TpT Back to School Sale

Hi!

I'm so excited to be participating in my first TpT sale!!  :-)  For those of you who haven't had a chance to check out my Currently August post, I have literally JUST joined the ranks of TpT sellers.  Who knew I would take the plunge on the eve of the TpT Back to School sale?!  :-)   

Right now, my store is pretty teeny, and I'm definitely a beginner.  I'm looking forward to growing my store and developing my abilities as a TpT creator.  You can check out my store here.  

Here's a quick overview of my current products:

1) U.S. Symbol QR Code Research Bundle

As you can see, this resource includes QR codes that will guide students' research of the U.S. flag, the bald eagle, the White House, the Liberty Bell, and the Statue of Liberty.  There are 10 QR codes included for each.  All symbol QR code resources are also sold separately, with a selection of the U.S. flag QR codes available as a freebie.  

2) Daily Math Problem Solving  

This resource will eventually be part of a year-long bundle of daily problem solving.  I made this resource by following my district's pacing guide and consulting our Pearson adoptions of Envision and Investigations.  I created this as a way to start math class each day in a paper-friendly way.  Each morning, my students arrive to one of these problems projected on our SMART Board.  They write the equation and show their work in math journals.  My students and I love calling on 2 or 3 students daily to share their strategies for solving the word problem.  

That's all for now.  I hope everyone enjoys the Back to School sale over at TpT.  What was the most important thing you learned when you became a TpT seller?

Saving Math Class (and a great TPT product to share)

Hey everyone!

I'm dropping back in today to tell you about something great.  (At this busy point in the year, dropping in from time to time is all I can manage.)  This year, my class is diverse in more ways than one.  I love having a diverse class, but this year, my class is particularly academically diverse, which does present some challenges.  It is so hard to give everybody what they need at their just right level, particularly when I find myself using a curriculum that is designed with the whole-group approach in mind.  In no subject is this more difficult than in math.

Some of you may have read my previous posts and might be aware that I have begun to move more toward a workshop model so that I can teach math at a variety of levels.  This has been accomplished largely with the help of many of you and your wonderful TPT products.

Today, I want to share a WONDERFUL product with you that has greatly helped me to transform my math class.  That product is her Take Home Math Kits by the wonderful Casey over at Second Grade Math Maniac.  This bundle of 30 activities is an absolute STEAL at $16.00.  Once you click on the link, you should probably just check out and purchase her entire TPT store.  :-)  Go check out her blog.  Her posts alone are full of ideas that will save your mathematical LIFE.

  

Okay, back to her product and how parts of it have been used in my classroom.  First, I used it with one of my second graders who I'm tutoring.  This was so easy for me to prepare, and it really built my student's confidence with money.  With a variety of amounts under $1.00, there are amounts from 6 cents to almost a dollar, giving students the opportunity to start small and build their confidence.  I liked how easy all of the activities were to prepare-super easy for a busy teacher to throw together during a conference period so that it's ready for after school tutoring. (Note, I also sent home a doubles activity from this pack with my student, but I just didn't manage to get a picture taken of it.  Tutoring is a busy time, as I'm sure you all understand.  What part of our day isn't busy, really?!)    

After seeing the success of this product, I chose several other activities from this kit to let my whole class try out.  We worked in groups of 3, and each tried a couple of the activities.  These activities are great for review, remediation (for some), and previewing.  One of the activities we used focused on odd and even, which we have covered before, but are about to revisit as our curriculum tends to spiral.  The game provided a fun way to practice this skill and introduce the new unit, while at the same time giving me some formative assessment data.  Since I have used these activities to supplement my district's existing math curriculum, the only thing I feel that this pack is missing (since we just studied it) is fractions.  I LOVE this pack and think it's fabulous, but the inclusion of fractions would really push it over the top.  

Odd or Even Sorting

Spin to 100.  

Teddy Bear Arrays

Ordering Numbers

Time to the 5 Minutes

Anyway, these are just a few of the many activities included in this pack.  Hopefully, you can see that it covers a multitude of skills.  My students and I both enjoyed using the activities in this resource, and I can't wait to try out the rest of them.  Here are a few parting thoughts about this terrific pack.

1) The activities are very appropriate for 2nd grade students, as well as strong 1st grade students.  My students' comments about the activities ranged from "a little difficult," to "just right," to "a little too easy," which shows me that the activities' level of difficulty is on target for 2nd grade (remember, my class has very diverse math abilities, so this makes sense.

2) I LOVED how easy these were to prepare.  They also require very little in the way of materials.  I put some coins with the money game, and I used a paper clip for the spinner, but that was really it.  Most of her other games don't require much other than some dice.

3) These activities are great for tutoring and math class alike.  While I have only sent them home with one student that I tutor this year, I plan to implement these early on next year and send them home to families.  Bottom line, the activities made math fun and different for my students, so that's a win!

4) This is just a small sample of the activities included in the Take Home Math Kits.  There's so much more, including measurement, skip counting, etc.  

