Ice Cream Tsunami & June Freebie Pack

Today was one of those busy, busy days when you blink and suddenly the day is over.  It started with Ice Cream Day.  Ice Cream Day is a "big" deal in my room.  The kids look forward to it right after they take their stocking down at Christmas.  We do ice cream themed-things all day long.  Ice cream graph, ice cream how-to, ice cream books, ice cream bingo, ice cream craftivity, ice cream writer's workshop, ice cream grammar review...you name it and I probably crammed it into today. 

We also made our own ice cream-in-a-bag! Yum!

...Did I mention yet that it was raining during this time?

....so we had to shake 21 bags of ice, rock salt, milk, and sugar in our classroom?

Well, it was raining during this time and we had to shake 21 bags of ice in our classroom. 

After lots of paper towels, an awesome parent volunteer, and a donation of a mop from our wonderful custodian, all was well again in our room.   The kids loved the experience of making their own homemade ice cream.  I really wish I had pictures to share with you, but the tsunami of water that was whipping around my head from the shaking bags made me a little terrified to take out my camera.  I'm glad tomorrow's theme is Beach Day.  Our room could use a little sunshine to dry up the flood. 

Last night I created my June Word Builders Freebie Pack to share with you.  Click the picture below to jump to my TPT store and download this for *free!* 

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Learning,

Huge Giveaway!

I'm excited to be part of a huge giveaway that Rachel, over at A-B-Seymour, is hosting for recently hitting 200 followers.  She's gathered some big names to give away some awesome products to one lucky winner!  Click {HERE} or click Rachel's button below to head over and enter this great giveaway!

Here's a list of all of the bloggers who are included in Rachel's 200 Follower Giveaway!  Hurry!  Her giveaway ends this Wednesday, May 30th at midnight! :)

Wednesday's Pinterest Pick of the Week, Randomness, & Another Freebie! :)

Breathe in. Breathe out.

This is me, attempting to meditate.  Relax?  I'm not very good at that.  I have a hard time taking time out for myself.  I'm assuming this is not very healthy in the long run.  Once, I thought I would try by taking a yoga class.  I fell asleep and woke up to a very old yoga instructor telling me class had ended 10 minutes ago. I've never been back. 

6 more days to pack up my classroom and well...I am working at the pace of a snail. Tomorrow, I may put a pencil away and if I have time I'll move my stapler to the bottom drawer of my desk.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Before I share my Pinterest Pick of the Week, I have a funny story to share with you.  I teach and preach respectful listening in my classroom.  My eyes turn red when one of my students talks while a friend is sharing.  My kids use the same quiet chants as I do to get their friends' attentions at the carpet.  Today, one of my little sweeties wanted to share a story at the end of the day.  Two boys beside her were chatting up a storm about an Angry Birds character.  I watched as the little girl's eyes kept darting at them while she tried to tell her story. Wait for it...I told myself.  She's about to flip.  She finally spoke up.  "Excuse me you two over there in the corner!!  I am trying to share a story and you are interrupting my concentration."  At that moment, another little boy beside her decided to say "Ohhhh you two just got served!"  

I lost it.  Laughter.  More laughter.  I'm going to miss my kids.  :)

 For Wednesday's Pinterest Pick of the Week...

The Tattle Telephone! How great is this idea?!  This is going in my classroom next year.  The kids can "Press 1" to leave a message and tell their tattle to an "answering machine."  A great way for them to "get their tattles out" in a quick way. (Not that I praise tattling but sometimes I think their little minds just need to "vent" and tell someone what happened...just for the sake of telling it.)  I found it on Katie and Sarah's adorable blog, K-1 Teaching Besties.  If you haven't stopped by, you need to check it out! They have some really great ideas! 

Happy Learning,

Picture Discussions & Freebie!

I'm sorry it has almost been an entire week since I last blogged!  I have never gone that long since I joined this little corner of the internet.  I got back late last night from a girl's weekend in NYC!  I was a little too busy to blog because I was shopping and eating out at super cute little restaurants in Little Italy and Soho (my two favorite areas downtown.  I love the little boutiques!) Anyways, can you blame me?!  Let's just say I have some amazing bridesmaids! :)  We had so much fun. By Sunday, however, my feet were sore from walking thousands of blocks around the city and I was definitely missing my puppy, Weston!

Of course, like any true teacher, I took every advantage of making my little trip into a learning experience for my students when I returned today!  You know you're a teacher when you take pictures of your trip specifically to teach or reinforce a concept to your kiddos when you get back.  Have you ever done this? Or am I just that strange?  You won't hurt my feelings. I promise.

I took this picture from the airplane on the way home.  As we gathered around the carpet this morning, I showed them the picture and launched a discussion on clouds ("Think back to our weather unit and tell me what kind of cloud you think this is?") , evaporation, condensation, and of course what it was like to fly on an airplane because most of my little ones have not experienced this before.  

