TpT: Dig Wait Listen Leveled Readers & Treasure's Freebies

I am so pumped to have finally finished my latest small group packet for TpT.  Usually these packets take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours to create but for some reason, this one took all day.  Not even kidding! Click on the picture to check it out at my Teacher's Pay Teachers store. 

We are starting Unit 5 tomorrow and I am EXCITED.  Mostly because my district doesn't use Unit 6.  That's when we get to do various chapter book/book club activities and I just LOVE doing those.  I'm actually a little sad because my BTF (best teacher friend) is doing the chapter book study we created together over the The Gadget War together right now.  

Well anyways, I do have a couple other Treasure's goodies to share with you.  Non Treasure's friends, if you think you can use the blank templates of these, let me know and I'll upload them as their original PPT files so you can change them to fit the needs of your classroom.
 

 Click {here} for your copy. 

Click {here} for your copy.

I try to make my graphic organizers for each story with lots of little prompts and reminders to make sure the group/independent practice is meaningful for my friends and they're not just sitting there starting at blank graphic organizer.  It's something I've brought to second from my third grade days and it's made a big difference.

I also have some Nutik leveled reader goodies, no small group pack I had some family matters to attend to over the past few weeks, but they are on my computer at school.  I'll post them for you tomorrow!

Three Things on a Tuesday and a Math Freebie

One of the parents of my former students has the cutest family blog and often does a recap of her family life called "Ten on Tuesday."  She's a brilliant writer and I always look forward to her posts, and I'm taking a little creative license and putting my own little spin on her creative series, "Three Things on Tuesday."

1. I got brand spankin' new glasses today.
I am pumped about this.  My previous glasses were five years old and four prescriptions off.  My sweet eye doctor, who I've gone to since I was in second grade, strongly encouraged I get new glasses at my last appointment.  I usually wear my contacts but my old glasses were looking a little rough.   I mean crooked and bent and looking like a hot mess rough.  I am pumped about my new lenses because I can rock a high bun and specks for our 100th day of school.  I'm strongly encouraging my sweeties to come to school dressed like they are 100 years old but a high bun and some glasses are all I've got. ;)  I'm the teacher, so I get to take shortcuts like that. 

2. When things get tough, I rock out to Miranda Lambert and Kellie Pickler.  True Story.
Even though I have the sweetest group of second graders ever, this year has been extremely hard professionally.  So therefore, I like to blast and I mean blast, Miranda and Kellie on my way to work or jam out to my Miranda Pandora station in my classroom.   It pumps me up and I get through another day.

3. DARE is painful.  Very painful. 
It's the worst version of show and tell ever.  Today our friendly DARE officer showed my kids a picture of marijuana and talked about the dangers of sniffing household chemicals.  Nice.

Well anyways, as my sweet grandmother says, my district uses Investigations and Investigations is big on having kids create their own story problems.  Which is good because that is a common core standard and it shows true understand of the concepts of addition and subtraction. However, it's always so hard to get quality story problems! So I created these anchor charts to use tomorrow.  Hopefully they make a difference!

 

If you want your own copy, just click {here}! If you think these could be useful in your classroom, leave me a comment below! :)

I hope ya'll are having a great Tuesday!  Back to sub plans I go! I'm out on Thursday for Common Core implementation planning.  Woohoo! :)


Tell me one thing about your Tuesday. Ready, set, go!

TPT: Goose's Story and Cause and Effect Anchor Chart Freebie

I hope all of you had a great Monday!  Even though I dread Mondays, they are actually often some of the best days I have in the classroom and today was no exception.  We had a really great day.  With the exception of DARE time.  I hate DARE.  It's like a really, really bad version of show and tell that lasts for a half hour.  Except it's lead by a police officer who hypes up the kids on stories about stranger danger and has the kids act out "screaming like a little girl and running away" if a stranger approaches them.

I only wish I were kidding.

Academically, we spiraled back to cause and effect.  I treat the mini story from Treasures as a mini lesson and after reading "Bill Helps Geese Survive", we made this anchor chart.

