Summer Lovin'

Like "Sister 3" (Amy) said, we are working hard on getting back into the blogging world and creating new products for our store.  All three of us have been busy enjoying summer...I am sure you would agree, it goes by WAY. TOO. FAST.  Does the calendar really say August already?!?

My summer has consisted of sun and fun, lots of reading, and of course shopping!  We finally got sod and sprinklers at our new house.  I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was the day the sod finally went in.  I was very sick of looking at our "dirt" yard.  When did I get so old that SOD excites me?  Now if I only had a pool in the backyard already.....(sigh).

We also celebrated our first wedding anniversary!  What a huge accomplishment (yes I said only 1 year!!)! :)  I love my husband to pieces but year 1 is filled with lots of compromise. Let's face it...anyone who doesn't admit that along with happiness, excitement, and fun-- year 1 also has some adjustments...is lying.  We decided we needed a vacation-celebration!  I mean who wouldn't?  I am not sure where I saw this but it pretty much sums up our motto:

We headed to Florida for 10 days.  We spend the first few in Orlando and stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal.  I am totally a Disney fanatic so Universal was fun but didn't compare and isn't the park that has my heart!  The hotel on the other hand was amazing!

After leaving Orlando, we headed for the beach to finish out our anniversary trip.  If you follow us on Instagram, you saw some pictures of the beautiful Clearwater Beach.  We had a few days of rain but found lots of frivolous shopping to do in Tampa.  The rest of the trip was sunny and super hot!  What an amazing trip with lots of great memories made.

I have been continuing my shopping spree since we have been home...buying lots of good stuff for the house.  I don't like a lot of clutter and "knick knacks" but my house needs some "flair."  Here are a few good things I picked up at Pier One just this week!  I am borderline obsessed with teal/turquoise!

They also opened a Kirkland store close by where I live. There are a few in the area but none were close enough to stop by regularly (which was probably good).  I picked up a few pieces of  Halloween décor....hey might as well get a head start!

In between all of this, I have found time for relaxing in the Michigan sun!  It's been pretty beautiful here the last few weeks.  I have a few good friends with pools and have been spending lots of time enjoying fun summer cocktails while soaking up some summer sunshine.  I have also started trying Zumba classes!  I have a friend who goes religiously and has not stopped asking me to join in this summer.  Finally I gave in this week....and I have to admit I love it!  Do any of you Zumba?

Most importantly, I have been working hard on adding products to our TPT store!  I have quite a few new things started and finally uploaded the first two completed things!  I know Amy blogged about a Sub Pack freebie for you all on Wednesday!  Well I just uploaded our first ever - upper elementary sub pack!  This pack uses a picture book called Just a Dream by Chris Van Allsburg.  It is from our 5th grade genre unit.  Check it out if you teach upper el or know someone who could use a great sub tub filler.  You can find it here.

I also recently added an informational text pack on Turtles!  Our kiddos always seem to LOVE learning about any kind of animals.  I even learned a lot making this pack!  I can't wait to use it this coming school year.

Speaking of....what is your countdown to back to school?


Have a great day!
~Tina (Sister 1)



The Where and Why of our Classrooms

Well..we are a day behind but are linking up with our WHERE and WHY along with Blog Hoppin'.

Our classrooms are coming together with a few days left before we report for PD next week.  Tina decided to switch her theme this year.  She's had a cute movie theme for the last couple of years and decided to go with some black fabric backgrounds and bright colors.  It's coming along great!

Amy's room has blue paper backgrounds and some pops of color as well.  We are very lucky to have big, open rooms!

As for me, I am sticking with my same theme as last year.  I bought a pack from Hope King and loved the way it looked with my black backgrounds...so why mess up a good thing, right?!  I still have to add a few things, but I like to put kids work up during the first couple of days of school to decorate it a little more.

We've decided to show you how we stay organized with our Classroom Library.  This is Amy's room.  She's moved her bookshelves into this new, cute spot this summer!  

The CUTEST part of this pic is her sweet little love snoozing away while mama works!  What a doll.

Here are a sample of the book bins.  They are labeled by theme.

