Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

Cyber Monday, Free Gingerbread Clipart, and Catching up on News!

Oh. my. goodness. I have been gone for a long time! Gone from blogging that is. I just checked out the date of my last post as I signed in to write this and it was almost a month ago!

Thanks to Michelle for this adorable button and linky party!

Wow, life has kept me super busy, but I'm back in action and just in time for big sales, new clipart sets and a cute little gingerbread man freebie for all of you. First off, I'm sure you have heard about the {HUGE} Cyber Monday sale on TpT which starts on Monday, November 26th and goes through Tuesday, November 27th. I am going to be having a 20% off sale on EVERYTHING in my little TpT shop. Then, TpT is offering an additional 10% off with the code CMT2012 at the checkout. That comes out to be 28% off! I have a few new clipart sets that I have just added to my shop within the last week too. Click on the images below if you want to check them out!

I am super excited about my Game Board Galore set! Each game board template is large enough for an 8.5x11 page, but can be resized smaller. There are so many possibilities for making products with these templates! I am also finishing up a Christmas version of the game board templates that will be up in the next couple days for seasonal products/lessons. AND... I am also finishing some winter clipart sets that I will hopefully have done in time for the sale! Phew!

There is so much to catch up on that I don't even know where to start! It would probably take a long time to write about it and I might lose some of ya by the end of this post anyway :) Here are a few pictures of what's been going on in my classroom during my month-long bloggin hiatus...

My classroom monkey got another costume makeover for Thanksgiving, thanks to my mom's crafty skills again! The kids LOVED this costume and I can't wait until I put on his elf costume next week. I am currently home for Thanksgiving at my parents' house and my mom is working on sewing an ENORMOUS elf hat with ears for him as I type :)

We also had a little "mock election" for Election Day and the kiddos filled out their ballots in this adorable voting booth...another Mama Wallden creation!

I'm not going to make this post much longer because I have clipart sets to finish up and some new lesson products to do as well- but here is a little gingerbread man freebie. If you have purchased my Gingerbread Clipart set, they fit perfectly with those images. I had planned on making an entire gingerbread set based on the story/characters, but just haven't had the time. So I am offering up the images that I have done for {FREE} because I won't finish the additional characters until probably the summer. These images will be for free until I get the set finished and up in my store. Included are color and black and white versions. Click on the picture below to download them from my TpT store :)

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving with their loved ones. I have so much to be thankful for this year! Thanks so much for all of your sweet feedback and comments that keep me creating :)

BOO! Flash Sale! $1.00 Clipart Sets!

Hi friends! Well, I survived Hurricane Sandy! It actually wasn't too bad where I was. A lot of wind and rain, but I had power the entire time, so all my precautions weren't necessary. Still, good to be prepared just in case!

We had school cancelled on Monday and today (Tuesday), which means I am in for QUITE a treat tomorrow. The kids have been off for four days, tomorrow is Halloween and I haven't been in my room since Friday. Things are gonna get a bit cra-zy. Not to mention I might fuel the fire by giving the kiddos candy and playing spooky music when they come into the classroom tomorrow morning. Why not? :) Our school doesn't let the kids dress up, so that distraction will at least be erased :) Wish me luck folks- and good luck to you, too, because I know you're in the same boat.

Although I feel like I have completely dropped the ball on Halloween this year (in my defense, we don't celebrate it "officially" at school, so I wouldn't have been throwing a party for the kiddos or anything), I'm celebrating at least a little bit with a BOO! Flash Sale for all my Halloween clipart! All my Halloween clipart is on sale for $1.00 until midnight on October 31st! Yep, one buck-a-roo :) The rest of my store is 10% off!

I had the cutest little sale button I made, but I had a fierce fight with my computer when I tried to save it and well....cute button is no more. But I do have this little collage of some of my sale clipart!

Here are my clipart sets that are on sale for $1.00 below. Click on the picture to snatch them up! Happy Halloween!

Hurricane Prep, Clipart Snatch-Up and Sneak Peek!

