Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons

A little of this, and a little of that :)

2012-03-08T17:28:00.000-06:00

It is more than nasty outside in the Dallas area right now! It went from in the 70s this morning to being 47 degrees. And that my friends, is not okay with me! With that being said, we did somehow manage to get a little learning done today, regardless of the weather!

We finished reading "The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo," and made this little writing craftivity. My students wrote a summary of the book after they made their kangaroos.

We wrote sentences about the main character, Freddy Dissel, and added them to this chart. I'm totally not in love with how I drew his face, but my sweet babies still think I'm an artist, so I'll just have to live with it, ha!

Yesterday, after reading Chapter 3, we made "Freddy's Filmstrip" to sequence the events from the chapter.

You can find all of my Green Kangaroo ideas on TPT {HERE}!

In Computer Lab, we did a little integration of technology and a math lesson.

Since we have been studying shapes, we used Power Point to sort Polygons/Not Polygons. First, we typed the definition of polygons, then we learned how to draw shapes, fill them up with color, and change out our backgrounds!

Then, for a little afternoon fun, we wrote a silly story together. We used story starters from this:

Here's what we chose: Setting- in an airport, Character- caterpillar, Plot- gets a medal

So, as a class, we wrote a story about a caterpillar named Weirdo who lives in an airport, got sucked up into a vacuum, thrown into a trashcan, had to eat his way through french fries to get to a shiny medal, made a cocoon while holding the medal, and came out a golden butterfly.

I mean, if that isn't an award-winning story, I just don't know what is! After we wrote the story as a class, I had the kids make illustrations for it in their journals.

I rewrote the story and added some illustrations after school so that it can be on display tomorrow! I am just sure that the kids will be in LOVE with seeing their story hanging up in the room!

Only 1 more day before Spring Break for me! When is your Spring Break? I'm anxiously awaiting ours, but know that I'll be super jealous when my other bloggy friends are on their break in a few weeks! Hope you have a fast Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Just a little post...

2012-03-06T21:35:00.001-06:00

It's getting late for me, so I'm not going to make this too lengthy!

We are learning about 2D shapes this week, so we charted them first thing!

(Don't judge my drawing skills here... some of those shapes were a little tricky for me, ha!)

I changed out my math bulletin board to include our chart and some of my 2D shapes

We did a shape match in our math journals.

We started reading, The One in the Middle is a Green Kangaroo" and made inferences based on the front cover!

And, we will continue with more shape and Green Kangaroo activities this week!!!

I just finished up a little Earth Day Unit that you can pick up {HERE}

Almost half way through the week... we're getting there, right?!!

Probability Unit

2012-03-05T15:45:00.001-06:00

Once I began teaching probability last week, I realized that there just wasn't a lot out there when it came to resources. So, to make things easier on myself for the years to come, I compiled all of my activities into one bundle!

You can also check out a few freebies {HERE} for probability!

Click on either picture to take you to TPT!

Ohhhhh.... and I will give away 5 copies of this unit to the first 5 people that comment below!!!

My clip art came from KPM Doodles and Fancy Dog Studio.

My fonts are Kevin and Amanda

Just in case you haven't seen this on Hope's blog... here are the winners from our Chocolate Lovers Giveaway! Congrats, ladies! Email Hope at: secondgradeshenanigans@gmail.com to claim your units :) Also, you must check out what they did to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday, because it absolutely blew me away!!!

I was only at school for a half-day, so I don't have anything fabulous to share! We are learning about 2D Shapes and completing "The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo" chapter book study! Then, it's off for Spring Break... YAY!!!

The Lorax and Green Eggs

2012-03-01T16:54:00.000-06:00

Well, I must say that it has been a SEUSS-tastic couple of days in the classroom :)

Today, we read "The Lorax," which the kids were totally into {I'm guessing it has something to do with the movie coming out tomorrow, and nothing to do with how wonderful of a reader I am ;)}. Then we made this little craft. I'm just going to be honest... I threw this thing together very last minute. So, I have no patterns for it! I just guided the kids through each step, in this order: grass, clouds, trunks, the Lorax, and then the truffula toppers. We used easter basket grass for the tops of the trees (found this idea on Pinterest, but it didn't have a link back to it!). I will say that it needs to be hot-glued! We learned the hard way that regular glue bottles/sticks would not work!!!

I love this speech bubble.... "If you cut down the trees we won't have maple syrup for our waffles." haha!

Close-up of just the craft:

I didn't do anything fancy to the door... just taped them all up!

Yesterday we read, "Green Eggs and Ham." The kids worked in groups for a little "How-to" writing assignment. They had to make up a way to make green eggs and ham. After they wrote the steps into their spirals, I just had them re-write the edited versions onto the back of their egg.

I love how this group used spinach to make their green eggs and chicken (ha!)!

Today in the computer lab, we had lots of fun with Seussville!

Tomorrow, we are going to go with Cara's idea for Seuss Juice! I think I'll show Justin Bieber reading "The Cat in the Hat" or Tim Tebow reading "Green Eggs and Ham." Heck... maybe we will just watch Dr. Seuss videos all day, ha!! You can get away with that on a Friday, right?!

One more day til the weekend, y'all! Can't wait!

Writer's Workshop Questions and Dr. Seuss

2012-02-28T17:15:00.000-06:00

Our literacy team has been working super hard to get all K-2 teachers on the same page for guided reading and writer's workshop. We had a training last week on writer's workshop and students sharing their writing throughout the week.

After a student has read their writing piece, the writer asks the class 3 questions (that you'll see below). I made some little posters for my kids to hold up as they are asking the questions, so I wanted to share them with you!

You can click {HERE} to download these posters!

I have only been using these questions for about a week and a half now, so I don't have all of the answers, BUT I have been letting about 2-3 people answer each question. That will all depend on the amount of time that you have. Also, not every writer shares each time we write. I choose about 2-3 people to share. That helps keep the students focused and not too restless!

Now on to Dr. Seuss....

We have also started our Dr. Seuss week!!! This is the last week in our 6 weeks, so we are having a little fun during Language Arts. It's nice to take a little break and just breathe a little!

We read The Cat in the Hat and made these super cute Thing 1s from Deanna Jump's unit. The kids LOVED this! Under the "Thing 1" circle, we stapled paper where the kids wrote the characters, setting, problem and solution from the story.

One of my parents sent in this fun little treasure chest, so I loaded it up with Dr. Seuss things!

We have a few more fun activities to do throughout the rest of the week, so hopefully I'll have some more things to share with you!

Green Kangaroo

2012-02-27T20:37:00.001-06:00

Looking for another fun, green activity for March? I just finished up my "The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo" unit! It includes this sweet little kangaroo craftivity...

and this sequencing Craftivity...

And lots more!!!

You can grab it on TPT for $4, or wait until Wednesday to get it on sale!

Don't forget to enter a Chocolaty giveaway HERE!

Happy Monday night to you all ;)

A Chocolaty Giveaway!

2012-02-27T16:52:00.002-06:00

I've teamed up with Hope from 2nd Grade Shenanigans for a fun giveaway!

Here's what 2 lucky winners will receive:

Here's how to win

1. Follow Hope's TPT and Blog

2. Follow my TPT and Blog

Once you have completed numbers 1 & 2, leave one comment on Hope’s blog and one comment on my blog letting us know and let us in on your favorite chocolaty treat! That’s right…you have not just one…BUT…2 chances to win.

We will randomly select two winners Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. SHARP! {Ok…well you may not know until Wednesday…because I doubt we will be up that late! :)}

AND…if you don’t win, don’t forget that both units will be 20% off for our big Leap Day Sale with an additional 10% off from TPT. Goodness gracious…you better go get your shop on gals {and the occasional dude!} :)

Good luck, friends!

Leap Sale

2012-02-26T13:53:00.000-06:00

HERE is a linky party
so everyone holding a LEAP YEAR.... Leapy Sale
on TpT can advertise their fabulous creations...
when you link up
follow these simple rules...
1- link to your TpT STORE PAGE (not your blog please... just your TpT store)
2- under your pic write how much your sale is... 10% 20% what ev... and put your name... you have 75 characters so it should be enough :)
2- spread the word using.... the fab poster below....use both if you want :)
the more people that know about the party
the more links we will have
and the more chances you will sell something

you can use this to spread the word...
and this party is being hosted by a few of my blogger friends... so you might see this on other blogs too....
ONLY NEED TO link up once :)

2012-02-22T16:13:00.000-06:00

How many of you are on "break" this week?! I need to know where you teach so that I can move there ASAP! Our kiddos had Monday off, but the teachers still had to work... boo! Thankfully, it's already Wednesday, so I can't complain too much :)

We made our Abraham Lincolns today. You can get the patterns for FREE if you click {HERE}. I found some googley eyes, so we used those instead of what is shown in my pattern. I think they turned out pretty stinkin' cute!

