New Year's Linky

I'm linking up with fabulous blogger Jen R. at The Teacher's Cauldron for a New Year Linky!
I've been having fun blog hopping and reading about other Blogger's New Year goals for their classroom and for their personal lives too! I've gotten some great ideas for organization which seems to be on many of our lists and had some good laughs along the way! I have so many, it's hard to narrow them down but I'll do my best!

My Personal Resolution:

MORE ME TIME! My Mom, bless her heart, told me that's what I need to do and I have to do as my mother says! I've added so much to my plate in 2012 and it's spilling over onto the floor! Between teaching, my TPT and TN businesses, parenting and running a household, there isn't a lot of time left. I schedule so much into my day and need to be better about scheduling some time for myself to unwind and enjoy the little things more. I think I will set an alarm at 8:00 each night to stop working and cleaning or get off the computer and go paint my nails, give myself a facial, take a jacuzzi, watch TV or do something just for me! We'll see how long that lasts!

My Classroom Resolutions:

GET BACK IN A GROOVE! I've been out of the classroom periodically and mentoring student teachers for several years now so I'm ready to jump back in and get back to doing what I love so much! I want to set up my Daily 5 rotations with more of a center-based approach. I just bought this amazing writing set from the creative an talented Lori Rosenberg. This is seriously, just what I have been searching for! I LOVE this and am so excited to get this up and running! You have to go check it out!

I also want to STOP STOPPING! There are so many interruptions and distractions during the school day it's hard to fit everything in. Starting on our return from break, I am going to implement something new with my behavior clip chart system which needs some tweaking.

My class is so outstanding and I count my blessings every day. My kiddos move up often but that can be hard to manage too without constant trips to the chart!

So I came up with this bright idea! Instead of stopping often, redirecting, praising, complimenting and all of this teacher talk... my goal is to try a ticket system for immediate feedback without words. My class responds very well to anything tangible! They have turned into little ticket hoarders but in a good way!

There are tickets here for praise and caught being good clip ups and some for reminders before a clip has to be moved and making wise choices. If it is not a convenient time to move clips, a ticket will be given to the child immediately and will serve as a reminder for the child, and for me, to move clips during a transition time or at the end of the day! We will conference and discuss the behaviors at the end of the day when we complete our daily chart.

My clip chart captain will also be the ticket sorter at the end of the day. The clip up tickets have a smiling sun and the clip down tickets have a wise owl on them. Another resolution~ be better at DELEGATING.

My Blogging Resolution: 

MORE FREEBIES! I am always so busy creating packets and units that I often don't take the time to sort out some high quality freebies from them to post. I will try to be better at that! :) Everyone loves a good freebie, right!

The first step toward positive change~ The clip chart tickets are a freebie at my TPT shop! Click on the first picture to grab a set!

I also hope to be better at COMMENTING myself because it just makes my day to receive comments!

Head on over and link up! You'll be glad you did! I think by putting this in writing, I'll be forced to stick with my resolutions! :)

Have a safe and happy New Year! Wishing all of my fellow bloggers and fabulous followers the best in life and love in 2013!

Snowman-Themed Compound Words Center and a Fun Font

This big snowstorm has motivated me to do some creating in winter themes! This is a new center that I know my students will love during Daily 5 (which is more like Daily 3 lately) for the month of January! There are four weeks of card matches here and a recording sheet too. I anticipate that it will be a 20 minute long station rotation which will be perfect with our full schedule.

I am going to have them work in small groups cooperatively on this one. It may prove to be challenging for a few of them. I can see matches like rainglasses and suncoat making sense to some of my kiddos!

What I like about this design it is that it won't use up a lot of ink to print. And don't you just love Nikki's graphics! You could print the set and then photocopy it on blue or any colored cardstock. That would be cute too!

I used all of my own fonts for this item! There is one that I favor lately for directions and descriptions but it wasn't quite dark enough for titles so I created it in bold. This is what I used in the headings and on the cover. The font is called Second Grader! The medium and bold versions are available at my shops.

