Helping Others

August 8, 2014 / iheartgrade3 / Leave a comment

My fellow educator and blogger, Mrs. Albanese, is a teacher on a mission! She is a kindergarten teacher in Woodbridge, Ontario, and she is in need of a new carpet for her classroom! Now this carpet is not just any carpet… it is a hands-on learning carpet that her students will be able to use for a variety of math related activities. I want one now, too!

Mrs. Albanese introduced me to a new website called MyClassNeeds. It is an online donation site which allows people from all over the world to contribute to educational projects or classes in need. Haven taken a few minutes to look at the site, I must say that I am impressed! Take a look at the video to see how it works.

Mrs. Albanese’s project is right on the homepage of the site. As you can see, she is asking for donators to contribute to the learning carpet for her students. Take a peek… and if you can help her out, please do!

Mrs. Albanese’s Project

A big thank you to Mrs. Albanese for introducing me to this wonderful charity. I wish her much luck and success with this project!

Miss Monica

Linky Party!

July 31, 2014 / iheartgrade3 / Leave a comment

Before the TpT Conference in Las Vegas, I had heard about “Linky Parties” but really had no idea what they were. I knew that it involved teachers, blogging, and sharing of information/ ideas… and I knew that I was out of the loop!

Fast forward to after the TpT Conference… Not only do I now know what Linky Parties, I know how much fun they can be!! In a nutshell, Linky Parties are groups of educators who link up via blogs to promote their products and/ or to share great ideas.

So, when another fabulous Grade 3 teacher invited me to join a linky party on her blog I was so excited! I am very pleased to introduce you to the Linky Party Hostess with the Most-est, Jessicca Neilsen. She is the creative force behind the blog “The Third Grade Zoo”.

Jessicca had the great idea to link up teachers to share their new ideas. I chose to link up my popular “Compound Sentences” mini unit which is a wonderful resource to help teachers focus on teaching the concept by using the FANBOYS trick!

So head on over to The Third Grade Zoo and say hello to Jessicca! She’ll be glad to hear from you. And while you’re at it, take a peek at all the wonderful products posted by Teacher Authors from all across Canada (myself included, hint! hint!)

Have a great day!

Miss Monica

Getting Organized

July 28, 2014 / iheartgrade3 / Leave a comment

As everyone knows, I attended the first ever Teachers Pay Teachers conference in Las Vegas. It was a fabulous day full of incredible people, fabulous ideas, and TONS of information.

To be honest, TONS of information is an complete understatement! I had no idea what I was getting myself in to when I signed up for this conference. I wrote a binder full of notes (in incredibly messy cursive – tsk! tsk!) and my head is still spinning with everything I learned that I need to do in order to be a successful TpT’er.

Since my return from Vegas, I have been trying to wrap my head around everything I have learned. I have had a million and one ideas spinning but have been unable to organize it all. All that info was making me unproductive and, strangely enough… frustrated! Then, a lightbulb went on. I decided that instead of producing units for students this week, I would focus on making a TpT product that will get me ready to kickstart the Back to School frenzy going on now at Teachers Pay Teachers.

I came to the conclusion that if I want to create units, craftivities, and other amazing materials for my students and others, I would need to get my TpT affairs in order! I decided to create a Teacher Pay Teachers Seller’s Survival Binder in order to keep everything that is in my head nice and neat on paper! I need to be able to keep track of all my TpT data in order to see what is successful and what needs a little bit of work. I also needed to make it simple and easy to use – too much work to chart data and I wouldn’t use it.

So… introducing my new Seller’s Survival Binder!

: Seller’s Survival Binder

I cannot wait to print this one out and begin August 1st! I will be the queen of TpT marketing organization! I will finally be able to have all my TpT data, Facebook Page data, & Pinterest data in one nice, neat, and very cute binder. This colourful 96 page document has a everything you need to start and continue tracking your progress and sales on social media sites. You’ll be glad you started keeping track! When your stats are written down and monitored regularly, you will see how much of an impact you and your products are having on social media sites around the world.

Using ideas I learned at the TpT convention in Las Vegas, I put together this binder to help keep me organized – and I know it will help you, too!

Download this now and you will automatically receive yearly updates (August of each year).

