Happy Thanksgiving! Elf on a Shelf FREEBIE!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone!!!! I wanted to take a second and wish everyone a wonderful, family filled, turkey filled and relaxing Thanksgiving today! I cannot tell you how thankful I am for each and every one of you! You have all been a part of making my life even better having you in it! It's pretty cool that a blog has the power to connect so many people from around the world! It's pretty special! So I hope you all enjoy your day! My sister and I are celebrating it together since my parents are out with our nephews in Wyoming! So we are getting Cracker Barrel! hah We're pretty excited about it! :)

**Make sure to read all the way to the end to learn about a HUGE 25 Blogger Christmas in November Giveaway with Easy Teaching Tools!!

Here is my Elf on the Shelf Journal FREEBIE that my kids LOVED last year! There are 3 different line options: dotted, lined, and blank for drawing. There are journal pages for each day, journal pages to write to the elf and pages to write to the reader, a title page and introduction to the reader. I hope you and your students enjoy it! My kids just loved writing in it each day documenting what our elf had done! :) Click on the pictures to see an up close look!

I am also working on some holiday centers and activities so stay tuned for some new materials coming your way! Here's a glimpse at my newest addition!! A math center practicing adding and subtracting 10s and 1s using number grid puzzles! :) Click on the picture to go to my TPT page to see the preview! You can WIN this activity over at Easy Teaching Tools with her HUGE 25 Blogger Christmas in November Giveaway!!! Make sure to stop by! Just click on the Giveaway Button below to take a look at all the FABULOUS PRIZES from amazing bloggers and sign up for your chance to win BIG!

I LOVE to hear what you think so feel free to leave a comment below! :) 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

A Little Randomness + a FREEBIE! :)

Hi everyone!!! I feel like I've neglected my blog for so long!! I feel like I just can't get myself into a rhythm at the moment, but with a 2 day week next week and wonderful Thanksgiving, I'm hoping to get back on track and roll into the holidays!! It is my absolute favorite time of the year!!! I just LOVE the feeling of the Christmas season! The warmth, friendship, and peacefulness are just mesmerizing! I have to say I have been watching a few TON of Christmas movies! Hallmark, ABC Family and Falala Lifetime are my go to channels!! I'm sure some of you can relate! Right?? :)

So I'm one of those people that is constantly changing and trying to improve things. I'm not very still which I know I need to be a little more. I've been really trying to figure out my math groups because using Everyday Math, it kind of restricts you from teaching certain skills for allotted amounts of time. I, of course, am not one that likes programs, and I've enjoyed EM. So I don't know if it's this group of kids, but it's just not cutting it. So I started doing math tubs at their desk rotations after they finish their Math Box for the lesson. I'm using the tubs to focus on skills that need to be reinforced. This has been great!!! This week I decided to give a go at making my own math centers. Some centers that I've  absolutely loved and inspired me to create my own are from Katie King's of Queen of the First Grade Jungle, Amy Lemons' from Step Into 2nd Grade and Cara Carroll's from The First Grade Parade. Check theirs out if you haven't already which I'm sure you have! :) I'll definitely be purchasing some more from them too!! Since I have some very specific areas that some of my kids need work on, I decided to try my hand at making some of my own. I have 3 groups with a wide range of levels. hah I have been looking at the assessments in the EM since they often assess skills that are not focused on during the lessons.

So my first center is complete, and I cannot wait to use it!!!! It is "Unwrap the Number." My kids have a difficult time when they have to solve number grid puzzles going up and down by 10s. So this center helps reinforce that skill in a fun way for the holidays. It is already differentiated for 3 different levels with 2-digit, 3-digit, and 4-digit numbers along with 2 different recording sheets. I know ink can be an issue so I've also made the whole set in black and white. :) I have to say THANKS to all the wonderful teachers that gave their input with this! They helped me to not miss anything! I'm hoping to get more finished that I have in the works by the end of next week!

**Don't forget the FREEBIE at the bottom!

Since I'm trying to get ahead (or watch another Christmas movie followed by Nashville :), I'm going to make this quick. I wanted to share a FREEBIE with you that I used today with my kids! We are reviewing for our math test so we needed to review fact families with dominoes. So they used our class domino sets and picked one, drew the dots on the recording sheet, and wrote the fact family underneath. They LOVED it! They actually asked if they could do it for morning work! :) I have to say it's a special feeling when you hear your students excited to work on anything but especially something you made! So I hope you can use this in your classroom too! Click on the picture below to get your own copy of Domino Fact Families Recording Sheet! 

