Hall Pass

I saw this Linky Party and it sounds like fun: Hall Pass at Turnstall's Teaching Tidbits.

Product - I'm not a seller, so here's a couple of products I like.  

Ok, I have to admit it, I haven't actually used this yet, but I'm really excited about The Math Coach's Common Core: Number Cards to 120, Workstation Activity Cards
 These cards have activities that the students do with number cards. I need to cut out my laminated pieces so I can use it in my classroom!

I also really like Rock, Paper, Scissors: Addition from Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives----  my kiddos really enjoy it when I have this in a center. I just have to make sure they do the math fact before they do the rock, paper scissors. 

Area - I just got my kidney table this year. And I've really put it to good use. I do guided reading there, and guided math.When students eat in my room, we gather there (I usually have 5 or 6 at a time).  And my kids love to do quiet reading there.

Signal - I have two that really seem to work. The first is Stop, Look, Listen. We hold up our hand like a stop sign, then point to our eyes and then our ears. Most of them are with me by the time we get to listen. The other thing I do is say, if you can hear me, say .....  Sometimes it's what for lunch - "if you can hear me say taco." Or at the Valentine's party - "if you can hear me say I ate too much candy." I think they like it when I change it up. 

Sanity - hmmm, hmmm, hmmm. Does my hubby count? He listens to me vent all the time. Oh, yeah, I try to write down 3 things every day that I'm happy with - a lesson went well, I made a connection with a student, behavior was going well, I handled a situation in a good way.  When I write those things down, it helps me remember the things that are going right - and sometimes I really need that!

If you're interested, join up with Mrs. Turnstall's Linky. 

Happy Saturday, Sara 

I did not go crazy

Good Sunday morning to you! 
Have you been shopping yet? I have finished my TpT shopping - and I'm not looking back. No thinking about one more thing - or looking. No, No, No! I actually was getting myself stressed out, looking for "what else do I need?" so I went and talked some sense into myself with my hub-bub. I mean I talked and he agreed - he's so nice. (And he really doesn't care how much I spend!) 

Anyway, here's what I got today:
 Yeah - I'm most excited about the first two - they go together. Donna at the Math Coach's Corner has gotten me excited about trying some more opened ended math work. I'm hoping these two products will do that. I wish they were magically printed out and laminated so I could use them tomorrow.

 

 These look like some good, seasonal problems that will hopefully get my kiddos thinking.

 

For some of my little sweeties who are having So Much Trouble learning their math facts - I purchased this. I'm hoping that having the dots and stars will help them come up with the math fact answers without using their cute little fingers! :)

 And this just looked like a good idea - I can't wait to try it, probably after spring break.

I'm so thankful for the sale - and that I didn't go over board. I am realizing that I need to desperately go through my files and see what I've already got that I should be using. Several of my wishlist freebie things wee ideas for Geometry - which I just finished! Some I can still use for centers, but others would have been great while I was teaching!

Now off to buy some clip art :)

Happy shopping, happy football, happy Sunday! 
Sara

(editing: I joined a linky party: Show Us What You Bought. Join up if you want to share.)
 

Bad Sara

When I started my blog a couple months ago, I had the goal to write at least once, and hopefully twice a week. I missed last week. It was a computer issue. I have an iPad, so that's where I do most of my "stalking," but I don't like to write my blog on there. So I have to wrestle the computer away from my teenager. When I was able to do that on Sunday, I spent the time downloading
Freebies! (from TpT stores)
Did anyone else go completely crazy on this?  I downloaded almost everything from the K-2 people - there were a couple kindergarten things I just couldn't see me using at all. And then I thought to myself, I teach 2nd grade, maybe there are some 3-6 freebies I might use. And sure enough there were.

I haven't even had time to really go through everything I downloaded. Hopefully there is nothing that I will use in the next few weeks.

When I got done doing all that, (now on to Monday!), I shopped at the TpT sale. Oh My Goodness! $77 worth - and that's including the sale, the TpT discount and using $5 or so of points. Got several things that had been on my wishlist for a while. Several things I'm hoping to use in math next year.

How many days do you have left? I have 12 - yikes! One part of me is saying - yahoo! so ready for a break. I have one little stinker, I mean sweetie, that is really giving me a run for my money. The other side of me is saying - I have one assessment to give, and some activities I want to do and time is a ticking.

I hope some people downloaded my Bump Plus games. I didn't get any comments, and it makes me realize how important it is to add a comment when someone shares something you really like or will use. I did get some new followers - that's always nice.  

So, how many days do you have left? Are you counting? :)

TpT and a few other things

I spent about an hour and a half this morning and another hour this afternoon printing out stuff I've bought from TpT. I'm so bad - I find something cute, I mean useful, and I buy it. Well, my plan now is to actually use it! I also did lots of feedback that I had neglected so I could see my TpT credits go up, up, up.

Some stuff I'd look at and say to myself, agh, why did I buy this? But then I'd look again and say to myself - oh, yeah, this is good; I'd use this; I could try this. I'm happy that our district has a central teacher place that has laminators and die cuts - and we can laminate as much as we want for free. It's just the getting there that's the problem. Anyway, I didn't realize that was quite a benefit until I read on a blog that that wasn't true for everyone. Anyway, I'll be there laminating my heart out some time next week.

I had a sub on Thursday so that I could DRA test - I don't know if anyone else does this. Anyway, my sped student moved up a couple levels - yeah for him. But he asked - did I pass? Well, yes, he passed several levels, but no, he's not reading at grade level. I didn't tell him the last part, of course. Some of my kids didn't do as well as I had expected - those I want to strangle - no, no, obviously I mean nurture just that extra bit more! 

Our story in our reading series last week was called "Working in Space." I supplemented that a little in the afternoon and we did some learning about space and planets. I found a great thing at Smart Exchange called "Blastoff." For each planet, it had links to a short video and also to pictures of the planet's surface. The kids enjoyed it - and I think they enjoyed telling me how much they already knew! (I think the link will take you somewhere in the vicinity
of the download.) 

Well, happy Saturday - I bought a ton a plants that are now asking to be planted!

Sara

Yeah, it's Tuesday night and that means tomorrow is Wednesday and it's my Art Day! Love Art Days, because I get an extra 45 minutes of plan time. I try to get things ready for the next week (so don't anybody bother me!). And extra special bonus, we get to wear jeans tomorrow. Does life get any better than this?? Not tell May 25th :)

Are teachers doing things for Leap Year? And Dr. Seuss Day? Well, a lot must be for Dr. Seuss Day - I've seen lots of things floating around. I've got a couple things planned. In my last post, I talked about doing the tongue twisters. Got that all ready. At Seusstastic Classroom, she's posted a freebie with lots of Dr. Seuss ideas. I'm thinking I'll do the one that's title, "If Thing 1 and Thing 2 Came to My House." I have to admit, that's one of the few Dr. Seuss books I can stand. The rhymes and nonsense words just make my tongue get tangled. Even my daughter said she could remember me telling her I wouldn't read Dr. Seuss books to her - she'd have to ask her dad :)

Anyway, my co-teacher and I were talking about Leap Year and we decided we ought to do something, since it only happened every 4 years. I found a quick little power point on TPT that explains it pretty good. Here it is, if you are interested. (But it's not a freebie).

Best news, sale at TPT tomorrow. I'm trying not to buy things until I need them. I hate kicking myself, thinking, now why in the world did I get this?? 

Happy Leap Day to you tomorrow! Sara