TpT Seller Challenge Week 1: Makeover Madness!

I am FINALLY linking up for week 1 of the TpT Seller Challenge!

I blogged week 2 first because it was an easier challenge to manage while I was still in school.
Now that I'm officially on summer vacation I've finally sat down and finished the first challenge!

Here is the explanation of this challenge:


The first things I did was remake my TOU & credit page!
Here is the before...


Yikes!
And I was tired of remaking a TOU page at the end of each product.

So I made a TOU that matches my blog design and has all the clipart artists and font designers I use on one page.


This way I can just add this file to the end of new products!
And the links are all clickable now!
I also added social media buttons to my TOU.

The second thing I did and my biggest makeover was my math unit "Here are the 3D Figures That I Know!"


I started by changing the cover to a simpler square one and then added all the ideas I had been jotting down all year! This resulted in the product growing from 38 pages to 80 pages! So if you own it go redownload it for the new goodies!!

Here is the new preview with the new pages:



You can check out this unit in my TpT store by clicking here.

And I went ahead and updated 2 of my best sellers so that they have a nice square cover.  Only the cover was updated for these 2 products!


I'll hopefully be making over all of my covers this summer so that my store has a nice cohesive look :)

Here are the links to these products:

Colour, Shape & Size Sorting Mats: 

Editable Primary Polka Dot Teacher Toolbox: 

Speaking of my store I did a mini makeover of my store as well!
It went from this...


To this!


Things I changed include adding my photo to my logo, adding an clickable image in my description box and making my featured items all square covers so that it looks cohesive!

I can't wait to do my cover makeovers over the summer!
What do you think?
Do you like the new looks and additions to the products?

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Five for Friday: June 26

Today was the LAST day of school for me!
I'm officially on summer break!

Woooooo!!!

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 things from this week!



We decided to frame a picture of the two educators and the student and give it to them as a farewell gift on the last day of school.  I got the idea from Rainbows Within Reach.

We bought the wooden frames from Micheal's and they painted the frame and then decorated the frame with stickers.


I placed the picture in the frame and glued on this message to them on the back.
I hope they liked it when they opened it!



One of my favourite things about the end of the year is the thoughtful messages in the cards that I often get from parents and colleagues.

This one below is from one of the moms of a boy in my class.
She is such a pleasure to work with and her words of gratitude made me tear up!




On Thursday afternoon (our last day with kids) we had a class party! We started with 4 minute to win it games... and they HAD A BLAST!

We split the team into boys and girls (we happened to have an even number of boys and girls that day) and kept a tally on the board for points.  Both teams were able to get a point if they could complete the activity within one minute.

First we played "Fan the Fish".
For this one the students had to fan the paper fish from one side of the carpet to the other.


The second game was "Blow the Cup".
The kids had to get the plastic cup from one short edge to the other.  If it went off the long edge by accident they had to start again at the beginning.


The third game we played was "Pom Pom Transfer".
We put a little bit of vaseline on the kid's noses and they had to transfer the pom pom from one plastic plate to the other without using their hands.


The last game we played was "Cookie Face".
{Sorry I don't have a picture for this one!}
This one was by far the hardest and only 1 kiddo was able to do it!
They had to put a cookie on their forehead and try to get it in their mouths without using their hands!

After the minute to win it games were over we had the treats that the parents brought in and after that it was time for dismissal!  It was a great way to end the school year with lots of laughter :)


Today I moved out of my room.
My contract ends today so I moved all of my stuff back home.
Also the room I was in is getting renovated over the summer so we had to move EVERYTHING out of the room and into storage except for things that are built in!

So at the end of the day our room looked like this:


And since I brought everything home our dining room looks like this right now...


And this isn't even everything!
I have a car full of stuff still but I'm going to have my boyfriend help me move it into the house when he gets home.  Then I'll have to sort, organize, wash etc. next week! Yikes!


A mini challenge from the TpT Seller Challenge popped up on my Facebook feed a couple of days ago.  The challenge was to revise your terms of use.  I have never liked my TOU and thought it would be a great time to give it an update! I made it so that it would match my blog design and brand.    This way I can merge it with new files I make and I won't have to remake a TOU each time I make a new product! Yay! Hopefully this will save me some time this summer when I am (hopefully) making lots of new products!


That's it for me!
I hope you had a great week and a great weekend!


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TpT Seller Challenge Week 2: Dare to Dream

So... I'm technically not even done with my post for week 1..
I thought I finally finished updating my 3D figure pack tonight but there has been a slight clip art hiccup and now it will have to wait a few more days :(

But I'm going to join in for week 2 and share my dreams for my TpT journey!


I started posting to TpT last summer because I already make a lot of things to use in the classroom myself and I love product design.  I never thought that anyone would buy from me! When I made my first sale I was so ecstatic! 

My store is still relatively small but here are my hopes for the future!

1. RENOVATIONS & DECORATING

We just bought a new house at the beginning of the month and moving from a teeny tiny condo to a 3 bedroom house has been a huge change! I would love to have some extra income to help us decorate our home the way we want it!  We also eventually want to renovate the kitchen and master bathroom so building my store helps me reach that goal sooner too!

2. PAY OFF MY STUDENT LOANS

I would LOVE it if my earnings from TpT could help me pay off my student loans faster so that I could focus on saving for other things like...

