Holidays Around the World Scrapbook- Part 1 (2014)

Hey ya'll!

I'm just stopping by to show you a few snapshots of our holiday travels so far!

Take a peek below and click on any picture to head to TpT to find the unit. (still on sale!)

 Our friends from the High School Spanish class came down to teach us Frosty the Snowman in Spanish and had a fun craft for us as well.

We had to listen very carefully because all directions were spoken in Spanish only!
The kids loved it, and I was thrilled the were able to have the same experience that my ELL kiddo has.

 

Sinterklaas left us goodies!

 We had some interesting elves as well! ;)

 (Please excuse the chart! It had been knocked over with the vacuum and I didn't fix all of the labels-apparently!)

I can't wait to share this week's travels with you as well!

We're closing out our travel itinerary with America and Christmas on Thursday and Friday.  

Unit then we have staff cards, parent gifts, an OTES observation, more travels, and addition with regrouping to do!

 

Holidays Around the World- Travel Notebook, Passport, and Activities for 20 countries!

Hey everyone! I'll be back tomorrow (finally!) with a more detailed post about what we've been up to, but I wanted to stop in so you didn't miss out on a fantastic deal! My new Holidays Around the World Unit has been posted and is discounted 20% off this weekend!

 

 

Everything you see above and MORE is available in the unit!

Click here to grab your copy.

If you follow me on Facebook, you know I gave away 3 copies of this unit earlier this week.

Make sure you are following this weekend for your chance to win!

Peek at our Week- Turkeys!

Click to check out other visual plans!

 

Two nights of conferences, tutoring, followed by two morning meetings..... we are BUSY this week!

Just stopping in SUPER quickly to share my plans with you this short week!

 

We are adding and subtracting using many strategies to build our mental math skills.

One of the strategies my 2nd graders that is really stretching their thinking is to make a "friendly" number (10) to add or subtract. I'm hoping that by creating this mat and using 2 different colored counters we will be better able to visualize "borrowing" from one addend to make 10. I'll let you know how this turns out!

Getting by... with a little help from my friends!

Check out these AMAZING units we'll be using this extremely busy week!

Peek at our Week... our Around the Campfire Writing Event!

The past week we were all about Laura Numeroff!

Let me tell you, the difference between Kindergarten and 2nd grade is so intriguing.

After using this unit last year with my K babies, it was just amazing to see the difference in depth of knowledge and the insightful discussions we had in 2nd.

I LOVE SECOND GRADE! :)

 

Here are my plans from last week, complete with our math journals for free! 

 

Also included this week is another notes sheet. We expanded our weather studies from clouds to tornadoes this week using two National Geographic clips and creating a tornado in a bottle.

Our tornado in a bottle consisted of a cleaned plastic bottle filled 3/4 of the way full with water and a jar of dark blue glitter dumped inside. Super simple and the "tornado" was so visible with the dark blue glitter. The kids absolutely LOVED it!

 

By far THE most exciting part of our week was our Around the Campfire Writing Event. 

 

We have worked for 2 weeks through our family tradition narratives and I can't even begin to tell you how excited the kids were for this day to come!

We dressed the part and our classroom was ready to welcome campers and their families to the event.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous about all of our décor lasting until the end of the day (our event was the last part of our day!) but it was beautiful! I actually took these pictures right before the event.

 

Our entrance was complete with bear tracks leading the way!

 



 

I WISH I could share with you the entire video from our event, but here's the next best thing!

The kids sat in a circle around the fire and came up one at a time to sit in front of the tent and read their family tradition narrative. The families and staff members who attended our event sat around the fire and in chairs. 

 

Here is our hallway view!

 

After the event, I presented each family member and writer with a mini-s'mores goody bag with my freebie label attached.

(click below for the freebie)

 After our event we of course had to sign our thank you cards to the family and staff who attended our event.

What better way to have 18 kiddos sign 15 thank you cards?! We created an assembly line. :)

 A few days after our event we had a surprise "knock and drop" on our door.

We heard a knock, but when we came to the door we found this basket of goodies!

One of our parents who attended the event dropped off this sweet note with this adorable gift basket.

 Gummy bears, goldfish, and life savers were delivered to tie into our theme and the note!

The excitement that this event generated in our building, our classroom, and with families was truly wonderful.

 You can check out the detailed lesson plans and printables (aligned and differentiated to fit K,1,and 2 needs) to create your own event by clicking here or on any of the pictures above.

 

Each morning we have a WEGN school wide video meeting.

Our student leadership teams run the meetings and we always start our day with a little dance party that accompanies the meeting. Thursday's meeting included the full length version of Tob Mac's "Speak Life" and my kids had a blast belting out the song and dancing together!

 The kids showed me some love this week during Work on Writing!

...and apparently I took a trip to "Marz" #busylifeofateacher

I'm not quite sure where the alien theme came from.. but three of my kiddos wrote a space story this week. 

Finally! We made it to Friday! Our forever coveted Warm Fuzzy store is open!

Any day of the week the kids can trade in their Warm Fuzzy tickets, but they can only trade in their Warm Fuzzies on Friday mornings.

Again, the difference between Kinders and 2nd graders is amazing. I have so many kiddos who are saving their warm fuzzies for something BIG.

I have a few kids who are so close to reaching 30 already!

I'm be back tomorrow with a peek at our week next week and a few more freebies!

 



SALE SPOOKTACULAR!!!!!

Just stopping in to tell you I'm having a SALE!

Oct. 30th and 31st my entire TpT shop is 20% off!

Click below or here to head to my TpT shop.

Thank you to Krista at Creative Clips for the spooktacular button!

Peek at my Week- Bats, Around the Campfire- a Narrative Writing Event, a giveaway and two freebies!

Click below to head to the par-tay! ;)

 

Schooo!!!!!

This last week has been a wonderfully crazy busy week.

First.....we finally closed on our house!!!!!!! I was beginning to wonder if it would actually ever happen with me not having patches of hair ripped out. We are officially official homeowners! YAY!

This week has also been filled with school events, family photos, and fall fun.

We also began our Around the Campfire Narrative Writing Event.

I can't even begin to tell you how excited my kids and I are about our upcoming writing event!

I've had notes, phone calls, and parents dropping by to ask me about our upcoming event.

Check out a quick preview or click on any picture below for more information.

 

 I'll be back throughout the week to show you a few samples of our writing. In the meantime, would you like to win a copy?!
Just leave me a comment below with YOUR favorite family tradition and I'll pick a winner!

In Math this week we're beginning the third unit of our program that focuses on Operations. We're actually beginning with doubles and a *touch* of number bonds this week.
Monday we'll have fun with this doubles rap and use this video and various lessons from Kahn academy to supplement throughout the week.

This week we're all about BATS!
We'll be pairing informational texts with the ever popular Stellaluna.
Can I make a teacher confession?
I've never read Stellaluna with a class before!
Last year was actually the first year I taught Bats with my Kinders, but we just ran out of time.
 You can purchase the book here or listen via Storyline Online here.
Definitely grab these informational text freebies below!

In Science we have been using amazing videos from the National Weather Service to learn all about weather. We will be continuing our studies this week with investigating different types of clouds and creating our own cloud with this experiment. Click below to grab a video notes sheet that corresponds with this video.

 

 Have a fabulous week!