Again, pretty charts aren't my thing but that's not the purpose.  ;)  I have uploaded the typed portions of my anchor charts to Google Docs if you're interested. Just click {here}.

I also finished my small group resources for Goose's Story last night! Woohoo! I've been loving using these in the classroom the past few weeks. Click the preview image to check it out on Teacher's Pay Teachers.

Lastly, my kids have been reusing some old anchor charts to draw on during indoor recess.  Which is brilliant because I despise having indoor recess games because I often find the pieces all over the room.  Today they made me this sweet Valentine's Day card.  ;)  Won't lie, it made my day.

 

Signing off to blog stalk ya'll now!

It's Finally, Winter and a Freebie!

This winter has been strange!  At this point last year, we had several snow days.  It was great.  I loved those snow days. I had a very difficult class last year and it was great to recharge my batteries.  However, this year we've had NO snow days.  We really haven't had any snow at all.  Last night we got an ice storm and I'm loving the fact I have nowhere to go today and I get to be BFFs with my laptop and pjs.  However, next week we're supposed to be in the upper 40s and 50s.  So this winter weather is short lived.

In the spirit of my excitement, I created a freebie for you. :)

One of my favorite strategies for my students to use for addition and subtraction is an open number line.  Which you can see on this strategy chart.

Open number lines, or even counting up, requires my students to quickly recall what is ten more or ten less than a number.  We've been doing some type of ten more, ten less, one more, one less activity for our centers since school began and it's allowed my second graders to really visualize the 100s chart and be very successful with open number lines and counting up strategies.

My kids LOVE math center time, I mean love it.  They love if they're the few chosen to work with me or if they are playing a game/reinforcing a math concept with a partner.  So I created "Swinging Around the 100s Chart" for our next rotation of centers.

Since we are quickly approaching the 100th day of school, and I created some numbers to go along with the 200s chart, so students could practice ten more, ten less, one more, one less with numbers bigger than 100.

If you'd like your own free copy, then click {here} to head over to my Teacher's Pay Teachers store to pick up your own copy for free! I just ask if you download a copy that you follow my Teacher's Pay Teacher's Store or leave some feedback about Swinging Around the 100s Chart on its product page. ;)

Enjoy your Saturday, stay warm friends!  I'd also love for you to check out my post about homework and let me know your routine.  I currently switched up my routine, but I'd love to hear what other do to keep ideas in mind for next year!

TpT: Splish Splash Animal Baths and a FREEBIE

If you've read my blog for awhile, you know that my district uses the Treasures reading series.  Which sometimes is a Treasure and sometimes it is.  It depends on the day. :)  When I moved from third to second this year, one thing that scared me was teaching phonics.

Let me give you a little background.  My college thought it would be totally fine to only commit TWO weeks, TWO weeks to phonics in our literacy foundations class.  As a product of whole language as a child, this was not cool.  Luckily, I've since taken a masters class in phonics and have read a lot, so I feel a little bit better about teaching phonics.  A little better, not a lot.

The thing about Treasures is that it does have some really decent activities for phonics but not really the accompanying resources.  Or maybe they do, I just can't find them in my room.  This is what happens when you switch grades/rooms a week before school starts.  Luckily, my district had a team create some pretty awesome Smartboard files to go along with each story, making teaching the phonics skill pretty easy.  Except, I wanted to have my students have some paper/pencil activities to go with them, so the concepts would stick.  Treasures has some great build and blend activities but I don't know where the letter cards are to go with them.  So I made my own. :) 

Additionally, I am starting to switch up my reading instruction.  I do small groups once a week but it's really not enough.  I've started playing with my schedule a little bit, as much as I can.  My administration dictated my instructional schedule and I can't play with it all that much.  But while my enrichment/Title reading kiddos leave, I can be meeting with my on level kids.  It's something my kids need and I know it's best practice but our schedule is goofy! I've been reviewing my Daily Five book and I think I can make this work.  

Treasures has some great leveled readers and some decent small group lessons but nothing to go along with them.  So again, I went and made my own.  :)  I personally feel this is necessary for small groups for me because help me organize our lesson more efficiently.  Plus it holds my kids accountable during our small group time. 

