Giveaway Ending Soon!

Don't forget to enter our Dazzling Double Giveaway!! It ends tomorrow at midnight! Head on over to The Second Grade Superkids to enter if you haven't already! That's right, go to Krista's blog to enter, not here! (But it's definitely worth the trip!) :)

You could win some AWESOME prizes, like these terrific units by Krista from her TPT store: 

AND . . . 5 free items from MY TPT store plus my brand new centers!

So hurry on over to enter before its too late and you wish you had!! Remember, you will need to enter on Krista's blog for your entry to count!!!! :)

Also  . . . I just remembered that I never updated anyone on my tongue! It is doing MUCH better . . . just the occasional burning sensation but I have total feeling back!! :)

And . . . Humphrey is still missing and it seems that he will forever be lost . . . :(

Today's the Day for Our Giveaway! & The Hamster Saga Continues . . .

GIVEAWAY! YEAH!:

Are you ready for this?? Well, GET ready!! Today is the kick-off for my giveaway with Krista from The Second Grade Superkids because we have 100+ followers!!!!!!!!!! (Honestly there was a time when I thought that I would NEVER get here!) 

You will need to go to Krista's blog to enter! Go check it out, there are some AWESOME prizes to be had!!  I am not going to toot my own horn but I have seen Krista's green units and can SO see how I am going to use them in my classroom! (She made this really cute sign too!)

Once again please go over to The Second Grade Super Kids to enter. She teachers a bilingual class and is amazing for other reasons too and you could win some awesome stuff.

Hamster Saga: 

So if you haven't been following very long then you may want to read how I once had 10 animals living in my bathtub and then 14 animals living in my bathtub, most of these were hamsters after my male hamsters reproduced . . . yes I keep saying this but this is what happened.

Well I was in our PLT meeting this morning when Mrs. B comes in and says that they saw a mouse running down the hallway. We then hear screaming and realize someone else has probably seen it so Mrs. B goes down to check on her. We laugh and move on until I hear someone yell CASEY!!! from down the hallway. Another teacher Mrs. C then flies in the classroom and ask me "Do you still have your hamsters?" I say, "No, Mrs. Q has one of them living in her room . . why?" 

Well . . . as it turns out she was holding the door so that a custodian and a maintenance man could sweep the mouse out with a broom when she realizes that it is not a mouse IT IS A HAMSTER!!! 

I ran outside to help her look for him (I mean he couldn't have gotten far) and we can't find him. I then run up to Mrs. Q's room to make sure that Humphrey is in fact missing and he was. My ENTIRE team then comes outside to help me find him. At this point I am hysterically crying. I was very upset. I was imagining all the things that could happen to a small hamster in the big world. In fact, I cried through most of math and was upset so much throughout the morning that my kids were speculating about all of the people in my life that may have died. I finally did clue them in because I wasn't keeping it together very well. 

I mean, three people kicked my former PET out of the school and now he is gone FOREVER! I am sad. But I am okay. I was even going to sleep outside at school tonight because hamsters are nocturnal and see if he went to the seed that my pal had so lovingly set out for him to make me feel better about him not starving to death. My roommate even volunteered to go and stake out the playground tonight with me. 

I have decided that I just have to let it go. If he was going to be found it would have already happened when 600+ kids played on the playground today or when I looked for him this morning. 

So . . . I am SUPER excited about this giveaway . . .  . but a lot sad about the loss of my friend, Humphrey. . . . 

If you are looking for a way to cheer me up GO ENTER OUR GIVEAWAY! ;)

Unconventional Organization & Giveaway Preview

No one that knows me personally will ever say that I am organized. It is not my gift. BUT . . . Somehow all of the things that need to be done, get done. But it happens in such away that any type A would have tied me down and done it themselves. What I do have is the inability to throw most things away. So I have to come up with purposes for these items so sometimes I give off the illusion that I am organized because I have things labeled.

Take my first example, here are two ways I use baby wipe containers. But really I was having a hard time throwing them away. (I tried to reuse tissue boxes too until my assistant last year pointed out to me that all of the sick kids gravitate towards the tissue box and you can't sanitize cardboard!)

 This is my favorite re-purposed item yet, although they were never something that I wanted to throw away. In fact the ever-generous Cassina from Field of Poppies gifted me with a bunch of these when I started teaching. Here is one way they are used in my classroom. I zip tied the two magazine files together to make a stable paper keeper! (Zip ties from the Dollar Store! Yeah seriously AND they are fun colors!)

 

The last thing I'm sharing is my version of a popular magnetic pocket that goes on the board and cost $1 million dollars. This is a divider that was doubling has a pocket in a notebook. I attached a magnet to it from Wal-Mart and WHAALAA! . . . a space to cram all the papery that I need while I'm at the board.  

