What Keeps Me Afloat?

My girls bloggin over at Owl-ways Be Inspired have come up with a genius idea. They've asked all the other Owl bloggers to share some of the resources that we really depend on in our room. What a great time to share this too, considering there's a big sale on TpT Thursday and Friday. {As if my wish list wasn't already long enough...}

For me, this was easy. I have three things of my own that I've really come to rely on. First are my Monthly Printable Packs. I first started making these a few years ago and they keep evolving. In fact, I've even been slowing changing over the name to Ready, Set, Print! for each month. I just finished the March update which added about 10 new pages, including a bulletin board pattern, title, and printable. I've also been adding Common Core standards to each page as applicable for grades 1-3 to help with planning and documenting. This is one reason why I won't be bundling these packs. I just keep updating and adding more and more, so updating the pack and the bundle as well might just put me over the edge!

These really come in handy for sub plans, early finishers, homework supplements, and morning work. I've been adding some independent research projects, reading comprehension, and complete writing activities. Yup, these are a life saver.

Here are the links to each month: Back to School, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June and July

Next, I'd have to say I'm super in love with the printable companions I've started adding to my monthly writing task cards. I've had these task cards for a really long time, but I wasn't always happy with the results the kids were producing when working on them. I would notice them taking a crazy amount of time to set up the paper leaving little time for the actual writing. So now, they have a printable journal with the topics right inside! They match the task cards, but I honestly haven't been using them since I have the companions. I been choosing about 10 topics from the printable companion, stapling them into little books and using them as a teaching opportunity. We brainstorm together, turn and talk about ideas, model, and then they write and share. I've been careful about mixing up the activities to include all different forms of writing to make it fun and meaningful. I only wish I had done this back in August! 

Easy links to each month: Back to School, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June

These are bundled:  The printable companion is NOT in the bundles (yet!) but if you buy the bundle, just email me and I'll send the completed ones to you. Bundle One & Bundle Two.

And finally, number three would have to be my monthly bulletin board banners. There are at least 2 for each month and they can easily be done in class or sent home for a project. No prep is involved and your work display for the month is done in a snap! I have a clothesline across my window where these usually go making a nice bunting, but shooting a picture into the light when they're hung up has been a total disaster, so here's an idea of how they look laid out on my table. They're on tpt HERE.

They're formatted to print on legal, but they come out just fine on letter size. In fact, the ones above are letter sized. Sometimes I cut colored construction paper to size which makes them really pop.

There are some other really amazing products keeping me afloat that are created by incredibly talented girls who I now call my friends. All of their blogs are linked up below where they are all sharing their must-haves. You will not regret hopping around to visit them. Each of us is also throwing a little giveaway, like a little party favor for visiting. Here on my blog, just enter using the Rafflecopter widget below for a free product of your choice from my store.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up