Contraction Kings & Queens

I'm pretty excited about my newest unit for TpT: Contraction Kings & Queens :)

It's such a fun, engaging, and interactive unit you can use to introduce or reinforce contractions. And come on, what kid doesn't want to be the king or queen of anything and everything?

Posters are provided for common contractions. To cut down on printing, I display them on my projector, but they would also be great as part of a contraction bulletin board.

There are also a variety of printables to use with your students.

A big thing for me in my classroom is making the most of every minute. How can I attack multiple skills at once? These printables do just that!

There are sheets for contraction practice, but there are also printables that work on sentence writing and reading comprehension, while still addressing contractions. Win. Win. Win!

And every king and queen needs a crown, right? Different variations of crowns are included for your students to wear. But they have to work for that crown first...

Different versions of king and queen crowns are included. Use them as you progress through the unit, or use them to differentiate among your students.

The last element of Contraction Kings and Queens {and perhaps the most fun} is a "Royal Mission" Hallway Hunt! Your students are on a mission for the King and Queen of Contraction Land! If they complete it correctly, they get added to the Royal Knight & Dame Scroll! Your kiddos will love it!

You can grab this unit for 25% off through tomorrow {April 13th} by clicking the picture below!

-Halle

Interactive Sentence Scrambles Freebie!!

Hello!

I hope you're enjoying these last few moments of your Thanksgiving weekend and gearing up for TpT's Cyber Monday {and Tuesday} Sale!

I have a fun new product and freebie for you today!

I've always loved using sentence scrambles in my classroom as a way to reinforce proper sentence structure.  They're just one of those things where the students are doing work and learning but they just think they're playing, ya' know?

As much as I love sentence scrambles I found myself wanting to get more out of them, especially in the upper elementary grades. We all know that time is precious in our classrooms and I so I became determined to find a way to get the most out of these scrambles my students loved so dearly.

And so my Interactive Sentence Scrambles were born!

Students are still unscrambling the sentences and having fun while doing it but they're also getting practice with parts of speech, writing detailed sentences and responses, prefixes and suffixes, and synonyms and antonyms!

I've created these interactive scrambles for the months of December, January, and February so far. They are available to purchase by month or bundled together for each season {winter season is the only available season currently}

Here is an example of a completed sentence scramble:

Each interactive scramble unit also comes with a "sentence board" and large cut-apart sentences. These are perfect if you use interactive notebooks or centers in your classroom, or if you want to cut down on your copies!

Want to try before you buy?

Click the picture below to grab an interactive sentence scramble freebie. The freebie contains two interactive scramble sheets.

The scrambles are posted in my TpT shop and will be discounted during the sale. Click below to add them to your cart!

Happy Shopping!

Halle

Oodles and Noodles of Nouns is Here and ON SALE!!

I am so happy I finally get to say, "Oodles and Noodles of Nouns is HERE!"

I thought I started working on this unit in December 2013, which was forever ago.  I was wrong. I started working on this unit in September 2013 which was FOREVERRRR ago!

I really did implement this unit as I went, and since it covers every single type of noun we cover in 2nd grade (and we cover A LOT of nouns), it really did take me a long time, but for good reason, and I am so happy with the end result.

"Oodles" covers common, proper, plural, possessive, collective nouns, and pronouns. Say that 5 times fast! Phew!

The bulk of the unit uses the "Noun Cards" which are found on the first 11 or so pages of the product.

The noun cards could be used in centers or small groups.  Or you could use them like I did, in a "Hallway Hunt" or "Read the Room" activity.

Can you spy the two noun cards in this picture?

The noun cards are very versatile.  You can use many of them for many different types of noun activities.

And there are posters.  There have to be posters!

Besides the noun card pages and posters, you'll also find what I refer to as extension sheets.  These sheets do not use the noun cards. I used them after introducing and reinforcing each type of noun with the noun cards.  They would make great assessments as well.

There are pages in the extension sheets that can be used in Interactive Notebooks or on construction paper.  Let's keep those kiddos engaged!

Each type of noun is grouped together to make it easy to locate whatever you need in the product.  At the end of the unit are printables that cover all the types of nouns covered in the product.

I can honestly say that this unit changed the way I taught nouns this year.  I was able to truly engage my students by getting them up and moving, and reinforcing skills through the extension sheets.  We used the noun cards so often that, before long, students were asking if we were going to use the noun cards every time I introduced a new type of noun!

