summer

Friday, December 18, 2015

Excitement When Santa Writes Back!

Remember when I posted about what I do with my Santa Letters? Click here to refresh your memory. 

Today the students at my school received their letters from Santa's sleigh. It apparently flew by and dropped off our letters FROM Santa. They were really cold, so we knew they came from the North Pole (or maybe the freezer in the teacher's lounge!)


Here's a video that shows just what goes on in the room when the letters arrive. . . Sorry for the fuzziness of the video. . . It's hard to not be shaking when we are all so excited!



Posted by Wenzel Elementary on Friday, December 18, 2015
The second video shows them reading their letters with each other or other adults.

Posted by Wenzel Elementary on Friday, December 18, 2015

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

No Prep or Low Prep Linky! Come and SEE!

While you're home on break next week or whenever, I thought you'd like to know about some easy peasy things you can buy or grab. These things will require "NO PREP" or "LOW PREP."

click the picture to go to the linky party

Heather over at Ho Jo's Teaching Adventures is hosting a special linky about All I Want for Christmas is. . . .  Click the words in red to go to this linky. I sure hope you find some goodies that you can prepare during the break so you're ready to start 2016 fresh and refreshed!






Thursday, December 10, 2015

Updating Your Blog List


When I first look at my blog, I look at my blog list to see who has posted 
something new and interesting for me to read.
 So I click on someone's list then I read their blog. 
I try to leave a comment because that's the nice thing to do.
 But I'm human and I don't always do that!

Then I look at their blog list to see who they follow and maybe
 there is someone else that I want to look at. 

However, sometimes I can tell that their blog lists aren't up to date. 
I can tell this because it will say that so and so last posted this 3 weeks ago, 
or 2 months ago, or even last year!

I may not be the sharpest crayon in the box, 
but I bet those same people follow others who have posted more recently. 
They just haven't updated their list. 

Then it occurred to me, that maybe they don't know how to update 
or didn't know that they EVEN could update such a list.
 So that's my reason for posting today. 
I even added pictures to help with this process. 


Here are the steps:

Go to your Layout page in the design portion of blogger.

Find the gadget that says My Blog List and click edit.

It will say Configure Blog list at the top. 
You can see that I have 466 blogs I follow at this point. 

Click on the link that says Add to List



Then click on Blogs I'm Following then choose to either add all or you can individually check the boxes of the ones you want to have showing on your blog. 


I had 15 new blogs that I recently started following.
 I could choose to show all or just a few of them. 




Select All, Add, then Save. 
You can see that the number of blogs I follow now is 481
 (466 + 15 = 481).
 Now click save again. 



Now when I look at my blog list it will show the updated list
 of those that I am following. 




If you noticed, during this process, this is the same place where
 you can stop following a blog that you no longer want to follow.
 I don't have many that I quit following, but there have been a couple 
that I had to say, "What was I thinking when I started following this blog?"


That's it! Now when you look at your blog anyone who has a new post
 (that you follow) will have their link show up. 
This is a great way to share your friends with other friends. 




Sunday, December 6, 2015

I'm a Guest Host!

I'm so glad you stopped by to see me, but you can't see me here today! I'm guest blogging over at Mandy's Tips 4 Teachers. 

I hope you'll come by and read about a tip I wrote about a math center for my second graders. However, I am sure you are clever enough to adapt it to your classroom, no matter what grade or subject you want to use it with. 

Here's a snip-it of what's in store when you visit her blog!

And maybe you'll decide to follow Mandy if you haven't followed her before!



Friday, December 4, 2015

Kinder Center for Counting

Yes, I know my blog name is 2nd in Line. . . but since I retired I have worked in some kindergarten classrooms and both my daughter and daughter-in-law teach kindergarten. So once in awhile you will see that I make things and show you things for grades other than 2nd grade.

On Black Friday as I was wondering around JoAnn Fabrics (waiting in a 2 and a half hour line, just to get fabric cut!) I came up with this idea below. I purchased the buttons, and the button holder at JoAnn's. 


 The foam trees and gingerbread men were from Michael's
They weren't on sale, but I did have a coupon that helped
 cut the cost a bit. 


I thought this button box was just the cutest!
 And the lid snaps down tightly too!


This Santa box is about 2 x 2 inches and the 
colored buttons fit perfectly in there. 



I wrote a number on each tree. There are 32 trees in a pack. So you can number them from 1-18 and then you'll have extras left over to make another center with just the numbers 4-18.


 Students can decorate the tree with the correct number of buttons. 


The same applies for the gingerbread men. You have enough to do the numbers 1-18 or you can make two sets of 3-18. 

With the gingerbread, they can even make a face to go with the buttons down their tummies.

I just love these and I hope some of you will try this with your kids too. 