Before we did the writing, we filled out a KWL about Abraham Lincoln. My students used that information to write their nonfiction piece. I told my students that I was looking for a few things as they were writing: 1. Sequence the events of his life in an order that makes sense to the reader 2. Sentences vary in the way that they start. I asked them not to start every sentence with "He was..." 3. They had enough information included in their writing.

It was amazing how just that little reminder helped some of them really change up their sentences. Of course, I had several that still wrote everything out of order and started every sentence with "Abraham..."! AHHHHH!

We have continued working on fractions this week. I've used tons of activities from The Teacher Wife's Fraction Fun Unit! The kids LOVE it!

Today we did an activity that I found last year on Mrs. Bainbridge's website. We made fraction kites!

Here is the display of our Fraction Pizzas from last week :)

And, our Chocolate Fever display!

Next week we will be learning about probability in math. I've found quite a few cute activities from my fellow bloggers, so I only had to create 2 things on my own... YAY! I made a possible and impossible sort as well as a flap-book where students write their own ideas for events that are possible and impossible.

You can download these 2 activities for FREE {HERE}

That's it for me! I hope you all are having a fabulous week :) Only 2 more days until the weekend... well for those of us who HAVE to be at school this week, that is ;)

An announcement!

2012-02-20T19:37:00.000-06:00

I have some news to share with all of my bloggy buddies. I don't know that I would normally only post about my personal life on my teaching blog, but there is a HUGE reason to today!

When I started my TPT store on December 23rd, I had absolutely NO idea what to expect. I didn't know if my followers would be thrilled that I was selling things, or if they would be disappointed that I was going from all things free to a store. But, I trusted that God had a plan and just hoped that He would bless it.

And, what a great God I have. Through the awesome generosity of my faithful followers and several blessings from God, the hubby and I have made the decision that we are going to adopt! I truly can't thank you all enough because Jared and I are going to use my earnings from TPT to fund our adoption. So, thank you for being so kind, thank you for buying my products, and thank you following my blog!

Seriously, I owe a HUGE thank you hug to every one of you! We can't wait to bring our child home from the Congo, Africa! You can read more about that process on my personal blog HERE!

So, please know that you have already played such a HUGE part in this process, and the money that you have spent and will spend at my TPT store will go directly to our adoption until we have reached our financial goal!

Lots of love and another thank you!

Chocolate Fever

2012-02-19T15:13:00.001-06:00

Just uploaded my first "novel unit" to TPT! My 2nd graders LOVE Chocolate Fever, and I'm sure yours will, too!

I'm off to take my Sunday nap! Enjoy your day of rest :)

Fractions

2012-02-16T17:32:00.000-06:00

Is it just me or does it seem like this week is NEVER going to end?! I feel like the Valentine's Party was last week, but OH NO, that was only 2 days ago! Needless to say, I am more than ready for this weekend!

But before I veg out all weekend, I wanted to post a few pictures of what we've been up to in class.

We made fraction sundaes that you can find on TPT HERE!

Tomorrow we will make fraction pizzas that you can find on TPT HERE!

Next week we will be using A LOT of The Teacher Wife's Fraction Fun Unit, and also this fun little fraction book that I made!

We are only going to go to 1/6 on our fraction book, but in the template I made, you can go all the way to 1/16! I wanted it to be versatile so several grades could use it.

I have also included templates where the fractions are already typed, and the students just put their books together!

Happy Almost Friday! Hope your Friday goes by quickly and your weekend does just the opposite!

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T17:32:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day to you all! I must say that I wasn't quite prepared to celebrate on a Tuesday. PTL that when I walked in the door from working out yesterday my sweet sweet Mr. Hubby had already started making my cupcakes and chocolate-covered oreos. I owe him BIG time for that! I don't think I could have got it all done otherwise.

I arrived at school today with no V-Day cards or gifts for my kiddos, and I felt really bad about that. So, I seriously had to whip something up within NO time.

I made little notepads and gave them a freshly sharpened pencil. They LOVED it, even though they were last minute and VERY imperfect.

I just simply cut card stock and white paper into fourths, grab a bundle and stapled them together. Then, I stuck a label on the front that says, "A penny for my thoughts _____'s Notepad." I hot glued some foam pieces and a penny on top. So simple, not the cutest thing ever, and probably will never make them again, ha!

Here are some other things we did today...

We just started fractions yesterday, but I still wanted to do a little spin on our fraction hats from last year. Seriously, so simple... they just cut hearts out of different colors of paper, and then wrote their fractions on their hats.

The kids were SO excited to read their pen pal letters from Mrs. King's class (2nd Grade Shenanigans). Her class made cute postcards this time, which were completely adorable! We love opening our mail!

Here's a little peek of some of our Valentine's bags. They ended up being absolutely PERFECT!

And, we also played Valentine BINGO at our party... thanks to the Teacher Wife, once again!

Hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's evening. I plan on spending lots of time cuddling with my little love bugs while the Mr. cooks dinner! Definitely needing a low-key evening after a party day!

(Poor thing just wasn't feeling the webcam, haha!)

Telling Temperature, Prepositions, and V-Day

2012-02-09T17:01:00.001-06:00

I have to admit that this week hasn't been filled with my favorite standards to cover. We worked on reading temperatures and prepositions. Seriously, blah.

So, I tried to put a little "oomph" into the lessons...

We made these flap-books as our introduction to temperature. So simple- just fold a piece of manila paper in half, hot-dog style, fold in half again, fold in half again! Then, cut your 3 lines. Glue the 4 thermometers onto the front of the flaps and discuss cold, cool, warm, and hot! We came up with the 4 temperatures as a class. After, the kids wrote and drew about each temperature (what it feels like, what you wear, what you can do, etc.)

A few days later, the students made their own little "make-shift" books to show what they had learned about temperature. My only directions were that they had to choose 5 different thermometers to use, as well as write 2 sentences on each page: "The temperature is ___. It feels like______"

They made their cover pages, and took care of all the details and decorating!

Now, onto prepositions...

I wanted to incorporate prepositions into my Valentine's decor, so we made a Preposition Chain!

I gave the students 5 sentences that they cut apart/glued together in order. Then, they colored the preposition.

(This student self-corrected his error on "is" before I had to tell him!)

After I checked/graded their sentences, they stapled their 5 links onto our chain.

Click {HERE} to download 2 preposition activities!

Tomorrow, we are making these cutie-patootie V-Day bags from the Teacher Wife's "All You Need Is Love" unit! Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Currently and Main Idea/Details

2012-02-08T17:39:00.000-06:00

Short and sweet... gotta run to church soon!

I'm linking up with Farley for Currently... February Edition:)

I finished my Main Idea Unit! It's made up of several craftivities that can be used with any book! See the description on TPT for more details :)

Hope everyone is having a wonderful night!

2012-02-06T16:51:00.000-06:00

I must say that today was one of the best Mondays that I've had in a while! I didn't have a headache, wasn't too sleepy, and it went by pretty fast. Although, I did have to refer to my class as Chatty Patties more than, ummm I don't know, 100 times today, ha! I guess they just had a lot to tell each other :)

For Reading/Writing we read "Love, Splat" and made a text-to-self connection with a little writing creativity from the one and only, Cara Carroll :)

The students finished the sentence stem "I feel loved when..." Then they were able to put their little Splats together!

You can grab a copy of Cara's Love Splat unit on TPT HERE!

In other news, my two preggo teamies are about to be due! They could seriously give birth at any moment now. I am always on alert just in case I need to ditch my class and drive them to the hospital, ha! We had a shower last week to welcome their sweet babies into the world!

Also, you have to check out my personal blog to see more pictures like this...

Hope everyone had a magnificent Monday! I'm off to do Yoga, cook dinner, and relax with the Mr.!

It's About Time!

2012-02-04T13:01:00.000-06:00

I just uploaded "It's About Time!" to TPT. Hope you find this useful and your students have success telling time!

Visit my freebie time activities from previous blog posts HERE

When I was sick...

2012-02-03T17:08:00.002-06:00

Don't y'all just love Kristin from A Teeny Tiny Teacher? Her blog is one of my favorites to read, plus she is also a Real Housewives fanatic, so I can get my weekly dose of reality TV talk in by reading her blog!

Anyways, to the point of why I'm blogging about Kristin. A couple of weeks ago she blogged about a writing project that her students completed. When I saw her cute little craft, I knew I HAD to incorporate it as soon as possible! I mean, if you are familiar with my blog, you should know that I LOVE a good craftivity!

On Monday we started our week long journey with this writing activity.

(For my little sick guy, I copied Cara's Alliteration poster!)

