I have been a big fan of Scholastic News for many years, so when I was asked to partner with them to share some teacher tips, some big savings, and a great contest, well I jumped at the chance. Teaching a self-contained gifted second grade class, I usually subscribe to the third grade edition. For the purposes of this post, I was sent a set of second grade magazines and I have to say, the extra materials and online resources for this edition has changed my mind.  The second grade version seems to be a much better fit for my students. Even though they're all reading on or above grade level, the engaging format and rigorous text kept them completely interested in the content. In fact, Scholastic magazines are available in 30 different titles from pk-12th grade, so there is bound to be a version that is the perfect fit for your classroom.

Are you already a fan of Scholasitc News? Well then, how does $200 to spend at the Scholastic Teacher Store sound? All you have to do is show us how you use Scholastic News in your classroom. Share it out on social media with #SmartTeachingTips and you can win! As soon as I opened my pack of November magazines, I knew right away what my Teaching Tip would be. Packed in with my student editions was this amazing Big Issue! This is not something I was getting with the third grade edition. It doesn't come with every second grade edition, but it does come a few times a year.

We've already studied text features this year, but I find that if I don't constantly review them or refer to them, the kids tend to forget them a bit. So I quickly wrote some text features on sticky notes and had the kids work together to find them in the Big Issue.

You can always count on Scholastic News to showcase text features in a way that's totally relevant and easily identifiable for the kids. Having the big issue for this was fantastic, but it's totally doable with the normal size edition too.  

Another great feature of Scholastic News is the wealth of printable and online resources that are available for each issue. This week there was a fantastic chart that took text features to the next level. The kids had to locate information from the article and then tell if they found that information solely from the pictures, the text, or from both. I loved this chart so much that I re-created a version of it for my observation lesson a couple of weeks ago, which went over really well! I let the kids work on it in groups, then we reviewed it together using the interactive page from the teacher materials online.

Then we went on to do the questions on the back of the magazine. I loved the thoroughness of this diagram and the fact that all of the questions were directly from the diagram.

And lastly, we used the skills practice game and my kids LOVED it. 

For each text dependent question about beavers that they answered correctly, their dam grew a little bit until it reached the top of the screen. We played the two rounds that were available and they were super bummed when there wasn't a third round!

You can see how much we were able to do from this one issue of Scholastic News! I use it whole class on Fridays and they look so forward to it each week. I could easily break up the activities and use one each day with the whole class or even in my small groups. If you've been thinking about trying Scholastic News, now is a great time. You can save 40% on a classroom subscription when you follow this link or call 1-800-SCHOLASTIC then use code 2905.

I've got one more piece of news to pass along. Scholastic also has a print on demand site with over 20,000 engaging lesson plans and activities. I've also been a subscriber to this site for a few years myself. I pull materials from so many different sites when I'm planning (or many times on the fly!) and Scholastic Printables is always great for skills based, perfectly leveled, professional content. You can dive in and try it free for 30 days by following this link.

So, the three big takeaways from this post:

1. Share your best #SmartTeachingTip using Scholastic News and share it on your social media accounts. You just might win $200 to spend in the Scholastic Teacher Store!

2. Save 40% on a new subscription to Scholastic News using the code 2905.

3. Check out Scholastic Printables free for 30 days!

I can't wait to see your Smart Teaching Tips!

~in partnership with Scholastic Magazines

   

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SunnyDays

Whether you're heading into your first year as a teacher, or your 20th, First Day Jitters are real! This will be year 24 for me and although I'm not nervous, per se, I do still get a slight case of the jitters. So what's the cure? Being planned and prepared. In fact, be OVER planned and OVER prepared!

Remember this is a whole new crop of kids who you really don't know too much about. They may be way faster than last year's lovies or maybe they are super slow pokes. You may have to spend some time with a little one not quite ready to say good bye to blankies and cartoons at 8:00 AM (It's hard, y'all!)

So I have a few ideas and essentials that will help you be ready for anything after that first bell rings. This is lots of years of experience talking - if there's one thing I know, it's that the first few days set the tone for the year. You want your new students to feel happy, excited, safe, and secure. This is accomplished by welcoming them with an activity they can start independently right away. Imagine being in your student's shoes. Maybe you're shy, maybe you don't recognize anyone, maybe you're just scared of the "newness" of everything. You walk in, find your seat, and...then what? Wait for everyone else to come in? Let your mind race as your anxiety builds? Start to get a little more upset when you realize your best friend isn't in your class for the first time since Kindergarten? Help ease all of those fears with a simple activity. I've got a few ideas that I've used over the years.

•Play-doh! Put a little party favor style tub of Play-Doh on each student's desk before they arrive. This idea has been around for a long time and some teachers who have WAY more time than I do actually make the play doh themselves. I hear that it doesn't take much time, but for me it's worth the $10 to buy it. I found a bag of 15 party favor sized tubs at Amazon here, but I've also had luck finding generic brand Play-Doh at Dollar Tree. (works just as well). Put a note on the board that directs the kids to make something that is important to them or what they did over the summer. You'll have lots of busy hands, relaxed minds, and cute kid chatter as they start creating. Sometimes I put little baskets of tools out on the tables - plastic forks, knives, cookie cutters, etc. This will also give you the first glimpse of their sharing skills.

 I actually like to save this activity for later in the day, like after lunch. It's a great way to break up the day. After we create, we do what I like to call a "half and half walk and talk".  I totally made that up. Catchy though, right?  Basically, it means that half of us get up and walk around the room while the other half stays seated. Then the "walkers" casually stop and the "talkers" tell about their creation. Then we switch. We do this a lot during the year, so we take the time to really set the standard for acceptable noise level, appropriate questions, eye contact, and having an actual conversation.

• Handprint Puzzles. I wouldn't suggest starting the day with this one, but definitely make time for it on the first day. I buy blank puzzle templates (you can get them here on Amazon in pack of 24 for $12.99). Be sure to tell the kids NOT to break the puzzle apart until they are done tracing their hand and coloring it. 

I always have a kid or two try to color each puzzle piece a different color, which kind of defeats the purpose of it being a puzzle - so I have an example to show them the difference. After they color the puzzle, then we break it apart, and seal it up in an envelope (I like these self sealing ones). 

Don't forget to add the little poem. You can snag that here from Dropbox. It's the best part! Day one homework is always to put together your puzzle and talk about your first day. Awww...

•Welcome Back Pack. This little pack has been a lifesaver for me. I typically put a pack on the students' desks with a fresh pack of crayons and a fun pencil. 

This goes back to my philosophy of giving the kids something they can do right away to take the focus off of their nerves or uncertainty. All of the tasks are things that can be completed independently but can also certainly be done with friends. I don't expect them to come in, sit down and quietly do a packet of worksheets. It's just something for them to focus on and chat about with their new friends. Some kids are naturally great conversationalists (for SURE) but some are not. Those are the kids I worry about. The great part about this pack is that they can keep it in their folder and I can have them pull it out and work on it when I need a few minutes of teacher-time during the first couple of days. You know, when you realize you never sent your attendance, or a new second grade friend shows up at your door in the middle of the day, or you really, really, really have the urge to do a one-on-one with a new little friend to see what's up.  The activities in the pack are not-so-much All About Me so that they don't overlap with the other things like that that we all usually do.  It's a great way to practice acceptable behaviors when moving around the room to work in other areas, like laying on the rug, using the stools, or enjoying other alternative seating options. I've got separate packs for second and third grade and you can find them on tpt here and here.

•Icebreaker Game Ok, this one is probably my favorite, especially since it got a fun make-over last year. It's a super easy to prep board game that will help your kids get to know each other. It was meant to be a one time game for the first day, but my kids asked me over and over if they could play the "fish game" so I couldn't pack it up for a couple of weeks. It's also a really great way to set the ground rules for acceptable behavior when choosing parters, personal space, taking turns, cleaning up, etc. You can find it here on tpt.

When I was gathering up ideas for this post, I found so many cute things that I wanted to share, but I feel like this is a pretty good start. I'll do my best to come back in a couple of days to share some other ideas. I'll be in my room most of next week getting it ready and then we officially report back on the 15th. Yikes!

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SunnyDays

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I am a full-fledged subscription box junkie. Pretty often, this is what awaits me when I get home from work. It's kind of hard to hide from the hubby when they all decide to show up on the same day! I am in full on Treat Yo Self mode these days...

 

At my best count I currently subscribe to 9 different boxes. When I post a snippet on Instagram there's always some interest so I've been toying with the idea of blogging about them for a while but I have been a master procrastinator lately! However, my two newest boxes showed up this week and they are too awesome not to share so it kind of lit a fire under my lazy rump!

Let's start backwards and take a look at my newest box. It's called Peaches and Petals and I found it by cruising #subscriptionbox on Instagram. 

This is not a box specifically for teachers, but this one has classroom decor written alllll over it! Each box is curated with a theme, as many sub boxes are, and Peaches and Petals totally nailed the "Let's Get Together" theme for this box.

