Tag-O-Rama

I've been tagged by Marissa at WILD About First Grade and Judy at Teaching Little Apples !

Here Are The Rules:

* Post these rules

* Answer the 10 questions that the tagger posted for you

* Create 10 questions of your own to ask the people that you're about to tag

* Tag 10 people and link them with your post (and let them know they've been tagged!)

So first up are Marissa's questions.

1. Are you a night owl or early bird?? Definite early bird

2. What was the last book you've read? (Not related to teaching) I just reread The Hunger Games to get ready for a teachers vs. students challenge

3. What kind of movies do you prefer? Comedy, action, drama, love story??? Comedy or Action

4. What is your favorite grade to teach? 2nd

5. Coffee or tea? Coffee (iced)

6. Are you married or do you have kids? Married for 9 fabulous years

7. How long have you been teaching? What grades have you taught? I am going on my 10th year of teaching.  I have taught a half year of 4th Grade and the rest of my time teaching has been in 2nd grade.

8. Did you always know you wanted to be a teacher? Maybe subconsciously :)  I still want to be The President one day!!

9. What do you like to do when you're not teaching? I love to read mystery books or shop!

10. What is your favorite song that puts you in a good mood?  Hmmmm...I don't have a favorite song

 

 

Now for Judy's questions.

 

1. Soup or Salad? Salad (I love Greek salad)
2. Designer Purse or Designer Shoes?  Designer Purse, it usually goes with more and does not hurt (unlike most designer shoes)
3. Favorite Music Genre? When it comes to music I don't have a favorite, I like a little bit of everything

   4.Pepsi or Coke..or Neither (explain)? I like regular Coke better than Pepsi but Diet Pepsi is way better than Diet Coke

5.What is the name of the board that you post the most pins on Pinterest? I have not yet been on Pinterest (this is very shocking to most of my friends)

6.Righty or Lefty? Righty
7. Favorite Season? Fall
8. The glass is always...? (half full or half empty) Most of the time, half full
9. When is your birthday? Don't worry about putting the year! November
10. Do you have siblings, if so how many? 1 sister

Now for the questions for those I have tagged.

1. Chocolate or Vanilla?

2. Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts?

3. Favorite movie?

4. If you were stranded on a deserted island what 3 things would you hope to have with you?

5. Do you have any pets?  If so, what kind?

6. Heels or flats?

7. What is your least favorite thing about teaching?

8. Best Professional Development you have had is.....

9. Funniest thing a student has asked or said to you...

10. If you were given 1 million dollars what would you do with it?

My tagees......

1. 3 Teacher Chicks

2.Lori at Conversations in Literacy

3.Vicky at Traditions Laughter and Happily Ever After

4. Erin at First With Franklin

5. Teresa at 2nd Grade Pigpen

6. April at Wolfelicious

7.Nicole at Today in Second Grade

8. Sara at Smiling in Second Grade

9. First Grade Abcs

10. The Bubblegum Tree

Have fun!!  I can't wait to read your responses!



Seining and Similies

Now that benchmarks, other end of quarter assessments, and report cards are done I feel like I can relax a moment.  Anymore, it seems as if I test / assess my students to death, never mind teach them!  Does anyone else ever feel that way?

We did have a nice respite yesterday since the chickadees went on a field trip.  Since we live near the water we were able to go Seining in a lagoon.

Teachers, students and parents love this hands on field trip.  If you are not familiar with seining, seining is the catching of ocean creatures (that live in the see grass beds) using a net (similar to volleyball net) that you drag along the ground at an angle.  We put our "catches" in a bucket and professionals explain to us what they are and characteristics of them.  Finally our "catches" are released.

Some of our catches!!  There is a comb jellyfish in the upper right hand corner of this photo, and that spongy looking thing below it, is a hairy sponge (that ejects a purplish liquid when stressed).  A crab is towards the bottom.

This week also found my chickadees learning about similes.  I thought they would have a hard time understanding what 2 things were being compared (and why) in a simile, but they caught on pretty quick.  Especially because this skill was reinforced through writing about themselves.  Egomaniacs anyone!!???

Students had to draw and label a self portrait and then write about their self portrait using similes.

Since I am now hungry as a wolf, I am off to cook dinner.  Have a Happy Easter !!



Hippity Hoppity Sale and Freebie Reminder!!

If you have not yet gotten my Hippity Hop Antonym Freebie, get it soon!!  It would be perfect to use with your chickadees this week!!

I am also having a 20% off sale in my TpT store for today only.

So hop on over!!  Happy Spring!!

Team Line Ups

I use many cooperative learning structures each day in my classroom.  One that is quick and easy for my chickadees to do is Team Line Ups.  Line ups are great because they provide practice of social as well as academic skills.  I usually use this for a quick spiral review of a math skill or for sequencing events.  An explanation for how Line Ups are done can be found here!

Below are pictures of some students completing Line Ups using number cards. We reviewed putting numbers in order from greatest to least and least to greatest.

 Their favorite part is being able to do their team "Happy Dance" or Cheer when they are correct.

Fun Friday..New Blogger Helpful Hint..and a Question

New Blogger Helpful Hint....

If your a new blogger, like me, have you ever wondered how to make a link back to your blog when you leave a comment on someone else's blog?  I finally figured it out after checking with my bff....Google!!  Simply use this code after your comment.

<a href="insert url of your blog here">insert name of your blog here</a>

Now for a question for experienced bloggers :)

Can someone tell me how to insert a reply button after someone leaves a comment on a post?  I would like to be able to respond to comments but have no clue how to?  Right now I just leave a comment myself.

Fun Friday....

Today was an early dismissal Friday, so of course I worked in some crafting time.  We read stories about chickens and baby chicks earlier in the week.  Students created a Circle Map and a Flow Map  (luv, luv, luv, Thinking Maps) to organize their thoughts, then wrote an expository paragraph on chickens.

The Beginnings of a Circle Map

And our craft

"Just Hatched" Facts

I had an example of the chick hanging on the board all week and my little ones could not wait to make it!  You can get your very own right here in my TpT store or now here in my TN store!



Signs of Spring

This will be a short but sweet post because I have to go brush up on my Hunger Games knowledge.  I am in a teachers v. students Hunger Games Jeopardy Game tomorrow!!

Fluency is something we are really working on right now in Second Grade.  We have a few minutes each day that we work on increasing our fluency.  To make fluency practice fun when we work on it whole group or when students are in a workstation I use these:

They are straws from Walmart.  You can also get them at Target (sometimes).  I have bats and pumpkin straws that we use during October and peppermint candy shaped straws that we use in December and now bunnies and eggs for March and April.  The students use the straw as a "word tracker".  They only cost around $1.  This plastic straw really motivates my chickadees to read!!

If you haven't downloaded my Hippity Hop Antonym freebie click here!!

To close, I will leave you with these signs of spring that came to visit me in my backyard!

Too cute!!!





Freeby Friday

Happy Friday!  I have an Easter themed freebie to share with everyone.

If you would like this item for you and your little ones simply click here!  If you download my Hippity Hop Antonyms, please, pretty please, with sprinkles on top, rate this item item and leave me a comment in my TpT store <3