Wow, This is REALLY Good!

Have you ever gone back through things you have created and found something you forgot you had?  I am teaching a summer camp for ESL first – fifth graders who need to work on vocabulary.  We are being provided very little guidance, so I started digging through my resources to see what would work best, and I re-discovered this vocabulary graph that is really, really helping my students.  So, I decided to let you be a part of my re-discovery, and I changed the price on the product to FREE until I am done with this summer camp – June 15th.  After that, I will take this item off of FREE, so go now and get your copy!

BTW – While you are at my store, don’t forget to take part in the Buy One, Rate One, Get One FREE sale, which is still going on until July 7th.  Once you have purchased and rated the product, email me at hlraki@hotmail.com with the name of the item you would like to receive for FREE (must be equal or lesser value).

Buy One, Rate One, Get One FREE

I need feedback!!  Over the last 4 months, I have been working on revising and improving the quality of the resources for sale at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Heidi-Raki/Products.  Help me know if I am on the right track by rating my products and I will reward you with a product of equal or lesser value for FREE. 

For the next two weeks (June 22nd – July 7th), if you purchase anything at my store and leave a rating – Email me at hlraki@hotmail.com.  Tell me what you bought and rated, your TPT sign in and what you would like for FREE.  I will then email the FREE product directly to you!

Are You Ready for a SALE?

As a welcome to all of my new followers – I am having a 2 day sale!!  One June 20th and June 21st, everything in my TeachersPayTeachers store will be 10% OFF!  Take advantage of the savings – and don’t forget that today is your last day to enter the Mega Contest at http://tchr2tchr.blogspot.com/2011/06/teacher-2-teacher-mega-contest.html.

FREE Online Resources

As a computer teacher, I was always being asked “What’s a good website for…..?”  Thanks to wonderful friends and an addition to the internet, I often have the answer to that question!!!  As I am now getting wonderful followers, I thought I would share these free websites with you.  I did not create any of these websites, nor do I get paid to promote them, they are just ones I have used with kids and enjoyed.  I hope you enjoy too!

What is a good website for…

Writing?

www.storybird.com  - allow kids to choose artwork illustrations and write their own online storybooks

Spelling?

www.spellingcity.com – this great interactive spelling practice gives students a chance to practice on pre-loaded lists (including dolch words), or sign up for the premium and you can load in your own lists.

Math?

http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html – Virtual Manipulatives allow students to manipulate many different math topics with just the click of a mouse – My favorite is using base ten blocks to subtract with regrouping.

http://resources.oswego.org/games/ – Oswego Math Games are great reinforcers and easy math centers.

Math Fast Facts?

http://resources.oswego.org/games/mathmagician/cathymath.html – Math Magician gives students timed quizzes to work on addition, subtraction, multiplication or division facts and allows them to print a certificate after each completed level.

Reading?

www.starfall.com – the best phonics site I have ever found!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/reading/ – This BBC site covers a lot of good reading skills – just make sure if you are in the states that you make your students aware of differing spellings of words.

Typing?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing/ – Dance Mat Typing is the best way I have ever found to get kids touch typing.  They love the dancing and singing characters and are coached all along the way to use correct fingering patterns for typing without looking at their hands, a skill that is getting more valuable than handwriting.

Creating Projects?

http://edu.glogster.com/login/ – allow kids to create a glog (online poster) about just about any topic.  Glogs can be simple words and graphics or can be created complex with links to sound, videos and websites.  You can create glogs about books you’ve read, topics you’ve researched, concepts you are working on, anything that you want a project about!  Each teacher can sign up for 30 FREE student accounts.

Mega Contest!!!!

Attention! Attention! You don't want to miss out on this awesome opportunity. THIRTY-THREE teacher-sellers at Teachers Pay Teachers donated top notch classroom products for our T2T MEGA CONTEST! There are 3 major contest categories: K-2, 3-6 (1 winner each), and Middle School / High School (5 winners -1 per subject area: English, math, science, social studies / history, and fine arts).
Contest Dates: Starts Thursday, 6/16/11. Ends Sunday, 6/19/11 at 12:00 p.m. Midnight / Central time.
How to Enter:

• You receive TWO entries for each contributing seller you follow at Teachers Pay Teachers!
• You receive ONE entry for each contributing seller's Facebook page that you LIKE.
• You receive ONE entry for each contributing seller you follow on Twitter.
• You receive ONE entry for each contributing seller's blog you read and leave a comment on.
• You receive ONE entry for leaving a comment on this blog post telling us which category you entered and who you followed.
• You receive TWO entries as a BONUS for every TEN entries you make.

In order to be officially entered in the contest, you must fill out the contest entry form for the appropriate category.

Find the entry forms and links to all 33 sellers at:  http://tchr2tchr.blogspot.com/2011/06/teacher-2-teacher-mega-contest.html

 

Good luck everyone!!

Creating Clip Art Graphics

For the last 9 months or so, I have been working on “re-vamping” my existing products, adding better aesthetics – font, clipart, alignment etc.  I have been working with a friend and colleague, who gives fabulous feedback.  This friend and I were discussing how much it costs to purchase clip art, and I mentioned downloading some clipart off of Teachers Pay Teachers.  My friend’s response was – “How do you make clipart?”  This simple question has sent my husband and I on a new quest.

Faced with any challenge, I always want to know the answer.  So, I started playing, using a combination of SmartNotebook, Microsoft Word, and MSPaint, I was able to create and manipulate some images and save them as .jpg and .png files – voila clipart!  Then, my husband came in and played with them in Photoshop, and we really started having fun.  One thing I learned is that creating clip art is addictive!!!  I have other things to work on, but creating clip art is like coloring, it kind of soothes the soul, so I keep creating.  I started with fish and turtles and stars, and then moved on to people. 

Right now, I am creating “character clipart”.  These are little people that you can use within a presentation or a project.  I have finished 3 student characters and a teacher character.  When I am finished with 3 more student characters, I plan to create some E-Books using my characters.  Right now, only two characters – Zack and Zoe are available for sale at TPT.  I will be adding more as I get the finishing touches put on them.

All of the images I post may be used with a simple credit given to: Graphics by Raki. 

I’m looking for ideas of other clipart to create – post a comment telling me what clipart you’d like and I’ll send you one of my characters for free.

Also, if you do NOT currently sell on Teachers Pay Teachers, and you would like to sign up under my referral link – I’d be happy to share all of my clipart with you for FREE.