Fabulous Fun for Friday!

This week FLEW by. It was only a four day week. We had off on Thursday and then returned for one more day of work today. Rough, people...very rough. I wish my school week was more exciting, but most of it was taken up with testing. I was doing ELA unit testing all week PLUS a mandatory district English language assessment test. However, I did manage to squeeze in a little bit of cuteness for the kiddos.

I was able to find time for my kiddos to review their number sense and fact family knowledge with this adorable craft from my sweet friend Deirdre at A Burst of First. You can grab this freebie by clicking HERE. Your kids will flip for it!
We started our unit about apples this week. My mom made homemade applesauce for all the kids to try! We graphed our results and it was another big hit with them.

If you follow me on IG, you know I spent some of my week preparing for Parent Conferences next week. I created new forms this year to streamline my preparation. Now I have all my documentation for conferences in one place. This Parent Conference Packet is on TpT and it is EDITABLE so you can customize it to meet your needs. It includes a personalized binder cover, parent conference note, reminder note, missed you at our conference note, sign in sheet AND 3 different student conference forms. I love the check off form the most. It saves so much time preparing for each conference. 
This is my first round braided challah. I made one plain and one raisin. The raisin challah only had crumbs left on the plate about 5 seconds after dinner started!!! (I should have taken a picture of the plate.) Requests have been made to only make raisin challah from now on! Hilarious! 


If you haven't already entered this giveaway, head on over and visit Sailing Into Second. My sweet friend Aris is hosting an incredible giveaway and it ends soon! There is something for everyone! You could even win something from my TpT store too!


Hope everyone has a wonderful week and a fabulous weekend ahead!


My Week of Randomness

I feel like I have fallen off the map from my blogging world! I have been slammed at work and at home! It's time to get back on track....

I have been working day and night on this labor of love:
I am putting on the finishing touches and adding pictures of all the sample pages. I hope to have it ready this weekend! Fingers crossed.

We sent our first set of letters to our second grade pen pals in Nevada! My sweet friend, Aimee from Primarily Speaking and I paired our classes together.  It was so cute to explain the process to the kids. Most of my kids have never written a letter to anyone, let alone to someone they have never met. We made our pen pals some bookmarks and sent off our letters. Hope they were a hit!

We have been working on our addition strategies these last few weeks. Our Addition Buddies came to life thanks to Amanda at Teaching Maddeness. The kids wrote key words from word problems that would help them remember to add. They loved the activity and I loved they were reviewing their math skills. Win, win!

It's been hot here people! I mean REAL hot! So. Cal is not supposed to reach 107 degrees on any day! Let alone for 5 days in row. It's plain wrong! To beat the heat (slightly) I have HAD to make several visits in the afternoon to get my classic Coke Slurpee fix. There is no better way to cool off! 

Yesterday was the first "normal" day of temperatures for awhile. SO... we were able to bring a little bit of Fall to our classroom. We wrote acrostic poems and made these cute little scarecrows. The kids took the whole process VERY seriously and were SO proud of themselves when they saw the finished product! My heart skipped a beat with all their enthusiasm. You can grab this Scarecrow craftivity HERE!


I haven't linked up with Casey since the school year started, so I am thrilled to be linking up finally! Thanks for stopping by!

Interactive Notebooks In the Primary Classroom


I have received so many questions about how to implement and use interactive notebooks in a primary classroom. I thought I would share some tips and tricks I have learned in my own second grade classroom. If you want more information on how to SET UP your notebooks, you can read about it HERE.

Disclaimer:
These are my own personal experiences. The strategies I share may not work in every classroom. Please use this information to help you get started using interactive notebooks in your own classroom. 

Frequently Asked Questions:

Why Use Interactive Notebooks?
Interactive notebooks are an amazing way to reinforce skills taught. They serve as a reference for students throughout the year, as well as years to come. I love the versatility of the notebooks. They can be used as whole group instruction, in centers, small group work, independent practice and even for a quick assessment.

How Do I Get Started?
You have to find the resource(s) that works for you. My first attempt at interactive notebooks was not a success. It was frustrating beyond belief. I wanted to buy into the concept. I thought I had researched the best resources, but I was wrong.  The resource I was using wasn't working for me and my students. I also didn't feel organized with the process. Therefore, it was a struggle to implement and I was feeling defeated. However, I stuck with it and, BAM, the following year success started to happen!

In order for the interactive notebook process to work in my classroom, I had to take small steps. I started with ONE subject only- MATH! I have since expanded interactive notebooking into language arts. However, initially I chose a subject I was comfortable with, which happened to be math. 
I created my own resource, that I felt was organized in a clear and concise way. I needed visuals! It needed to be Common Core aligned and work in conjunction with what I was already teaching in my classroom. These things made it easier to implement.

I use my interactive notebooks as follow up to a lesson I have already taught. For example, I have been teaching addition strategies for the last two weeks. We just finished learning about "making 10" on Wednesday. On Friday, I had the students work with that concept in their notebooks (see below). While they are working, I can pull students for review if necessary. I can also informally assess their skills as I walk around. If students don't finish their notebook activities, I usually have them finish it for warm up the next morning or they can take it home to complete.

I have created a FREEBIE sampler of 3 different activities, so you can get an idea of the type of activities my kids are required to complete. These pages address Operations and Algebraic Thinking 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 and 2.2.  They are also great review for the beginning of the year of third grade. (My grade specific interactive notebooks have the standard numbers at the top as well).
Each page has an "I can" statement at the top of the page and a definition of terms at the bottom of the page. Both get glued into each student's interactive notebook. 

Keeping the pages simple is key for the primary classroom. Minimal cutting and pasting is helpful too. 


The problem solving pages are my favorite. I love how the students have to explain their answer in many different ways. They have to show their work through pictures, numbers and words. I always tell my students, "I don't care what the answer is. I care about HOW you got the answer." They are forced to explain their thought process.

How Do You Find the Time?
This is not always an easy thing to do. The notebook activities take longer to complete at the beginning of the year. Don't get frustrated. Stick with it. Your students will catch on. If you use math centers, this is a perfect time for the notebook activities. Many of my students finish their pages during warm up time in the morning, as well. Be flexible and open to finding a time that works in your classroom. Everyone's schedules are different.

I hope these ideas help inspire you to make interactive notebooks part of our curriculum! Good luck!