600 follower giveaway

In celebration of 600 followers, I am having an awesome giveaway. I will choose 6 winners.
Here's what you can win:

*One person will win a $20 gift certificate to TPT.

*Two people will win a $10 gift certificate to TPT.
*Four people will be able to choose any item from my TPT store.

You can enter 6 different ways. Be sure to leave your email address with each comment. I'm going to be a stickler on this one. The giveaway will end on Saturday, March 3rd at midnight eastern time. I will announce a winner on Sunday, March 4th.

(1)  Follow my blog. (1 entry)

(2) Follow my TPT store or Teacher's Notebook store. (1 entry)

(3) Like me on Facebook. (1 entry)

(4) Add my new button to your blog (2 entries ..leave a separate comment for each)
Leave me a link to your blog so I can see your blog.

(5) Blog about my giveaway (2 entries..leave a separate comment for each)
Leave me a link for this one so I can see the blog post.

(6) Tell me what new items you would like to see added to my TPT and Teacher's Notebook stores. (1 entry)

Good luck!

Don't forget that I am having a sale in my TPT store tomorrow and Thursday. Everything will be 20% off both days. TPT is offering an extra 10% off tomorrow only. Happy shopping!

Schwa Song and a Reminder

We are learning about the schwa sound this week. Besides it being fun to say "schwa," this is the most common sound in the English language. I had no idea about that until I was searching for songs to teach the sound. Well, despite it being common, there is nothing really to help teach the sound.  Today, when I was teaching reading groups, a song just came to me and I hurried and scribbled it down on a notepad. The note was dark pink and I only had an orange pen so it was incredibly hard to read when I tried later on during the day. The song is a freebie in my TPT store so feel free to grab a copy. I would love to hear how you teach the schwa sound in your classroom and what you think of the song.

Click here to get the freebie.

Just a reminder that I will be having a sale in my TPT store on leap day February 29th. Everything in my store will be 20% off including my top selling common core standards posters for K-2. 

My friend Hilary at Rockin Teacher Materials is also having a sale. You have to check out her Math Mysteries. They are adorable and I have a few and will be buying more on Wednesday.

This is her most recent product and I know she is working on a 2nd grade version.

Click on the image above to check out her store.

You can find other sellers having a sale by visiting the linky party below.

 

Featured Teacher + Leap Day Sale+ 600 followers + New Treasures Unit

Hello everyone! I am so excited to be the featured teacher in TPT's weekly newsletter. Check it out by clicking on the picture.

Also, I am participating in TPT's leap day sale on Wednesday. I love a good sale!
There is a linky party going on at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for everyone throwing a sale so definitely check that out. I will be doing lots of shopping on Wednesday for sure. This will probably be the only sale that I have until teacher appreciation week in May so be sure to check out my store here.

Another exciting thing about today is that I have reached 600 followers and over 800 followers on TPT. YEAH! I'm thinking up a good giveaway that I will post later on this week. Any suggestions on prizes? I also want to say a big thank you to Roxann Dewess and Mindy McCage for donating to my Donor's Choose project. You ladies are amazing! Thanks so much!

Okay, last but not least, I finished my next Treasures unit today. I thought I would get it done much earlier but I got on a roll and it ended up being 53 pages. After comments from several people, I added the morning work into the Treasures unit.
Here's a preview:

 My family had a big weekend because it was my grandmother's 85th birthday and my mom's birthday today. We had a party for my grandmother yesterday. She's in a nursing home and she really enjoyed all the homemade food that we brought it.

My grandparents have been married for 70 years. Yes, that's right..70 years!!!!

Sorry for the long post but so much has been going on this weekend. Before I go, I just want to give a plug to the movie "The Vow." I'm not a huge fan of romantic movies but this one was so good. It wasn't too corny and I loved the story. Plus it's a true story. 

 

Have a great Sunday night!

More Morning Work

Hello everyone! Happy almost TGIF! Next week, we are doing "Columbus Explores New Lands" for our story. It's not my favorite story but it does have some good skills to teach. My kids need lots of practice with main idea so that's something I'm going to hit hard next week.  You can grab the morning work by clicking on the link below the images.
I've been thinking about adding my morning work packets to the Treasures units that I create. Any thoughts on this?

Click here for the morning work.

We had our Famous Americans day at school. It went really well. All the 2nd grade classes paraded through the halls in our costumes. Then, we had a wax museum in our classrooms and the kids had to tell the kids from other classes about their Famous American.

Thank You + Famous Americans

Thank you all for the sweet comments yesterday. They definitely brightened my day.  Today was much better than yesterday. I had my post conference for my observations (finally finished!) and we had an awesome Mardi Gras lunch from our Kindergarten team. It's always nice not to have to make lunch.