I have seen a few of my fonts on some wonderful items out there! I get so excited when I spot them and am glad to know that they are coming in handy! If you have created anything using one of my freebies or commercial use fonts, leave me a comment and a link so I can check it out and others can too!

Tonight I am going to start on a winter poetry collection and hope to get some Tacky the Penguin activities ready for the week we return. I just love Tacky!

If you think you may like either the font or the compound word center or both :), please leave me a comment below. I'll randomly select a few names to win a copy this weekend so you can try them out! Be sure to leave me your email too!:)

January and February Literacy Centers

I hope that you enjoy a peaceful and joyous Christmas Eve with your loved ones! If you have little ones at home, enjoy your Christmas Eve traditions and the excitement of waiting for Santa!I miss setting out the cookies and milk and sprinkling reindeer food on the lawn. Santa does not come for my big kid any longer. :( Where did the time go?

Anyway, I am thinking ahead while on break and getting some new centers ready for my winter thematic units. I just finished a Valentine's Day Antonyms Center I think is really cute! I hope you will like it too. I will set up ten pair of matches and the recording sheet each week for a month of February Daily Five Word Work centers! Click on the pictures below to get a closer look at what's included!

This one is for January.

I will try not to work too hard on my vacation! I am thankful to have a little time to do some new creating, give some of my oldies but goodies at my store a makeover and to catch up on bloggy stuff! 

See you in a few days! Have a magical Christmas!

Oh What Fun! Polar Express Party!

We had two fantastically fun days of celebrating in our second grade class! Our party was a blast and my room parents did the majority of the planning and organizing which I am so grateful for! It was a Polar Express theme party. You may want to file some of these ideas away for your party next year!

The kids used lots of fun candy pieces, graham crackers and frosting to create a Polar Express scene on foil wrapped cardboard. Each child had their own plate of frosting glue and the rest of the candies were in the middle of the table groups to share. We washed our hands often with wipes before, during and after the project. I put a pile of wipes on each table and it kept the mess to a minimum.

Each child had a turn at the hot chocolate bar. There were marshmallows, chocolate bars, whipped cream, and crushed candy canes to top it all off! We listened to the the soundtrack from the Polar Express movie as we sipped our drinks, and sang along to my favorite, the hot chocolate song! I'm a tap dancer. :) 

My high school assistant, Emily, made each child a bag of reindeer food with oats, sugar and glitter. The tag says:

Sprinkle on the lawn at night,

The moon will make it sparkle bright.

As Santa's reindeer fly and roam,

This will guide them to your home.

Notice how she used cute fonts and added clipart! That's my girl!

These cookies were too stinkin cute to eat so we sent them home! 

We tried to keep the food nice and healthy and very simple because the party was just after lunch and the kids had just eaten. Parents donated all of the supplies and the food for the celebration. Most of the sweets, other than the hot chocolate went home. The train creations were slipped into jumbo Ziploc bags.

In the morning, the kiddos made their own bingo game boards, They colored the tiles, cut them out and designed their own board. It was so easy and voila, 28 different game boards. This also kept them engaged while I scrambled around to set up for the party later in the day.

My team of volunteers cleaned up while Emily and I took turns being the bingo callers. They were amazing. It didn't even look like we had a party!

The kids wore their pajamas and snuggled up to read by flashlight.

They loved the bell ornaments I made for them. It was cute because they asked me if I could hear the bells ring!

Happy Holidays from my class to yours! That's me on the far left, my former student teacher, Kim, Miss Emily and the kiddos on Santa's nice and cute list! 

Have a wonderful and restful break!

Christmas Bingo Freebie

It's not like I have the time for creating right now! I really just wanted to buy a bingo game or find a freebie for my holiday party tomorrow. The ones I found were adorable, but would take so much ink to print. So I whipped up this color, cut and paste board for my kiddos.

