Newbie Blog Hop

While I was wasting  spending time with the 4th love of my life ie: Pinterest ( see my profile for my other 3) I discovered this really great estimation activity at http://adayinbcasfirstgrade.blogspot.com.


This is the one I saw. But Kristen, the teacher who created this has 4 for each month August through Septemeber. AND she is letting others use it for free. I love free!


Then as I was scrolling down I saw this button for a "newbie" bloggers linking party. I really loved doing the picture book linking party and actually saw some action on my humble little blog here. :) So I thought this one would be perfect for me.


These are the questions to answer:
1. what state you are in

2. your current teaching position

3. your teaching experience

4. when you started blogging

5. share a blogging tip / blogging resource

1. I teach in Michigan!

2. I teach 2nd grade...it's the best. :)

3. This will be my 6th year teaching 2nd grade kiddo's. I also worked in my schools Title 1 program as an aide. That was a FABULOUS experience and really helped shape the kind of teacher I am today.

4. Honestly, I apparently joined blogger in February of 2010 but I did nothing with it. Then I started blogging back in August of last year. I only did a few post's before I stopped. I really got into updating things and working more on it just a couple of weeks ago though.

5. Experienced bloggers are VERY willing to help you. I asked a question in the comments of one of Marlana over at Little Country Kindergarten's blog( you can follow her here: http://lilcountrykindergarten.blogspot.com/). I wondered how to create a link from your comment to your blog. She told me  where I could find the instructions ( which I am going to work on next actually) and also said I could email her about it too. So ask away friends! :)

SO....This is a blog hop! You're next!

10 days of giveaways...3 days in

Woops, can tell I have been slacking the past couple of days on checking my favorite teacher blogs. Swimming into 2nd grade is having 10 days of giveaways! You can go enter here:
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghxT_wTxR7F9XiXf6mbSPw_IG01BN3PDZRrFBX2BmBqhsyv2mcEJ-0cqhB5leOqgLQexX6EYsHLx_ZhqDxVG7NioqfiZ2aEq8pmh55AZ95GUlUNOo0kIO2i3hbJMn5-ZV6FLa-qJCob6Mx/s1600/Screen+Shot+2012-07-19+at+9.05.50+AM.png


Gotta love the chance to win some freebies!

ANOTHER Giveaway!

Erica over at Sprinkles to Kindgeraten ( you can follow it here: http://sprinklestokindergarten.blogspot.com/ ) reached 400 followers! (Someday I hope to have that many!) Anyway, to celebrate she is having a truly AMAZING giveaway. All of my teacher friends should go and check it out. If you don't have a blog to follow some of the sites you can still go on and follow the Teachers Pay Teachers stores...or create a blog. This one is totally worth creating accounts at both places.

AAAANNNDDD......

Vickie at Mrs. Plant's Press ( you can follow it here: http://plantspress.blogspot.com ) is ALSO having a giveaway. She has 500 followers! I can't even imagine!  Go check it out and enter to win all of her sweet loot too!

Congratulations to both ladies. That is so awesome!

Linking Up...Hooray for Picture Books!

One of the many teacher blogs I love, The Teacher Wife ( you can follow it here http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/ ) is having a fun linking party about picture books. You make a list of your top 5 with a link for others to be able to purchase said book. I thought it sounded like a fun way to spend my evening so here we go. My Top 5 Picture Books.


If you want to create your own list you can ALSO link up here:

http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com/2012/07/must-have-picture-books-linky.html




1. Where the Wild Things Are

When Mr. Robinsons was a little boy he was very much a WILD THING! I imagine that he was very much like Max with a wild imagination and footy pajama's. :) During our 6 traits IDEA's unit I love to read this book to the kiddo's and get them in on the wild rumpus. Then we create and write about our own wild things.

Here is a link to buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0060254920/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link


2. Strega Nona

I mentioned this in a previous post but when I was paying my dues as a sub 7 years ago there was a teacher who had the cutest reading corner set up. It was so "teachery" and made me want my own classroom SO badly. The books in her little wicker basket were all Strega Nona books. I have always loved Strega Nona but after that moment the book really solidified itself as a favorite.


Here is a link to buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1442433558/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link


3. Sugar Cookies



One of my best friends and my daughters godmother, Leah ( Mrs. V. the librarian for all you CCA folk) got this book for her a couple of Christmas' ago. It is the CUTEST kid friendly explanation of charecter traits all within the context of making cookies. ( In fact if I ever switch to a lower grade my room theme will be Sugar Cookies.) Some examples are: "Endearment means come here my sugar, my cookie, my sweet little morsel" and " Compassionate means that when you burn the cookies to a crisp, I'll be there to give you a hug". There is also a Christmas Cookies book. This was one of the first books that Finley really loved.


Here is a link to buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0061740721/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link


4. Caps for Sale





I am not sure why I love this book so much. It has strong school connotations for me so it must have been in one of my elementary school teacher's classrooms. When I see this book I just think " ahhh, school".


Here is a link to buy this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0064433137/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link


5. Miss Rumphius





The illustrations in this book are simply gorgeous! My copy is very dogeared as the pages were bent back many a time over the years playing school.


Here is a link to buy this book
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0140505393/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link




Honorable Mention:


I would feel guilty if I left either Lily's Purple Plastic Purse or Chrysanthemum off this list....These are both fun books to read aloud to the kiddo's and good discussion starters for charecter traits.

Giveaway! Giveaway! Giveaway!

