Fabulous Finds Friday--April 4, 2014

Check out these new finds with our Fabulous Finds Friday linky!

The Curriculum Corner 

 

As a teacher nowadays, whenever I need to find something I go right to Google and search, which is what I assume every teacher does! How did teachers look for things before Google? Anyways, I can't remember what I was looking for at the time, but I came across the The Curriculum Corner.  This was such a great find! It was created by 2 educators that have made great resources tied to Common Core, but also lessons, printables, and other resources that can be used K-8. We have used their Measurement Book, which my students loved, as well as assessments and activities with prefixes. These two ladies have made their resources free (what teacher doesn't love that word :), and I highly recommend checking it out!

Reading Rockets 

Another site that I found, and love, is Reading Rockets.  This site has great lessons and resources, as well as videos of authors to share with students. We will be focusing on poetry this month, and this site has videos from poets such as Jack Prelutsky, Mary Ann Hoberman, and Janet Wong. Also included are lessons using poetry to teach rhythm and rhyme (and 2nd grade CC standard :), as well as writing poetry. Fly on over and check it out!

 

Poetry for Two Voices

I wanted to beef up my collection of poetry books for two voices, so I search and found a couple of fabulous collections.

Messing Around on the Monkey Bars and Other School Poems for Two Voices by Betsy Franco is perfect! Love this collection of poems related to many aspects of school with creativity and humor.  Can't wait for my kids to enjoy this one!  Link on the cover to learn more... A must for any poetry collection!

Perfect for this time of year---Seeds, Bees, Butterflies, and More: Poems for Two Voices by Carole Gerber is a gem as well.  Beautifully illustrated! 

Some Oldies with New Access

Many moons ago (about 18 years now), I purchased a collection of National Geographic Really Wild Animals VHS tapes. Yes--VHS!! Well, I have not really used them much in the past few years because of the format. Until a couple of weeks ago, I never thought of checking to see if the episodes were available for streaming on amazon.  Silly me!  I was pleasantly surprised to find my whole collection (and some others) for $1.99 an episode! If you have never heard of/seen any of these episodes, you will love them just as much as the kids do. They are chocked full of fun and information! The music videos are hilarious--AND they are narrated by the late Dudley Moore, as Spin.  Take a look!

We would love for you to link up your Fabulous Finds! Just grab our log to use in your post and link up below.  Click here to learn more about our Fabulous Finds Friday linky!

 

Enjoy your Friday, and have a splendid weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

Fabulous Finds Friday!

Linking up our finds for Fabulous Finds Friday a bit early!

New Blog Design

FABULOUS INDEED!  That's how we feel about our spankin' new blog design by Tenille from The Cutest Blog on the Block!

Just a week ago, I was fortunate to find The Cutest Block on the Block's custom design website... the rest is history!

I cannot say enough how wonderful it was to work with Tenille from The Cutest Blog on the Block! Her design was just what we were looking for—we LOVE everything about it! Communication was a breeze—timely, helpful, and friendly.  Not to mention, she was fast!  I filled out the order form at the end of the week, heard back over the weekend that she had already started, and our blog was up an running by Wednesday night. Highly recommended!

Gynzy!

What a great site! A fellow teaching mate found Gynzy and passed on her find.  Gynzy is FULL of SmartBoard interactive lessons, activities, tools, organizers, and games.  It's worth the time to check out. You can try it for free! I am planning on subscribing for the next school year... 

 Storybook Maker App

Uugh! How I came upon this find was not the most fun!  I found a storybook making app for my second graders to use at the end of last year, had it approved to be installed on our iPads, it was installed, then I asked for it to be updated this week.  Unfortunately, the app was not what it was before the update--no text editing. Not a good thing for second graders!  Well, to make a bit of a long story short, our district's tech coordinator helped me find a fabulous app in a flash--Storybook Maker.  It's user friendly, has many design options, full editing options, and more! I have had great fun experimenting with the app, and  I can't wait to get started using it with my students to publish their nonfiction animal books. Would love to know if anyone out there has used this app with their students...

Adobe Illustrator Tutorial Find!

I learn something new every day!!  Found this super-easy tutorial for creating a white border around text on YouTube--Adobe Illustrator Tutorial--Object Expand Tool.  After getting our new blog design, I wanted to be able to create some linky buttons to complement the design.  Jumped on line and this was the first tutorial I clicked on.  With this tutorial, I was on my way to creating our new Fabulous Finds Friday link logo. Love this look!

