All I Want For Christmas

We need a new TV!  I sure would like to have this 40" beauty!  My TV has a high pitched whine!

Portable Speaker System Dock--I would love to have one of these!  I love using music in my classroom and this year I haven't been successful with it because of issues with our server at school.  If I had this, my classroom would be complete.  Well...almost!!

This is something I wish I had...an HP  Wireless Laserjet Color Printer with Scanner, Copier and Fax--I REALLY need a good copier and I have heard that this is one of the best on the market.

EK tools Scissor Pro Circle Cutter--Have you ever seen one of these?  It will cut perfect circles for you!  Another LOVE!

I would love to have this Mickey charm for my bracelet.  I've never been to see Mickey down in Florida and it is my goal to go see him in 2016!  

And then there is my other love...My Scotch Thermal Laminator 2 Roller System (TL901)--I am now the proud owner of two of these bad boys!  I keep one at school and one at home.  They are so cheap you can have multiples!

I only use 5 Mil Letter Laminating Pouches--these are one of the more 'firmer' laminating sleeves..sort of like the same thickness of the lamination on a driver's license.  I LOVE IT!!  It lasts forever and the papers inside don't turn or age as quickly.

If you are like me, card stock is pretty important.  I found this link on Amazon and it is where I have been getting all of my thick paper for centers--and each ream is under $7!!!

I think this bracelet is so pretty!  We have a new mom in the family and I got her one with her baby's name on it.  I can't wait for her to open it.  I am excited about this one.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas!

It is starting to look a lot like Christmas!  

All you have to do is stroll down just about any hallway in any school and you can see some of the best craftivities that little ones can make!  Lots of creativity is blooming in my hallway and all of our classrooms and I thought I would share it with you!

Below you can see two of our second graders working on some math sorts....you can imagine my surprise when I peeked into my teammates room and saw all of this work going on.  They were completing this activity totally solo...they had picked their own colors, given the strips their own little curvy cut, and were even able to justify why they were placing the problems on the strips they had chosen.  They were so excited!  They came bounding into my room a little later with all of the math sorts they had completed and I was so proud of them!  You can't ask for more than that!

This is the packet that the sorts came from.  There are a kajillion versions of math sorts in here!  Looking at these pics makes me want to make some more!!  If you want to go take a look at them on Teachers Pay Teachers, just CLICK HERE! 

Here you see a little "Santa-going-down-the-chimley"--a direct quote from one of my kids!!!  This craftivity was created by Miss Kindergarten and you can find it here.  I had some great letters! 

And there is this little guy (he belongs to me!!) showing off his Techie Santa by Mrs. Reagan Tunstall.  The whole school did this particular activity in our STEM lab. It comes with the 'prescription glasses' you see below, but by the time my 2nd graders got to go to the STEM lab on Thursday we began to see all sorts of spectacles!  I mean...uh....types of glasses....from bifocals to reading glasses and even a pair of sunglasses!!!  =)

I am ready to close now...and I am going to share something with you that is probably going to get me into LOTS of trouble....but I can't help it!  I was reading a blog yesterday (I read so many I can't remember which one, so forgive me if it happens to belong to you!) and there was an iPhone app for ugly sweaters.  It was free, so I grabbed it up to see if it might be fun for my class tomorrow since it is ugly sweater day!  Well....here is my first try at taking an ugly sweater photo....and it is of my hubby!

Too Funny!!!!

Well Jingle Bells! Christmas Is Here!

Merry Christmas!  Happy Hanukkah!  And, if you do both, Happy Chanukkah!  

I just wanted to share with you some of the things we will be doing in my classroom shortly.  I LOVE Christmas!!!  
We are going to be working some more on contractions....we can tell you how to take them apart but we just aren't sure how to write them!  So....a little more practice is required.

We are going to be playing Scoot, one of our favorite games!  

As always, I am going to be using sight word phrases at my guided reading table with my RTI kids....it helps them with their fluency and sight words and BONUS--they love to play the matching game!

And then, this activity came from my new Christmas pack!

We are going to review double consonants by sorting them and possibly preparing from consonant surgery on some gingerbread people!

We have Rudolph and his crew waiting on the sides for some ABC order and perhaps even some puppetry with craft sticks!

And then there is the big one....a new skill....Open and Syllables.  YIKES!  At least the cards are cute though!

We are also going to be reading various versions of the Gingerbread Boy.  We read several different versions and compare the story elements, look for inferences, conclusions, etc.  I LOVE this unit!

This is my all time favorite Gingerbread Boy story!  Who can't help but love The Gingerbread Cowboy even though his eyes look a little evil!

And, this year, I am adding The Cajun Cornbread Boy so that we can do some more comparing and contrasting!

Hope you all have a fab December and find great deals as you shop!   You are welcome to share your great finds in the comment section so that I can go shopping, too!

3 Letter Phonetic Words (freebie)

Hello!  I wanted to share a little freebie that I made a while back in conjunction with one of my other stores.  I LOVE this activity because it gives me some insight into the thought behind the work.  Enjoy!!  

