New Unit

Happy Wednesday sweet friends! We're almost there!

I'm finally done with my Terrific Teeth Unit. This unit is jam packed with fun activities to keep your kiddos engaged while learning all about teeth. Just add your amazing teacher abilities and voila! Here's a little peek...

You can pick up a copy of your very own at my little TPT shop!

Mega Giveaway

My new bloggy buddy Elizabeth over at Kickin' It in Kindergarten is throwing a MEGA giveaway! If you haven't entered yet head on over to her amazing blog and check it out! You can enter for a chance to win some fabulous units!! I've donated my How-to Writing Prompt Unit! 

Five for Friday

Good gosh y'all... what a week. It went by fast, but boy did it feel like the longest week EVER! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a little Five for Friday fun! 

 

Here's a little peek at my week...

1. Monday we went on a field trip to the Fire Safety Village. My kiddos had.a.blast! All second and fourth graders in my district have the opportunity to visit the Fire Safety Village. It is such a great experience! They learn about everything from fire safety to bike safety to pool safety. Y'all they even have a model living room and bedroom, and the kids get to practice escaping from a "fire". There is even fake smoke! So cool and educational!

2. Last night our school hosted a Technology Night for our parents to check out the ways we use technology in the classroom. Our second grade team spoke about BrainPOP Jr. and Sheppard Software. Have you used these resources? They are awesome! We seriously use them all.the.time! We also showed our parents this video on the history of technology in education...

3. I also wanted to share my textbook from one of my Master's reading classes. I normally HATE textbooks, but this one is full of useful information! Just in case you're looking for a little professional reading...

4. This week we have been working on identifying and comparing amounts of money. I used a game to reinforce the concept of comparing amounts of money. I got the idea for the game from the talented Cara Carroll over at The First Grade Parade. You can check out her version here. I tweaked it a little to make it appropriate for my second graders. I had one student pick up as many pieces of paper as they could in five seconds. After that, we counted their "money". The green pieces of paper were the dollars. The orange pieces were the dimes, and the brown pieces were the pennies. Once we counted the money, the student wrote their amount on a white board and then had to show it using money manipulatives. I had another student do the exact same thing. Then, I called on someone to change our money eating alligator (popsicle sticks) to show the alligator eating the bigger number. Then they had to say the number sentence using the correct terms (less than, greater than, equal to). They had a blast! Learning and having fun at the same time... score! Whew... clear as mud right! 

Here's a picture... 

5. Keeping on my video theme... a little laugh for you...

You're welcome!

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.

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!

 

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!

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.











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 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!

 

 

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.