A quick Thanksgiving giveaway!

Need some quick and dirty this week...I know I do! Last week I used my How Thanksgiving Became a Holiday and read Thank You, Sarah five days in a row...

I have 12 of these trait maps in my room!

This class needed less "freedom" and more focused learning, so we used the article instead of the book

and more maps!

so I figured why not extend my lessons with Jessica's amazing Sarah Hale unit she JUST posted! We will be using a lot from this so they can work quietly at their seats while I await Wednesday on those reading skills and some turkey inferencing I'm working on right now!

This is just like my Unwrap an Inference and A Valentine's Mixup...but with turkeys of course!

#alwaysworking #alwaysprocrastinating

Anywho, we've teamed up to bring you BOTH our products! It's a quick giveaway (ends Monday night) and you could always use it when you go back after Thanksgiving (or next year too...!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Talk Tuesday...and a giveaway!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Deanna Jump for Book Talk Tuesday!

So here's what I'm sharing! Thank You, Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson

Don't throw tomatoes or anything, but I just read this book for the first time on Monday! Like seriously. I forgot I even had it and I was doing a lesson on Sarah Hale and why Thanksgiving is a holiday...and I spotted this book in the class library...you'd think I would have read it before making the unit huh???
doh!
I grabbed it from the shelf...
let's be honest...
at first glance it looks kinda dull
One of my boys asked if it would be boring
I said it wasn't a funny book (apparently I stick to funny books when I read aloud and they are spoiled)
So I start reading...Oh.My. This book is hilarious! Seriously!
We laughed at the illustrations and text on every page! It's chock full of facts, the caricatures are hilarious, and I love the humor kids don't get!
Thank You, Sarah...
If you've avoided this book too...let me persuade you to read it aloud!
I'm giving away my newest pack...I've been using it all this week, in fact, I'll be teaching it to five different classes! If you haven't read much on Sarah Hale, let me tell you, she will be your idol! I dug deep into her beliefs and how she fought with her pen while writing my minibook, not to mention the lady almost singlehandedly got the President to agree to make Thanksgiving a national holiday, write Mary Had a Little Lamb-I'm biased-fought for playgrounds at schools, education for women, and maintaining national monuments all while raising 5 kids alone during the Civil War era!

Just comment below telling me your favorite part of this book and I'll choose a random winner on Friday!

Five for Friday!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for five for friday!

I don't know about y'all, but this has been the loooooooongest week of the year! Shesh!
Full moon? I don't know if the lunacy is related, but I will use it as an excuse!
But the show must go on, so here's a peek at what I was up to this week! and be warned this is really random!

I have problems with Instagram, as in I see lots of cute clothes and jewelry and follow the IG'er and subscribe to their liketoknowit accounts, and click LIKE on EVERYthing, get the email about the outfits, and then buy it...
luckily one account I LOVE is a set of twins who love target! Go follow the double take girls! such cute outfits! I would've passed this flannel right up at Target if they had not styled it so many cute ways! oh, and the necklace too of course!

My teammate Katie and I have started switching classes in the afternoons. I LOVE teaching science and she loves SS, so I teach science to her youngins twice a week while she covers all the holiday jazz. Mondays are reserved for Letterland and Library and the other two days I repeat the lessons with my kiddos. She used my Day of the Dead unit and this powerpoint! The kids EATitUP every year. They've never heard of this holiday and it's the perfect followup to Halloween, plus it's just so different than our culture! If you didn't snag it for free earlier in the week, it's included in my unit now, as well as separately!

Now I was across the hall teaching matter. Which I love. When I had a kit to use. Y'all, it's hard to teach matter without my kit! But, I just supply my own little experiments now! I started out with a little refresher of what they learned about in first grade, and after watching BrainPop Jr, we broke out the magazines and searched for examples. Finding gas is always a treat! This activity is from Inspire Me ASAP! I've used it for  years now! Next week we will start with experiments because they sure do not believe air takes up space! =)

While I obviously use my unit for teaching the bulk of this unit, I always supplement with a few other amazing resources, especially ones for any crafts, reading, and more experiments! Here are the ones I use! because 2...or 5 Heads are better than one!

  

My team has tweaked our schedule just a tad to allow for some whole group reading. We actually only had time for our reading groups as it was. So I snagged Cheryl's The Ugly Pumpkin unit and off we went! Oh MY! They LOVED the book (and I do too!) Of course they all thought I was crazy for reading a Halloween book on Monday, Nov. 3, but I promised not all was as it seemed! I won't spoil the story, but it is for THANKSgiving! She focuses on making connections in the unit, so we watched Thank You, Mr. Falker on Storyline today (because Pat writes some great books, but they are long!) and I could believe all the connections they made! And I mean, seriously...look at these gourds! Oh My Gourd! I also love her unit because it has just what I need and not lots of fluff! She has some great book companions! and why yes, I DID hand write that title...I can copy a font like a pro, I just have to look at it and I'm obsessed with this font! I type whatever I want, pull it up on my screen, sit with my sharpie and go!

I also got a couple of tattoos this week. Not great pictures, but the twigs are above my elbow and I just can't get a good one anyway!

take me back...what I'm thankful for and notsomuch too!

I'm hooking up with Hope today for Take Me Back Tuesdays! SO I thought it might be fun to go waaay back and repost a "what I'm thankful for" linky and "not thankful for" linky post I did two years ago. As I read through them I realized they hold true-for the most part! But now Lesson Plan SOS is Inspire Me ASAP, I don't like Moscato so much anymore, and my love for all things vampires and Modern Family have waned! 

