Another giveaway and solar system project!

Hi friends!!  I am SO excited!!  I opened up my TpT account this morning and noticed that I had 200 followers!  What?!  I was so busy watching my blog follower count like a hawk that I totally lost track of TpT... I can't even believe it!

I know many people say it over and over but I just have to; I am so thankful for all the people who take the time to follow and read this little ole blog.  I am thankful for the people who follow my store.  I am thankful for the people who take the time to leave a nice comment or two.  You know who you are... and I appreciate you so much!!

So with that... let's do a giveaway!  It's not a fancy smancy one but one that shows my up most appreciation for my followers!  So I am going to give ONE WINNER the chance to WIN .....

Yes, $50.  You pick.  That's like getting almost everything!

  Wowsers! :)

So here's what you have to do....

1. follow my blog and leave a comment stating

that you follow my blog

2. follow my TpT store and leave a comment telling me the product(s) you'd like to use!

3. for another chance to win, in a comment tell me anything about your math time (whatever goes!)

4. for yet ANOTHER chance to win... blog about this giveaway and leave the link to the post

*****Remember to leave your email in all your comments*****

I'm so excited for you to win!!  This will end in 5 days~ Wednesday Night at 10 p.m. Central time.  
Good luck!!

OK before I go... I leave you with one quick share...

So we are learning about the solar system and we made this totally cool project:

So there is a "brad" on the sun and on the Earth.  You can make the Earth revolve/orbit around the sun and you can show the rotation of the Earth.  Then you can see the Moon revolve around the Earth too!  This was a HUGE learning tool for the kids and they loved making them (they totally came up with making each object "look" like it should and added the white crayon for the stars~ brilliant!).  Once complete, their homework was to teach someone at home about how it works.  It was so fun and I love how they turned out!

I have more to share I just FORGOT to take pictures :(  I'll post again about it!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to "enter" the giveaway!



Cuteness, Curriculum Night and Winners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much to all who entered the giveaway!  And CONGRATS to the 3 winners!!  You will be getting an email from me soon! :)

 

I REALLY enjoyed reading all the "made me smile" stories that many of you left in the comments.  They really warmed my heart.  And some of you had some REALLY funny ones too!!  I'm going to share mine (cute and funny!).

 

So I'll start with a funny...

 

So I think I have a future project runway contestant in my room because one day I caught her staring at my outfit and then she said, "You know Mrs. Rebholz, you wear a lot of black."  I just smiled and walked away... little does she know that I rethink my outfit choices each morning based on how much black I'm wearing (yes, I DO love black).

 

So then I wore this shirt a few days later...

and she says to me... "Is your shirt black with white stripes or white with black stripes?"  Ugh.  I really need to get this girl some more challenging work so she has less time to stare at my clothes! :)

 

My class is SO super sweet this year (even with the fashionista).  These are just two of the many cute cards I get from the cuties....

 This seriously melted my heart!! 

 

 

This was from my inclusion student... so cute! :)

 

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I was glad to get our Curriculum Night out of the way.  I feel like that night just weighs on me a bit and I feel as though I can think a little bit more clearly when it is over.  The night is basically when the parents come and sit through a 45 minute presentation from me about their child's classroom.  I do love it because I can cover the most important items all at one time.  I do get nervous with all the faces starting at me even though this was my 14th one!

 

This year I got a little bit techy!  I used my SMART board and added all my student's pictures on one page.  Each picture was linked to a "secret note" that they made for their mom and/or dad.  When the parents came in (before my presentation) they were able to touch their child's photo and up popped the secret note.  It was a big hit!  It looked like this:

 

Each photo became a link to a note they created.   

 

I scanned each note and linked it to their photo. 

It was very sweet :)

 

This was also my first year using a power point presentation.  I seriously don't know why I never made one of those like a million years ago!  I have NEVER finished my presentation on time and this year I finished 5 minutes early!  I think it was because I had everything all right there!  No more fumbling through my papers and putting them on my document camera.  It was a dream... and best thing was I bought a super cute premade power point from TpT!  Here is just the first slide...

 

Isn't it cute??!!!

 

This cute power point came from Mrs. Grauer~ you can take a look at it {HERE}

 

Last share... I set up my parent table with parent helper calendar, email list, conference times, party helpers, and art mom sheets like this:

 

 

And on all the kid desks had their own personalized "folders" with a letter to their parents attached to the inside.  I also had a bunch of classroom information inside too.

 

 

Phew! Now that the school year is in full swing and the "big night" is over, I'm hopeful to pick up my blogging again :)  I want to post about the fun Space/Solar System things we have been doing! :)  And stay tuned for how to include parent helpers in your classroom! 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

 

I'm SO SORRY!

Ugh.  I am one bad blogger :(  I'm sorry!  I have written about 70 posts... in my head.  Tonight was our curriculum night and it went well and I have SO much to share ... but I'm EXHAUSTED!  So as a sorry I leave you with a freebie and a reminder to enter my giveaway before it ends!! ( I promise some GREAT stuff in the next few days!!)

This is a poster/song that I sing every time we begin learning a new letter for handwriting.  It was a fun way to begin the lesson and a good reminder of where to start writing their letters.  I did sing it more when I taught first grade (they LOVED to sing it) it is also very appropriate for K or even second!  Click below to pick yours up for free and leave me some feedback when you do so!

THANKS!!

 

Above is a poster to hang in your room.

 

Below is a fun song to sing!

 

 

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!!

