Back from Disney in time for the sale!!

I hope you had a relaxing Thanksgiving! We spent ours in Disneyland! 

I loved the family bonding time. We played a lot of Heads Up and Mads Libs. My smarty pants kids were trying to top each other coming up with high caliber vocabulary suggestions. It did make the game more entertaining and reminded me that I should try it with my 2nd graders.

We also had a lot of fun searching for hidden Mickeys though out the park. 

 Here is a pic of one we found.

Anyway, I got home just in time to ready my store for the big TpT sale. Everything will be 20% off!

This is the perfect time to try one of my best sellers:

Sight Word Superstars

gradebook checklists

or I have lots of math games, book club packets, and craftivities!

Turkeys cuteness and FREEBIES!

The turkey disguise project was a big hit again this year! 

My 2nd graders are finishing up their stories to explain how these disguises saved them from being eaten and I am quite pleased with their writing.

My firsties wrote How to Cook a Turkey this week. These are always good for a chuckle. You can grab the FREEBIE HERE.

"But I am a vegetarian so I don't like turkey. Yuck!"

Did you know you catch a turkey with a spear?

Who knew a frozen turkey only takes an hour to cook at 24 degrees!

Grilled turkey! We live in California so I guess that is possible. Salad inside the turkey is a  new one to me.

 We also made noun turkeys with a person, place, or thing written on each feather.

This week my students will use my Thanksgiving Noun QR center that I uploaded as a FREEBIE.

These cards are taped up around the room. The students walk around reading the sentences. They identify the nouns and write them on the recording sheet next to the matching picture. 

 When they are finished they get an iPad and scan the QR code to check their answers. My students love these centers so I hope yours do too!

In sad news, we did have to say goodbye to our cat, Kobi. It hit me a lot harder than I expected it to and feels like I lost a family member. I was a mess that day at school but my first graders (who knew all about my cats) were very sweet, gave me a group hug, and made me presents in art class. Love those cuties!

Turkey Informative Reading and Writing and a Giveaway

Do you have a hard time finding informational books about turkeys? I sure did so I compiled many turkey facts into a new informative reading and writing packet.

I am going to project this while we read it as a class but you could also print it and make it into a book.

Since we have been learning about text features, I made sure I included a table of contents, headings, map, labels, bold print, captions, and a glossary.

I included different ways to have students record their information, 

depending on if you use thinking maps

 or prefer a schema chart.

There are different versions of this organizer

and many different paper options.

It is all CCSS aligned.

To go check out out click HERE.
I am going to give a copy away on my Facebook page so hop over there for a chance to win!

Good vs. Evil: An Antonym Game

I made a review game for my 2nd graders to practice identifying antonyms.

The student scans the QR code on the card to see if they got the correct answer and get to move forward one space.

 I also included positive and negative fate cards based on the movies.

Between the Star Wars theme and using the iPads it got a double thumbs up! You can grab a copy HERE in my store for only $3.

Leave me a comment with the link to your pin and I will pick someone to send a copy of this game to.

You could play the game without the checking the answers with the QR codes if you don't have access to technology.

Diction-fairy Costume

I was  a Diction-fairy for Halloween yesterday. I saw it on Pinterest and thought it was clever.

I got my hands on an old dictionary and took it apart. I cut feathers from the pages and glued them on wings I made from poster board.

 I glued the dictionary cover to the back and drilled holes for the ribbon that I tied into arm loops.

I made the tutu by rolling 2 dictionary pages at a time. I hot-glued them to some ribbon. I chose to do 3 layers so the skirt would look fuller. If I had to do it again I would have put some velcro on the back of the ribbon so I could have overlapped the ends a bit. Tying the bow was quick and easy like I wanted but it did leave a little gap.

Happy Halloween!

Spider Informational Writing and a Craft

I had a request to put all my spider informational writing into a packet so I did.

I included book suggestions and templates for either schema anchor charts like I posted about yesterday or circle maps like I used last year.

As I said yesterday, I chose to use my hamburger paragraph planning sheet this year but I included the same type I used last year and that is in my bats unit.

 I also included 3 different paper types: primary lined, dotted lines, and intermediate lined.

And we all love the craft to put up with our writing so I included those templates also.

You can grab it in my store HERE for only $3!

Informative Reading and Writing and a FREEBIE

Sorry for the long absence. My oldest kitty (17 years old next month) is not doing well. She will only eat if we hand feed her and it looks like her kidneys are failing. We have had her longer than our kids so it is hard to consider that she may not be with us much longer. :-(

So let's catch up...
We are working on informative reading and writing.

 My first graders read all about bats and I have a unit aligned with Common Core if you are interested.

My 2nd graders are reading about spiders.

This year I used my hamburger paragraph unit to introduce informative writing.

We talked about different options for the topic sentence and conclusion and they filled in their own facts. I think scaffolding is very important in writing. The next assignment I will ask them to write two sentences for each juicy detail and gradually provide less support as they get better at coming up with topic sentences on their own.

It's official. My windows have become teaching walls. The students are getting really good at identifying text features. I love when they come to show me they found one in a book they are reading!

posters by Deana with 2 additions made by me

My second graders did a little writing activity, highlighting the proper nouns they used and made the pumpkins free hand.

Here they are hung up with the first graders Where's My Mummy projects.  My favorite response this year was, "When I get scared, my mummy let's me sleep with her and my daddy sleeps in my bed."

Could you use a fun math activity this week? 

My 2nd graders will be practicing making nouns ending in y plural this week.

Have you grabbed my Halloween ABC order FREEBIE?

I'm off to work on my Halloween costume. Do you have yours ready for Friday?