April Currently

Is it April already?  I went to title this post and almost called it March Currently.  This week is my spring break and I'm looking forward to it.  Here's my "Currently"

Listening - I've been listening and watching my kids play with their cousins who arrived last weekend from Tennesee.  They haven't seen each other in almost 2 years and have reunited quickly. 

Loving - This spring weather, in the 60's here, has been wonderful.  The kids have loved playing outside and I have loved watching my 2 year old enjoy his little bike and try his sister's scooter. 

Thinking - I have a long to-do list for the spring break and I'm hoping most of it gets done before the week slips by. 

Wanting - Because my to-do list is so long, I'd love another week of break to actually rest!

Needing - I've asked to be placed back in the classroom next year.  I've loved being a coach, but I'm stretched between two schools and it's been difficult to be in so many places as a mom of young kiddos.  They are taking a long time to determine what their staffing needs are for next year which will in turn let them know where they'll place me. 

Advice - Last week, my childhood friend lost her 4 month old baby.  It hit me hard as I felt so deeply for her and the pain she was having.  Since Wednesday, I've spent more time with my own kids and done a little re-prioritizing.

See what other bloggers are up to by checking out all that have linked up over at: 

   

Classroom Spruce Up - Mason Jar Lamp

The librarian at my school has this darling lamp on her check-out desk.  I thought this was a fun way to add some light to a reading corner or listening table in your classroom and theme it any way you want.  So, I sought out how to make such a fun item.  They are so easy and inexpensive!  You just need five items: (click on the pictures to see them in Amazon)

• A Mason Jar - I can items at home, so I have these hanging around.  If you don't have them around, try a local thrift shop.  You can purchase them in most big box stores in the home canning section or on Amazon:67000 Ball Qt Mason Jar WM 12-pack

• A Lamp Kit - Here are a few options (click on the pictures):

This one comes as a set of 3 (Best Value, make some for a colleague or one for at home)

This is a single silver colored set

• A Lamp Shade - You can embellish this simple white one in any way you desire. 

• A Light Bulb - These kits will fit any standard bulb.  
• Items to Fill Your Jar - Check out your local craft store for small themed trinkets.  Shaped buttons might be a fun way to go.  To cut down on how many items you need to fill your jar, put a Styrofoam cylinder or other similar object in the middle of the jar to take up some of the space.  Then put your themed items around the filler.  These fun colored buttons come in a variety of color sets and would be great to fit any color scheme: 

If you make one of these fun accents, we'd love you to come back and share your picture with us!

Spring Cleaning Sale

Do you have some Dilly Dabbles products in your wish list?  Or, have you had your eye on some items?  Well you're in luck.  It's spring cleaning time and to help you clean out your wish list or grab the items you've been eyeing, I'm having a spring cleaning sale this weekend.  Saturday and Sunday, get 15% off most items in the Dilly Dabbles TpT store.  If you prefer our blog store, use the code springclean to get 15% off your order of most digital items in the store.

Happy Spring Cleaning!  

Share in the comments below some of your great steals. 

**Thanks to Krista of Creative Clips for the great sale button.**

Here are some fellow bloggers and sellers throwing a sale this weekend:

Zippin Down the Freebie Trail

Welcome to Dilly Dabbles! I am so excited to be part of this great Spring/Easter Freebie Trail.  If you missed the first post on this trail, be sure to click the orange bunny picture at the top of the page to be taken to the beginning, then follow the trail to all of the "next stops" to get all the freebies along this trail.  

I have two freebies for you.  The first is this spring kite from the Dilly Dabbles Doodles collection.  You can get the full Spring Time Fun set of graphics here.

Download the file for the free kite image here.  It is a zipped file that will need to be extracted.  The image is a clear background png file. 

The second freebie I have for you is this spring poem set.  It correlates with our Poetry Task Cards, but it can also be used alone.  The activities in the pack include: 

~tracing the poem

~ choosing synonyms and antonyms to words in the poem

~create your own version of the poem

~focus on word features -oo- and -ou-

Be sure to continue on the bunny trail by clicking the purple picture below.  There will be three to four new stops each day, so be sure to check back every day through March 30, 2013

Book Share: Plaidypus Lost

Book Share:  Plaidypus Lost

I discovered these sister authors, Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, two years ago at the Utah Council IRA conference.  Not only are they hilarious presenters together, their stories are wonderful. It's an endearing story about a toy made from old clothing and his adventures.  Students relate to it and it is predictable. (Notice the spelling of PLAIDypus).  Click on the book to take a closer look.