First, we brainstormed a time that we have been sick. My students made a little bubble map in their journals to start their process. I love how this cutie made her bubble map into a sick person. The next day, we put all of our ideas together on the chart shown above!

Here's how our writing process went for the week:

Monday: Brainstormed with a bubble map

Tuesday: Charted our ideas and wrote 2 parts (What they were sick with, and how they felt)

Wednesday: Re-read what we had written so far, began writing the last two parts (What happened because they were sick, and how they got better)

Thursday: Finished rough drafts, began revising/editing

Friday: Finished final drafts and made little sick people when writing was completed!

Here's how ours turned out:

I hung my homeroom's writing activities on their lockers, and we put the other group's on the door.

In reading groups, we have been really working on fluency through poems and reader's theatre. So, we charted what a fluent reader looks like. Just a little FYI- most of my charts do not look like this. I only spend time on charts that I can use year after year. I make sure to laminate, so that we can use Expo markers when writing on them.

Also, I've had a lot of questions about how I get so many crafts into my lessons. Don't forget that I am only showing you a small portion of what I am doing in class. I have my fair share of not-so-cute activities that we do throughout the day. So, I'm not Wonder Woman who can fit everything into my day... although I do realize how disappointing this is to you, ha!

Plus, I teach dual-language which is a VERY fast moving program. My kids have learned to work at the speed of light because I only have them for half a day. I only teach Language Arts and Math, so I try to fit in a little bit of everything in those subjects each day. It is also a requirement that my students work in partners (1 English student and 1 Spanish student) for most of their assignments. So, there's twice the hands cutting and glueing!

And, I'm a sucker for anything cutesy. I find the time to make it work, ha!

Hope y'all have a wonderful weekend! Here's what I'm working on:

Black History Month

2012-02-02T17:55:00.001-06:00

Well, it's Thursday, my friends. Which means we are one day away from the weekend! My class has been knee-deep in Black History Month, and it has been a lot of fun!

Here are some of the projects we have done so far (All of these come from my Black History Month Pack)

We read about Ruby Bridges, made a little craft, and did some writing. I love how different they all are!

We read about Rosa Parks, and found the main idea/details. We organized the information onto a bus craft.

We actually opened our week with this activity that I'm sure several of you have done before! We read "The Crayon Box That Talked." On the crayons, each student wrote about how they were different from everyone else.

In my teamies class, my students made these cute flap books! I love seeing how much they have progressed in Spanish!

You can find all of the Black History projects , and more {HERE}. All of the patterns for each project are included!

President's Day and a Question for YOU!

2012-01-30T19:13:00.001-06:00

Today was definitely a Monday. I went to sleep and woke up with a horrible headache... stinkin' sinuses and/or allergies! That lovely headache has managed to last the entire day with no signs of leaving anytime soon. During my conference, I ran home to grab some migraine pills and caffeine (PTL I live only 1 minute from my school!) Other than that- all was well, and my kiddos behaved {decently} today.

To cure your Monday blues (if you're anything like me), I have a President's Day Freebie Pack that you can grab on my TPT!

In the pack, you will find these things AND more!

Click {HERE} to download!

Also... I'm looking into redesigning my blog, but want to find someone to do it for me. Do you have any recommendations? Thanks so much!

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Gumball Craftivity

2012-01-28T21:06:00.000-06:00

Welp, it's Saturday night and I'm livin' it up. Oh wait, no I'm not, ha! My allergies are still bugging me, and the Mr. went to have some sort of XBox party with teenagers from the student ministry. *I don't for a second try to understand why guys get together to play video games. I can promise you that they don't do a lot of talking during these get togethers, ha! All that matters to me is that the stinky boys aren't at my house and he got me all set up with dinner before he left :)

Which brings me to this... I've seen so many cute gum ball crafts for the 100th day of school, even pinned a few cuties on Pinterest. But, I will be straight up honest with y'all. I have not a clue as to when our 100th day of school is. Call me a bum, but I just can't handle another celebration right now. I feel like we just got done with the Christmas Party, and we are about to amp up for the Valentine's Party, SO I just need all kinds of normalcy in my classroom right now! However, I have more than loved seeing everyone's ideas and pictures from their 100th day, and can't wait to see more! Maybe I'll celebrate next year :)

Back on track now... you can get this gumball machine creativity for $1.50 at my TPT store. There are so many ways to use this (which I've included in the pack), and I'm not 100% sure which one I'll do yet. But, I know that the kids will LOVE this!

Hope you are having a more eventful weekend than I am!!! Happy Saturday to you all!

A Bad Case of Stripes

2012-01-26T17:52:00.000-06:00

Oh my word, y'all. I. am. ready. for. Friday. No worries though, only one more school day until the weekend! Yahoo!

We trotted on today with cause and effect. Only with a minor delay- my voice is going out :(, so I could NOT have made it through another Amelia Bedelia book (they tend to be a little lengthy). Once my students were with me this morning, I knew I had to make a plan B. So, I went to one of my favorite resources, Storyline Online, to find a book to use with cause and effect.

That's when I saw, "A Bad Case of Stripes," and I knew that it would be perfect! We watched the story, and paused to talk about the different cause/effects as we read.

After we finished reading, my students wrote about the story using the cause/effects we talked about. This was a great transition from just listing the cause/effects like we had previously been doing. We used sentences like: "___________ happened because___________." The kids did really well with it. It was also a little bit of summarizing... I get extra points for combining 2 skills, right?!

As we were watching the video I drew up Camilla Cream's face and hair and made copies in a flash so that the kids could use them after they finished their writing assignments. I tried my best on the drawings, but I definitely did not do it perfectly! She looks a little like a crazed person, haha!

You can click {HERE} to download this project for free!

Happy Friday Eve... hope you all have a fast Friday and a wonderful weekend :)

Spelling City

2012-01-25T10:00:00.004-06:00

Do you use Spelling City in your class? I've used it for years now, and absolutely LOVE it. If you are not familiar with this FREE resource, it is a website that helps to build vocabulary and spelling skills. Each 6 weeks, I enter my spelling lists under my teacher page. My students can visit the website during computer lab, computer center, or at home.

Here are some of the games that my kids thoroughly enjoy:

There are several fun and free games/activities for your students to use with a weekly spelling or vocabulary list. It is more than simple to register for an account. You can upgrade to a Premium Membership for more activities, but there are so many free resources, that you must check it out! You can check out my spelling city page HERE.

Hope you find this website as useful as I have!

Amelia Bedelia

2012-01-24T16:48:00.000-06:00

This week we have been working on cause and effect while reading Amelia Bedelia books. Thanks to Donors Choose, we have tons of her books to select from! And let me just say, that my kiddos have LOVED reading Amelia Bedelia so far. I was kinda shocked when the majority of my students said that they have never heard of her, but more than shocked I was super excited to introduce them to this crazy character!

Today, as we were reading "Amelia Bedelia and the Baby," we charted the cause/effects that we found. In my 2nd class I had the students write on the poster, but forgot to take a picture. That allowed me to keep reading as they were charting!

We also made a bubble map to brainstorm what we have learned about Amelia Bedelia so far.

Then, the students chose 3 of the cause/effects from the story to make this little activity. I gave them each 3 index cards, folded them in half, and wrote the cause (outside) and effect inside). They drew Amelia Bedelia on manila paper, cut her out, and glued her onto the blue paper.

We will continue reading Amelia Bedelia for the rest of the week. I hope to make a little craftivity if I have time, but if not... oh well! Here are some Cause/Effect papers we will use for "Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia" and "Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia."

Click {HERE} to download

Can't wait to read more Amelia Bedelia books! We are also going to discuss/identify idioms and literal/non-literal word meanings as we are reading throughout the week. Do you have any favorite activities that you use while teaching Amelia Bedelia? I'd love to hear some new ideas!

Reading Strategies in Spanish

2012-01-22T22:05:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, I posted reading strategy posters in English... I received some emails from followers that were wanting to use them, but needed Spanish. Well, I had to translate them for my teaching partner, so I thought I'd share with you, for those of you who need them!

Click HERE to download the posters in Spanish

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! We will be working on Time and an Amelia Bedelia unit! Hope to have some ideas to share later this week!

Regrouping Centers

2012-01-21T15:28:00.009-06:00

I just finished up "I Can Regroup" (addition and subtraction centers with and without regrouping)

Included in the pack are 5 Addition Centers:

And, 4 Subtraction Centers

Everything comes in color and black/white... I know several of you (myself included) are not allowed to print in color at school, so I wanted to include both options! There are also recording sheets to go along with each game. Hope you and your kiddos find them fun and helpful!

UPDATE 1/21/12: I have uploaded the unit to TPT again after experiencing many technical difficulties, and I think I got it to work! Hopefully making it as a zip file will help it to work this time! Let me know if you are still having trouble :)

...