All of the books are then labeled with a small sticker that has the basket number.  This allows for students to easily place the books back where they found them every single time!  LOL Wishful thinking.

And I'm off...going to go check out the BOOST sale on TpT one last time before bed.  We've posted several new units this week including a bundle of EMERGENCY SUB PACKS.  Grab them quick for a great deal!

Sub Packs

Sorry about our slight hiatus... The sisters and I are on winter break.
How many of you are on winter break too? 

I know the sisters started their breaks the fun way, skiing and whatnot! However, I spent the first half of my break writing papers for my masters program.  I'm going to end my week up north, snowmobiling!

Here's a view of my winter paradise.

I know we blog about sub packs ALL the time. But, I think we've found our niche.  We might be a little obsessed... but they are fun for us to make.  PLUS, They make days away from school easy breezy. 

We've prepped 9 days away from the classroom!  Each pack is centered around a picture book.  They include reading, writing, and math lessons.  Some include social studies and science however some books don't lend to that.  Check them our at our TPT store.  Once you've got your pack all you have to do is pull out the picture book and make the copies.

I like to keep mine in my sub tub. Each pack is kept in its own ziplock baggie, to keep everything organized.  This way if I'm ever unexpectedly out my sisters know where to find my plans. Quick, easy and worry free!  Our subs have left great feedback about them. You really can't go wrong.

Below are all the packs we offer.    

1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8

Look for Where the Wild Things Are in our TPT store soon!

I'm putting the finishing touches on it tonight. :)

Snow Day!

Last night, as soon as we finished Soup and Sandwich Sunday (a weekly tradition in my house) the snow started to fall! I thought, "This is starting tooo early, come back around midnight."  But to my surprise we got that call that ALL teachers look forward too... Yep! That's right, we have a snow day!  The roads are a snowy, icy mess.  So I snuggled back into my bed, it's so nice to sleep in on a Monday morning.

I thought I'd give you a little update on what we've been up too.  Sister 1 has been diligently working on another sub pack!  This one is based on Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. 

Here's a little author's purpose freebie that I've been working on!  We're going to be doing this tomorrow with our kiddies. 

I'm off to play in the snow! ;)

Can December Get Any Crazier?!?

Hello all!  What a crazy few weeks!!  Last week we had our first set of parent-teacher conferences!  Not that I need to tell all of you this...but what an exhausting few days!  I love meeting with my parents...I tend to talk too much and run over time....but I do enjoy it!  However I feel like I should bring an air mattress and camp out at school!  I would probably get more rest!  Then of course the weekend was busy with everything that keeps us all "too busy" in our non-teacher lives!  Next, this week starts with a substitute on Monday for an RTI committe meeting!  Are you kidding me?!? The week after conferences AND two days before my first observation of the year?!?   Sounds nutty but I found the PERFECT way to make my life just a tiny bit easier.  I wanted to concentrate on planning and prepping for my observation and sub plans were the last thing I wanted to spend hours on.  So...I used one of our Sister Secrets Sub Packs from TPT.  What a LIFESAVER!!  It made planning for a substitute so much easier and guess what?  My class LOVED it!  They couldn't say enough about all of the fun things "the sub had them do."   I chose to do Moostache, which you can find here if you want to check it out too!  This pack comes complete with a whole day of activities to do after reading the story Moosetache.   I had them start by making a folder out of construction paper that they could keep all of their activities in!  The sub showed them the cover, had them write the title and author, and then illustrate it to match!  Then the sub was free to set her own pace for the day with activities for all areas of the curriculum.  Just a few things that they did were a story map, an adjective activity, math story problems, and an adorable activity called  "Moosetache Me!"  Here is a peek at how their folders turned out and some of what was inside when the day was over!

What do you think?  Turned out pretty cute I think and they learned so much from one story!!  Most importantly it gave me a little stress relief between two busy weeks!

If you like our Moosetache sub pack...check out Knuffle Bunny and Miss Nelson is Missing too!

And now for some rest so I can recharge for some Christmas shopping this weekend!  

TGIF....have a great weekend! :)

~Sister 1