We all know that Kindergarten is a whole different world in comparison to other grades.  You sing, use real glue, and teach the basics of reading to your students.  K teachers...my hat is off to you!  I could never do what you do everyday!

First grade teachers, your world is a little different <I know!  I have been there!> because you have to combine that creativity from the K world with the world of higher independent reading.

So where does that leave us second grade teachers?  We are in a hurry to get our kids reading even more so that they can be ready for the evil tests that are coming their way in 3rd grade.  But, we also have to be able to meet the needs of the kids that are still on a K or 1st grade level.

The use of basals is going out of style, in a fast way.  In fact, my district refuses to buy basals anymore and has opted to buy lots of guided reading books.  As basals fade out, so do the one-size-fits-all spelling lists.  This past year, I had as many as 20 different spelling lists <almost 1 list per child> in order to meet their needs.  I had one student that could only hear the first sound of each word and a student that had words with the -tion and -sion suffixes.  A really broad range, huh?  By the end of the school year, I was down to 4 spelling lists.  It made life a lot easier!

This is the spelling program that we use now.

So, what is a blogger to do when she wants to bridge the gap between  K, 1, and 2 teachers and provide a freebie that will help everyone?   You return to your roots <Montessori roots, I might add!> and fix a freebie that can be used by all 3 grade levels!

Student success in spelling a word depends on the student's developmental level and his/her ability to 'hear' sounds.  For instance, if you ask a student to spell the word  PENCIL you might get 'PL', "PNL', or "PNSL' among others.  It isn't until the student is a good solid reader that you will see the word pencil spelled correctly.  So, what do we do to help them hear all of the sounds?  We practice 'hearing' and 'listening'.

So, I fixed a little freebie called Can You Hear Me Now for you that can be used by your other students.  One student can ask them to spell the word by 'reading' the picture.  The other student records the sounds that are heard.  An answer sheet is provided so that the student can check the work if he or she would like...but I don't recommend that because it may stifle those listening skills if the student gets frustrated that he/she can't hear all of the letters.

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Halloween Hustle

If you are like me out there, you are doing the 'Halloween Hustle' so that you can get costumes, candy, treats for your class, decorate the house, and maybe even make some Halloween cookies.  But, I am ALWAYS on the lookout for cute books and I found a great one!!  

The author, Charlotte Gunnufson did a great job in writing this book.  I fell in love with it when I saw the book cover....but then when I found the book trailer...I was hooked!  Follow that up with a quick trip to her website and I was sold!!

And to beat it all, my kids (at home and at school) LOVED it!  We grooved and we moved and even sang along to the lyrics!  This is too cute!!

We talked about the words that represented sounds, rhyming words, and body parts.

October Math Craft

 I just popped on because I wanted to share a little Halloween craft that I adapted.  It originally came from the October Theme Pocket that I got from Amazon.  I sort of 'recreated it' so that it had step by step directions to follow so that I could cover my 'follow the directions' standard!!!  If you want the book, just click on the cover to go to Amazon.

This is what the finished craft looks like:

 although I am going to have my kids 'open the windows' so that we can put fact families on the house and they can be covered when the windows are covered.  Hope that makes sense!

  

Ready for Halloween?

First off, I want to share my new Halloween packet with you!  I put a lot of work into it these past few weeks as we were waiting on therapists and doctors, so I hope you like it.  I even created some of the graphics!  There are 103 pages of fun in there!

My favorite activity is the Pseudo-Hangman games which I call 'Draw Me's'.  I never have liked the term 'hangman'...but anyway...kids can use definitions of vocabulary and the sizes of the letter boxes to try to figure out the word.  All you need is a Vis-a-Vis marker that can wipe off easily and wallah!  Instant fun. Answers are included!

Next, I included one of my Rainbow Paragraphs.  Sometimes I call them Rainbow Stories.  My kids LOVE these!  The 'lead' sentence and conclusion sentences are both done in black which leads to a discussion of which is which!  The other sentences have to be put together in the correct word order and then you just glue or tape them onto bulletin board paper or chart paper to show indentions, how to fill up a line with text, etc.  The 'guts' of the story are done in the colors of the rainbow so that the order of the sentences in the story is already known.  Last, you just include that conclusion sentence and you have a great little story!  LOVE these!

Here are the directions for the Rainbow Stories.

Here is an example of a page of the rainbow sentences.

I also included an inference matching game.  My kids have been working on inferencing so I thought they might enjoy these little riddles!

And of course...I can't do a packet without my sight word phrases.  Both of the sight word phrase matchables use Frye's List 1-5 (first 500 words) and I tried making the phrases longer or used multiple phrases to make them a little tougher.  One of the things I do is use a vis-a-vis marker to show the kids how the phrases work...I 'swoop' a line under the phrase and show them how to increase their fluency as they read.  I also use these as a way to have students write a complete sentence...they just fill in the missing info and write the sentence to include the phrase on the card.  You can also use the picture as a journal prompt.

 I just love these frames here...I had to use them!

If you want to start printing any of these activities, just click here and go grab it! Have a great week!