You may be familiar with some other books by one or both of these ladies that I'll be sharing on my FB page this week.  Be sure you're a follower to get all the info!  

Google Reader Alternative Options

It was recently announced that Google Reader will be discontinued as of July 1. So, how are you going to keep up with the newest posts from the blogs you love? Here are a few options:
(Many of these offer the option to sync with google reader. Be sure to do that before July 1 to save all your hard work in following your favorite blogs.)

•  http://www.feedly.com/  
• This is the one I've chosen to use.  It took me less than a minute to download the addition to my Chrome browser.  It automatically prompted me to connect to Google reader and since I was already logged into my Google account, it automatically synced.  Add the app on your ios or android device for ease in accessing your feed anywhere. Then, connect to Twitter and Facebook to get those feeds all in one convenient place. 
• https://www.pulse.me/ 
• http://flipboard.com/ 
• These two options advertise much the same options as feedly.  I just didn't choose to use them.  Feedly was the first option recommended to me by fellow bloggers, so that's what I went with. If you decide to use pulse or flipboard, or if you already do, I'd love to hear how you like them.

Be sure you're subscribed to your favorite sites social network accounts, newsletters and email updates. You'll find all of these options for following Dilly Dabbles in the left and right sidebars toward the top of our blog. Don't miss out on the great things your favorite bloggers are sharing, transfer how you're following on the web sooner rather than later.

Here are some links to further information if you want to read more:

Google's Official Announcement
Details on the options listed above
Some further options
 

Technology Tid-Bit: Dropbox

I was able to attend the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology Conference this last weekend and learned several new tips and tricks for technology.  I thought that it might be a good idea to share a technology "Tid-Bit" every week with you.  Here's the first one, a flashback to a post I did last year.  I have two drop box accounts now, one for my work with Dilly Dabbles and one for everything else.  It has a few advantages over Google Drive:

• You can save any file type.
• It can be set up to be a folder right on your computer so you don't have to go online to access it. (It is a cloud service though and you can access it online from any other computer.)
• Easily share entire folders with one or more people, or share your entire drive, if you so wish.

Check it out today and get started with your own account!

Here's the information from the previous post last year:

Do you find yourself emailing documents back and forth or carrying a thumb drive with you wherever you go?  Do you get to school and realize you left the document you were working on at home or get home to work on something and realize the documents you needed are at school?  Well here's a great solution.  I've been using Dropbox now for over a year and I LOVE it!!  It is a web-based storage program and it is FREE!  You can download the program to your frequently used computers and once you save an item there, you can access it from any of the computers you have downloaded the software on.  OR you can log in online to dropbox.com and access your documents from any computer anywhere.  There is also a subscription option if you need more storage than the free option allows.  This has totally solved my problem of accessing documents and remembering to email them to myself or carry a thumb drive everywhere.  Click on any of the links to get started.  If you have questions, Dropbox has some great video tutorials to help you along.

 
Do you have a techie tip?  Feel free to share it in the comments or link up below.

Free Math Vocabulary Cards

This is a re-post from one done a in 2012:

I was thinking about creating some math word wall and vocabulary cards, so I was doing a little search.  Well, I found this great resource available through Utah's Granite School District and figured, why go to all the work to create something that is already available and great.  So, check out the link and get math vocabulary resources for grades K-7 correlated with the Common Core. Each grade includes a math vocabulary list  and then alphabetically listed vocabulary cards in 3 ways including just the word, the word and graphic, the word with the graphic and definition.  Other resources on this site include templates for word study, lesson and activity ideas and other resources. You can go here for the Granite School District curriculum maps.  I find it helpful to view other maps when our team works together to review our map.  I'm not sure if these are correlated to the common core just yet though. And while I'm at it, here's the language resources from this district as well.  These are not the common core yet, but if they update them and share, it will be a good place to go in the future.

**I believe the resources are updated now for Common Core, go take a look and save yourself some time and money!

St. Patrick's Day Freebies!

St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner!  Here are some freebies that you might find helpful during March.  The first is a set of riddle bookmarks with graphics from the3amteacher.



The next is a board game focusing on words with -oo- with graphics from Scrappin Doodles.

Just click on the activity titles to download yours from Google Drive.

How does your class celebrate St. Patrick's Day?  Does the leprechaun wreck havoc in your room?  Do you have a party?  Or is it business as usual?  We'd love to hear.  Leave a comment below or on our Facebook Page.