Journals are my Favorite!

I LOVE writing in journals.

I use them for my Bible notes, my quiet time and for making my daily lists and schedules. There is nothing like a pencil or marker moving across the blank page of a journal.

Last summer, I was ready to buy a new journal and just couldn't find the exact one I wanted. So...I made one and then I made some more :)

I have many designs in my Amazon store.

If you love journals as much as I do, I'm sure you'll find one or two that you want.

Click the picture to head over and check them out.

Baptism and a Freebie

When thinking of a new set of Bible Task Cards, 

my mind went to Baptism. 

Baptism is one of two ordinances that Jesus instituted for the church (Matthew 28:19-20). If it was so important that Jesus commanded it, then it's something we should obey and also teach to our children/students. 

I'm not saying that we "teach" baptism and then line them all up to be baptized. I'm saying that we all need to know what the Bible (God) has to say about it. 

I made this set of task cards as an overview of the topic. It's certainly not all encompassing. 

The prayer is that students know more about who God is and what He expects of us.

Baptism is a beautiful example, an outward testimony of the inward change in a believer's life. May we all feel led by the Holy Spirit to follow Him.

If you are interested in the task cards, click either picture to go to my store to purchase.

If you are new to my task cards, please click and download the following freebie. It will allow you to see how they are set up. You can then practice using them with your students. I'm sure they will love them.

Happy 2024!

Happy 2024!

I know many of you have already headed back to school.

We are going back this morning.

I wanted to pass along a little encouragement and a prayer using 1 Corinthians 15:58 to help us refocus as we go back. 

God, help us to celebrate the ministry that You have called us to. Help us to celebrate victories large and small. Help us to celebrate the fact that You choose to use us in Your work. Give us the energy and perseverance to work unto You, setting an example of Your faithfulness to our students and co-laborers in the ministry. May we be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of this ministry, knowing that in the Lord our labor is not in vain. Amen!

Prayers for everyone heading back into classrooms this year!

Grand Opening Sale!

I shared exciting news about expanding my store.

Well, it seems that many other sellers are too.

We know that some districts do not allow their teachers to shop on certain sites,

so, we are trying to help out with that.

To get the word out about other places to shop,

we got together to throw a

GRAND OPENING SALE!

My new store is at Made by Teachers and

although I don't have everything loaded there yet,

I am offering a 20% discount on what I do have.

You will find many of my Bible packets, task cards,

Valentine's Day and Easter activities.

If you've never been over to Made by Teachers,

please be sure to head over and look around. 

Also, research #GRAND20

to find other sellers who are participating.

Click on the image below to get to Made by Teachers.

Opening a Second Shop!

Good news!!

My business is expanding :)

I have just opened a shop at Made by Teachers. 

If you haven't been over to check out their website,

make plans to do it soon. Click on the image to find me and then have a look around.

If you are still more comfortable with TpT,

don't worry, I'm still there too.

Below are 2 Valentine FREEBIES in my 

Made by Teachers store.

Click on the images to grab your freebies and

also check out Made by Teachers.

Bible Review with Headbands

Well, we're back in full swing around here.

We're on week 3 of Bible study already,

but I wanted to share our first week back.

This year I'm teaching 3rd - 5th grade Bible.

I've had most of these kids since the 1st grade.

We use the Gospel Project curriculum

which walks them all the way through the Bible.

I knew that I needed to review during our first class

and it was a lot to cover.

So, what they thought was a game

turned into a really great and fun review.

My adult kids and I have game night regularly at my house

and HEADBANDS is one of our favorites.

So instead of just talking at my students,

we played Headbands Bible Review.

I simply attached a card with topics that I wanted them to review. They started shouting out clues to help me guess what was on my head. I pretended to not know until I got all the facts that I wanted from them. I "guessed" what was on my head and then moved on to the next card. The game also helped me clear up misconceptions (for example, if they said "she's married to Joseph" I would say "it's Mary" and they would yell "no").

It was soooo much fun!

I felt like it was a great review and the next week we were able to jump straight into our new lessons for the year.

We have also used Bible word cards to play Pictionary and Charades. All of them are good ways to review or just practice any words or topics that you need to.

I'm including 3 of my FREE resources that would work really well for any of the review games mentioned above. Click on each of them to grab your free copies.

HAVE FUN!!

