Top 5 Must Haves on My TPT Wishlist

Hello blog world how I have missed you. If you have read my very pitiful blog lately then you know that I had a baby girl in April and before that I had what was a rough pregnancy in my opinion but I am sure others would beg to differ. I am slowly getting my TPT and Blog life back on track. My beautiful girl is 4 months old and allows me to put her down for longer periods of time now. Since I have been on maternity leave since the beginning of April I have had some time, once I got some sleep of course, to think about my classroom and some products that I wanted to have to spice up my classroom and help me with this transition into Common Core. Since I am less than a week away from students being in my classroom I thought I would share the Top 5 products on my TPT wishlist. These are not ranked in any special order.

Number One: This one is really two products but I am counting them as one since they are for the same reading series just different units. Anna over at Simply Skilled In Second has created some wonderful packs to help supplement the 2013 version of reading street. Since my school just adopted this series I was BEYOND excited to find these. If you use this series you need to check them out. She even has some blog posts about how she uses them in her classroom. Click HERE to read the blog posts. Here are a couple photos of these packs. If you are interested jump on over to her TPT store and give them a look!!! 
    
I know that my students are going to LOVE doing this activities with each story from the units!

Number Two: The next item is the Back to School Bash. This pack is jam packed with activities for back to school. There is one activity in this pack that I am the most EXCITED about and that is the Everyone is Smart activity. This activity helps students see that everyone is really good at something. It helps them see that one person might be really good at math, while someone else might be really good at music. I can't wait to use this with my students the first week of school. I believe every child deserves to know that they are good at something!! This pack was created by Stephanie over at Falling into First.  If you are interested in seeing how she does this lesson in her classroom click HERE to read her blog post.

 
These are a couple pictures of the Everyone is Smart lesson. There are other activities that come in this pack this is just the one that I was the most excited about. Here is the link to her TPT store so you can go and check this great product out. 

Number Three: My third wishlist item was one that I just added today. I am always looking for ways to assess my students on the math Common Core Standards. This product I believe will help me in the journey of mine for this coming school year. Mighty Math was created by Angela over at Hippo Hooray for Second Grade. I came across this product while I was doing some searching on Pinterest. I came across her blog post about this pack of assessments that she has created and I was instantly interested in it. They look to be wonderfully made and quick to give. Click HERE to read her post about this product. One great feature is that it progress though the year. She has them broken down into assessments for each quarter of the year. This pack is for the first quarter of the year and I believe she is currently creating the next pack.

Check out this photos of the product.

      Click HERE to go to her TPT store. PS. this pack is 20% off until FRIDAY (8-9-13).

Number Four: Getting close to the end. Here is item number 4. This item is on my list because I am in desperate need of help with this concept. I am new to close reads and honestly TERRIFIED of them. I was searching for a product and came across this one created by One Extra Degree. I am excited to get this pack because she set it up to walk you through a close read. This is exactly what I need to get me started. I am someone who needs step by step instructions until I am comfortable, then I can put my own spin on it.

      Click HERE to go and download the preview of this product and read the detailed description.

Number Five: Here is the last item!!!!! Again this is group of items by the same creator. I am OBSESSED with the Flip Flap books that Simply Skilled in Second Grade makes. I know I have picked one of her products already but you will LOVE and I mean LOVE these things. She has them for EVERYTHING. She has them for reading, science and social studies.

Here is a short list of the ones that I already have:

Guided Reading
Plants
Butterflies
I love to Read (FREEBIE)
Guided Reading Detectives
Frogs

Here are the ones still on my wishlist:
American Symbols
Matter
Columbus

Click HERE to go to her store to see ALL the ones she has created. Picture below of some of the books.

 

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what is on my wishlist and hopefully found an item that will help you this year! Since this was a LONG post I am going to do a little giveaway. I just finished my Money Math Notebook pack. I will give a copy away to the person who guesses my favorite candy. Leave a comment on this post with your guess and your email address. I will read all the comments tomorrow night (Thursday 8-8-13) when I get home from open house.  Here is a link to my math notebook


 

Bloglovin and a Flash Freebie

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Make sure you follow my blog on bloglovin. Since google reader ends tonight you want to make sure you are following my blog on bloglovin so you don't miss the flash freebie that I will be posting sometime tonight!