5) Finally, I must apologize for any blurry pictures in this post.  I took them on my phone while the students were working.  Since spring fever has set in, my 2nd graders are always on the go and don't stop for much.  :-)  

Hopefully, I've managed to convince you that this is truly a wonderful resource, that is worth your time and money.  I know it was certainly worth mine.  Head on over to Casey's TPT store and purchase this invaluable resource for yourself.  

Thanks for reading!    

  

  

A New Beginning/The Times, They are A-Changin'

Happy New Year (it will be anyway, by the time I finish this and get it posted)!

I have several items to discuss today:

1) I am the worst blogger EVER!  I can't keep a promise to myself about blogging, letting alone a promise to those of you in the blogiverse.

2) I have been thoroughly enjoying my Christmas break by doing a whole lot of nothing...

3)...and yet, this afternoon/evening, I found myself in total "school mode."  I think it's because a) I have a meeting for a student the Tuesday I get back and b) I actually have the time to put enough thought into my lessons to make them excellent.

I have made so many changes in my classroom this fall (some of them alluded to in previous blog posts).  I have been gifted a very diverse group of students this year.  They could not be more different from each other.  To best serve them, I have had to make some HUGE adjustments (and I mean HUGE!!!).  Of course, I realized this about 3 weeks before Christmas break when everything was completely insane.  My students needed change NOW and could not afford to wait for it.  So, I was forced to jump in and develop our new instructional routines as we went.  So what have I done/what am I doing?

1) I have made a significant shift toward math workshop.  With the use of our student workbooks that come with our curriculum, resources from many of the fabulous teachers on TPT (most notably Amy Lemons), and various math games, manipulatives, and technology from my classroom), our math workshop is up and running.  I can't wait to continue refining this system in my classroom, but here's essentially what it looks like.  I split my class up into 3 groups.  They all meet with me for one of the rotations and we work through problems in their workbook together.  Another rotation has them working on an activity that is either a review or extra practice of a current skill.  The activity has a recording sheet so that I can see what they do/don't understand.  Finally, the third rotation has the students doing FasttMath on the computers as well as playing various math games I have shown them in my classroom.   Not to make another empty bloggy promise, but I'd like to eventually get to writing another post specifically about Math Workshop.  It's so new, I haven't had the time to take photos of it in action in my classroom.  In general, my two inspirations/resources are:

and 

Amanda Wilkie's posts about Math Workshop on her blog, Reaching for the Top!  

   

It has also occurred to me that I need to go back and review Guided Math by Laney Sammons.  

Do any of you use Math Workshop in your classrooms?  Do you do it every day?  What does it look like?  What tips do you have?  Who are your professional gurus?  Do you and your students love it as much as my students and I do?

2) Along the same lines, I have also begun to shift toward Reader's Workshop.  My grade level already does Writing Workshop, and we do it fairly well (there's always room for improvement, right?).  While my students are also on vastly different reading levels, reading time has not been nearly as painful as math time.  This change is mostly motivated by my desire to provide relevant, meaningful instruction for all of my students.  I have several ELLs who are really struggling with comprehension of whole group stories.  I believe this is because the stories are so far above their level that even the whole group support I provide to the class as well as the extra time I spend with these students is proving to be inadequate.  I realized that it was most important to me that the students master the specific reading skills instead of reading specific stories outlined by the school district.  One way I am accommodating everyone is to move away from the basal stories (I still do them, but I just expose my students to them, rather than focus on them) and instead use the companion level readers that are part of our reading adoption.  My goals for the spring include establishing reading response journals/interactive reading journals (not sure exactly what this will look like yet), and engaging my students in authentic literacy activities that they can complete with increasing independence, allowing me to meet more frequently with each of my students in small groups and individual reading conferences.  

Finally, I have a terrifying step that I'm going to be taking on my blog today.  As I change my reading instruction and tiptoe into reading response, I've been thinking ahead to the next story we have planned to teach from our basal.  We use Harcourt Journeys in my district.  :-)  While I decide which direction to take with individual reading response and good fit books in my classroom, I know I cannot stop teaching reading strategies.  I also know that I need to continue teaching my students how to respond in writing to what they read (they have had a small amount of instruction in this at this point).  I also know that I have one week with my students when we return next week, before I am drowning in mid-year assessments, and I want my students to be engaged in meaningful work while I swim my way free of those assessments.  With all that taken into account and the extra time I've had this week, I'm about to take a risk.  I have been wanting to get into the creating portion of blogging for awhile (although I'll be honest, I was scared to DEATH when in a previous blog post discussing The Book Whisperer, a sweet follower asked if I had created something to address a need I expressed).  I have done some searches and gained a small amount of tips for creating my own resources.  With all that being said, I looked at the objectives related to our next story and created something small that I could use with my students to address those two objectives for our story, The Goat in the Rug as told to Charles L. Blood and Martin Link (Geraldine the Goat is given credit as the story's author).  

