Wonderful Word Wednesday...

Rain, Rain, Go Away! We have been under tremendous rain storms with a lot of flash flooding lately! I hope you are all staying warm and dry and safe out there! We've have some water in the basement but as always, it could be worse. I hope your week is going well so far!

We love words in this family and are always chattering on non-stop. One thing I am noticing though, is that my children tend to use lazy words and their writing needs a bit of a PUNCH! In order for them to begin using more colorful and vibrant words, I have a Thesaurus in a basket on the table with highlighters. They look up the word they are using, and find a good replacement word. They highlight the word in the book and also on their paper. This is helping them expand their vocabulary and spell different words! 

Sticking with our love of words, I purchased this SAT vocabulary flashcard book and we have a word of the day. In the beginning of the day we read the word and I write it on the board. We discuss the definition and attempt to use it at least once in a sentence that day. There is no test, it is just a chance to increase vocabulary. I then clip the flashcard to a board in the classroom where it stays all day long and we just continue to add to them daily. Every now and then I will catch them browsing through the words and I always catch them trying to use them! 

Space in a classroom is like gold, as I am sure many of you know! In order to conserve space and also to allow my children access to everything we have in the classroom, I have to get pretty creative on where to put things. My youngest uses sentence strips for his spelling words and creating short sentences, I have these hanging from cup hooks on the side of a bookshelf, so that they are off the floor and using up space that would otherwise be wasted! 

I tell my children this every single day. It is nice to be important but it is more important to be nice is another thing I always tell them.

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Sight Search Worksheet

Roman is still having some trouble with identifying IS, so I made up this quick worksheet for him to do. I fill in the line at the top with the word he is supposed to X out. The words he can search for are: (is, if, in, it).

This has helped him stop, slow down and look at what he is searching for! I also love that I do not have to make up 4 different sheets, I just write the word on the line that he is searching for each day!

How do you learn Sight Words?

   Follow Me On Facebook!
   Follow Me On Pinterest!

Write Some More!

 We're bloggers and we love to write, right? I'm always jotting something down or doodling a quick sketch with an idea. I love the written word, to create it and to read it! It's a passion I guess. I'm lucky in the sense that I have kids that enjoy this too, they even have journals!. It could be that I have set an example and they just want to be like Mom, but it could also be that I like to make writing utensils easily accessible to little hands! I always dress up our writing center AND change it out often, so it looks fresh and fun! You will be amazed at what some new pencil toppers can do, they make kids want to use them right away. Try a new sharpener, even my 3 year old dashes right in to sharpen and then use his 'pointy pencil'. A colorful cup of erasers encourages creativity and 'gasp' even mistakes! Let them know it's okay, just erase and it's brand new again! Different types of paper make it possible for the kids to do all kinds of different things! Postcards, Mini pads, list pads with lines and check boxes, restaurant CHECK booklets, post its plain, post its lined etc. Crayons are there, so that the kids can illustrate what they write!! Try it and you will see them flock!

I always am sure to keep the reading and writing shelf accessible too! This has letters in all shapes and forms (Coasters, rocks, tiles, dice, foam, wood, cardstock etc.) and mini chalkboards too! I will go into more detail on this shelf in a future post!! How do you get your little ones to write more?

The Faceboook Phenomenon!

MY Facebook Page! Feel Free To Add Me!

Today we are checking out Facebook as a way of social networking. This is a great way to meet up with old friends and new. YES, it is a place where those old pals from highschool and YIKES even gradeschool may find you, but it's fun! I was utterly and totally confused by all the widgets, add-ons and craziness that was in front of me when I started, but afterawhile I started to get the hang of it! No worries, if it takes you awhile to get out there too! Just start by signing up! Ready to add friends? Post the link to your site on the public forums of your selling venues! Mine is on the Etsy forums and the Lollishops ones too! Once in awhile I Tweet my link on Twitter too! (read my blog post on Twitter here).

Alright, on to the promoting! At the top of your HOME page, you will see a little status bar, much like the one on Twitter. You click inside of the blurb and type what you are doing at the moment! I use this to put big sales, Exclusive codes to my shop and anything else that is shop related. But take a look at it right now ^ I ALSO use it to really update about my life. I don't want to spam Facebook either. I want my friends to stay my friends and not tune me out. Yes, i've already had to tune out frequent spammers, they post link after link after link to their shops. Not just blogs, shops, life etc. It's ALL SHOP ALL THE TIME! This is NOT the way to use Facebook! Starting a Group about your business! I had a couple customers ask me if I was on Facebook, then they started asking me about groups so that they could link their friends! So last week I started my very own group! PLEASE join mine and I will join yours! To get started just go to your HOME page ( you can find this at the top of your Facebook page) Then click on the right hand side the icon that says GROUPS.

Next you want to click on +Create A New Group on the right hand side of the screen it will look like this:

Just follow the prompts from there and it's super easy! Post your link on your public message forums too! (Make sure they allow it!) This is a fun way of keeping former customers and new ones in the loop of what is going on with your shop and what is new! Be sure to add SALE information and EXCLUSIVE discounts too! Get the word out quickly and in a fun way too! Invite your customers to share photos of them wearing your goodies or putting them on display somewhere!

So not everyone joined your group and you still want to spread the word about sales right? Well another awesome way to get memos out is through their NOTES function. Go back to your HOMe page and on the right hand side box where you found the GROUPS button, click on your NOTES button. It may not be visible like mine is, so click on the tiny little triangle that says MORE and it will be in that pull-down list. Click on WRITE A NEW NOTE. It's on the right hand side again! Follow those prompts and it's pretty easy! Publish the whole thing and now your entire stream will see it! So see, it's not that hard to get started on Facebook! Hope I helped someone out there!

New in the shop is my line of Breakfast Treats! From 9.00-30.00.