They are going to work on designing their own board for morning work. It should keep them busy for a while and we'll enjoy some fun sing-a-long songs while they work on it! The cute calling cards are in color, and those I can laminate and reuse every year. You can grab it free by clicking on the picture. Hope you can use it!

Two more fun-filled days for me. I am so looking forward to break! 

Christmas Projects in the Classroom and a Freebie

I hope that you all have had a good start to the week with your little ones safely in your care and excited about the holidays. I'm a little behind on my posts about holiday projects so I thought I'd show you what we've been up to these last few weeks! Maybe you can still squeeze one of these activities in this week or file some ideas away for next year!

This Dear Santa Craft was really easy to prep and make and is absolutely adorable! It's from the creative and talented Miss Kindergarten Love! It's a must have for my bulletin board every year!

We took our Santa letters through all of the steps of the writing process including peer editing. 

  This student told Santa she wanted a North Face jacket because she would look pretty good in one! Too cute!

These are our gingerbread glyphs for our massive shared board in the hall. 

This idea was shared with me by my teammate so I don't have a pattern for you. Next year I want to use white puffy paint to frost our gingerbread glyphs! I used what I had on hand. This was one of those last minute crafts!

The students wrote about their favorite magical part of The Polar Express.

 Our grade level Christmas project this year is a snowy, sparkly pine cone ornament. I just love the collection  I have of school-made ornament gifts from my child. I think the parents will like these. They were so simple to make. We used a beautiful ribbon and glued a few berries on top.

There is a small school photo of each child on the back of the tag! 

The ornaments are going home in an inexpensive treat bag from Michaels. We did not collect any money for this project this year because we had been asking for donations galore for other things! I think I only spent about ten dollars on materials.

This is my ornament to the children so they will remember our Polar Express theme party.

This was a fun freebie from Amy Lemons. We used it as a peeker over our Holiday Help 

Wanted Ads. I had the students trace the nose pattern on wrapping paper.

We read a funny poem by Timothy Tocher about Santa's reindeer growing too old to do the job and others who caused problems on the team. You can grab a copy of our Holiday Help Wanted writing page from my Dropbox. 

My students had a blast writing their want ads. They were very creative!

 Have a fun rest of the week!

Christmas Flash Freebie

Hello Friends!

I needed some fun holiday cheer today and so I made this activity to use with my class next week. We are going to do a few of these activity cards verbally for practice. I'm going to print them on red and green cardstock to make them festive. The kiddos will pick a card from a holiday gift bag! I think they'll like that. I will model the first one. The students will respond in writing once they get the hang of it. We are working on developing voice for our writing mini-lessons.

It's a freebie at my TPT shop until tomorrow morning. Please leave me a note if you download. I'd love your feedback!

 There are 30 cards similar to these. Each has a different prompt.

I'm sure my second graders will really ham it up! They are a riot! :) 

Talking To Students About Violence

I have made the choice to keep the TV off today. The terrible tragedy that occurred in Connecticut is just so disturbing and heartbreaking. The images I expect to see will stay with me for a lifetime as did 911 and Columbine and the shooting in my brother's town of Aurora. All of us will likely be in the position of thinking about how to help our own children and students to understand and cope with this unthinkable, violent act.

Unfortunately, my suburban school is all too familiar with violence, trauma and grief. We lost two of our young students in a horrible violent crime several years ago. At the time that it occurred, crisis teams were called to assemble to give guidance to teachers about how to best address violence in the community with children.

Some parents made the choice to be very open and honest with their children about the events that happened as many will be regarding the shooting. Others wanted to shield their children from any discussion whatsoever. Our staff was advised to limit the discussions during school to simply those that involved reassuring students about their safety while at school.

I received an email from Scholastic today with a link to a site that gives recommendations for talking with children about violence. Before having any such discussions, seek the guidance of your crisis team and administration.

