Homework Pass Free Download

I've started working on a few things to get ready to start my new adventure in fifth grade next fall.  I'll be sharing what I work on throughout the summer along with a few posts about some professional development books I'm reading for some summer book studies.  Last night I started thinking about what to do for student birthday's.  I decided to go simple and little cliche with the straw balloons.  A few fellow bloggers add a "no homework" pass to the balloon.  I thought that was a great addition too and whipped up these little cuties.

You can grab a PDF copy for yourself here.  I'm doing my classroom in a patriotic theme, so I used these great patriotic themed pencils from Krista Wallden you can find in her TpT store here.  I'll post pictures of the final birthday gifts when I finish them. 

Five for Friday

It's time for me to join in on the fun and try my hand at the Doodle Bugs Five for Friday!  It's been a wild week for me.

1.  Our dear kitty went to heaven this week.  At only 18 months old it was something we didn't expect to happen.  He became very ill last week.  After an overnight veterinary stay, the vet didn't know what was causing his vomiting and lack of appetite.  So, we opted to take him home and see if the IV fluids and medications helped.  They didn't.  Our Rocky quickly declined and on Saturday we sent him to heaven.  I was in awe of my 9 year old daughter.  She handled it all so maturely. Here's a kitten picture of Rocky.  I didn't have quick access to a more recent one.

2. On a lighter note, today is my last day of school!  I've been working as a literacy instructional coach this year and decided I needed to return to the classroom.  I'll be teaching 5th grade next year.  I'm excited to blog more about my teaching and classroom.  If you're a younger grade teacher and have been following me, don't worry, all of my lower grade stuff will stay and I'll likely continue to add lower grade tips and products in addition to the upper grade tips and items that are sure to come. 

3.  Since I'm changing positions, I cleaned out my office yesterday.  I should have taken a before picture, but here's the after.  I've still got the computer up to work on summer workshops I'm teaching. It's a lovely cubicle in a trailer. ;)

4. My oldest daughter made the state competition team in her soccer club.  She's only played a year and has improved so much!  This is a tournament she played in over President's day weekend. She's the one in the middle facing out.  She's a great defender.

5.  I'm excited to spend the summer with my kids (between TpT, blogging and my part-time fabric store job) this summer.  Here's a darling pic of them.  This post has been a lot about family, but that's what is on my mind now and I enjoy hearing about the lives of the bloggers I follow, so hopefully you'll enjoy this post from me.  

 

Fabulous Feedback

One of the most rewarding things about creating, sharing and selling materials is all of the kind feedback you all leave after purchasing and trying our products.  Christina at Bunting, Books and Bainbridge is having a linky to celebrate all of the fabulous feedback.  Remember that when you leave feedback after your purchase, you receive points that can be used toward future purchases on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Here's some of the great feedback that has been left for a few Dilly Dabbles products:

About the 1000 Fry Word Assessment and Tracking Pack: 


Monahan Monkey Madness said: 
Thanks!! I can NEVER keep up with all these sight words and who is where and my goal for next year is to be more on top of it and organized!! Thanks so much for sharing this!!

Crystie Austin said: 
Thanks so much for this free product! It saved me a lot of time!

GinaLynne said: 
Just what I needed for documentation purposes. Thanks for the hard work!

About the Adding Three Numbers Pack: 

Jwintermote said: 
Whoo-hoo!! What a great collection of activities that go beyond just worksheets for practice. Thanks

dsabe1 said: 
Awesome resource. Perfect for my first graders!

tkruise2 said: 
Awesome! Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for all of the kind words and fabulous feedback!  Check out the Dilly Dabbles Store to view all of our products and feedback that has been left by users. 

Thanks!





See the feedback and products from other sellers:

Appreciation Sale

It's Teacher Appreciation Week and to celebrate you, TpT is offering an extra 10% discount for anything you purchase.  Additionally, most of the items in my TpT store will be 20% off.  Be sure to use the code TAD13 when checking out so that both discounts will combine for a total of 28% discount. (the 10% is taken after the 20% which results in a 28% total discount)  The offer runs Tuesday and Wednesday May 7 and 8.  If you miss those days, my store will continue to be on sale through May 9, but the additional 10% will expire at the end of the day on May 8.