If you like what you see, I've uploaded this resource pack to my Teacher's Pay Teachers Store.  

Included are resources for the build and blends scattered throughout the Teacher's Manual and resources for lessons with your approaching, on level and beyond level students.  I've tried my best to label the pages and let you know which activity sheets go with which pages in the Teacher's Manual.  :)

However, I know lots of you don't use Treasures but you still teach phonics.  So here's a little freebie for you! :)  I'm going to have my kiddos go on a OR/AR word hunt around the school and I've uploaded it to Google Docs for you.  :)  My kids love anything that gets them up and moving around, thus we play scoot with anything we can, so they will love this. :) Click {here} to download your copy!

I hope all of you who are off today are enjoying your day off. :)  If not, I hope that your class was well behaved to make up for it. :)

If anybody else uses a reading series, Treasures/Reading Street, and you do the Daily Five/Small Groups, could you please share a tip that makes it work for you?  I might not get to fully implement until next year but I'd love to hear your advice/see links to resources you've found helpful. 

Tick, Tock, Time..... Freebie

For the past two weeks, my math focus has been telling time.  In third grade, this was one of my least favorite units because of elapsed time.  Teaching elapsed time has to be one of my least favorite things to each.  It's right up there with borrowing across zero.  It's just no fun, especially when the elapsed time includes hours and minutes.

Our second grade standard requires our second graders to tell time to the nearest five minute.  So we hae been practicing hard.   Here's some highlights from our fun!

Practicing telling time can be a little bit dry, so these pretzel clocks made several appearances in my classroom over the past few weeks.  Even though they were basically Judy clocks made of pretzels, my kiddos loved them.  I got the idea from The Weekly Hive.   I simply gave kiddos their clocks, two pretzel sticks and a paper with several blank clocks.  I called out times and had my students make them on the clock and then transfer to one of their clocks.

We also played several games of scoot/move about math for time.  This was perfect because it got my kids up and moving around the room on a couple days where we had indoor recess.  I got my telling time to hour, half hour and quarter hour scoots from Have Fun Teaching.  I got so many awesome resources from Have Fun Teaching for my time unit, especially worksheets for quick formative assessments and my scoot and bingo games.

We will be assessing telling time tomorrow but I wanted a few fun games for my kids to play to reinforce some areas where there was still some holes, so I created this activity pack to review telling time to the five minute.  My kids are solid with time to the hour and half hour but could still use some practice on time to the five minute, especially when the time gets to be 5:45, 5:50, 5:55.  No matter ho many times we sing, "If it's in between go back.  If it's in between go back" about the hour hand, some of my kids have a hard time making it stick for time that get closer to the next hour.

So I created this little activity pack for my darlings to play tomorrow.  Included are a Connect Four Telling Time Game, a time matching activity and a time to the five minute scoot. 

 

 

I have upload this activity pack to Teachers Pay Teachers.  You can check out all the details on this activity pack {here}. 

One of my favorite things to do when teaching time is doing time checks.  I have students keep this on their desk and then call out time check several different times a day.  They love it and it's great practice.  I occasionally put them on their desk when we are not studying time too, it serves as a great review. :)

Click {here} to download your own free copy! :)

Friday is almost here! I'm hoping, hoping, hoping for a snow day tomorrow! A four day weekend would be so beautiful but I'm not holding my breath.  Even a delay would be beautiful.  Although, we don't started until 9:30, so I feel like we are delayed most days.  :)

Long E and Long U Word Sorts

Good evening! I hope that everyone is enjoying their weekend! :)  I want to welcome all my new followers! I'm so happy to have ya'll here! :)  I also want to thank you all for all your sweet comments yesterday.  I read and loved each and every single one of them. 

I've been quite the busy little bee today.  I went to Costco, which was crazy town today, did my weekly menu and ran to the grocery store.  Now my hubby is watching football and googling "shark bites" and I'm working on some things for school.  You know just a typical night in our house.  Shark bites, football and school stuff.

