Halloween Clip Art Mix it Up! - Frames and Elements and a Fun Freebie!

You can use this set alone or mix and match with either one of my page divider sets (see below). It includes 5 rectangle and 5 square frames, along with 4 characters and candy. All line art is included. 50% off for the first 48 hours in my store.

Click on any image to view in my TpT store.

And now for the freebie. I had fun making these cute Halloween paperclips. I think they turned out pretty awesome. I have included full and half clips as well as the striped clips. Enjoy!!!

Oodles of Halloween Page Dividers

I can't believe it's almost October. I just looked out the window and noticed the leaves are starting to fall. Oh my! Speaking of October, I have been working on these two Halloween page divider sets and finally got them into my store. They're both 50% off for the first 48 hours, so if you like them why not get both. The bright Halloween colors coordinate perfectly. Click on either image to view in my TpTstore.

Create your own Peanuts Character Online and Use as a Story Starter!

Hooray for Peanuts! I love when movie studios put out quality interactives that can be used in the classroom. The makers of the upcoming Peanuts movie have done just that with Peanutize Me which lets you create your own Peanuts character. It's an easy to use website with lots of fun options to choose from when creating your Peanut's style character. With a great selection of backgrounds too these could make great story starters. No sign up (or e-mail) is required and when your done you can download your character as a picture or wallpaper. Fast and easy. Pretty cool!

 

Below is a character I made. Cute!

Charles M. Schulz's characters from "Peanuts" will be making their big-screen debut on November 6th. Looks promising.

If you're interested in more about Charles Schultz I recommend these resources.

Charles Schultz Interactive Timeline

Charles M. Schultz Quotes

Quotes by Character

It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown Coloring Pages

 Here's the trailer for the movie.

Below are two neat videos I discovered that kids will enjoy from Muffalo Potato. Learn to draw these characters using letters and numbers. Neat concept.

3 Halloween Clip Art Collections to Spruce up your Printables and Product Covers

I just added these colorful Halloween themed clip art sets. The frames have a fun "shiny" look. Each frame set has 17 frames with 4 versions each. There are 68 png frames in each set. The frame sets are easy to mix and match with the coordinating papers. There are 33 papers in the paper set. Each set is 50% off for the first 48 hours in my TpT store.

Mega Halloween Background Paper Collection

Halloween Shiny Frames Set 1

Halloween Shiny Frames Set 2

You've been Framed! New Creative Clip Art for Commercial/Personal Use

I've added lots of new frame and background paper collections to my TpT Store. In fact, I've added so many new clip art collections that I can't show them all here. So after checking these out head over to my store and see the rest. Most of my collections mix & and match pretty well so they are easy to use. In the graphic above I've used a frame from my "Funky Chunky" frame collection and a paper from my "Scratched White Line" paper collection. I think they look great together. Don't you? Oh and one more thing. Make sure you don't miss the fun freebie at the bottom of this post. Thanks for stopping by!

     

   

 

Freebie!

5 Tools for Generating Blog Post Ideas and Titles that Attract Readers

Want to create blog titles that will catch the eyes of potential readers and get inspiration for new blog posts as well? I sure did and when I learned about Portent's Content Idea Generator, from social media expert Kim Garst, I just had to check it out. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a tool like this could actually work for me, especially when I get the dreaded "blogger's block". Now some of the suggestions from Portent's were rather silly so I thought I would see if there were other similar tools out there.

    

I looked around and found four others to share with you. I really liked BLOGABOUT, Blog Title Generator, HUBSPOT'S BLOG TOPIC GENERATOR and tweak your Biz. To use these generators all you need to do is add a key word or two and click to get suggestions for titles and posts.  Easy peasy! After reading some of the suggestions generated (see below) I can see how they will attract readers. For me these are terrific time savers. It's unbelievable how much time I have spent trying to come up with post titles. Hope they save you time too and maybe give you inspiration for future posts.

Click on any image to check it out.

To show you an example of what is generated I put "classroom behavior" into the search. Below are some of the titles generated. Not bad, huh?

• Back To Basics. The 3 Fundamentals That Everyone Always Forgets About Classroom Behavior.
• Seven Common Misconceptions About Classroom Behavior.
• The Modern Rules Of Classroom Behavior.
• Learning Classroom Behavior Can Be A Disaster If You Neglect These Seven Rules.
• The Most Unconventional Ways to Learn Classroom Behavior.
• Ten Ways To Have Fun Learning Classroom Behavior.
• The Classroom Behavior you should be working on.
• Not getting all you want in Classroom Behavior? Take these steps.

Check out these time saving generators and let me know what you think. 

BTW...I highly recommend following @KimGarst on Periscope and Twitter for super social media marketing strategies like this one.

Finally a Way to Recycle Old Markers - Crayola ColorCycle

I am happy to share with you that Crayola now has a program for recycling markers (any brand) and students can play a big part. It's called ColorCycle. This is totally awesome! As an art teacher you can imagine how many markers I have thrown away over the years. Makes me cringe just to think about it.

"ColorCycle is a great opportunity for teachers and their students to explore eco-friendly practices. Specially developed standards-based lesson plans are available to enrich instruction and promote lively class discussions." 

Love that the shipping is free. FedEx picks it up too? Sounds like an incredible program. Unfortunately Crayola ColorCycle is only for the U.S. and part of Canada.   I found out about Crayola ColorCycle via Glitter Meets Glue Designs on Facebook.

Below is a video that shows how markers are made. The beginning is kind of goofy but you can fast forward to the 7:11 mark you can learn how markers are made.

It's very nice that they also include lesson plans and I'm sure creative teachers everywhere will create even more authentic lessons based on this program. Not only recycling and such, but my mind is exploding with math ideas at the moment. Just off the top of my head I thought of counting, graphing opportunities, probability etc. Tons of ideas for all age levels. What about you? What kind of lesson would you teach while your school participates in Crayola ColorCycle.

The Sunday Scoop Linky

I have linked up with The Teaching Trio for The Sunday Scoop. This is a fun linky. I noticed many people have laundry as one of the "3 things I have to do...". I'm so thankful that my husband does ALL of our laundry. Gives me more time to create for TpT!

There is really only one thing I have to do and that is visit my Dad in the hospital. He has been in there with a nasty infection since August 5th. He is finally on the mend and I am so grateful. He still has a ways to go to get back to his old self but he is definitely headed in the right direction. Love my Dad!

Free Passes to National Parks for 4th Graders - 2015 - 2016 School Year

Share with your 4th graders. For the 2015-16 school year, 4th graders in the United States can sign up for free admission (families included) to America's National Parks. Learn more  at Every Kid in a Park. This could really save some families some money. 

Looking for a National Park near you? Here is a list of National Parks by State. I've been to 3. 

1. Saguaro National Park
2. Grand Canyon National Park
3. Mammoth Cave National Park

All of them were terrific and well worth the trip. I was a little claustrophobic in the caves, but would definitely do it again. Which parks have you been to. Any recommendations? Let me know in the comment section below.

Track Your Rank on TpT - Quick and Easy!!!

Finally an easy way to check your rank on TpT. The Colorado Classroom has created a tool where you just type in the name of your store and you receive your TpT ranking. No more searching through pages and pages of stores on TpT to find your ranking. This is genius and so helpful. I don't use my TpT ranking to compare myself to others. That's to stressful for me. I use it to compare how I'm doing from one month to the next.  

The Colorado Classroom's tool has just saved me time and I certainly love that. I also checked out her store and it is very nice. Lots of goodies for 5th-8th.

So head over to the "Track you TpT Ranking" tool and give it a go. I'm curious. How do you use your TpT ranking? Let me know in the comments.