Anchor Charts!

So, I wasn't able to accomplish too much this week to brag about in pictures since I wasn't here :( However, I was able to use my workday to create some much needed anchor charts (including finishing one my sub didn't seem to quite complete on homophones!). I thought I'd share:

Fractions: I wanted my students to remember the reason why we have a numerator and denominator, as well as a fraction being equal parts. I was worried it would look too boring, but a few "dashed" boxes, and I thought it turned out pretty cute!


Plants: We're beginning Life Cycles this week, but have already discussed plants and animals with plant products and seasonal changes, so this will be a quick review of plant parts (notice the smaller life cycle on the side?). I'm not much of an artist (as you can tell by the flower's lower petals), but it wasn't too bad.

Homophones: Not earth-shatteringly spectacular, but it'll help those of my kiddos who are still earning their badge for the Grammar Police, Homophone Division!

I just realized I should have done one for Fossils! While not a huge part of our habitat unit, the students have to know that due to the study of fossils, scientists can learn more about plants and animals and early habitats. We're making fossils on Monday with shells and clay (postponed from this past week), so hmmm, maybe that'll be my next one. If it turns out cute, I'll be sure to post it! :)

Back in the Saddle Again!

So, after 5 days (3 school days) of being down and out with pneumonia, I managed to go back today. I wasn't quite 100%, but I was able to manage the day AND I have to be honest - the determination to NOT write sub plans was VERY strong! I swear, we are the only profession to drag ourselves into work SICK because of sub plans! If yours are anything like mine, I try to make them fun and engaging, without a lot of background knowledge needed on the part of the sub (because you never know who you're going to get!). I was unfortunate to have 3 different subs for 3 different days. :(

Fortunately.......

I work with an awesome SPED assistant! She and I were texting throughout the week about what was going on in the classroom, so I was able to stay on top of things, including with some of my more difficult students. Since I had to go in every afternoon (after 3) and pick up my own kids from school, I'd spend time in my room doing sub plans (how do these take two hours???) and write a few "love notes" to some of my students who were doing great, and others who needed some encouragement. I also left a class love note on the board as well. It seemed to have worked, since for the most part, they did well!

I have to admit.....I loved coming back today and feeling so special, seeing those smiles on my kids faces (not to mention the hugs!) as they welcomed me! Let me tell you - I think it's one of the best parts of being a teacher! I even had one of the resource teachers tell me, laughing, about what she had overheard some of my students talking about. They basically said that I had come back, even though they knew I wasn't completely well, because I missed them sooo much that I had to spend at least one day with them before the long weekend! (Teacher workday on Friday). Very cute! It's a little disheartening to think that I have a little over two months left to spend with them!

So, as a thank you to my kiddos for being good, I read them the Homophone Mystery story, they paired up, and went to hunt for clues. I kind of fudged my own directions, though. I was the "clue holder" and they had to come to me to show me the corrected homophones on their detective sheet, then exchange for another clue. They didn't really care, though, because they were having a BLAST! Even my most reluctant were engaged, and kids were SO EXCITED ABOUT HOMOPHONES!!!!! Bet you don't hear that everyday! :)

We also played Fraction Scoot. We've played Scoot before, and my kids really liked the game. Wanting to see where they were on identifying fractions, we played a fractions version. It was great because the kids were excited and active, and I had an instant check of who was getting it, and who wasn't!

I uploaded my "Basic Fraction Scoot" to TpT today if you'd like to try it out! I originally priced it at $2.00, but it's on sale for $1.00. I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out! Because the class we adopted in Kentucky has 27 students (!), I made it for up to 30 students, but there's also a Scoot version for 20 students as well, all in the same package. Please go check it out if you are doing fractions. :)

Next week, we'll be playing "catch up" and then a field trip to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton on Friday! After Friday......SPRING BREAK! :)

Blogger Help!

Okay, so I have come to the point where I am just shouting out "help" to my readers! :) I have a few questions about Blogger that Google Help just, well, isn't that helpful! (Don't get me started about "Open ID" which tells me is compatible with Blogger!).

1. I would LOVE to have my signature like others, where my name and Blog name are linked back to my blog, instead of typing in the address. How do you do that?

