MEMORIAL DAY SALE

Memorial Day Sale!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone! I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful 3-day weekend with your families spending some time relaxing and settling into your summertime routine! In honor of the holiday, several of us are having Memorial Day Sales starting Sunday! We'd love for you to check out our TpT stores and see what goodies you can grab at great discounted prices! My sale runs Sunday-Tuesday! Check out these other amazing bloggers /teacher friends below for their sale information! You can also grab some great freebies while you are there at our stores! I plan to post several freebies over the summer and I know these ladies are always offering something special!!!

Thanks again bloggy friends!

Have a fabulous holiday weekend!!

Always,

Melissa

Carson-Dellosa Giveaway Winner Announced

Sorry for the delay- It has been a hectic week. It’s graduation time.

Thank you all for entering the giveaway and for the wonderful comments.

Always,

Melissa

Updated items for my "year round" friends

I have had several requests for

updated versions of my

calendar and monthly storage bin tags.

The calendar now includes July 2012-July 2013

{Click Here to download}

My monthly storage bins now include a separate

July & August

{Click Here to download labels}

Please feel free to pin any of my new organization helpers onto Pinterest. Just add my blog www.mrsfreshwatersclass.com in the comments. (Thank You)

Don’t forget to enter my giveaway today thru Wednesday. One lucky winner will receive a Summer Bridges program from Carson-Dellosa.

New labels and classroom freebies will be coming all summer. Make sure to follow me to get the latest updates!!!!

Thank you for your continued support on TPT!! You’re all amazing.

Always,

Melissa

Teaming up with Carson-Dellosa

As teachers, I know you have experienced the effects of summer learning loss first hand. Did you know that students can lose up to 2.5 months of learning throughout the summer.

The researchers at Carson-Dellosa have discovered that teachers usually spend at least 2 weeks – some closer to 4 weeks – re-teaching key skills that students have lost over the summer break!! This makes for a very difficult back-to-school transition, but guess what Carson-Dellosa has found a way to help prevent this loss.

Their Summer Bridges Program!!

Carson-Dellosa and I are teaming up to give one lucky winner a summer bridges giveaway packet that is designed to help parents encourage learning all throughout the summer and to help make the back-to-school transition much easier.

SUMMER BRIDGES GIVEWAWAY PACKET

To enter the giveaway

all you have to do is  leave a comment

stating that you follow  me and tell me how

you plan to help your students “retain” what

they have learned all year. 

Giveaway will run from

Sunday, May 20th to Wednesday, May 23rd

Only one comment per person (make sure you follow me and leave a comment about how you plan to help your students/parents retain key skills learned all year.)

Good Luck

Always,

Melissa

P.S. To Check Out Carson-Dellosa {Click Here}

Staying on track with my calendar

Last year I was introduced to pinterest during the last week of school. During my vacation, I was quickly addicted to pinning and had to actually hide my phone to try to stay away. While exploring the site, I came across an adorable binder from Mrs. Pollard at Tales of a Teacherista. She was gracious enough to adapt it to fit my theme and share it with me. (Thank you Thank you Thank you) I was immediately hooked and loved my new “organizational binder” As I was filling in my numerous events and meetings for the month of May, I quickly realized that my calendar would soon end. (Let’s just say I went into PANIC mode!)

Luckily, pinterest saved the day!! I cam across a pin from Leslie of Kindergarten Works. It was a similar calendar to the one I used for the 2011-2012 school year. I got brave while at the computer and decided to try and create my own using my 2012-2013 color scheme. Leslie was gracious enough to allow me to post my “color” version for you!! If you want more “great” ideas about Leslie’s “binder basics” head over to Kindergarten Works. (Trust me this is a post you will all want to read- tell her Mrs. Freshwater sent you!!)

Here is my freebie Color Calendar Version. I hope you enjoy!!! Since, I am headed to a regular education classroom for the 2012-2013 look for additional binder forms in the future.

 

I loved this calendar and utilized it all year in my classroom. I was able to map out the year (holidays, CE days, trainings, etc) and keep track of weekly meetings, school events, etc.

Always, Melissa

Organizing Monthly Supplies

How do you keep your monthly supplies organized? I have had so many emails and comments regarding this, that it has been somewhat overwhelming. I figured their were more teachers out there like me who were starting to pack up to move or trying to get ahead of the game and begin organizing their monthly supplies.

I’m not sure if there is a right or wrong way to organize, but I am planning on organizing my items in/out of my room by month. I figured I would purchase 10 matching bins. (Oh no, does this warrant a trip to Target or Big Lots? Shhh don’t tell my hubby!)

I plan on labeling the bins with these “polka dot labels” I created. Love the bright colors!!

I plan on storing my monthly supplies in each bin

Here is a sample of some of my monthly themes

August/September: back to school, apples,

October: Halloween, Open House, Scarecrows, Monster, etc.

November: Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, 50th Day

December: Gingerbread, Grinch, Reindeer, Christmas, Elf

January: New Year’s, Polar Bear, MLK, Penguins, Chinese New Year

February: Dental Health, Groundhog’s Day, Mardi Gras, Valentine’s Day, 100th Day

March: Dr. Seuss, St. Patrick’s Day

April: Easter, Earth Day

May: Cinco De Mayo, Mother’s Day, Butterflies

June: Carnival, Beach, Luau

I plan on keeping my themes/holidays separated with XL Ziploc Baggies (Love these- Use theme to store my bulletin board supplies and yearly classroom themes)

I have seen teacher’s keep their “monthly” theme box down the entire month (slide it under a table or keep it in the corner) That way you can have supplies readily available at your fingertips, plus you can put any new “cute” craftivity items you make in the bin. I think keeping it down for the entire month is a great way to keep everything together and to assist you to stay organized all throughout the year. (Let’s face it we all find a  straggling art project or center here and there.)