2012-01-19T20:09:00.000-06:00

Just got done with Open House and our 2nd Grade Program, and I am pooped!!!

But, I am very excited about finishing up my regrouping centers this weekend! I'll be more than excited when I finish this project :)

Fraction Sundaes and a few freebies!

2012-01-17T20:55:00.000-06:00

Just added another fraction craftivity to TPT for $1.00!! But first, I have a few ice cream freebies for you that you can use with the fraction sundae craftivity you'll see below!

Click HERE to download freebies

Ice Cream Writing Activities:

Ice Cream Class Graph with ice cream markers and labels:

And, here's a preview of the fraction sundae that you can grab up at TPT. The kiddos LOVE making these, and they turn out super cute!

A few finished projects...

2012-01-17T17:05:00.000-06:00

As I am getting my room ready for Open House, I wanted to share some pictures with you! Some of these I've shared bits and pieces of, but here are the boards all put together...

From my Mystery Mini-Unit

From my Addition with Regrouping Unit

You can grab the snowman for free HERE, the winter friends craft HERE, and the mug writing craftivity HERE

And, here are some projects that my kiddos have been completing in my teammate's classroom (in Spanish, of course!) I'm pretty sure that they are all Pinterest inspired :)

They were just too cute not to share!

Fraction Pizzas

2012-01-16T17:30:00.000-06:00

Last year, I posted this fun fraction craftivity....

I have fixed up this little craftivity with templates, recording sheets, and examples. You can purchase it at TPT HERE for $1.75!

Hope everyone is enjoying their day! I'm officially late to Yoga, so I'm off to get all stretched out :)

Quick Pic

2012-01-13T16:12:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to share a quick pic from Career Day... told ya I was going to rock the head band, ha!

TGIF, friends!!! Have a wonderful weekend :)

Mystery Genre

2012-01-12T21:14:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry for 2 posts in one day... especially 2 that involve me showing you TPT units, but I was in a mad dash to finish this one because we are finishing up our Mystery Unit next week. So, I had to get it done tonight in order to get ready for the days to come!!!

I'm especially excited to give my kiddos their very own case files to work though next week as they are reading with their groups. They will be like little detectives taking notes as they solve a mystery... seriously presh!

If you scroll down this LINK (quite a ways) then you can find a printable detective hat that you can easily glue onto a sentence strip! Cute and free detective hats!

Multiplication Unit

2012-01-12T17:41:00.001-06:00

My Marvelous Multiplication Unit is now available on TPT!

Now, I only have to wait until April or May to get to use it, ha! At least I'm overly prepared for this one :)

You can download freebie multiplication flash cards HERE

New Reading Strategies and classroom pics

2012-01-10T17:13:00.000-06:00

Good afternoon, y'all! Is anyone else feeling the pain of this week so far? It really has nothing to do with my kiddos, they are behaving/working just fine, but it seems like I can't make it through the day without getting a headache or scratchy throat! Must be this nasty weather we got goin' on here in the Dallas area! Can't let it slow me down though, because I have only 6 more school days until Open House! Lots to get done.

Not sure how familiar you all are with the Texas state assessments, but we are changing to STAAR this year from TAKS, which comes with some new challenges (thank the Lord I teach 2nd!). Starting this year, students will have to complete their test within four hours. Four hours seems like a stinkin' long time to me, but since they've been used to having all day, it will for sure be an adjustment. So, it was time for me to change my reading/math strategies, and make them more simple. I'm all for simple!

Last year, my class used PLORE, which you can find HERE! Some upper grade teachers suggested we narrow down our strategy steps, so here's what I came up with:

You should be able to click on the pictures above to download. Or you can click {HERE}

I also took down the problem solving strategy that I had on my math board:

I can honestly say that I have not referred to that board once this year, so it was more than pointless anyways!

I put up these addition and subtraction key words that you can download for free at The Teacher Wife

I'm not super excited about the way this looks... I should have changed the background and whatnot, but I am way too lazy for that midyear! I do LOVE the addition and subtraction signs, so I'll jazz the board up more for next year! The addition/subtraction with regrouping posters are from my units on TPT.

A few more pictures to show what we've been up to:

These two addition with regrouping activities can be found HERE

Sorry for the blurry picture :(

Winter friends activity can be found HERE

And, lots of my kiddos have conquered the 1000 challenge! Several are still working, but I'm super proud of the ones who finished, cramped hand and all!

Now I'm even more tired from just looking at what all we've been up to, haha! Good thing the hubby is cooking steaks tonight, which I am more than excited about! I guess that sweet gesture will overshadow how crazy he is with his new air-soft gun, ha! Anyone else have a hubs that still plays with toys?!!

That's it for me! Tomorrow is Career Day, and I am dressing up as an aerobic's instructor... yoga pants, and tennis shoes? YES, please! And, I will definitely be rockin' a head band, no worries!

It's Monday...one day closer to Friday :)

2012-01-09T21:02:00.000-06:00

I'm just going to go ahead and say it... I've got nothing good for you this evening! However, I must tell you (because I'm just sure someone out there cares, ha!) that after months of struggling in Yoga *I'm horribly inflexible, even after years of cheerleading* my instructor used me as the example tonight! I guess now being able to touch my toes qualifies me as a pro, even if I have to stretch until I'm blue in the face :)

I'm linking up with Farley to join in on the "Currently" fun!

*OLW means ones little word*

Also, I plan math for my grade level, so I have been busy mapping out the rest of the year. I'm hoping to finish up my multiplication unit by the end of this week (I've found that if I post a preview then I am more prone to finish quickly, haha! It must motivate me!)

Last thing- I've been wanting to make another video tutorial, but have drawn a blank as to what to talk about. If there's anything you'd like for me to show you, then leave a comment below! I'll do my best to show you what you need!

Whole lotta wintry fun!

2012-01-07T17:26:00.001-06:00

I wanted to share with you some finished products from this week. It seemed like my kids took a little longer than normal to finish their assignments, but I think they just need to get back in the groove!

Here's an up close of a New Year's Day friend. You can download the templates for free {HERE}

We also complete my winter writing craftivity. That you can purchase {HERE}

We used these snowmen for main idea and detail. I gave each group of students a "wintry" book for them to read together. Then, they came up with the main idea and details together. You can download this for free {HERE}

We spent A LOT of time on addition with regrouping. Thankfully, by the end of the week it seemed like most of them got it pretty well... YAY!

Here's a little example from my Addition with Regrouping Unit. This child is obviously very advanced!. He blows me away!

We'll be doing lots more in the next week and a half because our Open House is creeping up on us! We will definitely be making these sweet winter friends that you can purchase {HERE}:

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend! My house is about to be full of teenagers for a little bible study... hoping they don't tear up the house too much, ha!

Shapin' Up

2012-01-05T22:31:00.002-06:00

I come to you tonight in a state of exhaustion. Oh friends, my lack of 12 hour sleep days has finally caught up to me. Thankfully, tomorrow is Friday, so I have high hopes that I will sleep well into the afternoon on Saturday! What am I thinkin'... I'm sure y'all are all feeling the same way (except for those of you who are still off of work, to which I say I am totally jealous)!

Anyways... I have finished my shape unit, and it is packed full of ideas that I have been using for years!

Click {HERE} to grab it on TPT!

Click Here and Here to find my previous posts where you can download shape posters for your classroom! Here's an example of those:

Goodnight y'all!

Video Tutorial Part Dos

2012-01-03T21:31:00.001-06:00

I have another quick Power Point tutorial for you... maybe I just like hearing the sound of my own voice! or not, haha! This tutorial shows how to change the orientation of your slides, how to crop shapes and clip art, and how to copy/paste the easy way.

Once again, if you are a PP pro... then this probably won't be beneficial for you. I'm sure there are tons of things you can do on PP that I'm not aware of, so if you have any tips or tricks, please share :)

Not sure why it's blurry when I enlarge it :( I need to play around with Quicktime some more!

Also, I hope to finish up my Shape Unit this weekend! I'll have that up and runnin' on TPT when it's finished :)

New Year's Activity with template

2012-01-03T18:18:00.000-06:00

I survived my first day back! My kiddos started addition with regrouping, so I wanted to have a less stressful Language Arts activity for the day- which led me to Cara Carroll (my go to for all things cute and creative, of course!). We made these sweet little New Year's hats with our resolutions. First, I read the book, "The Night Before New Year's by Natasha Wing {maybe a little too simple for 2nd grade, but they loved it nonetheless, plus we learned what the word "resolutions" meant :)} And, our brains were fried from math (hear me trying to justify, haha)!

This is a horrible picture, and I didn't take any up close, but here's the final product:

Click HERE for the template!

