February Freebies

Hi friends!

It's been.... phew. A long time.  I apologize for not keeping up to date but I'm a new busy mama over here :) My son, Owen, is 13 months old now.  Time sure flew by and he's the greatest love I've ever known.

Speaking of love, I have found a couple amazing February freebies, perfect for Valentine's Day.  The first one is from Longwing Learning. It is a  February bulletin board that is being displayed currently outside my second grade classroom called What do you know by heart?

What I loved about this resource is that it got my second graders thinking... what am I good at?  What would I be able to teach others?  What is in my heart?
Examples that my students came up with include:
-Addition and subtraction facts          -Reading books
-Being a good friend                           -How to love
-How to speak another language        -How to be kind


The other freebie my students were very excited about was a Family Valentines Project by Teacher's Breathing Space.

I cannot wait for these to come back next week.  This project allows for my students to work with their families and have fun and decorate their hearts however they want.  Unleash their creativity!  They are also allowed to take leadership in the design ;) Very excited second graders I have!
-I laminated the hearts on cardstock
-I laminated and printed in color the sign "Our Family Valentine Projects" so I can use year after year.
-I also gave my students at least a week to complete - life is busy!

I hope you enjoy these freebies... check out more Valentine's products in my TPT store.

Here's a fun writing freebie for the younger grades :)

Happy February!!

Back to School 2018 Sale and Giveaway

I am so excited to be participating in the Back to School Teachers Pay Teachers sale with 25% off all of my products with the code: BTSFRESH. 

I am currently printing a set of my Portfolio pages for each of my second graders to put into binders.  When I taught Kindergarten, I used all the portfolio pages (how I write my name/how tall I am, etc.), but now I use just the memory pages for the children to reflect on each month.  In between the monthly memory pages, I have my students choose their best writing pieces to fill in their portfolios. 

 I love having a binder for each child to bring home and share with their families at the end of the year!  Such a great keepsake!

Along with the excitement of the sale, I am giving away a $10 TPT card!  Enter below to win - I will be choosing a winner Thursday, August 2nd early in the AM to give you plenty of time to still shop the two-day-sale! Good luck and I hope you find some great goodies on TPT!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School and Prizes Galore

In New York, we go back to school in September but I am thinking about my classroom all summer long (in between teaching summer school!) I love to find new and exciting products for my second graders.

Disclaimer: This review is based strictly on my opinion. Others may have a different opinion or experience. I was provided the sample free of charge or paid a small fee by the company or PR agency and I provided my honest opinion.

 

I was excited to find this "Welcome" sign that I will hang outside my classroom after summer school ends :) It goes great with my black accents around my classroom. Definitely large and pops!  I think it'll look nice to invite my students in on the first day of school.

Who doesn't love pom poms? I have adorable white and gray ones already, so I thought hey - why not try black?  These are so reasonably priced, but I was a little careless with assembly.  A few of the corners ripped since there's so many sections to make it look full.  The finished product came out cute (not like the photo), but I should have had more patience with unfolding them ;)  Would I purchase again? For the price yes, but I may have someone more crafty put them together! 

I will buy these pencils year after year for my second graders.  They hold up nicely and I always want to make their birthdays special.  Also, second grade pencils (or Kindergarten, 1st, or 3rd grade pencils!) are perfect for the first day of school and to get them excited for the year. 

Do you do Star Student in your class? I do for one full rotation of the class.  I have a special day of the week where they will share items, read books, and receive a book at the end of the week that has compliments and notes from his/her classmates.  These stickers are so cute and at a wonderful price! 

Click HERE to download the star student cut outs that I hand out to each star student to fill out at home and share on our poster.

Roly Poly stuffed pets and Roly Poly stuffed Easter-themed animals will be so cute for my kiddos for end of the year gifts (shhh - don't ruin the surprise!) I know it says "Easter themed" but who doesn't love chicks, bunnies, and lambs always?  In second grade, we hatch chicks too so I thought it was appropriate! 

Slap bracelets are definitely making a come back since my childhood... but DIY ones? My creative kids will LOVE designing these! For 13$ you get 48 in a pack so I will be able to use these with next years class too! 

Penguin bendables! Ok yes, I know it's July - but I couldn't pass these up and I'll have something to give them around the holidays.  They are really cute for the price and I would purchase again, but a couple had some paint chipping off - not too bad though and I know my sweeties won't care! 

Thanks for reading!

Also - there are still 3 more days left in the Back to School giveaway!!! Don't forget to enter! :) $250 you could get sooooo many wonderful things!  Best of luck!

$250 Oriental Trading Gift Card Giveaway

Back to School Oriental Trading Giveaway

Are you ready for an Oriental Trading GIVEAWAY? To win 250$ to spend on amazing products for your classroom?!

Perfect time to start thinking about Back to School goodies - and Oriental Trading has it all.  If you have read my blog posts before, you know that I am a big fan of their supplies from bins for organization to cute pencil toppers and prizes for my students.

Here are some of the fun products I have gotten in the past from Oriental Trading:

Giveaway begins July 16 and runs through July 30 - Good luck and happy shopping! 

$250 Oriental Trading Gift Card Giveaway

Report Card Comments

It's Report Card time!

You may be already done with school (I still have 7 days left) but maybe you can use this blogpost for future years.  Report card comments are one of the most difficult things for me to write - how do I get started?  What are the highlights that I need to touch upon?  

I wanted to compile a group of resources (free!) that I have found helpful for report card comments.  I currently teach second grade but I have found these links helpful when I taught other grades as well.

Scholastic has a wonderful resource of report card comments that are broken down into different subjects and categories.  Very easy for families to understand and great sentence starters to make your own!