This product was so successful for me, and I hope for you, that it's spawned two other products I'm currently working on...

They will have the same general idea of using cards and printables, but since they're a work in progress at this point, who knows what direction they'll head in!

My Oodles and Noodles of Nouns is on SALE for 25% off TODAY ONLY, so grab it at a discounted price while you can! If you do purchase it, please let me know what you think of it. I hope your students love it as much as mine did!

Grab it here!

Halle

Roam the Room Christmas Freebie!!!

Hi Friends!

6 more days until a much needed Christmas Break for me, how about you?

I’m just popping in with a quick freebie for you tonight!

It’s a FREEBIE designed after my “Santa’s Little Helper” Hallway Hunt.  We’ll be using it all next week to review some common core concepts in a fun way before we head off on Christmas Break!



You can read more about “Santa’s Little Helpers” here.

For this freebie, your students roam the room (or the hallway, in my case)  completing a mission for Santa. To help him, they need decide what part of speech is written on the word cards. 



Directions, word cards, and a recording sheet are included in the freebie.







To grab it head over to my Facebook page and click the “Freebies for Fans” tab at the top of the page. 

You will need to “like” my page to access the freebie.  Once you do, it will link you to a folder with tonight's freebie, as well as previous Fan Freebies. Grab them all while you’re there :)

I hope this little activity helps you get through these last few days before break!

Goodnight :)

Up and At ‘Em {plus giveaway news!}

Good Morning!

Today’s post goes down in history. It is the first time I have blogged besides my “Favorite Things” Linky in foreverrrrrrr. So sorry about that!

I recently added this little gem to my TpT shop:



I became pretty obsessed with “Read the Room” activities this past year.  Except in 2nd Grade, my guys and gals have a little more freedom…they read the room and the hallway. We're super adventerous like that!

I came up with calling these activities “Walk Abouts” in my room and it stuck!  My kids are always all, “Can we make this a walk-about activity, pleeeeeeease.”

Usually I say, “Yes!  That was the plan”.  I love to get them up and moving. And the sneaky side of me loves that I’m making them do all the same work they’d normally do at their seats, only disguised as fun. 

I’m going to get them moving right off the bat this year with my “Back to School Walk-About: R/LA Edition”.  It’s 4 activities in 1, so I can spread out the skills as we progress throughout the year. Or I can differentiate based on the range of needs of my little ones. I haven’t decided yet. I still have about 2 1/2 months before any hard core decision making needs to take place!



The skills covered in the Walk About include: Name the Picture, ABC Order, Categories, and Plural vs. Singular Nouns.  The Name the Picture activity was added at a suggestion of a blogging buddy who teaches Kindergarten…a fun activity my 2nd grade brain doesn’t even think about.  All in all, this unit is great for grades K-3.  Since it’s “school themed” {as opposed to holiday themed} you can use it all year, as the skills of your guys and gals progress.

You can win this “Walk About” by heading over to my Facebook page and entering there.  Of course if you’re impatient, you can grab it from TpT by clicking here.

And that reminds me, I’ll be doing Flash Sales, Giveaways, and Freebies all summer long via Facebook, so make sure to click the button below and “like” me!

{Click the picture to head on over and click like!}

Have a great day!

Halle Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Naming and Telling Freebies

Hello!  

Happy Sunday!

We’ve been working on sentences for the past month or so in our 2nd Grade classroom.  We’ve covered capitals and ending marks, and all the different types of sentences with great success.  However, the whole naming and telling portion of sentences had my kiddos all sorts of mixed up.

Naming and Telling is 2nd Grade speak for Subject and Predicate for all you fancy folk.

For some extra practice, I took a bunch of sentence strips and wrote various naming and telling parts on each one.



I just grabbed strips.  They weren’t color coded for the most part {even though it looks like it here}. I thought color coded would be too easy.



I made a “correct” match for each sentence, but I also anticipated {and hoped for} some super silly sentences to be built once the students walked around and found their naming or telling partner.  The silly sentences were 10 times more engaging for them, and they still were exposed to the concept.  WIN! WIN!



I handed out the sentence strips face down.  Students flipped them over, read them, and decided whether they had the naming or telling portion of a sentence.  Then they set out to find their mate ;)



Once everyone partnered up, each pair read their sentence, and giggles ensued. We did about 5 rounds and it didn’t even get old! Imagine that!

