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Friday, December 27, 2013


I am linking up with Amanda at The Primary Gal for her first Friday Freebie link.
Here is a quick math freebie that I made as a reference for my kiddos.  I printed it on colored paper and laminated to use in small groups or at stations.

Hope you find this helpful and please become a follower! :)




Thursday, December 26, 2013

From Our Last Days....

I know... this is a bit late in coming but It really was stewing in my brain... If only it would have written it self!! ha So during the last few days of survival of the fittest quality, meaningful instruction I forgot I had bought this cute writing activity on TPT from Funky Fresh Firsties during the BIG sale after Thanksgiving... and really wanted to use it!

So we have verbally been working on Genius sentence writing (for more info see www.wholebrainteaching.com), we have done some practice with actually writing some genius paragraphs but this time I wanted a formal step by step way and also my goal was to help me carry this over to Writers Workshop (shhh... I am sad to say NOT my strong suit!).

Day 1: I read Jan Brett's (our current author of study) Wild Christmas Reindeer Then we talked about what if Rudolph had a crazy cousin that wanted to help they needed to decide if yes they would let him or no they would not what the cousin to help. I told them they needed to have 3 reasons to support their position. I really just wanted them to get to writing and get ideas on paper.

Day 2: We took our rough drafts and I modeled how to go back to those words I was not sure about when I was writing and circle them in red. Then I ( we reviewed!!) went back and used my tools to find the word and spell it correctly on my rough draft. They have student sight word books at their desks and they also used dictionaries or the thesaurus in the classroom.




The next step was getting those three supporting details to each have their own paragraph. I created these color coded graphic organizers to help them to create those genius paragraphs:



Day 3 & 4 were spend getting the rough drafts done. When they had made the corrections I looked at it and then they were able to put that onto the FINAL COPY!! (which I modeled of course) They had some GREAT stories!!! OMG I have some great authors!! (SHHH!!! Don't tell my class but one of my favorite stories was one where the cousin should not help and one reason the student gave was that he would poop in the sleigh!! lol cracked me up!!!)

The very last thing was making the crazy cousin. They had so much fun with this project!! It was a blast!





Monday, December 9, 2013

Holiday what not

Well Friday no school!!  yeah!!  3 days of 27 or less degree days and being iced in... The natives are getting restless!!  Monday:  We go from having a 2 hour delay  YEAH!!  to No school in a matter of hours--HELP!!!

As I sit here listening to the bickering loving sounds of my stir crazy offspring children I created an activity that was inspired by these cute holiday fruit snacks I picked up at Target!  Friday is Polar Express day at school so crazy town lots of fun learning to be had!!




I will TRY to remember to take pics of the munchkins hard work on Friday!!  Stay warm North Texas and PLEASE bring the sun out again!!


 

Simply Kinder: December Freebies & Gifts for Teachers!

Simply Kinder: December Freebies & Gifts for Teachers!: I also got my son's teachers presents in the mail yesterday!  I am so excited because they are so cute!    (Yes I had to get 4.. his r...

Thursday, December 5, 2013

BRRR!!!

Well here in North Texas we are ALL either celebrating because school has been cancelled or if you are unfortunate enough to live in Collin County ; ) most of us are anxiously watching the news to see if we get a delay or a school closer from this ice storm that has arrived.....

Me personally I would prefer to sleep late and get a delay.... I want my day off in the spring..

I am sorry to say I forgot to take pics but my kids are amazing me with how they are writing some Genius level sentences!!  As this was my first time to teach this of course I don't think I did my best.... ya know that things always get better the more you do it...  So I can only get better with each year!  :)

I am excited to start out Jan Brett study next week!!  Using one of my great purchases during the TPT big sale.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Jan-Brett-A-Mini-Author-Study-992142

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Last day ;(.... Currently....

Oh man its Sunday... tomorrow its back to 5 am wake up calls for 3 weeks...  I can do it for 3 weeks right???  It has been a great week off from school... Sleeping in late, hanging with the family...  This year I am behind on Christmas but we have been laying tile in the Kitchen area which is HUGE.  It's the kitchen, a hall 1/2 bath and my HUGE pantry/laundry room.

I am just procrastinating lesson plans, grades, and papers.....  This day has gone to fast!