2. A blog button. I created one. It's to the side. Over there. I found some great tutorials on how to make a blog button, but I can't seem to get the code part, since on most of the sites I've been to, it mentions Blogger is "different." How do you get the code so that others can put it on their blog?

3. Okay, there really isn't a three, but I just sent out a cry for help....so it seems I should have more than two questions. I'm sure I do....but I just can't think of it right now! :P

Anyway, any advice would be greatly appreciated! Either in the comments, or by emailing me! I'm excited that the "winners" in my previous post really like their items! I'm anxious to get back to school (been out 3 days already!!!) and try the Homophone story with my kids, as well as the Fraction Scoot I've made (but my Internet connection won't let me upload to TpT for some reason...have to wait until I get to school I guess). They've been really good, but of course, it helps that my assistant who is in my room for 2 hours in the morning and 30 min in the afternoon texts me about how they're doing...heh heh...modern technology!

I wish I could say that the time at home has been really productive, but no....it's taken all of my energy to do sub plans and make them interesting (not to mention time filling) for the kids! This week's focus was supposed to be homophones, fractions, and finishing habitats (with a side of fossils). Not really one I wanted to miss! Friday is a teacher workday, so tomorrow I am trying to make it as action packed as possible! Fraction Scoot, Homophone Detection, and making fossils....might need that Friday to rest up! :)

Hope you have a great rest of the week and if you can help me out with the two questions above, that would be super! :)

Down but not Completely Out

Ugh, so I am home with a case of pneumonia. I usually plunge on when I'm sick, like most teachers and moms, but this has really run me over! :(

So, after a morning of realizing that I am not missing anything on TV while I'm at school, I resorted to blog world and showing off some things I created this weekend in between bouts of coughing, sleeping, and body aches.

One is for rounding, while the other is part of a new series I'm creating called "Grammar Adventures," where you get a mini book to read to your class, then they have to do a hunt for clues to solve the "mystery." (They even get a badge at the end! I plan on using it this week with my class, if I can ever get there!). You can find them at my TpT store, but for the first 3 comments below, I will send one or both to you for FREE! :) My only request is to comment on them on my TpT store after you've had a chance to use them!

The day is young, though. I'll be at school at 3 to pick up my personal kiddos, but maybe I'll create some things in the meantime. Still need a few more homophone, abbreviation, and fraction activities, not to mention life cycles and maps! Why is it our mind always goes so much faster than reality???

"I Can Own Anything I Want!"

Okay, with a little help from Annie Scrambler on "The Electric Company," it was one of the ways I introduced possessive nouns to my students!



I will have to say, over the years, this hasn't been my favorite topic to teach during grammar, but it's a definite necessity.

This year, I introduced it to students as being a way to show that something belongs to them. We started with reading "The Greedy Apostrophe" (if you have not read this book, you HAVE to get it! It's hysterical!)

It talks about how the apostrophe enjoys making plural nouns instead of possessives....something we all know the kids definitely get confused! I even made a cute center focused on the book that's available free at my TpT store here.

So, I stayed on the egocentric topic of my students showing what THEY own! We made an anchor chart where students, with adding an apostrophe and a "s", could own anything they want! Boy, did they want a lot of things! Money, banks, football stadiums, unicorns, etc.

We then continued the week with the "egocentric" theme by folding a paper into fourths and drawing/writing other things we wanted.


Finally, students were able to demonstrate their understanding by using macaroni as "3D apostrophes". To make sure they understood it was to show that any noun owned something, we did a quick check with some old worksheets I had that I turned into posters (LOVE our poster maker!). THEY GOT IT! Yep, I did a happy dance. THEY EVEN GOT THE PLURAL POSSESSIVE FORM!!!!!! That's not even one of our standards, but I pushed it in there anyway, just to see! :)

So, I'm feeling pretty accomplished with this! We take an assessment next week on using apostrophes with possession and contractions....here's hoping it sticks with them! Oh, I also threw in a little Moby and Brain Pop Jr. in with it as well....I swear, I feel like I can hit almost every topic between Brain Pop Jr. and The Electric Company!!!!

