Narrative Writing {giveaway!}

Happy Heart Day! 

Have your students been a bit CrAzY this week??  Mine have!!  I think the anticipation of Valentine's Day got the best of them!  That with the Chinese New Year activities have made for one busy week!!  I am always glad when March rolls around-- February is busy busy busy!

I snapped a quick pic of my son's Valentines:

It is supposed to have gumballs, but I gave up after two stores didn't have them... who knew gumballs were so hard to find!  The skittles will just have to do :)  You can see the cute website that I got the idea from and the FREE PRINTABLE {here}

I didn't get this next pic in my "Around the School" post because it just went up today.  I'm so sorry the pic quality is terrible!  I tried to take the picture on my phone and 1/2 the lights were out in the hallway.  Ugh.  I hope you get the idea cuz it's SUPER CUTE!!

It says "100 Reasons Why We Love Madison Kindergartners"  On each heart is something that the kinders like about school.  :)

Also, congrats goes to:

453Elizabeth Leave a Blog Post Comment                   

She will be getting a BRAND NEW SHARPENER!!  I'll be sending an email to you soon!! :)  Thanks too all of you who entered!

*****

So let's talk writing!

I have to be honest... writing has been a gigantic struggle for me.  We have NO writing curriculum to speak of, and I had to piece together some kind of writing "units" to keep my sanity!!  

One of the big writing genres that we cover in second grade is narrative writing.  Now that they are more fluent writers, they can experiment with concepts like:

writing about one event

adding feelings and reactions

adding their own voice

Without a specific curriculum, I tried to come up with a good sequence to teach the narrative concept.  This year I finally felt like it all flowed nicely.  So, I knew that I was ready to put this bad boy all together! Introducing...

There is so much to this pack that the above picture just doesn't even cut it!  I'll show you some better examples now :)

There are very detailed, step by step lesson plans that help lay the ground work for a good narrative.  This unit covers Common Core Standard 2.W3.

There are LOTS of posters in this pack... I find that a good visual helps with the writing process.  Something that I teach the second graders is a narrative is like taking a "snapshot" of one moment in time.  There are many references to the camera throughout this pack.

The narrative characteristics are covered in great depth so that the children know what to include in their writing.  It is important to expose the children to a variety of narrative writings for a model.  I have a book list included too.

There are activity cards to practice how feelings and reactions go together.  Then there is a practice sheet to have the students write their own!

Checklists for the students and a rubric for the teacher is also included!

Finally, there is a ton of writing paper with and without prompts for you to choose from.  I also have a lot of prompts for you too. 

Phew! :)  

This is in my store {see it here} BUT I will be giving away TWO packs today!  You have 4 chances to win by leaving these comments:

1. follow my blog

2. follow by TpT store

3. "like" on FB

4. leave a comment telling me about a writing tip or a type of writing you love to teach.

I will choose a winner TONIGHT!

If you don't want to wait, I am also doing a buy one get one until Sunday night!!  If you buy this (or anything else in my store) you can pick out anything  you want for FREE!  Just email me and I'll tell you the details!

Have a great day! <3

Chinese New Year

Hey Everyone! Just found this amazing coloring sheet for our Chinese New Year Celebration week.  Click on the pic to take you to a GREAT site with many Chinese New Year printables.

Also, don't forget to enter the pencil sharpener giveaway on the next post!

Happy Monday!!

Around the School #2 (Giveaway reminder)

Ohh I'm SO excited for my second installment of "Around the School!!"  If you missed the first one you can see it {here}

This is basically what I see walking the halls of my school.  I get SO much inspiration from other teachers and there are A LOT of talented teachers in my building :)

It is amazing all the cute projects/activities going on in all different grades! This is just my little way of showing them off!  I hope you find some inspiration too!

(giveaway at bottom)

 The groundhogs are SUPER cute... and what a good idea to make with hearts to have for Valentine's Day!

(email me if you want the groundhog poem)

Cute penguins! Love the "can," "has," "likes" chart!

Love this idea!!  Anything where you can incorporate two things in one makes a GREAT display!

I am so glad I decided to do "around the school" or I may not have even noticed these STINKIN' ADORABLE kisses!!  They look super easy to make too!!

 Wow, those sledders are amazing!!  They look so cute all in a line too!

 I posted about our hundred's day hearts (see it here)- finally a picture of them!!

Again, incorporating the heart with the 100 items means I can keep this up for a couple of weeks! :)

Those snowflakes have hearts!! Do you see it??  My aide last year made them for me!!

