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

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.

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!

Back to School 2017

I am so excited to show you my second grade classroom.  I am moving from the upstairs in fourth grade to a downstairs classroom in second grade.  I am very excited - what a perfect age!

I love incorporating the Daily 5 in my literacy block.  Here is my Daily 5 and CAFE posters that you can find on Teachers Pay Teachers.  Click HERE to check out the cutest CAFE headers and strategy cards.

Oriental Trading has a new addition to their website - Learning365 for all of your teaching supplies and other great educational resources. 

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

The photo below is my calendar area.  I love me some Georgia Grown Kiddos xo her calendar set are the best out there on TPT! Equally just as awesome, Good Enough Teacher has the best calendar pieces that fit perfectly in my calendar pocket chart.

To the right of my calendar area is my "I Can" learning objectives chart.  I LOVE this... there is actually more sections but I pinned it off to only have 3 sections.  It twists to hang perfectly straight and I can't wait to use my I can statements here.  You can use dry erase or cards!

[If you are looking for 3rd grade I can statements, check mine out HERE]

Looking for a little gift for your students? Mine are going to love these second grade pencils!  I love whenever it's personalized by grade level.

These magnetic dry erase owls are on SALE (under $5 for a dozen!) and they can work for table numbers, groups, reminders, or just cute BTS decor.  I have these located right now in my math area and I hope to find new ideas throughout the year to use them.  I already got a few compliments ;)

I also love these posters from Sneaking into Second.  So cute!

Magnetic alphabet squares are a must for me working in a primary classroom.  It's such a fun way to add practice to spelling and word work.  Incorporating the Daily 5 into my classroom I always try to find new ways for learning.

Something else that is perfect for my literacy groups are these highlighting reading strips.  For the primary grades sometimes it's tricky for kiddos to keep track of where they are with reading, especially when the print gets smaller and smaller with the more difficult books.  My sweeties will love using these during reading :) 

A fun, exciting part of second grade is learning about life cycles.  At my school, we will hatch chicks and monarch butterflies.  This 4 poster life cycle set is only $6.49.  You cannot find a better price for these quality posters!  This is one of the best deals for high quality posters I have seen out there. A MUST HAVE for a second grade teacher!

The last photo I'll end my blog post with is my cookie bulletin board.  While I was browsing through

Pinterest and TPT, I decided to create my own with cute clipart and personalize them with my kids names.  I used counting cookies from Classroom Chitchat.

I hope you all have the best school year.  Thinking of you all - for the ones that already have your routine down and for those of you just starting out and getting your classroom as ready as you can before back to school... Never forget - you are wonderful and we all make mistakes and learn from them.

Have a fantastic year! xo

Second grade starts my new journey.