I also want to say thank you to Katrina Webb and Emily from Second Grade Silliness for donating to my Donor's Choose project! You are awesome ladies! Thanks so much!

We are having a Famous American parade on Thursday at school along with a wax museum for our Kindergarten and 1st grade classes. The kiddos dress up as their Famous American and then share some facts with the visiting classes. This is our first year for the wax museum portion of the day. Has anyone else done a wax museum? Any tips for my team?

I had to go to Target tonight to get a bandana for my costume. I'm so dangerous at Target but it always puts me in a good mood.

I'll be grading my kids using a rubric that I created. Feel free to download and use for yourself.

Discouraging Day

Today, I just had a day where it seems that I couldn't do anything right. I hate to use this blog to complain but I'm having a rough day. Do you ever feel that the more you give, the more people want from you? It's hard to keep up a positive attitude when nothing is given back to you.  I had to go to the gym tonight to just work off some frustration.
Anyways, I've finished my next set of Morning Work. I apologize for the delay but I've been spending all weekend, every weekend, just getting my Treasures units done so the morning work is taking a backseat. To be honest, I'm a bit burnt out right now. If you love these free packets, I would appreciate you taking some time to check out my Donor's Choose project. This is the 2nd time that I've posted this project and I'm really needing a carpet for my classroom.

By the way, I'm so jealous that so many of you have the whole week off. How do I sign up for that? I was hoping for some snow days soon but I'm not sure it's gonna happen.
Whether you are off or not, have a fabulous week! I'll try to be in a better mood for my next post.

New Units

Hello everyone! I just realized I hadn't blogged in a week. I've had so much going on that I completely forgot. I had my unannounced observation on Wednesday right after we tested all morning and I got a new student. I'm just glad that it's over!

I just finished my next Treasures pack for "Columbus Explores New Lands." This is one of the weeks with the Time for Kids story which is not one of my favorites. I included lots of resources this week that can be used no matter what the story.  You can find the Treasures pack at either TPT or Teacher's Notebook.

I also took out some of the resources from this pack for teachers who don't use Treasures and made a "Possessive Pronouns pack" and a "Main Idea pack."  Check them out by clicking below.

I hope you are having a fabulous weekend. I'm jealous of all of you who have tomorrow off. We have a professional development day so I guess it's better than a regular school day. 

Pushing Up the Sky

Happy Sunday! I just posted my "Pushing Up the Sky" Treasures unit on TPT and Teacher's Notebook.

You can check it out by clicking on the buttons below.

Off to finish my lesson planning! I am so excited about my unit this week. I am using the fabulous Rachelle's unit "President's day and US Symbols." This is an awesome unit!

I'm also going to be using Mrs. Cupcake's President's day craftivities. Too cute!

And some freebies from Amy Lemons. Love it all!

Tomorrow, we are also doing the Sweetheart Snatcher from Babbling Abby. I can't wait to see how they kiddos react!

Anticipation Guides

Have you ever used anticipation guides in your classroom? I use them sometimes during my reading groups to help students better preview the text.  I like to mix things up a bit during reading groups so we aren't constantly doing the same thing. Mostly because I get incredibly bored. Last week, I introduced the anticipation guide and my students loved them. I made more for our leveled readers this week so my students can use them again.
If you've never heard of an anticipation guide, it mostly gets students to think about what they already know about a topic and anticipate what they will learn. Before reading, the students read a group of statements and write true or false beside each one. As they read, students find if the statements are actually true or false and write it on the after reading side. I've noticed it really helps students slow down and think about what they are reading.

I've uploaded my 3 versions for my next Treasures unit for "Dig, Wait, Listen: A Desert Toad's Tale." They go along with the leveled readers. Feel free to grab a copy by clicking here.

I've recently posted a project on Donor's Choose for a carpet for my classroom. I had posted it when school started and didn't receive any funding for it. I'm just amazed how much a nice carpet costs and the cheapo ones don't last. If you find my freebies useful and you would be willing to help me out, I would appreciate it. You can find a link to my page on the right sidebar of my blog.

Hope you are having a great Saturday! It's finally turned cold today and, of course, I had to put gas in my car. It never fails that it's on an extremely cold day or raining.

Morning Work 5.1

Just a quick post to let you know that my morning work for Treasures 5.1 is now available. If you don't use Treasures, you may also be able to use it. And, best of all, it's free! Here are a few images from the morning work packet:

Click here to grab the pack of Morning Work.

Have a wonderful weekend! We are supposed to get some snow tonight and tomorrow. We haven't had a snow day yet so, of course, the snow will come on the weekend.