Tried It Tuesday {Educents} and a SALE!

It's back to reality for me after a week off from school last week for break! Really, we barely have had any five day work weeks since before Christmas and I am anxious to get back in the groove. I just need to find that groove! :)

It's Time for Tried It Tuesday! 
Note: Scroll ALL the WAY to the bottom of this post for the Tried It Tuesday link-up. 
The link-up before that is for the TPT sale!
What have you tried recently at school or home?

My Tried It:

Educents

Have you heard of Educents? When I first started receiving emails about them, I didn't really pay much attention. Sometimes it feels like there are already so many sites and resources to manage. How do I have time to explore more? Well, I'm glad I finally started paying attention to Educents!

What is Educents? They aspire to provide "affordable education to everyone". Every day there are amazing deals on educational products. Some products are hard goods shipped directly to you and others are digital products that can be downloaded instantly. Just click on "Today's Deals". Here are the deals on Educents today. Notice how all the products are marked down by a large percentage!

Shipping for hard goods is never more than $14.99 on Educents!

There are giveaways on Educents too! Enter to win this SimplyFun giveaway for three amazing new games ($74 value).

Once you sign up for an account at Educents, you can start earning Edubucks toward future purchases! By referring friends to Educents, you’ll earn $1 in Edubucks for each friend and your friend will get 20% off his/her first Educents order *no minimum purchase required!*. There’s no limit to how many Edubucks you can earn, so invite all your pals! Just click on "My Account" in the upper right corner and select "Earn Edubucks by Referring Friends". It's that easy!

Follow these steps to become your friend’s favorite person!

• Log into your account and visit the My Account section.
• On the left-hand panel, click Earn Edubucks.
• Enter all of your friends’ email addresses in the Send Invitations section AND/OR click the Share on Facebook/Twitter buttons. You can also share your referral URL on a blog or anywhere you please :)
• Make $1 in Edubucks when a friend signs up to become an Educents member (Membership is FREE). No purchase necessary!
• Your friend gets 20% off his/her first Educents order, thanks to you! (No minimum purchase required)
• High five! You just passed along great savings to your friends, and now they can earn Edubucks by sharing too!

What do you have to lose? Sign up for a free account and check out "Today's Deals" on Educents! You might just find a great deal that you can't pass up! Keep checking back because the deals are always changing!

For the first time, my products are part of an Educents bundle! This bundle has ten "Tricky Math" products geared for upper elementary students. Two of my products are in this bundle along with eight other amazing products (I own most of them!). For just $10.99 (plus an additional % off if you are a new customer), this is a screaming deal! However, all deals at Educents are for a limited time, and this bundle ends in just three days. See my post here for more about this bundle.

In other news of even more savings, look at what is happening at the end of this week! A 3 Million Teachers Strong TPT Sale! Check out my TPT store and all the other stores listed below this picture participating in this huge sale! Go back and leave feedback on your past purchases to use toward your sale purchase. Put a dent in emptying those wish lists and fill up those shopping carts now. I know I am!

Here is a Teachers Pay Teachers Link up with Pinkadots Elementary 

(scroll to the bottom of the post for the Tried It Tuesday Link Up).

An InLinkz Link-up
Here is the Tried It Tuesday Link Up!

An InLinkz Link-up

Five For Friday {February 21, 2014}

I'm home from a fun-filled week in Orlando, Florida and I have some great pictures to share for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching!   

We spent two days at Magic Kingdom. The first day (last Saturday) it was about 65 degrees but we loved it! We went back to the resort in the middle of the day and took naps to return in the evening for fireworks. The only part of the park we made it to was Fantasyland. The second day (Wednesday), it was 83 degrees and we went to the other areas. 

Here are a few pictures of the Magic Kingdom days. We met even more Disney characters than this but I didn't want to overwhelm the post with too many pics! In the near future, I am going to write a more detailed post of our day and what we experienced in case there are any other first timers out there that are looking for tips before heading to Disney. :)

On Monday we went to Animal Kingdom and are so glad that we chose this one for our young kids. They LOVE animals and it was a more relaxed day than Animal Kingdom.

We started the day with a buffet breakfast at Tusker House Restaurant. The kids met four Disney characters (Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy).

We were lucky to have a family member give us points for their timeshare and stayed at the Fountains Bluegreen Resort. It was great having a suite with two bedrooms, two baths, living room, and full kitchen. The pool areas were amazing too!

On our pool day, my daughter and I took a mini SCUBA lesson! Here we are getting our gear on. My face is in the water and Lilly is with the SCUBA instructor. Getting SCUBA certified is on my bucket list and now I know for sure that I would love it! I have always loved the water and used to snorkel when I was younger, diving as deep as I dared with my fins. I have been a lifeguard at our local outdoor pool in the summer for ten years now, teaching aquasize, wee woozles (Mommy and me class), and some limited lessons for only a few hours a week now that I have my own kids but I enjoy it! 

What could make a trip to Disney even MORE AMAZING? Meeting my BBB, Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching in person, of course!!! She is the sweetest (which I already knew) but she is even sweeter in person if that is even possible! We had such a blast hanging out! Our daughters are both named "Lily" and are only a couple weeks apart in age. I think they don't really understand how far away we live from each other. :( Our hubbies bonded over several games of ping pong (little boys trapped in big bodies!). Here are some pictures of our time together!

 This was a ride that simulated a roller coaster. My two are closest in the picture and her two are on the farther seat. Aren't their expressions priceless? :)

 Being goofy!