As I have mentioned before, my district uses the Treasures reading program.  This upcoming week is a review week/Benchmark testing week.  I wanted to my review more meaningful this week, so I've been developing lots of review activities for us to do for the first part of the week.  I'm pretty excited about it!

I just wrapped up the phonics review section and thought I'd share a freebie with you! :) Yay for freebies.  Although I am using the words from the Treasures spelling lists, these word sorts can be used with any long vowel lesson.  :)

Aren't they pretty?  My husband let me buy some pretty backgrounds and clip arts today. :)  Thanks, hun!

Click {here} to download your own copy! If you grab a copy, please leave me a comment.  :) 

Keep on loving the weekend, friends!

Click Clack Moo Leveled Readers Freebie

My district uses the Treasures reading program and it can be a love/hate relationship at times.  However, this week, I am loving it as the comprehension skill and the story actually align very well.  Tonight I'm sharing with you the set of graphic organizers I designed to use in my small groups this week.  Not only does this freebie help my students practice our weekly comprehension skill, it also helps me structure and organize my small groups more effectively.  Double win!

Click here to download your FREE copy.

I also found out the hard way this year when blog surfing, apparently the leveled readers that accompany each of the stories in Treasures can vary.  So if you plan on using this with your class, please read over the story titles, located in the top right hand corner of each page, carefully!

If you download, please let me a comment below, just so I can get an idea of how many teacher friends might be able to benefit from a resource like this. :)

We did several FUN science experiments as part of our winter unit today and my kiddos are so jazzed to make their own snowflakes covered in snow paint on Friday.  I can't wait to share the recap of the fun we've been having with you soon! 

Grinch Day Recap with Freebies

I know, I know, tonight is New Year's Eve but my class and I had so much fun during our Grinch Day that I just couldn't wait another 300+ days to share all the fun we had with you.

Our holiday party this year was the day before we got out for break, meaning I had to come up with something to hold my Christmas crazed darlings attention for the whole day when all they we could think about was: Santa, Santa and more Santa.  The other teachers on my team gave me a Night Before Christmas coloring book and assured me that it would keep my darlings busy.  While I love me some Night Before Christmas, especially that one holiday special with the mice, I wanted to keep things fun but still educational.  Luckily, I was able to find so many wonderful ideas out in Blogland to save the day.

We began the day by reading the book and completing a graphic organizer from Deanna Jump's Grinch Mini Unit.  We discussed how characters can change and discussed how the Grinch changed throughout the story.  My personal favorite was in the beginning he was a bucket dipper and in the end he was a bucket filler.   Precious.

Then we created the Grinch similes that I saw on The First Grade Parade.  We brainstormed words that described how green the Grinch was, as well as words that described how small his heart was on the Smartboard together and then my students created their own similes. They loved this activity!

Click on the picture below to get your own copy of the prompt that I gave my students.  Don't worry, my typo is fixed. :)  I realized I accident had The Grinch's on my original while I was in the copy room and decided to just roll with it.  Their similes are still adorable anyways. 

The we created the Grinch's from Deanna's mini unit.  They came out so cute, even though some of my darlings had to tape their Grinch's together because they didn't listen hear the directions about folding the green paper before tracing and cutting out his face.

If you liked the paper my students wrote on in the pictures above, click on the picture of it below to download your own copy.

I love how unique and different their Grinch's were.  I especially loved the long eyelashes and lipgloss in the picture on the right.  

After lunch and recess, we continued our day of fun by doing Grinch story problems!

Source

I loved the concept of Made for First Grade's Grinch Problem Solving book, but since we just spent weeks doing double digit addition and subtraction, I needed to modify the problems a bit.  I created double digit addition and subtraction problems and it worked out perfectly!  Email me at storiesfromsecond@gmail.com if you would like a copy of the story problems I created for this great activity.   

I used a paper cutter to cut the problem solving squares to solve time.  I just put them in the back of the room and my students grab more as they finished the problems.  I also had the manipulatives included in Deanna's unit available for my early finishers to create growing, shrinking and repeating patterns. 