Check Cara's out because she added party blowers and pom poms which make them even cuter! I'll try and get a better picture tomorrow :)

Document-Making Video Tutorial

2012-01-02T20:26:00.001-06:00

I get a lot of questions about how I create my documents. This is a video that shows the very basics of creating something in Power Point (where I create all of my stuff!). If you already create documents, then this video is not for you!!! It is also unedited, and I sound like a huge dork, so don't hold that against me :)

Hope this helps those of you who are thinking about blogging or creating things for TPT! I'm off to get showered and ready for bed! See ya on the flip side :)

Reality is starting to settle in!

2012-01-02T16:34:00.000-06:00

Well, I did it. I went to work for a few hours today. I started to feel nervous about just walking in as the kids do tomorrow (I'm not necessarily an early riser on school days!). I had the feeling, you know what I'm talking about, right? the, did I leave my room in shambles, did I even do any lesson plans, did I make any copies, do I have any centers ready- feeling. Thankfully, the room wasn't in shambles, although it was bitterly cold!! I spent some time getting materials put in centers, I also make the copies from my Winter Writing Craftivity, Snowman Craftivity, and Addition with Regrouping unit. I must say, it settled my nerves to spend a few hours at the school! I "think" I'm ready for tomorrow :)

I just finished up a lil' unit for Black History Month! You can get it at TPT here!

If you are going back to school this week... I wish you all the best! Definitely hoping my kiddos are rested and ready for a new semester!

Snowman Craft Freebie

2012-01-01T14:55:00.000-06:00

Need something quick, fun, and easy to cutesify your classroom after the break?! I've made a template for a simple snowman that you can download for FREE at my TPT store {Google Docs isn't working for me :(}

You could always incorporate this snowman into a writing activity, or use it after reading a book about snowmen- I'm thinking the kids could write on the earmuffs and even the scarf! Anyways, hope you find this useful!!

And, don't forget to head on over to 2nd Grade Shenanigans to enter our giveaway!

You must check this one out!

2012-01-01T13:15:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year, friends!!! Head on over to 2nd Grade Shenanigans to enter this fabulous giveaway!!! Maybe I'll disguise myself and enter.... kidding!

How cute are the graphics that Hope put together for our giveaway?! Stop by and enter before January 6th!

A winter writing craftivity

2011-12-31T16:45:00.000-06:00

First of all, I just want to say Happy New Year's to all of my blogging buddies! I cannot express how thankful I am to all of you- those who blog and those who do not! Your kind words and encouragement completely blow me away every day. I had no idea what to expect when I started my blog in May of this past year, but it has been surprisingly fun and addicting, but more importantly it helps me strive to be a better teacher everyday, and for that, I am forever grateful!

I just uploaded a little writing craftivity to my TPT store... and you can grab it up for $1.75! I'd like to give 5 copies of it away to the first 5 people to comment!!

Ready, Set, COMMENT :)

Subtraction with Regrouping and a Freebie!

2011-12-29T22:26:00.002-06:00

After much frustration with the Mr.'s Mac and TPT, my Subtraction with Regrouping Pack is now available on TPT! Click the pic to take you there!

I've also included a little freebie matching game for you! I just had to dig into my DJ Inkers clip art today, I was having withdrawals!!!

Click on the pictures to download

(download has 12 problems with 12 answers)

Clipart Courtesy of DJ Inkers

Poem Freebie- tuck away until VDay :)

2011-12-28T19:54:00.001-06:00

Well, here I go... already editing a unit that I've added to TPT. No worries though, it's only because I've added 2 activities- an acrostic poem and making words. And, because I just love you guys oh so much, I'm posting a little Freebie from the unit! Hope you enjoy :)

I've updated the unit on TPT also!

In other news... I just saw the 20th Mission Impossible, okay not really the 20th, but there's been a handful of them at least, right?! And, it was surprisingly good! If I were a critic then I'd give it a two thumbs up!

Have a wonderful evening!

Valentine's Day

2011-12-27T23:04:00.018-06:00

I know, I know... It's still only December, BUT who doesn't just love to plan ahead, haha?!

I have finished a fun, yet meaningful Valentine's Day Unit that includes a little room decor, craftivities, lots of printables, and even a couple of math ideas. One of the things that I like about this unit: even though there are some cute and fun activities, there are also several activities that I can get grades from! I may hate taking grades, but we gotta do it where I'm at!

Anyways, head on over to my TPT to purchase my Valentine's Day Pack!

Also, don't forget to follow me on Facebook!

Flash Cards

2011-12-26T23:34:00.001-06:00

Did everyone have a busy, yet wonderful Christmas? Today was that day I have dreaded all month- take down the Christmas decor day! I did a lot of packing up, vacuuming, laying down, packing up some more, sweeping, laying down again. Notice a pattern? How have I gotten so lazy already to where I can't make it through an hour of work, haha?!

Well, I meant to share this with you upper grade teachers a while back. I edited my addition/subtraction flash-cards for the third grade teachers at my school because they needed multiplication flash cards! But, I forgot to share them with you at the time! So, here they are:

I will be adding a few more things to my TPT store in the next couple of days! Also, don't forget... I'm on facebook now!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T22:27:00.013-06:00

Font Winner Announced!

2011-12-24T11:40:00.000-06:00

Thank you to everyone who participated in my giveaway! It was so exciting to see all of your comments this week... made me giddy every time I opened up Blogger! I truly hope that y'all have an absolutely perfect Christmas weekend!

Also, head on over to her cute new blog and become a follower!!!

A little freebie for you :)

2011-12-24T00:16:00.002-06:00

Has anyone seen this pinned on Pinterest? It looked like a super cute idea, so I thought I had to use it somehow!

So, I made a little freebie for you! It's a printable winter syllable sort! I'll probably use it more in reading groups for those that need some reinforcement, but if you teach littles then you could easily use it with your whole class!

Click on the picture to download!

I have a couple of new ventures going on right now...

You can now follow me on facebook!

Another unit added and My Giveaway!

2011-12-22T19:13:00.001-06:00

I've just added my 2nd unit to TPT! It has tons of activities for nouns, verbs, and adjectives! Click on the picture to purchase for

Don't forget to enter my giveaway to see how you can when these cute fonts from DJ Inkers, click HERE!

My Giveaway and I've opened up shop :)

2011-12-21T14:00:00.002-06:00

First of all, if you haven't entered my giveaway... make sure you do that HERE! You might be the lucky winner of:

And last of all, I have decided to open up a TPT store! I've been working on uploading my freebies to my store, as well as my new regrouping unit that you can download

HERE for $5!

It has lots of great activities that you can do while teaching double digit addition with and without regrouping! It includes:

*Regrouping Poster

*Regrouping Pocket Book

*I Spy Activity

*Student worksheets

*Word Problems

*Writing Prompt

*Poems

*Ice Cream Activity that includes counting money and regrouping AS WELL as a craftivity

*Regrouping Visual (Plus Sign)

*Place Value Charts

*Helpful hints

That's the only thing I have for sale now, but I will be working on other units to add over the break! I will continue sharing freebies and pictures on my blog, so no worries! (I mean, I have to do something with all that cute DJ Inkers Clip Art I have, right?!)

A Very Merry Giveaway!

2011-12-21T01:21:00.002-06:00

It's almost Christmas, y'all! In the season of giving, I am hosting a fun giveaway! Anyone who has been reading my blog for all of 2.5 seconds can clearly see that I am a little obsessed with DJ Inkers. So, one lucky follower will receive a DJ Inkers Font CD! Fontastic 3: Bold and Beautiful is my fav font CD right now, so I wanted someone else to share in these more than cute fonts!

This giveaway is easy as pie...

Here's how to enter:

1. Become a follower and comment below OR comment below saying you already are a follower!

2. Visit DJ Inkers and check out all of their super cutesy stuff and comment below!

3. For a third chance to enter, mention my blog to a friend or on your own blog and comment below!

That's it! The giveaway will end on Saturday (Christmas Eve) at 10:00 am!

I will announce the winner shortly after, and will get in touch with you via email! Happy entering, my friends :)

Currently...

2011-12-18T21:37:00.000-06:00

It feels like FOREVER since I've participated in a linky party, so here I go! I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade....

Pretty sure I broke the rules because I listed 2 blogs (and I have not checked to see if I'm copying anyone yet, haha)... BUT, I absolutely love the Lindsey's blog: The Teacher Wife, and can hardly believe that this is only her 2nd year of teaching- she's totally on the ball whereas I felt like I was barely making it day to day at that point!