We also had the privilege of visiting the new National September 11 Memorial.  It was beautiful, meaningful, and extremely touching to see and experience.  They did a truly remarkable job at this project.  Here are some pictures I took:

When we remembered 9/11 earlier in the school year, it was very difficult for my students to comprehend or understand what had happened.  Many of them knew the story because their parents told them.  Others had seen pictures on the news and the TV.  We did discuss 9/11 in my room  because the announcements at our school mentioned it and played a video to help the kids understand better.  So, it was nice to be able to show them these pictures and help them understand that our country is remembering 9/11 in a very special way with these memorial pools.  I was surprised by how grown-up some of my students' chose to talk about the pictures.  One of them told me that "now families can go there to be near them and love them."  Another one told me the flowers in the picture were "a way of showing respect."  My students amaze me at times and it was a very powerful and beautiful discussion in our little second grade classroom today! 

Because it has been nearly a week since my last post, I've included a freebie for you to grab below.  This comes from my End of the Year Writing Pack.  I was so excited that it made the top 100 list last week!  You can find the entire writing pack in my TPT store by clicking {HERE}.

Click the picture below to download and grab this freebie. It would be a fun morning work activity or it could be used as a planning page for an end-of-year writing prompt. 

  

Thanks for sticking around while I was MIA!  I am going to go watch The Bachelorette, grade papers, and think about the millions of things I need to start packing in my classroom this week. 

Happy Learning,

My Teacher Is Missing! Sub Plan Pack *freebie*

I have a few days coming up where I will have a sub for my kiddos.  To some people, a sub day equals relaxation and a day off.  To me, it equals "What in the world am I going to have them do all day?" I.hate.writing.sub.plans.

I decided to create an easy unit of learning that could be used on a sub day!  It has 15 different activities for your kiddos to complete with their sub, all with a magician theme! I'm using this next week with my kids while I am doing a Fundations training for new teachers. In one of the activities, the kids have to write a story about what they think their teacher is doing on his or her day off.  Hmm...this will be interesting reading!  Haha I can only imagine what my second graders are going to come up with!  It also has activities to use with the book Miss Nelson Is Missing, word work and writing activities, individual and partner math activities, and much more!

Here's a preview of my latest product.  You can grab it on TPT by clicking {HERE}. 

I am also giving away this entire sub plan pack FREE to the first 5 followers who leave a comment! :) Leave your email address so that I can send it to you.

If you don't make the first five comments, you can still feel like a winner by grabbing the freebie from this pack below! :)  Click the picture to download the Missing Teacher freebie poster. 

I'm off to fill out 3,452 assessment scores (okay, not that many) on pink folders in order to cross something off my to-do list tonight.  :)

Happy Learning,

My Summer Bucket List! What are YOU doing this summer?!

I decided to link up with Hadar, April, and Teri's newest party: Summer Bucket List Linky Party! 

To be honest, I am usually somewhat of an over-achiever by this point in the school year.  In past years, I have already laminated and cut half of my theme "stuff" out by now, copied papers I will need for folders next year, and even filed away the first two weeks of printables I would use.  But with everything going on in my life right now I have not done anything for next year yet. (Well, I did create a new word wall and I've  pulled back out all of my first grade stuff.)

That being said, I will have A LOT to do this summer.  Here's my little bucket list. :)

1) Get Married

This is the bouquet I picked out with my florist!) 

2) Enjoy my week-long honeymoon in Punta Cana

3) Read these new books that I've bought and are ready to be opened.

I always pick at least one to two educational books to digest each summer. Last summer, I went with a writing theme and read Tony Stead's Is That a Fact? and No More I'm Done by Jennifer Jacobson.

These are my two books for this summer:

4) Create, organize, and store all new first grade math games for Daily 3 (independent & partner games. Probably not this many though!).

5) Garage-Sale Shop to find  & make these adorable guided reading stools! 

6) Create a "Treasure Chest" that does not entail me to purchase and buy things for it throughout the year. Love this idea of random rewards my students can pick with their "behavior coins"

7) Sleep, Sleep, Sleep!

What are YOU doing this summer?!  Link up by clicking {HERE}.  

Happy Learning,

Ladybug Arrival & Nonfiction Board Games!

Monday was a very exciting day in second grade!  We returned from the weekend to find out that our ladybugs had arrived!  All ten ladybugs had emerged from their pupas over the weekend. We had a lot of fun observing them, learning about them, and writing about them!  

Yesterday, it was time to say goodbye to our little spotted friends.  We took them out into the yard and waited for them to fly out of their "ladybug land."  

We waited.










                    And we waited.








                                                   And we waited.




