Place Value FUN!

I'm here to share with you one of my students' FAVORITE Math activities EVER. I made these for them last year and they loved them so much.

The Build a Place Value House is seriously a center I have on hand all year round. The set includes two digit numbers and three digit numbers AND a fun craft to wrap up your Place Value unit. Watch the video below to see it in action! Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more educational resources in action.

My kiddos loved it so much last year, that I added to the set with haunted houses during Halloween, gingerbread houses in the winter-time, and sandcastles at the end of the year to get us pumped for summer.

The Build a Place Value Haunted House is my favorite, so I made a video for that one, too. :P

You can get all of them and any more future additions (there's one in the works now....) in a bundle designed to save you money. Click any image to get to that specific set or the bundle image below to see them all together.

Wonders BUNDLE Giveaway!!! (Giveaway Closed)

Happy Summer, teachers!!!

I have some news that I have mixed feelings about...

This is me right now.

My district is adopting a new Reading curriculum. I like change, so I'm not worried, but I have spent many countless hours creating a supplement resource for our current Wonders program! I am sad that I won't be able to use them anymore, but I am also excited to see what I can do and create with this new curriculum coming our way.

That being said, I know TONS of schools are using Wonders currently and will be adopting it as their new curriculum in the coming years. So, why not give a bundle away?!

I have NEVER given away a year-long bundle before. EVER. Not only am I giving away a year long bundle... I am giving away one PER GRADE LEVEL! That means THREE teachers will win a year long bundle for their Kindergarten, First grade, or Second grade classes! Click the images below for your grade level to check out all the awesomeness!

Here's how to enter:
Find the Rafflecopter that fits your needs below (Kindergarten, First, or Second). Click or tap each category to enter. Rafflecopter will be choosing a random winner on Saturday, June 16th.

If you just can't wait that long or if you don't win, don't worry! All Wonders resources in my shop will be 20% off till June 17th!



a Rafflecopter giveaway



a Rafflecopter giveaway




a Rafflecopter giveaway

8 Ways to Promote Independence in Writing in the Primary Grades

I don't know about you and yours, but my students this year have had a difficult time writing independently. Yes, even this late into the school year (it's April!) and even with writing on daily basis, this year's group of kiddos has struggled with writing on their own. The environment is a bit different for me this year as I teach a Gen Ed and ESE inclusion class (second grade) with students ranging in ability level from Pre-K to 3rd grade. With that wide of a range, no wonder I have resistant writers.



So how can we as teachers help these students with independent writing? Although my students have struggled, they have come a long way since the start of the year. Here's what I have found to be successful, even when my students want to give up.

1. WRITE EVERY DAY.
Every. Single. Day. This seems like a no-brainer, but it is hard to implement with the tight schedules we are faced with. I squeeze in journal writing in the 20 minutes I have between PE and Lunch. Students are given a topic to write about and they write independently for that time. I usually put on some quiet music to keep students from talking loudly. During this time, I allow students to ask their shoulder partner for assistance in spelling or to help check their writing. This took a lot of time to teach the procedure early in the year, but it has helped tremendously with my lower students.

2. ANCHOR CHARTS.
Every writing unit we do begins with an anchor chart. Start your mini-lessons or writing time off by reviewing what is on the anchor charts you've already created together. For those struggling, draw pictures for guidance. A lot of words may intimidate those reluctant students. Check out Pinterest! There are SO MANY anchor charts!!! Here's a link to some Pinterest ones I like:





3. WRITING FOLDERS AND LAPBOOKS.
There are several ways to "collect" or "keep" writing material. You can go the pocket folder route or even the binder route. I also dabbled in lapbooks this year and my class really loved making them! Creating their "Fact-Folio" for informational writing really added to their sense of accomplishment when at the end of the unit, we had a LOT of items inside! Adding in that element of interaction with their research and planning makes the writing a lot more fun. You could do this with narrative writing as well. Click the pictures below to see a narrative writing lapbook that has just been added to my TpT store.

Providing students with a checklist will help them go to the next step on their own.

We use the Collection Pocket for graphic organizers, illustrations, and rough drafts. It is so nice to have everything together.

