Indiana Bloggers $1 SALE!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen: START YOUR ENGINES!!! 

Here in Indianapolis, the Indy 500 is a HUGE deal!! I've been to it a few times, and I always get chills when they start their engines!! Now, the how many hours in between the start and finish may be extremely a tad bit long so why not have a little DOLLAR SALE to help fill that time!! :) Some of my fellow Indiana Bloggers and I are picking some of our favorite products and marking them down to  a DOLLAR TODAY AND TOMORROW (25th & 26th)!!! So make sure to peruse below to check out all of the awesome products that are ONLY A DOLLAR!! I can't wait to go through them myself!!!

Here's a quick look at the ones I have for a DOLLAR from my store!! :)
These have made name tags soooo much less annoying! I can't stand how they destroy take care of them so I made ones that they can write on once you laminate so it's more interactive, useful, and pertinent to what they're learning at the time. I switch these out each quarter. I use Poster Velcro to make the switching super simple! 
 I love having every student have a job so they all have a responsibility. Some jobs are daily, some are once a week. I also use velcro above their cubbies to put these so it's easy to rotate them too!!
I send this home with my kids for the summer!! I wanted them to have some fun, unique ways to practice writing without it seeming like work! :) 
 I LOVE these awards!!! I wanted to make awards that could relate directly to the real world. I want them to keep thinking about what they want to be and all the possibilities!! They are so excited when they hear which one we thought they showed the most likely to be from the year. :)
This Reading Skills Test is meant to be used as a pre-test and post-test, but it could easily be separated by sections for shorter quizzes/tests/etc. As I said above, I love making things relevant so I get them all excited to take a "final" like you do in college!! I save the test in the beginning of the year so we can see their growth! :) 

Have a FANTASTIC weekend!!!!! 4 more days separates me from my best friend, SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!  Are you out yet??


Organizing Materials by Skill for Any Grade Level

Hey guys!!! Welcome back to another edition of the BRIGHT Ideas Link Up!! I'm so excited to be back at it again this month!! Lots of changes have happened since the last one I participated in so I'm even more anxious to read about all of the ideas! Recently, I found out that I'll be looping with my 2nd graders to 3rd grade next year! Even though everyone that knows me knows I love a challenge, it was a bit of a surprise! One word...TESTING!!! AHHHH! I've been in 2nd grade for 10 years and my very first year was teaching Spanish which means NO TESTING! Now, I have to face the reality that I will have to give the TEST! I may or may not have already woken up in the middle of the night with a nervous stomach?!? hah Please tell me, I'm not the only one!! YIKES! Aside from that, I'm excited to have my kiddos again and be able to start going right off the bat! So...here's where my BRIGHT IDEA comes in! :)
I'm the type of person that in order to use something, I have to see it! Out of sight, out of mind! :) I also think my memory is getting worse, or my plate is getting fuller! hah You know you have a problem when a student leaves to go to the bathroom, and I ask the others where this student went only to find I was the one who told the student he/she could go! WOW! ANYWAY, I love all the tubs and everything that I've seen and use them for different reasons,  but I tend to forget what I have. This is why I started using my carts to store my materials that I could use any time. I decided to do this by skill so it was even easier to find and organize.
I have my lesson plans in binders by skill so these carts store the actual activities that I use. I have these 2 carts for reading skills, 1 cart for grammar and word skills (i.e. synonyms/antonyms, homophones, compound words, etc.), and 1 cart for math skills.
 Since I do rotations for reading, I keep a drawer for each group to store their materials as well. 
Organizing by skill with my carts has helped me out soooooo much! I hope the ideas are helpful for you too!! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog! 

If you enjoyed reading about my Bright Idea, I would love for you to join me on instagram, TPT, and Facebook for more ideas!! :)

Below are over 130 bloggers with even MORE BRIGHT IDEAS!! Peruse through to find just the ideas you need or never knew you needed/wanted until now like I usually do!!