Once it started to rain, it was time to take mother nature into my own hands.  The kids were a bit horrified as I violently shook the little ladybugs out of their home and they came tumbling onto the grass.  (They are actually tough little critters - they were just fine!) Finally - they were free!! We wished them good luck and watched them fly and crawl away. :)


Our ladybugs were a source of all kinds of informational writing over the past two weeks! Instead of a typical "report" or book that we might often do, I decided to switch up our writer's workshop this week with an alternative project. 

We each created Nonfiction Board Games!  Ohh my, this was SO fun!! The kids had a blast.  They had to each create 14 true or false cards to go with their games. Each card had to have a true or false statement or fact on something we learned about ladybugs.  This was also a follow-up to our fact or opinion mini-lessons that we completed last week.  

After they created their cards, they had to write a set of directions for their board games.  Wow! This was very difficult for some of my kiddos.  I was challenging them by reading their directions aloud and asking them all kinds of questions: "Well...how do I win your game...?" "What if I get the question wrong? You didn't tell me what to do..."    :) They finally got the hang of this and the result?  Description & lots of details!  Yay!! 

 After they wrote directions, it was time to create our board games! They were so proud of their nonfiction creations.  I noticed many of my students starting new nonfiction board games this afternoon.  Most of them were creating their new cards on the animal they wrote their ABC book about.  (Read about my ABC books by clicking HERE.) It was a great way to practice writing facts and putting information in their own words. 

Tomorrow morning we will be playing each other's board games and then taking them home for the weekend to share with our families. Who said nonfiction writing has to be boring?! 

Thanks for stopping by and visiting! I am off to grade some quarterly math tests and prepare a bit for a common core pacing meeting tomorrow.

:) Happy Learning, 

New Writing Unit & Freebie! :)

16.Days.Left.

This week is crazy-busy! Tonight through Saturday, I am running cheerleading try-outs.  I got home tonight around 8:00pm, collapsed on my couch, and I have finally forced myself to get some work done.  I'll be spending the rest of the evening grading AIMSweb Math Benchmarks and writing dozens of thank you cards from my bridal shower this past Sunday (which was beautiful by the way!!  I have an amazing aunt!!).  

Tonight is the end of the TPT sale, so I wanted to celebrate the success by sharing with you my latest TeachersPayTeachers product, an End-of-Year Writing Pack! I'm excited to use this with my kiddos that last full of week of school to bring some fun and memories into our writing time.  It is packed with over 15 different end of the year writing activities and prompts to use with your students.  You can find it in my TPT shop by clicking {HERE}   :)

I'm giving this newest unit away to the first 10 followers of my blog to leave a comment. :) Be sure to leave your e-mail address in order for your comment to count!  

If you aren't quick enough to snag the free unit, here is a *freebie* from the writing pack that you can use! :)  Click the picture below to download the PDF.  Enjoy!

I'm off to catch up on Dance Moms and grade.  Oh yeah, and did I mention?  16.More.Days.  That's it. 16.

Happy Learning,

Shop Til' You Drop! Teacher Appreciation Day Sale :)

If you haven't heard the exciting news yet you are either 1) Living under a rock or 2) Living under a rock.  There is a HUGE Teacher Appreciation Day sale going on over at Teachers Pay Teachers starting tomorrow, Sunday, May 6th and running through Tuesday, May 9th!  Is your shopping cart filled up?!


*Everything* in my TPT store will be marked down 20% off!  And, you can enter the TPT code:  TAD12 and receive an additional 10% off already reduced items!  

Click the picture below to jump to my store:

Here's some pictures of my best selling store items.  Grab your copies May 6th - May 9th while they're on sale!  Click the picture to take you straight to the product. Use them for the rest of this year or stash them away for next year. :)  

Have fun!! Happy Shopping,

ABC Nonfiction Books & May Currently

Last week, I explained my ABC nonfiction books that my second graders were working on.  Wow did they learn a lot about informational writing and about their animal!  {Click here} to read about how we started our ABC books and grab the planning page I posted as a freebie. 


I wanted to share some pictures with you on how their ABC informational books turned out.  I am really proud of their hard work.  We'll be displaying them in a bookshelf in our school library next week for students throughout the school to read and enjoy.  These are some random pictures of pages within their books. Take a look!


F is for Fish:

S is for Snakes:

I was blown away by the detail they put into their books and the great illustrations.  Many of the students even added a table of contents, labels, captions, and one student even put a glossary at the end of her book!  

I also linked up with Farley over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her May Currently linky party.  

Head over to Farley's blog to grab your May Currently copy and join the linky party fun! :)

Tomorrow we're going on a field trip to a farm to learn about life long ago.  I am hoping the rain and storms hold off until we get back to school.  Keep your fingers crossed! Have a great Friday! :) 

Happy Learning,