March Currently

Whaat!! March already!?  I guess I can believe it and that means only two weeks until my Spring Break!!

Have you been to Farley's blog yet!? She has a gorgeous new blog design courtesy of Michelle from the 3AM Teacher!  She has her currently post up and I am ready to link up!


Did you all hit the TpT sale?  I wasn't sure I was going to shop, but I ended up getting a few new items.  I loved the huge discount with all of my TpT credits and the extra 10%.  I will share what I purchased soon!

I have been a busy bee trying to finish up a few products that I had requests for.  I am so glad they are finished and I really need to take a break before I start creating anything else.  I hope some of you that are waiting on my next interactive units will understand :)

So what is the answer to my question?  I'll let you guess in the comments!  Go link up and check out Farley's new design!!





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A Winner and A Sale!

Aloha sweet friends!!  It is time for me to announce the big winner of the Ellison AllStar Giveaway!!  Thank you so much to everyone who entered.  I wish I could send you all one, but the big winner is:



I will email you with the details Cheryl!!

Well what could be more exciting than that?

Have you heard about the big sitewide sale going on this week on Teachers Pay Teachers?


I love these sales!  It's the time I load up my cart with all of those items that have been on my wish list for months!

My store will also be on sale and you can save big!  Since Spring is just around the corner here are of few things that might come in handy.





Monthly Word Problem Packs


Rocks and Minerals Interactive Notebook Unit


Beach Bucks or Lil' Buckaroos


My Aloha Unit is perfect for the last quarter to get you in summer mode.


I can't wait to start creating with all the new clipart that I plan on purchasing during the sale.  I also have some amazing resources lined up in my wishlist too!  I hope I don't do too much damage to my pocketbook.  The family may be eating rice and beans next week!

Oh, one last thing!  Over at the Primary Chalkboard we have a giveaway going on right now!


You could win a gift certificate to TpT!  There are 3 chances to win. The more the merrier, right?  Click on the picture to head over and enter.  The giveaway ends Wednesday!



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Rock and Minerals Unit

Aloha and welcome to the weekend!!  We have been busy, busy, busy in class the last few weeks.  There are only 3 weeks left until the end of the quarter, and so much left to do.

In science we just finished up our Rocks and Minerals unit.


The students were really excited about this one.  I had them bring in some rocks to share, we looked at them with magnifying glasses and wrote down all the properties of the different rocks.


I wish we would have had more time to talk about the Earth's layers.  I found some great projects on Pinterest.

We did watch some great videos that I found on YouTube.






Kids are so into Rock and Minerals that they would be happy to continue this unit for a few more weeks!

We are actually moving into magnets which is a perfect transition.  I have a few resources that I will be using. This great unit is from Nicole over at Teaching With Style.


I also have this unit with lots of activities from Nicole Shelby.


This is another favorite of students!  I am going to really try and take some photographs of the fun experiments we have planned.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and don't forget to enter my Ellison die cut giveaway if you haven't already.  Click on the picture to take you to the original post.





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AllStar Review and a Giveaway

Aloha friends!  I hope you all enjoyed your long President's Day weekend and eased back into school this week.  I was lucky enough to spend a few days camping on the beach with some friends. Three day weekends always make it a little difficult to get back into the routine.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Ellison Education to do a review of one of their products.  If you know Ellison they have been providing great die cuts for education for years.  I remember when I first started teaching and I wondered where everyone got all those cute cut outs!!

So I was really excited when they sent me their AllStar Superstar Machine.


I pulled it out of the box and had it set up in just a few minutes.


They let me pick a few die cuts to use.  Since Valentine's Day was last week I went with their heart frames and an envelope cut out.


I also received this flashcard wheel and a puzzle die cut.




The machine was super easy to use.  Just sandwich your paper and the die cut between the two protector sheets.  Crank it through and voila, you have your shape.  


I used some pastel colored card stock that I purchased at Target, along with the cute little buckets from the dollar section.  In about 15 minutes I had a variety of fun paper cut outs that I wanted to use in my writing and word work centers.



My students could not wait to get their hands on those little envelopes and write Valentines to their friends and family.




They used a little heart shaped sticker to close up their envelopes.

I also placed some puzzle pieces into the writing center.  I had the students write a riddle on one piece and the answer on the other.



They loved this and couldn't wait to mix them up and read them all! I can see this coming in handy for so many different activities.


The flashcard wheels are really cool and could be used for so many things.  I made some samples for my students to start with.  I placed these in the word work area and they were really excited to fill them in.  I didn't have any fasteners so I used a pipe cleaner to hold the pieces together.


We did synonyms last week and this was a great way to review and challenge them to write their own.  Super simple and very engaging!  It's amazing how motivated students can be when you add in something new and fun to the routine.

I was really happy to test drive Ellison's Superstar machine. It was super easy to use, lightweight and easily storable in my classroom.  They also have such a great selection of die cuts that I may be in trouble!  I also discovered that Ellison has a blog with great tips, lesson plans and more!





Just click on the pictures to take you right to their site for some crafty ideas to use in your class.

Now the fun part! Ellison is generously letting me give away an AllStar machine to a lucky reader! 

Just fill out the Rafflecopter and leave me a comment telling me whether you have used Ellison products before.  I will choose a winner next week.  Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

32

Word Problem Bundle Winners

Thank you so much to everyone who entered!  And the winners are...


I have sent out emails, but Lea and Ellen bounced back. Please contact me ladies!!



1

A Year of Word Problems

Aloha friends!  So happy it's another long weekend.  I have needed an extra day to clean and catch up on everything that seems to be piling up here at home.

Today I wanted to share that I have finally finished my word problem sets for each month of the year!



This has been no small undertaking.  Let me tell you writing word problems is tough!  I think with each month I got a little better at it and tried to create a variety of problems using different skills.

I have to say these problems are challenging.  They will make your kids think!  My lower guys really struggle with trying to grasp how to solve them, but they are getting it!  Their problem solving abilities have improved so much!!


I always enjoy seeing how they solve their problems.  Second grade brains are working on so many different levels.


I am still working with those kids that just want to take two numbers and always add them up!!


Whew!! That is a huge "difference" in temperature!!  That is a word that I have been pounding into my students heads!  Once they get the concept that they are trying to find the difference they know to subtract.

I constantly have kids referring to our word problem posters.


Notice that I have the addition and subtraction posters on the bottom.  Kids can walk right up to it and physically touch them if they need to.  I always see my students pop out of their chairs and walk over to look for those "key" words to tell them what to do. Click {HERE} to see these in my TpT store.

I know many teachers have been using these word problems and posters in their classrooms.  I have gotten such great feedback from so many and I love that students are becoming better problem solvers.  

I have also received many requests to bundle these items and now that each month is finished I have.



Just click on either of these pictures to take you to my TpT store to check them out.

If your not quite sure about using these with your class.  Here is a freebie that I made to try it out.



I would love to giveaway a few bundles to one of my fantastic followers.  Just leave a comment telling which bundle you would like to win.  I will pick three winners on Sunday evening February 16th.  Good luck and enjoy your long weekend!



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