the deal with growing bundles (giveaway!)

Growing Bundles.
So this may be the new trend on TpT right now
when they first started popping up, it was a little iffy to me
most of the early growing bundles had a new upload each month, but you lost on the previous month
then they took off with a few sellers who began to bundle their already best selling resources like Lyndsey's Nonfiction packs, First Grade Blue Skies' Directed Drawings, and From the Pond's Write Cut Paste the Room packs.
Then came the growing clipart bundles...
now these got me!
I have to have every.single. one of Mel's scrappy monthly bundles, and then there's border bundles, too!

I had been considering ways to share my little on the spot worksheets that I make for my classroom and I knew this was it!
I started scouring my school computer and home computer looking for these lonely little files and wa-la! The Teacher's Toolbox was born!

Now, this is no mega huge monthly bundle.
There's no way I could hold myself to a full product each month.
Not with 3 kids, 2 baseball schedules, a new Etsy shop, blogging class, graphic design class, TpT, and oh yea...being a full time teacher!
Instead, this product is all the random goodness on my hard drive!
Here's a preview of everything so far.
It's about 3 "things" per upload.

There's math, reading, writing, a print or two that haven't made it to the Etsy Shop yet, organization, newsletters, etc. Really, all that stuff that's good stuff, but not worth the work to list for $1!

 

 

It's also good for me because I get into that dreaded "in progress" file and see things I have been working on for months, or in some cases...YEARS! I can pull from those if I do not think I really have a need for it any longer. It also brings into my brain what I already have! Sometimes, it's way too much!
I also have a graphing growing bundle because there was not a single product I found that addressed 2nd grade common core goals in this area. I made a winter themed one for my sub to use when I was out for a few days back in December being professionally developed, and I figured why not do one for each season!

 

I will admit, the pressure is real. I mean, I do not know how some of these girls do it! I get all worried when the next upload is due and I never want to slap something together just to meet a deadline. Trust me, there are many, many many deadlines I do not meet at my day job! eek
So the graphing bundle for summer is delayed a bit because we're working on reviewing shapes so we can move on to fractions. And I just got the May 15 toolbox posted on May 17...
but it's all good!

So...do you like randomness?!
If so, enter to win the graphing growing bundle OR the Teacher's Toolbox growing bundle, OR BOTH!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

and here's a few from my friends!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

five for friday (feb. 20)

long time, no see!
I've been insanely crazy lately, but I am so thrilled with all the great feedback I am getting about the VIP Table and how y'all are tweaking it to fit your needs! That is what this blog land is all about! I love it!
We've had quite the week here in NC as far as weather goes.
Mon-early dismissal at 12:30
Tues-no school (icy conditions)
Wed-No school (cold day)
Thurs- 3 hour delay
today-3 hour delay
I know people up north think we're crazy for cancelling school at the thought of snow, but we seriously do not get snow! We get ICE! and that's about it!  I personally love that our district calls school by dinnertime the night before. It gives time for families to plan. We used to have it called after a "special driver team" drove the roads in our county and school wouldn't be called off until 6 or 7 in the morning! that sucked! So there's my soapbox defending NC!

Anywho, I'm linking up with Kacey for Five for Friday to get back into the swing of things!

We got so much done on Monday, Thursday, and Friday. I think having less hours in the day leaves much less down time for me! I'm like a drill sergeant! And boy we got everything done I had planned for the whole week!

I posted this on Instagram Monday! So true!

We didn't do anything for Presidents' Day, but here's a few blog posts I have done in the past.

Monday we finished up time, introduced graphing and surveys with my Penguin Hunt, and wrapped up our Saint Valentine unit!

Both of these are fairly rigorous for my kids. I LOVE this penguin hunt! I know it doesn't look like much, but it is and then some! There are 20 grammar/language questions (all aligned to CC) for students to answer. But they ALSO have to put a tally on which penguin in on each card. Then we gather at the rug, check our work, and make a tally chart of the types of penguins we found. Next, students complete a bar graph (which they are already familiar with) and then I introduce a line plot. It's so much goodness rolled into literally two sheets of paper! I like to give you a bang for your buck! (or three bucks as it is!)

and this baby is loaded with history, nonfiction, character traits, locating evidence, and recall with a fun quiz! I included a flap book, powerpoint that matches the text and is beautiful thanks for some amazing ladies who made clipart just for this unit!, as well as lots of follow up comprehension activities! and there's also a Saint Patrick version!! 

haha, choice B...#starwarsreference

Happy Friday!!

A Frankie freebie!

Tonight I wanted to share a little last minute idea I had last night!
I've loved those paint chip Frankenstein's and always wanted to figure out a way to use them and still fit it into our busy day. Well, last night we went to Lowe's so I snagged a pile of green chips.

