Donor's Choose & More

I have been lucky over the years to have 2 projects funded through Donor's Choose.  Both projects were for 2 iPod Nanos for my listening center in the classroom, so I now have a total of 4.  This is great and has worked out well for Listen to Reading as part of the Daily 5.  I also had CD walkmen that I bought from overstock.com, these did not work so well.  The students had a hard time working them, the batteries died a ton, and we had a heck of a time finding headphones that would work AND actually stay on/in their ears.  So I just posted a new project (first time in 2 years) to get 2 more iPod Nanos so I can have a total of 6.  You can check out my project here: http://www.donorschoose.org/project/ihelp-ipods-for-fluency-accuracy-and/1060017/.  Through September 8th, you can type in the promo code INSPIRE when making your donation and Donor's Choose will match it.  That's an awesome deal!  I'm hoping this project will get funded too.  The last 2 times I was lucky because big corporations came in and ended up funding them for me so I didn't have to rely on the few donations I got.  If you would like something for your classroom that your district can't afford for you and you don't want to bankrupt yourself, I would definitely recommend going on Donor's Choose.  It never hurts to try!  :)
So I was very happy when that went through this morning and then I worked on school stuff today since my colored ink and lamination sheets came in the mail and I printed and cut out Common Core - Writing Galore - August/September by Stephanie Stewart over at Falling into First.  Love that it has all 3 types of writing students need to be able to do for Common Core plus a creative one that has to do with the theme for the months and that students can choose the topic they want to write about.  I'm putting this in my writing center as some of the choices for Work on Writing and even Writer's Workshop time.  Can't wait to get started!  I'm introducing Work on Writing this week.  Writer's Workshop will have to wait until next week due to NWEA MAP testing.  I also actually printed out my own units I have on TPT too, which I have never done!  lol  It was always about getting them done and ready for others!  I am very excited to use them this year and am so happy I had the time to get it ready to use this week!  I printed out my unit for our 1st Treasures story, David's New Friends.  I won't be starting guided reading groups yet, but I'm excited to use all of the whole group things I made to go with the story.  I also printed out my 2nd Grade Grammar Pack to have all of the games and activities ready to go for Daily 5 Word Work so the students will have extra practice of the skills.  So I was very happy with what I got done.  I just need to put on my shopping list that I need to pick up another ream of card stock!   lol
One last thing I just have to say.  So I'm watching the MDA telethon and it's great that it gets more attention now and they have bigger acts involved, but I was a little sad that it was only on for 2 hours and that Jerry Lewis can't host it anymore.  That was always a huge part of Labor Day weekend growing up, having the Jerry Lewis telethon on and seeing him stay up the whole time, over 24 hours, fighting hard to raise money for "Jerry's Kids."  I donated using the text donation tonight and I hope that they are able to raise a ton of money now that it's down to 2hrs.
I hope everyone has a wonderful day off tomorrow in honor of all of your hard labor!  :)