All I Want For Christmas...

I am sure all of you are feeling the holiday rush right about now, I know I am. Between our house and my classroom I don't know what is worse. In the classroom the kids and I have a count down to Christmas break on the board, and we are rushing to cram all the content their little brains can hold before break! Oh and did I mention I have started Elf on the Shelf this year? Well, we are only on day two, but my third graders are loving it! =) (I promise I will post pictures this weekend of all out Elf adventures!)

Our house is finally looking and feeling like Christmas! I do, however, have shopping packages all over the floor in what I like to call the present room! One of my favorite parts about Christmas is wrapping every one's gifts. Picking out the right paper/bag and the matching ribbon and bow, I really love it! I think that is on this weekends to-do list.

So I have to admit I have been doing a lot of online shopping this year for Christmas. Well let me say this, whatever I didn't get on Black Friday, I then turned to Cyber Monday. Yeah, I know what you are thinking, but Black Friday really isn't that bad. My mom and I have done it every year, ever since I can remember. So, to me, it's one of my favorite shopping days! =) But please don't think shopping for others is easy for me. It's not! I usually have a long list that I write out with the names of everyone I need to buy for. Next to their name I write the item/s followed by the place I need to go to get it. It is a pro.cess. With the idea of gifts and shopping in mind I thought I would link up with Hope King's little Christmas linky.

I really want a pair of Dolce and Gabbana sunglasses. I have never spent a lot of money on sunglasses but I tried a pair on at the store and fell in love! So they are on Santa's list.

Can I just tell you I am totally obsessed with urban decay eye shadow. I have the first color plate they created and this one looks just as good!

 

I have also had my eye on a few scarves from the Loft. I love all their clothes and could go crazy in there!

 

Last, I love Francesca's! So of course any of their dresses or accessories would be amazing!

 

My husband loves a good glass of Stella. So beer glasses made for his favorite beer would definitely be a hit. I mean he did this whole sales pitch about how it makes the beer taste better and I know there was more but I just can't remember it all! =)

 

I also found this get website (www.thinkgeek.com) with all sorts of great guy gifts. You have to check it out if your Mr. is a little nerdy like mine! =)

Another item on Mr. Moyer's list is a new pair of running shoes. We went to the fit to run store where they fit a pair of shoes to the way you run. He tried on a bunch of styles and decided on Brooks. But he also enjoys a good pair of Nike's sneakers!

Well I have always wanted a way to make books in the classroom. Especially when my students put together a get piece of writing.

I also would love an Amazon gift card! I get all my books from here and they arrive within two days! It's truly a wonderful thing when you open a package and smell the pages of a crisp new book. I might have a little problem! =) On second thought, when is a new book a problem?

Before I call it a night I wanted to share with you the new unit I have posted for my Daily Centers.  It is packed full of resources for Responding to Reading. This year i needed to change up independent reading a little and I am trying to squeeze as much reading and writing into a two hour block that I can! So this is what I created.

If you want to take a closer look at this unit you can check it out here! Have a great week everyone!

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!

Another 2 Weeks... another post and a linky party!

I hope this isn't the beginning of a new trend of mine. I definitely want to posting more than this! It is so hard to recap everything that goes on in a 2 week period in one post. So I am going to try and get back to posting once a week but who knows how that is going to go. I feel like in the fall there is a ton of family birthdays/celebrations and then school has just been B-U-S-Y! Between conference night, grading and report cards - I can't catch a break! I know all of you can relate to a busy schedule, so thanks for understanding! =) I think that is one of the reasons why I love blogging. I am talking to fellow teachers that know how busy life is and having a classroom full of kids that you care about and don't want to disappoint makes it that more hectic.

Anyway, I wanted to share what my team was for our Story Book Parade! Every year second grade does an author study with Kevin Henkes. We use all his mouse books. The kids always love it and I have to admit I love getting dressed up as a book character too! It is our tradition and we are always the same character. LOL! I think it is a teacher thing, if not then we are all just that OCD. I am Shelia Rea The Brave. I wish I could show you the kids all dressed up, but I have the next best thing, me and my team as mice! Check us out!

So much fun right! Well in spirit of all things fall we started a new unit in writing! It is monster theme. We have a few kids this year that don't celebrate Halloween so we have to be a little more careful than usual. So we called it "Learning how to write scary stories!" =) Awhile back I shared a book with you all called "I Need My Monster." I discovered it last year and have fallen in love with it. It was so perfect for our scary stories because lets face it, children's picture books aren't that scary. But I wanted them to be descriptive and also review adjectives. This book was PERFECT!  It has taken us a little over two weeks to complete this unit (I added in the editing process!) and I will admit that they are putting their finishing touches on it this week. I just posted the unit so I will show you what I have included and also show some finished projects!

Here is some of their monsters and stories published! They are adorable.... I hope you enjoy them!

 

Okay, so besides teaching I have also been diving into some book studies as well as trying to get my reading instruction down to thirty minutes! I know, I think I might just be going crazy! Here is the problem we have exactly thirty minutes to teach phonics and our reading skill. I am having a REALLY and I mean really hard time doing this! So we (me and my co-teacher Diana) brainstorming with our reading resource. So far I think we are onto something! We are using poems to help teach phonics which seems to be working. We review it every day and they read it independently during read to self as well! In order to make the connections for the students in other areas we want to have them practice it during work with words. So I have created a little file folder to help with this!

I am hoping this will make practice efficient and easy to keep up with! If you are interested in this activity you can click on the product cover and pick it up in my TpT store.

Here is how it works!

So in order to manipulate the words a little more I want them to be exposed to them in small group! So I am in the process of putting together a "Working with words" booklet! I need the words that we teach through the poems to connect to the text in small group! Also because it is a 10 minute phonics lesson I need more time with it in small group! I am not finished with this resource yet! However, I will show you what I have done so far!

That is all I have for now! I am linking up with DeAnne over at First Grade and Fabulous. You can click on the cute little image below to check out her blog!

The recipe that I am going to share with you is one that my husband loves! He can not wait for the fall because that means lots of leftovers and pot pie! That's right....pot pie! He loves them. So if you have lots of left over turkey you might want to check out this recipe!

I hope everyone has a great week.

I know, it's been awhile!

Boy do I have a ton of things to share with all of you! Not only has my classroom been very busy but my personal life has too! I think I started writing up this post a week ago but just have not had the time to read over it and post it. So instead I have been adding classroom happenings as I go. So I am going to take you through a ton of classroom action.

First up I have to show you a better picture of my Daily 5 wall! I could not believe that the one I last shared was blurry! I felt so bad I could not show you a good picture! So here you go… a new and might I add, clear picture!  I even added my shoe pictures around the I PICK poster so the kids remember to read books that are a "good fit."  If you want to know where you can get these I added them to my Daily 5 Classroom pack for FREE a few weeks ago so make sure you grab the updated pack if you haven’t!

I have also started adding poster to my anchor chart wall. Right now I  have had a ton of reading anchor charts because of the Daily 5. So this flip chart storage idea has really come in handy.

Speaking of Daily 5 I wanted to show you some of my D5 rotations and set up. Two aspects that I struggled with when reading the Daily 5 was that 1. I have computers as part of centers and I have to have my below level students do Istation every week as part of an intervention and 2. I only have 3 listening spots. So to solve this dilemma I decided to make a rotation for computers and listening center then allow the students to choose the other centers throughout the week. The idea of choice was important to me because I want them to know that I do trust them to make good choices however my interventions are really important and I felt like I needed to make sure the students that needed the documentation were getting it. I took some pictures of the organization.

 

I have each computer labeled and then I made a chart with the days of the week and then two spots under each day. If the students name is in the first spot they go to computer 1 and if their name is in the second spot then they go to computer 2. A piece of cake! It make me feel so much better knowing I am getting the documentation I need. Behind the rotation chart is the computer program sheet (must do - can do).

 For listen to reading I did the same rotation chart as the one for computers. I put it in a folder at the center. I also added the poster for how to set up the tape along with the response pages. I do not copy the response pages for the students, instead I just have a spiral notebook at the center for the students to record their responses to their listening. It is a good comprehension check since all the words are read to them.

I still have a bunch of pictures to take of the other centers so I will be sharing more with you soon.

As far as reading instruction goes my little second graders have been visualizing, making connections and learning about nonfiction in the last 3 weeks. I have been so proud of their thinking. My teaching buddy Diana Patrissi has a super cute anchor chart for visualizing that we used. We both made one two years ago... mine was a scuba mask but the letters for visualizing feel off so we used hers! Its so cute! If you are wondering what inspired us to make them it was our room themes! You need a scuba mask to see in the ocean and you need binoculars to see in the Jungle. I know we are pretty ridiculous!

One of my favorite read alouds to use for visualizing is The Salamanders Room by Anne Mazer. The words used to describe the story are amazing for visualizing! Also to get them using their 5 senses I use the book Hello Ocean by Pam Munoz Ryan. If you want to check them out click on the images below!

After visualizing we moved into connections. We started off teaching connections with some concrete examples. One of the activities we used involved puzzles. Yes puzzles, but not the kind you are thinking of. We wanted then to see and experience the pieces connecting in the puzzle however what makes a great connection is when students use the text. So I created 4 different puzzles with sentences on them. Each sentence evoked a different feeling the students can connect to. Let me just tell you this lesson worked! I think it made them really understand how to make connections! After that we did some thinking and recording in our HERO notebooks.

They referenced this page throughout our week with connections. It really helped them make meaningful connections and provided them with thinking stems for connections.

If you are interested in the materials I used for teaching connections you can click on the product cover from my Concrete Connection unit and it will take you to my TpT store.

After Connections we moved into nonfiction. I just love teaching nonfiction. We started off by using a resource from Scholastic! If you don't have this resource I really suggest getting it. It is basically a nonfiction book that you use to teach nonfiction! The book has every nonfiction feature imaginable in it. If you click on the picture it will take you to the Scholastic listing.

We also made a chart that I found on Pinterest for before, during and after reading. I changed it a little because i wanted the students to be writing and responding to our reading, so I added symbols for sticky notes so i knew what strategy the students were using in their responses. It worked out great. Here is my anchor chart and some samples of their work.

Look at my good little reader! She asked a question and then when she found the answer she wrote it down! AWESOME!

I am in the process of putting together all the resources I use to teach nonfiction so I will have them available soon!

Speaking of available, I wanted to let you know that I updated my CAFE Pack and it now includes the expand vocabulary section. Just click on the product cover below to update your copy!

Before I go I want to share a little writing activity that I did a few weeks ago! It really got the kids up and moving. We started learning about nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We took our kiddos and split them into the 3 different parts of speech groups. We each took a group (Diana, Ms. April our Speech and Language specialist, and myself) around the school and found nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We took pictures of the things we found around our school that they found! They were so cute posing with their finds. Then they had to write a sentence with their word once they found it. Everyone was definitely focused on their team's task.

Team adjective rocked! It was tons of fun! If you are interested in this unit you can click on the product preview below and pick it up at my TpT store.

I have so much more I want to share! With that being said, I have already shared a ton, so I will be saving more for later. I hope everyone enjoys their weekend! Until the next post.