AND, The Small Things blog is my new addiction. I love that Kate posts pretty much everyday, and she has the absolute BEST hair tutorial videos. I've tried several of her videos, and I am in love with her style. Check her out if you haven't already! She's as cute as a button :)

Last minute Christmas activities

2011-12-17T11:44:00.001-06:00

If Pinterest were a person, I would owe her {it would definitely be a girl because of how organized and resourceful that website is ;)} a HUGE Texas hug and Christmas gift because, in all seriousness, I did not have to create from scratch a single activity this Christmas season! YAY!

We made these cute little Santas- I literally just looked at an example and cute tracers for the kids to use. Then, we stamped their hands 3 to 4 times! Super easy and soooo cute! This was probably the only activity that we did that wasn't tied into a learning standard, but you gotta have some fun, right?!

I have now been off of work for 24 hours- for which 12 of those hours I have been asleep, ha! Can't wait to enjoy Christmas fun with my family next week! Very Merry Christmas to you :)

Trying so hard...

2011-12-12T16:55:00.000-06:00

... not to count down the days! BUT, when you have only 3 1/2 days until a 2 week vacation, it's hard not to count down! My kiddos have been pretty well behaved for how close it is to the break (if you ignore the random back-bends my girls were doing during a lesson and the boys crawling under desks because "there was a piece of trash, I promise, Mrs. Lemons!" haha). In all reality, they have been doing wonderfully compared to years past! It could be because we've been super busy with little to no down-time!

We made these super cute snowman venn-diagrams that I found HERE. I just quickly made 3 circles for the kiddos to trace, and they made their own hats/arms. I'm even more excited that I can leave these up through January!

We have been busy studying contractions. We make these caterpillars every year, but since contractions fell during the Christmas season, we made Christmas caterpillars!

Hope you all survive this week!! Keep Calm and Jingle On :)

Quite a mixture of activities!

2011-12-05T21:23:00.001-06:00

First of all, my 2 classes want to say a HUGE Thank you to all of the sweet people who donated for our Donor's Choose project! We can't wait to get all of the new books in the spring!

Now, I have quite a few pictures of things we've been up to in the classroom...

Last week we worked on measurement and area. I found this neat cheezit project on Pinterest, and my kids LOVED it! They were seriously "I could hear a pin drop" quiet during this one. Will definitely do it again!

In partners, they made an Area flap book. I just gave them grid paper and they drew/cut out their shape, and wrote the area on the inside.

Isn't this one sweet :)

We also did some Christmas sentence starters like: "Christmas is special because," "My favorite Christmas tradition is," or "I like Christmas because." Each kid made 2 hand-prints and 2 sentence starters to make our wreath!

Last week, we were hard at work on our Santa letters. Our local newspaper publishes these every December, so we have to meet a deadline. Since I have to type them for the paper, I also email them to the parents... they are too precious!

I previously posted about making a pronoun Christmas tree and here is our final product! I didn't have the energy to back it with butcher paper and do a border! I'm getting a little lazy!!!

This week we are moving on to capacity and contractions! I found this great Gallon Man activity that actually combines both measuring and capacity. It was a little challenging for my kiddos, but in a good way. Plus, they worked in partners so that gave them extra support!

Only 8 1/2 days until Christmas break!!! Although, we have so much to do between now and then that I can't even thing about the break yet!

Project Funded!

2011-11-30T16:52:00.002-06:00

An Exciting Week so far!

2011-11-29T19:26:00.000-06:00

This week has been exciting so far! 2 of my kiddos have completed their 100 Book Challenge (idea from The Teacher Wife). I implemented this fun challenge instead of doing reading logs, and it has been WONDERFUL so far! The kids have never been so excited to start reading!

And, a few of my students have written their numbers to 1000 (These are just blank 100s charts- 4 to a page so that we didn't waste too much paper, cut out and glued onto butcher paper)!

We also made these reindeer that I posted about HERE. I actually incorporated them into a measurement lesson. We measured each part of the reindeer in inches! Turned out so cute!

I'm off to Zumba! Hope you are having a fabulous week so far :)

Make a Christmas Penguin

2011-11-26T15:00:00.000-06:00

Click {HERE} to download a Christmas penguin template!

A little Reindeer/Caribou Study

2011-11-25T23:40:00.001-06:00

It's getting late, so I'll make this as brief as possible!

Click {HERE} for the activities shown below!

Clip Art Courtesy of DJ Inkers

Here are some cute reindeer ornaments I found via pinterest that I LOVE:

Totally un-school related!

2011-11-24T20:51:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm echoing Cara... just not feeling in the mood to blog about school related items! I am totally not in teacher mode right now, but will quickly jump back on the boat in the next few days! Lucky me to have this whole week off with my husband! We have been busy decorating and getting ready for Thanksgiving. Since we don't host Thanksgiving at our house, we normally put all our Christmas decor up pretty early! Here are a few shots of my holiday home:

Kitchen Table:

Sofa Table... Joseph is missing his stick :(

Dining Room Table... Christmas Tree theme :)

This is a total work in progress... the thought was to have different names of Jesus in our entryway. So, the Mr. went to Lowes and had them cut wood into different sizes. I used paint, scrapbook paper, and paint pens to start my project. I still have A LOT of work to do on this... need to retouch and fix some of them completely. But, here's a start to that project

The mantle- we don't have children, but we do have 2 very spoiled pups!

Our new Christmas Tree that I am in LOVE with! We bought this at Hobby Lobby after the Christmas season last year on sale!!! SCORE!

The advent calendar that I made. On the backs there are verses to read each day of December:

Hope you are all enjoying your time with your family! I'll be back soon with some school stuff! Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Give me a BREAK!

2011-11-19T14:38:00.000-06:00

I am officially on Thanksgiving Break! Well, I technically was on break at 12:30 yesterday afternoon, but once I got home I crashed for a good 3 1/2 hours before heading to a high school football game!

Before leaving for break, I decided to prepare for Christmas. I found a super cute decorated door on Pinterest that I had to recreate! I still need to add "Reindeer Stable" to the top and maybe some kid-made stuff!

Two of our super sweet classroom aides made me this fabulous fireplace. I plan on hanging stockings, wreaths and other goodies around this lovely piece!

On a side note... I have one activity that I will share. This lesson was thought of in all of 2.5 seconds before I actually taught it, haha!

The students listened to "Harry the Dirty Dog" from www.storylineonline.net (Gotta love listening to Betty White read a story!)

Then, I had them think like a dog for a good 60 minutes. I asked them to think of Thanksgiving from a dog's perspective or point of view. To get them on that thought train, they made cute dog masks that I found online.

Here are a couple of examples of a chart they made with their partner: They thought of things that a dog would be thankful for, and things that a dog wouldn't be so thankful for. Some of their ideas were priceless! I only had to redirect a few times when they started thinking like a child!

That's it for me! I am getting ready to do some decorating for Christmas at my house! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Picking Apart Pronouns

2011-11-14T19:54:00.001-06:00

Seriously, call me an over-achiever because I am blogging for the 2nd time in 1 day AGAIN! But, for realz... I'm stuck in the bedroom while the Mr. is having a bible study with high school boys (completely different than having a house full of my girlies!). So, I whipped up some chicken spaghetti and rolls, then headed to the bedroom to lock myself away from those guys, ha! Lucky for me, it's actually given me some time to put together pronoun activities that I will use right after Thanksgiving Break! Hope you enjoy the products from my lockdown ;)

Click {HERE} for the downloads!
Clip Art Courtesy of DJ Inkers

I left this one without directions for a reason- it could be a listening activity where you call out a pronoun and they color it a certain color, they could only color the pronouns, mark out the other words, color pronouns a certain color and the other words a different color.... options are endless :)

It's a Hand-print Turkey kind of day!

2011-11-14T16:02:00.000-06:00

When writing my lesson plans for this week, I didn't quite realize that I had 2 projects that involved handprints and turkeys in 1 day! Nevertheless, I went with it, and we traced our hands quite a few times today, ha!

We made a "Thankful Turkey" out of a paper bag, handprints, and googly eyes!

And, we used our handprint turkeys to count by 5s, and we did TONS of estimation while we were counting and looking at the numbers! Between my 2 classes, we were able to count all the way to 370!

Here's where I found the original idea!

That's it for me! Only 3 1/2 more days until Thanksgiving Break! Yahoo!

Santa Letter FREEBIES

2011-11-12T13:37:00.001-06:00

After my post this morning, I started to feel a little guilty about not being "here" on my blog more! So, my guilt has driven me to make a few freebies! The week after Thanksgiving Break, my kiddos will start writing their letters to Santa which will be displayed in our school along with written in the local newspaper. So, I made a variety of Santa letter printables along with some pre-writing activities

Click {HERE} for prewriting activities

Clip Art Courtesy of DJ Inkers

Click {HERE} for Santa letter templates

Hard to believe...