This document includes:

* 1 coloured binder cover

* 1 “Important Information” Binder Divider
* My TpT Products sheet
* Favourite TpT Sellers Sheet
* My Product Ideas Sheet
* Contest Ideas Sheet
* Facebook Question Ideas Sheet
* Facebook Survey Ideas Sheet
* My Blog Post Ideas Sheet
* Revision Station Sheet
* Password Vault Sheet
* Favourite Clip Artists Sheet
* Favourite Font Artists Sheet
* Favourite Blogs Sheet
* My Educational Pin Boards Sheet
* Collaborative Pin Boards Sheet

* 1 “Month by Month” Binder Divider
* Monthly TpT Followers Data Sheet
* Monthly TpT Promotion Data Sheet
* Monthly Facebook Page Likes Data Sheet
* Monthly Pinterest Followers Data Sheet
* Monthly Blog Followers Data Sheet
* August 2014 – July 2015 coloured calendar sheets
* Monthly TpT Sales Data Sheet for each month
* Weekly Free TpT Newsletter Submissions Data Sheet
* Weekly Paid TpT Newsletter Submissions Data Sheet
* Facebook Promos & Boosts Data Sheet
* Monthly Expense Data Sheet

These photos are just a quick sample of the awesome, time-saving, data collecting sheets that you will find in the

TpT Seller’s Survival Binder

See some things you like but they aren’t exactly what you need? Is this package missing something you must have? No problem! I can customized this package to suit your needs! Just send me a message and I will get back to you right away!

What are you waiting for? Get a head start on your TpT planning!

Happy planning! Happy organizing!

Miss Monica

ps. You can get this AMAZING resource for 20% off the regular price!

Decorating Your Classroom

July 24, 2014 / iheartgrade3 / Leave a comment

My love affair with classroom decorating began the summer of 2012. Thanks to Pinterest and the fact that the teachers and staff of Joliette Elementary were moving into a brand new, state of the art building, I decided to dedicate my summer to decorating my new classroom with bright colours and eye catching polka dots. I wanted to create an environment that was warm and inviting. Take a look at what I was able to create!

Decorating a class takes a lot of work and planning so in April, I decided that I wanted to change my theme for the 2014-2015. Being the creative little diva that I am, I decided to start making my decor by myself. I can’t wait to reveal it to you all – but for that you will have to wait until the end of August! I wish I could get into my classroom beforehand to get started but until then, it is designing, printing, cutting, gluing, and laminating pretty much every single day! But what can I say? It’s a labour of love that rolls my creative energy and love of scrapbooking all up into one!

Until then, I would like to share with you all three very popular classroom themes that are available to download from Teachers Pay Teachers. Each theme comes ready to print with everything you need to get your class looking spiffy this September! Each package includes alphabet sets, class rules, word wall labels, and a ton of other necessities that both you and your students will love.

: Use this whimsical, colourful, co-ordinating collection to decorate your classroom and add a touch of WOW to your room!

: Who doesn’t love the classic Sock Monkey? Use this whimsical, colourful, co-ordinating collection to decorate your classroom and add a touch of WOW to your room!

: It’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Now you can have the charm of Mary Poppins in your classroom. Use this whimsical, colourful, co-ordinating collection to decorate your classroom and add a touch of WOW to your room!

All these wonderful kits (and more!) can be found at the I Heart Grade 3 store on Teachers Pay Teachers.

I hope you love them as much as I do!

Want to try and win one of these? Check out the I Heart Grade 3 Facebook Page for your chance to win the kit of your choice!

Good luck!

Miss Monica

What I learned at the TpT Conference in Vegas

July 16, 2014July 22, 2014 / iheartgrade3 / 3 Comments

Hello everyone!

I know… I know.. It has been a l-o-n-g time since I last posted on this blog. To tell you the truth, I was totally lacking in the motivation department. I wanted to make some major changes to my space here and was struggling to come up with relevant ideas now that I am on vacation mode. I was struggling with trying to change my blog design (more on that later!!), I was unsure of the copyright laws protecting myself and the creative people behind all the digital papers, clipart, and fonts that I use, and I wanted to expand my blog audience and TpT store. I didn’t know how or where to start. But, within one day, my lack of motivation disappeared thanks to the TpT Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. My mind is now on overdrive with all the great stuff I learned from interacting with fabulous, creative teachers from across North America and the world.

So, in no particular order, here is what I learned at the TpT conference.

** Be Yourself! **

Whether you are a blogger, a TpT seller, or both, the most important thing to remember is that your blog or products are a reflection of who you are as a teacher/ author/ creator. As one presenter put it, “Why copy someone else when you are an original?”. Don’t be afraid to use you own voice when describing what you are doing with your students and with the products you create to use in your classroom or sell to others. Uniqueness makes you stand out!