Glad I got on Pinterest this morning because I found this little gem on there:

So cute right?! I clicked on it and went to the site http://rowdyinroom300.blogspot.com/ which is run by Nicole Alderson. I have been on this site before and I love it. It's on of those really well done teacher blog's that I aspire to have. ( Add it to the list!) Anyways, I saw she was giving away one these little pencil cuties ( or an apple one too, but my personal fave is the pencil). You can enter to win one of these from her by doing any and all of the following things: follow her on facebook, follow her blog, follow her Teachers Pay Teachers store, AND blogging about it. So I am doing all 4 because, well, I really want one!


Teacher friends: These would look super cute outside your room in the hallway. I know I would stop and comment on it anyways. :)


Parent friends: This would make a great gift on back to school night or Teacher Appreciation Week.


So there you go. Go check it out and enter to win....and then give it to me! :)

How To...

...brighten up the hallway.
...get complimented on the cuteness everytime someone    walks past.
...let 2nd graders get away with something they don't usually do.

AAAAAANNNNDDD!
...get 2nd graders to write without complaint!

Why, all you need to do is this cute little How To Blow a Bubble Writing craftivity!

I got the idea from someone's board on Pinterest and traced it back to Lindsey over at The Teacher Wife. You can see her post here: http://theteacherwife.blogspot.ca/2011/11/bubble-gum-fun-writing-and-math.html . She actually got the idea from Julie Lee over at Mrs. Lee's Kindergarten. You can see that post here: http://mrsleeskinderkids.blogspot.com/2011/09/pink-day-cute-clipart-freebie.html .  If you've gone to both you can see that Lindsey tweaked her activity to make it a little more advanced. If not then you will just have to trust me won't you? :)

When I first told the kiddo's that they were going to get to chew gum in class their eye's grew big and they exchanged looks with each other like " Is this lady for real?!". It was great. After I gave them the gum I told them to pay attention to each step that they were doing because it would be important later.

After we had chewed the gum for a little bit I encouraged them to try to blow a bubble with it. Again, making sure they were really paying attention to everything they were doing. After the one's that really could blow a bubble were able to do so, we got down to the writing. First, I had them verbally walk me through the steps they would need to take. I purposefully did exactly what they told me to do, even if it meant leaving out steps. For example, they told me to get some gum and chew it but didn't tell me to take off the wrapper. That was kind of gross but I chewed it anyway!

After we had successfully talked it through I had them write their steps out thinking about what they had done first, next, and then last. When they were finished they brought it to myself or Mrs. Abbey, our classrom aide, who read through the steps and did exactly what they said. When they missed steps they went back and added them. I had them check their work over for spelling or grammar boo-boo's and then let them do the final copy.

Once the writing was done was when I let them make the face that would be blowing the bubble. I used the template from the blog. I blew up all the balloons ( only about 1/4 of the way full like Lindsey recomended). I had them glue their writing and their face onto a big peice of blue construction paper. Then I hung them in the hallway. ( See above photo). Then I made this bulletin board to go along with the kiddo's work.




They turned out SO cute and, like I mentioned at the top, I got so many compliments on them. My one problem with them is the balloons lost some of their air and shape. I think if I had started with smaller balloons and blown them up to their full size it would have been better. Something to try for next year I guess. 

A Memory That Takes the Cake

We studied Patricia Polacco last month for our author study.( Which is why those books are on our Shelfari- pretty cool huh? Thats all thanks to Erica, one of the Kindergarten teachers at my school, as she had one on her blog and I thought it was so great I just had to have one too!) If  you look closely you can tell that we have moved on to Robert Munsch now as his books are lining the ledge. :) But better late than never.


I have been much better about doing author studies this year, like I mentioned back in my Tomie Depaola post, ( you can read that <a href="http://www.mrsrobinson2ndgrade.blogspot.com/2011/09/kiddos-celebrate-strega-nona.html">HERE</a> ) and wanted to find good resources for some other authors that didn't have a Scholastic book. I am not quite ready to start creating my own things but I knew where I could find people who were, so I turned to Teachers Pay Teachers. That is where I found this Patricia Polacco author study packet.



It was created by Hope King and currently is listed on Teachers Pay Teachers for only $5! ( Small tangent, one of the things I love about that site is that teachers who use it have really priced their items to SELL! A book like this would go for 12- 16 bucks in a catalogue or bookstore. ) It had pages to make an anchor chart/intro poster about Patricia, it had activities for a ton of her books, and it also had an author study student journal for the students. I really felt like my kiddo's got alot out of this author study. They really did some quality work. You can get your own copy of this here ( http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-Spotlight-on-Patricia-Polacco-An-Author-Study) .

The activity that I put on our Work We Love Board was something we did after reading the book Thunder Cake. It was such perfect timing when we started this author study because we happened to be doing personal narratives as our writing focus. Reading her books, which are almost all personal narrative, really helped my kiddo's to understand PN in a much better way.

One of the things they noticed while reading all these stories was that Patricia likes to put actual photo's of her family members in the "frames" in her illustrations. So before they started writing, I sent home a note asking for parents to help their child choose a picture of a memory that was special to them. When they brought the photo in I made a black and white copy so it would look like the black and white photo's in her books. Then I put black construction paper "tabs" on them. After they had their picture they did a first copy on handwriting paper and a self edit before I gave them the color copy. All in all this activity took them 2-3 writing sessions of about 20- 30 minutes each. 

 It is about time for them to come down but they worked so hard on them ,and I loved that they had their own photo's and memories to share with their friends, that I wanted to leave them up for awhile.