THIS is the closest I could find to making these (even though it is not even close :)

I LOOOVE this!!  It is so simple yet look amazing as a display!  How fun would it be to just let your kids get creative with this project!

This was another new idea I found just walking around.  These were made on www.tagxedo.com (go!)

You can make all kinds of word clouds on this site for FREE!  I love the variety of shapes they have which is different than "Wordle."

These pictures do not do this cute display justice!  Each "person" had a real photograph of the child.  At the bottom was tin foil for an ice rink.  So COOL!

Check these out!!  I am not sure if they were made in relation to an underwater unit (because they were all "sea creatures") but what a great idea- and how fun for those fifth graders!!

 Our librarian is simply amazing!  This is what you see as you walk into the LLC- I love it!  This would be cute in any classroom!

Thanks for stopping by! I'd love to hear what project or grade you found inspiring!

Don't forget to enter in my GREAT sharpener giveaway below!! (see review here)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sharpener review and GIVEAWAY!!

Hey Friends!  I hope you all are having a great week.  I had a surprise day off today after my son decided to roll his sled on a ice patch and scrape up his entire face. Boys. Ugh.  He's fine- overprotective mom is not.  Needless to say I had a chance to work on this post this today!

 I know you've read a zillion of these posts about this snazzy sharpener.  There are so many posts because this sharpener just happens to be that good.

So, right before Christmas
I emailed Troy over at:

He was super nice and very obliging when I said I was interested in testing out his sharpener that I've heard so much about (he's a teacher!).  So, no I didn't pay for this particular one, but would I?  Yes, in a heart beat. 

Here is why...

First, they are very reasonable at only $24.99 and come in fun colors like red, green, blue and black:
  

• 
  

  Groovy Green
• $24.99
  

  Cool Blue
• $24.99
  

  Firehouse Red
• $24.99
  

  Midnight Black

Second, this thing REALLY WORKS!

Check out the sharpener face-off...

Here is my lovely new one... in blue :)

Here is the "other" blue one... you know it... the electric kind.

Here are the dollar store pencils (you know the ones that NEVER sharpen quite right).

Here is the pencil in the new sharpener (it's so easy to use!).  Yes, it is a "crank" kind but once you get past that it is great.

Whoa... that is the pencil sharpened.  I seriously have never seen pencils get that sharp before.  That is because I usually get this...

This poor guy was sharpened in the "other" sharpener.

Here they are side by side...

Can you guess who the winner is??

My final test was the colored pencil.  I asked Troy about this and he said that the new sharpener will not work perfectly for the colored pencil because of the soft lead.

(we use our colored pencils A LOT)

Of course I tried it out anyway.  Wowsers!  My students' eyes popped out of their heads when they saw this!  I have learned that you can't sharpen the colored pencils as long because they will break, so I try to time it just right.

I actually caught my aide sneaking the new sharpener off my desk and bringing it right next to the "other" sharpener to sharpen the dull pencils- that is when I knew we had a winner! :)

I do truly LOVE this sharpener and will be purchasing more for my classroom, home, and for gifts!

That is why I'm SUPER excited to also give one away today!!

Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win one of these beauties!

Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

100's Day! Freebies

Hey Everyone!  Sorry for my lack of blogging! My little guy had his birthday party this weekend and I think it consumed me for a bit there.  Check out his cuteness shirt I got from  Etsy

Man, just yesterday he came into this world (3 months early!!)... and now he is 5!  Phew, where did the time go?  They say that kids grow up so fast...boy are they right!!

100  100  100  100  100  100  100  100 

So, tomorrow is our 100th day!!  What do you do for the 100th day at your school?  

When I taught first I think we played it up a bit more than we do in second grade.

The first thing we did was give homework for the kids to decorate a heart with 100 things.  I love doing a heart because then it makes for a great Valentine display too!  We just cut out a large heart from an 11x18 piece of white construction paper.  It was attached to this letter:

I will have some pics soon for my next "Around the School" post (hopefully by this weekend!).

Then we will start our 100th day off by doing this sheet for our morning work:

For math we will be working on place value and with the 100's chart.  The kids will fill in the chart based on the place value questions.   When they are finished, it will make a 100 on the chart.  ohhh aaahhh :)

I just LOOOVE this one :)  Sorry- it's a scan so its not the best quality...but you get the idea :)

I also have a 100's day poem and a "What can you do in 100 Seconds?" activity for the kids (some activities include: drawing hearts, what # can you write to, hop on one foot).

In case you missed it, here is a coloring sheet too! :)

I hope you have a GREAT 100th day!!