Treats for our Sweets

Happy Halloween!!!!  This week is Hectic with a capital H!!  Parent conferences should not be during the same week as Halloween.  It's just crazy.  Plus I have some major remodeling starting at my house.  I'll post pictures later about that. 

Anyways, to move onto something really fun...I'm excited that you are here to do some blogger Trick or Treating! 

Here is my Treat for my Sweets Freebie!

Click on the picture to download

After you've downloaded my Freebie, click on the blog button below to head to the next stop.

Thanks for stopping by to Trick or Treat!



November

I was shocked when the beginning of October hit and now I CANNOT believe that it's almost November!!  This year is flying by!  I know this week will be busy, busy, busy so I wanted to make sure to get all of my November things ready to go. 

 

I finished up my November Songs and Poems.

 

 

 

I also made all my copies this week of my Common Core November Fluency Passages.

 

I'm also really excited about my new November Common Core Morning Work.

 

Now it's off to finish up everything for Parent-Teacher Conferences. 

 



Persuasive Writing

I had a couple of requests for some writing genre posters for Persuasive Writing to match my Informative and Narrative posters.

You can download them for free by clicking HERE.





Morning Work

I have been bored with my morning work for awhile and have wanted to create something new.  I finally got around to it and I couldn't be happier with the results. 

The first page above is the front and the second page is the back, so my morning work is double sided.  The front has a variety of language and math skills that are aligned to the Common Core {Common Core Standards are included on every page for easy lesson planning} and the back includes sight word practice.  Students use the sight word to practice sight word fluency and reading fluency.

 

One of the best things about this morning work is the fact that it's differentiated for my diverse learners.  Each morning work has two different options.  The first one, labeled "A," is for below grade level learners or students that just need a little extra help.  Option "B" is for on or above grade level learners.  The two options are extremely similar, so much so, that most students will never notice that the morning works are different.

You can download a free sample of the morning work by clicking HERE. 

The samples are two that will be included in my October packet that I'll finish eventually, but I wanted to go ahead and completely finish my November packet so it's ready for me.

 

You can check it out by clicking below.

 

 

 

 



Retelling Chart and New Stores

Today was our first day back from a four day weekend.  I love Fall Break!!  It was so hard to get up this morning. 

Last week, we began working on retelling and summarizing.  My firsties always have a really difficult time with this.  They either want to reread the entire story to you or they give you just a few details.  I made this retelling chart to hang from our ceiling.

This idea was inspired by Cara from The First Grade Parade.

It has really been useful for giving the students a visual to use when retelling stories.  You can download the chart by clicking HERE.

You can also use this sheet for your student's to fill out.

Just click on the picture above to download.

 

On another note, I want to introduce you to two new Teachers Pay Teachers Store. 

The first one is Rebecca Boehler's store. She is a 2nd grade teacher that works in the same school corporation as I do.  I cannot even put into words how AMAZING she is!!!!  I did my student teaching at the school that she teaches in and I knew right away how wonderful she is.  She has THE BEST ideas and is such a hard worker.  She has won a Golden Apple and she has been our school corporation's Teacher of the Year.  If you teach 2nd grade, you will definitely want to check her out.  She has some great morning work if you use Treasures reading series and she has some wonderful Language Arts Questions. You will want to follow her because I can only imagine the products that she will come up with.

 

The next store is another teacher that works in my school corporation.  He used to be a 5th grade teacher at my school, but moved to teach middle school science.  Jeremy Johnson is an extremely talented teacher that always thinks outside the box and tries to come up with unique ways to reach all of his students. I know I probably don't have a huge middle school audience, but if you know of someone, send them to Jeremy's store.  He is in the process of working on some really cool lessons.

 

If you are interested in starting your own TpT store, click HERE!

 

Now, onto the winners of my Common Core Math and Language Assessments.

Congratulations:

Mrs. Frye

Mrs. Asher

&

Karyn

*I will be sending you an email.