Why not link up your fabulous finds?  Learn more about our Fabulous Finds Friday linky by clicking here.  Don't have a blog? Please feel free to share one of your fabulous finds in a comment.

Enjoy your Friday!

An InLinkz Link-up

Fabulous Finds Friday & Five for Friday

It's FRIDAY!  

Thanks for flying on over for our Fabulous Finds Friday Linky and Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaches!

Fabulous Find: Math Stretches

A couple of summers ago, I heard about Laney Sammon's book Guided Math. I just knew I had to buy it and read it for myself. Guided math was something I always wanted to do, especially since I had been doing and loving guided reading for 10 years, but I just couldn't quite grasp how to get it up and running in my classroom. Her book was great and I really liked her idea of Math Stretches. They are short, simple math activities the kids do to "stretch" their brain into thinking mathematically.

Well fast forward to about a month ago. I read (probably on a blog, or Pinterest) that Ms. Sammons came out with a book that focused just on Math Stretches and ordered it immediately (don't ya just LOVE Amazon Prime:). The book I ordered is geared to K-2 and it is fabulous!! Ms. Sammons has GREAT math stretches in all areas of math (number knowledge, algebraic operations, measurement, geometry, data). I have it ready to go when my students arrive in the morning, and we discuss the stretch at the beginning of our math block. She has everything laid out in this book and even when I have a sub, the sub can read the explanation and what the students are to do. Something I don't have to write in sub notes!

This is the K-2 book I have. She has them available in 3-5, and 6-8 also. 
 I HIGHLY recommend it! 

Two-Word Winter Poems

If you have never tried writing two-word poems with your kids, they are a great for any age!  What's so nice about two-word poems? The format is EASY, a two-word poem can be written about ANYTHING, and writing them is a great opportunity for students to use strong adjectives and verbs (personification, too--though I do not use that term with my second graders). Courtney and I just got done doing two-word winter poems with our kids.  The first step was for students to brainstorm any words/ideas that came to their minds when they thought of winter. The lists were long. To reinforce the use of adjectives, we worked as a class to generate some strong adjectives that could be used to describe various nouns that students had on their lists.  Students circled all of the nouns on their lists, and this was a reminder that adjectives could be used to describe those winter ideas (if they chose to include them in their poems).  We also talked about using strong verbs and describing those actions.  We have not worked specifically on the term adverbs as of yet, but this was an introduction to this concept.  The next step was for each student to choose a focus for his/her poem.  Some choices were snow (in general), fun in the snow, snowflakes, bundling up, a fireplace, and hot cocoa.  Finally, students were off and working on their poems.  The rules--two-words per line with a minimum of 5 lines. Oh--and their ideas must "fit together" and make good sense.  I did not provide a lot of guidance during the writing stage.  Students' creations were fabulous! They were perfect to accompany our wintery tree artwork.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: Mini-Lesson & Class Book

Many of you have probably seen this mentor text for teaching conventions (use of commas) in writing--Eats, Shotts, and Leaves by Lynne Truss.  I saw a need for more work with using commas consistently and correctly to separate words/ideas in a series within the context of student's writing, so I decided to use this text for a mini-lesson.  It's a fun, yet useful, presentation of how important it is to use commas correctly.  While it presents the use of commas in various ways, other than to separate words/ideas in a series, its illustrations help students understand the purpose of punctuation--to tell their readers how to read their writing.

Here's an overview of the mini-lesson:

Read aloud text.  Students will laugh! Stop to discuss why the text is so funny.  Students will realize how one small thing, a comma, can change how a simple sentence is read. Reassure students that they do not need to know all of the different ways commas are used in the text. Yet, let them know they will need to use commas correctly to separate words/ideas in a series.  Ask students if they remember a page in the text where the author used this skill.  Revisit these pages. Tell students they will get a chance to use commas in this way in the creation of a class book. Project pages from the text that are specific to the skill being taught.  Then give each student a prompt such as, My __________ loves to...  Model using the prompt to write a sentence with the use of commas.  Example: My grandson loves to drink chocolate milk, play Batman, and listen to me read.  After students have finished writing their sentences, tell them to close their eyes and picture what is happening or being described.  Then allow students to illustrate. Compile student work into a class book for future enjoyment and easy reference.

