Sunshine Plus Storms Equals More Freebies

When you live in the South, you never know exactly what to expect from day to day when it comes to weather.  In one week, you can have a sunny day, snow day, fog day, and then, when you least expect it, before you've even hit February, you can have a tornado day.  I'm sure you didn't figure it out, but today was that day.  The picture to the right is to give you an idea of what our day looked like.  It's a screenshot from EarthSky.org of all the storms we had earlier today.  You see all of that white? Well, it got up close and personal with my state today.

This morning, within ten minutes of our day starting, we landed in our hallway.  The kids were great, but my stomach was flipping and flopping.  I have hated bad weather since I was a kid.  A teacher suggested we read books, so that's exactly what I did.  I went and got a couple of cute books and read to three of the classes while their backs were up against the wall.  It had never occurred to me to do that before, but I have a feeling for the rest of my career, I will always grab a couple of books when we have to move to the hallway.  Oh, and of course, it's to calm the kids... not me, how could you think that?  Yeah, right!

After that, the day seemed to drag on... and on... and on... and on.  When we first went back to our room, my kiddos definitely had a difficult time settling in, but by 10:00, we were good to go for the rest of the day.  Well, actually, they were good to go.  I was checking weather.com and Weather Bug every ten minutes.  We fully expected that we would be going back into the hallway.  At the end of the day, we were doing our typical routine - Daily 5.  I had also turned on some music to make them feel a little more at ease.  It definitely seemed to drown out the wind, rain, and little bit of thunder we were hearing outside.  Around this time, the decision was made that we wouldn't be dismissing on time.  I can honestly say, I have been teaching for eleven years and I've never had that happen.  I've also never been so thankful that they let us hold onto our kiddos.  We were under a severe thunderstorm warning and the idea of sticking them into a metal bus just didn't seem to be the greatest idea.  So, around an hour later, we took our kiddos up front and loaded them up onto their buses.  By the time the last child was loaded, our principal and assistant principal looked like they jumped in a lake.  They were my heroes because thanks to them, I was nice and dry!

Now, outside of the mega bad weather, I also have a little exciting news.  We had our annual Teacher of the Year announcement.  Well, my sweet teammate won!  She's going to kill me for telling my blogging friends, but I just had to tell you guys!  I have a great little sister, but Alicia is like my little sister at school.  We are so much alike it's a miracle that we can stand each other, but we get along great!  She also is the reason that I make you guys a lot of freebies.  She knows our standards backwards and forwards and has this sixth sense about what I should make next.  Every time I listen to her, it definitely pays off!  So, I had to brag!!!!  I am extremely proud of my teammate and although I'm excited, I'm not surprised at all.  I have the best team in the universe and they are definitely a part of my family!

Okay, so now that I got my "Proud teammate" moment out the way, I have two new freebies.  I know I kind of keep overloading you guys with lots of new stuff, but I guess I just want you to know what I'm about.  Hopefully, this weekend I will get a few new packets created.  I seem to always have BIG plans, but creating freebies is so quick, I just can't resist.  Now that I'm going in ten different directions and babbling, I need to wrap up.  My freebie pictures are below.  If you like them, click on them, and it will take you to them so you can download.

Hope you enjoy them and see you tomorrow.  Oh, last thing - if you have any ideas of what you want to see me create, leave me a comment below.  I try to stick to things between K-2.  I'll pick one item and make it as my surprise freebie tomorrow.  So, remember to comment!

Classroom Freebies Manic Monday

26 comments

  1. Glad all is okay. We had a tornado last year. Luckily it went right over our school, but it destroyed my teammates home. My goodness, how did you get SOO many followers so quick? I'm STUCK at 111.
    Deniece

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    1. Me, too... that's horrible that happened to you guys! That's one of my fears when I'm at school. As for the followers, honestly, I try to blog every night, I create lots of freebies, I pin, join giveaways, linky parties, etc. I spend probably 2 hours a night working on my blog and an hour or 2 working on TPT stuff. That's the only thing I can think of when it comes to the followers. It really hasn't felt that fast to me, but I guess it's been faster than I realized :) You will get there. Just keep plugging away :)

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  2. Thanks for more great freebies. Here's an idea for your next one: missing numbers in subtraction.

