Merry Christmas but Where did Thanksgiving Go?!?

I have totally neglected my blog this school year, but between me and you it has been hard to find things to post about since I am not in the classroom. I am missing not being in the classroom terribly and when I get on my blog it reminds me of all the fun I have had in years past in my classroom. I also get to see all the great things all my bloggy friends are doing that I can't do! :(

Ok, I will stop blubbering and get on to more important things...

Did you know it is Cyber Monday on Monday...DUH!

Click on the cute picture from Traci at Dragon Flies in First Grade to check out my store. 

I have updated some of my items so make sure you go back and re-download them! 

I created a little freebie to celebrate Cyber Monday...

It is a super fun game for K-2 grade to practice adding numbers 0-20 using ten frames! Click on either of the pictures to download it! 

I also wanted to link up with Farley for her December Currently since I have missed out the past couple of months! 

As for my favorite tradition, my brother and I had our own little Christmas trees in our rooms. Mine had all my Disney Princess ornaments on it and my brothers had Winnie the Pooh ornaments. On Christmas Eve Santa would put one present under our trees for us to open on Christmas Day first. It was usually something we really wanted. I can't wait to do this tradition with my children someday. 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday! Have a super duper week! 

Finally Finished Number Chat Cards

I thought I would have this up sooner but man I have been tired this week. 

Click here to see how to use these in your classroom!

Click on the picture to check it out! 

The first 2 people to comment and tell me how they are going to use them in their classroom I will send it to you for free. Make sure to include your email! 

Happy almost Friday! 

Number and Letter Identification and Whats Up?

The past couple of days I have enjoyed a quiet house, because my mom went back to work after being on vacation for 3 weeks. We completely redid two rooms in her house while she was off those three weeks! I was glad to have a little time to myself to work on blogging and TpT. I completed my Numbers and Letters Identification Unit:

That is just a sample...the assessments go all year long and included lowercase, uppercase, and 1-20 numbers! Click on any of the pictures above to check it out! 

So we are still HOMELESS! We have been looking for a house since we moved out and sold our house in April....we finally found a house. We had the inspection and the jerking owners wouldn't fix ANYTHING that needed to be fixed. Needless to say it wasn't worth buying it and needless to say that is why we are still homeless. UGH!

Any advice from those of you that have bought a house...this is ZERO fun! 

Math Practice Standards DONE!

I am so excited to share with you my newest creation....Mathematical Practice Standards for Kids!

Click on the link to check it out! If you are teaching the Common Core then you definitely need this in your classroom! 

P.S. I will give it to the first person who comments below! 

Sale Time and Totally Bummed!

I am linking up with Mrs. Wheeler for a St. Patrick's Day Sale. My store will be on sale today through Tuesday! Click the picture to check out my store! 

Here are some of my items that I think you might like:

I am TOTALLY bummed that I didn't make it to the KC bloggy get-together! My hubby and I are trying to buy a house because we sold ours and we have to be out on April 22! It sounded like everyone had a lot of fun and I am super sad I missed out. I promise to be there next time! 

Happy shopping everyone! 

Data, Valentines Day, and Fonts!

Wow! It has been a crazy week...it is crazy some of the stuff that happens at our school. I guess that is what I get for working in a lower income school. I do truly love all my students and it makes me more grateful for what I have everyday! I just introduced to my students data and how to find the minimum, maximum, median, range, and mode. I wanted to bring this into our calendar time everyday. We do calendar time for about 5 minutes at the beginning of math. Here is what we cover:

-Month, day, year, and full date
-Days in a Week/Months in a Year
-Day of school with place value
-Minutes in a Hour/Hours in a Day
-One More/One Less*
-Ten More/Ten Less*
-Even or Odd*
-Rounding up or down*

Each of the ones with a * next to them I pick a number on the chart and we answer each one of those questions for that number. I wanted to add data to this because I feel like it will make a HUGE difference in my students data knowledge.....so....TADA....

Click the picture to check it out! 

I also wanted to share with you my Valentine's Day math centers! We have a short week so I am going to try really hard to get them all in. We have Parent Teachers Conferences Wednesday night and Thursday during the day! 

Click on the Picture to check them out! 

I also have been playing around with Ifont maker...thanks to Hadar! I LOVE it! Here is my first creation! 

I would love to share it with all my bloggy friends but I can't figure out how to upload it to my blog post for you to download...if anyone knows that would be great! 

I hope everyone has a great rest of their Sunday! 

Fe, Fi, Fo, Fumb....

I finally finished my Common Core Aligned Fairy Tale Unit! We will be using it the whole month the February. I am so excited because I love teaching and reading fairy tales! It is probably one of my favorite things to teach! Before I share my unit I have been meaning to share about our reading block and what it looks like...

Here is our schedule:

Monday:

Phonics: 8:35-8:50ish
Mentor Text Read Aloud: 8:50-9:10
Introduce Strategy or Topic for the week: 9:10-9:30
Partner Activity with Strategy: 9:30-9:50
Mini Lesson for Writing: 9:50-10:00
Independent Writing Time/Conferences 10:00-10:20
Wrap up and Share Out 10:20-10:35

*Our Mondays look at little different than the rest of the week because we don't do small group or Daily 5 (D5)

Tuesday-Friday

Phonics: 8:35-8:50
Mentor Text Read Aloud with Strategy 8:50-9:10
First Small Group Rotation 9:10-9:30
Second Small Group Rotation 9:30-9:50
Third Small Group Rotation 9:50-10:10
Fourth Small Group Rotation 10:10-10:30
Wrap up/Share Out 10:35

Some of you might be wondering how I do D5 with only 4 Rotations well....the students get through all of the D5 in two days. Each day they have small group and read to self. The other two rotations slots are either Listen to Reading/Read to Someone one day and the next day Word Work/Writing the second day. I don't allow the students to choose where they want to go. I wanted to get my feet wet this year before I made that BIG leap!

I love our reading block this year! This is the first year I feel like I am teaching reading and it is meaningful! During small group time I use an intervention program by Fountas and Pinnell called LLI. I am super excited because I have one group that has graduated from the program past a level N! I have two other groups that will graduate before the end of the month! I can't believe what a difference guided reading has made in my students reading. I honestly wish it was something our whole district embraced!

On to my Fairy Tale Unit! I will be using it during the Mentor Text Read Aloud time and it will be where I pull my Common Core aligned strategies from! I also included some word work that I will use during D5 to help reinforce skills I will be teaching!

Click on the picture to check it out! 

These are the standards that are addressed in the unit! 

This weekend has been jam packed already! We are putting our townhouse on the market therefore we are going through everything and deep cleaning! I am hoping it sells quickly but you never know with this market! Tomorrow will be much of the same thing....cleaning....cleaning...more cleaning! It will hopefully be worth it in the end! 

P.S. The first two people who comment with their email I will send you my new unit for free! 

Happy Saturday! 

What a Week!

The only downfall to my week was I think the hubby got me sick! The upside is I am not dying like he was! Men are just big babies! On to the great parts of the week!

This week we started my new unit!

Click here to check it out!

We talked about inventions and inventors! The students were fascinated by this! We talked about Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, and Henry Ford! 

During the week our strategy was cause and effect! It isn't one of my favorites to teach, but the kids picked it up quickly! 

I wrote the cause and the effect on sentence strips and the kids were able to match them! We also did some great activities during Daily 5 from Mrs. Patmore's FREE unit! 

Check out her unit here!

We also talked about synonyms and antonyms! The kids loved coming up with these! I made a cute cinnamon roll to remind them of what a synonym was! 

The kids practiced sorting synonyms this week and will do antonyms next week! 

The highlight of my week was yesterday...I got to go to a conference in Wichita. My bff and I got up at 4:30 to drive three hours to see....

Rachelle from What the Teacher Wants!! 

She was sharing about Technology, Reaching Every Child, and the Common Core! We both looved all of her sessions! We talked about how inspiring she is most of the ride home! 

So I want to thank the kids for making a great week, but also Rachelle for a SUPER, AWESOME week! Have a great weekend! 

-Kelley 

New Year....and Past,Present, and Future

We have been working on our Holiday's Around the World Unit. This is probably one of my favorite things to teach all year, because the kids make such great connections between all the different countries we study! I will be showing off some of the things we have been doing later this week. We are using Rachelle's Unit!

I wanted to share a new unit I have at my TpT store for the New Year!!!

This unit was created to review some of the essential skills that were taught in the first two quarters of second grade. It also includes some fun New Year’s activities to help get the kids back in the groove of school. 

Included in this unit:
-Even or Odd Three Digit Numbers
-Regrouping or Not Regrouping with addition
-2-D and 3-D Shape Sort
-Rounding Three Digit Numbers
-New Year’s Book List
-Sequencing
-Summarizing Guide
Text to Self Connections
-Writing Activity
-New Year's Resolution Craft

Click Here to check it out! 

I am also working on a unit I will be using when we get back in January! It will be about Past, Present, and Future...transportation, inventions, and historical events! I am planning this unit for the whole month of January to cover A LOT of our social studies standards!

In this unit the students will understand:

How inventions have affected our lives?

How our lives have changed over time?

How are lives will change in the future?

Through these big ideas students will explore different inventors and how their inventions have changed the way we live. They will look at the history of transportation. Students will understand how simple machines have played a roll in past and future inventions. They will also look at how our country has changed and what some of the important landmarks are. Lastly students will analyze how Pioneer families lived compared to their own family. 

I am SUPER excited about this unit because I feel like these standards are some of the harder ones to teach in second grade! I will let you know as soon as I am done with it and have it posted! 

Happy Saturday!

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]

Exciting News!!!

I finally got my TpT store up and running! I am very excited to start out on this new venture! I currently have some free items on there and my newest unit:

I would love some of my bloggy friends to help promote my TpT store by giving me a shout out on their blog! I greatly appreciate all your help and support!

Click Here to access my store!

Well I am posting I decided to do my December Currently with Farley!

Oh yes friends you read correctly...the hubs FINALLY gave into getting me an IPAD!!! I am so excited, but the UPS guy came early therefore we weren't home to sign for the package so I have to wait until Monday. I have been waiting since the summer so I guess a couple more days won't hurt! ;)

I will be back later to tell you all about our week...we did some really great stuff with life cycles! 

[Glitterfy.com - *Glitter Words*]