Be sure you're following my store so that you will receive notice when new items are posted.  I'll have at least one new item posted for the sale and hopefully I'll get two items that I've been working on ready and posted.  Each of these new items will be posted at an amazing discount for the first 48 hours they are up.

See you all at the TpT sale!  I'll come back to post about my own purchases later in the week.  I'd love for you to come back and share yours as well!

Thanks to the following for the darling sale button:

Instagram and Teacher Talk Tuesday

I'm new to Instagram, but am excited to dive right in.  What the Teacher Wants and Apples and ABC's have teamed up with a great new idea.  Each Tuesday, teachers will gather on Instagram and share for #TeacherTalkTuesday. Take some pictures and share them with other teachers on Tuesdays.

You can follow Dilly Dabbles on Insagram here.  

Here are some of my pictures:  

A week ago I had the opportunity to hear Ron Clark speak at a conference in Provo, Utah. 

This is the board the PTA posted announcing the activities they would be doing for our Teacher Appreciation week.  They did a great job, and teachers really felt appreciated.

Catch Tuesday on Instagram!

Dilly Dabbles Had Some Work Done!

Have you noticed the new additions to the Dilly Dabbles Blog?  Michelle of The 3am Teacher set me up with some great items to spruce things up a bit.

She added the fabulous navigation bar up at the top.  Click the flowers to be taken to each section or link.  Coming soon is the Themes page where all posts and freebies will be collected in an organized list of linked thumbnails.

Michelle also added threaded and numbered comments to the blog.  They are way cute too.  So now, the comments are threaded to more easily keep track of replies to specific comments and they are numbered too.  Additionally, your pictures show up beside your comments.

I had the pleasure of meeting Michelle on a trip I took to Arizona last fall and she is a doll.  She's everything she portrays on her blog.  Go check out her blog and if you have a blog of your own, consider having Michelle add some spruce ups to your blog.



Try out the new comment section, leave me a comment on this post about the new look.

How I Spent my Spring Break

This is the last evening of my Spring Break.  I sometimes like to get to know the bloggers behind their blogs and so I thought I'd share with you how I spent my Spring Break to let you in on a little about me.  I mentioned in my April Currently post that I had a long to-do list, which I still have, but a lot of it got accomplished.  It's a little bitter sweet to head back to school for the last leg of the school year.

Here's what I did this week:

• Deep cleaned my bedroom and master bathroom.  I dread cleaning the shower and it needed it badly.  It always feels so much better after I've cleaned a room. 
• Cleaned up my office.  I thought I should have taken a before and after photo, but the hubby didn't think that mess should be online forever. ;)  There's still some organizing to do, but now my hubby has his desk area back. 
• Made cookie and brownie mixes with my sisters-in-law.  I have this fabulous book: 

And we made some of the mixes to have on hand for storage.  It's much cheaper than buying the store packaged mixes.

• Helped my parents list some items for sale online
• Helped my in-laws unpack a few things into their new house
• Did some Dilly Dabbles work stuff
• Quilted. I recently got a new sewing machine and have rekindled my sewing hobby.  Here's a picture of the quilt I worked on over break.  Now I just need to decide on the pattern for quilting it. Sorry it's a bit dark.

• Taxes.  I put this one off for a while.  I'm usually done with filing taxes by early February, but this year I knew we'd have to pay some, so I put it off.  Ended up that between State and Fed it'll all come out a wash, but that was a bit of a nightmare.  Next year, getting an accountant. 
• Coupon shopped
• Attended a sewing class.  I'm going to be a sewing teacher at a local fabric shop during the summer and am attending classes to learn the ropes. 
• Watched the General Conference for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  You can learn more about "Mormons" here and view the conference here.
• Prepared to teach a third grade class about solving math word problems this next week. (Lesson plan and ideas I came up with in an upcoming post.)
• Overall, I enjoyed spending time with my sweet family.