Two New Units and A Little Freebie!

I don't know if all of you have been on spring break but I have sure been enjoying some time off as well as sleeping in! I have been starting the day around 8:30 or 9:00! It has been like a dream! lol! I have been pretty busy though.... We have the closing on our home on the 25th of this month! Yikes- it is coming up fast! So we have been trying to get everything packed up. We definitely have more stuff now then compared to when we first moved in. I am in the "let's get rid of everything" mood and Mark is more like "maybe one day we will use this" kinda mood! This is when compromise is key!!! I do have to say he got our whole guest room packed up and the bed is already taken apart! I have been less successful in the kitchen.... I am only half way done!! This is really when I wish I had a magic genie to *poof* us in our new home! That would be AMAZING!

During all the packing I have managed to squeeze out two new units! I am excited about them both, so I wanted to show you a little peek at both of them.

My first unit provides resources for life cycles. I tried to think of the most common used animals and insects for this life cycle unit! It covers the growth of an ant, butterfly, chicken, frog, and mealworms.

I am really excited about this writing connection I have provided int he unit! There are resources for students to create their own Diary Of A Worm addition to the series! I made it so the students can choose the animal or insect of their choice. There is a planning guide to help them get ideas about their animal's or insect's special features as well as their life cycle. Then I also included an 8 day storyboard for them to plan out their diary entries. That is just the planning and brainstorming pages. Then I have provided a cover, about the writer page, as well as diary pages in two different lines to choose from. You will also find teaching posters for speech and thought bubbles. As you know in the Diary Of A Worm series they love to use those, so I wanted to focus on this teaching point for the students. Tons of writing fun here!

Next to provide some text resources I have added one article for each of the 5 life cycles covered in this unit! Exciting, I know! Sometimes finding text is half the battle, so you at least have a starting point!

In the unit you will also find a way to display the students understanding of the life cycle. There is a little craftivity for each of the 5 life cycles! I have also included teaching posters for all 5 life cycles as well! They are a cute little ribbon display for each one!

Here is the ribbon display for the 5 life cycles!

The last resource you will find in this unit is teaching posters for life cycle as well as metamorphosis. Then I have made worksheets for 4, 5 and 6 step life cycles. You can use these with any animal or insect but I have provided the stages in pictures for the 5 covered in this unit! This makes a great assessment for your students. There are lines for them to label each stage in the life cycle.

The other new unit that I have made is for addition and subtraction 2-digit numbers. It has resources for both with and without regrouping.

I wanted to show you the foldable that I created for this unit.

This foldable focuses on both addition as well as subtraction. It also requires them to know when they need to regroup! So there ate 4 different sections in this foldable. On each problem there is a place where they need to identify what operation they are using as well as if they need to regroup! It definitely teaches them to think before they solve!

Before I wrap it up here I wanted to offer a little freebie. It is just something I have had sitting on my computer and I received a few emails asking about thinking stems. So I thought I would post it at my store for anyone else who needs a resource for this! it is nothing big, but it is FREE!

If you click on the product cover you can download it at my TpT store!

Well that is all I have for you today. Don't forget if you follow my store you know that I am having a SALE right now, 20% OFFall my products! The sale will be over after Monday, March 18th! Make sure you pick up some resources for reading back to school after spring break! =) You can click here to head on over to my store!

A Reader's Toolkit and A Little Classroom Catch Up!

Well I have some great news... we were approved for the house loan! =) So it is officially our home! Thank you to anyone who thought about us during this process. Your well wish and thoughtful prayers are so appreciated. It really made this big step in our life comforting and one for the memory books.  It is such an awesome feeling to call it OUR home. After renting we just couldn't make it OUR home, if you know what I mean.... NO painting, wallpapering, or making holes for pictures. It really didn't feel like OUR Home! So now I can't wait! If you follow me on Pintrest you know and are probably deactivating the follow button as I write this because I have been pinning anything and everything to do with decorating a home! We did manage to make one new purchase for our home! A couch!!! It's a sectional and it has plenty of space for all of our family and friends. Check it out!

Okay so now onto all things school! I have to tell you that making such a big move and keeping up with school is really hard. So I am trying not to focus on the fact that my posts have been less productive. So incase you want to know what new products I am working on and adding to my TpT store just click the follow button on my store! The trend lately has been post new products and then a week later I FINALLY get around to posting about it.

Talking about new products I just added A Reader's Toolbox to my store. Lately I have been working with my reading coach and learning about how as readers we use many tools as we read a text. So having those available to the students as you meet with them in small group or when they are off diving into a text on their own they need to have the strategies and skills you have taught them to tackle any text. So that is when I came up with a Reader's Toolbox.

I have covered 23 reading tools! above is a reference sheet that comes in the unit. It has the picture of the tool, its purpose, as well as a picture. It is great to have with you during small group. Have this handy reference guide as you read through text and get prepared for your students. This was definitely made for teachers in mind. Of course, as always, you can use it however you wish.

In this unit you will have a few resources at your fingertips. The first is mini strategy cards. These cards have the strategy name and a picture representation of the tool. These are great to laminate and add a little hole on the top so that they can be placed on a ring. Students could have their own ring with tools you have taught them in small group. That way when they go off to independent reading they have tools to choose from.

Second, I have added bookmarks. These bookmarks have the tool at the top. Then below you will find thinking stems that students can use to respond to text. I don't know about all of you but I just love thinking stems. It gives the students the language you want them to be using and it makes them sound like little teachers! =)

Last , I have made teaching posters for you to use in instruction. There are 24 strategy posters. I have been asked when I was going to make reading skill poster and I am happy to say they are finally here! In the corner of each poster there is a picture of the tool used in the Reader's Toolbox! No matter what strategies you teach your students there will be a poster for it! Then because they are each 8 1/2 X 11 you can easily add them to a bulletin board in your classroom!

To finish off this unit, I have made a craftivity! Yep! You can create a working functional toolbox for all your students. The possibilities are endless. There are three different options with templates to use. Whatever you use- paper, cardstock, or construction paper there will be a option of templates for you. i think these would be great to store small group tools in so that when they are reading with you there is a stagey that they can pull out of their toolbox and practice using! Again you can use this whoever you want to! =)

So Valentines day this year was so much fun! The Minute To Win It games that I did with my kiddos last year was a big hit! You can check those games out  here! Also because I am teaching with Diana this year look at all the goodies our kiddos brought in! It's a ton I know!

Something I made that was new this year was our Love Bots! They were a total hit. The kids were obsessed. I mean OB-SESSED! I used the big envelopes so that the kids could put all their candy and cards inside them! Then we closed them up and sent them home. These were great!

In science we learned about all things soil. I am working on putting all these resources into one unit but it is no where near ready to post. So I will keep you posted in this resource. I was working close with our school's science contact and I LEARNED a lot this year. One of my big ahh-haa moments was what soil actually is. Do you know what makes up soil? If you are unsure about your answer stay tuned for some helpful resources!! In the mean time, here is a look at our long term investigation.

Well, that is all I have for you today! I hope all of you had a great month of February and  wishing you all a great month of  March. Remember spring break is just around the corner. =)

It's time to SHOP! And a Habitat Unit with 7 animal templates!

I am going to make it a quick one tonight-I promise! First I have to share with you the most adorable finger nail polish.... or should I say piece of art. I just had to share it with you all. Before we went on our week long Thanksgiving break =) we held our second grade feast. It is where all of the second grade classrooms (this year there are 6) get together and have a huge feast. All of our students and their families are invited and we all contribute to the food. It is such a fun time and most our students can't wait to be in second grade to have this Thanksgiving celebration! It really is a great way to leave for break especially because we have full bellies! Well one of my little sweethearts had her sister paint this adorable design on her nails just for the feast! Check it out...

So cute, right?! Anyways, let me get down to the real reason I am keeping it nice and short tonight, it has to do with one word, shopping! I get so excited for the TpT Thanksgiving sale. It is that time where so many amazing teachers put all their products on sale and then TpT offers an additional discount to boot! This cute little graphic is from Ashley Hughes. I mean, I can't wait to look at all the products so I know you probably feel the same way too.

I did post a new unit yesterday. It is flipbooks for seven different habitats. But what makes these flipbooks so cute, but definitely educational as well is that they are a craftivity! Each habitat has templates for a different animal which makes that 7 different animal temples in all. Yep that is right, you get all the printables for each animal! Check them out!

 

I think my favorite is the zebra!  I really am proud of his stripes! =) You also get all the templates for each flap of the 7 habitat flipbooks. I even made different line styles to fit your students needs. But to add in a little extra, there are habitat themed writing paper incase you choose not to do the flipbooks but want to use the animal temples. This unit has tons of choices. If you want to pick up a copy of this or any of my other products you can check out my TpT store! I hope every teacher out there takes full advantage of the sale going on because I know my cart is full of products I cant wait to purchase! Happy shopping and I hope everyone have a great week with their students!

Superheroes have arrived and classroom happenings

Well FINALLY- that is all I have to say. After much persistence and patience the superhero units are uploaded on to my TpT store. My husband was dragged into this dilemma and so he got into the superhero spirit whether he liked it or not! Check us out! We had to do something to pass the time as we tried and re-tried to get this unit uploaded! The template for the masks we are wearing is part of the unit!

Here is a photograph of the superhero masks.

As I had mentioned before I made one HUGE (147 pages) unit with everything superhero that my brain could possibly create and then 2 mini units that might be a better option for some of you. All I did was break the huge unit into 2 separate and logical units. However I will let you know that I discounted the huge unit by $1.00 so it is a super deal! =) I really tried to accommodate everyone's needs when making this unit. Below is a preview. The first photo will take you to the superhero clarifying unit, the second photo will take you to the superhero read aloud unit, and the last few photos will take you to the huge superhero unit, all of which are in my TpT store.

I also wanted to talk about the author of the books that I used in this unit. I love, love, loovveeee Amazon. I could spend hours going to books that I see interesting or would be a cute idea for a unit. Well that was just  the case when I came across this young author. Her name is Rachel Yu and she is pretty darn amazing. She is only 14 years old but has published a hand full of books. You can check out her books {here}. She also has a blog where she posts things about her books or things she is working on. Its called Rachel's Book Corner and you can click on the name to visit her sight.  The books that I purchased from her are shown below and I am very pleased with them. The craft she uses is great and not to mention they are cute and beautifully illustrated.

Okay so on to this week. We kept up our traveling the world theme and we first watched a video on Brain Pop Jr. called Oceans and Continents. Our students really enjoy Brain Pop Jr. and I do too.  My school has purchased a license to it so we can use all the videos our standards will allow us to! =) After that we wanted to connect it to life cycles since that is where we need to head in science so I found this amazing website that has tons of free worksheets.  It is called The Great Grub Club. They have a worksheet that allows the students to find fruits and vegetables from around the world. It's great. Check it out below and if you click on it you can download your own copy from the website and much much more. We are going to continue our fruit life cycle this week!

Then once we knew where the fruits were from we did an "observe and discover" kind of lesson where we let the students describe the inside and outside of each fruit. This helped them learn about the different seeds inside/outside each fruit. Check out the fruits we looked at.

Then the following day we let the kids create a fruit salad with 3 different fruits. They had to fill out an organizer that we created so it was completely academic. The students were really excited about this because some of them have never eaten some of the fruits that were on the menu.  Click the image below to get your own copy.

Last but not least on Friday we did a little more Brain Pop Jr. to learn about Earth Day. After we watched the Earth Day video our school collected Publix bags to decorate and return so that Publix customers can take home a bag and celebrate a little Earth Day too! I forgot to take a picture of this! Sorry about that but take my word for it, they turned out pretty cute! Then we ate Earth Day cupcakes. They thought they were delicious and Earthy! lol! I did take a picture of these.

Well I think that is all I have for you tonight! Be back soon with a little unit I am working on and more updates from our world travels unit!

A little bit personal and a spring unit

Hello, I am so glad to be posting again! I have a few reasons why my blog has seen no action lately, so hold on tight this is going to get a little personal with many highs and some lows.

Let me just start out by saying it is good to be back in Florida! Mark and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary a little early because I was off for spring break this week. If you missed my last post we went to the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and the Hoover Dam!  It was an amazing trip! The view  of the Grand Canyon was breathtaking and well Vegas it really just...... doesn't stop! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip!

 

We  toured the west and south rim of the Grand Canyon! We really want to go back and see the rest. It is just so beautiful. However there really is no place like home.

Okay so I normally don't get to personal but I feel like I can and should share with all of you this next happening.  This past Tuesday my Grandma passed away. Mark and I were still in Vegas at the time and didn't know. When we were waiting at the airport on Thursday I got a call from my mom telling me the sad news. This was really the first funeral my immediate family has had.   Today we held her funeral service. I got to see how many people loved and adored my grandmother. It was emotional and uplifting all at the same time. (Emotional because I lost my grandma and uplifting to hear how many lives she touched) The experience of today was truly humbling. As we gathered together, all of my grandma's family and friends, we remembered the life of one amazing woman. I love you Grandma.

So I warned you I was going to get  personal today. So if you read this, thank you for listening.

{taking a moment to pause}

There are still other things I need to share with you. Like a unit that I put together while waiting in the airports with layovers. Yes I did do school things on our trip but only in the airport I promise. (I actually had to promise my teacher friends I wouldn't, so I am proud to say that I kept my promise). You can check out my "Eggtraordinary" unit below. If you want to buy this little unit you can click on any picture below and it will take you to my TpT store.

Well that is it for now, there are other units in the making but this week has been eventful and tomorrow I am going to a wedding. So when I get a better grasp on time I will post a preview. I hope everyone has a great Sunday.

 

 

 

 

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