My sweet friend, Molly, and Lucky to Be in First is celebrating her One Year Blogging Birthday! I can't believe all that she has accomplished in just ONE year!! Her giveaway is HUGE with 25+ products donated from bloggers at both primary and intermediate levels. You have to check it out!

Also, don't forget to check out this amazing deal on Educents with ten "Tricky Math" products for just about $1.00 each! Included are two of my popular math centers.

Have a great weekend everyone!! 

Tried It Tuesday {Disney App}

Wahoo! I have been in sunny Florida since Friday and am loving my time off here with the family! It is going to be rough going back to the snow and cold! If you are headed to Disney World anytime in your future, check out my post below. :)

It's Time for Tried It Tuesday! 
What have you tried recently at school or home?

My Tried It:

Disney App

I heard about this My Disney Experience App from my friend, Matt, at Digital Divide and Conquer. He always has the best, innovative technology tips to use in the classroom!
I am not sure why this app has only 3 stars at Amazon because we are loving it here on our trip to Disney World! People probably just have much more experience using apps than we do. I am still fairly a newbie in that department. On Friday we tested the app out at Magic Kingdom and used it again yesterday at Animal Kingdom. The more we used it, the more we found we were relying on it for real time information.
Here is a screenshot from Animal Kingdom yesterday. The "blue compass" is where we were at and the little arrow is pointing in the direction we are walking! The purple stars are rides with no wait times and the other purple squares show rides with their wait times in real time. Isn't that cool?

 This is another screenshot where the purple Mickeys show where there are character greetings at that time. You click on the park you are at, then "characters", then "map" at the top instead of "list". The blue compass again shows where we are. The map can be zoomed in and out too.

 Here is a screenshot of Magic Kingdom. We took this when we were at Animal Kingdom so this is why there is no blue compass. The white square with purple star shows the name of the attraction when it is clicked.

 Click on the restaurant choice in the main menu and you see info to make reservations if they are available, make reservations right with the app, and see the menu options.

Once you are logged into the app, all your reservations are automatically inputed even if you didn't make them using the app! It is really useful in my opinion and FREE of course!

I am a first timer at Disney and it really is truly magical! 

It was made even more magical because I was able to meet my BBB, Joanne from Head Over Heels for Teaching in person!! She is the first blogger I have "met"! She is even sweeter in person than I imagined. Our daughters are both named "Lily" and are only a couple weeks apart in age! Here we are:

Here are two of my favorite pictures so far with our daughter meeting Rapunzel and our son all tuckered out yesterday at 7:00 when we arrived back at the hotel. :)

Don't forget to check out this amazing deal at Educents that I have submitted two math products for! It is only $10.99 for ten products and first time buyers get an additional discount!

An InLinkz Link-up

Tricky Math!!

There are just some math concepts that are so tricky for our upper elementary students. The standards have become more rigorous and I have found myself constantly looking for new ways to address the standards to reach all the students. One teaching tool I love to use that makes a huge difference with my students mastering math concepts (or any subject) is using task cards or engaging, fun center activities. Students forget that they are actually learning and will go out of their way to complete these activities.

If you are looking for some amazing resources for practicing those tricky math skills for your upper elementary students, then you are going to love this amazing deal over at Educents!  I have teamed up with five other amazing sellers to load your classrooms with 10 resources to help kids with this tricky math! For a limited time, it is only $10.99 for all the downloads you see below!

The two products I included in this bundle will surely be loved by your students!  

My Line Plots with Fractions centers are a fun, engaging way for your students to practice this tricky standard.  

This packet (19 pages total) contains two variations of a math center where students make line plots using fractions and then interpret the data represented.

The first center game, "Pizza Party", instructs students to flip cards showing pieces of pizza. They graph the fraction represented on the card using the line plot and try to "earn" more pizza than the other player. Four different fraction line plot game boards using the pizza cards allows the teacher to differentiate the game based on the level of the students. 

The other center game can be played using dice at a center instead of the pizza cards. Use a die with whole numbers or customize the other line plot according to fraction or specialty dice from your supplies. Directions and a worksheet with questions for players to answer using their line plot are included with each center.

I laminated two sets of pizza fraction cards for my classroom and mounted them each on a different color paper to keep the piles separate.

Here are a few students playing the Line Plots with Fractions game.

The other product I have in the Educents Tricky Math bundle are two centers for Multiplying Fractions by Whole Numbers.

Multiply Fractions by Whole Numbers includes 25 pages of two fraction math centers aligned to the Common Core Standards for 4th grade. The centers can also be used for review for 5th grade or for challenging advanced learners in 3rd grade. The centers included are:

1. "Monster Land Race to the Finish"-Students play a game where they move on the number of spaces on a game board according to the card drawn that reads like a fraction problem (move 2/5 of 15 spaces!). Three variations of a game board, student directions, and an answer key for students to self-check answers are included.

2. "Word Problem Task Cards"-These are twelve word problem task cards where students solve a variety of problems involving multiplication of fractions by whole numbers. Some task cards also have students answer which two whole numbers their answer lies between and directs them to graph it on a number line. Students can record their answers on the task card (each a half page in size) or a separate answer sheet for all twelve task cards is included. An answer key is also included.

I also laminated two sets of cards for the "Monster Land Race to the Finish" game so two groups could use it at a time. My students loved this game!

The Educents bundle also includes these other great products so there is sure to things you love!  

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For a limited time, the whole Tricky Math pack is $10.99 from Educents which is about 70% off!  

And if you have never purchased from Educents before, it's an additional 20% off if you use this referral link!

Have a great weekend, friends!