Another great resource is from Lakeshore Learning and it is a PDF file full of report card comments in a similar format as Scholastic's.  :)

Some in-depth literacy report card comments come from Teacher Related Resources.  I like these because they give me ideas for my conferences and identifying the strengths and needs of my students in reading and writing.

My last resource I am going to share is a freebie from Teachers Pay Teachers from One Teacher's Adventures.  Over 125 comments and they are all great and such a variety!

How do you get ready for report cards? What has helped you?

I hope you can use these resources!

Happy Holidays with Oriental Trading

Happy Holidays!  I was very excited to receive my big cardboard box full of exciting items for my students to enjoy from Oriental Trading.  I teach Second Grade and I have to tell you that they absorb everything and they are excited about many things - especially the holidays.

[[Disclaimer: Oriental Trading sent me products in exchange for a blog post, but all opinions in this post are mine.]]

When I search Oriental Trading, I love how I can just go to the categories I need - Holidays/Christmas and who doesn't love sales? They have a great sale section as well.

The "main event" of my student gifts are these adorable penguins.  I love the plush toys from Oriental Trading because they are so cute and the kiddos cherish them at this age.  These plush toys are currently sold out, but I also would recommend these holiday bears and reindeers.  Too cute and they are on major SALE!

The slap bracelets are back! I LOVED these as a child.  They are fun to slap on your wrist, but also a fashionable bracelet.

I loved the variety of these but I am hoping that they come out with more of an assortment for boys.  There are other slap bracelet assortments that have different themes, but this particular pack will appeal mostly to the girls of my class.  It was a nice to have some bracelets with designs and some plain, sparkle ones.

The item I was impressed with the most are these 4 1/2 inch snowflake notepads.  For only $5.99, you will receive 24 of these.  Very good quality and they were larger than I expected for the price.  I have lots of artists and notetakers in second grade so they will love these!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy Hanukkah!  I can't wait to celebrate with my students all about the holidays around the world.

Enjoy my freebie from Teachers Pay Teachers full of writing prompts that you can use before and after the holiday season.

Fall Painting Crafts

I was so excited to stumble upon this post from Sugar Bee Crafts.  I was looking for a fun, fall craft to do that would use some colorful paint and the mason jars I had bought.  What better than to create a cute little mason jar luminary?

Adorable graphic from Sugar Bee Crafts

I will say, mine did not come out as cute as Sugar Bee Crafts.  I did not have time to find the perfect leaf decals so I said hmm... what could I use that would be convenient and not break the bank?  I headed over to Michael's Craft Store and got some leaf stickers - perfect!  I used the leftover stickers for my second grader's work (a win, win!)

 The supplies I needed:

1. acrylic paint

2. mason jars

3. paint brushes

4. water / plate to put paint on

5. leaf stickers (or decals) 

After they are dry and finished you will need:

6. small stones/rocks for inside the mason jar

7. tealight candle :)

  Recommendations:

1. Put on lots of paint coats, especially with lighter colors.

2. Let fully dry in between and try to be as smooth as possible with your brush strokes.  

3. After it is dry, pull off the stickers as gently as possible (The photo below shows them still drying)

4. Applying an acrylic sealer will help for the paint to stay and last a long time!

I also painted pumpkins with my sweet friend and her sweet mom.  It's so great living in the same house as one of your best friends - you get to do lots of crafts and fun things together!

We used acrylic paint on these ceramic pumpkins.  They were only $3 each at the Target Dollar Spot (gotta love it!) Below are the two pumpkins that I did.  One of them was for her new baby boy, Parker :) 

The bottom two pumpkins are her moms and Rachel's.  Can you tell Rachel is quite the artist?! xo

What fun crafts have you been doing this fall? 

Happy October :)

Happy Halloween 2017

It's October.  The leaves are falling, the temperature is (kind of) changing here in New York.  Many are excited for apple cider doughnuts, hayrides and apple picking.  This is actually the first year I am really happy for Fall.  Usually back-to-school consumes my life (which it still is) but I am finding time to enjoy some of the little things as well. :)

I love Oriental Trading.  For special occasions, treats, and crafts.  Keep reading to find out about the goodies I got from Oriental Trading to celebrate Halloween with the sweetest second graders around.

[[Disclaimer: Oriental Trading sent me products in exchange for a blog post, but all opinions in this post are mine.]]

I love the Halloween sticker sets from Oriental Trading. There is a variety of stickers and they are too cute.  Check out these pumpkins!  For only $2.99 each, I made a teacher's day (well, 4 of them!) with this cute roll of stickers.  This will also bring lots of happiness to their excited second grade friends.

I used this cute freebie tag on TPT from Denise Hill.  Too cute!

Don't want to go through the process of cutting individual pumpkins?  These are on cute foam. However, I did think they would come with pieces... but there's always ideas on Oriental Trading and on Pinterest!

So my favorite item that I got from this order was this super fun keychain assortment.  My kiddos are going to LOVE these! 

Also, these mini jack o' lantern duckies are the cutest.  I wish I could keep one for myself!  My students are 6 and 7 years old and trinkets and cute little animals are their favorite things.  

Bubbles! Oriental Trading has a bunch of cute Peanut products so I thought that these bubbles would be perfect for the goodie bags.  

And Halloween pencils... of course! These are $4.49 on Oriental Trading - not too bad for the price.  I know you can get these at the Dollar Store, but sometimes the quality is not as great.  I'll let you know how these work out!

Here are my finished treat bags.  The bags were from the dollar store and I created these special cards using KB Konnected's candy corn frame.  Glitter, too cute!

Thank you Oriental Trading for making my students' Halloween that much better.

HAPPY OCTOBER AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN!