Words Have Power ~ Words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I have been preparing to write this post for DAYS.  I am finally ready to write the post that has been on my heart for the last week or so.

Our country has been going through some troubling days.  I had been visiting family in Northern California and there was no news on, what I learned at the time was through social media & it broke my heart...death, anger, hatred, violence, loss, pain, frustration...I thought I would post the words of Dr. King as my response, but I came across these words of John F. Kennedy:

I created this on my phone & posted it 5 days ago, but I kept thinking about Dr. King and his words.

I feel blessed to live in a country that chose to make a national holiday to celebrate, reflect on, & remember a man who stood for peace, love, & strength.  We lift up this man, but who did he get his values from?  Whom did he emulate?  Who helped him to choose to love instead of hate those who threatened not only his safety but that of his wife & children?

I have found that many children, maybe even many adults don't know what his profession was...he was a minister.  His strength, wisdom, calm, courage, and determination came from his relationship with Christ and faith in God.  We as a country look up to him, but we frequently jump over why he was who he was & what he deeply believed.

I have spent every spare moment since I got back home looking up his words & then designing 28 of his quotes in what I hope you will find is an aesthetically pleasing manner.  

Words have such power & the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ring just as clearly & beautifully today as when he spoke or wrote them if we will choose to listen & reflect.  This set will be going up in my TpT store, but for those who stop by my blog, and hopefully read it, the set is my gift to you.  You are even getting a bonus.  I am providing you with PNG versions of the landscape view.  This means you can print them out as 4 x 6 prints or 5 x 7. Just be sure to uncheck the box that says "Fit picture to frame". You may print out the quotes in the PDF & you may use the square JPEGs on social media {please to not remove my watermark} and you can even set them up as a slide show on your computer screen.  

Take some time to read & reflect.
Here are the quotes in the square format:
{listed in alphabetical order}

Praying that LOVE will prevail in this country!  Thank you for taking the time to read this post.  I too have a relationship with Christ and He is the reason for my peace and joy.  If this is new to you, seek out someone that you know to speak with or find a Bible believing church, just like the one Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lead and learn more about the man, Jesus, who was Dr. King's strength.

Click here for the link to the quotes! PLEASE let me know if you have any problems accessing the quotes!

Thanks,
Nancy

Teacher Freebie From Me! Fluency Focus: 6 Mini Posters That Fit with Excursions/Storytown

This evening I was finally able to load my PDFs as  Google Docs!  Our district adopted Excursions, which to the rest of the country is Storytown.  We have Language Arts Focus Walls up in all of our rooms.  Although I was able to find resources for most of the items needed for the Focus Wall online, I didn't find anything for the weekly Fluency Focus.  The six areas that are focused in on are; Rate, Accuracy, Phrasing, Expression, Intonation, and Pace.  I created the approximately 4" x 11" posters for my Focus Wall.  I hope you can use them in some way whether you use Excursions/ Storytown or not!  (Please let me know if you do!)

More Vistaprints! This is it for a while!

Vistaprint order #3

Pen FREE

Small Banner for our School FREE

10 sheets Letterhead FREE

100 Postcards for I Have..Who Has.. Game FREE

Self-inking Stamp FREE

25 More Small Magnets FREE

10 Large Magnets FREE

Car Door Magnet for Birthdays FREE

Oversized postcards for Book Recommendations 50 FREE

Pen for Daughter's Teacher FREE

Sticky Notes FREE

10 Note Cards for my Daughter FREE (I couldn't resist the ballet slippers!)

T-shirt for my Daughter (she said she wanted one my mine!) FREE

250 More Business Cards! FREE

100 Postcards FREE

10 Large Magnets for Posting Recess Times etc. $4.99 for Image Upload

50 Rack Card Office Passes

Shipping and tax total under $25!

No More for Now!!!

I Love Dollar Tree & 99c Store Too...But I REALLY LOVE FREE (thank you Vistaprints!)

I love how someone said that her family refers to the Dollar Store as the $20 Dollar Store because they seem to spend that every time they go in!  Well, I've now spent a bit of money on my 'FREE' stuff, but I feel it is beyond worth it!  I recently discovered Vistaprints and have already placed two orders and am working on a third.  Where the money comes into play is in shipping.  I searched 'Vistaprints' in Google Reader & out of over 200 Teacher Blogs only a handful of posts with the word Vistaprints came up. 

You all need to know what Vistaprints has available!
Vistaprints is a company that makes marketing items for businesses such as business cards, postcards, t-shirts, magnets, car magnets and more.  You may be thinking I really don't need business cards, but how about 'free homework' cards, or 'clean desk' cards, or 'you did great today' cards?  Teachers are great at modifying things for the classroom! How teachers have used Vistaprints is no exception!  Vistaprints offers many free items, you are just charged for the shipping.  The great thing is you can tweak these things to reflect your style, theme, grade level, personality, and needs!  Here are the items from my first order:

I am getting 100 of these FREE! They are regular sized postcards.



This is a small poster for my room.

All 3 of the items above FREE

1 pen FREE, the other $2.99

Magnet for Classroom Door $4.99

Total for the order above: just under $25

Here is my second order:



250 of these-- $2.49 because I uploaded the picture of the apple basket--for behavior chart



The 3 items above FREE!

140 Labels FREE

$2.49 Because of uploaded image

100 postcards for Thanks Yous..FREE & pen FREE

25 magnets, may write names on them and use them for groups or graphing
Whole order total $30!

Here is my Sqworl folder of Vistaprint ideas from the web:
www.sqworl.com/843xvw

Take a look at what Kristen at First Grade Teaching created, see Jan. 13th post!

Also, check out what Mrs. Ibarra has made at Always First Grade ( http://www.alwaysfirstgrade.blogspot.com/ ) see Dec. 31. 
Okay...I'm publishing this post! (I've been working on it all day off and on!) Have fun checking Vistaprints out!!!  I'd love to see what YOU create!!