Obviously the last pattern is repeating, my friend just forgot to label it. :)

We finished the day by watching the cartoon version and passing out their Grinch dust. 

I wanted to give my students the Grinch licked candy canes I saw floating around Blogland but I could never find any candy canes packages that were all green and I had a hard time justifying shelling out $2.99 for a twelve pack of candy canes that had only 6 green candy canes.  Of course, today at Meijer I found some. 

Go figure.  The one grocery store I typically never go to had them.  Go figure.  

Here's a helpful tip, if you give your students Grinch dust (a.k.a. green glitter) make sure the bag doesn't have any holes.  My sweet grandma assembled them for me and kept wondering why glitter ended up all over the table she used.  Turns on the cute little bags we used didn't seal tightly at the bottom of the bag.  I got the idea for the poem from The First Grade Parade, click on the picture below to save your own copy for next year. 

I hope you enjoyed my recap of our Grinch Day as much my class did. My kiddos kept saying how much fun they were having and one little darling wished that "everyday could be Grinch Day."  It was great day of fun and learning and one I fully expect do with my class every year.

What was your favorite thing you do/did with your class during the holiday season?

Money, Money, Money

Before break, I did a week long money focus with my students.  We focused mainly on identifying coins and their values and counting coins up to $1.  Later in the year, we will focus on making change and incorporating dollars into their counting of money.

My district uses Investigations math and we played the game Collect 25¢ about a million times.  We also played Collect 50¢ and for my higher kiddos, they played Collect a Dollar. 

We also utilized Erica Bohrer's WONDERFUL Touch Money posters.

source

What a wonderful resource! The concept of touch money really helped my struggling students and helped most of class counting amounts of coins over 70¢.  Whenever I heard, "I don't get it!" I would reply, "Go use the touch money posters, and the "I don't get its" turned into "I got its."  I love when that happens.  I also hung up large pictures of the coins that showed the front and backs of the coins with the Touch Money dots on them in the front of the room, and my students really benefited from seeing the touch dots on the front and back of the coins.  

We also used several sheets from the following resource book.

 

Amazon Link 

I am often indifferent with resource books that you can buy at the teacher store but I loved this book.  I especially loved how the book builds with difficulty, making it easy to differentiate.   During choice time, I would have the students work on some of these pages and hung up a key for them in the back of the room.  I love doing this because students get to self check their work and you don't spend a lot of time going over work as a class, which can be beneficial but can also be spent doing other things. 

We also played several games from Lory Evans.  One was a freebie from her blog.

Source: loryevanspage.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

The other was from her Scholastic Book.  

I ordered my copy of her book from Scholastic with my bonus points and use it almost weekly.  My students LOVED the game "Make a Dollar" from her book.  

I also used this Pinch and Total activity from What the Teacher Wants.  I loved this activity because my students were able to move through the activity at their own pace and it made a great formative assessment as well. Win, win. 

Source: whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com via Lisa on Pinterest

One of our focus indicators for money is representing an amount of money multiple ways.  I made the following flip books for my students to practice this skill.  I had my students show three different ways to show the amounts on their flip books and then they switched with a partner.  Their partner checked their coins and made sure their partner's coin drawings were accurate.  If there were any disputes, I quickly jumped in to referee.  My students loved these activities and I heard lots of good math discussions while they were reviewing each others work. Click on the preview below to download your own copy to use with your class.  I did one flip book a day during the week we studied money. 

My students have really mastered the art of collaboration and partner work lately, so I wiped up this partner activity for them to use at the end of our unit.  It was also a hit.  Click on the preview below to get your own copy. 

Overall, I was so happy with our study of money and level of mastery my students achieved! When I taught third grade, most of my students struggled to even identify coins and their values, making teaching making change and making money amounts using the least amount of coins possible, VERY difficult.  So I wanted to make sure I gave my second graders a solid foundation on identifying and counting coins, as well as making sure they were able to show multiple ways to make a certain amount of money.

Enjoy your weekend! :) Happy New Years!