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, what are some of your traditions??  We always get up and put on the parade even if we don't watch it. It HAS to be on! Then we always taste test for my Mom, but this year I won't be up at home since my parents are going out to my nephews in Wyoming. So my sister and I will be making some traditions this year in Indy!! I'm excited!!

Thanks for stopping by!!! Have a great end of the week! :)

My Truth Monday- Becoming a Teacher

I truly believe I was born to educate! I love teaching kids, people, animals (my parents would beg to differ whenever they dogsit for me:). hah I just love it! I know we all get bogged down with the behind the scenes work, but when I just simply NOTICE what's going on in my room and those faces looking at me, I remember the joy it brings me every day! :)

Well, I'm back to the behind the scenes work getting my 2nd observation plans all together for Thursday, 2 days of sub plans, going to Disney to run the Wine and Dine 1/2 Marathon, and planning a 20 minute presentation for parents on how to use iPads, iPhones, iPods for their kids at home. :) PHEW!!! 

Don't forget to check out more truths by clicking the button below!! 

Hope you all have a great rest of the week!!! :)

My Truth Monday- 12 Part Series (a tad late :)

So as you can see, I'm a tad bit late joining the party!! :) I blame my 2 week fall break! Nonetheless, I couldn't miss this!! Denise from Sunny Days in Second Grade has organized a 12 part series to called My Truth Monday to help make the blogging world a little smaller and more connected. :) Every Monday, she will post a new truth on a specific topic. You can use the image to write your truth on the topic and link up to her post! It's as simple as that! I'm so excited to get to know more of you better with this weekly link up!! So here goes the first part to My Truth Monday!!

Part 1: My Truth about Fitness

This is kind of all over the place, but fitness is something that I NEED in my life! My whole body slows down when I haven't worked out in a while along with not eating the best either. I know, for me, that I am at my best when I'm in shape. I have more energy, and I'm just happier and more positive. I feel good about myself, and I don't gravitate toward my bigger shirts to wear. As hard as it can be to just get going, I know that if I do, I will feel so much better! I put things into clearer perspective. I push my body to places I never thought possible which translates into work and other areas of my life. If I can feel the rewards of that extra push, it only motivates me to keep pushing!!! :) The hardest part is starting! Making a habit takes 21 days so try it!! You will see transformations in all areas of your life! 

Thanks so much for stopping by!!! I'm so excited to be joining Denise through this great 12 part series! Can't wait to get to know all of you better! Click not he button below to check out more My Truth Monday posts!!!  

Friday Fall FREEBIE Blog Hop: Final Round!!!

Hi everybody!! :) I can't believe it, but this is the last Friday Fall Freebie!!! It's crazy to think Nov. 1 is next Friday! I just love everything about the fall so I want to take it all in as much as I can! The past 2 weeks, I have been on fall break! I went to see my nephews out west which was awesome!! I was introduced my nephew's kindergarten class as a "good aunt" which made me smile!! :) It's going to be a rude awakening Monday morning, but luckily, there are tons to look forward to in the next weeks!

On to the FREEBIE! I want to give another great, big THANK YOU to Crystal and Marie at Once Upon A Classroom: Two Teacher Perspectives for getting this all together for everyone!! The FREEBIES have been AMAZING!! Thanks also to all of YOU for stopping by our blog hop!! We're so happy you have joined us for the past month or if you just started today, welcome! :)

My FREEBIE today is on finding sums of 10. It's called "Go Turkey Trotting to Sums of 10." It is a game played like "Go Fish" except you start with 2 cards in your hands. You can print the number cards with the title cards back to back, or if you want to save on ink (black and white looks fine too), you could just use the number sides. There are directions with the set for the kids as well. Instead of saying "Go Fish," they say "Go Turkey Trotting!" This is a very quick game with a half sheet exit type slip that they will have to complete also. I have included one half sheet set (2 half sheets to 1 page) to use with a timer to write down how long it took them to finish. The other half sheet set is simply completing it and using the answer key to check how many they got right. Click here to download this FREEBIE, or click on the title page below to download it. 

 I hope you and your students enjoy this quick paced game!! Thanks again for stopping by the blog hop!!! Make sure to FOLLOW ME to continue along with me on my journey! Also, I would love to hear what you think of the FREEBIE and of the blog hop! What was one of your favorite freebies? 

Your next stop on the blog hop is with Mrs. Rossi at Sailing into 2nd!! Click on her blog button to grab your next FREEBIE!!!

Friday Fall FREEBIE Blog Hop: Round 3!!

Hey there!!! Welcome back for the Friday Fall FREEBIE Blog Hop: Round 3!!!  Thanks to Crystal and Marie at Once Upon A Classroom: Two Teacher Perspectives for getting this all together for everyone!! Now on to the FREEBIES!!! 

Before I share my freebie :), I just have to tell you how EXCITED I am right now!!! In less than 10 hours, my sister and I will be on a flight to Denver which then we will drive 3 1/2 hours to Wyoming to see our 2 nephews (and of course my brother and sister-in-law)!!! It's a trip just to get there from the airport, but it is so worth it to give a big hug to both of those boys!!! What's even better??? My brother is a principal and my sister-in-law is a 2nd grade teacher like me so they have school...which could only mean...AUNTIE time!!!! It is going to be the 2 aunts and the 2 nephews for a couple days next week!! I love my brother and sister-in-law, but you all know what I mean when I say it's even more special when you get to share time with just them! Thank goodness we have a 2 week fall break!!!!!! :)

OK, now I will get back to the FREEBIE!!! This is one I actually created last year, but I just recently was talking about it with other teachers as we were talking about teaching character traits. This freebie is called Cooking Up Character Traits! 

The idea behind this freebie was actually inspired by a character traits unit on Read Works website! If you have never used this website, you need to check it out!!! It is FILLED with step by step lesson plans for all the different reading comprehension strategies and has great choices for texts to use or passages that they have created. There are lots and lots of nonfiction passages too!! 

So once I got the idea to make it into actual recipe cards, I emailed www.readworks.org to make sure it was okay to post as a freebie. They were so kind and quick to respond with a yes, of course. They were happy that I was able to use their idea for inspiration. So I quickly finished it up and shared it with everyone. 

When we teach about character traits, we often talk about the actions, thoughts, and feelings that the characters show in the book. So we talked about a recipe and how we have to put all the ingredients together to come up with the end result. Well, it's the same with character traits. You have to take all the bits and pieces you find about the characters and put them together. For example, one action of the wolf's in Little Red Riding Hood is that he dressed up as her granny. The kids would write that in one of the ACTION boxes. Then they would think about what he was thinking as he did that action. So they would put something like he was trying to play a trick on her. Finally, they would write how they thought he felt as he was doing this. They would put something like sneaky or clever. After closely looking at each part that made up the character, we come up with the trait that they mostly portray. They write the character trait on the lines as well as using that evidence they wrote down in the organizer to back up their statement. Of course, they also draw a picture of the character in the box just like the food would be on the recipe card. 

I used our poster maker at school to enlarge these to a huge size which the kids loved. We also used them after that as normal organizers. They really started to get a good understanding of what they had to find or pay attention to in the books to be able to describe the characters traits of a specific character. Many times, they do notice these things, but they don't connect it to character traits. 

Click here or on the Character Traits Bulletin Board Title to download this FREEBIE!!

OH, and I also have a Reading Skills Posters/Organizers/Reference Sheet/Tests and Matching Game

set on TpT that includes the Anchor Poster I use when teaching character traits as well as the Cooking Up Character Traits freebie. I use the example from Little Red Riding Hood on it. :) Here's a look at it!

Well, I have to get myself to bed so I can wake up at about 4am to get ready for WYOMING!!!! :) I hope you and your students enjoy this freebie!!! Feel free to leave a comment below and/or on TPT to share how you like it or whatever you'd like! :) It makes my day to hear from all of you!!

Thanks for stopping by my little blog!!! Don't forget to FOLLOW me here or on Bloglovin to stay in touch!! :) I hope you have a FANTASTIC FRIDAY and a relaxing weekend!! 

Your next stop on the blog hop is with Mrs. Rossi at Sailing into 2nd!! Click on her blog button to grab your next FREEBIE!!!

Friday Fall FREEBIE Blog Hop: Round 2!!!

Welcome back to the Friday Fall FREEBIE blog hop!! Thanks to Crystal and Marie at Once Upon A Classroom: Two Teacher Perspectives for getting this all together for everyone!! Now on to the FREEBIES!!! 

This week I have created a Contractions SCOOT!!! (Spider Themed) I made this spider themed so you could also use it at different times throughout the year! Whether you are doing a unit on spiders, creepy crawlers, Halloween, fall, etc., this game will help your students practice identifying and writing contractions. There are 14 different contractions used with each having one card to write the 2 words that make the contraction and one to write the contraction from the 2 words. There are 28 SCOOT cards total with a recording sheet and answer key!! Click here or on the pictures to download your FREEBIE now!! :)

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog!!! Don't forget to follow me here or on Bloglovin and let me know what you think in the comments here!! I hope you and your students enjoy the SCOOT game! :)

Next up is... 

(click on the blog button below to take you to your next stop)