Grams and Kilograms

We are working with measurements, and today the kids tried to estimate a bag of potatoes. Well, they have apparently only held a big bag of potato chips because everyone said a pound. Oh boy. The other day I asked them if I had two containers and one was filled to the top, and I poured it into the second contatiner and had water left inside, which would be bigger. Oh boy. That took about 20 minutes. People, there were visuals.Think time. Partner time and whole group sharing. Then I demonstrated again. In other words my kids need H-E-L-P with measurement concepts. This freebie hopefully contains real items they have really held in their hands or have seen in real life.
Grams and Kilograms

Passing out the gift cards

So far I have four students that have completed their two chapter books and choosy readers form in a little over a week. The media teacher could really see the difference in what they were checking out. Today was a perfect day to bring in the gift cards because tonight we had a CFA night. Tomorrow is a Pizza Hut night to support fifth grade. My daughter is a fith grader, and we've been to EVERY other CFA night. I hope a few of the kids got to go for free tonight.
Today was Tuesday which means I had my special classroom helper. Last year he filled up a massive quantity of film canisters with small items that we used for non-standard weight measurement, and we used them again today. See what he does really does save us time over multiple years. I think I might post the worksheet and details tomorrow.  He also got to help with Mel D.'s Thing 1 and Thing 2 handprint craft. He sponge painted the white and blue for the hair, then they wiped with dry paper towels and then used the same hand for the red before washing up at the sink. We pinned them up to dry for about 30 min. then they came back to glue on eyes and cut out the belly circles. We're also doing readers theater in small group to work on fluency. I asked my high flyers to do Fox in Socks. HA! They sound like slow robots so they won't mess up. I'm sure it will get better by the end of the week. Green Eggs and Ham is great for the low guys, especially with the prepositions. "On" and "in" start many of the phrases, so they have to look. My middle group is doing Cat and Comes Bback with great expression. I might let them make up some headbands, we'll see.
I don't know about you, but I've loaded up my cart for the sale tomorrow for the Leap Day Sale at TpT. I cybershop as bad as I do in real life. I'm sure that right before I checkout, I'll talk myself out of a few things. But I found some really neat stuff. I'll find out tomorrow.

Leap Day Sale & Another Seuss Game

I just joined the Leap Day Sale at TpT. ALL of my products will be 20% from me, or 80% original price. Then with the promo code for another 10% off, it works out to 28% off-EVERYTHING. If there was something you wanted, it's a great day to get it at a really good price. Please pass the word.

I also just finished a Dr. Seuss themed trivia game for 2nd-3rd graders.  I have SO much to laminate and cut out tomorrow morning! This week is going to be so much fun! Have a great night.

Tammy

Eventually when I join something, I will look carefully and type carefully and not feel like an idiot when I see that I spell my name or store wrong:)

New Seuss Centers

I just posted a set of 2 Seuss Centers, one for nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and the other is for open and closed syllables (our big spelling push for the next entire unit). Both go with The Bippolo Seed, but you don't have to have the book or read it to be able to use the centers. Vocab definitely for bigger kids so your principal can't fuss too much! Cute and hopefully very easy to cut out and assemble before small group time on Monday! After looking around, I think I have about 10 Seuss stations for my students during small group time, read alouds by reading level, Seuss crafts, and snacks. It's going to be a wild week!

Choosy Readers Choose Chapters

I have a lot of books, really great books, organized and leveled and ready to read. BUT my second graders were still mostly picking picture books. Don't get me wrong, I know picture books can have strong vocabularies, wonderful messages, help kids explore topics they might not ordinarily pick up, etc. BUT they were changing books ALL THE TIME. Chapter books make kids feel like big readers. Instead of saying "I'm on the page with the picture of" whatever, they can say "I'm on page 6 of chapter four". How cool is that?
To encourage their reading of chapter books, I decided to give them a bulletin board and a chance to show off their chapter books.When they are done reading two chapter books by the same author (just to prove they can read more than one chapter book) (and to become classroom experts on the author), they will complete the sheet with their picture for the board and in my classroom receive a $5 gift card to a place with some good chicken nuggets.
I haven't mentioned yet that I have a classroom angel twice a week. He is a retired member of my church that loves kids and has coached for years. I convinced him last year that I was going to need help with my little friends who were still working on the ABCs in second grade, and he came back again this year for more torture fun.  He is also very generous financially, supplying goldfish in megaboxes for snacks, $$$ for books through Scholastic, and kick-ins for holiday parties. We've already purchased over 20 books per student to take home on their levels and interests. It was time to do something that would really get them reading those books. So... Choosy Readers Choose Chapters. With gift cards as extra incentive.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xcn9klqiawaji4q

Seuss Week Giveaway

If you haven't already joined TBA's giveaway, go check it out.


http://www.teachingblogaddict.com/2012/02/seuss-week-is-coming.html

I've been reading blogs about being almost at 100 followers...in my dreams!!!I accept pity followers that don't really intend to follow, and I 'll tellyou about my freebies anyway.

I'm excited about Teachers Marketplace. They are now accepting international sellers if anyone else is interested.  I am about to check back in to see how that is going. It will be interesting to play with time differences and seasons and idiomatic expressions. What fun!