4. MINI WORD WALLS/DICTIONARIES.
When you give a topic to write about, brainstorm with your students some words they may want to use and write them on the board or chart paper. Recently, my students wrote in their journals about immigration and how they thing immigrants may have felt when they finally arrived at Ellis Island. My students this year tend to get hung up on spelling and won't move on until they feel it is spelled right. Anyone else experience this?! I look up from the one student I am assisting and 14 more hands are up. That makes the 20 minutes fly by and only a few students helped. By making a mini word wall with words that make sense for that topic, students can refer to it as they write and keep going! Our immigration mini word wall included words like "immigrant," "Statue of Liberty," "countries," and "relieved." These words were thought up by my students, so there was a level of collaboration and students were able to form ideas for their journal entry by listening to word suggestions from their peers as well as spell these large words without getting stuck. I include word wall cards and headers in every Vocabulary Activities Set in the series (which is always growing!), so if you have a specific topic and need the materials, click the images below.

ALSO AVAILABLE: Weather, Life Cycles, States of Matter, Rocks and Soil, Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall

5. VISUAL RUBRICS.
This is a big one. Sometimes students don't understand the rubrics we lay out. And they definitely won't understand if we don't TELL them what they are. What are your expectations? Do they know what they're expected to do? Do they know if you care about grammar and punctuation or do you only care about the content? Primary students may not know to ask these questions. Creating a visual rubric gives students the opportunity to self-check and keep on track even without your assistance. You can make these rubrics for literally anything. Here's one I made for staying on task! Adding in those colored levels gives you and your students an opportunity to reflect. I often ask my students, "What color would you say you are on this chart?"

7. CELEBRATE!
Do you have an author's day? Or an author's chair? Students love to share what they've accomplished, especially if you have build a strong community within your classroom. For some units, I've had short pieces read by every student in the room in one day, or for larger scale writing, we have split it up for students to share a few at a time across a week. I know we all love to post student work on bulletin boards, but writing is one of those things that students LOVE to see posted, especially if they've published it in an attractive way.

Check out these super creative author's chair/celebrations I found on Pinterest! Don't forget to follow!



8. PUBLISH IN MULTIPLE WAYS.
Make that final draft a work of art. There are hundreds of ways to jazz up the final product that will give students the excitement of finishing this laborious task. Add in toppers for them to color or decorate and simply tack them onto construction paper. Use colored pencils or pens to carefully write the finished product. You'd be surprised at how they take their time doing this! And if you're really looking for a beautiful finished product, spend some time allowing students to type their final draft! In the primary grades, this does take a while, but having it as a computer center is one way you can try to fit it in.


Was this post helpful? Check out these other great ideas to implement in your classroom today!
Seven Ways to Use Fairy Tales in the Classroom
Clever Center/Task Card Storage
Using a Hundreds Chart to Promote Mental Math
The Human Body Unit

Second Grade Science: The Human Body

For Second Grade Science, one of our units is The Human Body. I have to tell you, I was not impressed with the curriculum and resources available to my students for this topic, so, of course, I made my own. I made the pieces as we went along and kept adding to this growing project.

Before diving into the writing and the INB pages, my class and I did a lot of hands-on activities and read-alouds. We read The Magic School Bus Inside the Human Body, Parts by Tedd Arnold, and after learning about the brain, we totally learned the song "If I Only Had a Brain" from The Wizard of Oz. They loved it! I loved hearing, "Wait, Mrs. Smith! He would NOT be able to dance and sing if he didn't have a brain!" 

I turned to Pinterest for a couple of hands on ideas, especially with the heart and the brain lessons.

Here's my Pinspiration for a timed "Beat the Clock" activity to help kids realize how strong and amazing our heart is! They had a BLAST. I found this idea through Pinterest which led me to The Primary Theme Park blog:

The heart pumps 1.3 gallons of blood per minute! So we got a gallon of water in one bucket for students to try and scoop to another bucket in a minute! I couple of kiddos got close but no one was able to. Of course it was raining outside the day we did this, so we did it inside, carefully on our Superman blanket. Thanks to the Pinspiration above, here's our try below:

Also during the lesson we did on the heart we did an AWESOME and extremely easy activity with our pulse. We put marshmallows on toothpicks, balanced them on our wrists after finding our pulse, and watched the toothpick dance! To spice it up a bit, we did an exercise video and then watched our toothpicks REALLY go wild with our heart rate even higher. The students were amazed at how the toothpicks were moving. Here's the Pinspiration from What the Teacher Wants blog:

And here's our try! I will be doing this every year. It was easy and it really stuck with the kids.

As we moved through the unit, my class did a fabulous job keeping track of their learning activities in their Interactive Science Notebook. I pulled a couple of resources from the Florida AIMS Life Science book, but I made a lot of my own. Check out the photos below. These activities are included within The Human Body Unit on TpT.