The first thing that caught my eye was the set of paper medallions. It's a kit of six multicolored decorations of different sizes. Snuggled under those in the box were two sets of chalkboard decor items...swoon! One was a pack of twelve chalkboard arrows with rub-on chalk art transfers and a 10 foot chalkboard pennant. The pennant set is very cool. Each flag is double sided - black on one side and varied dots and stripes on the other. It also included little chalkboard circles to use with the colored side. The package says that both have write on surfaces and the pennant even comes with cute black and white twine for hanging. Tell me that stuff right there is not totally teacher eye candy! But of course it would be fabulous to use as intended decor for a get-together at home (which appeals to me way more than ever these days).

On to the rest of the goodies! The showstopper item is definitely this set of party tasting spoons. The set of six spoons comes with a matching plate to sit on. I've eyed up these spoons so many times when I've been out shopping and never actually purchased them, so I was super thrilled to see them in the box. Very often, I will gift some items from my boxes to friends or family when I feel like a certain item fits them. I had an inkling about someone who would love these spoons, but I'm not sure I can let them go!

The rest of the items included a cute set of vintage inspired cocktail napkins, an adorable mini cutting board perfect to put out at the drink station with some lemons and limes, a game of charades, and these adorable and super trendy chevron party straws! I was excited when I thought it was a set of four straws, but there are 20 of them in the box! 

This totally is a party in a box. It's getting me in the mood to have friends over for a summer bbq! This box is ridiculously affordable considering how amazing it was - just $19.99! Right now you can still order this exact box with free shipping while supplies last.  You can purchase this box as a one time item or subscribe for 3, 6, or 12 months. The thing about any sub box is that you never know what's going to be inside and some months are definitely better than others, but to me it always works out to be worth it. If I don't love or use every item, I have two sisters, a niece, and a ton of friends who I can gift unwanted items to. There are also forums where people swap and sell box items, which I am definitely going to look into this summer.

You can learn more and purchase the box here if it looks good to you! Next month's theme is "Under the Boardwalk" and I can hardly wait!

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SunnyDays

Even though I teach gifted students I was finding that many of them lacked quick fact fluency for even one digit addition and subtraction problems. It's hard to teach problem solving, multi-step word problems, and critical thinking when the basic math foundation is weak. So back in November, I started creating games that I could use with my kids as part of our math block. I focused on games that I could put together quickly without a ton of cutting and organizing and without a bunch of little pieces I would need to keep track of. As the year has gone on, I've created a set for each month and I've been improving on the basic idea as I go along. I will most likely go back and add some things to the other sets over the summer because this final set that I finished this week is definitely my favorite! It's probably at least partl because of the summery flip floppy theme but also because these games are really appealing to my kids and covering exactly what I need them to focus on before they leave me and head to third grade! #sniffsniff

I still have to create a set of Back to School and October games and do some sprucing up of my existing sets before I bundle them, but yes a bundle is coming. In the meantime, you can check out this set HERE

and past months at the following links: November, December, January, February, March, April.

Hang in there friends, the light of the summer sun is almost at the end of the tunnel!

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SunnyDays

With Earth Day right around the corner, I thought I'd share some resources you can use with your kids with minimal prep. That seems to be my focus lately - minimal prep. That is high on my list of criteria for new resources lately, both for those I create and those I purchase. It's almost May. Need I say more?

So first up I have a freebie from my newest product line that I'm calling One Sheet Wonders. I was actually inspired by children's restaurant menus. They really pack a lot of fun stuff in a small space, so I tried to emulate that with these new printables. Of course I'm not actually using them the same way a restaurant would. I created them to align with the major subjects we teach in science and have been using them for the past couple of months. Before we start a new unit, we explore one of the pages and have some fun with word play, coloring, puzzles, and fun facts. It really gets them interested in what's coming their way and it gives me an idea of how much they know or think they know about our next unit of study. Since we've already learned about matter, science tools, and some of the other topics, I've been using those sheets for morning work. I also get called out of the room quite a bit for quick meetings and these have been perfect to leave with the paraprofessional who is covering my classes for a few minutes. So, if you're interested in the whole set, you can find them here.  I'm currently working on a set for habitats, next up is math concepts and social studies. In the meantime, enjoy this one for Earth Day to try them out with your kids. Click here to download it on TpT.

If you follow me in Instagram, you're probably familiar with my Orange Board Question of the Day. Every day I post a quick little question on this easel. This week I've been using facts from this free set of Earth Day task cards. You can download them here for yourself.

They're fun discussion starters or even writing prompts. Before the orange board appeared, I would use these in those weird little five minutes here and there that are too short to really do anything and too long to do nothing.

