5 for Friday and a Giveaway

It's been a while since I've linked up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a little old 5 for Friday action. I've missed it! 

 I have been in PD all week. Some of it was fantastic, some of it was good review and some of it was...this.

 Ok, it wasn't really THAT bad and I do love me some data BUT you know when you reach that point where you are just like "can't I go live in my classroom for a little while and just bask in all that I've accomplished while feverishly writing my to-do lists in my personalized Erin Condren planner"...that was me yesterday. Even though my room was done (reveal coming soon...I promise), I wanted to just go sit at my desk and think through some of the little things. Today we have a work day and I'm looking forward to some alone time to...work. 

One of my personal instructional goals this year is to be more purposeful with my vocabulary instruction. Luckily, that directly ties in with our school goal of increased vocabulary development/instruction with intentional use of word walls...HELLO. Love it. 
I attended a training on this book last summer and loved the strategies but kind of stuffed the book in with the thousand other "resources I'm definitely going to use...sometime" and forgot about it. Well now I'm in a book study and I'm loving this book. 44 easy-to-implement activities that you can do...right now. Thursday I helped lead a training at our school where we introduced 2 of the activities so I thought I'd share the info with you, my fabulous readers, next week. I even have a freebie handout you can have to easily implement. [[I'm just that nice!]] :) 

 This.

 Have you guys discovered S'well bottles? My teacher friends and I are in love with them. Let me be honest, I'm so not a water drinker. I'd happily live my days drinking peach tea, Dr. Pepper and almost any other caffeinated, carbonated beverage. But I know I need to drink more water. Enter the S'well bottle. You see, I only drink water if it's super cold. So it's only up to my standards for as long as the ice isn't melting normally....but my adorable hot pink S'well bottle keeps my drink cold all day. As in at least 20 hours. EVEN IN THE 100 DEGREE WEATHER. It's amazing. S'well isn't paying but (but hey S'well people, if you want to pay me to rave about your bottles, I'm totally cool with that...just sayin')
You need to get one. They are cute and work like a dream. #Christmasgiftidea

I've said it before but I absolutely love the people I work with. They are seriously the best. That being said, we lost alot of "core" team members at the end of last year for various reasons. That means we have to work even harder to stick together and have each other's back this year...I am LOVING my new team. Of course I knew all of them before but it's nice working together! Plus we are adorable. #Team Elliott #LivingTree ((that's for you Krissy) 

We are some FANatics! Our kids are college bound :)

Love my SpED team friends and glad I get to work more closely with ya'll ths year!

Just #SharingaCoke :) 

Have you checked out my giveaway that's going on now?! It's for a FREE YEAR-LONG membership to abcteach.com! Free. Thousands of resources. Free. You should definitely go check out my post and comment so you can be entered in the drawing! Winners will be announced Monday night/Tuesday morning. Do it. Or if you know a teacher that could benefit, let them know! 

ABC Teach...you've gotta check it out!

Hey ya'll! A couple months ago, Stephen from abcteach.com reached out to me about previewing the website and sharing what I found if I wanted to. 
Y'all.

This is an invaluable resource! As in, you have to check it out and get a membership! They of course have some free stuff but I wanted to share with you those things plus the "extras" you get as a member! 
Check it: 

Freebies: 
abcteach.com has hundreds of freebies from worksheets in every subject, to clip art, themed units and fun stuff for the holidays. The website is super organized and easy to navigate! There are even activities to go with your SMART board! There are so many great forms for everything-classroom management, organization, literature circles, book reviews, etc. And that's just the reading stuff that I checked out...there are a ton of great math resources as well! 

Member Benefits: 
Ok, it is totally worth it. With a membership, you not only have access to hundreds more ready-made lessons, worksheets and comprehension packets, but you have the ability to make your own pages for students with a worksheet generator. If you are lucky enough to have a SMART board or Promethean board in your classroom you have access to all kinds of interactive activities through abcteach.com. If you find resources you love, you can bookmark them or "favorite" them so they are easily accessible next time you go back to look. 
Listen, we've all checked out superteacherworksheets and some of those other websites and they have some great stuff but I'm telling you, abcteach.com has THOUSANDS of resources that are easily accessible. The website is very easy to navigate and is super organized (which makes my little OCD heart happy). You've gotta check it out today! 

Oh! And I just discovered that their memberships are on sale so you better go NOW before the 50% offer expires!!

Here's the exciting news...! ABC Teach is giving away one-year memberships to 3 lucky readers!!! If you are interested, leave a comment with your name and a note about which resources on ABCTeach you are most excited to know more about...and on Monday I will put all your names in a random selection generator to choose 3 winners :) Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor!