Tuesday, January 29, 2013

GIVEAWAY!

Hello friends!  I just wanted to pop in and let you know about a HUGE GIVEAWAY going on at Keepin' It Kool in Kinder!  She is celebrating reaching 100 followers on her blog!  I hope to soon follow in her footsteps.  Congrats girly!  Please stop by and enter for your chance to win some truly amazing products, including my very own Math Path fact fluency kit. 

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Musical Chairs

It's not just for birthday parties or church functions!  Musical chairs is a sure way to get kids up and moving, jamming to some Lady Gaga Up-tempo Jazz, all while practicing a skill of your choice.  All you need are chairs, music and white boards with markers.  Just this week, we practiced our phonograms with Musical Chairs.  Everyone has a chair, because the goal is to PRACTICE, not body slam your classmates to get a chair!  So, I played the music, everyone scattered to find a seat once the music stopped.  Then it was pure silence and eyes on me as they waited to hear the sound(s) I was about to say.  I'd say 'ed',  'd',  't' for example, and they quickly wrote down  "ed" and held up their white boards for a quick thumbs up from me! We do not move on until every student has something on their white board.  Towards the end of the session, we write words using those phonograms.  So, I would say write a word using the 1st sound of "ed".  I have used this activity when practicing fact families, money, vocabulary words etc.  It's pretty much adaptable to any concept you are working on.  The kids love it!!  I included a couple of pics from the other day.  












Saturday, January 19, 2013

Pudgy Stations

Is there anyone out there who needs a break from all the "holiday" themed activities?  I feel like if I see another snowman or snowflake, I'm gonna scream!  Maybe that's because I'm in the desert, and I will never see one of those in real life!  Anyhow, I have the perfect cure!  Check out these lovely work stations using the absolutely adorable Pudgy Animals from 3am teacher.  It was love at first sight!  My kids get a kick out of these little chunks!  In this packet there are 5 stations for literacy, and 5 for math.  Check out a couple of my FAVORITES for LITERACY:

 
 
 
AND FOR MATH
 
 
 


 
 

 
PLUS MANY MORE AWESOME ACTIVITIES! 
This item, plus many others are on sale this weekend in my TPT store.  I will be giving away 10 of these to the 1st ten followers who comment below with your email address!  Have a great day!
 
 




Friday, January 18, 2013

Pin the tie on MLK

Who is ready for a 3 day weekend?  ME! ME! ME!  So, as we did our study on Martin Luther King, the kids were amazed and shocked at the way things "used" to be.  It's hard for them to wrap their little brains around such hatred.  But thankfully, we are (for the most part) past that ignorance.  I recently purchased the American Heroes packet , from Teacher to the Core and can I just say, I LOVE IT!  It is jammed pack with fluency passages, many activities and cool craftivities for several of the heroes.     Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the little MLK's the kids made yesterday, with the facts they learned, before they took them home.  However, with MY model, one of my super creative students suggested that we play "Pin the tie on MLK" today for a Friday fun station.  Brilliant!  It was hilarious!   Please excuse all the staples in the background!! 
 
 
This amazing packet also includes a timeline which we started this week.  We added Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and yours truly.
 
 
 

 The kids are anxious to know who we are studying next.  Have a great weekend everyone! 


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Monkey Love

I would like to start with showing you one of my featured products on TPT.  It is filled with some wonderful language and  math activities, and LOTS of cute monkeys! 




First up is Show me the Money, where students match a given value to an item of that price!  We just started money in my room, and its going pretty well so far! 








Words with multiple meaning have had a few of my kids stumped this year.  Everything is all good if they are asked to state two or more meanings of a word.  But, when its time to choose which meaning matches the context of the word in a sentence, they can't!  So I created this cute little game board and cards for them to practice. 


There are two other activities not shown on this page in the product.  You can find it, plus more in my store!  Check it out!


I have arrived!

Hello everyone!  I am brand spankin' new to blogging!  I follow (stalk) MANY blogs, and I'm anxious to start connecting with educators from all over!  I have been teaching 2nd grade since 2007 and I love it!  It's the perfect age group.  I hope to bring some new ideas to you, and snatch up some of yours as well.  Come join me on this ride :)