Hey all! Well, if you haven't heard, there is a hurricane coming. I moved to Delaware last October, so this is my first "hurricane experience" and I have to say I have taken every precaution (insert sarcasm here). Please don't think that I am not taking it seriously and that I am not genuinely concerned for those who live closer to the coast. However, I try to find a little humor even in stressful situations, so hence, this post was written :)

There have been a bunch of notices posted about Hurricane Prep that have been helpful, but I also had a few other survival tips that seemed to have missed the list. Here are some additional measures I have taken to get ready:

1.) Make sure I have Starbucks iced coffee packets so when the electric goes out, I can still make coffee in the morning. I have also stocked up on Advil- for when I run out of iced coffee packets and my caffeine withdraw headache sets in.

2.) I have not only made sure I have candles for when the power goes out, I have made sure I have all my fall favorite scents including apple cider, warm apple pie, and cinnamon so I can imagine that I am sitting in a Yankee Candle store without power- rather than my one room apartment.

3.) I have hauled the jumbo cooler out of my trunk that I purchased last year for my kiddos field trip lunches. Since I have NO extra space in my apartment, I have been keeping it in my trunk since. I may finally find another use for this plastic monster if I need to load it up with my lean cuisines when the power goes out.

4.) I have charged my ipad and laptop so I have the maximum battery time left to create TpT products and clipart in the dark when the power goes out.

5.) I am ready to call my mom with my TpT login in information so she can update me on sales when I don't have internet to avoid the same anxiety I feel when TpT is down for maintenance and I can't check my stats!

6.) As my friend advised, I have made sure that I have wine that you should drink at room temperature for when my white wine is no longer cold after the power goes out.

7.) I read that you should fill up your bath tub with water to fill up the toilet so you can still flush it when the power goes out. Well, thanks to a clogged drain, I pretty much have this one covered on a daily basis when I take a shower and I'm standing in four inches of water.

So, if you are in the path of Hurricane Sandy, some of those might be helpful for you.


In other news! I have finished a few different clipart sets and it's time for a SNATCH-UP! All sets include both color and black/white versions. Here are my new sets!

Gingerbread

Gobble, Gobble

Holly Jolly Christmas

The first THREE people who comment on this post will get to choose one set for {FREE}! If you aren't one of the lucky three, you can still snatch up these sets at my TpT store. Just click on the name or the image and you will be taken to the product listing :)

AND.... here's a little sneak peak at what I got coming your way soon!

Giveaway Winners!

I'm writing off a quick post to let you know who the three winners of my $8.00 giveaway to my TpT store!

Drum rollll pleasee......

Like I said before- I'm still a newbie blogger and didn't know how to set up a fancy schmancy giveaway, so I just did the number generator and found the corresponding comments. I'm going to talk to some stellar blogger friends before my next giveaway and get the run down on setting it up a different way.

BUT! For now, these numbers correspond to the following people's comment on the post. Congrats to:

Comment #10- Michelle @ Coffee Cups and Lesson Plans

Comment #6- Suzy Q

Comment #19- Jennifer @ Herding Kats In Kindergarten

I will email you ladies tomorrow (I would tonight, but I'm all sorts of tired). {Michelle, Suzy, and Jennifer} if see this post first, then you can get a jump on shopping in my TpT store for your $8.00 winnings worth of products. Email me at thecreativechalkboard@gmail.com with your choices and I will send them to you!

I had so much fun coming up with the freebies and having my first big celebration! I can't wait for the next one!! Thanks for reading and commenting!!

I'm off to crawl into my bed! I'm so excited!! I never thought at the ripe old age of 24 (okay...fine...I'm almost 25) I would ever be so excited to go to sleep as I have been this year! It has been a cra-zyy ride so far.

I have lots of new, products and clipart coming at you this weekend! I am LOVING working on my Thanksgiving and holiday sets!! Nothing like festive clipart to bring in the seasons! I am planning on having a couple new sets posted by Monday (I'm thinking a pilgrims/indians one and a gingerbread theme one)- so you know what that means! Clipart snatch-up for you! Stay tuned.

Night bloggy friends! :)

Don't forget to enter my $8.00 Giveaway!!

Hi folks! Just a reminder that tomorrow is the last day to enter my giveaway for $8.00 to my TpT store in celebration of over 800 followers! If you want to enter, just click on this post {HERE} and leave a comment at the bottom. I will announce three winners on Thursday!

Day 8 {Freebie} Borders and $8.00 giveaway to my TpT store!

