My Top Three

I'm having so much fun

checking out everyone's Top 3 posts

over at Fern's blog! Its like getting

a highlight reel of teaching blogs for the past

year:)

 

 

Here are my top 3 viewed posts of the year...

 

4 Types of Sentences Flip Book...and snow!

Dec. 6, 2011.........................2,398 pageviews

Mad Science!

July 18, 2011............................498 pageviews

Bucket Fillers

July 15, 2011.............................422 pageviews

Merry Christmas!!!

I wanted to say thank you 

for everyone's sweet comments and

support for my new TpT store

and my first unit,

Addition and Subtraction with Regrouping!

I hope you all are enjoying your winter break,

cause I know I am!

It's so nice to get a break from the normal routine

and sleep in, be lazy, and get a chance to catch up

with friends and family. :)

I've also been using a little of my free time to

work on a new math unit,

so here's a little preview...

I'm hoping to get this unit completed

during winter break and upload

it to my store before I head back to school.

 

Here's a little Merry Christmas from

my family to yours!

An award and a freebie!

Erica over at The Honey Bunch

awarded me the Liebster award last

week! You should check out her
blog because she has some GREAT ideas:)
Thanks Erica!

I've been soooo busy trying to wrap
up everything at school and also
trying to keep up with getting ready for
Christmas, that I'm just now getting
a chance to pass along the award.

So here are a few of my picks for the Liebster....

1. Kelley over at Buggy for Second Grade is my
new bloggy friend! She also lives in Kansas and actually
attended the elementary school I work at for a little while
when she was young. Crazy, right?!?!
Anyhoo, she has some awesome ideas and is also
hosting a giveaway right now so you need to go
and check it out!





2. I'm also loving Carly over at First Grade Fabulousity!
She is so darn cute and I LOVE her weather freebies
she has in her TpT store. Go show her some love
and follow her because she has some
FABULOUS ideas:)


  

3. So this next nominee is not an elementary teacher, but
a high school science teacher. Mr. Champ {a.k.a. science nerd}
has a great blog you should share with any h.s. science
teachers you know. I love this heavy lifting rocket lab
he did with his students!
Did I mention that Mr. Champ is also my brother-in-law?!?

{Liebster Award is given to spotlight up-and-coming blogs with less than 200 followers. The rules are:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. Thank the giver and link back to them.
3. Reveal your top 5 picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
4. Hope that your followers will spread the love to other bloggers!!}

Ok!
Now onto to a freebie for you :)
We made these fabulous gingerbread houses
our last day before break and the kiddos
had tons of fun.
I did too!

I had several parents come in to help
and it was the perfect activity because
the kids worked so hard on their houses
and the day just flew by.
Instead of painfully dragging on like we all know
those last few days before a break can!

I created this graphing activity that the kids worked
on in the afternoon to graph the candy {just the candy}
that they used on their house.

It was perfect because we are just finishing up graphing
in our math series, so they were familiar with
how to make a bar graph and they
could complete it independently.
Click on the pic to download a copy!

This is my first day of Winter Break, hallelujah!
If you aren't on break yet, I'm saying a prayer for you right now:)

Regrouping Unit!!!

Why do I always get sick on the weekends?!?!

I'm just now coming out of my

room where I've been quarantined

for the past 24 hours with strep...yuck.

I'm finally feeling alive again and

I couldn't wait to share with you

my regrouping unit!

I love teaching regrouping with

these activities and games

 and my students LOVE it too.

I know. 

Hard to believe kids would love regrouping but they do!

Trust me. ;)

Math is one of my passions because

you can turn almost anything into a game and

the kids are having so much fun,

practicing skills over and over again that

they don't even realize it!

Here's a little preview of my unit...

If you remember this post about The Trading Game,
you'll be happy to know that I've included a template for
the gameboard in this unit!

If you'd like to purchase this unit from my new
Teachers Pay Teachers store you can click on any of
the pics above, the Teachers Pay Teachers button on the sidebar,
or here!

I'll be giving this unit away for FREE to the first two
people who leave a comment and tell me what is your
favorite subject to teach!
{don't forget to include your email}

Hope you all have had a MUCH better weekend
than me!
Hopefully, I've had my fair share of sickness for a while.  :)

4 Types of Sentences flip book...and snow!

My students were giddy this morning when

everyone woke up to the first snow of the

season here in Kansas!

It wasn't much, but enough

to get everyone excited.

So when we did this little activity

about the 4 types of sentences today,

(declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, & imperative)

we wrote our 4 sentences about snow!

4 Types of Sentences flip book!

I introduced the 4 types and then the

students put the flip book together.
Under each flap they wrote that type of
sentence.

One of my teaching partners also suggested
stapling 2 sheets of the lined paper underneath
and using one to describe the type of sentence and

the other for the example!

Click on the picture below to download

a free copy...

I've been working like crazy putting

together a unit all about regrouping!

Full of strategies, games, anchor charts

and lots more!

I'm going to start selling some of my units on

either Teachers Pay Teachers or Teacher's Notebook

so I'm hoping to get that set up this week...fingers crossed!

I love teaching regrouping with the activities and games

I've included in the unit and I can't wait to share it with

you all so check back in soon!!!

I will still be sharing FREE printables on my blog

so no worries. :)

Hope you are having a fantastic week!

what i'm thankful for.

I'm joining in this linky party because

I've LOVED reading everyone else's responses.

It's so fun to get to know other bloggers

on more of a personal level.

Sooo....a little about what I'm thankful for

this year:

1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?

I'm so thankful for ALL of the wonderful teachers I've had the 

privilege of working with during my first 6 years of teaching. 

I mean, I'm definitely thankful for my

students, but I don't think I'd be able to do what I do and get

through those seriously LONG Friday no-plan days without

my teaching partners. 