We also created "brain hats" which was another Pinspired activity. The students looked so cute walking around with their brains on all day. LOVED IT!

Here's the Pinspiration from Ellen McHenry's blog. The free download for the template is there. The Pinterest photo shows the different sections of the brain. I printed the template without that and the students colored the different sections.

Here's one of my kiddos sporting her new awesome brain hat! Here's what I learned: card stock is WORTH IT; use Scotch tape instead of glue and don't be skimpy on it; print the adult size version because there are some kids with BIG heads. 

HOW CUTE IS THIS?! While we wore them, we read a mini-book from the Florida AIMS Life Science book (Brain Power) and learned "If I Only Had a Brain." I linked the video below. The kids loved it and it was a nice little break from the "work." ;)

Within the Human Body Unit, I included integrated Literacy and Math printables. The writing task cards were a big hit in my classroom and not only allowed me to see if the students understood the human body, but also allowed them to make self connections. There are several full color and black and white centers, including a True/False sort (perfect for practicing for true/false test prep), Word Wall cards (very handy to go with those writing task cards), and some really neat "brain games." Take a look at the preview and larger pictures below:

Check it out in my TpT store HERE or click the image above. I hope you enjoy this unit as much as I did!

7 Ways to Use Fairy Tales in the Classroom

Who loves a good fairy tale? I know I do and I also know that my students love them, too. There are plenty to choose from, multiple versions of them, and so many great learning opportunities wrapped up in one. So, besides simply reading and responding, what else can we use fairy tales for? Read on to see topics you could address with a simple fairy tale.

1. KEY DETAILS
As with any text, fairy tales can easily be used to work on finding key details. Aren't the characters, setting, and plot in a fairy tale a lot more engaging than most other stories? Students are still practicing the skill, but are enjoying the story simultaneously. I like using graphic organizers for students to practice writing down key details in the story. I also like taking a commonly known fairy tale and shortening it (or finding an already shortened version - check out KidsGen for some shorter versions that you could read aloud, print, or adapt even further - they also include videos). Once I have a shortened version, we can then practice our close reading and answer questions for students to go back into the text to find. You know, the usual! ;) The Fairy Tale Unit on Teachers Pay Teachers includes close reads as well as graphic organizers and you can get a sample of the graphic organizers for free below.

This free pack of graphic organizers will help you get started on key details with your students. Click the image to grab it.

2. STORY ELEMENTS
Fairy tales are a little unique in that they have a few other elements that set them apart from other fiction. Yes, we have characters, setting, problem, and solution, but we also sometimes have "magic," and always a "happily ever after." Adding in those extra elements makes learning all of them that much more special. Hang posters throughout the room with these fairy tale elements. They will help us remember them through the recall questions, but once students are beyond that, they can use these story elements to answer higher order questions as well as create their own. The posters below are FREE on Teachers Pay Teachers. Click HERE or the image below to get your set and hang them up, ready to go in your classroom.

How to Use These Posters:
- hang them up and use them for student reference
- read aloud parts of the story and ask students which story element it belongs with. You could also provide written cards and students can sort them as a learning center/station.
- hang them up or attach them to a binder ring to place within a writing center for students to use while writing their own fairy tale (more on that later).

Paired with this fun graphic organizer, students can analyze and break down fairy tales they are reading or they can use it to write their own (again, more on that later).

3. COMPARE AND CONTRAST
We know that fairy tales have a lot in common, so let's compare! Using a simple venn diagram will have students using those fairy tale story elements we already learned about and thinking about what these stories have in common and what sets them apart.

4. RETELLING/SUMMARIZING
We all know the kid(s) who summarize by telling you the WHOLE story without leaving out any detail, right? I can't be the only one that has seen that! Summarizing is a skill we use throughout our entire lives and we practice it starting in Kindergarten! Fairy Tales are amazing stories to use to practice this skill. There are opportunities for puppet shows for your younger grades and, what I like to call, The Ultimate Retelling Challenge for your upper grades. Students retell a story either by writing it or acting it out. Read about it on this excerpt from The Fairy Tale Unit on TpT:

Here's a couple of my lovely theater students using puppets to retell a fairy tale.

