It's Coming...Are You Ready????

We have our shopping cart FULL of must have items from some of our favorite sellers!!!

Here are a few of our top sellers and favorites if you want to check them out! :)

Happy shopping!!!

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High Fliers

Hello and happy Sunday!  Welcome to our little stop on the Bright ideas Blog Hop!  We are so excited to share a little bit of what our high reading group looks like.  This high group of kiddos is always a fun and challenging group to plan for.  They always need something to keep them engaged and if we can find a way to give them some independence all the better!!

High fliers, reading group number 1, red birds, etc., whatever you call them, we all have our group of high readers. :)  My group this year is crazy, big!  I have 8 kiddos in my high fliers group.  They are reading anywhere from a 4th grade to a 7th grade level!  This is the biggest group I have ever had for my high reading group.  They are a really sweet, fun bunch though! I just happen to have 4 boys and 4 girls in this group so I meet with them separately, even though the boys and the girls do the same activities.  For some reason this just works out best for us! :)

We are lucky at my school because my principal allows each grade level to pick a magazine subscription for their class to receive.  Second grade has chosen to get National Geographic for Kids.  I can't say enough good things about these magazines!!!  I absolutely love them, they are nonfiction, and my kids seriously can not get enough of them.  If we have to miss a day of reading group for an assembly, class party, etc. they actually are disappointed that they can't read the next article! If you have a chance to get these for your classroom...do it!

There are usually 3 articles in each magazine and I have my kiddos read one article by themselves or with partners (their choice) during our reading group.  Then they take this home to fill out after they have reread the article with an adult.

I love using this because they fill it out themselves and really all I need to have on hand are some fun markers (for writing the headings with) and white construction paper!  They do 3 sections: 5 Cool Facts, The Best Part, and What I Still Want to Know.  When they bring it back the next day they share with the reading group.  Once we are done with all 3 articles in the magazine I have the kiddos vote on what they would like to learn more about through a research project.  They pick from ideas in the magazine that they just finished. This year we have learned more about parrot fish, earth, rocks, geckos, rock climbing, Mars,and more!

Once they have picked a topic we head to the library and gather up books.

Then I have them find cool facts and information that they want to share.  They gather it all on a web and then organize it by topic.  After that they decide how they want to present.  I have had kiddos make posters, videos, power points, commercials, skits, books, and more!  I really have learned over the past 13 years that with these kiddos the less I interject, the more amazing things they come up with.  If I tell them what I want them to have as a final result they will do exactly that.  If I tell them I want them to figure out how to share the information and let them figure out how to present it themselves they will do 5 times more than I would have asked them to do!  It is amazing!

They are always so excited to present and the class loves learning more about the topic that was picked.  It is a win win!

Preparing props for a puppet show about their topic.

Gathering information to use for their project.

This has also been a good activity for my high kiddos because, this year alone, I have had 4 kiddos tested for our QUEST program.  This activity is always a hit as a challenge/extension activity for these kiddos and is a great way to show the extra activities they have had in the classroom when we are talking about if they need to be tested or not!

Now you can head on over to visit Catherine at The Brown Bag Teacher for another Bright Idea!!!

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Slowly, but Surely!

I absolutely love my class this year. I absolutely love being mommy to 3 little bitties at home. I love my job. I love creating things for TPT. However, I AM TIRED! :) Is anyone else there with me??? :)

I feel like I can't catch up on enough sleep to be well rested no matter what I do! Hmmmm..I'm sure that doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I have 3 under 2&1/2 and also hang out with 2nd graders all day long. Anyone who says that being a teacher, babysitter, nanny, (basically anything with children) is an easy job is just nuts!!! To be patient with kiddos, love on them all day, and still teach them what you have to teach them is WORK!! I would love to challenge those people to spend a day in my classroom (even with great kiddos!!!) and then go home and hang out with my kiddos for the rest of the night. I'm sure no one would ever again tell me that I had a walk in the park job! :)

My plan next year is to, hopefully, go part time and have more time with my own children. I don't think this will make me any less tired, or have any more time to create products. However, I do think it will give my more time to love on my own children and to be less stressed/guilty about not getting enough time with them.

So after hearing all about how tired I am, I am sure you will appreciate the fact that I actually finished some products for TPT that have been on the back burner for FOREVER!!!!!! If you are interested in checking any of them out just click on the picture and head over to TPT to check them out.

Can you tell that I have a slight obsession with Krista Wallden's Superhero clipart!  Seriously, it is too cute!!!!

If you would like a chance to pick one of these products for free just leave a comment. I will put numbers in a hat and let my girlies each pick one out sometime on Thursday evening. Please make sure to leave your email address so that I can send you your choice if you are a winner!

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Five for Friday

Hello!  We are linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching for Five for Friday.

Here is a peek at our week in pictures.

Teacher Helpers

Several of my little cuties are sure that they want to be teachers when they grow up. They take home all my extra copies and teacher junk when I am purging in my classroom, play teacher at home and recess, and help with anything and everything in the classroom.
So they cracked me up when they came in this week with name badges.  Of course they had to have them because I have a name badge that I wear!  Stinking adorable when the first thing they do when they walk in one morning is to come right over and show me how they had talked at recess and gone home and asked their mommies for badges! The very next day they showed up with these!

They were so excited when I told them that I could make them some "official" helper badges while they were at specials.  They now wear these everywhere!

Halfway through 2nd grade my little friends are all about freedom of choice!  They will practice about anything as long as they can choose how to practice!  This week I put some of their favorite ways to practice spelling up on the board and let them choose how they wanted to review their spelling words.

 Making a word search and then giving it to a partner to solve.

 Writing on desks with Expo markers.

 Giving each other a test. (Little teachers!!)

Hands on Science Museum. 

Every year we have a Hands on Science Museum that makes the rounds of the district in tubs.  Our 5th grade teachers are in charge of implementing it.  So they send out a sign up sheet, we sign up for a time, and the 5th graders come and help our kiddos go through each of the stations.  I love this every year! Our 5th graders are such great helpers, the kiddos love rotating and learning at each station, and it is so much fun to see the kiddos that I had in 2nd grade growing up and being so responsible!

 

 

 

 

Indoor recess....enough said, right???  We have been inside for way too many days lately due to the cold weather. Bleh!

Movie night.  We have started having movie night at our house since the girls are getting bigger.  It is such a fun new tradition for us.  We order pizza for dinner, have popcorn and shakes for a snack, and watch Cinderella. Yes, you read that last part right!!!  We watch Cinderella.....every single movie night so far!!!  We keep trying to suggest a different movie, but my girls are completely in love with Cinderella!  So now every Friday all 5 of us watch Cinderella!  My hubby and I keep hoping that at some point the girls will let us watch a different movie!  :)

 Lovin on little brother before the movie starts!

We hope you have a happy weekend!!! If you have snow send it towards Kansas please!  We have had crazy cold weather, but would like some snow so that we can use the 4 built in snow days our district has!!!


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Check Out This Giveaway!

We are participating in Natalie's giveaway over at Teachery Tidbits.  She has reached over 2000 Facebook likes.  Way to go Natalie!!!!  We can only dream of a number like that !!! :)
Head on over and check it out! 

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