Pirate Ponderings: CHOSEN

Every year our admin chooses a word or phrase

that she feels God is giving her for our staff.

I love our word this year :)

CHOSEN

CHOSEN "for such a time as this"

CHOSEN for this time,

CHOSEN for these kids,

CHOSEN for this generation,

CHOSEN for this place

CHOSEN to proclaim HIS excellencies.

I am in awe of the fact that I am chosen by God.

I know me,

so to know that HE chose me for ANYTHING is humbling.

And then to think of what HE chose

in order for me to be chosen.

HE chose to leave heaven,

HE chose to become a baby, born in a stable,

raised in poverty and oppression,

HE chose to buck the system in order to speak truth,

HE chose beatings and humiliation,

HE chose the cross,

HE chose death and the grave.

And yes, praise God for HIS resurrection, but

let's not skip over all the stuff that came before that.

HE chose a lot of hurt and suffering.

Knowing it would happen, 

HE chose to do it anyway, for me and for you.

HE chose all of it so that we could choose.

We can choose to reject HIM or

we can choose

to believe in HIM

to love HIM

to follow HIM

to worship HIM

to serve HIM.

We all get to choose what we will do with HIM.

I'm praying that our response will be

Colossians 3:12-17 (ESV)

12) Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, 13) bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. 14) And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17) And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

HE calls us CHOSEN, HOLY AND BELOVED :)

and then we are given some instructions for how we should live in light of what HE has done for us.

When we walk into our schools and meet with students, we all get to choose how we will treat them (and each other).

I'm praying that this school year, for our students, our families, our schools and ourselves, we will all choose to 

 be hopeful

be kind

be humble

be patient

be encouraged and encouraging

be compassionate 

be comforted and comforting

be worshipful

be joyful

be committed

be thankful.

I'm praying that we all stay faithful to our calling and that everything we choose this year will be honoring to HIM.

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Memorial Day

How many days left???

We are down to 3 which will include 2 days of field day and a half day so we don't have much time left to focus on Memorial Day with our students. If you still have time left, I have a freebie, an easy prep sentence building activity and a bulletin board idea for you.

I know when it gets close to the end throwing stations together needs to be quick and easy.

This word building activity is just that.

Just print, cut apart (kids can do that)

and let them start making words.

It's FREE so just click on the picture for your copy.

Another easy prep station is this sentence building activity.

If you make the copies your students can help cut them out.

Then they can work together to rebuild the sentences, record them on the provided worksheet and then check their answers using the answer key.

And now for a bulletin board idea.

This is a board that we did a few years ago.

We called it a WALL OF HONOR.

We had our kids (and staff) bring in pictures of their loved ones who had served and added them to our board. They attached names, dates, places and branches of service.

Everyone hung them with such love and pride.

It was overwhelming to see.

My prayer this year is that we all remember

and honor those who have served.

I thank my God every time I remember you.

Philippians 1:3

The Best Friday of Them All

I think we can agree that all Fridays are good,

but THIS Friday is the best of them all.

We call it GOOD FRIDAY,

even though it was not good for Jesus...

the result of HIS death (and resurrection)

make it good for all who believe.

Spending the day grateful for what HE did for me,

and waiting another glorious celebration on Sunday.

Praying blessings on you as you celebrate 

what HE has done for all of us.

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Ladybug Math Facts

It's been a while since I have posted a 

FREEBIE FRIDAY

so, I thought it was time.

This week I'm featuring a basic math facts activity.

It's a fun free way to practice facts.

They will "spot" the answers and match them

to the correct addition sentences.

It is a great math activity to add to your 

spring, insect or Easter unit.

It can be used in

small groups,

math stations,

independent practice, or

as an assessment.

The packet includes...

addition sentence cards

sum cards

recording sheet

and answer key.

Hope you find it helpful!

Happy Weekend!!

Bible Drills

If you are not doing Bible drills with your kids,

you (and they) are missing out!

In honor of Valentine's Day, I used my 

Love in the Bible task cards to do Bible drills

with my 2nd - 5th graders.

When I was a kid in Training Union

(yep, I'm that old),

Bible drills were a regular Sunday night activity.

Here's how we did it....

Everyone gets a Bible,

call out "Draw Swords"

(the Bible is the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT)

when you call out, they hold up their Bible

(it ensures no one gets an early start),

call out the verse you want them to look up,

they look it up as quickly as they can.

