Just a few pics

I am working on a few new book club packets but they aren't quite done. In the meantime, I thought I'd show you how our groundhogs turned out.

 Of course some of the girls had to add eyelashes! LOL.

 The second graders wrote about what they love. My new school provides thematic stationary so our monthly writing for the portfolios always looks nice.

 I am so pleased at how their cursive in looking!

We will celebrate Valentine's Day on Wednesday since we have a PD day on Thursday. The art teacher has them make their bags. They pass the cards out in my room, we have a school-wide assembly and then a party organized by the parents in the afternoon. It is still hard to get my head around not being responsible for anything. I'll try to remember to take some pics this time.

Okay, back to trying to work while I watch the Olympics! I am looking for some books that are 4th grade level but not too mature for 2nd graders.  So far I have Fantastic Mr. Fox and Stone Fox. Do you have suggestions?

100th Day, Freebies and a Sale!

Did you have celebrate 100th Day yet? My new school is departmentalized so I am still getting used to the changes this means for me. I miss teaching math and was a little sad to not be part of most of the 100th Day fun. Since I teach Language Arts, I was still able to do my favorite 100 Year Old writing that I have posted about before. Here a few shots the cuties made this year.

Next week we will be reading The Day it Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond.

I put together a packet on common and proper nouns which includes a tree map and a bulletin board idea

Sale  $1.60

plus templates for this craft that is also a sorting activity.

My students will also use this Read the Room activity for Word Work.

Sale $1.12

This ABC Order center is FREE.

Monday we will talk about how Phil the groundhog saw his shadow this morning so we will have 6 more weeks of winter. Could use use a FREE groundhog pattern? I posted this last year. 

Click HERE to get the template.

Paper from Teacher Bits and Bobs

Finally, I have decided to throw a Superbowl sale today in my TpT store since I bet many of us will have our laptops out during the game. I watch the commercials more than the game to be honest.

Thanks to Teaching in the Tongas for the cute graphic.

I am going off my diet today to enjoy some Superbowl snacks. Hope you have a fun day!

It is getting harder to keep up with blogging, especially if you wonder if anyone is reading anymore. The comments seem to be less these days. Maybe the traffic is all over at Facebook?

Dreams that made me smile

Congrats to Karyn Wilbur on winning my new Adjective Penguin QR Center! 

You can grab yourself a copy for only $2 HERE.

I read Martin's Big Words to my firsties this week. It was so sweet how outraged they were at the unfair treatment.

Then we brainstormed big dreams they had for today's world. The list was similar to past years, no war, stop littering, etc. but some of the responses did remind me that the kids in this school have some different life experience.

One said, "I have a dream that everyone will donate to the SPCA." I think that may be because the brownie troop collected blankets for them.

 But these two made me wonder what the conversion is like around the dinner table...

"I have a dream that people will stop testing creams on animals."

"I have a dream that stocks will go up. Stocks are in trouble!"

My husband had the terrible flu this week but so far my boys and I haven't caught it. Crossing my fingers that stays the case this week! Have a great week everyone!

Catching Up

I took a blogging break during the holidays. We had EVERYONE at our house which was great but a little crazy and exhausting! Then report cards were due and I had Open House to prepare for... You know how it is.

Here's a quick update:
I had my students decorate candle holders with fingerprint snowmen for their parent present.

Yes, they were glass but we only lost one and had time to make another. I did wrap them in bubble wrap to make sure they made it home. They were so proud to take them home.

Last week, we wrote New Year's Resolutions.


 
My second graders used the word resolve and wrote in cursive to differentiate.

My first graders are focusing on adjectives this week. We read Tacky the Penguin and brainstormed a list of adjectives to describe Tacky.

Then each student picked an adjective and wrote me 2 sentences explaining how Tacky fit that adjective.

I've posted a Tacky craft in previous years but this year I needed something smaller and less time-consuming. Tammy over at Live, Love, Laugh, Everyday in Kindergarten was nice enough to share her Tacky patterns so I shrunk them by 50% and copied the shirt and tie on scrapbook paper. I found the writing paper by Moore Fun in Kindergarten.

I also made an Adjective Penguin QR Center.

The students read the sentence and identify the adjectives.

 I post the cards around the room and the students use clipboards to write their answers on their recording sheet.

When their recording sheet is full, the students get an iPad to scan the QR code to check their work.

Enter below to win a copy! Or you can grab a copy for only $2 in my store.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I feel totally out of the blogging/selling loop. Any interesting news I should know about?

Pronoun QR Code Center Giveaway

My kids are begging for more QR Code Centers so I made a Gingerbread themed one for pronouns.

I use mine as a Read the Room so I tape up the cards.

The students walk around with a clipboard and a recording sheet. In this center they will read the sentence and replace the underlined words with a subject pronoun.

When the recording sheet is full, the student gets an iPad and goes around scanning the QR codes to check their work. I really like this immediate feedback that doesn't usually happen in centers.

This center is only $2 in my TpT store. I thought we'd try a Pin It to Win It game for the giveaway this time.  I added the second option of following my TpT store in case some of you aren't on Pinterest so you can still play. Enter via the rafflecopter widget below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I am finding with my smaller bulletin boards and a portfolio requirement at this new school, I am reworking some of my old projects.

This Santa's Stuck project (original idea from Cara) now fits on a single piece of construction paper.
Sadly, I had to forgo  the shaving cream & glue snow since it needs to be laminated for their book. :-(

" If Santa was stuck I would call workers to come ad make my chimney bigger."

And the one that made me laugh out loud.... "If Santa was stuck in my chimney I would bring a treadmill to the chimney so Santa can work out and then when he's not so fat he can get out."

I'm off to Goodwill to see if I can find an ugly Christmas sweater for a party tonight!