Daily Centers Classroom Pack 2 and FLASH SALE!

It's true! Yes, I am working on making a Daily Classroom Pack 2! To be honest it has been on my mind since last year. I wanted to give my students other options but I am going to be totally honest here, I was just too busy! Wrapping my brain around creating more centers to change out was too much to take on so it was written down on my to do later list! lol! Does any one else have a list like that? I sure hope so! I promise I don't do it to procrastinate, more like give myself more time to complete it! =)

So to tell you what I have been working on so far with my Daily Centers Classroom Pack 2 (DCCP2)! Just so you are with me on this, I am going to create my own acronym so I don't have to type that out each time! Yep I am going to be a little bit lazy!

Anyway, let me get to sharing the centers I have finished so far. When I first posted about my DCCP1 I had so many requests to post each section as it was completed. So with this pack I thought I would do just that! I know that you might not need new additions for each center, so I thought I would offer them separately for now. Then once I finish all the new additions I will put them in a bundle! This is great because I can work on them as time is available for me as well as offer you the resources right away! So here is what I have done!

The first part that I completed for my new DCCP2 is focused on writing! I'm sure you probably guessed that already!

I decided to make writing menus to give my students more choices during writing. What I noticed is that some of my struggling writers also struggled with coming up with what to write about. So on the menus you will find tons of prompts. I focused on 3 main topics that each prompt will fall under. They are imagine if (creative narrative writing), what do you think (state your opinion), and try something new (how-to, menu, list, etc.). Each month provides different choices and ideas for your students to write about. However, with all those choices I needed to provide some layout and organization to the prompts. This means in addition to the monthly prompt menus you will also receive the templates to go along with it! There are tons of templates!! If you want a closer look at this you can check out the product over at TpT!

Also TpT is throwing a sale for reaching 100,000 likes on Facebook! So I have put all my products 20% off until tomorrow! So go shop, shop, shop! Don't forget to use the code below!

The border is by Creative Clips and the font is by Kevin and Amanda!

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend! Also the first 3 people to comment below will receive my new DCCP2 {work on writing supplement} for free!

New Bundles and Back to School Sale on TPT!!!

It's that time once again!   I'm just as excited as all of you are!  Use the image below created by Amy Lemons to visit my TPT Store.

I also combined more of my units into bundles for even more savings.  Check out them out by clicking on the images below:

In the Mega Animal Bundle, you will find 3 products to help teach about life cycles, habitats, and steps to conduct research.  A value of $19 for only $16.

•  A Habitat Science Unit - $7
• Around & Around it Goes - $7
• Animal Research (Steps to Becoming an Animal Specialist) - $5

  And remember....there is another 28% off on August 18th-19th on TPT's Back to School Sale!

In the Rockin' Classroom Bundle, you will find 4 products with my Rockin' Classroom Theme.  A value of $16 for only $13.

•  A Rockin' Behavior Management Plan - $5
  
• Rock and Roll Classroom Jobs (Rockin' Responsibilities) - $3
• Rock and Roll Interactive Notebooks - $2
• Rockin' Reading Groups - $6

In the Fun with Words Bundle, you will find 3 products full of fun writing activities.  A value of $7 for only $5.

• Nouns, Verbs, and Adjectives, Hooray! - $2
  
• When Pigs Fly - An ABC Books of Idioms - $3
• Amazing Alliteration Activities - $2

I hope everyone enjoys the 2-Day Shopping Sale because I know I will!

Do you have a room sign? Check out this store....Plus a mini SALE!

Hey everyone! I hope, if you are on summer vacation, you are enjoying  your time off! If you are teaching summer school, thank you for keeping our students practicing those much-needed skills and strategies!

I wanted to share a cute store with you today that one of my teacher friends has started. She is so talented in the classroom as well as with a paint brush and blank canvas! =)

I don't know if you are like me but I love a classroom sign. There is something about hanging a sign outside your room that makes it feel like YOURS. Plus what teacher doesn't love a cute and custom sign? It's pretty hard to resist if you ask me.

So I know most of you are familiar with my classroom sign that I have posted in the "dive into my room" tab at the top of the page. If not, this is what I am talking about...

However, this sign was pricey and not to mention the other problem being that she isn't making teacher signs anymore. I figured I was going to just take it with me and well, just deal. If you are like me, it is really hard not to have everything matching. Believe me at first I had convinced myself, but then my OCD kicked in and I had to do something about that sign!

Then I remember my wonderful and talented friend Julia! We had her paint a sign as part of a gift for our intern's graduation. It turned out amazing and she loved it! Check it out...

It's so bright and colorful! I just adore it and so did our intern and kids! =) I got to thinking (which is never a good thing.. ha!) about my sign dilemma and then it hit me.... Julia! So I started putting together a few ideas and talking with her. Now no more worries because my new sign is in the works! It's not done yet, but as soon as it is I will post a few pictures! I am so excited to have a new matching sign for my new room theme.  It's the little things right?

In the meantime, if you are like me (in need of an adorable sign)  you can check out her store! You have time before the school year starts up, so it's the perfect time to order one. Yes, that's right she has opened a store and you too can have a creative one of a kind sign for your classroom!

You can click on the store sign above and it will take you right to her store on Facebook! I am telling you she is so creative and the best part about it is that she is a teacher like you and me! So she totally understands the idea of matching! =)

BTW if you are not a canvas kinda teacher and want somethings extra adorable she also paints letters to spell out your name! Check out this cute sign! I have also seen teachers put the letters on desk fronts or on the wall in their classroom. They really are cute and the design possibilities are endless!

So if you are in need of a sign (what teacher isn't) then make sure you give her store a little visit. Interested?? Just send her a message to start the ideas and design process!

Before I head out for the day I wanted to update you on the Mentor Text Units! Yes, the answer is YES, they are coming! I have been so busy with family gatherings and house decorating =) that I haven't had much time to produce all the units as fast as I had hoped. But they are in the works! I promise.

Right now I am working on:

AND

My goal is this weekend! It's always good to set a goal! =) RIGHT?

So in the meantime I decided to put my finished and uploaded Reading Mentor Text Organization Unit on SALE. For one day only I have put my newest organizational materials on sale!  Click on the product cover to pick up a copy at my TPT store. You can read about all the materials you get in the unit here. Trust me it's a TON!

Alright that about does it for me! Hope everyone has a great day.  It is finally not raining here in Florida so I think I might head out for a bit of sunshine!

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. =)

A New Math Unit, 100th day, and A House Update!

Well with this post I am finally able to get it to you before the end of the month! Ha! =) I am really so excited to talk about math today because I came up with a new strategy that is going to work perfect for a little place value review as well as get them started with regrouping! I am in love with it! Let me start with my new unit.

As you can see this unit is all about place value! It is meant for grades K-2 but I think 3rd grade could use some of the materials as intervention support. I know that one of the hardest skills for my second graders is to understand the relationship each place has with the others and then apply that knowledge to a word problem! Over the years I have created many place value charts to use in my instruction. This time I think I found the winner!

This is a picture of the chart you can find in my unit! Of course I have printed out the color option. It is great for a lot of reasons. The first reason is that you can use the colors to help them identify the different place value sections. Another is that I have added in two tens frames in the ones place. I LOVE this. I have used it for a few years now and it is a great way for the students to see that they can make the same number different ways. However, since there is a tens frame , the kids don't forget the idea of ten ones is the same or equal to a tens rod. This little feature also comes in handy when you move into regrouping in addition and subtraction! Last, I have added picture support into each place value section. So for example, in the ones place you will have the word ones, a picture of a ones cube, the quick picture of a one, and and equal sign with the number one following it (=1). Lots of great information in each section! This also comes in black and white!

Because I know that having the right tools really helps deliver the instruction I have created tons and tons of mats. I started with a variety of tens and ones mats. I love to start the year reviewing with tens and ones. I also use a lot of different materials to help do this, To be honest you never know what one will get the kids comprehending the idea! There are mats for snap cubes, base ten, popsicle sticks, and regular tens and ones (these sport the same colors as the mats for hundreds and thousands). The colors will be great for building upon one another!

Let's talk about popsicle sticks for a minute! This is the idea I am so excited to share with you! Okay, so how many of you make bean sticks with your students? I know there has to be someone out there like me... It really helps them visualize their tens as well as have ownership over their math manipulative. So let me ask you another question...Don't you hate making them! (Sorry that was more of a statement! ha!) I mean all the glue and sticky fingers and not to mention then you can't break them apart for ones. Well if you feel the way I feel then you will love my idea...

Ta-DA! Break apart tens sticks! So I was surfing the net and I came across this patterning idea with magnetic tape, paper clips and jumbo popsicle sticks. It is from a blog called Teach Beside Me. You can click on the blog name to check her out, she looks like she has some great ideas for Kindergarten! Anyways, when I saw this idea for some reason my brain though tens rod, ones cubes and regrouping! So a new manipulative is born! I am really excited to use this with my students.

Here is how I plan on using them. As you can see in the picture it is a great way to show the same number in different ways. In addition to this I want to try it with regrouping. There are always a few strugglers when it comes time for regrouping. Hopefully since they will have created the tens sticks they can easily break a ten apart in subtraction with regrouping as well as make a ten in addition with regrouping. I hope you like my idea and it is some sort of help to you. I can tell you, I can't wait to get down to business! lol!

There is a ton of other resources you can get in my unit. Here are a few samples of some of my favorites.

I have made digit character cards. The character holds up the number of fingers to represent the number that they are. I love when things are cute but totally academic! You can use them in games but they really just help the students understand that there are 10 different digits that are used in our everyday numbers.

I have included bulletin board materials for you to display in your classroom. There is a number represented in 2-digit, 3-digit, and 4-digit as well as the corresponding examples in expanded form, number form, place value chart, and word form.

These cards are so useful when teaching students about expanded form. They stack on top of each other to create a number and then as you slowly break them apart you see the value each digit has. Talk about a visual! They come in color and a white card with color trim.

The last thing I will show you is a fishing for digits game. They have to find a number that has the digit they rolled in the ones, tens, hundreds, or thousands place. There is 3 different versions of this game (2-digit, 3-digit, and 4-digit). Then the unit is finished off with some word problems, 12 to be exact.

Alright, so onto some cute 100th day portraits! I just love making these. Here are some of my favorites this year.

I just love the one that says, "Old People Rock!" I almost died laughing! Kids are so cute sometimes... I mean check out the one with his hat tilted sideways! Can you say too cute or what!

They really got creative with these portraits. I mean they are going to be really cool and hip when they are 100! My students also got really into the wrinkled skin. The got a charge out of that step in the craft!

Well that about does it for me! I did want to leave you with an update on our house adventure! We were able to accept an offer on the house, so know we are waiting to be approved! It is a big waiting game... I am driving myself crazy thinking about it. I think I have bitten down all my nails and I am not a nail biter (or at least I wasn't). If you sent some prayers our way in my last post, could you keep them coming!? Technically speaking, it is not ours yet. All the paper work has to clear and the bank has to approve us! So we are not out of the water yet. Thank you for all your support! It really does mean a lot to both Mark and I!

We got to put up the sold sign in the front yard! I was not expecting this and I thought it was totally cute, so I had to have a picture of the moment! I know we are totally cheesy, but I love it! This is definitely one for the photo albums! Hope you all have a great week ahead!