When the majority make it to the right Scripture,

we call out the page number so no one is left out.

Then ask the question on the task card.

You can have them all call out the answer and 

then read the verse to clarify.  

Then go on to the next verse.

They had soooo much fun! And 

what is better than having your students dig in the Word?

You can do this with any of my task cards sets.

Here is a link to all of them..

BIBLE TASK CARDS

Have fun!

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Follow the Star

We've just wrapped up the last week of school

and are now on Christmas break :)

But I wanted to share our last week's lesson with you.

Since there were 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we broke the Christmas story into 3 sessions. For the most part we used my Christmas Devotions Weekly packet (I'll add the link below).

 The breakdown looked like...

week 1 - The Angel Visits Mary and Joseph

week 2 - Jesus was Born, The Angels Visited the Shepherds

week 3 - The Wise Men

Like everyone else's, our kids were so wild antsy that I knew I wanted an activity for the last week to be one where they could be up and moving (cue, Follow the Star).

I printed out several stars, 

numbered some and left others blank.

I mapped out a trail around the school.

I taped up the numbered stars (I used 4) in locations where I wanted them to stop and the blank stars just to keep them on the right trail. I added sticky notes to the backs of the numbered stars so I would know what to say and read at each star.

It looked something like this.....

Star 1 - Was "found" in my Bible. On the back I wrote, 

"Bring a Bible and follow the star."

We walked until we found 

Star 2 - "Open your Bible and read Matthew 2:1-2"

(After reading the verses at each stop, we discussed them.)

After these verses I told them the next star was located in

"Jerusalem and we needed to find King Herod".

Star 3 - "Welcome to Jerusalem. Read Matthew 2:3-9a"

We discussed and then I told them our next stop was in "Bethlehem."

Star 4 - "Welcome to Bethlehem. Read Matthew 2:9b-12"

After discussion, we went "home" (back to the classroom) by a different route.

We had so much fun.

This was an easy activity to put together

and it proved to be such a meaningful time spent with my students.

The FREEBIE this week is a copy of the star I used.

Click on the picture to grab your copy and get started.

(Here's the link to my Christmas Devotions Weekly packet.)

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Nativity Vocabulary Matching

It's FREEBIE FRIDAY!!

Do you want your littles to recognize/read/spell

the main words from the nativity story?

Our FREEBIE this week will help with that.

It comes with picture cards and word cards

that your students can practice matching.

It also comes with a matching recording sheet

that you could use to check for understanding.

It's a fun one to add to your Christmas stations.

If you wanted to use it whole group,

simply give everyone a card and have them

walk around and find their matches.

Click on either picture to get your FREE copy.

Merry Christmas!

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Snowy Sentence Building

Sorry I've been MIA :(

But I'm back this week with a great FREEBIE.

So many of our kids need continuous practice with

building sentences, writing sentences, reading sentences....

and this packet helps you do just that.

They have a fun, Winter theme 

that will keep their interest up.

They are great to use whole group.

Give every student one card,

have them walk around and 

find the other students that match them,

then each group works together to build their sentence.

You could have each group 

share their sentence with the whole group.

You could also use these with small groups

in reading groups and literacy stations.

And finally they could be used individually as an assessment.

It comes with a recording sheet and answer key.

Click on the picture to get your copy and

Happy Sentence Building!

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Thanksgiving Making Words

Everywhere I look people are gearing up for Christmas,

but I'm over here making it wait :)

I love Thanksgiving,

it's the holiday that happens at my house.

So, I load up the fall and Thanksgiving decorations,

and savor every minute of it.

In honor of that, this week's FREEBIE is a 

Thanksgiving making words activity that is 

easy to print, cut and get started on.

It makes a great literacy station for the next couple of weeks.

Click on any of the pictures below to get your set.

Happy Early Thanksgiving!

FREEBIE FRIDAY: Soldier Craft

This week's FREEBIE is in honor of Veterans' Day 

which is coming up next week.

It's a soldier craft that makes a super cute display.

You could have your kids make them and line them up.

They are especially cute if students make 

them like self-portraits.

Let them add details,

change the hair, eyecolor, etc

to look like themselves.

The file comes with all the patterns you will need

as well as ideas for variations.

You can grab your copy by clicking on the cover below.

Thank you to all who have served!