I've got one more fun freebie for word work. I have a few of these freebies in my store for different holidays, so my kids are used to them. The good thing is that I get a chorus of "yays" instead of "ughs" when I hand them out. lol! Click here to download this freebie.

Enjoy and Happy Earth Day!

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SunnyDays

I try to teach direct lessons on book genres at the start of the year because it's just such a basic part of kids knowing about books and discovering what they like to read. My library is organized by genre, we discuss genre every time I read a book to them, we pack our book boxes with a mix of genres...so moving the study of genres to the start of the year just seems to make good sense. Plus it's fun for me to be all dramatic when I teach them how to say "genre".

I have a pretty eclectic mix of resources that I use when I'm explicitly teaching genres, but today I'm going to share a few that I found especially fun this time around. The first was actually something I put together a couple of years ago as part of my formal observation lesson. It worked really well during my observation and my kids begged to "play" it again. To introduce the genres, I created a four pictures-one word type activity to play together as a class. Considering it was the first time they were being exposed to the names of the genres, I used the slide that gave them a few letters in the right place to start. {I created three slides for each genre - one with just the spaces, one with a few letters filled in, and one that reveals the answer}

The cards are pretty versatile.  If projecting them whole group doesn't float your boat, you can definitely print them for a literacy center or even an interactive bulletin board. I've just recently polished the set up enough to add to my tpt shop, so if you'd like to check this out to use with your class, you can see it here.

After we had a basic grasp on some genres, we went to town dissecting some Scholastic book order forms to find examples of them. They LOVED this. And I loved hearing all the discussion they were having about how or why particular books would best be suited to each category. It was during this activity they realized that sometimes a book kind of crosses the lines from one genre to another or has some elements of more than one genre. Learning this through their own discovery was much more meaningful than if I were to have told them. If you'd like the simple form I used for this activity, just click here to snag it from Dropbox. I also included a blank form so you can have your kids write in the genres they find if the ones I had listed don't work for you.

Another resource I love to use with my kids are these genre task cards. Kids read a little scenario about an imaginary book and they have to decide the most likely genre of the book. I love the versatility of task cards and most of the year these live on my Brain Builders wall, but we took them down and used them in small groups for this part of our study. You can find those in my tpt shop as well if they look interesting to you.

Happy Teaching, my friends. Until next time...

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SunnyDays

So, notice anything different around here? How gorgeous is my new blog design!? Big buckets of love and thanks to Megan from A Bird in Hand Designs. It's like she was in my head throughout the entire design process and what she produced for me was exactly what I envisioned. I'm in LoVe!

To celebrate, here's a little freebie you might like. I made a winter version of this game and my kids went bonkers over it! The key is to play just a couple of games at a time over a few days. As my friend Reagan once said, "Always leave them wanting more!" She was talking about her math rotations, but for some reason that little pearl of wisdom just stuck with me. Also, I'm ALWAYS the caller. I have found that that minute that you turn the calling duty over to a kid, chaos ensues along with a chorus of "what did you say?" being yelled whispered after every word.

The kids create their own game boards by cutting and gluing the words of their choice onto the blank bingo board. I take a little time to let them make the game in class, but if your class time is limited, consider sending it home for homework.  If your class time is super limited, you can just have them write the words in the squares on the blank board. With the winter game, we played each day of the last week of school during that weird 10 minute block of time most of us have that's too short to really do anything with but too long to not do anything with. You know what I'm talking about, right? It helped with behavior management too because whenever something was taking a bit too long because of a severe chase of chatterboxia, I would ponder aloud in my most thoughtful teacher voice, "hmmm I wonder if we'll have enough time to play bingo today?" and like magic, we were back on track.

Now to be fair, I did have some pretty cool prizes up for grabs. I picked up some smelly Crayola markers from Walgreens that were about 39 cents each and some random holiday trinkets from the party store. I also offered up some fuzzies that we use for our reward system and some sweet treats. Since we only played 2-3 games a day, I didn't go through too many prizes.

We don't have an all out party for Valentine's Day. Instead it's referred to as a "treat day" which makes NO difference at all in the way the kids perceive the day. They're kids. They're excited about handing out their little cards and packets of Fun-Dip or what have you. So I try to work in as much fun stuff as I can. Can I tell you how big I smiled when I realized we'll celebrate on a Friday this year? Almost, but not quite as big as I smiled when Halloween was celebrated on a Friday! Now that was Heaven sent...

So, if you'd like to download this little freebie for yor kids, just click here. In the product description you'll also find some links for my other bingo games.

Happy Heart Day!

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SunnyDays