First Week Back: Saturday Snapshots!

It's hard to believe that my first week of school is complete! We were so busy this week getting to know one another with tons of fun activites. We still have several to complete next week too! 

Everyone took their first day of school pictures and we put them in these frames to give to the parents at Back To School Night!

We made our classroom banner. Each student drew and colored a picture of themselves and then we hung the banner in our classroom. The banner templates and other getting to know you activities are from my All About YOU! packet.

We completed our first week of second grade books thanks to the Bubbly Blond's Savvy in Second pack! We have several more activites from this packet to complete next week too!

I am so in LOVE with my new classroom library sticks. This all came together thanks to my mom! I was telling her how I wanted to make libary sticks for my own classroom to hopefully help the kids keep my books organized through the year. She walked through my classroom door on Friday afternoon with these in her hand! Just looking at them makes me smile. I can't wait to show the kids how to use them next week.

Thanks Aimee for the adorable B2S button!

If you haven't heard yet... TpT's HUGE Back To School Sale is this weekend! My store is on sale starting today (Saturday 8/17)! Everything is 20% off! I hope you all load up your wish lists and get some great deals to start your school year off with a bang!

Jump On the B2S Sale Train!

My first week back to school is complete! I have 23 little darlings who are eager to learn and I need some more things for my classroom. Thank goodness it is "that time of year". No, it's not Black Friday, yet. But it might as well be in the teacher world. This weekend is Teachers Pay Teachers most anticipated sale of the year! 

Starting tomorrow (Aug.17), everything in my TpT store will be 20% off! I don't know about you, but I am ready to clear my wishlist with tons of things I have been eyeing for my classroom! Here are a few items you might be interested in for the start of your school year. All you have to do, is click on the image to take you directly to each one on TpT.

All About YOU! is a great packet to use when getting to know your new students. I have used all the activites in my classroom this last week and they were a HUGE hit with the kids! We made a classroom banner, "all about me" posters and wrote clues about ourselves for our friends to learn a little more about us. We will continue using the activities in this packet, next week as well.

Most of us are new to using the Common Core Standards. I have created grade level Common Core Standards checklists for the ELA and Math standards for all grades kindergarten through fifth grade. I printed my second grade standards and put them in my lesson plan binder so I can monitor when I teach and assess each standard. I started using it last year and find it to be a great visual for me to know what I have taught and still need to teach.

Kindergarten Checklists, First Grade Checklists, Second Grade Checklists, Third Grade Checklists, Fourth Grade Checklists, Fifth Grade Checklists and K-5 Bundled Checklists.

I have also created CCSS ELA Vocabulary Cards and CCSS Math Vocabulary Cards for kindergarten through fifth grade. They are color coded by strand to make them easy to organize and use. These are great to help reinforce academic vocabulary and serve as visual cues for your students. Below are examples of the second grade cards.

My new Back To School Writing Prompts packet is sure to get your kids writing using the Common Core standards right away! There are two writing prompts for each writing form: narrative, informative and opinion writing. The packet also includes graphic organizers, writing pages, rubrics, student checklists and a craftivity!

The next two items I updated this summer with new graphics and lesson enhancements.

The first is my All About Me Glyph! This is always one of my favorite activities at the beginning of the year because it makes for the cutest bulletin board display. Also, the kids are learning about one another all while using their graphing and data collecting skills. There are ideas to connect the activities to writing and how to display the finished glyphs, as well. 

Finally, I updated my Oh, Boy! It's Apple Time Glyph! This is great to use during your apple unit, fall activites and/or farm unit. These apple glyphs can be two or three dimentional! Math and writing activities/ideas are included as well.

I hope you guys are able to load up on some amazing items! Head on over to my TpT store to see what else will be on sale! Happy shopping!

Spring Cleaning SALE

Hello, my friends! I am a little late to the party, but I decided to put my entire TpT store on sale today! Let's celebrate the last day of March, Easter and Spring Break with a little 20% off sale! I hope you are able to clean out some of those items on your wishlists. 

Click the picture below to take you to my TpT store.

                              

 Here are some items you might want to pick up for the Spring:

Spring is Here! Literacy Centers and Craftivities

Spring Writing Prompts  and Craftivity{Common Core Aligned}

Get ready for Earth Day with this adorable Recycling Frog Glyph and writing activity.

Welcome Spring into your classroom with these cute umbrella glyphs too- Spring Is In the Air!

Happy Spring, Easter and Spring Break! Enjoy!

February Currently

I am linking up with Farley for this month's Currently! Seriously??? We are already in month 2 of 2013??? That's just crazy talk.... Where did the month go? Since it is officially February, here is my Currently.

1. Today was the only day the whole family could sleep in this weekend and we were all up at 6:45!! What??? Why??? No answer. So the hubs was my hero and went into the kitchen to fire up the espresso maker. And now I am a happy wifey with my liquid jolt!

2. Tonight the hubs and I get a night out with some dear friends of ours. Grandma is coming over to watch the kids and the parents are going out to play!! 

3.This weekend is PACKED! Between errands, birthday parties, baseball practice and the Super Bowl, I am not sure how we are going to fit it all in.

4. The weather has been so beautiful and warm the last couple of days. I woke up today and there are clouds. Grey, overcast clouds. Yuck! Bring on more sun.

