I'm not sure I even believe it's already March - but here we are! I have a fun project to share with you today. I love this one because the kids are always so proud when they bring them in!  We do this as a whole team and so the hallway is just filled with shamrocks. Sometimes we run down the hallway with our arms out pretending that we're running through a field of shamrocks in Ireland. Or maybe the kids are just running in the hall because they're seven and have more energy in their pinky than I do in my whole body. Yeah, I'm guessing it's probably that.

We have the kids trace a shamrock onto green paper and then take it home to cut out and decorate. The idea is to get families to work on the project together. It's a nice change of pace homework assignment.

I blogged about this project last year over at Really Good Stuff, but at that point I didn't have a direction page to share. But, guess what? I do now and here it is! Just click HERE to download it. I included the direction page to send home and a shamrock pattern. The shamrock is actually smaller than the one we use, so you can either enlarge it or maybe even project it and copy it onto a piece of large construction paper. The ones on my board are actually freehanded by me. I just made a few tracers on tagboard.

Have a fantastic week, my friends!

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SunnyDays

I have been super busy at work in my little teacher workshop (which also doubles as my dining room table) on a few new projects that I'm excited to share with you!

First up is my March Printables Pack. I started making these back in October and they've really evolved! This month's pack is full of all things spring and St. Patty's Day. I've included some of the same activities that I've gotten great feedback on, like the calendar page and wall of words. There's also a fun writing activity and addition and subtraction practice which should mirror what second and certainly third graders are doing right about now. In total, there are 19 pages of printable goodies for you! Each page has the CCSS for 1, 2 and 3 as appropriate right on the page to help you with planning purposes and of course all answer keys are included. It's on sale through tonight. Just click HERE to check it out.

And now for a project that I have been working on non-stop, every day, all night and each weekend day straight for at least the last month. It's an updated version of my Weekly Word Wizards. I changed the name to Second Grade Common Core Weekly Word Work for a few reasons. For one, I wanted it to be more obvious to people what they were looking at. Word Wizard sounded fun to me and I had the cute little wizard graphic, but it wasn't very descriptive. Secondly, I've had to make a second set of Word Wizards without the wizards because the element of magic involved in the wizard was not acceptable at some schools. That was actually surprising to me at first, but I can understand it and I really didn't have a problem making a modification like that.

I would also get lots of questions about what grade level the Word Wizards were for and if they were Common Core aligned. Truth be told, the original set was made before CCSS was the big buzzword and although lots the skills were the same, the way they were presented needed to shift more in line with common core. For example, the way prefixes and suffixes were addressed in the Word Wizard sets was just to have students identify which part of the word was an affix and which was the base word. In this new set, it's presented a bit differently. For example for prefixes the students are asked, "Which word means to read again" and they are given the choice between reread and unread.  Some CCSS were not addressed at all before, like non-fiction text features which now appear in this set. And some skills weren't quite so necessary anymore, like antonyms and synonyms.  Here's a list of exactly what is covered in the new and improved Common Core Weekly Word Work:

 If that's hard to read, just download the preview.

It's in there too along with a free week to try with your class.

With my Word Wizards, I created and released them one set at a time. Every few days I would get an email or question about offering them as a bundle. So this time, I decided to complete the entire set at once and release it as a yearlong unit. I guess doing this midyear isn't great timing - but I've also had a few people ask me about making enough to use daily, so this might help a bit in that area. It's also priced as a bundle. Listed individually, they would be $5.75 for a nine-week set, totaling $23 for the year. This set is listed at $19.50.

If you've been using my original Word Wizards, this might be a nice way to kick up the intensity for the end of the year. The format is the same, so students should be able to transition to it easily enough. I'm working on third grade now and fourth is looking more like a summer project at this point. If you've been using the first grade versions, I think those will be getting a facelift too, but since they are already CCSS aligned, the content won't change at all and you'll be able to just download the update when the time comes. 

Any questions, just ask! Have a fantastic work week ahead :)

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SunnyDays

I am back from a few fabulous days of sun and fun with the hubs. What's better than hanging poolside with an adult beverage and your honey? Already looking forward to the next getaway...

But for now, it's back to reality! Thank you all so, so much for taking the time to leave your feedback and comments on my Weekly Math Magic. I value each and every comment and I will definitely take all of it into consideration as I make the full sets. Tuesday's post was just kind of a prototype to get an idea of what's coming. I'm going to do my best to have the first set ready by the end of the weekend. More details soon! In the meantime, if you didn't get a chance to check it out, click {HERE} and leave a comment for a chance to win a full set as soon as it's ready! (I'll choose those winners by Saturday night!)

Now, on to some other super exciting news! My friend Yvonne over at Sassy In Second was kind enough to include me in a fantastic St. Patty's Day Giveaway! So hop on over to read all of the details by clicking on the picture below - good luck, my friends!

Speaking of giveaways, Congrats to Melissa who won the HearAll Assessment Recorder from Learning Resources. There are two more great giveaways from LR coming so be sure to check in on Giveaway Monday (thanks to Camille for that idea!)

Our spring break fell during the week I'd normally do my St. Patty's stuff, so I'll be skipping over most of it this year, BUT I must share this cute cute cute fantastic adorable craftivity created by The Teacher Wife. Click {HERE} to visit her beautiful blog and download the activity. Can you believe that I did not know I could run regular ol' construction paper through the printer? Sooo much better than having the kids color it in!

Seriously, what did I do before Pinterest?! Although I could do without all of these St. Patty's minty food recipes...I'm not a big fan. Minty foods make me feel like I'm eating toothpaste. I'm a weirdo. I know.

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SunnyDays