The Wedding!!!!

The WEDDING....

was a BEAUTIFUL event and a WONDERFUL day!

I'm sure that's not what you're actually here for, but...

indulge me for just a few pics...okay???  lol

Here are both of my beautiful daughters putting on their make-up after our morning at the beauty shop getting the hair done.

The bride's cake while they were setting up.

A couple of "teaser" pics by the professional photographer.

Can you guess where they are headed for the honeymoon?  Yep, they are DISNEY bound!

We had a hot chocolate bar at the reception for everyone to enjoy while we were having some pictures made.  Here are some of the stirrers (is that a word?  ha!) that I made.  Never fear, someone fixed them up nicely before the reception.  I just did this quickly so I could get a pix.

They are super-easy to make.  Push the "Old-Fashioned Peppermint Stick Candy" into a large marshmallow.  Next, dip the marshmallow into melted white chocolate, then into sparkly sprinkles. 

We had a few left.  So today, I took them to school turned in this direction and they became "snow pops" for the students to eat as we were learning about polar bears! 

You know how we teachers are, we're always thinking of SOMETHING to use EVERYTHING for in the classroom!!!  ;-)

Now, that the wedding is over, it's time to turn to thoughts of another kind of love...VALENTINE'S DAY.

Don't worry, don't go into a panic.  I'm about to tell you something that will make your life easier...

  I have joined up with 13 other teacher bloggers to bring you the 

(This great little button is made by my sweet friend Mel at From the Pond.)

It will begin Friday, Feb. 1st over at another great bloggy friend, Samantha, at her blog:

(Don't worry, I'll remind you to head over on Friday!)   You'll get lots of freebies to use in your classroom.  So, see?  NO WORRIES!   Now, you know I would never leave you without giving you a little something, something!

You can grab your free Valentine's Bump here.  You will find it in the preview, so be sure to download your freebie.

Click here to find more great freebies!  Wow, tonight is your lucky night!

  Enjoy!  :-)  

Let's Learn About Poetry

I'm crying tears of sorrow,

I'm crying tears of joy.

I'm crying, crying, crying,

'cause my daughter's leaving me for a boy!

Haha...

This is the extent of my poetry writing for this week.

Yep, it's kinda wild, crazy, and STRESSFUL around here this week!

This may be the only post I get to do this week.  As you all know, my daughter is getting married Saturday.  We are in FULL final wedding mode, so I probably won't make it back until after it's all over.

However, I just HAD to share my newest unit with you.  As most of you have probably noticed,

Standard 10 in Reading Literature of the Common Core states that "by the end of the year, {students should be able to} read and comprehend literature including poetry" in grades 1-5.

I hear so often that poetry is so hard to teach, partly because teachers just don't know what to do with it.



I hope this unit will help to change that!

I have included colorful anchor charts for all 12 poems included in the unit.

I have included a research book for all students to complete.  Each page reminds students about each type of poem.  Use all of the 12 poem pages or just those that fit your grade level the best. 

Lesson plans are included for each type of poem.

Due to copyright laws, there are no examples of poems included.  However, I have included resources for books, on-line Power Points, videos, poetry sites, and an on-line examples of each type of poem.

I have pulled these 2 pages out of the unit to offer to you as a FREEBIE!  These are available by downloading the preview of my unit here.

Have a great week everyone and send me good thoughts to get me through these next few days!  :-)

Crazy, Hectic and FUN

It's been a busy, crazy week around my house this past week and I know this upcoming week will be even more busy and CRAZIER!!!  Yep, we are on the final week countdown of my daughter, Camille's, wedding!!!  It's SO exciting!!! 

 

I made this picture extra large so you could see one of our Pinterest inspired ideas we worked on this week for the wedding.  After the wedding next weekend, I'll have LOTS more pictures to share with you!!!

 

Now, onto what's been happening in my classroom...

We are thick in the middle of our unit on penguins.  Here is a student enjoying a penguin book in the Book Nook literacy station.

These students are writing a story using pictures from a WORDLESS book.

In the SPELLING literacy station, the students are using dictionaries to find the definitions of some penguin terms.

You can download your own FREE copy of the dictionary worksheet to use in your classroom.

We finished up our Penguin Research Books.

The last page of the research book had the students fill out a graphic organizer to gather their information in preparation for writing their reports.

 



My reading students needed the support of this easier page.  However, a more challenging report form is also included.

It was the middle benchmark of Dibels this week!!!

In between wedding preparations, I did manage to finish my Valentine's Math Centers.  Here is one of my centers all ready to go.  I taped the title of each center on brown envelopes before laminating.  Then, all of the activities are placed in the envelope for easy storage.

Here is a bonus activity that you can grab for FREE.

 

Have a GREAT long weekend!  :-)

 

A Pet Penguin??? REALLY!!!

We are having SO MUCH FUN doing research about penguins!!!

I'm sure a lot of you are studying penguins also.  Those little critters just fascinate me!  They are so comical looking!!!

Here is our research books.  The kiddos are absolutely loving completing these and ask as soon as they walk in the door if we are going to be working in them again.

Here's another page near the end of the book.

Did you know there are 20 different kinds of penguins?  So far, we've already discovered 9 of them.  Each time we find a new one, the kiddos are pulling out their research books to write it's name on the list.  My lowest little fellow (in the RTI process) and won't EVER write anything is the first one writing it down.  Maybe, just MAYBE (fingers crossed), I have found something he enjoys and is clicking!!!

Did you ever wish you could have a pet penguin?  It just might happen!

Wow!  I wish that was MY pet!  Don't you??

It's hard to believe how amazing, super fast time flies when we are having to get ready for the next big thing just around the corner isn't it??  

Well, I've been working hard to get my Valentine's Math Centers all finished up.  I am so pleased with this unit!

 If you are already planning ahead, you might want to check this out.

I have loaded this Valentine's Bump onto the preview, so you can go over and download it as a freebie to enjoy!

The Magical Product Swap

Hello everyone and welcome to the

 I bet you have all had this event on your calendar since the the last one in October haven't you?? 

This is my first time to participate and I am ESTATIC to be paired up with Erin over at

Now, you might be more familiar with her blog called Tales from Room 112.  She started off the new Year, by changing her blog design and name...AH.DOR.ABLE!!

When Erin and I first started discussing which products to swap, I asked to review her 

 However, when I looked it over closely, it just wasn't something I felt would "mesh" with my class.  Now, mind you, it is an AWESOME product.  But, I have the lowest reading group in 2nd Grade (my choice...I LOVE it!) and they are not independent AT ALL!!!  I just didn't feel this would work in my room.

So, then I decided to swap for her 

WOWZER!!!  
Just look at all the great games that are included in this unit!

It was great to have some new games to play when we returned to school after the Christmas break.

 I don't know about the rest of you, but we are limited on the amount of copies we can make.  However, this works fine for me because I am SO a GAME person.  I LOVE teaching the students through games.  The first thing I did was laminate all of the pages after I had printed them on cardstock. This will make them more durable, plus we can use them over and over and over.  

(kinda like the Energizer Bunny, sorry...I digress!)

 My students really enjoyed this first game although we haven't really learned about fractions yet.  I did this game in a small group so that I could "guide" them on their answers.  Each student had his/her own game board.  Each student had 12 counters. They rolled both dice.  As you can see from the pic, this roll would have been 1/4 so the shape showing 1/4 was covered. Each player has his own game board.  The winner is the first person to cover the ENTIRE game board. 

The next two games wer just perfect for us as we have been working on addition and subtraction.  Both games follow the same format.  As the student rolls the dice, he makes a 2-digit number and writes it on the recording sheet.  The second student does the same and makes a 2-digit number for the next 2 spots.  The players work together to solve the problem.  No competition, just a sneaky way to get some good old-fashioned practice in!  


The Subtraction game is played the same, making sure that the larger of the two numbers is on top.

The Graph Race was by far the students FAVORITE (especially for those boys who made race car sounds as they played! haha).  This is a simple, but very fun graphing game.  The students roll the two dice, add the numbers together and color in a square above that number.  The first person to completely fill ONE column is the winner.

My students just finished learning about money in December, so this game was a GREAT review!  To play this game, the student simply rolls the die, looks at the chart, and draws the coin to match.  The first student to reach $1.00 is the winner.

The last game in this unit is called Highest Sum.  The students use three dice to try to make the largest number possible.  The tricky part is that they have to keep adding each roll to the roll before.  At the end, the person with the highest FINAL total is the winner!  LOVE,love, LOVE that this game got some much needed 3-digit addition in!

Now, you can enter to win your OWN choice of any item for my store and well as Erin's store (up to $10).  Fill out the Rafflecopter for your chance to win!

In addition, these games are 20% off in our stores. Click here to grab mine and here to grab Erin's.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Five for Friday - Jan. 11, 2013

WHOO!!!  HOOO!!!!

It's FRIDAY!!!

It seemed like such a long week.  I don't know why 4 day weeks seem worse than a full week!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share 5 random things about my week...
 

 1)  My two lovely daughters at Camille's wedding shower on Sunday.



2)  New this week...I taught my students how to play bump...They LOVED it! Grab your freebie HERE!

 3)  Ready for next week...these adorable Non-fiction books teaching students about informational text using maps, charts, and graphs.  These are from Lakeshore.

 4)  I've got our Penguin Research books assembled and ready for next week.  I'm super-excited about these.  I think the kiddos are going to LOVE!

 5)  In our writing center, I have placed this wordless picture book.  The students will work in small groups to write the story.  I can't wait to see what they come up with!!

Hope you have a FABULOUS weekend!!!