Hope this helps anyone out there struggling with this concept....and yes, I had the "duh" moment (hand slapping the forehead) asking myself why I hadn't tried this approach before! :)

What's That? A Habitat!

I am super excited to upload my first BIG unit to my Teachers Pay Teachers store! We are working on habitats, and this is the culmination of last year and this year's work! Included are two powerpoints, photographs (copyright friendly!), a center, two projects: one for in-school, the other can either be home or also in-school (with oral presentation and rubric), activity cards, and a list of websites that I have found to be most useful (and fun!) when teaching this unit! I wanted to add more but it made even the zipped file too big (and I wasn't sure if I could "sell" videos that I've downloaded, even if they are copyright friendly).

These resources can be utilized in any way you'd like....and it makes it easy to differentiate between kiddos as well as grades, so I listed it from first through sixth! I hope it does well. I put a lot of time and work "polishing it up" so I could put a price tag on it. I have so far sold 8 items on TpT and made a whopping $3.00 after commission, but hey, figure that's $3 more than I had! ;) It would be nice to have the extra $ to help repair the house since we're still not quite fixed from the earthquake :( We ALMOST had floor back in our dining room (besides sub floor) but wouldn't you know...the door we had to special order (due to odd size in our house) was ordered WRONG....so back to the waiting game. Boo hiss! :(

Anyway, enough about our corner of our house that reminds me of "Hoarders" (LOL), here is a "sneak preview".....

"This Is How We Do It!" (with Reading)

Okay, now that song is stuck in my head....LOL....

The school I teach at has only been open for 2 years. Previously, most of us taught at one of the other 3 elementary schools in the county, so it was interesting to “come together” with the different (yet similar) ways we did things. This included reading.

At my former school, we had an hour and a half block for reading. An hour of that time, you had an assistant in your room to help you. We split our kids into 3 groups (4 was hard to do, but if you had to, you did). Each group had 30 minutes with you and then, depending on skill level, time with the assistant, then independent time. This sounds great, right? Well, it was….until you had the lower levels and independent time became something more frustrational than successful!

When I was first told how we were going to do reading at my new school, I was very skeptical. First, they told me, I would not have an assistant in my room. At all. Then, I was told, you will only have one group in your room at a time. Hmm. Okay. Definitely see the benefits of that. It was so you could focus on your group, and not have that half an eye on the rest of the classroom for behavior issues.

How do you make this work? Well, first, we are a Title I school. Second, instead of assistants in our room, they now work in a Reading Lab. There are five assistants in the reading lab, and each one takes a group to work with on different strategies.

Hence, you have a rotation where students are out of your room, getting a full hour and a half of reading between your reading group, Title I and reading lab. This is WONDERFUL for the below-level crowd, and even the on-level groups. What then do we do with the above level? Well, they have “independent time” in the room where they can work on different strategies, have literacy center time, or work on reading responses, word study, etc. Last year, I had a LOT of these above level kids, and so the concept didn’t quite work for me with one reading group in the room and no one else. However, the kids I had were pretty motivated and I was able to incorporate Literature Circles for the bunch (at one time, there were 31 of them packed in our room!). It was something I had done successfully while teaching fourth grade and, after a lot of prep work (there is not a lot out there for 2nd grade above level readers for literature circles without it being too “old”), we made it work and the kids LOVED it.

This year, I have the majority of the lower level kids. (Funny how that works out!). So, I do have the ideal situation where my lowest kids get an hour of Title I and 30 minutes with me. My on level kids to slightly below get 30 minutes of Title I, 30 minutes of Reading Lab, and 30 minutes with me.

I think back to how my “old school” did it and immediately start to realize how successful this “new” program really is! Instead of students getting 30 minutes with me, possibly 15-30 minutes with an assistant for an activity, then 30 minutes of independent time (and few Primer readers are very independent!), these students get an entire STRUCTURED BLOCK of PURE READING!

How successful is it? Our students from last year (now in third grade)….there are NONE below grade level with the exception of a few students who have IEPs. They were even able to maintain through the summer (a BIG accomplishment!). Already this year, we’ve seen results where we started with 19% below grade level at the beginning of the school year, and that has already been reduced to 9%!