And now what you have all been waiting for . . . here is a preview of what I will be giving away into the 100 Followers Giveaway that I am joining in with Krista over at The Second Grade Super Kids for. . . . there will also be more so check back tomorrow for the kick-off!! :) 

Also . . . I would love to hear about unconventional storage you use in your classroom? Am I the only one who does this?? I mean I even save large pretzel jars to use as centers . . . am I alone in this?

Giveaway Soon, Bloggers Unite, Classroom Vocabulary

Giveaway Soon: 

So I had decided that although I was super close to 100 followers that I just wasn't going to do a giveaway because: 

A. I wasn't sure if anyone would bother to enter. 

B. I am going back to school on Monday after being tracked out for three weeks and I'm going to be SUPER busy!

C. I didn't have any ideas for what I would giveaway. 

And then . . . .. . . Krista from The Second Grade Super Kids approached me about joining up and doing a 100 Followers giveaway with her!!!! Imagine someone wanting to join up with little ol' ME!!! I have ALWAYS loved reading her blog, she teaches a bilingual classroom and is AMAZING.

Suddenly all of the reasons why I didn't want to have one disappeared and now I am SOOO excited! Look for more info later in the week! I also have a FANTASTIC idea for what I am going to giveaway and as soon as I publish this I am off to go get crackalackin'!

Blogger's Unite:

AND . . . so Saturday night was our North Carolina bloggers meet up! It was hosted by Randi at Teach it with Class. And I am going to quote something she said, " I never thought I would be so excited to go sit with a room full of strangers and eat." That is exactly how I felt! It was a TON of fun! 

We had a little Mexican . . . (food that is), and chatted about blogging and teaching for a few HOURS and it was so nice to sit with people across the state who share common concerns and who come from different walks of life. So . . . if your thinking about joining up with a get together in your area you should SO do it! (Randi has promised a post about this later in the week with hopefully our picture, although it was a little fuzzy!) :)

I met some really great ladies. You can read all about it at with my pal Jen at Hello Mrs. Sykes, or from Randi at Teach it with Class. You should also check out Tania's great new blog: My Second Sense. There was one future blogger there too, I will give you her link as soon as I have it! :)

My Classroom Vocabulary

Something that I LOVE about teaching is the community you build and the camaraderie you share with the students. You celebrate together, you are angry together, you grow and learn TOGETHER. There is a LOT of togetherness as you spend most of your week days with each other, so you gradually share a language.

Where is your P of the D?: your journal is not open to the problem of the day

Be Free!!: I say this after I have scoped the playground out for safety, then my kids run and scream like banshees.

Check Your Feet: your feet are not on the appropriate square in the hall (I hate saying this!) 

Get Crackalackin': You need to get BUSY! (my favorite)

Slow your Roll: your feet are your wheels and they are moving too fast

My heart is not happy: you are making poor choices and need to change your behavior

Top to bottom, Top to bottom!: your letters are formed incorrectly

You may look up, you may look down, You may NOT look from side to side: before a test for the peekers (cheaters!!)

 Are there things that you say to your students that no one else would understand?? I would love to hear all about it! :)

Tragic Tongue Tale & Terrific Tech

Part 1: Tragic Tongue Tale

So as if I wasn't an abnormal kind of chick already I am currently suffering from numbness of the TONGUE! I had several teeth worked on Monday and today is Thursday and I still can't feel the right side of my tongue or taste anything on that side either. (This is the first time in my life that I have thanked God for a symmetrical tongue) This is distressing, but I am not the kind of girl who remembers to call her Dr. during business hours. So I read this online instead. In case you didn't follow the link summarily someone wrote in a question to Med Help about THEIR tongue problem. The prognosis is this: 

A. The feeling and taste may come back to my tongue. 

B. It might take as long as 6 months!!!

C. It might not EVER return! 

I will keep you updated. 

Here is a collection of self portraits of me with my tongue. I had to include one without my tongue because I looked totally crazy, probably still do . . .I also attempted to frown while my tongue was out to show my disappointment with it . . . this was too difficult . . .

Part 2: Terrific Tech

I also wanted to share some great SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK videos that help teach math concepts. I absolutely love schoolhouse rock! I am so glad that it has made its way to You Tube! I am going to show my kiddos the first one which is on taxes as we study economics. 

They are each just a few minutes long so they would be great as time fillers or intros to lessons! Enjoy! 

Tax Man Max: 

Practice Counting by Fives: 

 Multiplication: The Four Legged Zoo: 

Ttfn, ta ta for now! :)

How to Save the World from Email

So I was looking for great videos to post for tomorrows Tech Thursday post and I came across this excellent explanation of Leap Year.