Would you like a copy of my “MONTHLY STORAGE” LABELS?

{Click Here}

Always,

Melissa

 

How Do you Keep It Together

I have had several requests about organizing and keeping it all together. I think this is one of the hardest things of being a teacher. We are constantly purchasing/acquiring many different items for our classroom and students. Who doesn’t love the dollar tree or target dollar spot. My husband calls me a pack rat a.k.a “beginning hoarder”. I have a fetish with buying items-“ heck it’s only a dollar!” and with bins/baskets. I can NEVER have enough bins. I am constantly looking for new colors to coordinate with my theme items. Currently, I have a pink, turquoise, and lime color scheme going on, but I am thinking about adding some purple and orange for next year. (Just depends on how my summer acquisition of new items goes!)

I have tried many different ways to organize and this is what I have found to be the easiest for me. I purchased the 3-drawer Sterilite bins from Wal-mart 

 

and stacked them to make a great storage unit by my desk. I have my monthly supplies and key necessities right at my fingertips.

For my supplies I purchased shoe box bins from the Dollar Tree (You can buy them by the case qty=48)

I keep all of my art supplies, classroom supplies, and manipulatives in these bins. I am in the process of re-organizing and re-labeling my supplies for my move from sped to a regular classroom. You can click on the pictures/links below to grab my new supply labels (for FREE) that I have created to date. (More to come as I clean and organize)

Art Supply Labels

Math Manipulative Labels

Supply Labels 

I hope you ENJOY

Always,

 Melissa

Coming Soon

Library Labels

Monthly (Bin) Labels

Literacy Supply Labels

The time has come…

Well, the time has finally come. It’s time to begin the dreaded cleaning, re-organizing, and packing of my room. This will be my fourth move in four years-Oh My! Oh My! I have taken the plunge and bid into a regular classroom position. I have mixed emotions about leaving my current position because I adore the people I work with and love the kiddos. I will be moving to a second grade classroom. Everyone has told me this is the “perfect” grade. Luckily, I will remain in the same building and will work with an amazing team. ( I hope they are patient as I will probably have a zillion questions!)

I have begun to clean out my cabinets and re-organize (Yes, I wrote “re-organize”!!! I am a pretty organized person but I wanted to spruce up my labels.) I am starting slowly but I wanted to share my “new” art supply labels with you. I decided to stick with black and white polka dots since that is one of favorite things! (Love me some polka dots!!)

You can {click here} or the picture to download

Coming Soon

Math Labels

Literacy Labels

Library Labels

Always,

Melissa

Sweet Treat Bucket Filler

Last night as I was feeling glum (it’s my son’s last day of high school today!) I opened an email from a sweet tpt buyer.

This is what Amy had to say about my “Sweet Treats” Unit:

Hi Melissa,

I just wanted to let you know that my kids LOVED your Sweet Treats Unit. We have used it this week to review kindergarten skills. The kids had free choice of which centers they wanted to do each day and could pick the partners that they wanted to work with as long as they were getting along. It has been the greatest last week of school in my 18 years. They are totally engaged in what they are doing and having a great time - all while I am getting things accomplished. We have had a "Sweet Treat" every day for our end-of-the-day snack. *I know the people at the grocery store think I really like ice cream b/c on Sunday night I bought 20 fudge bars, 20 Dreamsicles, 20 bomb pops, 20 ice cream bars, and all the stuff to make 20 ice cream sundaes! Thanks again for a wonderful packet of materials!
:) Amy

Amy even shared a few pictures!!!

Thank you again for being so sweet!!

You all can grab my “Sweet Treat” Unit {HERE}

Always,

Melissa

P.S> Amy Thanks for filling my bucket on an evening when I needed a little “pick me up”

Lucky Winners

Email me at mfresh2@aol.com

• Lesa Moore
• Linda May
• Jennifer @ Keys4Education

Thank you all for entering my giveaway!!!

Always,

Melissa

Reading Focus Walls

Hope everyone has been having a fabulous week. I know I had a bonus yesterday (Day Off- Wooo Hooo!!! I got a bunch of things crossed off my checklist, but still feel like I have a zillion more things to do!)

While, surfing the net yesterday, I came across a few adorable Reading Focus Walls. I “love” the idea, but wanted to know who actually utilizes these wonderful boards?

Do your students reference the boards all through the week?

When do you change?

How do you store weekly units?

Ms. Leslie Ann from Life in 1st Grade

has my favorites (I think it’s the colors)

Here is her frog theme from 2010-2011

Just curious how many of my bloggy friends use a FOCUS Wall in their classroom.

Always,

Melissa

Another yummy treat for YOU!!

I am having fun with my newest writing craftivities 

I can’t seem to get enough of them.

I had a request for an

ice cream

theme math and writing activity and this what I came up with.

There are three different ways that I thought you could utilize this activity. You can have students count/tally, complete fraction, or use as a money counting activity. I have included everything you need from templates, coins graphics, journal pages, etc. All you have to do is print.

I think this would be a “great” year end bulletin board!!

“I Scream, You Scream,

We All Scream for

Ice Cream”

I am giving away three copies of my new writing activities. I will pick three different winners. (You can choose which math & writing activity you want!)

To enter:

follow my blog and follow my TPT store

Leave a comment below that you follow both.

For an additional entry advertise this giveaway on your blog or FB page. Leave the link in the comment.

The giveaway will run from

Tuesday, May 8th to Saturday, May 12th.

Good Luck,

Melissa