Motivate your students to WRITE!

Every so often, we just need a little fun, don't we? Here's a little writing activity I like to do with my kiddos. They get to create a superhero scene & the write about it! They LOVE it!

I glue two sets of googly eyes on each page of paper. Part of the fun & challenge is creating the scene around those googly eyes-- wherever they are on the paper! I tell my kiddos that they can create any scene & add their own characters....the only rule is one has to be a superhero. I was inspired by this picture I came across on Pinterest from House of Baby Piranha.

My sweeties LOVE drawing their characters! The beauty of this project is, as they're drawing the picture with the googly eyes, they're really planning their writing!  Characters.....setting....even the details of the story begins to develop as they complete the drawing!

After they've drawn their pictures, they use the planner to get their ideas down in writing. I also give them a word bank to help with some of those words they might want to use: super, villain, thought, secret, victory..... lots of words that'll help get those creative little minds whirling! 

I've bundled it all into a little mini pack for you....Just click the pic below to grab a copy! 

I Spy a Giveaway!!

These I Spys are some of my kiddos' favorite activities! They are SO engaged when they're working on them.....you could hear a pin drop! No like! It must have something to do with getting to use those magnifying lenses......kids love it when you get those little gems out...right?

I like to use them in our workstations, but they're also great whole group. Pssst....I'll let you in on a little secret....these are MARVELOUS go-to activities when you have to plan for a sub! You get about 30 minutes of high-level engagement when you build this into your sub plans. It truly is a print & go activity....just print & add magnifying glasses!

I'd love to help you add this to you add this to your classroom. So, I stocked up on magnifying glasses & am going to give TWO prize packs away! Two people are going to win....

ALL 3 I Spy Bundles

AND

A classroom set of magnifying glasses!!

Just enter in the little rafflecopter widget down there & cross your fingers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Whooooo's Ready for Some sPoOkY Math?! FREEBIE!

This is always a favorite activity for my kiddos during the Halloween season. It's great for teaching or reinforcing fact families.

You can either have kiddos draw out a domino & create a fact family from those numbers...or pre-program the numbers for them. After writing all three digits on the roof of the house, we 'build' the house. The facts for the fact family are written on ghosts which are tucked behind the shutters. Spooooooky!

I love that this project can be easily tweaked for kiddos who do not celebrate Halloween. All you have to do is provide some 'non-Halloween' color choices for some of the pieces. Instead of using ghosts, you can use people. Easy peasy! Kiddos can make their own choice whether to make a haunted house or a regular house.

To grab a template to use in your classroom, just click the graphic below & download straight from my dropbox! Happy Math Haunting!!

SCHOOLAPALOOZA!!

WELCOME to our 2nd Annual BACK to School CELEBRATION...

We are so EXCITED that you decided to stop by!!

We all have some GREAT things happening on our blogs to share with you.

Brenda from Primary Inspired creates these AWESOME I Spy activities and one was recently spied with subtraction facts that would be just right for 2nd graders as they start the year.

Click on the picture above to grab a copy.

Brenda's GIVEAWAY is a measurement card game that is sure to be a hit in your classroom...

Click on the picture to participate. It will only be available from 8:00 to 9:00 pm EST!

Stop by...

to see what else Brenda shares!

Sabra from Teaching with a Twang has all the details about her GIVEAWAY right here, It is set of stations that would be PERFECT for word work .

Click on the picture above from 8:00-9:00 EST to grab it for FREE!

Be sure to check out...

to see what else Sabra has going on these days!

Cierra from Adventures of Room 129 has lots of SUPER organizing ideas for small groups and a GREAT activity with context clues.

Click on the picture above to check it out.

Cierra's GIVEAWAY is just what you need to get your students to begin to set their own goals.

From 8:00-9:00 EST, click on the picture above to grab it!

Stop by...

to see what all goes on in Cierra's room!

Nicole from All Things Apple in 2nd is always SUPER busy sharing BRIGHT ideas!

Her GIVEAWAY is a FUN way to practice Author's Purpose.

Click on the picture above to grab a copy from 8:00-9:00 EST.

Check out...

to see what else Nicole has to offer!

*These GIVEAWAYS will only be available for one hour from 8:00 pm-9:00 pm EST. 

After that time, they will be gone!  

You will then have to head over to their stores to purchase these products and check out a whole lot more!

Be sure to leave a comment below to let us know that you grabbed up a thing or two tonight so we can have some kind of idea how many have been grabbed up. THANKS!

See you tomorrow for more SCHOOLAPALOOZA fun!!

Book Basket Find!! Giveaway!

So I went on the search this summer for book baskets. I was looking for something practical, of course....the right size to hold a good number of books or supplies....something that would remain standing and not topple over when it filled with a good number of books. Of course, also cute (you know- comes in the 'right' colors!). AND a good buy!

I did have a few Really Good Stuff book baskets that I'd inherited from another teacher, & I first looked there to see what they had. But, like I said, I wanted a good buy. And look what I ended up ordering! I found these terrific book baskets at Steps to Literacy! They fit the bill - the right size, stable when filled with books or supplies, and super cute in just the right colors!

Look at all those beautiful colors! You can get order just single colors, or you can get sets: Primary Colors or Fun Colors.