 

 



Common Core Assessments for 2nd Grade

Do you notice anything different?  I had my blog updated by the great and wonderful DreamLike Magic Designs!  I love it.
{I now have cute buttons for Facebook, Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and Teachers Notebook.} 

Something else I'm loving right now is that it's Fall Break!  We had Friday off and then we also have Monday off.  On Friday, I finally sat down and almost finished my Common Core Language Arts Assessments for 2nd Grade.  Then today....I FINISHED them!!!  These have been hanging over my head since August.

Click on the picture above to download a preview file of the assessments.  You can find the assessments below.

 

I had completed the Math Assessments for 2nd grade back in August.

 

 

I also had my 1st grade ones done before school started too.

So, I could not be more relieved that these are finished!! 

To celebrate the completion of these assessments and just the fact that I love my new blog design, I'm randomly giving away a complete set of assessments (grade level of your choice) to 3 lucky followers.  Just leave me a comment below and I'll be picking someone on Monday!

 

 

 



Scarecrow Glyph and Writing

Aren't scarecrows adorable? They are the perfect fall decoration!

I decided to have my students make scarecrows, but they completed them by following a glyph so the scarecrows tell about them.

After students completed their scarecrows, we wrote about them.

 

I have included three different writing pages so the activity can be adjusted to different levels.

You can check it out by clicking below.

 

I also want to tell you about a great new blog that you will want to check out. 

 

 

I am so excited to be one of the author's.  It's geared towards PK - 1st grade teachers and every post includes freebies!!  You can't beat that right. Go check it out.
 



Columbus Day

Today we learned all about Christopher Columbus by going on a Columbus Voyage. 

 {I take NO credit for this idea.  Previous first grade teachers at my school were doing this before I started teaching first grade 9 years ago.} 

We started off by reading a couple nonfiction books about Christopher Columbus.  We talked about how he was an explorer and he went on a voyage to discover the New World.  (Working on vocabulary) 

Then we begin to prepare for our own voyage.  Every student is given this packet.

Like I said above, I did not come up with this idea, but I did revamp the packet that we have been using for over 10 years.  It needed some desperate updating. (Click on the picture above to download for free.)

We explain to the students that Columbus and his crew had to pack enough food for the journey.  Each student receives a bag of snacks for their voyage. (saltine crackers, goldfish, and beef jerky)

They may eat from these bags anytime during the voyage, but they can't eat it all at once because on the ships, they couldn't eat all their food at once.  They have to spread it out over the entire voyage.

Each student is also given a trinket bag. {bells, beads, mirrors(foil wrapped over construction paper squares), and gold (spray painted rocks)} These are the items that they will use to trade with other classrooms.

 Arrange with 7 other classrooms in your building in advance and they will be the Native Americans. Give each classroom a different item to trade (feathers, popcorn, cotton balls, cinnamon, dried pineapple, shells, and Little Debbie Pumpkin Delights.) 

To start the voyage, students will get one item from their trinket bag.  You will walk as a class to one of the "Native American" classrooms.  They will trade their item for another item.  Then return to the room to complete the page in the booklet about that item.  Continue throughout the book.  Students will collect 7 new items.  (Clear as mud, right?)

Here are some students filling out their paper after trying their cinnamon candy.

 

Students are enjoying their popcorn that they traded for with the Native Americans.

 

Here are the 1st graders trading with some 4th grade "Native Americans."

 

It was a fun morning and the students LOVED it.

After returning to the room when our voyage was over, we completed this Columbus Day booklet.

 

I know Columbus Day is over, but you can save these ideas for next year or do them anytime this week.

 

 

 



Informative Writing and Bat Freebies

We began learning about bats this week.  I love teaching about bats.  Even though I think they are kind of gross, they truly are useful animals and I like to clear up the common myths about bats. 

You can see my posts from last year about bats by clicking HERE and HERE.

I have placed all of my bat freebies into one packet.  Click on the picture below to head on over to Teachers Pay Teachers to download for FREE.

 

Here are some new items that we completed this year and I have included in the freebie above.

 

Before completing our writing above, I introduced Informative/Explanatory writing. (Common Core Standard W.2)

 

These go along with my "What is Narrative Writing?" posters that you can find HERE.

You can download the Informative Writing Posters for FREE at Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking HERE.