Hi all! Day 8 of my Freebies and I barely am making this in time! It's 11:34 where I am, so if you are in another time zone, you probably already thought I forgot about you!! Nope- I didn't, just having a case of the Sundays which means procrastination to the max :) I got very distracted making a popcorn-themed main idea and details activity for my kiddos tomorrow, so I blame it on that.

I have started playing around with creating {BORDERS}!!! As if my current obsession list isn't long enough already, I think I have found another thing to tack onto the end of it. I love all the borders that are out there, but I thought I would give it a shot- just in time for my Day 8 {Freebie}!

This is my first try at borders and I was just playing around, but if you think you could put any of these to use- feel free to snatch up up {HERE} from my TpT store and use them for your freebies or products :)

As promised at the beginning of the week, I am going to give three people $8.00 worth for products (of their choice) from my TpT store! I am still new to the blogging world and I don't know how to do the fancy schmancy giveaway entries and generators, so I have to go with the basics here. If you want to enter the giveaway, you must be a follower of my TpT store and my blog (to be honest, I don't even know how to check and see if you are, so on your honor haha) and leave a comment on this blog post saying what your best Halloween costume was- either as a kid or adult. I will have the comment entries open until Wednesday night and will then do a random number generator to figure out which three comments are the winners. Any of you expert bloggers who want to help me set up a fancy schmancy giveaway for my 1,000 follower giveaway down the road from now- let me know!

Alright friends. I'm going to jump into bed for my 4.5 hours of sleep before the week starts off with a bang. It is spirit week at our school and tomorrow is Mismatch Monday, so at least I don't have to worry about what I wear because pretty much anything goes!

Thanks for being a part of my 8 Days of Freebies!!

Day 7 {Freebie} Halloween Cupcake Clips PLUS New Clipart Snatch Up: Alphabet Soup!

Happy Day 7! Today I have another set of my Creative Clips Digital Clipart that I am going to offer for  {FREE} until the end of my 8 Days of Freebies- so that means just until the end of tomorrow! So hurry!

Here is my Halloween Spooky Cupcake Bundle! 

These cupcakes can be used year round, but I thought the colors were geared more towards halloween :) Feel free to use them in your products and freebies, just give Creative Clips Digital Clipart a little shout out in your credits page please!

Click {HERE} to download the images for free!

Also today I have a Clipart Snatch-Up for my new set called Alphabet Soup! I haven't done any letters before and had a request for some, so voila! Here they are :) The colors go well with my monster clipart sets and many of the other bright colors I use in a lot of my stuff. The resolution on these letters is really high, so you can enlarge them to the whole size of a piece of paper for large bulletin boards, posting the alphabet, etc. They are for sale at my TpT store for just $2.00, but if you are one of the first {THREE} lucky bloggers to read and comment on this post and tell me how you are going to use these little letters, I will send them to you for free!

See you tomorrow for my last freebie and a chance to win $8.00 to my TpT store! 

Day 6 {Freebie} Martian Words Anchor Chart

Happy Friday!!! I am quick posting today's freebie and then scootin off to meet some friends. This weekend is. so. necessary. If you are looking for a great weekend soundtrack, my song of choice right now is  "I Cry" by Flo Rida- which just happens to also be the soundtrack to the solo dance parties that I have had in my apartment a few times during the week to relieve stress :)

Okay, here's the freebie! I am posting a "Martian Words" mini poster that my firsties just LOVED last year. I got the idea from my mentor teacher last year. I blew this poster up and printed it off on our school's poster maker. When the students came across a word in their reading that was a "martian word" or wasn't spelled how it sounded, they could add it to the Martian Words Poster. They loved it and it really made them look carefully at which words had silent letters or spelling patterns that didn't follow our rules. I also gave each student their own copy to have in their writing folders so they could add them and not get out of their chairs every time.

It looks like this:

Click {HERE} to download it for free!

Have a fabulous weekend and check back for my last two freebies and my $8.00 giveaway to my TpT store on Sunday!

Day 5 {Freebie} "Handy" Clipart

Happy Day 5 of my 8 days of Freebies! What a whirlwind of a week! I {mistakenly} thought that by October I might be in the grove of things a bit more and the beginning of the year craziness would settle... I know, you're laughing at me right? I agree, it was a crazy thought!