So, it works! Some of our other elementary schools also participate in this type of program and others are beginning it as well. I think it’s fabulous and well worth the time it takes to “regroup” the students, as necessary, each 4-5 weeks. We use the state PALS assessments and IRIs to assess students for regrouping. Yes, you may “lose” some of your students to other teachers, as well as “gain” students from other classes, but it helps to have a group that is basically at the same level.

So, in a long winding way (sorry, it was hard to summarize!), that is how we do reading groups at our school! If you have any other questions, please comment or email me! Also, if you’d like to see the literature circle jobs/papers I did, they’re available on my TpT store!

Once again, sorry it’s taken me so long to blog about it! Yikes! I’m typing this on Word right now since my internet was acting a little wonky, and I realize I’m on page 2! Thanks for sticking with it! :)

A Bit O' Luck of the Irish!

We had a great time on Friday! Students participated in holiday-themed math centers, and we had a scavenger hunt that ended with a "pot of gold" (butterscotch discs, Rolos, and cute little temporary tattoos!).

This is my fourth set of holiday-math centers that I have created/found. You'd think by now I'd get it right but.... My thought this time, after there was a little dischord among some of my groups on Dr. Seuss Day, was to make enough centers so that we'd have groups of two.

The good news: everyone got along, there was no whining, students were more focused, and everyone seemed to be participating! The bad news? We started our math centers at 9:45 and ended at 11:05!!!! Granted, it was math-based with two literacy themes in there, but we kind of, um, missed our Science test and scavenger hunt time. However, over the years, I have learned that flexibility is the key to good teaching, so no worries! We did our scavenger hunt after lunch, then when my collab. teacher showed up at 12, she took her group out to test while I assessed the rest of the crew, and by 12:30, we were watching our weekly Electric Company episode! (That is a SACRED rite my students do NOT miss! The one time we did, they were in TEARS!). Normally, I follow up EC episodes with phonics centers based on the topics of the episode, but threw those out due to our lengthy morning centers! (I think the kids forgave me).

We switch for reading, so that starts at 1, recess at 2:30, and before they left at 3, the kids told me it was the best day ever! :) So, mission accomplished and thank goodness over the years, I have learned to relax! (I laugh at myself when I think over my first couple years when I used to get so upset about a disruption in routine, like a weather delay or an assembly!).

Anyway, here are pics of center time. I would add pics of my leprechaun problems/clues, but after a long day of taking the kids to Busch Gardens (Season Passholder Preview Day! Gotta love it!) and fighting with pics on Blogger, and then docs on Google...whew. Please check them out as freebies on TpT. If you'd like for them to "manipulate" and make your own (using the same format or some of the same questions), please email me or comment below with your email and I will be more than happy to share them with you (I used Word and Publisher).

This hunt was such a cute activity! One of my teammates has done this before and shared it with us (she is new to our team this year). I was worried at first, because it's a one by one process, but even my VERY excited students managed to control themselves, and let each person have their turn!

Math Centers:
Estimation Station and Glyph: part of my St. Patrick's Day Literacy & Math Packet on TpT



3-digit matching/place value (also available on my TpT as a free download)

Centers that I found on other blogs and websites (thanks to all those that post freebies--they really do help!)



Leprechaun Scavenger Hunt:
*Ours was math-based since we are assessing this unit next week. We created questions based on comparing numbers, place value (to 999), rounding, and money. Students had to solve the problem before reading the clue to find the next envelope!
*I made mine into a more "Amazing Race" type game. When we came in the room, I asked my students if anyone put an envelope marked "Clues" on my desk. Of course, no one had, and then I "noticed" an envelope with one of my student's name on it. This, of course, caught EVERYONE'S attention (and this was sooo funny, because I had hidden the envelopes that morning BEFORE the math centers, and students did not see them at all until we started this after lunch!!!).
*So my student opened it, and read the math problem. Immediately my kids suspected a leprechaun (remember - he has been playing tricks since last week!) and one child even piped up that it must be a teacher leprechaun since he was trying to confuse them with math problems!
*She rounded her number and I gave her one of the clues (felt just like those people on Amazing Race, rewarding the contestants after doing one of challenges!). The kids were on the edge of their seat, but I was sooo proud of the fact that they let each classmate find things on their own. You should have heard them announce the name on the envelope! It became a bit of a "game show" atmosphere in my room!

So finally, the last clue was about finding a "pot" and looking in a "bag with a duck." (I usually have several bags around the room with things in them, usually center-related, so it wasn't hard to find). My last student found it, looked in there, and then was super happy! She showed it to the class, who then cheered LOUDLY! They enjoyed their spoils and I had a fun time doling it out the rest of the day to students who "earned" an extra piece (and what a great way to help control any excess excitement/sugar! Yep, not too proud to admit I resort to bribery on holidays!).

On a final note, one of the second grade rooms got hit hard by one of the naughty leprechauns! We found this out during our reading groups. My students then stated that if they had written warnings like we did (see previous post), maybe they wouldn't have had that problem! Too cute! :)

I really need to post about how we do reading groups at our school. I had a request earlier and had sat down at one time to write about it, but my apologies as it got lost in the shuffle! I'm going to work on it and post it tomorrow! Promise!

"Scooting" Towards a Season of Green?

I have several things to share with you this post, so settle in a comfy chair and relax :) I'd say with a glass of wine, but my pick is actually Diet Dr. Thunder (yep, the Walmart version!).

So, we are experiencing 80 degree days here in central VA and, since we've kept track of the weather since good ol' Phil told us we'd have six more weeks of winter....well, my kids are now convinced that while it's fun, a groundhog can NOT predict weather! Then again, we got our only snows this winter after February 2nd.....It's been a crazy winter and I am sooo ready for Spring! Not quite 80 degree days, but I'll take the 60s and 70s. :)

We have been studying animal and plant adaptations, so here is what we did for seasonal changes with plants (we focused on apple trees). I thought they turned out really cute! It took forever for me to figure out how to cut out four windows and I finally "googled" it, and found a quilt site, of all things, that told me how (with felt, but it's cousin to paper!). Now, I may be the only inept one at this, but I'll tell you how (if you already know, skip the next paragraph!).

Fold the paper in half. Then, taking one half, fold it in half again and cut (starting and ending at the fold) first one rectangle, and then another (make sure to leave a "bar" in between the two). Do the same for the other side. Granted, they were a little "wrinkly" after all those creases, but it did the trick! I was pleased with how they turned out!

This week, we've been focusing on St. Patrick's Day, but my kids are convinced we've had a leprechaun with us since last week! Our base 10 set went missing on Thursday, and it appeared Friday in a very obvious place...weird. Then, math papers started to go missing, only to reappear in strange places. So, for the last week, anything going missing or being just plain "weird," my kids have blamed on a leprechaun! We wrote stories today to warn any naughty ones from visiting our classroom on Saturday since we wouldn't be there! Last year, during recess, I had my kids so convinced, several took turns "standing guard" outside our window (peering in) during recess (I have the lucky corner room with the view of our wonderful playground!).

We also wrote about things that made us lucky (like having food, clothing, Xbox360s, etc.), and today, made cute pots of gold! The kids programmed money amounts (from cents to dollars) on their gold pieces, then glued them to their pots they cut out. They had to be able to add up their coins and write the dollar amount.

Oh, that's another thing my kids said. Since we've been studying money, the leprechauns have been attracted to our room!

Anyway, this rainbow "appeared" after school today on our tree, so we'll see what the kids say tomorrow about it. Gosh, I just don't know how it happened! Maybe we need to ask those little guys hanging about!

Tomorrow, we will be doing our holiday centers for math (this has become a tradition in our room this year! I'm surprised they haven't found other holidays to celebrate this way yet!). We'll also be participating in a leprechaun scavenger hunt that focuses on math concepts we'll be testing next week and ends with them finding a pot of "gold" (Rolos, butterscotch disks, and St. Pat's fake tattoos!). I'll be sure to add pics in a post tomorrow or this weekend!

OOOH! And one more thing (yep, it's that kind of post isn't it? This is what I get for not blogging for a few days!).

Okay, so my apologies, but I cannot remember the person who created "SCOOT" but we played her place value version today and my kids LOVED it! They are begging for more versions! If you know who it is, can you please post it in the comments and I can edit this post and add her name? She definitely deserves the credit! It was hysterical watching them "SCOOT" from one seat to the next. I added a pic below.