And wouldn't you know, when I dragged myself up this am my congestion and earache had left me with NO VOICE! We all know how fun it is to teach with no voice, right!
Actually it always starts out great because the kids are super quiet and whisper too.

So I took advantage of the peace and we did this little craft-I did each part under the doc cam and they followed along-I didn't make patterns and I cut the hair for the girls while they did morning work. Then we wrote about our little Frankies' measurements to practice using our rulers again.
We measured his height, width, longest scar, shortest scar, and mouth. As you can see, we went a little wild with the sharpies and scarring!
You could use this any old way, we just needed to measure!

I think they are pretty cute!

half this and double that

I can name about 457654 things I'd like half of and just as many as I'd like doubled!
But do these words blow my kiddos' minds!
Our text introduces these terms after arrays, but right before equal shares (or early divisional thinking) like that word...divsional!?
I made a quick foldable for our math spirals while ignoring them all morning over the weekend, and thought I'd share!

 Because Krista's graphics are so darn cute!
So enjoy!

click picture to download

working on the chain gang

As a part of our Math Expressions addition and subtraction unit, we have a lesson on expressions and equations. The kiddos give me expressions that equal a given number. We keep repeating until we’ve made a chain of equations or an equation chain. I almost skipped the lesson because I wasn’t sure they needed it, but I’m glad I didn’t! What a hoot! Rather than having each kiddo write an equation on one sentence strip, they worked in 3’s. Each came up with 3 unique expressions equaling the groups number.

9=3x3=4+5=6+3=9x1=100-91 etc.

Not only did they do well, they added some comedy. Geez!

Download this little freebie from Google Docs. Each student will have 4 “links” to add to their group’s chain

Happy Wednesday!

Monday Made It freebie {Midweek Edition}

I am so excited to share today! I'm linking up with Tara from 4th Grade Frolics again this week.

Ever since I saw Kristen’s post about Stephanie’s Calendar with 5th graders, I knew I wanted to amp up a calendar time or number of the day with my kiddos. After deciding what areas we have most struggled with and aligning it all with Common Core, I am ready to share!

First things first: the display
I do not have much real estate to spare in my classroom. I considered putting the posters under my white board, but I would have to duck down to write on them and so would the kids. I decided a board I could pull out only when needed would fit my needs. And my fickle mind decides to put each of the pieces on poster board. This way I can laminate the entire thing and not get marker residue on my pretty tri board! I think I will use this for snazzy words or writing options...

Blue trifold science board from Hobby Lobby. They have colored ones at the Dollar Tree, but not happy colors. I also wanted my sections to pop, so I did not use white. You could always back them in scrapbook paper or something, too.
Scotch Duct tape in playful paisley. Target
Cost-$7 total

Write the date in 2 ways. The date becomes your “number” If it is July 11, your number could be 711, 71,112, or just 11. This is great because you can differentiate with different groups!


Here are time and money. I love the making numbers in the circle map. We were going to have a book of circle maps made for the number of the day, but this will be even better! Partners are what Math Expressions call addends. We also use them in measurement.

Today’s Arrays-self explanatory. I love the geometry! Each day you could change it up! If you number is 123, have students make a plane figure that has a perimeter of 123, or 12 on one side and 3 on the other…so many options! You could also do area

These 3 are again, self-explanatory. I will have mine make groups of 2 to show if the number is odd or even

Today’s Addition and Subtraction-if your number is 123, 12-3 or 12+12+12, or 1+2+3…
same with subtraction.
take a peek! and download this freebie. You can snag the displays on Stephanie's blog or make your own! I used Elise font from Kevin and Amanda. The frames match my Weekly Story Map poster that I will share in the am.
Calendar Math Ws I would love any feedback.

Area Amigos

not much to share
atrocious week at school
blah!
but on to area
our Math Expressions has “mini-units” in between each long unit. they focus on upper grade skills and act as a sort of intro. This week we focus on transformations and area {by counting square units} These were both in my curriculum as a 4th grade teacher so I got to pull out all the stops! We explored tessellations and played Tessellation Town in the lab. We talked about how much mulch we will need for our garden, and we made Area Amigos. We even used real life graphing paper! ohh! ahh!

Download the recording sheets and little sign freebie here!

 

we also used shape tracers to make pictures using only 2D figures {our next mini-unit is 3D figures} I love how these always turn out. Here are a few in progress.

We’ve also been loving our quail eggs. There’s Buddha paperweight {from target of course} watching over them-or really holding down the screen so they don’t roll. I will share more on what we do later on.

 

And we are really loving Hope King’s iPoetry unit, too! We are covering one type of poem a day and adding our little apps as we write! I can’t wait to share with mommies!

Here’s the concrete poem we wrote together.

And I leave you with these by my budding photog