I have found in my experience in dealing with several tragedies as well as in my training as a school counselor that the following guidelines will help you to address the issue in an honest and effective way.

• Simply state that students may have heard about the horrible tragedy that has occurred.
• Affirm that they may be experiencing many feelings including sadness and fear and that it is OK and natural to feel that way.
• Ask them to respect that some families have made the decision not to share the details of the tragedy with their children.
• Limit conversations where specifics of the event may be shared and ask that the students do not discuss with their peers outside of the classroom.
• Do encourage those that need to talk about it to do so privately with a trusted adult, you their teacher, a school counselor or social worker. 
• Encourage students to have an open and honest discussion at home with their parents. Chances are, your building will send a letter home to parents.
• Reassure students with specific examples of your safety procedures and security measures at school.
• Keep the day as normal as possible. For most, school is their happy place :)

Anticipate that there will be many students who will personalize this and begin to worry about their own safety and the safety of their loved ones. This may lead to an increase in school anxiety and separation anxiety. 

For more information about this topic, there is a great article here http://www.aacap.org/

Praying for those affected by this tragedy and for those entrusted with the safety of our precious children.

Tis the Season to Shop Linky!

I'm linking up with Michelle and Erica for a fun post about Christmas shopping! This one is easy! I'm quite an expert when it comes to this topic! :)

I thought I'd get a head start on my shopping this year and avoid the crowd at the stores by shopping online! I found some great deals on shipping and am very happy with everything. I have so many gifts under and around my tree right now! There are some that I can't mention because a certain special someone might read this blog post! There are also many, many gifts for lots of people! Here are just a few of my great finds!

This adorable dress from Kohl's is for my Itty Bitty in Colorado. She had the dress on for her picture with Santa!

  Every kid needs a Santa plate for cookies. This is from Pfaltzgraff. It's also for my littlest niece.

My teenage son, who is big into computer gaming, is getting a Razer gaming keyboard, mouse and mouse pad. They are illuminated in green and will be cool in the dark. He also got a wireless headset for the X-Box, a new phone upgrade and a few other things! He didn't even have a wish list this year, so I hope I did alright!

  Mom wanted some beads for her bracelet. I found two that are special to us for our fun in the sun Florida vacations together.

  My teammates are getting this adorable snowman oil warmer and oils from Bath and Body Works. There were only three left in the store, but I would love to have one too! The pictures don't do most of these items justice!

Speaking of Justice, I bought my Lexi some clothes I hope she'll love! My cutie patootie has just about everything they carry! Girl clothes are so much fun! Thank goodness I have my nieces to shop for!

My almost teenager niece, is really into makeup now and all girly smelly and sparkly things, so I got her makeup sets, pouches and lip gloss from Pink and some Bath and Body stuff she'll love. She also wanted the new Dork Diaries book.

My son picked out gifts for his grandparents and spent his own money buying some gifts for the first time. He picked out cuddly robes, handsome sweaters, restaurant gift cards and all kinds of good stuff for them. He was so proud to come home from a drop off day at the mall with his purchases! I wonder what he got me.:)

The big gift for my special guy was a TV but he wanted it for a combo Birthday/Christmas gift last month. He has some good gifts to open for Christmas too!

I went with gift cards galore for those that had that or nothing in particular on their wish list. This is not my photo, but I do have lots to places like the mall, Bed Bath and Beyond, restaurants close by and their favorite shops.

So, I think I am mostly finished with the exception of a little something here and there for gift exchanges and white elephant parties. Love those!

I made my students an ornament so they will remember our fun times with the Polar Express theme party. My name is on the back of the golden tag. I think I'll also give them a prize pouch coupon and homework coupon along with some kind of sweet treat. I've got another week to decide on something. I was thinking of dipping pretzel rods in chocolate and sprinkles.

 I asked Santa for a North Face coat and a few other small things. :) 

I can't wait to see who else links up. Consider joining in the fun!