Today's freebie is a flash freebie, so don't waste anytime and snatch it up now! I'm offering up TWO bundles of clipart: Colorful Hands and Handful of Dots. I changed the price of these two bundles to {FREE} in my TpT store until the end of my 8 days of freebies- so I guess it is kind of a long "flash" sale. Feel free to download these clipart sets and use them in your products for sale or freebies you create! I just ask that you check out the TOU and give a little shout out to Creative Clips Digital Clipart by Krista Wallden in your credits page or product description :)

Click {HERE} for a free copy of Colorful Hands

Click {HERE} for a free copy of Handful of Dots!

 Thanks for checkin in for today's freebie! I'm about to heat up some homemade soup that one of my kiddo's mom dropped off for me at school. It was still warm in the jar when she gave it to me, fresh off the stove! Nothing better than some surprise home cookin' on a night when I would have been heating up a lean pocket :)

See you all tomorrow!

Day 4 {Freebie} Cause and Effect Organizers

Happy Wednesday!!! Halfway done with work week! I'm a little late getting today's freebie up but I do have one for you, as promised! My kiddos and I are working on cause and effect this week. I thought I would share some different organizers with you that we are using for this skill. I have used some of these as follow-ups to passages or small group chapters. They aren't anything groundbreaking, but some fun themed organizers nonetheless! Click {HERE} to download for free!

I'm off to bed! See you back here tomorrow for Day 5!

Day 3 {Freebie} Spookster Font

It's Day 3 of my 8 Days of Freebies! Today I have a new free font for you called "Spookster." It really can be used any time of year, but I pictured it being a cute pairing with some Halloween clipart.

Here it is! Spookster {Creative Clips FONTS}

You can download it for free from my TpT store {HERE}! If you are new to my blog, make sure you check out my Creative Clips FONTS page and snatch up my other free and dollar fonts!

That is all I have for you today. I am WORN OUT. I swear I'm more tired after a three-day weekend, that regular weekends! My bed and blankets are sounding pretty good. See you all tomorrow for Day 4!

Day 2 {Freebie} Monster Writing Pages and New Monster Clipart!

Welcome to {Day 2} of my 8 days of Freebies!! Today is all about little monsters- which is perfect for this time of year, or anytime you need to peak the interest of your little learners.

I had received a special request for "Monsters Under the Bed" clipart from Jen. What a cute idea!! She made an adorable "I Need My Monster" unit that you should definitely check out {Here!}

I had so much fun making the clipart, I thought I would make up a little freebie for you to enjoy! This freebie has 10 pages of monster writing pages: 5 different designs with one lined and one blank of each. These papers are perfect for reading responses, creative writing, monster-themed word problems, etc. I included the blank pages so you can add in the appropriate spaced lines for your grade level/kiddos. You could also use the blank pages for students' illustrations, too.

Here are just some of the fun monster pages in this freebie bundle!!

                

 If you are in the mood for monsters, you can click {HERE} and download them for free at my TpT store!

My first Monster Mash clipart set has been a big hit and I wanted to give another monster freebie for the fans of this clipart set. Here is a new addition to my little monster family that you can download for free in the color and black and white version- Snatch him up by clicking on each of the images below for the png files.

If you are loving these little monsters and have some lesson ideas of your own, you can pick up the sets of clipart at my TpT store for your own products/materials! I have both of these sets on sale for 15% off  for today and tomorrow! Each set also includes the black and white versions.

{Monsters Under the Bed}                                        {Monster Mash}

AND- if you still haven't had your fill of these little monsters- I posted a Monster Vowel Chomper freebie when I guest blogged for Gladys over at Teaching in High Heels that you can check out- her blog/products are fabulous!!! You can snatch up the Vowel Chomper freebie {HERE} as well...

(The Vowel Chomper Books have 5 pages for vowel "hunts" either around the room, or while reading a book to distinguish between long and short vowel sounds. There are two books per page and you just copy and slice down the middle for a skinny book :)

Alright folks- that's all I got for you today!! We have today off of school, so I am looking to spend the rest of the day getting organized and catching up on a TON of work- story of everyone's lives right? Hope your week is off to a fabulous start! See you tomorrow for freebie numba three!