Here are some pages from our class book...

Math Bags

One night, when reading the many wonderful blogs I visit, I came across First Grade Buddies. I read how they incorporate Math Bags during their math block. Now I spend A LOT of my nights and weekends printing, laminating, and cutting activities for my math workstations, and was looking for something that was simple, but still reinforced the math skills my students need. Their Math Bags were just what I was looking for. They have created math skill activities that my students can do independently. I love how the directions for students are easy to follow, I love that I don't have to use colored ink, I love that they reinforce skills we have worked on in the classroom, and I love that they meet Common Core standards.  They are a win, win with me!
  

I purchased the 2nd grade set, but I  know they have them available for Kindergarten and 1st also.  I purchased the seasonal Valentine's Day version too!

New Clipart

Another snow day this week meant some extra time to create some new clipart!  

Check them out in my Graphics by Sarah Beth TpT Store!

Feel free to link up your fabulous finds! Have a wonderful weekend!

Fabulous Finds Friday! - January 31, 2014

Good morning!  We are back with our first Fabulous Finds Friday of the new year! Feel free to link up your fabulous finds!

Traits Writing Resource

One of my latest finds is a traits writing resource that was published in 2009, but I had never come across it before--Month-by-Month Trait-Based Writing Instruction: Ready-to-Use Lessons and Strategies for Weaving Morning Messages, Read Alouds, Mentor Texts and More Into Your Daily Writing Program by Maria P. Walther & Katherine A. Phillips.  This resources is full of goodies!  I especially like that most ideas included are perfect for mini-lessons and how so many wonderful picture books are presented. Sure, you could use the activities month-by-month, but it's not required--you can pick and choose what works best for you in your current writing program.  I feel this resources is a must have for K-2!

Letter Writing Mentor Text

I have a collection of picture books in which authors use letter writing, but I recently found this gem--Dear Annie by Judith Caseley.  What a touching story of the relationship between a grandfather and his granddaughter that was created through letter writing over the years.  This is a perfect mentor text showing the real-life use of letter writing.  Just a blurb from the back of the book--"My Grandpa is my pen pal," Annie tells her class at show-and-tell one day.  Its' true.  Annie and her Grandpa have written each other letters since the day Annie was born...  Dear Annie is an oldie-but-goodie that was published in 1991.  So glad I found it!

A Couple of Dollar Finds!

I did not even realize that K-mart had a little dollar deals aisle now.  Found these 2-pack jumbo paperclip bookmarks!

Also, I just discovered some perfect sticky notes for the classroom--thumbs up and thought bubbles.  These work famously for kudos and our exit board.

Here is our button if you would like to link up something fabulous you have found!

Have a splendid weekend!

Fabulous Finds Friday, October 18, 2013 -- A Day Late!

So sorry we are late with our Fabulous Finds Friday.  It has been that kind of week...

The first find we would like to share was found by Courtney last weekend when she took advantage of the Barnes & Noble Teacher Appreciation Sale in our area.  She found these fabulous Scholastic A True Book Series.  She purchased Polar Mammals, Walt Disney, and Sam Walton.  They are a great addition to her classroom library.  Each is priced at $6.99, yet they were buy 2 get one free plus 25% off with the sale.  You might want to check to see if there is a sale going on in your area...

The other find both Courtney and I found, but we had not even discussed our find with one another.  Great minds think alike! :0)  Wendell Minor's How Big Could Your Pumpkin Grow? is a must have!

Synopsis from amazon.com: Every year, giant pumpkin contests take place at fairs across the country—the 2012 record-holder weighed over a ton! The latest craze is to carve the most enormous pumpkins into racing boats. But what’s next? Why not think really big? Award-winning artist Wendell Minor does just that as he imagines larger-than-life pumpkins decorating some of America’s favorite places—as immense as the Capitol dome, Mount Rushmore, the Brooklyn Bridge, even the Grand Canyon! This celebration of famous landmarks and landscapes plays with concepts of size and scale and is full of fun facts.

What a great picture book for teaching about adjectives this time of year as well.  Take a look at two of the beautiful pages from inside the book.

Visit Wendell Minors website to learn more about this phenomenal artist and writer.  You are sure to be taken with him and his creations, if you aren't already.

We would love for you to link up for Fabulous Finds Friday!

Have a wonderful weekend!