Two for Tuesday!

Ahh... who doesn't love to go shopping?

And who doesn't love a sale?

I'm linking up again with The Teaching Tribune and picking 2 items from my TPT store to put at half off!

But the surprise is, I'm putting a little more than 2 things on sale! 

I had a lot of awesome feedback on my 2nd Grade Boggle Board Pack the other week so I'm putting all three sets half off through midnight tonight!  

Click here to get my 1st grade set, 2nd grade set, and 3rd grade set!

Each set incorporates the High Frequency Words/Dolch List of words in each boggle board.  There are 36 sets, so enough for each week of school.  I use mine in my word work stations or as a "I'm Done, What Do I Do Now?" activity.  My kids LOVE them!

So, head over and see what else is on sale and spread the love!  Tell your friends!  The sale is on! :)

Worksheet Wednesday! (for Math!!)

I love math.  I love teaching math.  Most of the things I make are for math... 

This is a free download from 4mulaFun... I'm seriously printing this and putting it in my classroom!  Click the picture to get your own copy and leave some feedback!

Anywho... my grade level (district, school, etc.) have for the past two years been working on doing a spiral review of math skills each Friday.  We lovingly call them Friday Quick Checks.  At the beginning of the year, we try to review skills from 1st grade and then incorporate newly mastered skills from what we are currently teaching.  The kids get excited because if they score 90% or higher, they get their math whiz star... a little motivation and reward never hurt anyone, right?  So, I thought I'd share with you my little quick check.  I'm in the process of revamping them for the summer, and if there's enough interest, I may put them in my TPT store.  Leave me a comment if you think you'd use them or want to see more like this.  I can always do other grade levels!

Click to get your freebie!  And as always, please leave some feedback!  Hope you can use it! 

 And link up!

Two for Tuesday!

I am so enjoying this week's link ups from The Teaching Tribune!  What a fun idea!  I have one and a half days left of work this week and then it's sweet summertime!  I can't wait to spend time with my sweet little family this summer!

How could you not with faces like those?  Ugh....squishy cheeks!  Well, those cuties are NOT my two for Tuesday, but I couldn't resist sharing :)

I'm linking up again with The Teaching Tribune to share two of my favorite (and newer!) TPT products.  For this link up, I picked two of my TPT items to put at 50% off!  Yes, this girl will be doing some shopping today!  

The first is my 2nd Grade Word Work Sight Word Boggle Boards.  I made these for my students this year who LOVED to play boggle.  I couldn't give them a board fast enough.  Then I had a bright idea... why not incorporate some sight words in the boggle boards?  That was all she wrote!  I am going to use these as one of my literacy stations next year.  There are 36 boards, enough for each week of the school year!  

My second product is my Buggy for Long Vowels packet.  I made this to help my students work on common long vowel patterns (VCe patterns and vowel teams).  These are hard for second graders (and others, too!) so I tell my kids there's not really any trick but good old fashioned memorization and recognition... but they liked using this packet.  I even saw on word study tests where they'd written the word using both patterns to see which looked correct!  

So check these out!  They'll be half off until Wednesday morning at midnight!  If you snag them, please leave some awesome feedback :)  And link up!

Flash Sale!!!!

Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Day with a flash sale on my TPT store!

I just finished my new unit, Buggy for Long Vowels, and have it on sale for $3 (originally $5!) through tonight at midnight.  Don't forget that TPT also has their Teacher Appreciation sale going on where you can take an additional 10% off (code TPTXO)!

Here's a preview of my unit!

Leave a comment that you are following my store and I'll select 2 winners to choose a free unit from my store!  Good luck and happy teacher appreciation week!!

Text Features, Nonfiction, and Wondering

Jumping back into blogging...so I'm a little rusty, so please bear with any technical issues... if you see any... or just be a dear and don't tell me... :)

My class is awesome this year.  It is the most diverse class I've ever taught... ranging from ESL (from China.. whoa!) and some attention issues, but they are sweethearts to the core.  This makes for a fun but challenging day.

In reading, which takes up the biggest part of our day (two hours!) we are working on Questioning/Wondering in Nonfiction texts.  If you've followed before, my district recently adopted a comprehension program called Making Meaning.  Like any program, it has its good and bad, but I do really like and enjoy using it.

Downside to this, we have been wondering forever.  Seriously, like for.........ev.......er.......

Almost feels like we are wandering through wondering... First, we began in fiction.  Then we compared fiction to nonfiction.  Now we are exclusively nonfiction.   I've found lots of good nonfiction resources on blogs, TPT, and on Pinterest to tie into my small groups and remainder of my whole group time.  Making Meaning only takes 2-3 days and it's also not every week, so we have lots of holes to fill.  

Well, with all the snow days we've had, I've jumped the gun on Making Meaning and gone ahead and started doing text features with my class.  What's it gonna hurt?? They've enjoyed doing scavenger hunts and connecting wondering to helping to locate information in those captions, headings, etc.  

Here's what we did today in small group.

We started by previewing our leveled books, looking for text features.  We wrote down the page numbers of any we found.  I printed their checklist on post-it notes (which blew their minds.... they thought that was so awesome...) and stuck them in their reading response notebooks.  