I am linking up with Farley for her CURRENTLY linky!!




OH and a huge THANK YOU to Angela @ Hippo Hooray for Second grade.  I won her Mighty Math unit for the year!!!  So excited THANK YOU :D

Well I am going to try and get stuff done only 4 more hours left... :(  

I can do this ... I can do this...

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Its a Black Friday Sale!!

Gobble.... Gobble...
I am getting in on the Black Friday madness!!  lol
The BIG TPT sale is coming on Cyber Monday you will get an extra 8% off with the code: CYBER







But if you can wait till then I am having 20% off my store NOW!!





Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Pitner's Potpourri: Proper Pilgrims -- Freebie!

Pitner's Potpourri: Proper Pilgrims -- Freebie!: Today, I am thankful that my mama taught me how to cook….including how to make her dressing for Thanksgiving! This is our family's firs...

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Nothing long here it's cold..cold night in Texas! It's been a rainy nasty 30 something day here.  I'm looking forward to a WHOLE week off for Thanksgiving!!!!   I am excited that I figured out how to make a Facebook page so come on over!

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

The coolest app!!

This is short and sweet.....
If you have not heard of educreations you need to run and download this free app.....NOW
This app is THE best thing in town!!  It is an interactive white board app that let's you creat most ANYTHING I think!!!   My favorite part is that it lets me upload my clip art straight from Dropbox!!

Here are two math tutorials I am sending to my parents...  Please remember I'm am NOT a professional :D

Strategy # 2.... Using our 120's chart to add
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/120s-chart-for-addition/13526036/?ref=app

Strategy #1... Using base 10 to add 2 digit addition problems
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/double-digit-addition-with-base-10/13507568/?s=VIclcl&ref=app

WBT Shorty #3: Easiest way to reform Rebel Students?

OK  My Goal for the next 7 days is to:   watch this EVERYDAY!!!  So my stinkers  my challengers my sweeties can be successful!!!

Thank you Nancy S. for being there to pull me back in!!!

http://www.youtube.com/v/Kr2Kz-X-jXU?autohide=1&version=3&attribution_tag=HP2_iplXqpqpMx4c4MovHA&autoplay=1&showinfo=1&autohide=1&feature=share

Monday, November 11, 2013

BRRR....

Yes the weather has turned cooler here in the heart of Texas.  And I am a wimp!!  I am already cold!  I just like it to be atleast 80ish but I am not complaining mind you!

So I signed up last year for this Scoot Pad thing... https://www.scootpad.com/pricing?sp.preventCache=1384171558898..... and never got around to adding my class so here goes it in 2nd grade.  I read about it on another blog.. sorry I cant find the posting at the moment but I will keep looking.  You can do the free version which is what I am doing at the moment with the paid version you can set it up to assess and customize the learning path...  Seems cool so we will see..  I have my 4 or so low babies that are on Lexia so ANY little bit helps and now my others will have a "go to" place as well during Daily 5 and today I am starting Guided Math-FINGERS CROSSED AND PRAYERS please!  I have been thinking on it for a long time but thanks to the FAB Mrs. Tunstall and her post I got a solid plan in place:  http://tunstalltimes.blogspot.com/2013/11/guided-math-in-first-grade.html.   But you know what they say about "all good plans"!!  AND Especially as a teacher!!  They are great until the kids actually come!  ha!

Tata for now!! I hope to catch Coach B tonight at 7 Central for some good WBT learning!!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Saddle up for Second Grade: 1 YEAR BLOGAVERSARY AND A GIVEAWAY TOO!!!

If you have not found Saddle up for Second Grade you need to.  I just love her and her blog!!

Saddle up for Second Grade: 1 YEAR BLOGAVERSARY AND A GIVEAWAY TOO!!!: HAPPY 1 YEAR BLOG"AVERSARY" TO ME!!! I'm so excited about this ya'll! One year ago today I started my blogging/TPT a...

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Super Cute Freebies!!!

Go check out these freebies from some great bloggers!!  http://www.theteachingtribune.com/2013/10/trick-or-treat-hop.html

I am super excited about this product I got from Home Depot.  I wanted to hang lights in the front part of my classroom.  I like to turn the lights low during Daily 5.  But there was no good way to do it with the room layout  then I went and found this!

