I'm having a SALE!

Yes, you heard it right…I’m having a sale in honor of my favorite silly Dr’s birthday. I realized, after I decided and already set up my sale, that I don’t actually have anything Seuss related in my store…oh well! Take a look at my store here.

In other news, I finally finished my Courage and Bravery Literacy Unit. I am really happy the way it turned out. I kept on getting writer’s block so it took a little longer than I expected. This week was also a little crazy. I won’t go on and on about it now because you’ll hear about it tomorrow in Five for Friday.

It also includes this little cute activity to go along with the story Dex: A Heart of a Hero by Caralyn Buehner. If you have not read this book, you are missing out. It is too cute for words!

Take a peek at my Courage and Bravery Literacy Unit.

Included in this unit is…

Long A Word Sort

Real and Nonsense Word Sort

R-controlled Vowel practice

Springy Synonyms

Springtime Mixed-Up Sentences

Compound Word Practice

“We were brave” activity

Craftivity to accompany the book Dex: The Heart of a Hero by Caralyn Buehner

Caught Being “Sweet” Certificates

Another thing that I do with the unit is this Underground Railroad Quilt activity.

I didn’t include it in my unit because I didn’t make it. I found it on the Really Good Stuff website. Get your copy here.

There is also a fabulous Reading Rainbow episode to accompany the book the “Following the Drinking Gourd” by Jeanette Winter. If your school subscribes to Discovery Education you can find it on there. Last weekend I was also able to find the link to the video on YouTube but now I can’t. It must have been taken down.

I am ready for a little mindless t.v. with Project Runway.

One more day left!

What are you doing for the good Dr’s birthday?

Krystyn

Another Giveaway!

Oh my word! Everyone is in a generous mood. I just found ANOTHER giveaway.  For me, it is comparable to finding a sale on shoes. (Never a bad thing.) Ashley from That’s So Second Grade is throwing a HUGE giveaway. Take a peek here.

 


What are some giveaways you have entered recently?

Krystyn

A Giveaway, a Sale, and Whole Brain Teaching

Hello All! I hope all of you enjoyed your weekend. I know I did but it was WAY too short! Today I am linking up with Our Sweet Success for a Ginormous Giveaway Linky Party. They are trying to host the biggest linky party ever.

Here are the rules straight from their blog:

Phase 1 - Link Up! (Our Sweet Success)

If you would like to join this giveaway by offering one of your products, then join us in the biggest linky party EVER!!! The deadline to enter will be Saturday, March 2. We have several of your FAVORITES that will be joining us!!

 

Phase 2 - Enter to WIN! (Mackey's Classroom)

Starting on Sunday, March 3...Sarah will begin the raffle for the winner! ONE lucky winner will win:

 

ALL of the products offered by the most amazing teacher/bloggers on TPT.

 

Phase 3 - Prizes Sent!

All teacher/bloggers who linked up will email their product to winner!!

(We are anticipating over $100 worth of products)

Doesn’t that sound fun?

In addition to the giveaway, I am also offering 20% off everything in my TpT store February 28^th-March 3^rd in honor of one of my favorite “holidays”…Dr. Seuss’s birthday.

I am hoping to finish up my Courage Unit tomorrow. That will also be included in the sale.

On a completely random topic, one of my team members was telling me about Whole Brain Teaching. I have heard of it and even implemented brain breaks in my classroom but I don’t know that much about it. What are your thoughts about it? Do you use it? How do you like it? 

Happy Teaching!

Krystyn

 

 

 

Five for Friday (February 22)

Today is Friday!! (Whoop! Whoop!) You know what that means…it is time to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

The fieldtrip I was so worried about…major SUCCESS! (Yeah!) I didn’t lose any kids and we were on time for all of our stops.

After the fieldtrip I was too tired to even think about cooking so I ordered my favorite…sushi! Yum. Totally hit the spot.

We were able to finish our George Washingtons. Instead of having the students draw George Washington, I had them draw themselves with George’s hat and wig. They loved it! My students were actually a little bummed that we weren’t doing Lincoln as well. Both of these patterns are from A Cupcake for Teacher’s President’s Day pack.

I am at that point where I need to start thinking about how I want to get recertified as a teacher. I am still in the process of deciding if I am going to go the state route or the National Board route. I am leaning more toward the National Board way. I have been having some major anxiety just thinking about this. I haven’t even started yet and my stomach is in knots just thinking about it. Ugh…

To top off my night, The Princess Bride is on tv. I love this movie.

Have a good weekend!

Krystyn

Is It Really Thursday?

Phew! I’m not sure where the week went. I can’t believe it has been almost a week since I posted. Sorry I have been MIA. Here is the reason…

We are going on a fieldtrip to the Pacific Science Center in Seattle! This is a HUGE undertaking. First the students are meeting us at the ferry. That is the quickest and cheapest way to get to Seattle from where we live. It takes an hour to cross over the Seattle. Then we have to hike from the ferry to the monorail. (Which is all uphill.) Finally we make it to the Science Center. Then we have to repeat it on the way back. (I’m tired just thinking about it!) I have been completely stressing all the details because this is the first time I have done this fieldtrip. Hopefully, everything goes smoothly. On happier news, my students are SO EXCITED! You would have thought I gave them the moon. Even the forecast calling for stormy weather hasn’t changed any of their excitement.