World Wide

I really am helping teachers worldwide. I signed up for a teaching store in Australia!  It seems very proper, and their terminology is a bit different. I really will need someone to help with the spellings. It's exciting.

Winter Fantasy and Reality FREEBIE

Sorry, Charlie! This is now for sale in my stores. Stay tuned for more freebies.

I know I have to play with this to embed it correctly, but hopefully you can still download. This will be free until March 1, 2012.

I feel so yucky

I'm sick.I am a teacher and a mother, and I do not get sick.  I get headaches, sometimes a sniffly nose, a sore throat occasionally, but I do not get sick.
My sick days are for my children. My parents live nearby and watch them with a fever and an earache, but I stay home when materials are being expelled forcefully.
My family left for church, and I went back to bed for a five hour nap.  After falling asleep at 8:30 last night after the birthday party.  I've been awake almost for an hour and a half. And I want to go take another nap.
My very hands-on student has had a horrendous cough for about two weeks now, and accidentally coughed into my eye earlier this week. I decided I would be fine. That afternoon my eye started to get sticky like a pink-eye infection  ( I get those from my students occasionally too). But it went away. And then my throat started to hurt a little. And I started to cough a little. Oh and a fever. And now everything is really BIG. I feel bad for my kiddo at school. How has he stayed in class and participated feeling like THIS??? We are off tomorrow for President's Day, which is good because otherwise I might actually take a sick day for me.
Sorry the fantasy and reality for Mice and Beans isn't done.  If my fever breaks, I might get to finish it. I'm going back to bed.

Winter or Spring? Two New Games

The weather is messing with me. My crocuses are up and it is supposed to snow tomorrow. Likewise, I am posting two new products- one with a spring theme and one with a winter theme. The spring game goes with The Tiny Seed for 2nd grade Treasures for drawing conclusions, and the winter game goes with Mice and Beans for fantasy and reality. Tonight is my niece's party (with the beautiful invitations) so I am trying to finish them both up. Check them out in the usual places!

Playlist HELP

Besides all of the beautiful work on Just So Scrappy, I enjoy Katie's playlist. I am trying desperately to force my playlist on this blog. It is not cooperating. If anyone has experience, I would love to learn how to do this .

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day Freebie writing

I just signed up for mediafire, so I am trying to add a link. I'll figure it out soon! If anyone had suggestions, thanks!

Framed Writing for Alexander

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Imitation wasn't flattering

Someone is claiming my freebie! I checked the freebies on TpT, and someone has a Valentine's Day bingo that includes my words in the same order, and don't you know those directions sound just like what I said.
I sent her a message. I wonder if she will comment or just take down the product like I asked her to.
Good thing my niece was here when I found it or I would have said some very not nice words.

Update on the Dolphins

I ended up making only three dolphins because I just didn't have time. My class measured them on Thursday, and two of the other classes measured on Friday.  Not exactly what you leave for the sub of the fourth class on my team. Anyway...it turned out great!

I used one box of fadeless paper and three bottles of craft paint, about 60-90 minutes of drawing, painting, and laminating, and cutting per dolphin, and when I am tired of looking at them (it could happen) I can roll them back up into the box for next year.  Way better than measuring a desk with cubes and paper clips.

My son's class did this on Friday, and he told me at lunch that he really enjoyed it and all of his friends told him I was awesome for making something like this. And then he said thank you. What a sweetheart!

If anyone is interested in getting a set of 3 life sized dolphins, let me know.

Valentine's Sale at Teachers Notebook

Check out my holiday sale at Teachers Notebook on Valentine's Day items. The  Heart Tangram Set, Bingo boards for 20, Valentine Kitten Cause and Effect, and Sweet Treats with oi and oy are on sale for a few more days.

The Problem with Inspiration

When my daughter had friends over this weekend, we rented Dolphin Tale. So then we found Seewinter, but couldn't see anything but the items at the gift shop. And the teacher resources. Which led me to NEED to have my students measure the length of life-sized dolphins. And now, only four days later I am painting dolphins in my kitchen! My children were surprised that I was using my square kitchen tiles as a grid to feel to guide my drawing. My daughter put down her book (Hunger Games (briefly)) and my son just stood watching me for almost 20 minutes. And after that one dried and I rolled it up, I started on dolphin #2. And as soon as my husband is done fixing school lunches, I'll be starting dolphin #3  .My goal is four dolphins, painted and laminated before math class tomorrow at 8:05.

Valentine Heart Tangram Puzzles

I've been working hard. I think this has turned out very well. My school is only allowed to have 30 minute parties for the holidays, so we need to be educationally appropriate the rest of the day. The kids know it's a party day and it's all they can think about so we end up looking for something that will keep the kids focused on learning and the holiday at the same time. Please check it out!!

More Prefixes

My low group were fine, my above group were fine, but my on group are a disaster. So I came home and made something new. I'm going to partner a low, on, and high to work together.
It's too beautiful to be February.  We made it to 70 degrees today. Unbelievable.

One girl asked when she was changing the date on the chalkboard if we had to change the year to 2013 because we were in a new month. Yikes! Time does fly!