I was hard pressed for a title for this post, but I kind of like it and hope it makes sense to you now! ;)

Kinder-2nd Linky Party!

Thanks to Jeannie over at Kindergarten Lifestyle! She is compiling a list of K-2 blogs out there! I, for one, know that I follow everything from K-4 myself, plus SPED and Speech! LOL There are a LOT of great blogs out there! (Heck, check out my blog roll...it keeps growing!). Jeannie would like for you to link up and she is going to compile a list, as well as post a board on Pinterest about all our blogs! Woo hoo! :) So, make sure you link up to her site! Click on the button above to get you started! :)

Rounding Fun

I've been meaning to post my "rounding hill" I created for my kids this year. Having the collaborative class, I try to make as many concepts "visual" for my students as possible! I am a big fan of the "rounding hill" and decided I'd take it one step further this year. Now, my students know I'm not an artist, but I was pleased with how my little car turned out! Well, at least they recognized it was a car, and maybe that's what I was proud of! :)


I LOVE having my kids use dry erase markers....I feel like it saves so much on paper, so yes, this is in a page protector so my kids can write on it then erase. That way, instead of making 20 copies of a worksheet, I can make 7. (We also have a copy limit, so it helps that as well!). Granted, I do buy several boxes of page protectors (after awhile, they get smudgy, and I need to replace them, or I decide to keep the pages in the protector for the following year). My hundreds charts, for example, stay in a page protector all year long so my kids can mark them up as needed!

Anyway, here it is in action:

Sorry for the reflection....but you get the idea. The hardest thing for my kiddos, of course, is to determine what tens to put in each box, but most have really caught on to the concept this year quickly (I only have 4 that are really struggling still!), and I'd LOVE to say it's due to my mats. :) 


Okay...and as one reader pointed out, yes I know that 63 rounds to 60....not sure why I put the arrow to the other side other than doing it too quick :)  My brain's not always so "fresh" after school when I usually do these posts!

I hand-drew them, but it didn't take that long to whip out 7 of them, and they now join the ranks of my "math helpers" with the hundreds charts, number lines, counting manipulatives, and base 10 blocks! I know it's an old idea that's been out there for awhile, but my kids (especially my boys) caught on more to the car concept than a ball rolling down the hill that I've used in the past. Isn't it funny how we seem to change our approach each year to concepts?

I also have two rounding games available on my TpT store as well....one with a cute fish/octopus theme, the other with a basketball theme....be sure to check them out! :)

Teachers Helping Teachers

Kreative in Kinder has started a link-up with how we can help the teachers whose schools were devastated in the recent tornadoes. Please be sure to head over to her blog and post a comment if you'd like to help out! How to help out? Opening up your TpT/Teacher's Notebooks stores to these teachers, sending them resources, having your children write letters of support...anything you can think of!

I know when our school system suffered the earthquake (which destroyed one elementary and our only high school) last August, the outpouring was amazing! I'd love to have my students pass this love on!

Please be sure to click on the heart and link up!

More Finds at the Dollar Tree!

Okay, so I am totally addicted to the Dollar Tree! Since I was taking my daughter to the doctor, and we were a bit early, I popped in today and grabbed a few things. Some are Pinterest inspired ideas (puzzle), but others are me standing in front of the display, going hmmm.....I know there's SOMETHING cute I can do with this! :)

So, I thought I'd share! The shamrocks are getting harder to find, but I'm sure other places (Michael's, Ben Franklin, Walmart, etc.) might also have some. The puzzles they seem to always carry, and I LOVE the deal on these eggs! These are the small eggs (I think there were 18 or 24 in a package). I also grabbed a few more Easter things, but haven't "done them up" yet. I promise to post when I do!

I'm also posting the worksheet I'm accompanying with the shamrocks to be used as one of my math centers on Friday the 16th! At some point, I will put it on Google Docs and share, but haven't had good luck lately with that (it tells me it can't share at the time). Either that, or I'll post on my TpT store (it's done in Publisher so I need to wait to get to school, convert it to PDF, and upload it!). Or, you can just click on the picture and open it up in Microsoft Photo Viewer and print from there!

