Spring Break!!

Spring Break is finally here for me!  I finally put the final touches on my fraction unit and uploaded it to TPT, so it's time to relax and enjoy my time off.

Here is a freebie to use when you are doing fractions:

Happy Monday to everyone!!

Check it Out!!

Thanks to Melissa and Cherie for your comments. I will be sending you a copy of my fraction unit later this weekend!

 I had my kids try out my activities from my new fraction unit. They had a great time. They are always up for something new and exciting. They especially loved the QR codes!! I thought I took photos of them experimenting with it, but apparently I did not. So I will have to take some and post later. I thought I took some I can't wait to do more with them. My grade level partner tested them out too. She took some photos for me so I could share.

Here the task cards were taped around the desks. Students worked on proper and improper fractions.  A difficult concept for second graders...but they were slowly catching on.

Here they had an activity sheet that asked them to write the fraction for a certain color of stars that were on the task card. In my classroom, we taped them around the room. The students love to get up and move around.

This is what some of the cards looked like.


Here is part of the activity sheet that goes with the task cards.

Here they are playing Fraction Connect Four

We have also been working on Opinion Writing. I found a great unit from First Grade Blue Skies. It is for the whole year. I like how Jennifer lays it out. The kids caught on real quick and enjoyed giving their opinions. I had my second graders provide more reasons and use adjectives. (We are working on them as well.)

Here is one we did about pizza.

These cute winter peeps were from Hope King's Ultimate Winter Writing and Craft Bundle. We used the craft with our opinion writing about winter.  

I love this one! He made his have ski goggles and a ski mask. 

This actually looks like the girl in my class! Don't you love her braids!!!

I have one last photo to share. It actually is a proud moment that we all experience that reinforces why we teach. 

I love this kid! I have taught both of his older siblings. When he started with me in the beginning of the year he really struggled with reading...maybe ten words in a minute... tops. We do the Daily 5 in my classroom. When it was time for Read to Self he could barely sit still and he always was going to the bathroom. I knew I had to improve his situation. I met with him and 3 other students that were at his reading level every single day. We set up book bags with a communication log between myself and the parents. This went home Monday through Thursday night. I helped them find books at their level, cheered them on, gave them praise during our one on one conferences, and helped them see they could be readers.

WOOHOO!!! When I took this picture he had been reading the whole 20 plus minutes of Read to Self. He was lost in a Mr. Putter and Tabby book... so focused that he didn't even notice I took his picture. When Read to Self was over I saw him walk over to the book shelf and grab 3 more Mr. Putter books. Every day since then he has been focused and reading!!! The best part is he was Rockstar of the Week and he wrote that his favorite subject was...reading!!!

Happy Thursday to all!!

The Longest Week Ever !!!

Last week was the longest week ever!!! I don't know if it was the time change, the warm weather, or what...but it drug on FORVER!!!!!!! I don't think it helped that my computer crashed this week either.  I had backed it up a few weeks before so I knew that I had most of the stuff saved on my external hard drive. So, off to the Apple store I went to see what was going on with my laptop. Let's just say it wasn't a happy visit with Sara, the extremely nice worker at the Genius Bar. My hard-drive was toast she said with a sad look on her face. Ok, I kinda figured that, but I was hopeful since I had backed up my computer to my brand new external hard drive. I asked Sara to check my external drive just to ease my worries. Well, let's just say there was no backup on my drive. It had started, but never finished so...I LOST EVERYTHING ON MY LAPTOP. I had just finished a really great Fraction Unit...GONE!!! All my graphics, files, workouts,...GONE!!

Most of my stuff I have on my desktop computer as well, but lately I have been taking the laptop to bed with me and doing quite a bit of creating. Well, did I learn my lesson. I called my husband (actually texted him a 911)...he was out of town and I needed his opinion. He quickly called me back and said to just get a new one. Don't worry he said...it's really no big deal. NO BIG DEAL!!! He is an amazing husband, but he has no idea how hard I worked on all the "no longer existing documents" I created.

Instead of making a huge spectacle of myself in the Apple Store, I decided to get over it and pick out my new laptop. I went with the new Macbook Pro with no hard drive. I decided not to take my chances of having the hard drive crash again. (I have had Macs all my life and never had any problems with them. This incident was due to an accidental water spillage from a loved one). I had the  huge external hard drive that I purchased last month and I also purchased the external drive to play cds. The new MacPro does not have the built in cd player. It also has the retina display and is super fast.

I am going to take my old laptop to a Data Recovery specialist, but in the meantime I have been working on recreating my Fraction Unit. I hope to have it loaded to TPT later this week. Here is a sneak peak of a few things inside of it:

I have many of the new fraction activities ready to go to try with my kids tomorrow. We used a lot of the items from the LOST FRACTION UNIT...so they will be excited to test out some of the new additions. I would love to give a free copy of the unit to one of my followers. All you have to do is let me know what grade you teach and one fun thing you do with your students when you teach fractions. Please leave your email address too. I will have my husband pick the lucky comment number Monday night!! 

Have a fantastic Monday!! I only have 5 days until Spring Break...Woohoo!!!

A Quick Sale for the Rain!!

Happy Wednesday to everyone! We got hit with the rain today here in California and the kids were wild and crazy!!! So I thought I would do a quick sale at my TPT store!! Everything is 10% off through Friday!!

Click below to take you to TPT!!

MARCH ALREADY????

WOW! I can not believe it is already March 5th!! February flew by with all of the craziness that comes with it!! But who am I kidding??? The craziness is only going to get worse with state testing, warmer weather, open house, and the end of the year!!! But I am ready!! I must admit it is my favorite time of year...minus the state testing part...LOL!!

On a little side note...I had a huge dose of reality check a couple of weeks ago. I am a huge fan of Diet Coke...until I watched the episode of Katie Couric on February 21st.

This little can has brought me much happiness over the years! It has calmed me in times of insanity!! The good thing is I know I am not the only one! There are others out there  just like me who get that instant relief once they take that first sip!!!!

I must admit I wake up and it is my beverage of choice at 6 am. Lately, I was consuming 4-5 a day. I know...some of you are gasping, but there could be a lot worse things a girl could do. Anyway, a few weeks ago, our first and second grades put on the most amazing Patriotic Performance. Yes, I am a little biased, but I work at a very small school.  There are 120 students in first and second grade. The night of our performance there were probably over 400 people in the audience!! The kids rocked it!!!  So, I raced home right after school to get a quick workout in before going back later that night. 

As I was running on the treadmill, Katie Couric was doing an episode on what really happens in restaurants, the truth about diets, and a few other things. Of course, she had to have some facts on Diet Coke. There was this study done in France where rats were given an illegal substance. Starts with a C, it's a two syllable word, and last syllable rhymes with rain.  Well, the rats left the illegal substance and chose the diet soda!!!! I would like to think these rats have great taste, but let's be honest!!! It is that dreaded and oh so ugly ASPARTAME!!!  They preferred it over the illegal substance!! So on and on Katie and her guest babbled about the study...It makes you fat...it tricks your body...blah, blah, blah!!!

Meet my new best friend!!!

I am down to 1 Diet Coke a day and about a jillion ounces of water!! 

So meet my other new best friend!!

Life is good!!! We will see how long this lasts!!! 

We are working on fractions right now! The kids are loving it!! Tomorrow they will be trying out these task cards! Feel free to grab a copy!!