5. READER'S THEATER
I. Love. Reader's theater. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Fairy tales are exceptional stories to use for reader's theater because there are so many different ones, they are easily modified for any reading level, and students love them. Not only that, but Disney has helped a lot in this area, too. Odds are, most of your students have seen or at least heard of the Disney movie of Cinderella or Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, so even if they aren't great at acting out a part, they have a character they've actually SEEN to refer to. The Fairy Tale Unit on TpT has 5 reader's theater scenes as well as 5 reader's theater monologues at varying levels of reading difficulty. This is also a fun time to add in costumes (again... sucker for theater...).

Here are some of my students watching another student perform a monologue. Gotta love those costumes!

6. CREATIVE WRITING
Now that students know the key details of their favorite fairy tales and they know what makes a fairy tale, it is SO exciting to have students write their own. By exposing students to multiple fairy tales, they'll have an idea of varying characters and different problems and solutions. I've had some students come up with every detail brand new, but I have also had students that combined their favorite parts of various fairy tales to make a brand new mashup of sorts. Both are awesome and both are showing the creative side of your students while using this new found style in story telling. Below is a game I call "Roll a Fairy Tale." Students roll the dice and develop their story that way. There's never the "I don't know what to write," issue with this game and it is a fun addition to any writing center. They just choose a sheet (character, beginning, middle, end, finish the story, or how did this happen?), roll a die, and basically fill in the blanks. This is included in The Fairy Tale Unit on TpT.

7. CREATIVE APPLICATION
We just used our fairy tale knowledge to write our own, but there are so many other opportunities for students to be creative with fairy tales. Here's a bullet list of just some of these opportunities:

- For younger students, dress up in costumes for retelling purposes or have them create their own crown.

- For older students, play the Creative Castle Card Game where they write about or draw a castle with combinations of various fairy tales.

- For any grade level, have students discuss, write, or act out "What If..." questions, such as "What if Cinderella didn't make it back before midnight?" There are many of these included in the Fairy Tale Unit on TpT.

- Read fractured fairy tales, such as The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and have students write their own taking a fairy tale and twisting it around. This is GREAT for teaching point of view!

Here are some GREAT fractured fairy tales to go with your unit. I absolutely LOVE The Stinky Cheese Man.

- For older students, have them write and perform their own fairy tale reader's theater or have them write a skit to have others perform. This is also really fun for those fractured fairy tales. I had a student write a monologue from the point of view of "Awake Beauty," a princess who was given the curse of never being able to fall asleep. LOVE kids' creativity!


For everything you see in this post and MORE, check out The Fairy Tale Unit in my TpT shop! And definitely make sure you snag those free posters and free graphic organizers to use with all these other fun ideas for using fairy tales.

TpT Wishlist Linky!

I don't know about you, but any time there is a site-wide TpT sale, I spend hours, HOURS, on TpT hunting around for people to throw my money at. Sounds silly, but its true. Often times I stumble upon a real gem that I never would have found had I not spent so much time window shopping. That being said, I've also found so many amazing products that have become highly used resources in my own classroom through recommendations on my favorite blogs. So that's why I'm here today.

This linky showcases the top wishlisted items in my store and if you scroll down, you'll see other bloggers' top wishlisted items as well. These items are the resources that are the most sought-after within each TpT store below. The best news is that they are ALL on sale for the TpT site-wide sale. I hope you find some great deals and are able to share some amazing resources with your students. Happy shopping!

Click any of the images below to check them out in my store!

If you are a Kindergarten teacher using the Wonders curriculum, this is the most time-saving bundle out there. If you would like to see a free sample of it, here is a Unit 5 freebie sampler to get an idea.

If you are a Second Grade teacher using the Wonders curriculum, I am working on the Second Grade version of this bundle. It is a growing bundle, which means that you can purchase it now at a FAR LOWER price and get the rest of the units for FREE as they are added. Currently, units 1-3 are complete and Unit 4 will be added no later than January 15. Click the image below to head there now and see what it is all about.

This isn't only the second top wishlisted item in my entire store, but it is also the number one best selling resource in my store! This resource has a free sample, too. Click the image below to download the free sample.

Here's a look at what is included. This was probably my absolute favorite unit to teach in Kindergarten.

This math center activity is SO. MUCH. FUN. Watch this little video to see it in action!

In addition to the original Build a Place Value House, I JUST posted a holiday version in my store this weekend! Click the image below to see Build a Place Value GINGERBREAD House!

So now that you've learned about the most sought after products by Daisy Designs, click the images below to see what people are saying about other great resources!

An InLinkz Link-up