3. VISITING MY FAMILY MORE

I moved to Ontario 4 years ago and my family lives in BC.  It doesn't look like it is in the cards for me to visit them this summer which means I won't be seeing my mom and sister for 2 years by the time the next visit rolls around.  This is killing me inside as I love them to bits and pieces but it's just too hard for me this summer.  So I would love to make enough money to pay for a flight to BC next summer!!

4. CONTINUE TO GROW PROFESSIONALLY

Something I love about creating products for TpT is that it forces me to stay on top of the current education trends and theories.  It motivates me to read, learn and implement a variety of new teaching ideas, find out what works for me and my kids and be a better teacher.

5. EXTRA FINANCIAL SECURITY

Since I am still a contract teacher I don't have the job security of a permanent teacher.  Last week I applied to 22 jobs and last year I applied to hundreds before I landed an interview.  If I don't land a contract job I will be going back to supply teaching for the time being.  Having TpT as my second job let's me work on something I love and have a little bit of extra financial security :) I would love it if down the road I could make enough so that I could comfortably stay at home a little longer with babies when the time comes ;)

So there you have it!
Those are my dreams for my TpT journey.

If you would like to see more Dare to Dream posts or link up with your own you can visit any of these ladies!

 
 


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Five for Friday: June 5

Hi guys!
I'm popping in today to share 5 things about my week for the Five for Friday linky hosted by Kacey of Doodle Bugs Teaching!

http://doodlebugsteaching.blogspot.ca/2015/06/five-for-friday-linky-party-june-5th.html


We started working on our Father's Day gifts!
We started with the card.

Here is my sample...



and these are the ones made by the kids.
Aren't they sooo cute!?
I'm so happy with how they turned out!!




A big hit for the play dough centre recently was this birthday cake invitation to learn!

We put out play dough, candles, number candles, number cutters and jewels.
We had students matching candles to the numbers, making big numbers like 33 and decomposing the number by putting the jewels on and counting the jewels by colour!

I recommend this one 100%!


One new thing I tried this week was downloading a video that was connected to our inquiry onto the laptop and setting it out as a centre activity.  Since we are doing an inquiry on the human body I downloaded this video for this week.

The students came to the laptop, put the head phones on and listened to the video.  After they watched the video, they moved to the other side to record what they learned! They did such an amazing job with this!


Here are some recordings of their new learning.






We are making these adorable key chains for Father's Day to go with the cards!
My teamie thought of this awesome idea!
The wooden part is actually flooring samples!

Here is what it the sample looks like:


I took a picture of the kids holding a key and typed up the little box that says "you have the key to my heart" on the other side :) A little mod podge and they were done! Easy peasy :)

If you would like to download the printable for the little rectangle that says "You have the key to my heart" click here.


As our whole group song for Kindergarten graduation we are doing a grad song to the tune of "Let it Go" from the Frozen movie.  I did this with my kids last year and it was a huge hit! So far it has been a hit with this group as well :)

We use this instrumental to practice.

And here are the lyrics!
I originally got the lyrics from Miss Campo's TpT store
but we changed the lyrics here and there to fit our kids more :)


If you want a copy, you can click on the image to download the lyrics!

That's it for me!

Today we have a PA Day (report card writing day!)
and I am moving to my new house after school!
Wooo! So if it's crickets over here for a few weeks you'll know I'll be either unpacking boxes or wrapping up the end of the year with the kids!

Have a great weekend! :)


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June Currently + 1000 Instagram Follower Giveaway!

Knock, knock... is anybody there?
I've been neglecting this little blog!!
But I'm back to link up with Farley for her June Currently



Listening: Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran


This has been my favourite song for the past couple of months.
It may possibly be my favourite song ever!

I'm sure most of you have heard it (it's all over the radio) but if you haven't here is a link to the music video!


Loving: Reaching 1000 followers on Instagram

Instagram is my favourite form of social media so I was super excited to reach 1000 followers last week!


I'm having a little giveaway to celebrate!
Enter below to win a $10 TpT gift card!


Thinking: I need to prep more activities for our human body inquiry.

My students showed interest in the human body after hearing about a boy in Grade 1 who has diabetes.  While explaining what diabetes is to the kids they came up with a lot of other questions about the body.  We have started to explore things and have done some observing of skeletons and watched some youtube videos on the digestive system and the heart.

Here are some great websites that I found with lots of hands-on ideas to try!

   

I'm for sure going to try the hands-on demonstration of what blood is made of!
I just need to get my hands on some red water beads!

Wanting: To get in our new house and decorate!

We had our final viewing of our house today and we are so anxious to get in our house and start making it our own! We move in this Friday and we are planning to paint our living/dining room and master bedroom this weekend.  Which leads me to the next item...

Needing: To finalize paint colours!

We have decided to paint our living/dining room on the main floor and our master bedroom as soon as we move in.  I brought a whole bunch of paint chips to our viewing today and I think I've narrowed it down to these two colours! I was going back and forth between Revere Pewter and Edgecomb Grey (also by Benjamin Moore) for the bedroom but I think I'm going to go with Revere Pewter! Picking paint colours makes me so nervous!


Summer Lovin: Spending Time in Our New House!

As you can tell from the majority of this post we are so excited to move into our first home!
I can't wait to enjoy our deck and read and maybe create some TpT products on our brand new outdoor sofa!

We are planning to get the ARHOLMA Outdoor Sofa from IKEA :)


We also have a hot tub that we are looking forward to enjoying and I can't wait to start creating an actual home office!

That's it for me!
I promise to be back with some teaching related blog posts after I am settled into our new home!
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