This led me to this awesome video from the same people about proper e-mail etiquette. E-mail overload is my theme for the week.

I work in a year round school and have been out of school for several weeks. But school still goes on while I am gone and since I have been tracked out I have received an average of
 about 50 e-mails per day. 
 (Sometimes more!) Most of these were not even relevant to me! It took me a few hours yesterday just to sort and find the ones that were relevant and then I had to take the time to formulate a response!!!

Some of you may be having the same issue. Maybe if we share this video with as many people as possible them people will start having better manners regarding e-mail . . .

Two NEW Great Match Games!

So  I have been having a BLAST making match games here lately. Here are two that are super fun and super easy and would make  EXCELLENT early finisher activities, center games, or Take Home Mat Kit games.

The first one is an Addition Doubles Match Game. Something that we CONSTANTLY say in my class is that when we add numbers we can use our knowledge of doubles on then add on. You can check out this great activity here. I just LOVE the clip art from kpmdoodles!

 For my next match game I decided to branch out a little bit so it is a Multiplication Doubles Match Game. It is not part of my second grade curriculum but I sure have some smart kids I may need to use it with! I also thought that someone else might benefit from this!

You can check out these match games and more at my Teachers Pay Teachers store! :)

Giveaway!

Okay, so I told myself that I wasn't going to blog about any giveaways for a while b/c I felt like that was ALL I was doing for a short stretch there . . . BUT I came across this AWESOME giveaway . . . And I'm going to tell you to NOT go an enter it because I want to win SOOOO bad!!!!!!!!!!  But you SHOULD go check out this awesome blog I follow! ;)

Happy Friday everyone!!!!!

FREEBIES!

So I'm posting tonight because I have bunches of new followers and I don't want you guys to think that I'm lame and never post because it has been a little while. . . It's just that I work in a year round school and I am having one of my four miniature summers right now. I am sure that I will get back into the swing of things when I go back to school next week . . . yuck. 

While I have been out of school I have been here for some of the time. I have enjoyed working in the sunshine and sowing seeds that will grow into something that someone will one day be eating or enjoying in their yard. After a few days of soaking up rays, watching the clouds, and giving thyme a hair cut, I am not super excited about going back to my real job where I only breathe fresh air between 10:20 - 10:50 each day! Maybe now that it is nice outside I could take my kiddos outside to read. . . .

Because you endured my ramblings I will share with you  some cool FREEBIES that I found recently. I am jealous of those of you who are in school during St. Patrick's day, I would either have had to celebrate 3 weeks early or 2 weeks late! So I won't be using these but you SO should!

The first FREEBIE is from Michelle Oakes at Fabulous in First. Check out her SUPER cute True or False equation game! 

Secondly, you just check out one of my favorite TPT stores: Froggie Went a Teachin . . . her stuff is awesome. She is also having a SALE!

And last, but certainly not least check out Laura Candler's Leprechaun Luck Probability Game. (If you don't know of her, Laura Candler is AMAZING!)

Okay, so that's all for tonight! Thank you for reading! :)

Giveaway!!

So . . . my good friend Jen at Hello Mrs. Sykes has reached . . . 100 Followers!!!! To celebrate this momentous occasion she is having a SUPER giveaway! My friend Cassina over at Field of Poppies is also in on this! 

I'm contributing away my Spring Hundreds Board Mystery Puzzles set! 

So what are you waiting for?? Click on over to Jen's blog to enter!! 

A Funny and a Freebie

First the FUNNY. . . some of you may know that I work in a year round school (and btw, I LOVE it!!!) Well those of you that are my teacher friends in real life know what a hard time I have with getting my attendance turned in on time. (Yes, I have even had to meet with my, YIKES, Principal about my lack of promptness with getting my attendance done, like ummmm . . . well sometimes even the next day!!!! I know, I know, I am a data managers total nightmare. So this year my new years resolution is to have my attendance done on time EVERY day! (I've only missed one so far this year!!!!!!)

Well I woke up around 9:00am this morning, made some breakfast, and then started my "I'm tracked out time to clean the house" ritual, when I happened to pass by the stove which was displaying the time 10:00AM!!! I frantically ran to my computer to log on to our attendance system. I was confused when the screen came up and it wasn't our Intranet from school. . . . then I realized . . . I DON'T HAVE ANY STUDENTS I AM TRACKED OUT!!! That is how crazy being a teacher makes you . . . . and I'm only in my second year! I am going to be a TOTAL nutcase when the school system is through with me! 

