as a teacher, so many ways you can utilize those lessons in your classroom. So, naturally, I used quotations from the movie and book to round out my binders and they. fit. perfectly.
I have yet to print + laminate (that’ll be a part of my Monday Made It since I just got my ink refilled at Costco — who knew? — and got a new laminator), so I can’t show you the binders in action… yet. I can, however, share with you my one of favorite covers (it’s hard to choose).

Raise your hand if you think I’m going to use this as a management technique. All hands raised? Great! You’re totally right. I might even play “Ease on Down the Road” to transition out of morning meeting. Who knows! Anything can happen in Oz, er, my classroom!
To celebrate my first paid item in my TPT store, the pack of binder covers + spine labels is on sale for $2.50 until tomorrow at midnight! Head on over and check them out!
Don’t forget to enter my giveaway to win all (now) current and future items in my TPT store! There will be five winners so spread the word!
I’m in a super-de-duper mood to night because I think we might’ve turned a potty-training corner (you have no idea how relieved I am!), the first person to correctly guess my favorite character from the original movie will get a copy of the binder set! Be sure and leave your e-mail!

Giveaway, ahoy!

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I’m in the midst of potty-training my nearly three year old little dude, so there’s not much productive work getting done other than bribing him with chocolate and juice to utilize the potty. So, I decided now is the best time for a giveaway!
So what if I haven’t quite hit 100 followers yet? Let’s get this giveaway party started, right?!
So…
Here’s the deal.
Five lucky winners will win ALL future paid products on my TPT store (and Teacher’s Notebook if I ever open one). Forever. And ever and ever.
I’m hoping to list my first product by the end of the week (if potty-training goes well), so by the time the giveaway finishes next week, there will be at least one product in the hands of five lucky winners (and I can tell you that you’ve already seen a sneak peek on here and it involves Oz)! From that point on, every time I list something new, those five people will get the product e-mailed to them as an attachment — for  FREE FREE FREE (which is the best kind of free)!
Sound good? I hope so!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you choose to blog about the giveaway — you can just grab my button on ye’ old sidebar over there to link back, because like I said, potty-training waits for no man and at this point I haven’t whipped up a custom graphic. I might. So using either is fine!

ETA: Little guy is finally asleep, so I whipped this up real quick:

Monday Made It + a Freebie!

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I’m excited about today’s Monday Made It, because it’s something I saw on Pinterest and then had no choice but to complete after finding the perfect materials on my Michaels trip.

Moment of silence y’all, for Dorothy-gingham plates — 12 for $1. Perfect for my bulletin board headers (no purchasing of expensive letters!) and my word wall.
I thought that was going to be my only Monday Made It… but then I found these in the Target Dollar Spot:

What is it? A stress-reliever. And so this was born:
I’ve used stress-relievers before in the classroom to give kiddos a little brain-break and some tactile input, but these were begging to be used as a focal point for kiddos that are stuck.
So I created a little packet with a projectable anchor chart, a reproducible anchor chart, the labels, and some guidance on how I utilize stress-relievers in the classroom and plan on using these. You can find it by clicking on the cover below (it’ll take you to it on TPT)!
I would love to know what you’ve utilized in your classroom to get students “unstuck” and on the path to a lightbulb moment — share in the comments!
So there you have it, my Monday Made Its! I’ll be back later today or tomorrow to share a few things I’ve been working on for my classroom, as well as my plan to tackle creating my language arts curriculum for the first few weeks.
Update: Head on over to this post to see what I added to my “encouraging lightbulb moments” packet and re-download it at my TPT store!

My Ruby Red Danskos + A Freebie!