Aaaand.....best of all - a GREAT buy! Check this out...

Really Good Stuff's set of 4 is $18.99, and with shipping ends up $27.95

Steps to Literacy's set of 4 is $14.95, and with shipping ends up $19.95

Now I call that a good deal!

If you're wondering how they compare to the Really Good Stuff ones, take a look. They're extremely similar. The design is just a tad different, and it looks like Steps to Literacy's book bins are just a tiny bit bigger than the other.

I'm in love with my purple book bins. And guess what.....Steps to Literacy is so awesome that they're letting me give away TWO SETS of book bins!! One set of the primary colors and one of the fun colors. Just click down there on that rafflecopter widget and enter away! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Books-to-Movies Paddington!

http://thepaddingtonmovie.com/

Raise your hand if you love to see favorite books come to life on the big screen!
Yeah....me, too! A few weeks ago at the movie theater, I was intrigued to see that they're actually making the classic children's book Paddington, into a movie! How cool is that?

It's always interesting to see how the director/producer/actor visualizes a story and compare it to the way I've always visualized it myself. In fact, I really like using books that have been made into movies to support visualization. After all, a movie truly is a visualization of literature!

If you've never incorporated the book--movie--let's compare our visualization to the director's, you should give it a try! We always have the most interesting discussions in the classroom! And it's such a neat activity to compare/contrast our visualization to the director's.

Have you ever met Paddington? The first book was published back in 1958, and there are actually more than 20 books! The visualization being depicted in the movie is sure to be interesting...it's being directed by David Heyman, who also directed Harry Potter! Hmmm....that could be interesting! The movie comes out at Christmas (field trip, anyone? I'm thinking about it!).

If you aren't familiar with Paddington...here's a description from the movie: 

PADDINGTON tells the story of the comic misadventures of a young Peruvian bear who travels to the city in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone, he  begins to realize that city life is not all he had imagined - until he meets the kindly Brown family who read the label around his neck that says "Please look after this bear. Thank you," and offer him a temporary haven. It looks as though his luck has changed until this rarest of bears catches the eye of a museum taxidermist.


It looks adorable...doesn't it? If you'd like to check it out more, just click the top pic to go to the official website, or go check out Paddington's Facebook page! (Yes. He has a Facebook page!)
Now I'd like to hear from you.......

• Do you use movies to support visualization?
• What's your favorite activity to do when working on visualization?

Need a Reminder? Remind 101

Please tell me I'm not the only one.......

Notes go home. Newsletters go home. Still several parents "didn't know about.........picture day was yesterday....field trip permission slips were due 4 days ago....it's library day today & library books are due....."

I'm NOT the only one, right?! Please say it isn't so! Some kiddos' backpacks are like a blackhole...notes go in, but they never come out. Somehow, notes and newsletters just never make it home. Hey- I'm not passing any blame or judgments here. 50% of my own children had that very same issue. It's frustrating both as a teacher AND as a parent. This year, my teamie and I tested out Remind 101. LOVE it! Have you heard of it?

It's a super handy FREE little online program that lets you send text messages to parents. The cool thing? There's NO exchanging of phone numbers! Parents don't get your number, you don't get the parents' numbers, & the numbers aren't visible on a list for any of the other parents to see, either. We really appreciated the features that made it a safe way for us to communicate with families via text.

So - how does it work? It was super easy. You are given a class code (mine was @mrsfrady), and those who want to sign up just have to text that code to a certain phone number that Remind 101 will give you. Once they send that text, they're on your subscriber list & will receive all the messages you send via text.

To send a reminder message, you log into your account, type in your message, click send, & you're done! You can also schedule messages to go out at a later time. I actually set mine up to message parents each week the evening before our library day to remind everyone to get those books back in their backpacks!

We loved the convenience of being able to text families notes & reminders:

• Library is tomorrow - Remember your books!
• Permission slips for the museum trip are due Friday.
• Gym day tomorrow--- Don't forget to wear sneakers!
• Field trip to the farm tomorrow. Dress for the weather & remember no sandals.
• Remember reading logs are due Friday!
• Don't forget our Poetry Coffeehouse is next Tuesday. Hope to see you there!
• Our class is collecting paper towel rolls. We'd appreciate any that you can send in for us!
• Picture day is Wednesday. Look for order forms to come home. Get ready to smile!

I'd love to hear any other ideas you have for ways you could use Remind 101. Please share in the comments below!

Using Puzzles for Sight Words

I love using puzzles to help build sight word recognition and fluency as a workstation activity! It's one of the easiest, low-prep stations I've done, and even better? My kiddos

LOVE it!

You really can't ask for better than that, can you? I mean, easy prep, effective practice, and high engagement....does it get any better?!

Check it out...

At the workstation, kiddos turn all the pieces over. Taking turns, they read the word on the back of each piece. If it's read correctly, they turn it over. As soon as ALL the pieces have been turned over, kiddos get to put the puzzle together. That's where the fluency piece comes into play: their goal is to get that puzzle put together, so they read the words as quickly as they can! Awesome!

I'd love to have you stop over at my blog to read more about this workstation -- how to get it all set up, more about storage. AND ----- there may or may not be a giveaway for you!!