The students are expected to summarize the story and draw conclusions about the characters.  Anyway, please keep in mind that this is my very first attempt at creating ANYTHING for my own classroom use.  I hope one of you out there in Blog Land can use it, and if not, I just wanted to share so I could be accountable to myself.  Be gentle with your feedback.  :-)  I do welcome any tips you blog/TPT superstars might have for me as I continue down this path of creating resources for my classroom.  Feel free to check out what I created below.  

The Goat in the Rug Resources (Click Me!)  

Anyway, for those of you still with me, thanks for reading.  I'd love to hear any and all thoughts on the many topics I covered in today's ADHD-addled post.  :-)  Do you use math or reading workshop in your classrooms?  What tips do you have?  (If you do, leave me a comment-I'd love for you to be a guest blogger.)  Do you create your own resources for your classroom?  Tell me your best piece of advice.  

That's all for now.  See you next time I manage to blog.  :-)  

  

Plant Research and PBLs

Hey everyone!

I'm returning a bit later than I wanted to my good ol' blog, but I'm here, so I'm happy.  :-)  We have been working hard on researching the parts of the plant in class lately.  When I saw Amy Lemons's Earth Day unit, I knew I could use her parts of the plant foldable to help my students with notetaking.  The results are below. 

One of my student's flower foldable

Student notes on plant roots and leaves



Once we found and recorded information about how the roots, stem, leaves, and flower help the plant, we formed groups in class.  My students are working with partners to develop a product and presentation that can answer how each part of the plant helps it survive.  It's been a fun week! 

Do you do project-based learning at your school?  What's your favorite PBL unit or topic that you teach?

Finally, I'm getting ready to celebrate Earth Day on Monday.  What read alouds are your favorite to share with your students?  I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.   

A Long Time Gone, DonorsChoose, and Great Ideas Soon to be in Action

Hello blog buddies (if you're still here),

It's been a long time.  It's been quite the school year.  I can't believe we are coming to the end of it.  Tonight will be a short post as I simply get back into the art of blogging.

As for the title, it was completely accidental, but it made me think of this Dixie Chicks song (Long Time Gone).  I loved them when I was in high school.

 

1) I have a new Donors Choose project posted, which you can view here. I have had one project funded by DonorsChoose before, and it was such a great experience that I decided to try again. Best of all, if you donate to any projects this week (through the 14th) and use the code "INSPIRE" the DonorsChoose Board of Directors will match the donation.

2) I saw a great guest post on Christina's blog, written by a guest blogger (Sara from Smiling in Second Grade that you can read here.  I LOVE the idea of Friday journals, and I can't wait to start this next year.  Frankly, I was so excited about this idea, especially for my English Language Learners, that if it didn't mean that I would have to find an extra journal for each of my students I would have started this immediately.  

3) I recently took advantage of the TpT Easter sale, and I picked up two great units.  I picked up Hope's poetry unit which you can find here and I picked up Amy's Earth Day unit which can be found here.  We have just begun our study of plants so we are working on Amy's parts of a plant foldable in class right now.  I'm excited to give you an update about this study later.     That's all for now.  It's definitely time to go home.      

The Week Before Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!

I'm at work (I know...WAY too late), but I wanted to post.  I don't have a math/Investigations post ready yet, but after seeing a craftivity on Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons' blog (something she got from A Cupcake for the Teacher).  So I headed right over to that TPT shop and happily spent $3.  Here's a picture of some finished turkeys on my hallway display.   

I'm so happy that I took the time to do this.  We listened to our Disney music, and worked away assembling the turkeys.  I had traced all of the patterns on rectangles and put them in baggies for the kids.  They followed along with me, cutting out and assembling their turkeys-GREAT practice in following directions.  The students then wrote what they were thankful for.  Some of them wrote lots and lots!!! 

This was such a successful, fun activity, and I must thank both Amy at Step into 2nd Grade and Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher.  Amy, thanks for blogging about this great activity.  Teri, thanks for putting it together and sharing it with us...it's adorable. 

This craftivity was so fun for my class that I am making a resolution now, to incorporate more "fun" activities like this into our plans.  Whatever happened to learning being fun?! 

In other news, I'm reading this book with my kids this week:

We read Henry and Mudge stories at the beginning of the year, so a Cynthia Rylant book fits right in.  Do any of you read this book?  What activities/assessments do you do with it?  My students will all take the Accelerated Reader test on it tomorrow, and we wrote a response to it today, but that's pretty much been it.  Do you have other favorite books to read for fall/Thanksgiving?

I know I mentioned AR (sorry, I feel like this post is ALL over the place).  My students have recently become very motivated to achieve the points levels at which they earn a prize (sponsored by the PTA).  Some teachers at my school do their own rewards within the classroom as well.  I'm about to start this, because as the students move up the levels, the point increments get bigger and bigger.  I don't want them to lose motivation.  Do you have a reading incentive program in your classroom?  How does it work?

Okay, that's all for now.  Time to go HOME!  Thanks for reading.  :-)