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I wish. I totally wish I had a pair of ruby Danskos, or that this post was about me finding out they even make a pair of ruby Danskos — nope! This post is actually about my metaphorical ruby Danskos, or what a day in my life was like as a student teacher.
For reference, these would be the actual Danskos (my feet are so big and awkward I have to buy the men’s) that graced my soles:
5:00 a.m. – Alarm goes off, depending on how much sleep I’ve gotten (assuming I’ve gone to sleep at all, hah!) I may or may not hit snooze. I shower/get dressed/put finishing touches on lesson plans and materials.
6:45 a.m. – Wheels up and out of the driveway.
8:00 a.m. – Drop William off at daycare. (Depending on traffic, we have about an hour commute to his daycare!)
8:30 a.m. – I get dropped off at my school and Mr. Plum drives to his two miles away. (Both of us completed our internship at the same time — a mere two miles apart in the same school district!)
8:45 a.m. – Shovel a hardboiled egg down while writing the morning message and laying out the days’ materials.
9:05 a.m. – Kiddos walk in, announcements start, and I pretend I am well-rested and totally energetic!
9:25 a.m. – Language Arts block starts; guided reading happens, center rotations, mini-lessons, etc. We do a big word study focus on Monday, and then are pretty flexible the rest of the week.
11:25 a.m. – Science or social studies starts, depending on the day. About half the time these two subjects gets integrated with language arts, which I loved doing.
12:20 p.m. – Time for lunch! I drop the kiddos off, heat up my lunch (assuming I didn’t leave it in the car — which is two miles away — d’oh!) and eat lunch with the kiddos and my cooperating teacher.
12:50 p.m. – We head out for recess (and I try not to burn with my near-translucent skin).
1:20 p.m. – We head inside and start math, and try not to roast like chicken in our un-air-conditioned hotbox. Sometimes we’d do centers or small group, but this bunch of kiddos responded best to whole-group math instruction.
2:20 p.m. – SPECIALS TIME! I do a happy dance and hope the kiddos don’t see.
3:05 p.m. – I pick ’em up from specials, we wrap up with some fun activities, and do a few administrative tasks (notes, signing agendas, reviewing homework, afternoon annoucements, etc.).
3:30 p.m. – I wave bye-bye and get some much-appreciated hugs from the kiddos.
4:30 p.m. – Mr. Plum picks me up, and we swap war stories from the day on the way to pick up William.
5:00 p.m. – We pick up William, he immediately demands snacks, and we oblige. If we’ve remembered them. Hopefully.
6:15 p.m. – We roll into the driveway, and immediately collapse. Just kidding.
7:00 p.m. – We eat dinner… well, William eats dinner. Mr. Plum and I just try and stay awake. I most certainly drink coffee.
9:00 p.m. – William hopefully is in his room, putting himself to sleep. I’m starting to sift through my massive to-do list, finish writing another four page lesson plan (torture, I tell you!), grade student papers, and write a reflection for each lesson I taught that day.
12:00 a.m. – Snack break. I’m probably on my second episode of Hoarders on Netflix by now.
2:00 a.m. – Generally finished creating/writing and printing, and now just laminating. I’ve moved on from Hoarders, and am probably watching Toddlers and Tiaras so that my outrage keeps me awake.
2:45 a.m. – Finally in bed. Usually.
By the time the weekend hit, both my husband and I were beat. Totally wiped out. When I look back on my final semester of graduate school, I honestly marvel at how we did it because the entire thing was one long blur. I do remember thinking about mid-way through that the days were just melting together and that it was best to “go with the flow.”

One thing is for certain — the experience solidified just how much I love this profession and could not possibly do anything else for the joy it has given me. Despite the complete and utter sleep deprivation (which I know everyone has experienced — a rite of passage!), I never wanted to give up. I never felt like the tasks before me were insurmountable, or dread getting up in the morning. That was a great feeling.

Now it’s your turn — tell me about a day in your shoes! Head on over to Ingles360 and link up as a part of TBA’s celebration of International Blog-Hopping Day!
And while you’re at it, you may as well head on over to my TPT store to grab this:
I’m celebrating with TBA by posting another freebie from my stint during student teaching! This freebie is a teacher “big book” and student booklet that can be used as basic reference or review for plane and solid geometric figures.
Do you have a freebie you’d like to share? Head on over to Kreative in Kinder to link up and share one!
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