Click:

 

400 Follower GIVEAWAY!!! {we're givin' away the farm!}

 

With a blink of an eye... I'm all of a sudden at 400 followers!  How the H E double hockey stick did that happen??

 

Well who cares...let's C E L E B R A T E like it's 1999! :)

 

I can't WAIT for you to see all that's up for grabs! Yippee!

{can I win??}

 

First of all... there will be THREE (3) winners!

 

Winner 1- will get their choice of one $20 gift card from either:



amazon



 2 of these puppies!

 

Winner 2- will win from ALL of these FABULOUS Bloggers:

1 item- winner's choice! 

 

 

Class Journal Jar set!!

 

 

 1 item- winner's choice

 

 

1 item- winner's choice!

 

 

 1 item- winner's choice!

 

 1 item- winner's choice!

 

 

$10 gift certificate to her store!! 

 

 1 item- winner's choice!

 

 

 1 item- winner's choice!

 

 

2 items- winner's choice!!

 

AND...

 

 

 

                                                         An Apple For the Teacher

                                                          1 item- winner's choice!

 

 

Winner 3- will win any 5 items from my TpT store!

  

 

Enter the Rafflecopter below... and remember to BE HONEST :)

 

Good luck! 

 

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Currently and new product giveaway!

Hey all!  It's that time again!!  Here's the September Currently brought to you by:

 

 

 

 

I know I will probably be shot for saying this... but I am excited its SEPTEMBER!  We had a H O T summer and I'm just looking forward to the cooler weather.. you know the kind ... sweatshirt and jeans.  I love this time of year- so I'm lovin that it's time for Sept. Currently! :)

 

 

********--------------------*******---------------------*******

 

I CAN'T believe that I posted my new product yesterday and I didn't even give one away (like I ALWAYS do).  I guess I got caught up in my $1 flash sale that I forgot! Oops!  (and YES the flash sales are still going on!)

 

So anyway...

yesterday I posted about my "magical" writing wheels!  I am so excited to make them this week and put them in my writing center!  I think the kids will LOVE having fun making new stories using the wheels.

Here's what it looks like:

to see this click {HERE}

 

If you would like to grab one of these for FREE just leave a comment below (with your email) and I'll randomly pick someone this evening!

 

ps.... I'm waiting on my last 5 or so followers!!  I'm ready to ROLL out my HUGE 400 follower giveaway!  C'mon last followers...come on down and follow (and then get in on the goods!)

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 



Work on Writing, a NEW writing product and Secret Flash Sale!

Happy Weekend everyone!  I hope you are enjoying your 3 days :)  I spent the bulk of yesterday watching "training videos" from our HR department.  The one I'm watching right now... "Chronic Health Conditions" yeah I know you are jealous!! :)

 

So I have a quick share of my first introduction to "Work on Writing" during D5.  Of course all these ideas can be used during your writer's workshop time too!

 

My students all get a journal... I add colorful card stock to the front and back to make it look ooohhh so cool :)

 

Here in this picture, one of my students decided to chose a picture prompt card to help her with some ideas on writing.  I know you've heard this one before... "I don't have ANYTHING to write about!"  Well I give them ALL kinds of tools to avoid that! :)

 

If you look at the far right of her desk she has a picture prompt card.  I made these a million years ago by just using clip art on word (or print shop), printed, glued to construction paper, and laminated.  They are a BIG hit!

 

Another item I can't live without is my student dictionaries.  They are AMAZING (and FREE!!)  We use them during word wall~the kids highlight the words of the week as I intro them (what kid doesn't love using a highlighter!)  And then we use them during writing time to look up words and add new words!

 

Here one student is helping another student find a word in his dictionary.

 

 

I know... you are saying ... where do you get the dictionary! :)  Well... they are from Barbara Gurian and if you google "My 2nd Grade Dictionary" it will pop up as a PDF file.  Its pretty amazing and you really can't find anything better!!

 

 

I also introduced the AWESOME idea that was floating around the blogosphere this summer.  If you look carefully at this picture one of my students is holding a light bulb.

If the student has "writer's block" I tell them to take a light bulb moment.  Target had light bulbs ($1 each) and I put them into a basket like this:

 I was skeptical at first because I wasn't sure my second graders could handle this... that maybe they would think they were a toy.  I WAS WRONG!  They took it totally seriously and an amazing thing happened.  They got up.. got a light bulb... sat for a minute... put it back and started writing again.  WOWSERS!!!  It was a beautiful thing.  If you want to read more about this... click {here}

 

Another new thing I'm going to try this year is class journals.  I found these from Stephany Dillon on TpT.  You can check it out by clicking {here}  I'll have to let you know how it goes! :)

 

Finally, I thought I had something in my classroom that I spent an hour looking for.  When I couldn't find it I spent another hour searching online and could find it.  So then... what do all teachers end up doing.. making their own.  That is when this snazzy product was born.

 

I call it... Writing Wheels!

This will help the children with the creative writing process by providing them with a character, an action, and a setting.  Then they can fill in the rest!  PLUS it builds good sentence structure (for the little guys!)  The best part.. sometimes you can make the sentences silly!  What kid doesn't love silly!!  My son and I had a blast making all kinds of sentences... he loved the one... "A dinosaur built a snowman on the Moon!"  hehehe...

(how fun would that one be to illustrate!)

 

 

Click above to check it out! :)

 

One last thing... as this is getting LONG (sorry!!) I am doing RANDOM flash sales in my TpT store!!  All weekend mystery items are popping up at ONLY $1!!!!  You have to stop back and see what it could be! :)

 

Thanks for reading!