It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas {{GIVEAWAY}}

It’s officially December and I am officially in the Christmas mindset.

Christmas candles are lit, Christmas lights are up, and our tree is completely ornamented.

{{Ornamented might be a made up word}}

I’m also in a pretty darn good mood because the TpT Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) SALE starts tomorrow!!!!

My cart is stocked. 

See, I like to shop on Monday, earn credits, then go back for more on Tuesday.

It’s my version of “extreme couponing”.

My lil’ store is so stockpiled with Christmas goodies you might think I don’t sell anything else.

But I do!

It’s just, I love Christmas so…

Here are my NEWEST Christmas items. Hot off the presses and posted today! Today, you guys!!!

My Winter-Holidays Comprehension sheets are up.  They’ve also been added to the BUNDLED version, so if you own that, make sure you redownload before the holidays!



There are 8 passages, and they cover such topics as…
*German Christmas Markets
*Santa’s Many Names
*Traditions
*Christmas in Australia
*Hanukkah
*Santa Claus
and, of course,
*Christmas!

I can’t wait to use them with my kiddos starting this week.  We have just really been getting into going back into the text to support our answers. These passages are beyond perfect for enforcing such an important skill.



I’m a million kids of excited about my newest Christmas addition…”Santa’s Little Helpers”



It’s an “Elf-Themed” Hallway Hunt/Read the Room Activity with 3 R/LA and 3 Math activities.  Common Core Aligned and Perfect for 1st and 2nd Grade!

To get your kiddos excited about the Hallway Hunt, I’ve provided some fun printables that they’ll need before they board Santa’s sleigh…

An “Official Letter”…


Boarding Passes…


ID Badges…

PS: They're not really gray. I don't know why Blogger is doing that.  

and then, of course, there are the “missions”

Not all “missions” are shown. There are 6 in all, plus recording sheets to keep your students accountable!

And a few days ago I added my Christmas Clues Inferring and Context Clues Center. If you’ve seen my “Costume Clues” or “A Feast of Clues” it’s set-up a lot like that!






Those are the new items, but my hands-down favorite item in my store is my “Christmas Around the World” unit.



I created it because I wanted my students to have resources to read about each country’s celebrations.  I didn’t want to have to buy a bunch of books from Amazon, or rent them from the library, and I wanted my students to do the reading…



All mini-books are interactive, which means students read about different customs and traditions for each country and then complete an activity on each page…







It’s a HUGE hit and the best part is that my kiddos RETAIN what they’ve learned because they’ve done the reading themselves and interacted with the pages.

Read more about Christmas Around the World in my classroom here.



And here are some other items you might want to add to your cart..

Click the image to check it out on TpT!

Now, for the GIVEAWAY…I’m making it SUPER SIMPLE!  Just comment below with your email…I won’t even make you answer a question this time!  I will pick one winner to pick $20 worth of product from my store. You can have anything you want! It doesn’t have to be listed here!

I will pick a winner before I go to bed tonight. The winner will be announced on my FB Fan Page, so make sure you like me :)

Last time I did a giveaway a few people had trouble commenting. If that happens to you, email me (acrossthehallin2nd@gmail.com) and I'll add you to the "Husband Random Numer Generator List". Please only email me if you cannot leave a comment.

Whatever you’re buying, I hope you have shopping the sale tomorrow and Tuesday :)

Oh, Hey Halloween! Plus, a Spooky Sale!

Well, it’s upon us.  Halloween Week. I’m not sure I’m well rested enough to handle the craziness that this week is sure to bring. I mean, I’m dog-tired from regular October activities.

In other words, October is so totally kicking my butt.

Not to be confused with September. I think I blocked it from my memory.

My kiddos are sure to be wired (it also happens to be red-ribbon week at our school as well)…

but I’m ready for them.  My electronic filing cabinet is stock-piled with tons of awesome Halloween units and activities.  So, bring.it.on!

All week long, we’ll be taking part in spooky reading.  I’ll turn the lights off and play some spooky sounds and students can read by flashlight.  It’s read to self in disguise and it’s a big hit in my room year after year!

We’ll also be fully immersed in centers from some of my favorite bloggers and creators:

(Katie King)

(Swimming Into Second)

(me!)