2011-11-12T09:41:00.000-06:00

It's hard to believe that just a few months ago during the summer I was able to blog multiple times a week, and even multiple times a day! Geez- I'm lucky to post on this poor ol' blog once a week now. Plus, this time of year is just crazy in and of itself! I'd say, "I promise to do better," but I don't want to make empty promises lol!

This week, we read, "The Josefina Story Quilt," and thought A LOT about how our life is different now than it was back then. Here are a few activities we completed throughout out week:

We made our own patchwork "paper" quilt using the sentence stem, "In our wagon we would bring..." (because my students work in partners, they use "we" instead of "I")

My plan was to make a Venn Diagram using paper plates like I have seen on pinterest, but had no paper plates around :(

So, we just improvised and used construction paper instead!

In groups, the students drew scenes from the 1800s and 2011. Apparently our cars have springs underneath to make them bouncy hahaha!

That's pretty much it from me! I think I'll crawl back into bed and get a few more hours of sleep now! Only 1 more week until Thanksgiving Break! YAY!

2 Digit Subtraction Without Regrouping FREEBIES

2011-11-03T19:19:00.000-05:00

Just here to share some activities I made for 2-Digit Subtraction WITHOUT regrouping! My kiddos were pros this week with addition, so I hope next week we have the same success (especially since regrouping is right around the corner!)

Click {HERE} for an "I Spy" activity

Click {HERE} for addition/subtraction sort in COLOR (for centers)

Click {HERE} for addition/subtraction sort in BLACK AND WHITE (for independent work)

Click {HERE} for Match it! in COLOR (centers)

Click {HERE} for Match it! in BLACK AND WHITE (independent work)

All fonts and clipart were purchased at www.djinkers.com! I recently just purchased/downloaded 2 new clipart packs:

November Doodlers Clip Art Download

and

Whimzee November Digital Download

It's gettin' chilly here in Texas, so I'm off to warm up at Zumba. Then, I fully intend on coming home to curl up in my warm and comfy bed/pjs!

TGI almost F!!!

Biographies and Interviews

2011-11-02T22:31:00.001-05:00

We've been bustin' out the biographies in my class this week! Honestly, this is the first year that I've ever had a "focus" on reading and writing biographies. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've always read biographies about great American leaders, and historical figures, but never really dove into them full swing.

Anyways, here are a few things we've done in class.

I grouped my kiddos and set up interviews with different staff members at our school. As a class, we brainstormed questions that we were interested in (I led the convo and redirected as necessary, haha!). My class brainstormed about 5 questions that they would ask the teacher I paired them with. After they conducted their interview, I had my students turn their interview into a biography. This was a great introduction to pronouns and writing about other people besides themselves. Once I edited their sentences, we put our work into a cute little presentation:

(Under each flap are their sentences)

Can I just say that my littles absolutely LOVED this project?! They were so excited to go on their interview, and to share their projects with the class! It ended up being a pretty meaningful project!

You can download some useful docs for this project HERE! (We just used our journals, but I figured these could be useful for someone else!)

Clip Art courtesy of DJ Inkers

We are also working on main idea and details while reading biographies. I read a biography on Walt Disney, and the kiddos made a cute Mickey Mouse to organize the main idea and 2 details.

I'm not going to lie... we still have a ways to go before we master the concept of main idea and details, BUT we made a little progress, haha!

I plan on reading a couple more biographies to the class- I'm thinking Michael Jordan and the kids make his jersey. Do you have any great biography activities?! Let me know :)

Randomly random!

2011-10-29T11:56:00.001-05:00

This time of year is CA-RA-ZY!!!! In the past 2 weeks I have had: fall conferences, fall retreat with the student ministry at church, our school Fall Festival (which was a total success!), red ribbon week, student intervention meetings, and so much more. I'm sure you all are feeling the same amount of stress as I am!

So, needless to say, I don't have a wonderfully brilliant blog post for you today. In fact, it is going to be the random of all random blog posts, ha! I just have a few documents that I have made that I want to share with you all.

We spent the week reading nonfiction and fiction books about bats. Here is an assessment/writing prompt that I made:

In Math, we focused on Fact Families. I made this template for the kids to make fact family cars, but completely forgot to use it!

Next week we will start 2 digit addition without regrouping. I have a few hands-on activities and visuals for the kids in mind, but haven't produced anything fun yet. But, I made a couple of printables:

I hope to come back next week with a better blog post! I do want to leave you with a few pictures from our student ministry fall retreat weekend! Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween weekend (I'm totally NOT looking forward to Tuesday at school... is anyone else with me on that one?)

A little 80s night action...

I told the Mr. that we would NOT have dated if he looked like that in the 80s, haha!

My sweet friend, Sarah!

These kids mean the world to me!!

Spider Pics and Freebies :)

2011-10-24T16:57:00.001-05:00

Last week, my class finished up our study of spiders. Here's our finished products:

You can download some Spider freebies {HERE}

Clip Art courtesy of DJ Inkers

Then, we made these fun spider hats:

This week, we are moving on to bats and owls. We started the week by making a bat from our handprints. We made it into a KWL (I'm always trying to make cute things, but with a purpose!)

Eeeekkk.... Spiders!

2011-10-18T17:04:00.000-05:00

This week we has been fast and furious as we have been studying spiders. We started our spider unit by reviewing adjectives and verbs by using this chart and poem activity inspired by Cara! After making our chart, the kiddos made a sandwich poem with 3 verbs and 3 adjectives. We made spiders out of our handprints.

Before reading, "Spiders Up Close", we began our KWL chart. As I was making the class chart, my students were recording the chart in their Reading spirals.

Today, we compared Arachnids to Insects.

First, we watched a Brain Pop video about Spiders.

I have to be honest... the kids came up with a lot of questions that I was googling as they were giving us ideas haha! They actually knew a lot of information!

We also read the book, "The Diary of a Spider," by Doreen Cronin, which the kids LOVED. Seriously, they were cracking up the whole stinkin time... too dang cute! It was great because we realized that we have already learned so much about spiders. I stopped reading right before they told where the Grandpa had "flew" off to. I gave my students index cards and asked them to make a prediction about where Grandpa landed. Here are a few of their ideas:

(In a room full of vacuums, Texas, and a house in Africa)

After making predictions, we finished reading the story!

The rest of the week will be devoted to researching different types of spiders. The kiddos will break into groups and gather information about their spider. I'll post pics of that project later!

Adjectives, continued!

2011-10-13T17:56:00.000-05:00

This will be a quick post! We finished 2 more adjective projects, and here are some pics of them:

Frankenstein- students created from scratch, then wrote sentences with adjectives.

Witch skirts- I had planned for the kiddos to write short stories about their witch, BUT we ran short of time, so we just brainstormed the adjectives. Plus, as we were charting and picking adjectives out of sentences, I was noticing that several students still think nouns are adjectives. So, I kept it basic. We will continue to do adjective activities for a few weeks, but probably not as many projects like these!

Also, here is an adjective assessment that you can download!

Click {HERE}

TGI almost F!

Adjective Activities

2011-10-11T17:20:00.001-05:00

Oh my goodness... this week has been busy, busy AND it's only Tuesday! We have been hard at work on learning/using adjectives. So, I wanted to show you some of the activities we have done, and others that I have planned for the remainder of the week

We read a book called, "If I were an Adjective" and made an anchor chart that we will refer to all week!

Yesterday, I put 4 items in the classroom (1 on each table) and had the kiddos use adjectives to describe each item. I just chose things I had from around the room- skittles, a crazy hat, beach ball, and a souvenir from one of my vacations. As they observed each item, they wrote adjectives in their reading spiral. {Don't have any pictures of this activity... sorry!}

Today, we used adjectives to describe ourselves! First, I had the students use their white boards to brainstorm 7 adjectives. This allowed me to quickly fix their spelling as well as correct any words that weren't actually adjectives. Then, they made this project (copied their adjectives onto small pieces of white paper, drew/cut themselves out, and wrote their name at the top):

Tomorrow, we will use these sentences to sort regular adjectives, comparative adjectives, and proper adjectives. I am going to give each student a sentence, they will read it to the class, and we will put the adjectives into the correct column.

Click {HERE} to download the sentences (there are more in the document than what I have posted here)

Clip Art courtesy of DJ Inkers

And, we will use this simple chart to sort:

Here are some things I found from pinterest that we are going to make and describe! I'll try and remember to take pics to post later this week!

My plan is to just give students scraps of green, black, white, and red construction paper and allow them to create their own Frankenstein. After, they will write sentences about their Frankenstein that include adjectives. Are these not the cutest things ever?

We will do the similar thing with these witch legs... I'm thinking we will write a short story about our witches :)

Last, but not least... we will make these scarecrow bags. The kiddos will write adjectives on index cards, and put them inside of their scarecrow bag!