Place Value (3 digit) Shamrocks

A Pinterest-Inspired Idea: Using puzzles to match up homophones

Rounding Eggs (students match the colors and round the numbers to the nearest 10)

I hope you're able to become "inspired"......I seem to be going a little nutty lately with creating centers (my husband's like...again???), but I've decided that if I get it, I need to make it either that night or the next day (I have too many things sitting around and then seem to create them last minute!).

Currently (March), Awards, and An Unexpected Snow Day!

Well, I woke up to a 2 hour delay, then a school closing for something that was forecast to "not be a significant accumulation." In true Virginia fashion, though, it stopped around 12:30 and the temperature is now rising (supposed to be close to 50!).

So, I've been spending my day working on centers and fighting our satellite internet connection. I'm about to upload two rounding centers to my TpT store....very cute (I'll include images below), but first, here is this month's Currently from Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade!

By the way...a disclaimer...how hard is it to find adjectives that begin with "Y"???? I had to look them up because I was thinking yucky, yummy, and young didn't exactly describe me! Oh, here's the disclaimer: "Yeasty: full of restless energy or creativity" NOT what you might be thinking! :)

Okay, on to my "it's s'now school!" work! Hee hee

We are focusing on rounding this week and after pulling out my old centers (which the kids love by the way, but they're getting worn out!) I decided to make two new ones to post on TpT as well as use in my room!

I think they turned out really cute! Last (but definitely not least!), I wanted to pass on the "Lovely Blog Award" Thanks again to Emily at Second Grade Silliness for awarding me this! The rules are as follows: pass on to five more bloggers who you feel deserve the award! :)

So, here are my five.........

Enriching Kinders

Learning With a Happy Heart

Wild About Second Grade
Chickadee Jubilee
Second Grade Rocks

Thanks for sticking with me on this longer than normal post! I figure it was better to put it all in one than to do 3 separate posts! I'm hoping that I'll get some more done today and post tomorrow!).

Oh, and one last piece of good news! I have my first follower at my store! Yippee! :) Yep, doesn't take much to get me excited :)

Is It Really Sunday Night????

Okay, where did the weekend go? Granted, I spent Saturday with a friend for an early birthday present, so it left me Sunday to work on school work, but here I am, eying the time, knowing I have to get the kids ready for bed.....sigh, sigh, sigh. I'm also eying the stack I still have left to do!

Ah well. I wanted to share a few highlights of my weekend (professionally speaking!). First, I SOLD MY FIRST ITEM ON MY TEACHERS PAY TEACHER STORE!!!!!! Can I get a "woo hoo"??? Still no followers :( but I'm still excited about my first sale!

Second, Emily from Second Grade Silliness awarded me the "Lovely Blog" award. Very cool! Thanks so much, Emily! I will be passing it on soon! I am posting my awards on my sidebar proudly! :) Still figuring out how to make a "blog button" but right now, Google is fussing at the school's version of Firefox, telling it that it's outdated, etc. At some point I'll have to figure out how to make it part of my profile, so I can replace the "flying books" (which is cool, but this is more personal!).

I've posted a couple new things in my TpT store for free. At some point, will also "zip up" my units for each book in our Harcourt series and put them on there to share! Also working on making my rounding centers a little more "computer friendly", so I can share those as well. My "to do" list keeps growing!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Just think....only 12 more days to get ready for St. Patrick's Day! :)

What a Seusstastical Day! :)

My school does things up BIG, especially when it comes to reading! We started out the day with an assembly, which the Cat in the Hat revealed that he would be playing tricks during the day because he thought this was a great place to stay! Students came dressed as their favorite characters, and we did Seuss activities all day long! We did both math and literacy centers with a Seuss theme (thank you to all the people who posted freebies on their blogs!!!), and during our reading time, we were surprised by the CAT who sprayed water on us! At 2:00, there was an announcement that to get rid of the cat, we all had to go to the hallway and if we were reading, we'd scare him away! Enjoy the photos of our day below! :)




My "cast of characters" (aka class)


My team (I'm holding a different book since I didn't have my "Daisy Head Maisy" one! :)