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!