Curious About Our Top Five Selling Products???

I have confession to make. 

I pretty much only shop on Teachers Pay Teachers during a sale (which the BIG one happens to start tomorrow). 

I know. I know.

You're thinking, "You're a TPT seller!"

Yes, I am. We are. Kristi and both are pretty similar in this area. In all honesty, both of our districts provide great curriculum and we only buy (or make) things that supplement it. Hence the reason we have so many "I have...who has...?" games in our store. We aren't looking to rewrite curriculum or make millions on TPT. We have just made some things over the years that we like and thought other teachers might like too. :-)

Neither of us spend a lot of money on our classrooms either. Some might call us cheap...or wise...or both? I've purchased only 1 thing all summer, and that was mostly because one of my teacher friends needed someone to split the pack with her and I knew I needed another one for all my "I Have...Who Has...?" games. Ha!

I love these things... I now have 3 of them! :-)

Anyway, since the back-to-school sale is upon us, I thought I'd share the five top selling products from our store.  

Drum roll, please. 

#5 - Diphthong oi and oy Game Pack

#4 - -r Controlled /er/ Sound Game Pack

#3 - Vowel Digraphs /aw/ and /au/ Game Pack

#2 - Diphthong OU and OW Game Pack

#1 - I Have Who Has - Time to Hour and Half Hour

In my role as a reading specialist, I use the vowel diphthong and digraph games A LOT. Those more difficult vowel patterns take lots of repetitions for my kiddos. Even if we've moved on to another skill, these games are a quick and easy review for my readers. 

In the classroom, Kristi and I both love to immerse our kiddos in the "sound of the week" from our curriculum. I mean if we are working on the /oi/, /oy/ sound, we will play songs during transition times with that sound. Students will read decodable stories with that sound. Word work activities will be centered around that sound. The Connect 4 games from our packs with that sound make a great partner activity either during word work or as an option when work is complete. We use the "I Have...Who Has...?" in small groups or as a whole class when there was a few minutes to fill. The last year I was in the second grade classroom, I would put the "I Have... Who Has...?" game out as a morning tub activity as they trickled in after breakfast. I loved seeing my kiddos practice that sound by choice! :-)

If you're shopping the sale, have fun! Watch out for those sellers that raise their prices during the sale--ugh! That happened to me last year, and of course, I decided I did not need that product after all...because I'm cheap, you know. ;-)

P.S. I report back 2 weeks from today!!!

Five for Friday - Again? Say what?

Okay, folks, the countdown is really on for me.

Two weeks of summer vacation left!

I have been busy working on the music room (ugh), sprucing up our TPT and TN stores, getting my kiddos to work on sample interactive notebooks, finishing my math interactive notebook, and writing about the armour of God (my latest chapter in the devotion book I'm working on).

Whew! I'm getting tired just reading all that...

Anyway, because of all that craziness, I actually do have Five for Friday pictures again!

These scrappy numbers are actually a freebie from Graphics from the Pond that I stumbled on yesterday. Be sure to check them out!

The dreadful music room. Take a look at what I'm up against:

Now see my progress:

My wonderful mom made the zebra curtains for me. As of right now, all the primary colored shelving has been painted black. You can't see it in this picture, but there is a wall of cabinets (with doors). I'm painting the doors with black chalkboard paint! Should be fun and cute to decorate. As for the pile in the middle of the floor...ugh!

 I know I brag on them a lot, but I really do have the best kids in the world (okay, in my world?)! Anyway, here they are helping put together my reading and science interactive notebooks.

So maybe he is eating kiwi, but he really has been hard at work on the science notebook!

In case you're wondering, here's the notebooks I'm using:

Bundled Interactive Science Journals by Primary Graffiti

(LOVE THESE!)

Reading Interactive Notebook by Nicole Selby

(Love it, but I am adding things to it so it will be more like a complete ELA notebook if that makes sense.)

The math one I am actually making and I'm not done yet! Ack!

I'll admit, I wasn't really sold when I was reading so many of the tips for your TPT and TN store about attractive cover pages. Why? Because I'm not a "cutesy" person. I want functional. I'm all for simple. However, as I started working on updating some of our products, I can whole-heartedly admit that the updated products are definitely more eye-catching. I've also added two new products:

We've had people asking us to bundle games for awhile. Here's my first one--finally!

This is more of a time-saver, sanity-saver for me. People were loving this idea on my focus wall and would e-mail me about an editable file. I would e-mail it to them (after they purchased the other one) so I finally decided I should just list the thing! Woohoo!

I won't bore you with the details, but I got a problem with our Facebook fan page fixed (thanks Angela!).

Speaking of that fan page? Have you liked it yet? We are at 1,848 likes. Sure would like to hit 2,000! Click here to visit our page.

And finally, a food picture. Yes, I truly took this picture and posted it to facebook the night I made it! I don't think I am going to be a food photographer or anything, but this was so good!

Cauliflour used as "rice." Oh, the possibilities!

In this case, I substituted it for spaghetti noodles. I made both for the family. My son picked the cauliflour over the noodles right away. Hubby and daughter each tried it and liked it (after already having their noodles).

I saw it on Food Network Star...we usually follow the show, but missed most of it this year so I don't even know the guy who made it. Sorry!

Head on over to Doodle Bugs and link up.

Oh, and come back on Sunday for chapter eight of Guided Math in Action! It's about centers...my least favorite thing. ;-)