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 Peek at my week {don't hate!}

I'm linking up with DeeDee again this week to share my plans!

If you saw last week's, well we are still wrapped up in penguins! We will finish up tomorrow.

as you can see, I have a 2 day week! Ah, sometimes having a calendar that meets the demands of high school exams is so sweet! There are a few freebies in here too, and I'll link them up later on! My groups will not be meeting with me this week since I am benchmarking, so there's some independent work in here, which they need desperately.

On Wednesday we will be nestled in our jammies for Snowed in at School day! You can read more about past ones here. This is something we've done in our grade level for the past 4 years. The whole day, we focus on all things snow. And this year it coincides with our weather unit perfectly. I love when that happens. I pick and choose things from the unit each year, and since I am benchmarking, we won't get to a few favorites. We will have our read-in with flashlights and mittens in the am. They will choose their favorite book and make the snowman book review (my favorite activity in the unit!)

After math, during science time we will be doing a whole group close read using Nicole's Snow Science article then making the craft to go along with it! It's perfect!

And at the end of the day we will make snowman bagels. Because I love bagels. I also love cream cheese. and kids love Cheetos. So we are all happy!

what I'm using this week
2nd grade common core morning work
Pattern Block Penguins freebie
Penguin writing freebie
Penguin trading cards and booklet
Snow Much Fun with Science and LA pack
Snowed in at School pack

If you want to have a snow day, stick around! Nicole and I will be doing a giveaway soon!

five for friday penguin style

We started using new rewards for our Class Dojo points. Students have to earn 10 points in a week to "spend". Each coupon costs 10 points. Easy for me, easy for them! These new coupons are tickets from my sweet friend Tara!

as you can see, I am benchmarking (we use mClass). As much as I try to just get in there and get it done, that's not happening this time! Maybe because penguins are more fun?! Students are going on a penguin hop when they are not in a group or being benchmarked! 

Thursday we made our life size penguins. They look so good y'all! I hung them Friday afternoon, but the display is not finished, so I will share next week!

we have been using Amy's Waddle with Me penguin cards to draw and students are filling out these cards to hang with the display! and 

Friday was field trip day! I used to hate them, but now they are a welcome break! We visited our local science center for two classes. One on sound energy (which we haven't done yet and this is a great intro) and another on weather (which I am teaching right now). This was the coolest thing! The kids added drops of alcohol to this mixture and it made it snow!

next week we will get snowed in at school! I'm not a psychic, but I am a teacher!

a peek at my week 1/13

I'm trying to work on a new product...that I need in my classroom this week mind you...
and plan
and watch my Panthers!
Pretty hard to focus, so I'll blog instead!

this week is a little squooshed, so there's not that much to see, but those are always the best weeks if you ask me! We have a field trip that I kinda, sorta forgot! How's that even happen!?

We also started using Letterland district wide and it is a whole new ballgame for me! I grew up and learned in the whole language world! Phonics aren't my thing at all! But I must say it is always enlightening! 

So here's our week-you can click to get a closer look! All products are linked below!

It's penguin time in room 205. I'll be benchmarking all week, but I still like to have my groups because it keeps the kids on schedule. Lucky for me, I have a more than amazing extra teacher for three hours each morning! Each of our k-2 teachers have extra help so we can meet with guided reading and guided math groups daily. We are required to meet with every kid every day, so this was pretty much the only way! I was blessed to have the same person with me (as opposed to most who get two different people that switch off) and not to mention she is a retired teacher with a sense of humor and sarcasm that rivals mine! Math made in heaven!

While kids aren't with a group Monday and Tuesday, they will be on an ELA hunt penguin style!

this is a product I just posted! It meets all the common core standards we have covered in grammar (aka language) so far this year. I also added in a little graphing activity too!

And we are using Amy's Waddle with Me unit for keeping up with our research and writing activities!

So we will continue with groups and she will teach math all week. So that's why it is straight up math expressions lessons. Nothing else!

As you can see we are just wrapping up our Holidays Around the World unit! We learned about Three Kings Day last week since it was Monday! That was our last holiday, so this week in library time we will put it all together using this bubble map.

And if you follow me on Instagram, you've seen all our science shenanigans this week with Air! I love this unit! Who knew air could be so fun! We've had balloon races, made water fountains, and made paratroopers! This unit will be ready soon...we are beta testing right now! And I am making close reads to pair with this unit too! I must say it is much more difficult to write than I thought it would be! I have 2 passage and question sets completed, and that took 2 days! But each article will cover a different weather related topic and has three days of questions. They are also leveled, which is what is slowing me down!