We discussed what they found and worked on clearing up any questions or confusion about what they found or didn't find.  Then, as they read, I had them write down at least two things they wondered about from the text.  We are working on trying to "wonder" about things as we read, not so much "general" questions like, Are robots silly?  or  Do caterpillars have arms?  It's hard for second graders to think because their schema isn't as developed as older students (not to mention crossing language barriers...) but we are making steady progress.

We ended by sharing what we wondered about and if our questions could be answered in the text.  Some of the questions and I wonder statements were really insightful.  Here's what some wrote: 

I found the idea for the post-it notes on TPT from Primarily Primary so huge shout out there!  I'm a font junkie so I changed the header font to one of Jen Jones' Hello Fonts! because I heart, heart, heart them.  

How do you teach text features and questioning?

Productive Saturday

Well my dear blogland friends, it's Saturday night, and this wild and crazy momma is out having a blast.  Yup, I totally just folded laundry, washed my sheets and made my bed, graded a few papers, and finished up a unit on two step word problems.  Watch out world!  


I'm really excited about my new unit because my own dear momma, who is a 5th grade teacher, gave me the idea.  If you'd like to check out some February themed two-step word problems, head on over to my TPT store and check it out.  (Psst...it's only a dollar!).


And if you wondered "Why did that poor momma let her daughter go into teaching?"


She tried to stop me.  But I'm as stubborn (if not more so) than she is.


AND I'm reaping that 10 fold because my husband, who is also a stubborn MULE, has included his stubborness in the gene pool and my precious daughter is going to be a stubborn-combo-migraine-momma doesn't have a chance in this world child :)  but I love her for it too!  I lovingly call her an Irish Norwegian because she has my Irish temper and her daddy's Norwegian looks (she's a fair, blonde haired blue eyed BEAUTY).  There's probably not a drop of either Irish nor Norwegian in her, but it's fun to say :)


This is just rambling from one thought to the other, isn't it!  I apologize for my randomness but appreciate if you have read this far....so, to congratulate those who read (my principal does this in her emails...only it's a picture or quote or something....I'm doing something much cooler!)  The first 3 people to comment AND leave their email addresses will get my two step word problem activity emailed to them :)  Yay!  I just hope you'll like it!


Thanks for listing dear friends...I'll try to have something more educational to say next time so you don't feel like you've wasted two minutes of your life reading nothing :)

My latest creation

The other night I was complaining (sorry) about how restless I was, needed some creative outlet, blah, blah, whine, whine.  Well, needless to say I got over it pretty quickly.  You know how you feel better after you just say something online outloud?  Well, that was me.  Thanks for listening.


I put my restlessness to good use and created something for my TPT and TN stores.  I'd like to share it with you if you can use it.  

Christmas Tree Homophones

There are two literacy station games- one match up with recording sheet, and the other dominoes.  I hope this is something you can use :)

Click {here} to purchase from my TPT store.

Click {here} to purchase from my TN store.

Working on some other goodies this weekend, too.  Loving this creative outlet :)  Y'all have a great weekend!!  *Think Snow*

Back to the grind...with a freebie!

So, ya ready to go back to work?


Nope, not I... especially when you have to go back to car duty.  Yuck.


But, I suppose if I want to get paid (har har) I'll go back to work tomorrow.  I really enjoyed my time off, especially getting to see the kiddo and hubby more.  And I suppose I'm ready to see the kids (only if they behave, lol).  


Anyone going to be hitting up Cyber Monday sales?  I hope to stay up til midnight to see what's going on, but will probably be in bed pretty soon.  TPT is having a great Cyber Monday sale... going to be purchasing some goodies I've saved in my wish list.  


I just posted a freebie on my store on ordinal numbers and even/odd numbers.  I've found it hard to find good material on ordinal numbers and my new math text has nothing on it, so like everything else, I've just made it :) and will share it with you.  Hope you can use it :)


Enjoy your first day back tomorrow.  May your kiddos come eager to learn and with sharpened, unbreakable pencils.  Ahhhhh.....keep dreaming :)


Click here to get my winter ordinal numbers freebie :)

Optimistic.... just a little :)

Okay, I'm just a lil excited.  I just finished setting up my Teachers Notebook store and I had two sales on TPT.  How freakin' awesome is that?  Granted, I've only earned 60 cents, but it's a start.  And when you haven't had a raise in almost 4 years, I'll take 60 cents!  Sad... :)


Also excited about starting nonfiction text features in reading the next few weeks.  I'll post pictures of the activities we do.  Hopefully inspiration will strike and I'll have more to add to my stores.


And... I have some followers.  That's awesome too!  Addicted?  Oh yeah!

So excited!

I am so excited y'all.  Report cards are done (whew... can we please go to a 9 week marking period like everyone else in this world?) and I have finished my second unit to put on TPT!  I am just thrilled that I have finally found an outlet for this creativity!  To celebrate, I'm posting the recording sheet from my unit on ordinal numbers here.  Please check out my TPT store and follow me.  I do have lots of freebies on there also.

Yay :)