So, I'm most thankful for Kristen, Barb,

Julie, Karen, Jane, Meredith, Cory, Teresa, Angel, Andrea, & Brandi. :)

2. What person are you most thankful for?

My family:)

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?

I'm trying to remember the first teaching blog I

stumbled onto this summer! 

The blogs that have

given me the most inspiration so far have been The First Grade Parade,

The Inspired Apple, and Step Into Second Grade with Mrs. Lemons.

Thank you ladies!!!

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?

Pinterest! Because I seriously use that more than google:)

5. What are you most thankful for?

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord,

"plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give

you hope and a future."

Jeremiah 29:11

butterfly life cycle

You might have seen this great idea

from Somewhat Simple floating around Pinterest...

 

 

We read, Butterfly House, as part of our

reading series and it's a great story

to introduce students to the life cycle

of butterflies!

It's such a cute story that fits very well into

the unit theme of kindness.

Anyway, my coworkers and I wanted to 

do this activity, but here in Kansas,

all the leaves are crunchy and brown

and we'd make a crusty mess trying

to glue them down.

So, I decided to make a template to glue

on the paper plate that the kids could color.

Then we glued the pasta on top of each picture. 

You can click on the picture to download the template:)

 

I still like Somewhat Simple's best with the real

leaves and twig, but since we are forced expected to

read this story in the fall,

ours will have to do!

 

I think they turned out cute!

Number Forms

Jeez.

Sorry to be a blog slacker.

You can thank grade card season and conferences.

Anyhoo, glad to be back, and I have a few things to

share in the next few weeks so I'll try and stay consistent.

I LOVE candy corn.

A lot.

A WHOLE lot

When I saw this idea on pinterest, from Katie over and Katie Lately,

I knew I wanted to do it with my 2nd graders.

I made a template and wanted to share

it with you all. Click the button below the pic

to download a free copy!

Here's a lousy pic I took with my phone of our candy corn numbers

hanging in our room.

Don't think you can't do candy corn activities

in November,

because it's the candy that keeps on giving {in pounds}

all Fall long!

I've also been reading aloud, The Candy Corn Contest,

by Patricia Reilly Giff,

and we are loving it!

I just assumed it had a Halloween theme but the

story actually takes place in the weeks leading

up to Thanksgiving.

I can't get over all the fabulous ideas floating all

over the teaching blogisphere for Thanksgiving!

I'm overwhelmed and need to pick a few ideas

I think I can do instead of dreaming of doing everything:)

Have a fabulous weekend!

Welcome Fall!

I'm loving the weather we are

having here in Kansas!

Lows in 50's and highs in upper 70's,

low 80's.

Can't really get much better than that!

Anyways, I'm home for most of the

week because my little one

caught hand, foot, and mouth.

She can't go back to daycare until next week.

Here goes the rest of my sick days!

She's doing ok and actually eating

and drinking some stuff.

Other times she spits out her

food and starts to cry because it hurts, poor baby:(

I'm loving this extra time with her

though and for the most part she is

in good spirits so we are having fun.

Makes me miss summer when I was

home all the time and I can't

help but wish sometimes I was a stay-at-home mommy:)

Ok, enough rambling, I wanted to share a game

with you all so here we go....

 

 

 

My students need lots of extra practice

with rounding so I came up with this game.

Click on any of the pictures above to download

a copy.

I think I might also make a Halloween

version, so if I actually do that

I'll share that too!

Lightbulb Moment!

Today I had a little glimpse as to what

my reading block could be like when this Daily 5

thing is in full swing.

All I can say is I. Loved. It.

The whole process of introducing the Daily 5

has taken longer than I thought.

However, we have 3 of the 5 going

pretty strong so far and I'm proud of that.

So, this week, I thought I would take a break

from introducing the next part,

{for me that is word work}

and let the kids rotate through and

see how everything will sort of play out.

I actually had 4 or 5 reading conferences today

with some of the neediest kiddos.

It was SO amazing!

We talked about what their goals would be

from the CAFE menu and I felt like

I connected with them and understood

a little more about where they are as readers.

I feel like this additional attention from me is definitely needed

along with the intervention groups with the reading specialists.

I could see in their eyes that they knew I cared

and truly wanted to help them become better readers:)

This little snapshot of what things could be like

all the time once the Daily 5 is up and running

was just the little boost of confidence I needed

to keep going!

So, next week I'm tackling Word Work.

I'm trying to get set up and I'm finding ALL sorts

 of great ideas online. It makes it hard to keep

it all organized and figure out exactly how I want it to be

but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

I'm so encouraged when I read about other

newbies to Daily 5 and even old pros,

so let me know how its going for you!

Happy {almost} Thursday!

lesson planner

Thought I would share my new Erin Condren

lesson planner!

Love this thing because its so colorful and cheery

and make writing plans that

much more fun:)

{I'm a sucker for anything colorful/cute!}

I found a great deal on this through a post

Cara had a while back.

They are normally $50, which is kinda steep

if you ask me.

There was an offer through a deal's site, kinda

like Groupon, for half off.

So I snagged the teacher lesson planner and a few

other goodies!

I was seriously contemplating using the deals

I bought for some Christmas gifts too

but ended up just splurging all on myself:)

I love the Life Planner too.

During my free time, I try to get crafty and

make little personalized things.

I write down when orders are due in this

and just normal everyday stuff.

I also had to splurge on this

sticker for my ipad cover.

This summer we sold our mac

notebook and my NOOK reader.

We bought ipads in place of those

and we LOVE them!

These are normally $20 but I got

them through the deal for $12.

They actually send you 2 stickers,

in case the first one you use gets

worn looking. Very cool!

Hope you all ENJOY your weekend and 

get to RELAX!