I plugged my lights into it and plugged it into the ceiling outlet that the projector is plugged into.  Now my lights are... are you ready for this!!  controlled REMOTELY!!!  How cool is that!!  My kiddos love it!!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Well I am about off to bed but I keep forgetting to share about the topic of Coach B from last Monday's live webcast. He talked about when a student is making the wrong choice thank them instead of getting on to them!!! Brilliant and I realized I had done that the previous two weeks just to keep my sanity ;)!!! It works like a charm!! You are not irritated; they quickly fix the problem a DOUBLE WIN!! I always make is seem my fault... "OH thank you___ for showing us how NOT to___. I forgot to mention that!!" Could you please show us how to do ____. And a freebie DRA listing for your kiddos... I am 6 away from being done!!! I created this based on the information from The Next Step in Guided Reading by Jan Richardson. This will be my BIBLE this year for GR!! If you have not read it GO NOW!!! POWER TO THE TEACHERS!!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nwihzvr6axyjio0/DRA%20_Blank%20copy.pdf

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

No Mondays.... Who is with me???

So I have decided to eliminate Mondays.  As you may know this is my first year in 2nd.  Last year I was in Kinder.  I swear every Monday I feel like I am sinking and in a stress panic.  Then comes Tuesday and it seems that my kids as well as my "load" is better!  So NO MORE MONDAYS!!  Today was a great day!  We got SO much done!!  I got to do my "I Pick" lesson.  I had had been worried because I felt like I had waited too long.... But just could not get it in.  It was great!  We got to do a rotation of Daily 5- we are up to 20 min. of Read to Self so half did that and 1/2 did our "rainbow word work" drawers (activities are from Lory's Page: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Literacy-Centers-SEPTEMBER-730888)   and Spelling work (also, from Lory's page...Man have I told you I LOVE her stuff!!  :)    I am excited about this because the activities will be consistent all year AND skills I am sure they will need lots of review.  AND we even got to our ELA lesson focus of folk tales!!!    Last week I have started changing out our table buckets into our regular math stations:  ( also from Lory's page: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/MATH-STATION-Common-Core-Grade-2-SEPTEMBER-242920--again LOVE these because they are going to be the same basic concepts all year!!  So today we did our 2nd rotation.  Still a work in progress... not as tight as I would like but not bad.  Sorry no pics... I can not ever remember my camera.  But I will take a pic next time and share my lables I made for my "rainbow word work" drawers.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Freebie to add to the Rise and Shine Binder

I saw the post from Reagan Tunstall on her Rise and Shine binder and knew I HAD to have it!!  So ofcourse when the bts sale at TPT happened this was first in my cart.  My 2nd graders are loving it!!  I introduced it the first week and it has been amazing!!  I cant wait till we add more games.  My goal (of many!! ) this week is to add the words component.     http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rise-and-Shine-Binder-762792

I wanted my kids to also be able to work with abbreviations so I created this page to add to our binders:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/azl4fzznzrd76gy/MY_R%26S_Abbreviations.pdf

Thursday, September 5, 2013

D 5 Freebie!!

I am excited to do Daily 5 this year.  I wanted to last year but with a new curriculum and just getting started in K it just was not a go... We did work stations so I tried to get elements of Daily 5 in.  Well I created a freebie to help with management of my kiddos (mostly who goes to computer and iPad!  :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7ef3si1h2prdo3c/D5_CheckList_Freebie.pdf


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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Hello!!

Hello!

This is my blog to track and share my journey with Whole Brain Teaching.  I came across this crazy video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaweXw03kQI  and was VERY intrigued to say the least!   How did she do that!!??!  How were the kids SO engaged!?!?  I was in Kinder and I wanted that in my room to say the least!  I had a great group of kids just a few that were driving me crazy!!  This WBT thing seemed the ticket!!  So I searched and searched and found Farrah Shipley right here in Texas!!  @   http://mrsshipleywholebrainteaching.blogspot.com and THE website: www.wholebrainteaching.com.  So I used the Scoreboard and Class/Yes and It made a Huge difference with my group!  

SO... Now I find myself in 2nd grade and feeling at a wall.  My goal is to share my struggles and celebrations and hopefully connect with others!