Sunday, February 24, 2013

Sunday Snapshots

I have really enjoyed my weekend! It has gone by waaaayyy too fast! I was able to catch up on much needed R & R yesterday. In fact, I slept off and on all.day.long. Ha! Today I got to meet my sweet momma at Nordstrom for lunch. Yum! I also finished up my lesson plans for next week, did some master's work, and found a little time to blog. Phew! I am so thankful for my sweet husband and for everything he does to help me out around the house during the school year. Without him, I don't know how I'd ever get anything done. 

I thought I'd share a couple more pictures from this past week with y'all...


We have been busy learning about stars for the past couple of weeks. We finished up our study on stars by talking about the closest star to Earth. The Sun of course! I got the idea for my little sun anchor chart from Simply Second Grade. It turned out super cute!



We have also been talking about money this week. I had my kiddos make this parts of a dollar flip book to reinforce their knowledge of coin values.


Ok... so this was from a couple of weeks ago, but I thought I'd share. To teach my kiddos the importance of thinking about time as the order that things happen, I assigned each student with a different part of our day to illustrate and show the time on a digital and analog clock. After brainstorming our daily schedule, I noticed we came up with more times than I have kids. Not a problem... my sweets were more than happy to get chosen to double up. Ha!

We have also been working really hard on identifying the main idea and supporting details from a fiction text. As guided lessons, I read aloud these two books and we worked to find the main idea and three details that supported the main idea.

The Snowy Day: 50th Anniversary Edition


Sloppy Joe

If you haven't read Sloppy Joe yet, it is too funny! My kids were laughing the whole.way.through!


 We made these main idea trees from Amy Lemons' What's the Main Idea? packet. This packet is a GREAT resource for teaching main idea. If you don't already own it... go grab yourself a copy! I read aloud The Great Kapok Tree and had the kids make this tree independently. I used this as my assessment. Cute and useful!

The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest 

Now it's time to get ready for the Oscars' Red Carpet!! What nominated movie was your favorite this year? I actually haven't seen any of the movies... I just like seeing what everyone is wearing. HA!

Friday, February 22, 2013

Five for Friday

Yay! I'm super excited to be linking up for my first ever linky party... yep you heard that right... this is my first EVER linky party! I know this was one of my bloggy New Year's Resolutions annnnd it's already February, but better late than never right? So here goes my first Five for Friday.

1. I have been obsessed with this little blue bottle ever since I happened upon it the other day at the grocery store.

 
I mean... a little piece of paradise in a tiny blue bottle! This has become my little afternoon treat. After the kiddos are gone and I'm all alone in my room... I put a couple drops of this into a nice cool glass of water and pretend I'm here...

2. Speaking of the beach... the hubs and I spent the long weekend in PCB. Ahhh... if only it was warm when we went.



Oh well... it was still beautiful!


Our fav place to go! We love us some Schooners!

3. Back to reality... we have been working on comparing and contrasting two different versions of the same fairy tale. We read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig.




The True Story of the Three Little Pigs




The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig

We then used this cute graphic organizer (courtesy of Cara Carroll) to write the characters, setting, problem, solution, beginning, middle, and end of each story. I then paired up my kids and gave them each a piece of the story map to record on a post-it. We wrote one story on pink post-its and the other story on yellow. I then placed the post-its on a bigger version of this graphic organizer. It really helped my kids see the difference between both stories by having the story elements written on different color post-its and posted side-by-side.


After reading both stories, I had them complete this venn diagram (courtesy of Christina Bainbridge) to compare the similarities and differences between the two stories. I then had them make these little wolves and pigs. They turned out too cute!


4. Look at what I got this week...


Oh yes! Heaven in a box! I may have eaten a sleeve a few thin mints. My philosophy is get rid of em' quick and then you won't be tempted anymore. Ha!

5. TGIF! Have a great weekend friends! Anybody have any big plans? For me, just relaxin'! Can't wait!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Sunday Snapshots

This week we have been working on comparing and contrasting fairy tales and looking at the challenges that characters face throughout a story. We also talked about how characters responded to those challenges and how the main character changed from the beginning of the story to the end.

We used these two stories to compare... Sorry I forgot to flip them before I sent them to myself. HA!... and... I have been totally forgetting to bring my camera to school, so I've had to use the trusty ol' I-Phone to snap some pics.


I let one kiddo "Follow the Re-telling Road" for each story. I wrote their responses on sticky notes and added them to our story map.



I found these cute print outs from the fabulous Cara Carrol over at The First Grade Parade.

Super Bowl Sunday calls for some Super Shopping!

Take a look at my loot... I'm super excited to use these awesome new resources in my classroom next week! I say next week and not tomorrow because I will be out tomorrow for a doctor's appointment. The day off would have worked out perfectly if the Falcons would have made the Super Bowl instead of loosing the game in the last couple of minutes, but I digress! Instead I'll be going to bed at my normal time and getting up early anyways to do some work. HA!

 February Math Journal Prompts

 Love, Splat Mini Unit {Math & Literacy Activities}

Common Core- Writing to Inform All Year Long

Common Core- Writing Opinions All Year Long

Saturday, February 2, 2013

Super Sale

Instead of watching the Super Bowl because the Falcons didn't make it... BOO... I'm gonna shop til' I drop tomorrow. On TPT that is! I've got my cart full and I'm ready to go! My little shop will be on sale tomorrow and Monday. Be sure to enter the coupon "Super" at checkout for the full 28% off! The extra 10% off is available tomorrow only, so run, don't walk and fill your cart with amazing products from your favorite TPT sellers! Have fun!! 
Graphic from Amy Lemons over at Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons.