Easy to Read Fonts for TPT Sellers

I am always on the lookout for the perfect font to use! I guess you could call me a font addict. I seriously have hundreds in my collection! My favorites and most-used are always the ones that are easiest for my kiddos, and anyone for that matter, to read!

In my classroom, I am a stickler for neatness and good penmanship as I think it shows pride in work quality. As often as possible, I like to have neatness represented on the printables I make for my class too. But sometimes, you just need a fun font- especially as an attention grabber in a heading or title.

After weeks of work drawing, squinting, sighing, loving, not loving, redoing, accidentally deleting, eye-rolling, rejoicing (Can you see me?)... line by line, my newest font collection is finally ready for the big reveal! I am very excited about it and I hope you like it too!

I call this these easy reader fonts. Some of them are shown on the cover. 

They will be perfect for the littles, especially those just learning to read.

Kid Fonts ABCD are the same font in different weights from light to medium to bold. That option is nice when you want to keep a consistent font throughout a document but add emphasis to certain sections.

These fonts are a little more whimsical, but still have that easy readability.

This new collection is a forever bundle because your purchase entitles you to free updates as new fonts are added. 

The fonts are available for both personal and commercial use.

If you'd like to see more you can find them here.

St. Patrick's Day Party Treats!

It's always fun to add a little treat to any holiday celebration in the classroom! I usually give the option to parents to send something in if they like. The parents this year went all out! They are just the best!

There were tons of grapes, a few different kinds of cookies and even some pickles! 

 Share your fun ideas or cute treats!

Clip Art on a Budget, Pin it Winners and a Freebie!

You get what you pay for~ so the saying goes! That is usually true for most things, but I am here to let you in on a way to add cute on a budget! The most challenging and time-consuming part of my latest project was finding the perfect graphics to represent events in Laura Numeroff books which are wildly creative!

While on my search for these unique images, like a carousel horse with a purple mane, I discovered a few shops with really cute, high-quality CU clip art.  Many have instant downloads available which is a definite plus for me. I just hate waiting for sets to be sent by email especially when I am on a roll!

If you are looking for a single graphic and don't want to spend a lot on a complete set for just one image you will use, check out

Digi Web Studio and Colorful Clipart (many $1.00 sets and digital stamps too)
Sweet Clip Art ( new TOU and CU with a small donation of as little as 25 cents!)

Of course, I will always rely on the work from my favorite artists~ Creative Clips, Ashley Hughes, Pink Cat Studio, Melonheadz and KPM Doodles, just to name a few! These fabulous graphics are worth every penny but it's always nice to get them on sale! KPM Doodles is running a 50% off special right now. Melonheadz is offering exclusive sets with purchase too, so hurry on over for the promo codes!

Giveaway Winners

It's time to announce the winners of the Pin it to Win it! Congratulations go out to:

Yashika
Denise F.
Amanda P.
Karen M.

They each get to pick out a sequencing set of their choice!

I'm feeling the Pinterest love this week! It's so exciting to see my shop, blog or TPT creations on teacher boards!  My new sequencing card activities for the Laura Numeroff books have been Pinned over 250 times in just 4 days! That is just incredible friends! Thanks so much for helping to spread the word and let other teachers know about the new sets!

As a thank you to all who played along and for my wonderful readers, here's a little flash freebie for you that is hot off the press! You can see the horse with the purple mane for yourself!

Just click on the picture to take you to the download!

Hope it was a super weekend!

Marshmallow Bunny Center Winners!

Congrats to lovely ladies, Julie, Michelle and Liz! Check your emails for the marshmallow bunnies fact family center!I hope your class will think it's sweet! If you missed out on this one, you can head over to my TPT shop and check it out!

I'm working on a new telling time to five minute intervals activity! I can't wait to share it with you! :) I tried it out today and the class had a rockin' good time around the clock!

The Best Valentine's Day Party and a Winner!

It was not the most creative party I have ever had, but I got to plan this one alone and it was the calmest and most organized one yet! In the words of one student, "It was the best day ever!" I love when they say that!

Every year, I get wiser and simplify my parties and activities a little. Too much excitement just sets my little ones up for failure with self-control. They really can't help it! The students were much more calm and had just as much fun as when there are a million crafts and games and tons of food and sweet treats.

Valentine's Day was filled with theme-related learning activities and projects. Here are a few things we did:

an estimation station

 candy heart toss for sums to 20

candy heart graphing

These are from my candy math pack.

 Each student had a dixie cup I filled ahead of time.

Here's a storage tip~ 30 bathroom cups fit perfectly in this Sterilite container (Walmart). It comes with a lid to keep counters like this clean until you are ready to use them. 

This year, we wrapped cereal boxes in white paper (twice) and I added the belly to the pandas to hide the box design that wanted to peek through. In the past I had spent around 30 dollars ( and a lot of time running around to craft stores) on white bags and the boxes worked out just fine with the patterns I had.

A few students at a time passed out their valentines while the others waited with their mailbox on their desk. This went well and gave each child a chance to thank their classmates and actually see what they were getting. 

When this was finished, the students opened, read and sorted their valentines. At their seat was a recording sheet my teammate had shared. This was the best idea ever! I'm not sure of the source, but it was genius!  The kids had to record how many of their cards had animals on them, how many came with candy attached, how many were folded in half and a few others too. They loved this!

While all this was going on, a few volunteers ran the activities in the shared area outside of the classroom.

We enjoyed one simple treat. The office provides a tray of these cookies for every class. They were huge, so nothing more was needed. Perfect.

We added red and silver glitter to our owls and our room looked very festive! 