We’ll be doing lots of literacy and writing-themed activities as well!

We’re gonna get our buddy reading on with these fun and spooky poems from Tanja. My kiddos already love reading from their poetry folders so this is gonna put them over the edge!

(Journey of a Substitute Teacher)

We’ll be reading some of my favorite Halloween-themed books and completing activities to go along with them.  I’m so luck to have Rachel’s pack, which makes it really easy on me…I don’t have to come up with anything! Halloweiner is definitely the favorite year after year.

(Rachel Lamb)

I love all this learning disguised as pure fun! I’m continuing that theme with my Fall Comprehension Sheets.  We’re just now getting into using text-based evidence to support our answers and restating the question in our answer.  It’s tough for them, I can’t lie. I will say, my reading passages definitely make it a little more fun for them and easy for me!

I’m really looking forward to Thursday and Friday when we’ll turn into little witches and wizards and create our own spells and hexes with my spell-writing unit! (It just got a makeover yesterday!!!)

We’ll be creating word families and rhyming words and dreaming up disgusting, slimy, and wretched ingredients for our spells.








As a culmination, we’ll do a spooky author’s share and make a class brew with yucky-sounding ingredients that actually taste delicious.  We’ll even cast a spell for no homework together!



I’m hoping this will be the perfect activity for the day after Halloween. Click here to grab it from TpT.

Speaking of witches, we’ll be doing this amazing reader activity from the ever-talented, Tracy!

(Read all about it here!)

And I’m loving these fun FREEBIES from Jamie (2nd Grade Stuff)

and Once Upon a Classroom

Click the pictures to check them out!

As you can see, we’ll be busy, busy, busy.  I have to keep them in line somehow, right?

If you’re still looking for a few spooktacular activities yourself, I’ve put all my Halloween units on sale through Halloween!  Click the image below to get your shop on!



Because the Fall Passages aren’t classified as a Halloween item you’ll have to search my store separately for them, or click here!

Wishing you a fun (and hopefully not too insane) Halloween Week!

Halle

What’s the Main Idea? Another Halloween FREEBIE!

Well, what do you know? I actually kept my promise of another post and freebie today! Well, not actually a promise, but you know… (If you missed yesterday’s freebie, click here)

We’re learning all about Main Idea in our 2nd grade classroom right now and let’s just be honest: It is easily one of my least favorite comprehension skills to teach. I remember it being a tough skill for me back in the day, and it definitely stumps some of my kiddos.  We’ve learned the tips and tricks. We’ve made the anchor chart. And we’re still.not.getting.it.

So, on a whim the other day I decided to put my overwhelming amount of Halloween clip art to good use whip up some Halloween-themed main idea passages.  I projected them on to my whiteboard and had students write the main idea on their whiteboards. Then we VERBALLY gave some supporting details.

This says, “Manny lost his hat and cannot find it.” (He's correct by the way. This isn't the main idea of the passage above!)

Yep! That’s it!

As you can see, this was a pretty quick and informal exercise but it was a fun way to get some practice in!  We might have to make seasonal passages like this one a regular thing!

I also have to give a shout-out to Tracy from Creekside Teacher Tales. I’ve been using her Non-Fiction Main Idea Pack with my above-level kiddos in reading.  It’s definitely more challenging than the passages I’ve created but it’s an engaging, well made product perfect for my high fliers!!

(Click to check it out!)

Ok, so I promised a FREEBIE!  You can grab these main idea passages for free, but I am going to make you work for it!  Head over to my Facebook page and click the “Freebies for Fans” tab.  If you already “like” me (gee, thanks!) you should be able to download them straight away.  If you’re not yet a fan, just click like and grab them!

(Don't be alarmed by the image you see. It looks like you're going to be downloading "While You Were Out" folder covers.  I just haven't changed the image yet.  You actually get to download the Main Idea Freebie and the folder covers too, if you want! What a steal!

I can’t promise they’ll be there forever though, so act quickly!

Have a great night!

Halle

Daily 5: Work on Writing & Reading Comprehension, plus a Giveaway!

Longest title ever? 

Maybe :) , but I have a lot to say today!!!!

I have been implementing my own version of Daily 5 in my classroom for a good two years now.  Last year it was a lot harder with our schedule, so I am extra excited about using it again this year.