I followed up the sentence strip activity with a partner worksheet.  I had my students who definitely “got it” fill out the telling portion, and my guys who were still struggling were assigned the naming part.  Then we switched papers and completed our sentences.  You can grab the printables below if they would help your class.

Click HERE to grab them!


I strongly suggest the sentence strip activity first.  If only for a few giggles.

And you know I love *notes*, so leave me one or two if you find this activity useful!

Have a good night everyone :)

-Halle

Have You Heard About These Amazing Giveaways? Plus, My Number of the Day Freebie for You!

I could've sworn today was Thursday.  So much so, that even though my iPhone said Friday, I turned on the TV just to make sure.  And it's not Thursday, it's Friday. Shucks.  I feel like I lost a day somehow.


Thanks to Casey's giveaway over at Second Grade Math Maniac, we went from less than 100 followers to over 100 followers pretty quickly!!!  {Thanks Casey!!}  And since we didn't have the chance to put together a big giveaway for you, I decided to whip a freebie up for you instead!


It's my Number & Word of the Day sheets.  I plan on printing them on cardstock back to back and laminating them, then using them as morning work weekly.

Have any of you done something similar before?  For example: Monday: Journal Writing, Tuesday: Number of the Day, Wednesday: Word of the Day, etc?  I never have, but I thought I might give it a go this year.  If you have an opinion about it, I'd love to hear it!


Anyways, you can grab the sheets at our TpT shop.  I made 2 different leveled math sheets, thinking I'll use one for the first half of the year, and switch over to the second one the second half of the year.


You know I love feedback, so please leave it here or at our TpT shop if you find yourself downloading the sheets!


And now for 2 giveaways that put my freebie to shame.  Seriously.

Amanda Madden over at Teaching Maddeness is having a 500 Followers Giveaway, and you can win a $50 Amazon giftcard!! Yes!! How cool, I know, and she's made it so easy to enter!  Head on over.

Courtney over at Swimming into Second is offering 10 days of giveaways to celebrate 1,000 followers. Wow!  Congrats Courtney.  She is giving away some amazing prizes, so make sure to enter each day!


Have a good one!


Halle

Adjectives Are Sweet

It sure has been awhile since we posted!  Blame the 100th Day, Valentine's Day, and Read Across America week.  Oh, and blame nasty colds.  Oh, and blame us, for being absent.  We just get so gosh darn tired every once in awhile.

We did this adjective activity a little while back, but our kiddos had such fun with it, we had to share it.  And by sharing we mean talking about it of course, but even better...giving it to you to use in your classrooms!!  For free :)

We use Storytown as our reading series.  Storytown spends no less than 5 lessons talking about adjectives.  Overkill?  A little?  A whole week on adjectives that tell how many is a little much if you ask us.  But recently, our kids learned about adjectives using the 5 senses.  What better way to learn about those adjectives than to use our 5 senses?  And what better way to use our 5 senses than candy????  You're right.  None.

First, we handed out the Sweet Adjectives sheet.  Then we walked around and let each student pick their candy.  Skittles were a huge hit, followed by M&Ms, and then the Twix and Snickers bars tied for third.  These kids were smart.  They knew the chocolate bars would start melting during the activity (why didn't their teacher think of that?).  We then had the students empty their candy out onto the frame on the page.  We decided to go sense by sense, and not let any kiddos work ahead.  That is completely your choice.  You could even make a center out of it!

Once everyone had completed looks, feels, and smells, everyone was allowed to chow down  Just in time for our chocolate bar choosers who were watching chocolate smudge and melt before their very eyes!  While students were chewing, they added to the taste section of their worksheet.  As you can see, each section needed 3 adjectives.  We weren't too choosy, students could use an adjective more than once, as long as they didn't overuse any adjectives.

After everyone's sweet tooth was satisfied, students drew their candy in the (now empty) frame portion of their worksheet.  Then (spur of the moment thought), students had to turn their paper over and use one adjective from each section in a sentence.  Simple! Tasty! Fun! Educational!  Easy! (How about those adjectives)???

There you have it! 

Get your copy here!

(Sorry.  Candy not included)

Thanks for stopping by!  We'll see you sooner rather than later next time!