I am happy to be back creating and blogging now that my sweet little baby girl is almost 3 months old. How time flies! I can't believe how big she is getting and how much she learns each and everyday.

Super Bowl Sale

HAPPY SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!! I am so not a sports type of girl, so I am not sure if people actually treat super bowl Sunday like a holiday but I am!!! My poor husband has to put up with a wife is completely clueless about football and one who says things like "Why don't they buy pants that are see-through and why don't the coaches tell them to cut that long hair? The only reason I watch football in general is for the snacks and when I wasn't expecting a beautiful baby girl for the adult beverages. So for me to have a real question about football is usually far fetched.

I have decided that I am going to celebrate the Super Bowl like it is a holiday. I am taking part in the HUGE TPT super sale that is going on today. Jump on over to my store and see if there is anything that you need for the remainder of the school or get a head start on next year!!! My sale is going to have a 5th quarter and doesn't end until the end of Monday, so if you are busy being with family and eating lots of yummy snacks today, then you won't miss out on my sale!!!!

I have doubled down and have taken part in the super sale on TN as well. Same rules apply as the TPT sale. My sale on TN will not end until Monday night.


My new informative writing packs are just one item that is a must have from my store that is on sale. Also my most popular item, which is my Research pack is also on sale. The majority of my items are on sale, so go stock up on some great items!!

 

February Freebie Linky Party and New Lesson Plans

The wonderful blog Teaching First is having a February Freebie Linky Party. I have linked up with this party and I am offering my new Valentine's Day ABC order center. Click the link below and go check out all the wonderful bloggers who have already linked up and maybe even link up yourself. There are lots of freebies up for grabs.
                             http://www.teachingfirst-abc.blogspot.com/

Here is what my Freebie looks like. I hope you enjoy this great center.
      
This freebie includes the directions page, 12 cards that need to be placed in ABC order and a Recoding sheet. I would laminate this center so that it last longer.

As I have been getting back into the swing of things now that I am in my 3rd trimester and have been feeling great for several weeks now, I have caught up on some blog reading and have gotten back into creating for my classroom and my TPT and TN stores. I came across on blog post about Visual Lesson Plans. I am not over clear on what they are but by the looks of the plans I have seen it involves placing pictures and visual cues into your lesson plans.

If you are curious what they look like jump on over to Fabulous Firsties. I know she created hers based off of a different blogger. Here is the other blogger who has talked about these visual lesson plans Erica Bohrer's First Grade.  I am so in love with these plans. I have purchased the template that Erica uses for her plans. I am going to give it a shot for this up coming week. I will post how it goes after I create them.

I can't believe today is the last day in January. Where has the time gone. Only 2 short months until I get to welcome my daughter Lily into the world!!!!

New Items and a Giveaway

I have just added my newest items to TN and TPT in a long time. I am very excited about these products. In our district we have started using Common Core Standards and with these new standards comes new writing genres. To help myself and my fellow 2nd grade teachers teach the Informative/Explanatory genre I created a writing pack. The pack includes different planning sheets and final draft paper. Also I found non-fiction articles on the Read Works website to go with the sheets that I created.

After finishing the pack I showed it to a friend of mine who is our curriculum coach at our school. She loved it and suggested that I make a pack for first and third grade as well. Each pack has the same sheets type of sheets but each one is tailored to fit the needs of that grade level. I was super nervous about making something for other grade levels so I bugged the teachers at school to look sheets over before I finalized each pack.

Lets talk about a giveaway!!!! I thought I would give away one copy of each pack. The person from each grade level to leave me a comment and follow my blog. Will get the pack that matches their grade level. Make sure to leave your email address in the comment. I have packs for First, Second and Third.

Hope on over to my TPT or TN store to check out the packs! I hope you like them.