As I said before I use a modified version of Daily 5 {and honestly, who doesn’t}.  In the past that meant that I did not do Work on Writing.  I didn’t much see the point if I did Writer’s Workshop on a {semi} regular basis.
 
But I’m going to be honest: I was not getting to writing nearly as much as I wanted too and not nearly as much as I needed to.  My kids just weren’t writing the way I wanted them to by certain points in the year.

I decided that this year they just need to write {and write and write}!  Yes, I will still do WW, and hopefully a lot more of it because our schedule is a MILLION times better this year, but still I want opportunities for them to write on the days I won’t get to WW.
Here’s how I plan on doing it {with a little help from my friends}!

First, you need to read my friend Tracy’s recent post on D5: Work on Writing {but finish reading here too, okay???}.

{These are FREE by the way!}

I will be using her list resources, and I love her writing prompts idea.  I have a book at school of writing prompts and I’m going to go pick it up so I can get started on typing them up. 

I also need to get to IKEA pronto {maybe I can talk my hubby into a whole new kitchen while we’re there :)}

I also have a FANTASTIC resource from Lori over at “Teaching with Love and Laughter”.  She is just the sweetest and has such amazing products for K-2. {Not to mention she has a pretty sweet giveaway going on right now too!}

I will be using her “Topics to Write About” Resource.

{Click the picture to grab it from TpT}

I actually got the idea to use the topic cards as border around my writing bulletin board so that’s the plan for when I get into my room, but they would also be darling on a key ring or in a binder.  What I love is that you can display certain cards at certain times to keep it fresh and keep your students interested.

To give my little authors guidance and support with their writing, I’ll be using Jen Jones’ “Hello Writing” sheets.  I love them because she uses word banks and illustrations to guide young writers as they write independently.  Scoop them up by clicking that pitiful thumbnail above {sorry I couldn’t grab a better picture…but they are SO WORTH checking out! Click the picture above!!!}

My students will also be writing on seasonal paper that I recently uploaded to my little shop.  What I love about this “stationary” is that there are no prompts or titles on top, so they can use the paper for whatever topic they choose: maybe a narrative, or a fiction story about a haunted house, or a friendly letter to another classmate?  

I also made each monthly set with different handwriting lines to accommodate my students’ handwriting as it progresses through the year.

{Click the picture to grab it rom TpT}

{{My monthly stationary was actually a “flash freebie” on Facebook a few days ago…make sure you’ve liked me so you don’t miss out in the future!}}

That about sums up how I plan on implementing Work On Writing this year.  Stay tuned for pictures…believe me, I’m probably more excited than you are to see how my set-up turns out!

Speaking of Daily 5, there’s another product that I use over and over again when I meet with my small groups: my Common Core Reading Comprehension Passages.  I assign them as homework to some of my higher-leveled kiddos, but I often use them in small groups with my below-level loves.

They’re perfect for practicing open ended questions and supporting your answer with text from the passages.  My kids were SUPER STARS with this by the end of the year last year!!!

I just put up a mini-edition of Back to School Passages.  My Back to School Edition has 8 passages {as opposed to 12 or 13 like my other editions}.  I did a Back to School Edition because I had too many ideas for stories to include them all in my Fall Edition {coming soon!}

If you haven’t tried my passages out yet, the mini-edition would be a great way to get your feet wet, so to speak! 

I have also decided to bundle all my passages together!!!!  If you don’t own more than one version but you think you might like too, I strongly suggest buying the bundled version now.  The price will go up as I add to the bundle {Fall and Winter Holidays Edition coming soon with plans for a non-fiction edition too}, so you’ll save a ton now and update your file as new passages are released.

{Click the picture to grab it from TpT}

Now for the fun stuff!!!  I will give away your choice of my Monthly Stationary or Back to School Reading Comprehension.  All you have to do is comment below and tell me when you go back to school! {Me, not till after Labor Day!!!!} Don’t forget to leave your email!!!

And be sure to come back tomorrow and link-up for my “Favorite Things” Linky! Tomorrow’s topic is “Feels Like Home”.  Share all your favorites for your home {designs,  decorative items, furniture, dream homes, whatever!}

And here’s the schedule for the rest of summer:

See you tomorrow!

~Halle