THANK YOU!!

We can't believe how grown up our little blog is getting! It is a-m-a-z-i-n-g to see our followers grow each day as well as our Facebook followers, our pins on Pinterest, and those who subscribe to us on email.

THANK YOU!!

Seriously, thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, thanks for following!!


Have you ever heard the story about how What the Teacher Wants was created? Let us share...

It started back in early August of 2010. Rachelle's "family blog" was getting taken over with all of the teaching ideas she wanted to share.  So, she started a teaching blog on a whim.  {Can you believe that at the time there were only a handful of teaching blogs at the time? Now there are thousands!}

Rachelle created What the Teacher Wants and started posting her great ideas. Natalie, who was a friend and sorority sister with Rachelle in college, loved the idea of sharing teaching ideas online and soon became a partner.

It's funny to look back on that time! Can you believe that in November of 2010 our goal was to have 30 followers by the end of the month? We had our first giveaway - A Scentsy warmer sponsored by Tricia. The fact that we now have over 6,000 followers blows our minds. Seriously, we never would have thought that our little teaching blog would grow up to be so big!

There are some definite perks that come along with our after school "job".

The first big perk is that we officially have business cards! The talented Lindsay from Happy Potamus Designs created a beautiful business card design for us.
If you want to start a teaching blog, I would definitely recommend Lindsay to design yours for you! (Funny story: We had no idea how many to order, so we ended up asking for 1,000 cards. Umm.... why in the world would we need o.n.e. t.h.o.u.s.a.n.d. cards??? )
{Here's a sneak peak of our cute cards}

The second big perk is that sometimes companies ask us to do product reviews or want to give us free products. We definitely appreciate ALL these requests, but one recent product sticks out.... we just got SILHOUETTE CAMEOS!! Best present EVER!!
{We can't wait to show you all the fun things we'll be making for our classrooms!!}

Another perk is meeting so many a.m.a.z.i.n.g teachers! Our Utah meet-up was a big success and so much fun. We got to meet The Teacher Wife - we were both a little in shock! We love her blog! Rachelle got to travel to the meet-up in California and met so many fabulous Cali bloggers/teachers. And can you believe that it's only 1 week away from the HUGE/GINORMOUS Vegas meet-up??
We have over 90 rsvps! We can not wait to meet the famous Deanna Jump in person {and so many more fabulous bloggers}! Tons of the big time bloggers are coming - it will be a PaRtY!!

Anyways.... let us say THANK YOU one more time. We couldn't do what we do without all our our fabulous readers! Thanks for your support!

Much Love,
Rachelle and Natalie

Beat the Heat!



Wouldn't it be cool if you could enter a contest and pick your prize? 
You can!
You can gear up for next year with 18 products from some of your favorite sellers.
How cute is that graphic from Lindsey?


Hop on over to Blog Hoppin' to enter.
Be warned... this is a quick giveaway!
It will all be over on Monday night at midnight!





Back 2 School Ideas {Part 1}




It's never too early to start getting ready for next year, right?  Even when I'm trying to finish up this year {one.week.left}? CRAZY!



Each year I like to make magnets with my contact information on them for parents to hang up on their fridge. Since my class theme is "cookin' up a great year", I made some cooking themed magnets! But, I decided they were perfect for ANYONE because they go on a fridge and they are cooking themed...get it?  You know? Cooking?  Anyone?  ;)


Each magnet has my:
*Class Website URL
*Email Address
*School Phone Number




I just print them on cardstock, laminate them, and add a magnet to the back {they sell magnet tape at Wal-Mart}.

Clipart from DJ Inkers and used with permission from djinkers.com
Clipart from scrappindoodles.com 



I've given them to you as a picture file. That way, you can insert the picture into a Word document {or Powerpoint} by going to "insert" and then "photo" and then choose the file that you downloaded from me.  Then, insert a text box over the image to customize your own magnets! :)
I put my class website on my magnets, but some of you may not have one. 
I've provided you with 2 options for each grade level.

Download HERE!





I've also added a new packet to TpT!


This ABC book will help your students understand your expectations for a successful school year! With this A-Z Book, your students can learn the expectations of the class and school in a fun way!

Also included in this packet is a writing activity to reinforce the expectations in the book. You can make this writing activity into a class book that you can refer to throughout the year as a great reminder for the students about what you expect. 

*Comes in color and black and white.


Here's an example of one of the pages {there are 26...one for each letter of the alphabet}:


Check it out {here}!





I've started a pinboard to gather lots of ideas for Back 2 School!  Follow me on Pinterest to see what I think is a MUST for back 2 school! :)

Clever School Teacher

Have you heard of the website Clever School Teacher?? Our friend Deedee, from Mrs. Willis Kindergarten, and her hubby have opened up an awesome site for teachers.


Clever School Teacher has organized all their books by reading and writing strategies! No more spending hours searching for great mentor texts - Deedee and her husband have done ALL the work for you!!

I (Natalie) ordered a bunch of history books as a way to integrate my social studies curriculum into my reading and writing mini-lessons!! Yay!! The website was easy to navigate and my books arrived very quickly. Overall, I was very impressed with the website!

Go check it out by clicking the link below!!

Want to win a $25 gift card? Check out the giveaway over at Primary Graffiti

Are you ready?

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.


In just under a month, I'll be in sunny Las Vegas with some of my FAVORITE teacher/bloggers!  I will be attending some fabulous presentations at I Teach K.  Then, on one night {July 10th}, we are having a meet-up for teacher/bloggers:


Would you like to go?  Please RSVP to our meet-up {here}.








TeachersPayTeachers {Paul} www.teacherspayteachers.com *Gift Certificates
Deedee Wills  www.cleverschoolteacher.com  *$25 gift certificate to cleverschoolteacher.com


Melonheadz Illustrating
*Gift Certificates

Blue Bird Gift Company
*{2} $25 gift certificates

Livy Lou Designs
*magnet board

Doodle Bugs Paper
*{3} $20 gift certificates

Erica Bohrer 
*autographed books

Erincondren.com
*$50 gift card
*{50} $10 off coupons for teacher planners

Custom Vinyl By Design
Acrylic Tumbler - teacher themed

Kute Klipboards by Amy
teacher clipboard

In A Pikle
*1 Sweet Pikle

Steve Harpster
*1 of each of his books


Tricia Fogg {Scentsy}
*Scentsy Warmers

Shari Sloane
*CD

Katie and Company (Julie Torkelson)
*felt set

Quite a Pear (Jessica Falkenhagen)
*Gift Certificate


Thirty-One (Janet Dickens)
http://www.mythirtyone.com/janetd/
*All in One Organizer

Kathy Griffin
http://kathygriffinteach.blogspot.com/
5 CDs {multimedia resources}


Go check out our sponsors! There's so many fabulous things!



Are you ready? WE ARE!!!! Natalie and I will both be there! SO excited!

Common Core and You {Narrative Writing....again??}

Yes. Narrative writing....again.....well, personal narratives! :)




Here are our "ouch stories":







We started with this as our pre-write, which I also use as our first draft:


And then we moved to our final draft {we stuck band-aides to the side of our paper for the added drama}:




Click {here} to download this freebie! :)
I've also included upper-grades writing paper

Common Core and You! {Author Response}


Hey everyone! I'm excited to share my first Common Core resource with you {this is Natalie}! 




This was inspired by the 5th grade writing sample in Appendix C (pages 29 & 30) which shows an example of an author response essay. After looking at the core, I believe these printables should work well for grades 2-5.

If you like this free download, please take a look at some of the products available for purchase in my TpT store. Click here:
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