It's DECEMBER!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  I just put away the last of our Thanksgiving decorations and it's time to bring out the Christmas boxes!  To help get into the holiday spirit, I've linked up once again with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for her December Linky Party!

Here goes...

I'll post more details later, but that's it for tonight!  Back to work tomorrow after a week off!  :)

Feeling Thankful...

It's been a while since I've posted anything on here... so since I'm off this week, I thought I'd take advantage of my kid-free house (for a few hours at least) to catch up on my lil' blog!

My school is off for the entire week, so we spent last Friday doing some fun writing activities from my new Thanksgiving Unit!  

We started by brainstorming our favorite
Thanksgiving foods.  Then, students used the
list to help them write about their favorite food
and describe how it looks, smells, and tastes.

This was an autumn scene we did as a directed drawing art project.  Thanks to a great art video from "Art with Joy", I thought they turned out amazingly well!  We also wrote an autumn cinquain to go with our pictures.  

Before I go, I'd like to leave you with a few things I'm most thankful for this year!

#1)  My family:  I am so very thankful for my wonderful, amazing husband Matt and our four awesome kids.  They keep us laughing all the time, and there is never a dull moment in our house.  It's not always easy being a mom and a teacher, but life is pretty great and I'm thankful for all the little moments that make our family life so incredibly special.  We are blessed!

#2)  Amazing friends:  I am so fortunate to have some of the greatest friends.  We don't get to see each other as often as I'd like, but we can always pick right up where we left off, and for that I'm very thankful.  I'm also very fortunate to work with some amazing people who have become great friends too.  

#3)  My job:  I am so grateful to have a job that I love.  Walking into my cozy little classroom each day and seeing my students bright little smiling faces makes me so incredibly happy.  I couldn't imagine doing anything else!

#4)  TpT:  I didn't quite know what to expect when I began my TpT adventure.  At first, I found it hard to believe that anyone would actually be able to find my products and want to buy them.  Now, 7 months later, I've sold 647 units and am actually making a steady amount of supplemental income for my family!  Creating and brainstorming ideas for my TpT products has been such a fabulous way for me to express my creativity! It's become my favorite new hobby.  I love it, and I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be able to share my teaching ideas and products with educators from all over the world.  

#5)  A whole week off for Thanksgiving Break:  After my kids went off to school this morning, I sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet while I savored my morning coffee.  It was blissful!  Then, I headed over to my son's school for his 3rd grade class' Fall Feast!  As a teacher, I never get to help out with school or class events, so I was thrilled to be there today.  My son was pretty excited too.  It was a great day!  

  

My lil guy and his Pueblo Indian model!  Each table group
was a different Indian tribe!

Fall Feasting!  Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!  

Fresh and Fun Ideas for Back to School and Currently for September!

Happy September!  August came and went and I just realized I never had time to blog about how things are going in my own second grade class!  I have to say, this year has been the best yet so far.  I've got an amazing group of students, and while many of them are academically very low, they are very sweet and excited to learn.  Can't ask for more than that...I'm one happy teacher!

In years past, (pre TpT) I spent the first few weeks of school scrambling for "Back to School" type activities that would help to instill the idea of basic rules, routines, and procedures in my classroom. To make things easier,  I created my own Back to School Unit with just the right combination of activities for those first few days (or weeks) of school!  You can grab this Back to School Unit here!    Scroll down to see a sneak peek of this unit in my previous post!

However, the most FUN part of starting off my school year was reading my favorite Kevin Henkes books with my students.  I got the idea from Amy Lemons (my all-time favorite teacher blogger... I aspire to be like her someday!)  She posted some great links on her blog here!  I absolutely love all of Kevin Henkes stories, and the students LOVED them!

And now... it's time for September's Currently!  I'm linking up again with Farley from Oh Boy 4th Grade for her monthly LINKY PARTY!

Here's my CURRENTLY for this month.

1.  Listening:  It seems like I've always got Pandora on lately... I seriously don't know what I did before it existed!  I have a few stations I love to play at home -- like Amy Winehouse, Mayer Hawthorne, Duffy, or Empire of the Sun... at school, I love playing "Solo Piano", "Acoustic Guitar", or sometimes... when we're feeling fancy, a little "Opera Radio".  (We just read a story called Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea... and in the story, it mentioned how Mr. Putter and his cat Tabby would turn the opera up VERY LOUD and sing along... so we did it too!  Oh my gosh, they loved it.  It was so stinkin' cute!)

2.  Loving:  I am seriously in love with my old school Mr. Sketch Smelly Markers.  I read a post from a fellow TpT'er on Facebook about using them for her Daily 5 Anchor Charts, so I ran out and bought some. I really like the chisel tip -- it makes my writing much neater!  Added bonus - they smell delicious!  ;)

3.  Thinking:  About my endless list of chores that seems to grow and multiply while I sleep.  I know I'm not the only busy mom and teacher out there, so I'm not going to whine about it. It's just that Sundays are not really very restful around here... they're my day to make sure I'm all caught up on laundry, have groceries for the week's worth of lunches and dinners, and the house somewhat picked up. So, why am I sitting here blogging you ask?  Good point.  The answer...procrastination.  ;)  I'm really good at it.

4.  Wanting:  Someone to help with that endless list of chores!  My husband, Matt, is awesome and is very helpful when he's around.  However, it's football season and he's coaching local high school football... which means I'm on my own a lot more than usual.  Hiring a cleaning lady is on the top of my *wishlist!  Hopefully soon!  I can't even imagine how nice it would be to come home from work to a freshly cleaned house!  I want that!

5.  Needing:  To take some time for myself.  I was doing really great over the summer taking time for myself each day to exercise and eat healthy.  Now that I'm back to the daily grind of work, kids, homework, dinner, bath, bedtime... it's HARD to squeeze in any time for myself!  Add into that equation the fact that I'm trying to build products to add to my TpT store, and it's like I REALLY have zero time for myself.  But... I remember an exercise instructor I once had told me, "If you keep waiting for there to be EXTRA time to exercise, you'll never find it.  You have to build it into your day, and make it a priority to give yourself just ONE HOUR of time each day to exercise."  It really stuck with me... and although I haven't been putting it into practice lately, I know that if I don't make the time for myself, no one else will.

6.  This last one is a "Love Yourself" Spot:  I'm supposed to list a few things to do that will make my heart happy and make me a happier mom, wife, and teacher!  So... the first thing I'm going to do (that goes along with #5) is to make the time to work out each morning before work!  I am going to get myself out of bed right at 5:30... and replace my "SNOOZE BUTTON" for 20 minutes with exercise on my Elliptical!  I'm also going to take time to pack yummy, healthy lunches for myself.  Last on the list - a mani/pedi!  What better way to make a girl feel like a million bucks?

Thanks for stopping by!

Currently for August - Back to School Time!

So today was my first day back at work after a wonderfully perfect, relaxing summer at home with my family.  Thankfully, today was just a breakfast meeting with all of our school staff, and then our awesome new principal gave us the rest of the day to work in our rooms!  Gotta love that!

I'll post some before and after pics of my classroom when I get things finished, but for now - let me just tell you how much FUN it is to move your desks and chairs around to get your room set up!  At our school site (and most, I assume), they deep clean our rooms over the summer, and the maintenance crews basically just take everything and shove it into one corner of the room, stack all of the chairs into two ginormous chair towers, so they can thoroughly vacuum and shine up the floors.  I guess I should be happy my floors are sparkly, right?  It's just such a pain to move those desks around.  But I got it all done in an hour or so, and didn't stub any toes in the process.  Win!

Anyways, after a summertime sabbatical, I'm back to blogging  again!  I'm linking up with Farley at Oh Boy 4th Grade for her monthly "Currently" linky party!]

Here's what I'm CURRENTLY doing for August:

I'm LISTENING to Calvin Harris' new song, Thinking About You.  I love all types of music, but this one has been on repeat since I downloaded on iTunes the other day.  It just reminds me of my younger days and makes me wanna dance.  Good stuff!

I'm LOVING my new Essie nailpolish in Ballet Slippers.  I don't normally drop $8 on a bottle of nailpolish for myself, but I splurged at Target the other day and I'm so glad I did!  It's the perfect shade of a very light (almost white) pink.  So pretty!

I'm THINKING about how much fun I had this past weekend!  I left my hubby and kiddos for three days and went on an annual girls-only weekend to Palm Springs with some of my best friends!  We rented the most beautiful house with a pool and spent the weekend laughing, floating in the pool, sipping cocktails, going out to dinner, and dancing!  It was such a fabulous way to wrap up the end of my summer!  Can't wait until next year!





































I'm WANTING to snuggle up in my giant, cozy, California King-sized bed and watch some TV until I start to snooze... especially after sleeping in some not-so-cozy beds this weekend at the rental house.  There's just nothing like coming home and sleeping in your own bed!  Ahhh.... (snooooooore...)

I'm really NEEDING to pack lunches for my daughters to take to preschool tomorrow, but here I sit... listening to iTunes, blogging, and procrastinating.  Well, at least I'm blogging.  :)

My B2 Must-Haves:  

1.  TICONDEROGA PENCILS --- they are absolutely the BEST.  They sharpen beautifully and they last forever.  I especially like to get a few packs of the extra fat ones for my table group.  They are easy for the kids to write with, and they seriously last forever!  You only need to sharpen them once every few weeks!  I love that.

2.  EXPO markers in all colors of the rainbow!  I can't have enough of 'em!

3.   Back to School Activites and Printables!  I've been working on this little packet all summer and I'm pretty excited to share it with all of you!  It's got lots of great activities for 1-3 graders for the first few weeks of school.  Here's a little sneak peek! 

How to Create Larger Photos for TpT Products on Pinterest

I recently had another TpT seller ask me how I created my pins on Pinterest.  Like many people, she has just been pinning directly from her TpT store, creating very small photos that are too small to grab the attention of people who are scrolling through endless pins.  This was something I struggled with for a while too, but I recently discovered how to make larger photos and thought I'd share it with my fellow blog friends! 

To create larger, more eye-catching "Pin" photos for Pinterest, you need to follow these steps:

1. Use PowerPoint to create the layout of your pin, but first click on "Page Setup" and adjust the height to 22-27 inches (depending on how large you want your product). 
   
2. Then, your PowerPoint page should look like this:
   
3. Create your page layout as you would any other TpT product.  Here's an example of one of my recent creations. :)
   
   
4. Save the file as a jpeg.
    
5. Go to your Pinterest page and click on "Add Pin" 
   

6. 6.  Click on "From Computer"

7.  Once you choose your file (the jpeg you saved in Step 4), hover your mouse over your newly uploaded "Pin", and click on the little pencil (edit icon) on the upper right-hand corner of the photo.

8.  Go to your TpT product page and copy and paste the direct link to your product in the "Source" bar. 

And that's it!  It's a little complicated, but hopefully these photos will help!  It's definitely worth a little extra effort to make your Pinterest photos more noticeable!  Happy pinning! 

I LOVE SUMMER...(and a FREEBIE!)

I love summertime!  I usually only post about school-related stuff, but since I'm on vacation, I'll share a little about what I've been up to since we got out of school!  This past week has been full of slow and easy mornings, happy kids, a glorious cup (or two) of my delicious Keurig coffee, and absolutely nowhere to be!  Ahhh!  As a mom of four kids, this is my time to just relax and stay home with my little ones.  I haven't signed anyone up for swim lessons, day camps, or any other types of summertime activities.  To me, this is the one time of year when we can all just re-charge our batteries and do what we want, when we want!  Some of my favorite memories as a child are just those care-free summer days when all I had to do was get dressed and go outside to play all day in the sunshine!  I want my kids to have the same... so that's what we're doing, and let me tell ya -- it's wonderful!

Yep, our summer days sure have been busy!

So many ducks to feed, so little time...

Swinging and smiling!  Another summer day at the park! 

As you can see, I haven't been blogging much since my vacation started, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy working!  In between trips to the park, hanging out in the backyard blow-up pool, and making 462 snacks and lunches for my kids every day, I've been working on some new products for my TpT store!

In an effort to gain some more exposure, I've re-vamped my Spelling FREEBIE, and I'm re-posting it to share with all of YOU!  You can grab it in my TpT store here!

I've used these exact printables every week in my class for our daily spelling homework.  It's simple, easy, and fun for the students to use.  Here's a little peek, in case ya missed it the first time!  Enjoy! 

Super Dad Comics! So much fun!

My class and I had the best time making these little Superhero themed comic strips for Father's Day!  Before we began, we had a little discussion about Superhero comic books, what they look like and what kinds of words they use.  We talked about the original slogan for Superman...which goes something like, "Faster than a speeding bullet... more powerful than a locomotive... able to leap tall buildings in a single bound... it's a bird, it's a plane, no... it's SUPERMAN!"

Then, we got to work on some brainstorming for our own "Superdad" comic strips for Father's Day.  The students helped me think of some things that are FAST, and then we came up with sound word to go with it (to go inside the speech burst/bubble). (We added a few funny ones with a Father's Day theme... such as "a lawnmower" haha!)  Then, we got to work on making a list of things that are strong or powerful like our dads.  I cracked up when one of my students called out "a hammer!"  How perfect for Father's Day 

 

And here are a few of the finished products! 

 I love the facial expressions my student drew in this one!  Such a great imagination!

Currently for June...

I don't know how I missed this last month, but here we are in June and it's time for my CURRENTLY post!  I'm linking up with Farley's "Oh Boy 4th Grade" blog for this Linky Party.  If you haven't checked out her blog, you absolutely must!  It's so much fun!

And now... for my June currently...

 

1.  So... I'm currently listening to the hum of the computer.  It's been one of those days!  I finally had some time to upload a few new products onto TpT, so I thought I'd get on my blog and do some updating over here as well.  Here I am... many, many hours later... listening to this hummmmmmmmm of the computer.  It's actually quite annoying.  I need some music.

2.  I'm currently LOVING my class this year!  I am in denial that I'm going to have to say goodbye to those 32 adorable little faces on Thursday.  They have worked so hard and come so far this year, it's amazing!  We also put on a little play last week for parents and students, and I couldn't have been more proud of them.  There's nothing like that feeling of pride you feel when your students rise to the occasion and SHINE!  They were absolutely amazing!  

3.  I'm currently THINKING about all of the things I need to do this week before I lock up my classroom for the summer.  I'm sure you're all familiar with the endless amount of paperwork that the end of the year brings... well, I've been so busy with other things these past few weeks, I have barely started any of it.  I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm anxious to get it all done and check it off my "to do" list! 

4.  I'm currently WANTING to be done with this week so I can get a head start on my vacation!  This will be the first summer that I won't be working summer school in probably three or four years!  I'm so happy to be able to stay home and spend the summer lovin' on my family!  Woo-hoo!  xoxo

Here's my family!  Me, my awesome stepson Nicholas (who just graduated from high school on Friday!), my amazing husband, Matt, and our three littlest ones - Blake (8), Olivia (2), and Madeleine (4).  

5.  I'm currently NEEDING a break!  It's been a long haul these past few months, and after the craziness of school, kids, baseballs season, and end-of-year parties, graduations, and performances... this mama of four needs a little R&R!  Bring on the beach vacation!

6.  My 3 Vacay Esssentials:  For the first time in a few years, we are actually taking a real family vacation this year!  We've rented a cute little beach cottage in Santa Cruz and will be spending our days playing at the beach and Boardwalk, and relaxing and barbequing at the beach house at night!  So... for this little family vacay, my top 3 essential items are: 

1) Cute and comfy flip-flops 

2) A NEW pair of sunglasses (I'm totally going to treat myself to a new pair!) ;)

3) Lots of sunblock for the whole family.  I'm always lathering everyone up... so I'll be bringing a boat load of that, too. 

And... that about wraps it up!  Happy summer, everyone!  We're almost there!

It's a bird... it's a plane... it's SUPERDAD!

I'm SUPER excited about this fun little Father's Day unit featuring comic book style fonts and graphics!  We've got a week to go before Dad's special day... so my students and I will be working on some of these fun little projects as we wrap up our last week of school! 

Here's a little sneak peek! 

Students will be able to create their own little comic strip with dialogue and illustrations!  The unit also includes traditional Father's Day activities like "My Super Dad" fill in the blank pages, acrostic poems, and a Father's Day Coupon book!  You can find a link to it here!

If you were a fan of my Mother's Day printables in English and Spanish, then you'll want to check out this All About Dad unit!  Here's a peek for ya...

I had such great feedback from my Mother's Day unit in English and Spanish, that I decided to do one for Father's Day as well!  So many of you commented about how much your Spanish-speaking students enjoyed being able to create the same gifts as their English-speaking friends (and one that their parents would understand as well!)

I'm down to just four more school days (well, more like three and a half -- but who's counting?)  Can't wait to get back into blogging more regularly over the summer!  

Counting Down to the End of the Year!

I don't know about you all, but as much as I love my class... I'm so ready for this school year to be over!  This is the time of year when I tend to go into "panic mode".  There's so much to do, and so little time to get it all done!  Does your "to do" list sound anything like this?  Let's see... end-of-year fluency and math assessments, writing samples, entering scores into the computer (40 question test times 32 student), report cards, student cum files and all the paperwork that goes along with that, and cleaning and organizing my classroom.  On top of all that, we've got a field trip to a swimming pool next week, I've got a step-son graduating from high school (with a big graduation party here at our house), and we are also putting on a class play!  Needless to say, things are a little cRaZy!!!  I know I'm not alone here, so I'd love to hear from you all and how you're dealing with this end-of-year madness? 

On the bright side, once everything is done in my classroom, I can relax and enjoy the summer at home with my three little ones!  My kids are 8, 4, and 2, and this will be the first summer I have not worked summer school in years!  I can't wait!  I am so looking forward to SLEEPING IN (as much as my kids will let me), trips to the park, days at the beach, and a few little family getaways!  I'm also very excited to be able to spend more time blogging and working on my TpT store! 

So... just to let you know that I've actually been productive these past few weeks... here are a few pics from my classroom! 

Our Eric Carle inspired collage projects!  This took over a week of sketching, painting, and cutting, but I'm so happy with how they turned out! 

Working on our Mother's Day projects!

All ready for Open House. 

Working on our Pocketful of Poems unit.  We brainstorm ideas and write our "rough draft" in our student journals first!

Second Grade Memories - A Layered Flip Book

I thought I'd share another crafty idea with you while we're all in end-of-the-year project mode!  Layered flip books are another one of my favorite little projects to make for Open House.  They're easy to make and fun to read!  The key is making each page one inch longer than the previous page, so that the finished product looks like this:



























I used to make these all the time, but the tricky part was cutting the pages to fit!  I love the look of the rainbow colored flip book (on the right), but the one with titles (bottom right) is also a lot of fun!  My students are working on these layered books right now.  I've already copied and cut the pages, and I've been handing out only one page at a time.  We take time to brainstorm ideas for each page, and I usually write a few examples on the board before I let them go at it on their own.  My students have been keeping their completed pages in their class work folder (in their desk), to work on them when they have extra time.  When we've completed all the pages, I will show them how to assemble them in order, and then whip around the room with my handy stapler and voila!  A lovely memory book for the end of the school year! 

To make things easier for you, I've created a ready made memory flip book for Second Grade here (this unit also includes a traditional, full-size memory book template).  I've also created one for First Grade, which you can grab here, as well as  a traditional, full sized memory book for First Grade here, if you want something simple!

Making Lemonade out of State Testing

State testing time is here!  We began our first official test day today, and I'm proud to say that we all survived.  Getting 32 students to take an hour long test independently is no cake walk.  But... they did their best, and that's all I can ask for, right?  One testing day down, only five more to go.  We can DO this! 

One of the things I like about our two weeks of testing is that we have some time in the afternoons to work on special projects.  Our Open House is coming up in less than three weeks, so I've made a to-do list of projects to have completed by then.

Open House To-Do List:

1. Animal Research Report and Diorama:  We started researching our animals in the computer lab this week, and most students were also able to find books about their animals from the library.  The rest of their project is to be done at home.  I'm not giving regular homework these next few weeks, so they all have plenty of time to work on their projects.  If you didn't already grab my freebie Animal Research Report Poster, you can grab it here  You can also grab my Animal Diorama and Research Report Project Pack which has everything you need to do this project with your students!  You can hop on over to TpT and grab that here! 
2. Poetry Books:  We are still finishing up our poetry lessons from April!  We are in the revising and rewriting phase, but we're on our way!  The students have completed several Acrostic Poems, an All About Me Poem, Cinquain, Haiku, and a Five Senses Poem!  These lessons and printables are all included in my Pocketful of Poems Unit, which you can find here. 
3. Eric Carle Art Project:  This project is a big one, and takes several days to complete, but I've done it for the past two years with my classes and I'm always so thrilled with the results.  We will be making our own collages in the style of Eric Carle.  This means we'll be painting different colors on paper, and then cutting the paper to make a collage.  For inspiraction, I've been reading lots of different Eric Carle books over the past month.  We're keeping track of our stories on a chart, so the students can think about each story and the different kinds of pictures that were in it.  I think the overall class favorite so far is The Grouchy Ladybug, ("Hey YOU, wanna fight?"  My kiddos LOVE that part!  Ha ha!)  I'll be posting about this project soon as well.  It's a big one, but so much fun and so worth all the mess! 
4. Second Grade Memories Layered Flip Book:  This little project is so much fun to make.  It's a memory book where the pages are cut in different lengths so that each page gets bigger by one inch.  This makes it fun to flip from page to page!  I'll be making a post of this one soon!  I've also got this little project available on TpT, and like everything else in my store - it's on SALE for 20% off until tomorrow night!  You can find this memory flip book here

I have some other things on my list of to-do's -- like taking their pictures for an "I wish"  bulletin board display.  I discovered this idea on Pinterest last year, and it turned out so great!  I'll be doing it again, and I'll be sharing it on here as well. 

Until then, have a fabulous week and be sure to check out TpT for their Teacher Appreciation Day SALE going on today and tomorrow!  My entire store is on sale 20% off, and I have a BRAND NEW surprise product on sale for 50% off that would be a great way to wrap up the school year in your literacy centers!  Check it out HERE!

Teaching Special Thinkers Giveaway!

I'm super excited to be a part of my very fist giveaway!  Gabrielle at Teaching Special Thinkers is having a "Final Countdown Giveaway" to help you pumped up for summertime!  It's jam-packed with over 50 products for grades K-2!  There's also a separate prize for grades 3-6, and one for Special Education!    Just scroll down a bit to find the RAFFLE COPTER so you can enter to win!  Woohoo! 

Be sure to check it out!  You don't want to miss out on all these awesome prizes!  

I've donated my "Springtime Fun" unit to this giveaway - you might remember it from last month! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Animal Diorama-rama and a FREEBIE!

It's that time of year again!  Open House season is here and we are busily working on projects to share with our parents on our big night.  One of the big projects my students will be working on is their Animal Diorama and Research Report.  This was something I did for the first time last year, and it was a HIT!

I got this idea after my son had to make a diorama for his first grade class last year.  We had so much fun creating his animal diorama as a family project, that I decided it was something I had to do with my class too! I brought the idea up to my second grade team, and they were all very excited about it... so we went for it!  We decided to give the assignment the week before STAR testing.  Since we wouldn't be giving homework during the two weeks of testing, that would give students more time to research, gather materials, and work on their projects. Students had about three weeks to complete their projects.  We decided to have the students bring in their completed dioramas the day before Open House.  We were thrilled with the results!  

Here are a few student samples from last year:

Along with this diorama project, our students will also be completing an Animal Research Report poster with information and illustrations, as well as a writing assignment and an oral presentation.  Our students will be getting both a Science and Language Arts grade for this project.

I'm offering my Animal Research Report poster as a FREEBIE on TpT!  Here's a sneak peek:

You can grab it here.  Animal Research Report Poster

If you're looking for everything needed to do this Animal Diorama project with your class, take a peek at my Animal Diorama and Research Report Project Pack!  It's got everything you'll need in one convenient spot!  Last year, I struggled to find examples of dioramas online to show my students, so I've included detailed photo samples of my own students' projects, as well as a step-by-step presentation for your students.


Here's a preview of all of the goodies included in this project pack!

In addition to the Animal Research Report Poster and step by step presentation for your students (which can be projected onto your Smartboard or other type of computer projector), I've also included a student-friendly rubric with grading expectations for all aspects of this project, as well as a grading rubric for teachers to use when giving final grades for this project, student instruction sheet, writing template for research report, and a presentation outline to help guide students on what to focus on for their oral presentation.  It's everything I struggled to put together last year for this project in one convenient place!