Cyber Monday Blog Hop Stop #25

Today Primary Powers and GoNoodle are coming together to share with you some great ways to use GoNoodle in your classroom! This is stop #25 on your hop. If you missed the others you can hop back to the first stop {HERE}

If you haven't heard of GoNoodle it allows students to get up and moving. The way I use it in my class is on Fridays. Fridays is our testing day and I like to give students a little break in between having to be so quiet and sit so still for so long. They love and look forward to it every Friday!

Starting on Cyber Monday, GoNoodle is also offering all Primary Powers readers 30% purchases from the GoNoodle Shop through December 8! Use the code POWERS30 at checkout to receive the discount PLUS a special gift from GoNoodle and Primary Powers. In addition to new t-shirts, tumblers, and other goodies for GoNoodling teachers, you can purchase affordable, pre-wrapped gift packs for students to bring a little GoNoodle love to your classroom this holiday.

You can also enter to win a GoNoodle tumbler by entering the rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now make sure you keep hopping on to the final stop.

Teaching Similes

Last week we covered similes. Just wanted to share a few pictures and ideas for teaching this skill.

First we watched this video and the kids LOVED it! It has a catchy little tune and it uses drawings and simile examples from kids their age.

After it was over we talked about the ones they remembered and I told them they would draw one of their own. As they worked we listened to it again. One, because they begged me to but two because I wanted the ones that couldn't come up with anything to get some ideas by listening again. Here are some of their drawings. {Big as a house and hungry as a wolf}

The next day I let them make these flowers out of scrap paper. They had to draw their face in the middle and come up with four similes that described them. Don't you just love the side bangs?!?!

We, of course, used Amy Lemons simile packet that you can find for free {HERE}. It has a flap book, sort, and more.

If you are going to be covering similes in December I recently found these free Christmas themed task cards. Click {HERE} to check them out. Super cute!

Happy Monday and two-day week {for me at least}!!

Weekend Warriors~November Necessities~Day Two

Welcome to day 2 of Weekend Warriors November Necessities posts. If you missed yesterday's post about student "offices" and morning calendar time click {HERE}.

Today I want to share two more things I could not do without in my classroom on a daily basis. The first are our Daily 5 boxes. I love Daily 5 and I love how these boxes keep my students organized. I wanted to share a few things I have my students keep in their boxes.

1. Check marks to help us remember to check for understanding. You can get so many of these free on TPT. I got mine{HERE} and copied on neon card stock and laminated.
2. All of my students keep a daily 5 spiral notebook in thier box to help keep them accountable for that they do at their center. They are required to put the date at the top. If they go to word work they must list the words they practice even if they use magnetic letters or play dough. Of course writing work goes in the notebook. Also, in these notebooks are:
3. Interesting words tracker. I use the free one found {HERE}. It is glued in the front of their notebook.
4. When they go to read to self or read to someone they have to do a reading response choice. The free one I use came from {HERE}. I copied it on bright paper and laminated.
5. Coaching or Time bookmarks {HERE} Also laminated.
6. My students get 3 books in their box and they get to change when they have filled out a response for each one.
7. Phonics guide. These are part of my phonics pack on TPT but you if like me on facebook and click on fan freebies you can pick it up for free. I copy pages 3-6 of these front to back on color paper and laminate and they use them to figure out words while reading alone or coaching a friend.

The next thing I could not do one day without in my room is the morning work routine I created for the entire year.

I had found something similar I loved but it wasn't for my grade level (2nd) so I made my own and tweaked it to fit my class. Having a good morning work routine that requires no teacher assistance and very little preparation is a must for any teacher. With my routine I make a couple of copies at the beginning of the month, rotate a basket every Friday, and check their work on Fridays. I love it and it requires so little of my time. It's 20% this weekend so check it out.

Don't forget to stop by these ladies blogs to find more wonderful ideas!

A Burst of First	Hippo Hooray for Second Grade	Creative Lesson Cafe	Sailing Into Second
Bright Concepts 4 Teachers	Crayons and Whimsy	Primarily Speaking	Second Grade Perks
Lucky To Be In First	Saddle Up Second Grade	A Sunny Day In First Grade	The Tutu Teacher
First Grade Smiles

InLinkz.com

Weekend Warriors~November Necessities~Day One

Hey everyone, today the Weekend Warriors are bringing you November Necessities. Posts all about the things we can't live without in our classrooms or homes.

Today I'm going to share a few things I use in my classroom that I don't think I could go without. The first are my students' "offices."

I don't know about you but I always have some wandering eyes every year and it doesn't matter how many times I say "I want to know what you know, not what your neighbor knows" there are still eyes glancing around. I looked into purchasing something to block their work but everything was so expensive so a couple of years ago I asked for parents to send in trifold boards. I just cut them in half and have used them over and over. We don't always keep them on our desks. I just get them out when we are doing something for a grade or something I need to check for mastery on.

Another thing used in my class on a daily basis for the last 3 years now is our morning calendar routine. This is something I created that you can find {HERE}. I created this so that my second grade skills would be covered briefly every morning whether I had taught the skill or not. This way when I go to teach the skill later in the year they have already been introduced to it.

Each child has a binder with the pages we need in sheet protectors. They use dry erase markers to answer (I think this is the part that makes the kids like this part of our day so much). They just erase at the end and we use the boards all year. Actually these are the same ones I have used for 3 years now.

I have a morning calendar board where we sit for this with posters for them to reference. I have certain skills that I cover each nine weeks. Some we continue all year and others I do at different points in the year. I only do one question for each skill I want to cover that day. Usually it is about 5-6 skills per morning and we just briefly cover it. Not an in depth lesson at all and just takes about 15 minutes.

When I started my unit on place value last week most of my kids did amazingly well because place value/number forms is something we cover during calendar time each morning. For my lower kids, they had at least seen the skill before so had some background knowledge with it.

This is an idea that you could do without purchasing anything really. You could write your questions on the board and have students answer on dry erase boards. Just pick a handful of skills and cover them all nine weeks.

I'm putting my calendar routine on sale 20% off this weekend so check it out!

Head on over to these other blogs for more great ideas!

A Burst of First	Hippo Hooray for Second Grade	Creative Lesson Cafe	Sailing Into Second
Bright Concepts 4 Teachers	Crayons and Whimsy	Primarily Speaking	Second Grade Perks
Lucky To Be In First	Saddle Up Second Grade	A Sunny Day In First Grade	The Tutu Teacher
First Grade Smiles

InLinkz.com

Teaching Text Features

We covered text features a couple of weeks ago and I used this idea for some hands on action in my small groups. I found this {FREEBIE} on TPT. I decided to make it into a mini booklet for each student. I printed the pages four per page then copied them front to back. Sorry, but I cannot for the life of me get this picture to rotate :)

We cut the pages apart and stapled to make our mini book. Then during small groups we dove into our science books and non fiction leveled readers to find examples of each one. The freebie has lots of text features. I just picked the ones that I needed to teach to include in our booklets.

The kids loved making these books. I also used this video I found {HERE}. It is the cutest little song to the SpongeBob tune. It also has this adorable mini poster to go with it. 

Last week I posted a greater than less than packet to TPT. I'm putting that on sale for the next two days Nov. 16th - Nov. 18th so make sure you check it out! Only $3.00.

Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday. I'm crossing my fingers for some snow to get me an extra day off this weekend!