Before I go congrats to Kerry S, the winner of my Holiday Daze Centers! They are on sale right now though!

{if you aren't downloading Krista's freebies each week, run to TpT!}

***************originally posted on November 24, 2011***************

 

1.  What are you thankful for in your classroom?
hmmm, besides the humor of 7 and 8 year olds, I would have to say my mCLass tablet! When I moved to 2nd grade from 4th I was relieved…NO MORE STANDARDIZED TESTS…but opps! Someone for got to mention I had to do running records monthly, benchmarks in Reading and Math each quarter, not to mention all the other assessments coming down the pike! I was overwhelmed to say the least. Then our school took part in a pilot with mCLass {includes DIBELS and Reading 3D} hallelujah AMEN! Each teacher got a mini laptop with touch screens to do all our assessing on!

2. What person are you most thankful for?
I have to go with the obvious answer here-my hubby. We’ve had the highest highs and lowest lows, but we have always made it through. Our little family started over 12 years ago {we were very young parents!} Even when one is mad beyond belief, we can get each other laughing. He compliments my sarcasm and passion for life in every way. And yes, we are quite silly.

I am also thankful for my work friends whop also happen to be real friends, too. We have a blast laughing, crying, complaining, and building each other up! No one has made me a better teacher than them!

3. What 3 blogs are you most thankful for?
OooEee…I would have to say 
For amazing lessons I always keep up with Amy Lemons. I love all her fun with construction paper crafts! That girl must have tons! Her stuff is amazing, free, and just right for my 2nd graders.

For sweetness, Amanda Nickerson. That girl is a doll. She has great positive posts, great ideas, and always responds to my nagging questions.

For a-ma-zing units, ideas, gorgeous work that I love to use I always go to Lesson Plan SOS ladies. Everything they put out rocks!

I also have just become somewhat addicted to What the Teacher Wants, and have always loved First Grade Parade. Cara must be an alien or something. I simply don’t know how she does it. And I adore Abby’s humor over at the Inspired Apple, and I love the sweetness and creativity over at The Teacher Wife, too!

4. What guilty pleasure are you most thankful for?
Oh many things I feel a little guilty for…Hmmm, let me count the ways. 1. iPhone 2. Pinterest 3. Modern Family 4. vampires {more Sookie than Twilight} 5. sleep 6. Uggs 7. J. Crew 8. Pier 1 9. Bravo TV 10. stupid movies to watch my my hubs
5. What are you most thankful for? 
In addition to funky fonts, cute clipart, PowerPoint {thanks to Cara}, Windows Live Writer, TpT, the joy of creating things all by myself and the pain to get there, Celexa, no gray hairs or wrinkles…yet, and Moscato Barefoot Bubbly champagne…
oh, I will let the pictures do some talking here

{matchbox cars in my shoes…love him}

{My oldest’s undying love for rules…see…he even copyrighted the brand names on our grocery list-love him}

{potty training with technology…this boy can downright command my iPhone}

{my middle man’s blonde locks…swoon-love him}

{sisterly love…ok-we were a little silly after dinner here!}

And now for what I am NOT thankful for…hahaha. I love this idea from First Grade Blue Skies..I love sarcasm!
1. Boogers and farts in the classroom-they are abundant…
2. anything on my extensive pet peeve list like unmotivated professionals, gritty food, and the word “gist”
3. zits-HELLO I’m 30! Not 13!
4. Size 9 feet on a 5 ft body…there’s a mistake here
5. my lack of cleaning, cooking, and organizational skills that I swear to improve one day
and...what an open scent disc from Bath and Body Works will do to wood...arrggh

That’s it! I hope you all have a great Turkey Day!! 

lincoln is not a pilgrim

So I love reading and discussing the first Thanksgiving with 2nd graders. Today we read T is for Turkey, which was new to me, and on the L page it tells how Lincoln made Thanksgiving an official national holiday. They had written a fact prior to rading and then I asked them to write a new fact afterwards. We are sharing, silly kid in the back raises his hand. I’m excited he actually wrote something down. He says, Lincoln was a pilgrim!! all excitedly. Well, not exactly, but who wants to burst a bubble this close to Thanksgiving!?

Here’s a little picture dump of our two day week.

we wrote why we are thankful for our silly family-thank you SOS Ladies! I wrote in my plan to give them a little guide.

then after finishing rewriting the plan into a story, we decorated family photos. Oh my! They are hilarious. And guess what-I found 5 family pictures on Facebook for kids who didn’t send one in! Some others just drew a picture.

 

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Today we made our November Snazzy Snack. I tried something new-it’s called edible Indian corn, but I renamed it sweet and sticky Indian corn. We melted marshmallows, mixed in rice Krispy cereal, dried fruits, rolled in to a little corn cob, then made fruit roll-up husks. Some of them refused to eat it because of the dried fruit. ugh. picky kids…

you can see it was pretty gooey

I LOVE Scholastic’s Thanksgiving site. It’s jam-packed with goodness. Each year I give them a partner, a laptop, and a t-chart to compare Wampanoag and pilgrims, then compare both to their own life.

my teammie made the file, or I’d share. I’ll convince her to add it to her TpT store! and grab this file for next year-it is awesome!!