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    1. Glad you like them and I LOVE that idea!!!! The missing number addition ones have been a hit, so I'm sure subtraction will be, too.

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  3. Hey Faith!
    I am right there with you on storms! I've been a serious scaredy cat since I was a kid! SO glad you are all okay! Here's a story for you. I have you bookmarked. I have no idea how to keep up with the blogs I follow. Anyway, I've been clicking on the bookmark since your 100th day product post, waiting for a new blog post. It kept showing the same blog post. I was starting to wonder where you'd gone!! FINALLY figured out that I have to refresh or click your home button to show the new post! I feel pretty silly now! :) Thanks for the great freebies and for all you share!!
    Kim
    TheVeryBusyFirstGraders

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    1. Okay, your story made me laugh :) I think we've all done that at least once :) Glad you guys can use the freebies.

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  4. Hi Faith,
    I'm impressed by your energy and enthusiasm . . .I LOVE your blog and REALLY LOVE your freebies! :o) We experienced the bad weather as well and spent a few minutes in the hall--the book idea is AWESOME!
    P.S. How about creating some cutesie measurement freebies--measuring inches and centimeters would be great :o)

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    1. Aw! Thank you so much :) I got the book idea from our instructional coach. I truly think it's why my kids weren't in tears. Not one child seemed to be concerned about the weather.

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  5. Your freebies are always perfect for my homework packets! I'm impressed how quickly you make them!

    We didn't dismiss early on Wednesday and the weather was really awful right when we ended school. I'm stuck outside for carline (which I don't mind - usually). A few minutes into carline the wind got really bad and I could barely hold onto the umbrella. We ended up completely soaked and could only load 2 cars at a time. Dismissing early was a good idea!

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    1. Thank you :) I guess because I made stuff like this long before TPT existed, it's kind of second nature to me now. Hopefully this summer I'm going to make some homework packets. I'm just not quite ready to attempt that yet :)

      We didn't actually dismiss early :) We ended up dismissing an hour late, but it was a great decision. We were under a thunderstorm warning when we typically would have dismissed and there was a tornado warning in the county directly below us. I was thankful that our county decided they'd rather everyone get home later and safe than dismiss on time.

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    2. Ha! That's what I get for reading blogs early in the morning! Completely read that one wrong! Must not have had my coffee yet. :)

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    3. LOL... no problem. I do that ALL the time. I'm still trying to figure out the best time to read devotionals because I'm loopy if it's late and I'm loopy if it's early. Maybe I'm just loopy :)

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  6. Good morning...Just linked up a few spots after you on TBA :) I loved waking up to these freebies! I will be using them next week! Thank you! I live in NY...these storms have been really scary...we lost two ginormous trees in front of our house - I am glad all is ok with you!
    Tracey
    The Teacher’s Chair
    Find me on Facebook!
    Happy Pinning!

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    1. Aw! I LOVE TBA! I was REALLY excited this morning that I got to post on the top line :) I'm going to have to go see what you posted now.

      Wow on the trees! I hope your house is okay. I'm definitely not a storm girl.

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  7. I linked up after you again today, girlie! Have a great week!
    Tracey

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    1. LOL... We must be on the same wake up, get ready schedule :) Hope you have a great week, too! Going to check your link up now :)

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  8. I love the noun and verb sorting!
    http://3dinosaurs.com/wordpress/

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  9. Thanks for the freebie! SO CUTE!

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    1. No problem at all. Thanks for your sweet compliment :)

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  10. I realize I'm a little late for making a freebie request, but I'd love something to do with Even/Odd number practice and/or adding by 2's!

    Your blog is amazing. You are so great, seriously! Thank you for being so kind and generous. I'm a new follower. Thanks!

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    1. It actually worked out :) I ended up using your suggestions as creations for this week. I posted what you mentioned today :) Hope you enjoy them :)

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  11. Thank you for this noun and verb sheet, we are using it right now to make sure my first grader understands what we learned these past two weeks. It was exactly what I was hoping to find. Many blessings to you!

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