I'm pretty much a professional procrastinator. So just in case we're kindred spirits, I've got some fun, free stuff you might be able to use this week. Or you know, next year...

I've shared most of this before, so you may already have it. Sometimes you just need to see it again to jog your memory. I made one big file with everything you see below so you don't have to click click here, click click there, here a click, there a click...well - you get it.  So click here (last time, promise)

These task cards make great discussion starters or writing prompts.

Everything you need to play this subtraction game is included - you'll just need some extra counter manipulatives or bottle caps.

These make a SUPER fast and cheap gift for your kids.

 Cut them out and stick them to a ruler and call it done!

Use this holiday themed word work for a bell ringer or homework.

Of course - BUMP is back for February!

See this post to learn a bit more about this February word shaker. So fun!

And in the non-free department for this month, my February Math Mats are ready! I know I'm partial because I made these and all, but seriously they are so easy to prep and really provide the kids with some great practice. See the second grade set here and first grade here.

I would have had this post up earlier, but I spent this past weekend in North Carolina working with some of my amazing friends and the team at Carson Dellosa. More on that really soon.

Happy Hearts & Flowers Day, my friends!

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This week's theme is Valentine's Day! I'm a big mushball romantic, so I love this holiday. I hope it's controversy-free enough that you all can celebrate it with your class!

And now...my Featured Five to get the party started:

Stephanie at Falling into First has this super adorable monkey craft that I just had to share. I saw this little guy in the planning stages and let's just say that at first his tail placement posed a bit of a unique problem. I'm glad to see she figured it out! Click here to check it out.

Next up is my friend Hadar over at Miss Kindergarten with two new craftivities (don't you love how we made that a real word?) These are great because they don't require hours of pattern cutting and tons of supplies. And they're just dang adorable! Click here to see more.

This beautiful banner comes from my superwoman friend Jen over at The Teacher's Cauldron. Seriously, she rocks it out at the teaching stuff AND the mommy stuff!  AND she exercises. AND cooks! I get tired just hearing about her day. Click here to see her step by step directions for the banner she made in her spare time ;)

This next share isn't a product or craft, but it's so worth mentioning. It's a new blog dedicated to helping children's cancer centers. Click here to learn more about Cupids for Cancer. I just love the little falling hearts on the blog!

And my final featured five this week a party pack that I'm planning on using from Sandy at Soaring through Second. It's a party set up as learning stations that all have a valentine/heart theme. It's all common core related and the math has a great measurement activity which we're studying right now. Click here to check it out! Her post also has a fun freebie at the end.

Now I'm going to cheat and add a sixth thing! Tracee over at Mrs. Orman's Classroom has a great linky party filled with freebies. Check that out here!

As always, any blogger is welcome to link up to the party! The only rule is that it must be a blog post about Valentine's Day and it must include the button below that links back here.  Yes, you can feature a freebie, paid product or just a cool idea. If you have a suggestion for future Show and Tell Tuesdays, leave me a comment and let me know!

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Today the teacher blog community is honoring the loss of one of our own, Pam Woods of The Vintage Teacher. Pam was a passionate educator, loyal blogger and enthusiastic supporter and friend of so many. One of her favorite blog events was her weekly Five Friday Freebies round-up. I remember being so flattered as a very newbie blogger when Pam first contacted me to ask my permission to share a freebie. It was her intention to spread the love of teaching and blogging to as many as possible. I, for one, will never forget her kindness.



So today, you may see her blog button pop up all around the bloggerverse. When you do, please send a little love to Pam, who is surely resting peacefully and watching us all from above. Her family has requested that her entire TN and TpT stores be made free to all teachers. Teachers Notebook has honored that request. You can visit her store here and you can also leave a message for the family on Pam's last blog post here.





In honor of Pam, here is a Friday Freebie for you. It's a Valentine edition of my Weekly Word Wizard activities, just click on the picture to download.  Enjoy and hug your loved ones just a little bit tighter tonight <3. We miss you, Pam.

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Well this week was CrAzY! It went something like this: Day off, meeting, bad news, migraine, meeting, good news, teach one day, migraine, teach half a day, fun luncheon, painful massage, great news, planning day, sucky news, great date night with hubs. And now you're up to speed. Sound familiar to any of you? In reality, this is just kind of normal life, right? It just seemed to be a little more magnified than usual. Fortunately, the good news seriously outweighed all the bad news and the migraine is gone (for now, shh...I don't want him to find me!)

In between all the save the drama for your mama moments, I did manage to make a fun freebie to share with you! Honestly, that's kind of my therapy. When I can sit down at my trusty mac and play with fonts and graphics and think about holidays and fun stuff to do with the kids...all the stress of the day seems to disappear. I made cards like this back in October and they were a big hit, so I decided to make another set.

These are just fun little cards that have facts about different events in February and then pose a question. I like to hole punch these and put them on a ring. Then if I have a few extra minutes to fill, I grab the ring and read a card for a quick discussion. It never fails that a kid will ask if they can take the ring and read it to themselves & of course they can! I try to remember those kids and then ask them if they'd like to be the teacher and read a card to the class - talk about giving a kid an ego boost!

Just click on the picture above to download your set free from TpT or from GoogleDocs {HERE} Enjoy!

In other kind of exciting news, I'm starting a newsletter! It's something I've wanted to do for a super long time. If you subscribe by adding your email address to the sign up box below, you'll receive the Sunny Side Up newsletter once a month. (Is the title too corny?). In the newsletter I'll include tips and ideas and (here's the exciting part...) a freebie that will be offered exclusively to newsletter subscribers!

I'm using a great service that will not fill up your inbox with junk and I promise to send just one newsletter a month. Well, unless something super fun and exciting pops up and I just have to, have to, have to tell you right away! And P.S. I'm not 100% sure about the Sunny Side Up name...feel free to leave me a comment with your thoughts. If you have a better suggestion and I pick yours, I'll thank you with a free item of your choice from my TpT store!

See you soon, my friends!

Subscribe to the Sunny Side Up Newsletter!

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I'm trying to move past the insane idea that I'm already thinking about Valentine's Day and planning activities for St. Patrick's Day when Christmas was just like two days ago. So, what better way to move ahead than with a fun freebie!? I mentioned that my pile o'plastic crap is threatening to topple over and potentially bury me under itself, so I've made it a goal of mine to actually use it up. For this one, I used one of the 12 (eek!) empty juice jars I have collected to make another one of my rice shaker activities.

If you're new around here, check out my synonym shaker {HERE} and my antonym shaker {HERE}.
Those posts also cover some of the how-to's, like coloring the rice, which I may or may not be a little addicted to.

I do have some helpful hints to pass along. I was dying my rice with vinegar, which is what I had on hand. It works well, but it is stinky. I bought some alcohol for this batch and it works pretty much just the same, but it doesn't stink nearly as much and it was dry in about an hour. Also, I noticed when my kids were using the antonym shaker, the word cards were getting all bunched up in the neck of the bottle. They didn't have that problem with the synonym shaker. When I compared them I saw how much less rice was in the synonym shaker...that's the only difference, so that's go to be why.

So...here's the new addition to the shaker fam! Isn't she cute?

She's all pink and heart-y! This activity is a little different. Inside the bottle are 21 words that fit into three categories: Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, and Presidents Day. The kids will shake up the bottle and when they find a word, they'll have to decide which category the word best fits into. The word "holiday" is also in there as a bonus word that would fit into all of the categories.

The freebie file contains everything you'll need, besides the rice and juice of course :)
Just click on the picture below to download it from GoogleDocs.

Have fun shakin it up!

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