That's all I have for now... I have to get busy making dinner for company! Hope everyone is having a great week so far!

I heard your cries :)

2011-10-06T16:02:00.001-05:00

I received several comments and emails after I posted my subtraction strategy posters from teachers who wanted something similar for addition strategies, so.....

{HERE} are some Addition Strategy Printables for your viewing pleasure :)

Clip Art courtesy of DJ Inkers

Subtraction Strategies

2011-10-04T18:10:00.002-05:00

Here are some subtraction strategy posters that I made, hope you enjoy!

Click {HERE} to download!

Clip Art courtesy of DJ Inkers

Finishing up Cinderella and some flash cards!

2011-10-01T15:57:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share a few things we did to finish up our Cinderella unit....

First of all, you have to visit this great website to check out an online version of Cinderella. It also has some great activities to review story elements. Check it out!

After reading several versions of "Cinderella," I gave my kiddos this challenge: Invent/Create a shoe that won't fall off of Cinderella's foot. Those are the only instructions that I gave them along with a blank piece of paper.

Here's our final product (excuse the blurry picture)

One of the groups even made a 3D version! It has a cute little heel, but you can't see it in the picture!

On a little side note:

* My flash drive did go ker-plunk (thank you to everyone who left me sweet comments and suggestions on how to fix it!), so if have emailed me about sending you a doc... chances are, I don't have it! Well, let me rephrase that- I have it, but I'll have to get it from my blog and google docs, so I won't be able to edit it! Thankfully, my blog has most of my stuff that wasn't backed-up, so I'm not in too serious of trouble!

*My district is trying to cut some serious money, and we have been encouraged not to use much paper, SO I haven't been making as many documents because I can't print them off at school, haha! Most of the things we have been doing in class are in our spirals or on paper we have around the classroom. It has definitely made me think more thrifty and be a little more inventive! No worries though... I'll continue to post pics of things we do, as well as share any ideas I come up with!

I want to leave you with some addition and subtraction flash cards that I made for a sweet follower, hope you enjoy!

Click on the pictures to download the entire document:

A broken flash drive, Cinderella, and pumpkins!

2011-09-27T17:22:00.000-05:00

Seriously, STOP THE WORLD. My USB flash drive has stopped working, and I am freaking out! Last night, when the Mr. was trying to fix it, he said, "This doesn't look good." And, sure enough, it's not good! I can't get it to connect to any computer :(. The worst thing is.... my whole life is on that stinkin' thing (clip art, my files, files I've saved from blogstalking, lesson plans, activities, oh and... EVERYTHING!) The Mr. proceeded to say, "You've backed everything up though, right?"

UMMMM... how about NO! I mean, I backed all my stuff up at the very end of last year, but anything made or saved since then is gone.

I may be being a little dramatic, but I am seriously stressed. Hopefully, I can find a techy to rescue me!

Anyways, I wanted to share a few things we've done this week in Language Arts. We are comparing/contrasting different Cinderella stories all week.

Yesterday, we read the traditional Cinderella. My kiddos made watches to show how Cinderella changed throughout the story. It's really hard to see in the picture, but on the left part of the watch band, they wrote about Cinderella in the beginning of the story. On the right, they wrote how Cinderella changed at the end of the story. In the middle (face of the watch) they drew/colored a picture from the story.

Download watch pattern {HERE}

Today, we read "Cindy Ellen," a western version of Cinderella. After reading the story and discussing the differences/similarities between the two stories, I introduced letter writing to my kiddos (very briefly). Then, they wrote a letter to the stepsisters. Some of them turned out really cute, while others just wrote "Don't be mean" in 10 different ways, ha!

We copied our final drafts onto boot shaped paper to display in the hallways! These 2 letters cracked me up!

Also, I can't wait to show my kiddos these pictures! We (my hubby, some friends, and myself) went to the Dallas Arboretum, and they had a HUGE pumpkin display in the theme of Cinderella. We had so much fun with all of the pumpkins....

Cinderella Pumpkins

Cinderella village...

Her carriage {originally made from a pumpkin, of course ;)}

Her glass slipper...

I probably wasn't supposed to take it off the chair, but I couldn't resist, ha!

One of the pumpkin cottages

These aren't really Cinderella, but I do love the pumpkins....

If you live in the Dallas area, you have to check it out! I love fall at the Arboretum... they also have a really great old town Texas display that is wonderful!

Even and Odd Street Complete! Plus, my school bag :)

2011-09-21T16:41:00.000-05:00

Short and sweet....

We made our Even and Odd Street today, and the kids LOVED it! Thanks to "The Teacher Wife" for sharing her templates, they were super easy to make!

(The zebra bulletin board was already up, so I just went with it, ha!) And, I didn't feel like making rays for the sun... I got a little lazy ;)

In other news, I'm linking up with "The Inspired Apple" to share my school bag with you!

Meet my brand-new teacher bag... I literally bought her last week on clearance! I LOVE Vera Bradley bags :)

Since she is brand-new, I don't have a ton of stuff weighing her down. yet ;) However, I can't live without my water bottle, mascara (I'm a little addicted), chapstick, and ponytail holder!

Of course, I gotta carry my school laptop back and forth everyday, AND my phone! Oh, oh, oh... the Adele CD is in tow also!

And, I love my cute little lunch-bag from 31!

I normally have my binder that includes my calendar, student information, to-do lists, and more, BUT it's Wednesday which means I will be at church all night instead of working from the house!

My goal is to keep Mrs. Vera nice and clean... let's see if I can conquer that challenge :) Link up and let's see what's in your bag!!

A little of this, and a little of that :)

2011-09-20T19:12:00.002-05:00

Ohmiword y'all, I am exhausted already, and it's only Tuesday?!!

This week we have been comparing traditional and contemporary folk/fairy tales. On Monday, we read the traditional story, The Ugly Duckling. After reading it, my kiddos completed a problem/solution graphic organizer. I just made some puzzle piece tracers for them to use. Most of puzzles didn't fit back together so well haha

This cracks me right up! "Oh, by the way, He was a SWAN THE WHOLE STINKIN TIME!" That's seriously cute haha!

The next day (which would be today), we read this contemporary version of "The Ugly Duckling." It is a CUTE story, written from the perspective/language of a moose.

After reading both stories, we made a venn diagram to compare/contrast

We will continue working on other fairy tales for the rest of this week and next!

In Math, we've been working with number lines, number patterns, and number order. Usually, I have the kids make a number line using copies that I have run off. But, let me tell you what... we are trying to save paper in any way that we can! With all these budget cuts, I have been making close to NO copies each week. But, hey, I'd rather save paper than a teacher lose their job!

So, I gave each set of partners a sentence strip, and they made a number line for numbers 1-30. Then, we marked even/odds and skip counting patterns. I laminated them so that we can play the "Guess My Number" game as shown below.

We've been playing this fun game all week, "Guess My Number." I think of a number in my head, and the kiddos ask me questions. I mark off numbers as they ask questions (it's laminated so I can just use an Expo!). The kids LOVE this game! I pretty much made their day when I put it in the math station so they could play with a partner {It's the small things, right!}

Here is a number line activity that we are doing tomorrow (adapted from an "I Spy" time game at What the Teacher Wants). I'm going to place these number line cards around the room, and they are going to visit each card to find out the missing number. As they view the cards, they will record the missing numbers. I tried to be tricky by using numbers lines that have skip counting patterns.

Download Template and Recording Sheet

Here's to looking ahead to next week's plans... we are introducing adding coins. Since, it's so early in the year, we are going to start with the basics. We will be revisiting coins in a few 6 weeks, so I'm not too worried about mastering it right away.

I bought Cara Carroll's "The Great Coin Collection" unit, and pretty much made my plans around that! I made my bubble maps to use throughout the week (I see 2 classes a day, so I laminated mine- I plan to use a dry erase marker so I don't have to make double the charts! Just a quick erase and we can start fresh!) There are so many great and easy-to-prepare money games in her unit. You should definitely check it out!

That's it for me! I'm off to Zumba (which is quite a sight to see... I'm probably the most uncoordinated person in the world!)

Telling Time to the Minute

2011-09-18T22:09:00.001-05:00

Well, friends, it's that time again... time to start a new week! One of my sweet followers asked if I could whip up some "Time to the Minute" posters/activities. Here's what I came up with!

Click {HERE} to download! (when you go into google docs, the posters might look funny, but if you click on: file, download original... they should be fine!)

Clip Art courtesy of DJ Inkers

I'm not overly-joyed with the way this turned out, but I tried to fit 1-60 around the clock

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! My class will be learning about number lines, even and odd numbers, and comparing/contrasting traditional and modern fairy tales! I hope to share some of those activities soon!