The students listened to Arthur's Valentine and watched Charlie Brown Valentine while the volunteers and I cleaned up the very little mess afterward. 

 However... I have to admit, I was envious when I saw this masterpiece!

This was a Dairy Queen ice cream cake donated from a parent for the party in the classroom next to mine. The envy quickly faded to relief. I was thankful I did not have to keep it cold, cut it and serve it or clean it up. But they did share a piece with me and it was THE BEST!

Hope your party was lots of fun too!

Congratulations to Jaime P. who won the owl set and five items of her choice from my shop! Thanks to everyone who played along too! It's always nice to hear your comments!

I'll be gone for a while this week to Kalahari Water Resort! I've never been there before and am looking forward to a fun little getaway with the family! I wish it was sunny and 85 inside the water park :)!

 Michigan winter pale skin + bathing suit = trip to the tanning salon tomorrow

6 +1 Traits and Santa Letters

Oh the excitement was in the air today at school! The children had a hard time keeping it all together but they did it! 

Today the class brainstormed ideas about what to say in our very important letters to Santa. The students were challenged to include a bold beginning lead, mighty middle with details and an excellent ending to wrap up the letter.

I use 6+1 Traits for my writing instruction to supplement the program the district has purchased. We are working on the traits organization and word choice with our letters. I will also include a mini-lesson on voice. This is the perfect assignment for that! Kids say the cutest things! I just love reading their Santa letters!

The students made a quick foldable to help them to visualize organization in a friendly letter. It was a blank sheet of paper with both ends folded into the middle. The center is wider and helps them to see that the body should be a little bit longer than the the introduction and conclusion. 

Tomorrow, I will model with this letter that I wrote. I try not to give many examples when we pre-write because I have found that it stifles their creativity.

We are going to do a guided highlighted reading activity with this sample. The focus will be on identifying details, examples and descriptive words in the writing. Then we will discuss ways to improve this piece. The students will then add carets to their own writing to insert more detail.

The guided highlighted activity will go something like this:

In the introduction, highlight the words that tell what kind of person I am trying to be.

Highlight the word that tells what kind of cookies I am leaving for Santa.

The next day the class will label the parts of a friendly letter in red colored pencil. I love the use of color in any learning activity!

The following day, they will write a sloppy copy or draft of the Santa letter on the same stationery that will be used for publishing. I have found that it helps the kiddos to see the size of the lines they are given and the length of the expected writing. Of course, those that need it will get a second back page!

They will revise and peer edit for correct conventions that same day. It will go home as homework to sit with a parent and do a final revision so parents help correct spelling on some of the games and toys I have never heard of! 

The plan is to publish the letters on special Santa paper and mount them on construction paper for a nice presentation. I always like to add some clear glitter to the beard for a magical touch!

We also started compiling an A-Z list to help with our computer lab activity. The students will work on keyboarding skills and changing font and font color. Then they will insert clip art.

It will look something like this only cuter!

The ABC's of December 

A is for antlers

B is for bells

C is for carolers

D is for Dasher

and so on!

Good luck with z! Any suggestions would be welcome!

I have randomly selected two lovely bloggers from the last post to preview my new writing and word work packet for the holidays! Congrats to Kim and Kelly and Rachael! Ladies, check your emails! Hope you find some good activities to use with your class! 

Turkey Maps, Science Stations and Giveaway Winners

Teachers wear many hats these days. I am currently the school improvement co-chair in the area of writing. One strategy we are using  is graphic organizers for prewriting. A while back I attended training on Thinking Maps which was wonderful. What I like about the maps is they can be used in all content areas. The down side is that they need some "cute". I've been making my own organizers of all kinds in various themes for this purpose. Here is a set to be used with our unit on life long ago and Thanksgiving. Click on the picture to see them at my shop!

There are lots of them in the pack so it will take us through the rest of the month and get us through until Thanksgiving break!

I use some organizers as a whole group mini-lesson on the document cam following an informational text read aloud. Some are brainstorming sheets for various How-To writing pieces, some are great for word work during Daily 5 and others get the kids sequencing and comparing and contrasting with a high interest topic. I take full advantage of the excitement for the holidays with my little ones! I hope you will find something like this useful in your classroom too!

On another note~

My student teacher did her first hands-on science station rotation with the class today. She was nervous as to how it would go. It was fantastic! We discussed every possible problem that might occur with management ahead of time and ways to be proactive to be sure everything ran smoothly. I just love that kind of thing and wish there was more time in our day for investigations. My first job in our district was an elementary science specialist. Some days I really miss it! I loved how the children worked together, solved problems and had meaningful discussions like little scientists!

Some things that helped the activity go well were well thought out groups, spreading the stations far apart, clear expectations for turn taking and assigning one child to be the recorder for the group rather than everyone dragging materials around the room. Later all of the data was shared by the recorder and the students wrote it on their own recording sheet. A hand towel at the sink and float table was a great idea too!

Here are a few pics of our stations for properties of matter:

We chose just four simple items to have at each station and had the children record their data in the chart. We described properties like color, shape, size, mass, hardness, texture and the favorite of the class-whether it sinks or floats!

Here's what her chart looked like:

Today I was a proud mentor! 

Thanks for staying with me for all of this and thanks to everyone who played along in the 100 followers giveaway! I'm so THANKFUL to have all of you in my corner through this adventure of blogging in my ever so busy world! Your comments and all you have shared keep me energized! The winners are~

#166 Tanja
#583 Andrea
#520 Leea

Congratulations! Your gift certificates are on their way! Have fun spending them! :)