Why does it seem that only our favorite students move during the school-year? I lost one of my favorites this last week and I was so sad to see him go. His family is moving to Texas and I have known since the beginning of the year but it is still sad because he was SO GOOD. 

When students move from our class mid-year we make a little "Goodbye Friend!" book to make sure we all say a heartfelt goodbye and let our friend know they will be missed. I hope that this eases the transition for the student because we try and be encouraging about their move and new school. 

Each students writes a letter and illustrates a picture. We bind all the pages together and it becomes a cute little book. 

While the rest of the class is busy writing our letters, I ask the student who is moving to color the cover of their book (I provide them with a black and white version of the above picture).  

Here is a few samples of our latest "Goodbye Friend" book:

I would love to choose three people to win this newly posted product. Simply comment below with your email address and you may win!I will choose three winners on December 7th OR you can grab this fun "Goobye Friend" pack in my store. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving Week! I am very jealous of all the teachers who have Thanksgiving week off, we have school Monday-Wednesday this week. 

We have been so busy working on our Story of the Pilgrims Thanksgiving book. 

We make this book every year to go along with our study of the Mayflower, Pilgrims, Squanto, and The First Thanksgiving. The book turns our SO cute and my kiddos learn a ton! 

Here are a few of my favorite books that help us with our study of Pilgrims and Native Americans. My favorite of all is If You Sailed on The Mayflower in 1620 by Ann McGovern!

We are also using the awesome FREEBIE from Sarah Cooley. We have been writing one thing each day in our journal. 

and my favorites...

 I hope you all have a day to eat, relax with family, and reflect on the things you have to be thankful for. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

 

Five for Friday October 3rd

I posted Units 5 - 8 of Second Grade CORE Math today! YAY! These units are a total labor of love!
Each unit includes 10 days of everything you need to teach the second grade CORE math standards. These four units were created for 2nd quarter.  WOO HOO. Click on the "Math" tab on the top to see my Kinder and First Grade CORE Math Units!

      

    

I am currently on Fall Break! The weather in Arizona has FINALLY become cooler. I have been outside jogging and riding my bike in the morning and it is just AMAZING! I don't think I would have been able to stand one more day of triple-digit temperatures!



Our district adopted a new reading series this year, we are now using Journeys.
I have been hard at work creating resources for our new program. When we return from Fall Break we will be reading the book From Seed to Pumpkin. I created a little Print and Go Packet to use with the book.  You can read more about it here.

My daughter and I have had so much fun with this little unit.


Yes this is my kitchen right now! AHHHHHH!

We are doing a little kitchen remodel and let's just say we still have a LONG WAY to go! I hope in a month from now I will be posting pictures of a beautiful finished kitchen. Fingers Crossed!


Lastly, this is my newest project. Since I am not really helpful when it comes to the kitchen construction I have decided to devote my time to the decor. I have some drinking to do so I will see you all later! Happy Friday everyone!
 

From Seed to Pumpkin!

We have adopted Journeys Reading this year and part of Unit 2 is using the book From Seed to Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer. YAY, a "REAL" book! We were given a class set of the book so we will be taking a small break for our weekly reading stories to focus on this book. We have some fun activities planned and I am so excited to take a break from our normal reading routine. 

I have been working on creating this new little packet to help. Note: This is NOT a Journeys packet so if you don't have Journeys you will LOVE it! 

We are going to start with an Anticipation Guide. I love hooking the kids right away and getting a brief look into what they already know and what misconceptions we may need to address. My kids love Anticipation Guides because they compete for the best score! :) 

We are then going to work on this little Pumpkin Life Cycle Book. I included pages for seed, sprout, vine, flower, green pumpkin and orange pumpkin. 

I also have included several graphic organizers, writing templates, vocab activitiy, ABC Order, Pumpkin Parts, Sentence Shuffle and a fun Pumpkin Investigation activity.

I had to get his Giant Pumpkin Puzzle from Oriental Trading. It was cheap and will make a FUN October/November Bulletin Board. 

We are going to finish our Pumpkin Unit by making these cute little waterbottle pumpkins! 

My daughter and I made this little guy today, SO CUTE and so simple with very little materials needed. Here are the steps if you are interested in making this with you kiddos. 

 

After pumpkins we are on to OWLS! I ordered my Owl Pellets today! 

I LOVE FALL! 

Johnny Appleseed

One more week until FALL BREAK! We are entering our tenth week of school and I am totally exhausted and in desperate need of a break! First quarter is so hard, I can't wait for time to relax and regroup. I just wanted to stop by real quick to share a couple picture of the Johnny Appleseed writing and art project we finished this week.

We have read several Johnny Appleseed books over the last two weeks and so we created a bubble map and circle map to show what we have learned. (Our school-wide focus this year is Thinking Maps)

Students used a red crayon to circle two adjectives on their circle map and then two facts from their bubble map. We took that information and used the sentence frame: 

Johnny Appleseeed was (adjective) and (adjective). He __________ and ______________. 

I created the little craft template to display their writing and it made the cutest bulletin board! 

I love looking at this bulletin board because it reminds me that cooler temperatures are on the way! I LOVE FALL! 

 

Seriously! Happy Fall Y'All :)

Grandparent's Day

Sunday is National Grandparents Day so today we took a little time to celebrate our Grandparents! I don't have a ton of extra time so we had to keep it simple. These adorable printables are from Cara Carroll. It is from her Precious Parents Packet.

We began whole-group by creating a Bubble Map with adjectives describing our Grandma's. We have just begun learning about adjectives and my kiddos did an amazing job! I really loved the word "generous" :) When we were finished brainstorming, I had the kids choose a crayon and circle three adjectives that describe their grandma.

We then flipped our paper over to make a circle map of things that we like to do with our grandma. (Sorry it's not fancy) The kids then circled two things that they like to do with their grandma. 

(I have two colors because many of my students have 2 Grandmas so we made 2 different cards) 

(This is my paper, don't judge, I spelled shopping wrong. The best part of teaching first grade is that no one in class calls you out on it!)

We used the following sentence frames.

Dear Grandma,

You are _____, ______ and _______. I like when we ______ and ______. I love you. 

Seriously these cards are the cutest thing EVER and I know that their Grandparents are going to just treasure these beautiful cards. 

It's Here!

Goodmorning! It's finally here! The TPT Back To School Sale! YAY!

Time for a little shopping! 

 

I have had so many requests for second grade math units and they are finally here! I have 4 units posted so far and I am working on the next four units for second quarter. (Follow my store and you will be notified when they are posted) I have so much fun creating these second grade units that sometimes I wish I taught second grade. They include a Math Journal with a Problem of the Day, a Daily Warm Up, Vocab Cards, a daily Lesson Plan for teachers with all printables and games included AND 2 pages of practice per day for students (1 side is guided practice the reverse is independent review). I was asked by so many people to create these units so I am beyond thrilled to share them with you. If your are not sure if these will work for your class, check out the amazing feedback from teachers who have used my units in Kinder and First! 

Now is a great time to buy any of my math unit bundles for an awesome price. The kinder and first grade units are bundled for saving but if you buy during the back to school sale you will save even more!

If your school uses Journeys reading don't forget about my new Print and Go Resources! The first 5 stories are uploaded and more are coming soon! 

Happy shopping everyone!