$25 Teachers Pay Teachers Gift Card GIVEAWAY!

This is just a quick post to let you know about a FABULOUS giveaway going on at Teaching High School Math! That's right, Jennifer at Teaching High School Math is giving away a $25 gift card to TPT in celebration of the back to school season. Just think about how much you can purchase with $25...I have my list already!

Click the image below to be taken to the giveaway :)

Last Day for Some Back to School SAVINGS!

I am on vacation this week...but wanted to let my loyal followers know about a few deals going on today in my store!

First, all 3 of my Back to School Math Activity Packs are on sale for $6 today only! Grab them while you can...this is cheaper than they will EVER be during a TPT sale...so scoop 'em up if they are on your wishlist!

Click the images to be taken to the product page on TPT:

And, lastly, today is the LAST day that you will be able to BUY MY STORE for under $120. Tomorrow, the price goes up, and it will continue to go up as I add new products. Click the image below for more details!

Have a great week! I have a few scheduled posts to go out this week...and I'll be back this weekend!

Maybe I should get some guest bloggers for the next time I leave town?? Any takers?!

Monday Made It -- Wood Plaque Posters

Oh my goodness...I am so excited to share this with you and link up with 4th grade frolics for Monday Made It!

Trust me, this is not some spectacular work of art...but it is easy, and it is cute. And, most importantly, I was able to do it here and there while my in-laws are in town! It's a win for everyone! 

Start with a piece of unfinished wood. I get mine from Hobby Lobby because they are the cheapest there...$2.99 is the regular price for this bad boy. You can spend up to $10 elsewhere. I vary between the different styles, but I got the basic rectangular plaque since I knew my poster would take up most of the space. 

Paint the edges and a border around the top a contrasting color. I didn't have black paint so I used metallic silver. I like that it is glossy and only takes 2 coats. Let it dry completely. This is important.

Trim down what you want to adhere to the plaque to eliminate any white space. I wish I would have taken a before picture, but I get so excited when I am working on something that we are lucky I remembered to take any pictures. Lay it out on the plaque and make sure it is centered...or off-centered if you like to live on the edge :) Make sure what you have printed is on thick cardstock or photo paper. If printing at home, the photo paper is a must or the ink may bleed when you do the next step. I had mine printed at Office Max for $0.50. A total steal when you think about how much ink this would have used at home.

Apply a layer of mod podge underneath the poster to glue it down. Use the regular orange bottle of mod podge and a sponge brush. Let dry completely before moving onto the next step. I let mine dry overnight.

Then you are ready to "seal" the top. Apply a generous layer of mod podge over the top and around the sides to have that "sheen" around the whole plaque. Make sure you are spreading the mod podge from left to right each time so that it looks neat.

Let it dry. If it looks like this, you are on the right track. I let it dry for about 2 hours. Apply another coat if necessary. I didn't need to this time, but do what works for you!

Then it is time to apply ribbon to the back to hang it. You could always just hang it on the wall as is...but I LOVE ribbon and use it all over my room. These wood plaques are soft enough that I don't even need to get my staple gun. A regular stapler does the trick. 

I staple about 5-6 times on each side and that sucker isn't going anywhere. 

AND...done! I LOVE how it turned out.

If you would like a copy of the poster itself, you can download it from 4mulafun's store on TPT here!

I can't wait to make some more of these!

Favorite Pins Friday

I've found some pretty spectacular things on pinterest lately, and I am super excited to join in and share them with you courtesy of:

Let's get started!

Here are some of the things that I cannot wait to use in my classroom:

This would be great to use for behavior management, but also as a random number generator, name generator, etc!


This would be so much cuter than those boring red SSSH! signs :-)


 

I think I may have shared this before...but this is in the lesson plans for the second day of school. I cannot wait to see what the responses are!

"IDK" is not an option this year!

The most infuriating thing to me is when a student doesn't know an answer on a test and writes "IDK??" in the sloppiest of handwriting. Those of you who teach elementary may not know what I am talking about , but I know my secondary friends can for sure relate! Even if you teach completely angelic students who always know the answers, please just nod your head and smile so I don't feel alone...okay, thanks.

I never allow that as an answer in class, but up until this summer, I never felt like a had a good response when a student says "IDK" because I can't help but think they really mean "I don't care." My friend Melanie and I went to a session when we were at CAMT and the presenter talked about other sentence starters for students who need more help to answer questions. In essence, they are 5 alternatives to using "IDK" in the classroom. Of course, we both had to make posters to put in our classroom! Here's mine:

Don't worry, I wouldn't share anything if I wasn't going to make it available to you...so click here to download it for FREE from my Teachers pay Teachers store!

This is formatted to print out on 11x17 paper. You can send it to any office supply/printing center and have printed. Office Max is printing mine for less than $2! 

Let me know what you think! Do you have any ways to get kids past the "IDK" statements?

Custom Plan Book Dividers!

I guess since I have done a few custom orders based on my original post here, I should let everyone know that I have started to make custom, personalized binder pages for a plan book! This is not a complete plan book...but a digital file for the dividers you would use to put together your own planner/teacher binder. There are tons available on Teachers pay Teachers, but I couldn't find one that suited me perfectly. So I made my own...and then a few more wanted some of their own!

Having just the dividers made for you allows you to still use whatever lesson plan format your school or district wants you to use or you can just use something that works for you! What works for me as a middle school math teacher may not work for a 2nd grade teacher who teaches all subjects! Everything about these is customizable from the papers to the fonts I use. I will even send you an editable version of the cover page so that you can change the year or the school name if you ever change schools or you want to use the same look for future years.

Check out my newest one:

This was obviously custom made for a lover of hot pink, black and white! If you like this or want something completely different, email me at livelovemathtpt@gmail.com and we can work something out :) Just to clarify, yours won't have the LiveLoveMath logo on it. 

This almost makes me wish I hadn't made mine so early in the summer! Almost...

My Entire TPT Store Available in ONE BUNDLE!

This is just a quick post for anyone who is interested in purchasing a license for my entire store at an extreme discount through the end of July! If you bought every item (not including the bundles) in my TPT store, you would spend a little over $240. It will always be discounted 50% off, but for the rest of July, it will be available for a LOW price of $75!

Click here to find out more information! If you have already purchased any of my products, e-mail me for a discounted rate!

This includes everything in my store. All future products that I post in my store you will have access to download for FREE! How great is that? As I add more products, this price will go up, but you will never pay another cent once you have the license. Remember, this is for use in ONE classroom only, so if you have friends that you team teach with, direct them to my store before July 31 to lock-in this GREAT deal!