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.