Thursday, December 3, 2015

My Top Pinterest Picks for December


I'd like to share some of my favorite things I do in December. There are so many, but I've narrowed it down to just 3. I am all for quick and easy when our time is so precious. So take a peek and see if there's something here that can become a tradition with your family too. 



Click the picture to go to the Pinterest Page.

This is one fun treat to make and even better to eat! They are a nice cross between salty and sweet. It's time consuming to open all of the little hugs, but it's a great way to involve the family in baking!




Click on the picture to know more about this activity.
My grandchildren have made handprint designs for me before and I just love them. What a nice keepsake!


Click on the picture to find out more about this.

I have made this ornament with my students before and it's a favorite of mine and the parents too. They aren't hard to make, but I'd start in the beginning of December just to be sure you get them done with all the other things that you could have going on during December!






Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Sale Time!


Get your shopping carts filled up! Tomorrow and Tuesday you may shop to your heart's content!



Wednesday, November 25, 2015

DJ Inkers Winner

Congratulations to Chanda!


Chanda, You will be hearing from DJ Inkers and they will send you a lovely bunch of cool clipart plus two fonts.

Thank you all for entering and giving such great suggestions for new clipart.



Monday, November 23, 2015

One Last Day!

There's only one more day to enter to win a large amount of clip art from DJ Inkers. There's over 350 pieces of clipart here, folks! So don't delay! Enter today! Tuesday after Midnight will be too late!

This is just part of the clipart available. . . and it's also a freebie that you can grab. Just remember to leave some good feedback. . . what the heck, it's free!
Click on my TPT store on the right hand side to go to my store.

Click HERE to go to the post where you can enter the giveaway. Remember if you click that you will leave a comment, you need to leave a comment. It will not count if you don't leave a comment. 








Thursday, November 19, 2015

DJ Inker Giveaway For the Holidays!

My dear friends at DJ Inkers are getting all ready for the Christmas season. They have many specials going on and one big one YOU will love!


First, it's nearly time for DJ Inker's annual 12 Holly Daze celebration!!!  Don't miss these HUGE 24 hour SALES, NEW holiday products... and even DAILY FREEBIES!  The festivities begin Friday, November 27, 2015

Be sure to check in with them at DJ Inkers each day to see all the fun. 

 Sign-up for their weekly e-newsletter list to join in the fun!  Here's the email newsletter sign up linkhttp://goo.gl/8OS0D4


Join DJ's Email List!


 I'm so grateful to DJ Inkers for allowing me to give one of these away. I wish all of you could win it.
So enter and cross your fingers!

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Talking Sticks To Get Your Kids Talking!


 Laura Candler  graciously let me review one of her products. Since I was teaching kindergartners at the time, I chose this product. It was one she suggested and it really hit the nail on the head. In that class there were those kids who always volunteered (or shouted out of turn!) to answer a question. I needed to get to those kids who sat back and didn't have much to say, or who were just playing around. I wanted them to be more apart of the discussion. 

Click on the picture to find this in Laura's store.

Talking Sticks suggests giving every child 3 popsicle sticks
(you could use other kinds of sticks if that's better for you).

For our first time doing this I gave my kiddos 2 talking sticks.

I read the book called Thanksgiving at the Tappletons by Eileen Spinelli

Click the picture to buy it on Amazon. (The cover has been updated!)

     They were excited to hold the talking sticks!



I read the entire story to them. In this session I am using the Reading Response Questions For Kindergarten. ( She also has Book Discussion, Informational Text, and Literature prompts.)

 I read the discussion prompts that Laura's packet includes. 


They think and think about what they want to say. Then I call on someone to answer the question. I collect their stick when they give me their answer.  I also call on a few others, because there is usually more than one answer that will work. 


Then I continue with other discussion prompts. 


I call on those who still have both of their talking sticks. Sometimes you have to encourage them to think about an answer that would fit that prompt. 
(Wait time is good!)



There are several other prompts that you can use and some might fit your story better than others. 

Kindergartners can't sit for very long, so I decided that the next time I do it with Kinders, I will put their names on the two sticks. Then if we don't have time to get to everyone, I will collect the unused sticks and start with them for the next story.


I believe that if you try Laura Candler's Talking Sticks program you too will see that most of those reluctant speakers will find their voice to add to your discussions.


There are Talking Sticks for other grades too. 
Click the picture to go to the 5th Grade Talking Sticks. 
Click the picture to go to the 4th Grade Talking Sticks.

Click the picture to go to the 3rd Grade Talking Sticks.

Click the picture to go to the 2nd Grade Talking Sticks.

Click the picture to find the 1st Grade Talking Sticks

If you want to know more about what Laura Candler has to offer, you can read about her Place Value Activity in this post.