5. I FINALLY have an appointment to get my hair done. Don't ask me why, but I always put off my hair appointment. It just seems so hard to set aside 2-3 hours on the weekend, so I always put it off as long as possible. I can't wait to get beautifide today.

6. People that aren't honest drive me c-r-a-z-y! Whether it is my own kids, my students or peers-just tell the truth PEOPLE! 

I am also having a SUPER sale in my TpT store Saturday and Sunday. Everything is 20% off. Myself along with many other amazing bloggers are joining this sale. So empty those wishlists into your shopping carts and save! 

Super Bowl Weekend SALE and a FREEBIE

We ALL SCORE this weekend, thanks to TpT! I am joining many TpT sellers and everything in my store is 20% off this Saturday and Sunday! On Sunday, you can get any extra 10% of using the code SUPER at checkout! Time to empty those wishlist items into the shopping cart! I can't wait to go shopping!!!

Thank you Aimee from Primarily Speaking for this adorable button!

We continued working on learning about our presidents this week. Last week the kids learned about Lincoln and made an adorable craftivity and wrote if Lincoln should have a beard or not. If you missed that post, you can read about it HERE. This week, we learned about Washington and wrote about what we would do if we were president.

Bet you never knew Washington could be so cute, right? I attached the kids writing to these and hung them up in the room with our Lincolns. 

I have a little freebie for you guys to get you ready for Presidents' Day! It goes along with my Patriotic Presidents' Day Centers and Craftivity unit. 

I SPY Presidential Math Problems

Writing Paper, word search, identifying nouns and proper nouns. I hope you can use this with your kiddos. Happy Friday my friends! 

Product Swap Time!

I am so excited to be participating in my first Product Swap hosted by Jessica Stanford. I saw all the posts from the last Product Swap and I felt like I had missed out on something fun and magical! This time around, I was lucky enough to join in the fun. I have been super fortunate to be paired up with an amazing lady-Aimee Salazar from Primarily Speaking.

Aimee has an incredible blog with incredible ideas! I had a really difficult time picking a product from her TpT store. She has so many wonderful products and she has spent so much time making sure they are Common Core aligned! I ended up choosing Aimee's Three Digit Addition and Subtraction Fun Pack- LOVE IT!

This product is jam packed with activities to help reinforce three-digit addition and subtraction skills. It has something for every type of learner in your class, which makes differentiating for each student SO much easier.

Here is an overview picture of the activities included: Roll A Number Sentence, Spin A Number Sentence, Sort It Out, Match Up, 5 in a Row and Pick A Card. 

My students really loved the HUGE dice they got to use for this activity. I printed the number dice, cut them out and laminated them for durability. I need to make a few more copies of the dice so several students can do the same activity at the same time.

Here are the centers ready to go for my students. I printed and laminated all the pieces so they would last.

The kids loved this activity because they got to make their own problems with the cards they drew. They were in charge! I had the kids work in partners to check each others' work too! So everyone got to be the "student" and then the "teacher". 

Here are my kiddos working in pairs to complete some of the activities. This activity (Spin A Number Sentence) was a HIT with the kids because they made their own spinners and then checked each others' work.

I was so impressed with the clarity of the directions. It made all the activities incredibly easy to prepare and explain to the kids. The other great thing about these activities is that the kids can be independent to complete them. Once it is modeled for them, off they go! This gave me the ability to check on each of the groups and informally assess how they were doing with the skills. 

Since I was so impressed with Aimee's math packet, I decided to purchase her Valentine's Day Fun Variety Pack. I can't wait to use this with my kids for the holiday. 

This packet has it all: Friendly Letter Craftivity, Conversation Heart Banner, Valentine Bingo, Writing Prompts, Center Work and MUCH MORE! 

Look how darn cute those craftivities are! You must check it out if you are looking for some Valentine Fun for your kiddos! I have mine printed out and ready to go!

Now, if you can't already tell, I am so glad I was paired up with Aimee for this Product Swap! She has put both of these products on sale for 20% off in her TpT store through Monday! That means you can get both these products, for your classroom, at a discounted price, right now! Hurry over to her store and put them in your cart! You will be thrilled that you did!

Three Digit Addition And Subtraction Fun Pack

Valentine's Day Fun! Variety Pack

Make sure to stop by Aimee's blog and TpT store and become a follower if you aren't already! Also, check out all the other amazing bloggers that have linked up for the Product Swap and give them some of your love too!

Welcome Winter Sale

Happy winter everyone! We survived the world coming to an end! To celebrate, I am linking up with Casey from Second Grade Math Maniac for a Welcome Winter SALE! Everything in my TpT store will be 20% off December 21st-23rd! What a great way to grab some of those items that have been on your wishlist!

Would you like an adorable craftivity to share with your students when you get back from the holidays? Check out my New Year's Resolution Writing Activity and Class book. Your students can write about their New Year's Resolutions and make these cutie pies:

All templates, graphic organizers, writing pages and directions are included. I can't wait to make these with my students when we get back.

If you would like to bring winter inside your classroom, these Let It Snow, Snowman Glyphs will surely do the trick.

Writing paper, glyph directions and questions, data collection sheets and all templates are included to complete this project.

Join in the fun and link up for this incredible Welcome Winter Blog Hop SALE!