Now for the FREEBIE! It is actually not mine, it is something I found on one of my new favorite sellers on TPT. . . .  I am thinking about featuring a seller that I find each week . . . but I am not one to make big commitments so we will just see how that goes . . . 

This SUPER cute FREEBIE comes from Sunny Days. She has some incredible things for sale and a TON of free stuff also. Totally worth checking out! Today I am featuring her Addition Rainbow Bump! :)

And while you are on TPT, you should check out my store, as well!!! I have some AWESOME things in progress right now but it has been too pretty here to sit inside and work! :)

Award, Currently, Freebie!

So two very special blogs have awarded me with the Lovely Blog Award! Thanks to Krista at Stellar Students and Mechele at Barrow's Hodgepodge.

And while I am extremely appreciative of any type of reward or recognition, I am breaking the rules and choosing 5 blogs instead of 15. (Any reasons I could think of to list here all sounded lame so lets just leave it at that!)

So here are my 5! :) 

Erin @ Creating and Teaching

 Sarah @ The Fabulous First Grade 

 Kara @ Treadwell's Math Adventures

Becky @ 2nd Grade Rocks

Donna @ Math Coach's Corner

If you'd like to pass this award along here are the rules:

1. Link back to the person who gave it to you
2. Pass the award to 15 (or errr 5) other Lovely bloggers. 
3. Follow the person who sent it to you.  :)

And check out MY currently! (Love these!) Thanks, Farley! 

And, check out my latest FREEBIE, Fiction Literary Genre Bookmarks! No, not all genres are not included but enough to be useful, hopefully! :)

I hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for following! :)

Sale & Giveaway Winner!

I wanted to announce that I am having a SALE at my TPT store!!! Everything is 10%. Considering my prices are cheap, cheap, cheap, this is quite a bargain! Go check out my stuff! The sale ends on Tuesday, March 6, 2012!

And I am excited to announce the winner of my Giveaway!!!!!!!

 

Number 17 (who proves it pays even when your the last one to the party!) was Ali at An Education Last a Lifetime! I will be e-mailing you very shortly so that you can tell me which 5 items you would like for FREE from my TPT store! Congratulations to Ali and thank you ALL for following my little blog! :)

 

De-Stress and Permission to Pin

So I am linking up with the newest blog I follow, Primary Inspired, for Brenda's Ideas for De-Stressing Linky Party! 

But before I get to that please know that you have my:

Okay, so here is what I do when I'm feeling cranky, in no particular order.

Cuddle with Charlie! 

 

Rap (B.o.B. is one of my favorites!)

 

Make Cards

Buy a New Towel  

(I bought a TON of new towels back when my full time job was working at JCPenney. There is nothing quite like a brand new towel fresh from the dryer to lighten your load a little!)

Go for a Day Trip to the Beach!

 (This doesn't happen often!)

How do you de-stress?

Yearn to Learn Easi Speak Giveaway

So . . . one of the blogs that I follow, Yearn to Learn, is giving away this:

I can think of a so many ways to use this in my classroom! I was just talking to a couple of my parents this week about how I would like a friendly way to have my students record themselves telling a story so that they could play it back to themselves for writing! I love, love, love that it is wireless so you don't have to be attached to a computer to use it! I hope I win!!! :)

And also, once again, don't forget about MY giveaway! It ends tomorrow! I will announce the winner when I get back home from my second job (ick!) tomorrow! :)

Daily 5 BINGO Freebie

Yes, this IS actually a post about literacy BUT it all began when I had to find something for my kids to do while I was pulling kids from our grade level in a MATH remediation group. (And I and going to go ahead and apologize for the GIANT pics, they just didn't look right any smaller!)

It was pretty easy to make this Read Across America BINGO sheet for my kiddos because I had a theme to go with (that is not usually the case because I generally don't teach based on a theme). This is what we did this week. 

My kids were SUPER excited about this because to them it looked like a PROJECT and my kids LOVE projects! BUT because I wasn't going to be in my classroom during this time to make sure they got everything done to my satisfaction I made this schedule:

We had one of these for Tuesday - Thursday to make sure that everyone completed the entire BINGO. And yes I know that this is a complex schedule for a second grader but I throw crap like this at my kids all the time because I LOVE making color coded schedules.

Okay . . . so the point of all of that is to show you THIS: 

And you can have it for FREE! That is if you even want or need this! It is available in Microsoft Word so that you can edit to meet the needs of your students.  I plan to use it to help make my kids  more accountable during Daily 5 and to add a little variety. They love completing a task and checking it off. This week I offered a prize for completing the whole BINGO successfully (I told them we were playing the kind of BINGO where its a "cover-all," btw!)

Also, don't forget about my giveaway!