** Get connected! **

The biggest part of my lack of motivation was the fact that I was trying to do everything by myself. I was trying to redo my blog on my own (disaster!!), produce and upload products on my own, maintain my TPT store on my own, market my blog and products on my own… you get the picture. I learned that it is okay to reach out and ask for help! There are many teachers, bloggers, designers, and marketing experts out there who are able and willing to help you with whatever you need. Upon my return home, I reached out to a blog designer to help me reboot I Heart Grade 3 since I am not a graphic design expert. I joined Facebook groups to get support and promote my blog and TpT store. I started relationships with seasoned TpT sellers who I admire and started following their blogs and TpT Stores to learn their tricks of the trade.

Here are some pictures of the wonderful TpT Sellers and Milestone achievers I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with!

: TpT Legend and blog author of Mrs. Jump’s Class: Deanna Jump

: One of my favourite Milestone TpT’ers and blog author of Mrs. Wills Kindergarten: DeeDee Wills

: One of my favourite Milestone TpT’ers and blog author of Runde’s Room: Jennifer Runde

: One of my favourite TpT’ers and blog author of Teaching with Blonde Ambition: Nicole Shelby

** Do your research! **

It is important to stay on top of current education trends and incorporate them into your blog and TpT products. It is also important to protect your rights as a creative identity and to preserve those right of the artists whose talents you may be using in your blog posts and TpT products. READ ALL THE FINE PRINT! We all have a valuable role to play in protecting creative/ intellectual property!

I feel extremely honoured to have been a part of the very first Teachers Pay Teachers Supercharge Seller’s Success Convention. The energy was contagious, the speakers were motivating, and I left the conference with great new friends and a million ideas to get me out of my summertime blogging sadness!

I can’t wait to share everything with all of you!

Have a great day!

Miss Monica

Olympic Day at JES

June 18, 2014June 18, 2014 / iheartgrade3 / Leave a comment

Although we do not do traditional Olympic events at our Olympic day, our students had a fun filled day full of physical activity and plenty of smiles!

Grade 3 would like to thank Miss Cathy for all her hard work planning and preparing this amazing day for us. We would also like to say a big thank you to the wonderful parent volunteers who ran the indoor and outdoor activities and made sure that we were all safe during the day. Without all of you, the day would not have been possible!

The day was split up into several stations. Grade 3 started with the snack station in our classroom. After that, we got to play some games of mini hockey.

A BIG surprise was in store for Grade 3 after mini hockey! It was our turn to play on the first of two GIGANTIC inflatables!

Ever tried to race with a ping pong ball on a spoon? It’s not as easy as it sounds!

The fun didn’t stop there!! Look at the 2nd Inflatable!

Our PPO president and former JES students helped out at the face painting/ tattoo centre!

How about an outdoor dance party with our very own DJ? Sure! Why not?!? And you would like some Slush with that? Well, if you insist!!!!

A very challenging outdoor obstacle course was next on our list! Running, gymnastics, skipping, hopping, etc… I am sure Miss Cathy tried to incorporate as much of her phys. ed. lessons as possible into this station! It was also great to see everyone cheering for their colour team!

The fun continued with games animated by a parent volunteer…

The next station was initially called “Tug of Peace” but there was nothing peaceful about this station! Talk about a competitive bunch of students! Colours vs. Colours, Boys vs. Girls, 1 on 1 competitions… my Grade 3’s took this SERIOUSLY! And I had no idea they were such strong, tough cookies!

Indoor soccer anyone?

The last station was the most fun, in my opinion, because I got to spray my students with tons of water! Note to Miss Cathy for next year: NEVER LEAVE A WATER HOSE RUNNING WHEN I AM AROUND!

My apologies to the parent volunteer at this station! With my crazy antics, the game turned into a students vs. teacher water fight extravaganza! I must say that they got me good and I went home from school very wet! Thank goodness this station was the last one! And my apologies to all the parents if your child went home soaking wet!

And there you have it folks, our annual Olympic Day at JES! What a day! Perfect weather, perfect stations, perfect parent volunteers, and perfect children with perfect attitudes to enjoy a perfect day!

Hurray!

Miss Monica

Happy Father’s Day!

June 16, 2014 / iheartgrade3 / Leave a comment

Everyone in Grade 3 hopes that all the Dad’s out there had a fantastic Father’s Day! I don’t know about your neck of the woods, but here, the sun was shining and the weather was beautiful! It was a perfect day to honour our Dads!

Like always, I headed to my favourite teacher’s website to look for inspiration. I found a fantastic creativity by Melanie Stewart called the iDad. Take a look at what we did with it here: