Monday, November 26, 2012

Cyber Monday & Tuesday


Who doesn't love a sale?
I have been having fun getting some of my goodies posted and am excited to be participating in Cyber Monday and Tuesday over at TPT!
Come see what's on sale - for 20% off (EVERYTHING!!) including my new MATH FACT SUPERHEROES ADDITION! (see below)
Happy Shopping!


Sunday, November 25, 2012

Math Facts Superheroes to the Rescue!


The final touches on my first unit are DONE :)  & I am excited to be sharing it with you!

For the past few weeks, in order to reinforce math fact fluency in my classroom, my students have been playing partner or small group games during math workshop.

They were so particularly fond of one "Superhero" doubles addition game that I decided to make games to reinforce all of the addition strategies we practice.  I included spinners for easy and convenient game play.
I'd love for you to come take a look and let me know what you think!
Right now you can find it at The Teacher's Notebook - it's 25% off!










Gift Giving


Here's a look at how our Thanksgiving gifts turned out.  After learning about the Wampanoag Tribe, my students created stories using Native American symbol writing.
Since my first graders are learning how to write paragraphs and my second graders are learning how to write essays, we attached them under the painting.  Their topic was, "Things I Am Thankful For" - of course!
I think the projects turned out really nice.  I hope they enjoyed sharing them with their families this past weekend!

Now, switching gears a bit, but keeping in step with the gift giving - it's time to come up with a holiday gift.  I found this idea through Pinterest.  It connected me to Classroom DIY.  I love the idea of these coasters - and I love that website too!!  The idea was posted by Jen from Runde's Room.
I thought I should test the idea out before introducing it to my students, so I had my own kids whip up a batch.  I think they came really cute and they were pretty easy!  The original direction calls for shrinking completed designs down, but we kept it simple and created artwork on 4x4 paper squares.  We followed all of the other directions as stated in the directions.  
What do you think?  I think it's a go!  I can't wait to see what the little artists in my class come up with!





Saturday, November 24, 2012

A Thanksgiving Surprise - Liebster Blog Award


Happy Saturday after Thanksgiving everyone!
I hope everyone enjoyed special times with family and loved ones.
I know I did...we were treated to a wonderful day by my sister and her husband in their new home - it was very special!

In between on-line shopping, house decorating and basically relaxing my over-fed sprained tummy, I worked on a few new things that I will be sharing shortly with you...
BUT...
You can imagine my surprise when I got up to do some work in my early hour alone time and saw that I've been nominated by Miss King over at Ms. King's Enchanted Kingdom!


Thank you Miss King - I am looking forward to Blog Hopping throughout the day and seeing what great ideas new bloggers have to share!

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers.  It’s to show that new bloggers are appreciated and help spread the word about our little pieces of cyberspace.

Here are the rules:1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you.3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate.4. Choose 11 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers to nominate and link them in your post.5. You cannot “tag back” the other blog, but leave a comment on this post with the URL of your Liebster post so I can learn more about you & see who you nominate.


So here we go...11 Random Things About Myself:

  1. Although I am a New Yorker now, I grew up right outside of Albuquerque, in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
  2. One of the best things I ever did in NM was ride in a hot air balloon during the Balloon Fiesta!
  3. I am the oldest of 3 sisters and 1 cousin-sister.
  4. I married my College Sweetie. xoxo
  5. Being a mom to my two girls is my biggest and most favorite accomplishment <3
  6. I ran in the 2008 NYC Marathon with my friend and fellow teacher Nicole- Once and DONE!
  7. I love to bake and taught myself how to make some crazy cakes (maybe I'll post pics someday).
  8. My father and I share the title of "Inspector Gadget" in our family - We love each other and all things techie!
  9. My mom is my hero.
  10. I love to sing in my classroom - not because I AM a good singer (by any stretch of the imagination) but because my students THINK I AM and that's good enough for me!
  11. This little tid-bit is time sensitive...considering the conversation my husband and I had in Home Depot last night regarding Christmas lights... I guess I DO have a little Clark Griswold in me: I LOVE Christmas lights - a lot of them!

Questions From Miss King:
1. If you could live anywhere, where would you live?  Truly, any where with my family, but I would prefer somewhere warm and beachy.

2. What is the one thing in your classroom you can't live without?  It would be really hard for me not to have all of the math games that I have worked so hard to create over the years - the kids love them!

3. What is your favorite food? My mom's (which was really my Nana's) Sunday macaroni and meatballs.

4. What is your favorite holiday and why? Despite it being so hectic every year, I love Christmas.  I enjoy celebrating my Religion keeping traditions year after year.  Nothing beats the magic that Christmas brings to all who believe :)

5. What was your first car? An old gray Thunderbird.  Thanks, Papa xoxo.

6.  What do you like to do in your free time? I like to read and snuggle with the hubby or the girls.

7. When did you start blogging? Two weeks ago! Aaaaaaaah!!

8. Have you always taught the grade you teach now? No, besides 1st and 2nd, I also taught 5th, 6th and Pre-K.

9. Do you prefer books on electronics (ipads/nooks/kindles) or reading a real book? It depends on the time of year.  I love a real book in the summer when I can read outside.  Otherwise, I like the light of my e-reader so I can read in bed at night.

10. Have you ever taught in another state or country than where you teach now? No, just here in NY.

11. You do you  most admire? I am blessed with so many people in my life who lead by example of what it means to be a good, giving, kind and helpful person through and through.  I also have several survivors in my life, each who teach lessons of strength, courage and grace.  It's all of these people who I admire the most...

Blogs I am Nominating... :)

Nominees, here are your questions:
1.  What is your favorite comfort food?
2.  What is a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?
3.  What sound do you love?
4.  If you could throw any kind of party, what kind would it be and who would it be for?
5. If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?
6.  If you could be any fictional character from a book you read aloud in your classroom, who would you be?
7.  What is one chore that you dislike the most?
8.  Who do you admire most in your life?
9.  When your school days are over, where do you want to retire?
10. When you have 30 minutes to yourself, what do you like to do?
11.  What is something that you treasure?


Don't forget to leave me a link to your blog when you've answered! I am looking forward to finding some new blogs today and reading some new things about you! 

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

The past two weeks of my start-up blogging has been a fun and challenging learning experience.  A very BIG thank you to Charity at Teaching Blog Traffic School - I am loving the course!

To show some thanks to all of the blog hoppers out there, I joined Teachers Notebook. They are having a huge sale this weekend and I wanted to offer some discounted items to you!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Addition Strategies for Common Core Math


HOW DO YOU LIKE TO TEACH ADDITION STRATEGIES?

According to Common Core Standards, 2nd graders must be able to add and subtract within 100.
Last week, in addition to math facts fluency practice, we began our strategy instruction for addition.  

I find that Guided Math groups work really well for both me and my students. We focus on one strategy at a time.  The strategies we use are:
               
                1.  Open Number Line
                2.  Base 10 Model Representation
                3.  Splitting Tens and Ones

Last year, I got a lot of questions from parents about the different strategies that we were using in class. This year, I put together some parent informational sheets along with practice worksheets that can be used in class or for homework.

I had conferences this past week and many of the parents commented on the usefulness of the handouts.
For a FREEBIE, click on the first picture below...  For the whole packet including handouts and worksheets, click the second picture.

I WOULD LOVE SOME COMMENTS ABOUT THE STRATEGIES YOU ARE USING IN YOUR CLASSROOM - I love collecting new ideas!




Click here for more Parent Handouts and Worksheets!


Sunday, November 18, 2012

FREEBIE MATH GAMES


In our class we LOVE math games!  What better way to practice our math facts each and every day.  As a part of daily guided math, the kids have the opportunity to play games to reinforce basic math computation skills and mathematical concepts.  Here are just a few I'd like to share with you for free :)
I have many, many math games that I plan to share...trying to get them up as fast as I can!  Here are three for now:

For Place Value Practice:
The students take turns making the largest number they can out of three dice.  Whoever has the greater number gets to add a chip to his/her board.  The player who reaches the end first gets to feed the alien!


For +1, +2, +3 Facts:



For Doubles Facts:









Friday, November 16, 2012

Sight Word Strips


Miss Kindergarten is having a Teaching Tip Linky Party...Click above to join in!



Each year, I've played around with how my students can access their sight words list.  We have a classroom word wall, but with both 1st and 2nd grades in one class, that makes for a lot of words!

I have taped them onto desks and kept them in folders.  But in the end, the tape always starts to peel away from the desks (messy - aaah!) or the students end up tossing them away when we do our quarterly folder clean out. 

So..this year, they are laminated, portable and look like this:
(btw, check out the bling on that little finger!)

They are two sided.   The black side contains the first hundred sight words and the red contains the second hundred.  The kids love them - the second graders can use them independently and the first graders are almost there.  They all help each other out to find words on the strips, which is always nice:)

Grab the FREEBIE - it's down at the bottom of this post!


 

Click Below For Your Sight Word Strips!



           




Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Celebrating the Holiday Season



The holiday season always comes upon us so quickly.  I don't know about you, but for me, the days after Thanksgiving move twice as fast!

In our school, we have two multiage classrooms.  Needless to say, we work very closely together and spend many hours planning to make it all work.  Over the years, we wanted to move away from our regular "Holiday Celebration" and towards something the children could share.

Because we have children for two years in our program, we need to make each year they are with us a little bit different.  For the holiday season, we alternate our holiday celebration with two themes:
1.  Holiday FAMILY Traditions and 
2.  Holiday Traditions around the World.

This year, we are doing the Holiday Traditions around the world.  We have a nice research project to go along with it.  We have typically given this as a home project, but it could easily be adapted for a classroom research project.

Here's how it works:
1. The kids choose which country & holiday they would like to learn more about.  
2. They do some research.
3. They create a small project to represent what they've learned.
4. On the day of the festival, we set up our room with our projects on display.
5. Half of the class stand by their projects and present while the other half of the class "visits" each  
   country.  The "visiting" half gets to keep track of what country they visit on their "passport."
6. We repeat this process, switching the presenter/visitor roles.
7. Afterwards, we discuss and/or write about our travels around the world!

* We use the procedure above as a "warm-up."  On the day of our actual Holiday Celebration, we invite the parents in to come visit all of the countries as all of the children present.  

This project has been well-loved by all over the years so I thought I would share it with you.
Click on the packet cover above to get yours!





Monday, November 12, 2012

Composing and Decomposing Numbers

More Practice with Composing and Decomposing...this time with Classroom Games!

How do you manage the different levels of learners in your classroom?  In our room, we enjoy teaching with guided math.  While small group instruction is going on, the other students are engaged "in the workshop."  The children have math partners.  In the workshop, they are required to do some sort of paper/pencil task (facts, problem solving, etc.).  Then they are free to play one of our math games which reinforce skills, strategies and concepts.

Recently, to reinforce composing and decomposing, we introduced these two games.
 First, we played "Chip Flip," as a whole class guided lesson.  Click below for the Google Doc!



After that, the students were taught how to play the "Composing Numbers MONSTER PUT-TOGETHER."  Oh...they REALLY loved this one.  Basically, the kids work in partners.  They each put a secret number of base 10 units into a cup (up to 10 units each).  They each spill out their "part" and add them together to get the "whole."  Then, they use the Monster Building KEY to determine what part of the monster they get to draw.  For example, "compose a 2, add an eye,"  "compose a 15, add a nose."

Since introducing this game to them, it is the #1 game that they pick when we have a free choice math game day.  You'll find the link below the classroom pics :)






___________________________________________

After a week's loss of school due to Hurricane Sandy, we reviewed what we covered in our Introduction to Place Value Unit and moved on to Place Value and Operations in Base 10.

We are currently focusing on CCLS  2.OA.1 Operations and Algebraic Thinking.

In order to reinforce the concept of taking from, putting together, taking apart and comparing, I created a few worksheets that utilize Number Bonds and Bar Models.  This method is from Singapore Math.
It is differentiated for two levels.  In addition to that, the students will use manipulatives if they need a more concrete visual before recording on the worksheet.

Come take a look by clicking the link below  :)


Sunday, November 11, 2012

Classrooms Full of Thanks!

KEY DETAILS ABOUT THANKSGIVING
RL.1.1 & RI.1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
RL.2.1 & RI.2.1  Ask and answer such questions as who, what, when, where, why and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

Thanksgiving is a great time to examine KEY Details.
Key Details are important bits of information that help readers comprehend a topic.
I like to follow our read-alouds and video presentations with these response sheets.
They are available for you, too!  Just click on the picture link below:







Mr. Turkey's Opinion...
Yesterday we read "A Turkey for Thanksgiving" by Eve Bunting.  If you haven't read this to your class, please do...it always has my students on the edge of their little seats.  Yesterday, one of them called out, "It's a nail-biter!"   It is an adorable Thanksgiving story with a very happy ending for Mr. Turkey - and we all loved that!

Here is a FREEBIE that you can use to go along with it:
There are two copies for differentiated responses.  My first graders are just beginning to learn how to write a paragraph, so they used the top sheet.  My second graders used the bottom sheet.
Find them both for FREE in my TPT Store.









As you already know, I am a new blogger.  I am excited to be hosting my first Linky Party!  

The question is how do YOU celebrate Thanksgiving in your classroom?  A feast?  A play?  Craftivities?  
In order to show MY thanks, I am celebrating all of my new followers with a Thanksgiving giveaway.

I will be giving a copy of my Thanksgiving Play (a musical).  
In the past, I have used this play with a single classroom of up to 23 students.  I have also used it as a shared experience with my grade level colleagues, with each class participating in one section of the play.  Either way, the end result is always meaningful - and adorable :)

So, THANK YOU in advance for linking up and following my new blog!  I look forward to following you back and emailing you a copy of my Thanksgiving Musical!

(see a little bit below...)




You will have to scroll all the way down to find the linky button to link :)
I am looking forward to discovering new blogs out there!
                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                         

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Common Core ELA Checklist

Having a multiage classroom means having to juggle many common core standards at once.  It also means looking for common strands that can be used for enrichment and reteaching as well.

In order to manage it all, I have put together a 1st and 2nd Grade ELA Common Core Checklist.

This check-list is not only useful for multiage teachers. It is also a great tool for teachers who want to know what standards have been met previously and what standards need to be met in the future.

I think you'll like this great tool for differentiating you ELA Block! Come check it out!



Friday, November 9, 2012

A Look Around My Room: October




Reading Strategies - the kids love them and remember them better this way than other ways I have presented them in the past.  After all, who doesn't love a Chunky Monkey?

Find these kid-friendly strategies along with some flyers you can use as Back to School Night handouts or posters by clicking below.  I've put them together in a Reading Skills and Strategies Packet :)




Daily 5...
I found this on Pinterest.  It is a link to one of my favorite Teaching Blogs..."The Teacher Wife"
Find the link to this  and check out Teacher Wife on my ELA Board.


Visualizing Freebie!
Visualizing




It's all about connections for us this week.  Are your students connecting yet?  Click on the mini-posters above to get your copy at my store.

A Pinterest inspired bulletin board - love this!
For the blurb, the students had to describe their "Reading Lives."  On the cover, they showed a way that reading is important in their lives.



One of my favorite books to teach story elements is My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett.
Get the story elements FREEBIE  by clicking on that adorable student made dragon above (thanks, Matti!)


This will hang in my room all year.  I love how it turned out.

Compound word list template FREEBIE!
My students LOVE IT when they hear me say "CRAFTIVITY!"
This one was a lot of fun. Grab your free copy of the list template by clicking the picture above.