I also have been working on this unit.

The next theme in our reading curriculum is about courage and bravery. So far, I have Long vowel, R-controlled vowels, mixed-up sentences and synonym activities. I’m still putting finishing touches on it, including some craftivities. Any other concepts or ideas you would like to see included?


I hope all of you that are getting hit by the storms are staying safe and warm.


Enjoy your Friday!

Krystyn

Five for Friday...on a Saturday

Hello all! I'm a day late for the weekly Doodle Bugs Five for Friday Linky Party. After Valentine's Day I was wiped out yesterday. I was asleep by 8:00 last night, so unfortunately I didn't get to my blog. Better late than never, right? In case you don’t know, Five for Friday Linky Party is when you post 5 random things that happened during your week.

1.   I was able to finish my literacy unit on Fossils just in time to start our new unit! I posted it on Teachers Pay Teachers earlier this week.

 

2.   On Valentine’s Day my students were on sugar overload. There were so many sweets. My entire classroom even smelled like sugar.

 

3.   I posted 2 freebies this week! Click on the pictures to take a look.

Graphics: Scrappin Doodles

Graphics: KPM Doodles

 

4.   I tried to fit in some President’s Day things this week among the sugar. I got this great packet from A Cupcake for Teacher. We will finish working on our packet next week.

 

5.   I had bags and bags of those conversation hearts with the intention of doing a graphing and sorting activity on Valentine’s Day. Well, we didn’t get to it because we ran out of time. I absolutely HATE those hearts. I think they taste like chalk. So I knew I didn’t want to be stuck with all those bags for year. (Plus who has that kind of space to waste on storage?) We had Valentine’s Day party part 2 on Friday. I got through most of the bags. Yeah! Next year I will know to buy fewer bags.

 

Have a good weekend. Do you have Monday off? What are your plans?

Krystyn

Valentine's Day...sigh

Oh.My.Word....I am so tired! (I can hear the amens from teachers across the world.) I made them wait until the last possible moment for their Valentine’s Day party. I actually have a double prep today so the party itself was only about 20 minutes. Thank goodness! It was 20 minutes of pure craziness. I had my students pass out their Valentines before recess to try to minimize some of the craziness. It sorta worked.

Look at our adorable Love Monsters. My kids love them! I got them from this “All You Need is Love” unit by the Teacher Wife Mrs. Lindsey. At of the end of the day, one of my students’ bags broke. He kept on yelling “My monster exploded!” Aww...

I love where the eyes are on this one.

We also did an experiment on whether the students liked chocolate kisses or hugs more. I got this freebie from Cara Carroll last year. I thought this was a fabulous idea...so did my kids.

Take a look at all of our snacks! Oi! I actually ended up saving some of them for tomorrow. I thought it was a little excessive to have 5 cookies per kid. Yikes! They were already bouncing off the walls with the amount of sweets we had.

I whipped up these quick freebies. One to go with the compound word concepts and the other to go with our fossil unit.


Graphics by Scrappin' Doodles

 

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Krystyn

Fossils, Camouflage, and some Freebies

Hello Monday! I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend. I know I did, but it was way too short. On Friday, my class went down to visit our Kindergarten buddies. Before Groundhog’s Day we had started this adorable activity. My 2^nd graders traced their Kindergarten buddies on a piece of while butcher paper. Then both the Kindergarteners and 2^nd graders cut out the drawing and colored it to match the kindergartener. We are going to add shadows to each drawing this week. When we are finished we will have life-sized Kindergarteners with shadows! Here is how far they got.

 

Last week we also finished up our camouflage unit with this quick activity. I think they turned out great! The best part was that it is so fast to get everything organized. Just cut whatever wrapping paper you have around the house to the size of the clip art. (Note: When you pick the wrapping paper, make sure the design is not to complex. It is really hard for the students to copy the design if there are a lot of pictures.)

 

 

Click this picture to download your very own freebie.

Today we just started my favorite unit of our reading curriculum: Fossils. I have been hard at work with a new Fossils Literacy Unit. It has a ton of activities to help our students. Plus, I found this adorable dinosaur clip art package by Scrappin’ Doddles. Click on the picture to take you to my store to take a closer look.

Have a great week!

Krystyn

Proud Teacher Moment

Today was awesome! We have been working so hard with fractions for the last couple weeks. Today we took the end of the unit test and ALL of my students did AWESOME! That’s right. I said it! AWESOME! These are the moments that I am reminded why I teach. I am so proud of how they did. (Insert happy dance here.)

In other news, yesterday we dove into this adorable mini Splat the Cat unit from Cara Carroll. It is based on the book by Rob Scratton “Love, Splat!”

Click on the picture to take you to Cara's TpT store.

 



It is so stinkin’ cute. Definitely a must read around Valentine’s Day. (Even my boys that are “too cool” for anything girly loved the story. If you knew them, you would know what a feat this is.) Cara also included this craftivity. Take a look at how they turned out.

"I felt loved when my Dad got me a donut that was shaped like a heart."

"I felt loved when I was sick and my Mom gave me hot cocoa."

 

One of my students said “I want mine to look just like yours Ms. Richards!” (Awww….they are so sweet.)

Are you planning for Valentine’s Day yet? What are you planning to do?

Half way through the week! Yeah!

Krystyn