Oh Pumpkin! + a FREE THINGIE

Have you ever visited Learning Ahoy? Caitlin has a great blog and some really good activities to do with your kids. She let me try out her Oh Pumpkin game. My kids LOVED. IT! It is a great practice for my educational aide to do with just a couple kids or it can be played in a small group of 4-6, too.

Click on the red links above to go to her blog and her store.

Oh Pumpkin is a game using the first 100 fry word list.  I do have some 2nd graders who don't know all of these so it's been helpful to have this set. Plus the kids that come to my RTI group are first graders who specifically need help with their sight words. 

I store this set in a little container that I found at Walmart. I had to trim Caitlin's cover down a bit so that I could see what was in the box. But it works great this way and is very easy for storage and for the kids to use.

 These pictures show my own 2nd graders playing the game.

They draw a card, if they can read it they get to keep it. If they can't read it, then they put it back into the bottom of the pile.

 If they draw a card that says "Trade Cards With Another Player," then they can trade with anyone. Usually they look for someone who has a lot more cards than they have!

If they draw a card that says, "Oh Pumpkin!" then they have to

 put ALL their cards back in the pile!

I know that you would love this game if you bought it. Plus she has other Oh Pumpkin games with different skills that your kids will like too.

If you have found it yet, don't forget to pick up my FREEBIE this week!

You can click on the picture or here to get your own free set, but PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know what you think of this. . . I've had almost 300 friends grab this and only 6 took the time to say thanks!

Patty

Back to School Pronouns and Facebook Freebies

Here's a pic of my newest Back To School product! I'd love for you to get one to introduce or review pronouns to your students.

I have had good luck with these pronoun cards and have made them for many months or seasons throughout the year. You can see the others by clicking each link below. 

October Pronouns

November Pronouns

Winter Pronouns

Spring Pronouns

Have  you seen the new Facebook page 

dedicated to freebies? 

It's perfectly filled right now with many things that just 

might fit what your needs are. 

Just click on this apple and it will take you to the page. Like the page and feel free to search for things that you will need for your class. And don't forget to leave the people some loving after you grabbed their freebie. 

We must remember our manners, shouldn't we?

Patty

Shaker Bottles from Sunny Days

Woo hoo! A SNOW DAY!

 Ok, enough celebrating. . . Get back to work Missy!

Have you seen Sunny Days in Second Grade before?  She is a great friend and creates a terrific blog. I have followed her from my first days of stalking people on blogs.

If you click on her link you'll see these very cool shaker bottles. And if your kids are anything like my kids, they love to shake and they love noise.
These shaker bottles have words inside that the kids have to try to find by shaking them and moving them around. There is a sheet for them to fill out when they find the word they are looking for.

And as far as the noise goes, it really isn't much, because it is made with rice. Really now, what's quieter than rice?  But even still, I can send two of my  kids out into the hall to play this game and they do very well with it.
So far I've made the Valentine one, but I'm working on the opposites and the synonyms.

I thought I would share with you my step by step process of how to make these. It's very easy, cheap and not very messy.

First you need a bottle like this one. It had Orange Juice in it, but you can buy other flavors of juice. Clean it out well. And let it dry completely. To remove the label, fill the bottle with very hot (maybe close to boiling) water. Let it set for a few minutes. Then peel the label off.  I  had to use some Goo Gone to remove the adhesive residue that was left behind, but it didn't take much.

Then I bought the cheapest rice I could find, alcohol, and food coloring. 

Place about 2-3 tablespoons of alcohol in the bag and several drops of the color you want. Seal the bag and smoosh it around until it is all covered. Repeat for each color. These are sandwich bags so they aren't very big. These 4 bags were the entire contents of this box.

Spread them out on newspaper to dry. It really doesn't take long, since the alcohol is 

 a drying agent anyway.

When they are dry you can mix any combination of colors that you would like to go into your bottles.

Denise is so creative and giving. She even includes a label to laminate and hot glue to your bottle.  There are cards to copy, cut, fold, and glue before laminating that you will put into the bottle. There is also a worksheet to match to the words inside the bottle. 

It really is a fun activity and I will gladly post more pictures of my kids using it when I get back to school. If you want to know more about these Shaker Bottles and what Denise does with them, 

go to Sunny Days in Second Grade.

And if you like what you see, be sure to sign up for her free newsletter. She's a very generous lady and I'm glad to have her as a bloggy friend.

Patty

V-V-V-Very Valentine's & You Can Win One!

Have you looked at the calendar? At the end of this week comes February.

Have you noticed a lot of pink, red, and white on other people's blogs? I have and well, I like it. I love the froo froo girly girly stuff. Even if I myself am not froo froo and girly girly!

I have also been creating some Valentine activities and I would love for you to have them. I'm willing to give one of each away.

All you have to do is:

• be a follower of this blog.
• leave me a comment of which one you like.
• leave me your email address
• tell me the blog that you LOVE to follow (besides mine of course!)

I will pick 3 winners on Thursday after school.

The first one I made is to help with fact and opinion. These cute little cards have a statement on them. Your child must read them and decide if they are a fact or an opinion. Pretty easy to do. But oh so good practice for your students. It's called Love Bugs Facts and Opinions. You can get it by clicking on the link.

The second thing I made is a practice in verb tenses. It's called Valentine Verb Tenses.  Each verb is underlined. The students must match up the other verbs with the main one, then decide which one is spelled wrong. That's the one they write on the answer key. 

And the last one I'm highlighting today is my Love In Alphabetical Order. It's a basic practice in ABC order, but there is some sorting of the matching cards first, then they put them in ABC order. There is a recording sheet included in case you'd like this to be a writing activity. 

And here's a freebie if you're still hanging around to read all of this.

I call it a Back to Back.

Students sit back to back with a lapboard for a hard surface. One student will say, "color the word stirrup pink." So they both color that pink. They DO NOT turn around to be sure that they have the right  word. Then the other player tells them what word and what color to use. This continues until the whole figure is colored in. THEN they share their pictures to see how well they read, listen and have chosen the right colors to use. (They can only use the colors that are listed at the top of the page.) In the end the picture will look crazy colored this way, but it will be a good oral language and listening activity for them. 

Don't forget to leave me a message!

Patty

Thanksgiving Freebies that YOU'LL Want to Have!

Today my kids played a game that Heather Price is giving away! You SHOULD go and get it. . . NOW . . . before Thanksgiving is a past holiday! It's simple and quick and these first graders loved it  and had to think to find the answers.  This group is my RTI group that we call Reading Shuffle. They come to me everyday for 25 minutes and I use only the center activities that I pick up on TPT or here on other people's blogs. Well, I do use the things that I make too. . I just wanted to highlight some OTHER fun people who make cool things.

You see, one of the things that I'm truly thankful for, is all the friends that I have made in this blogging community. So helpful, caring, giving, and receiving too!

So you'll need to go over to visit Heather Price at Heather's First Grade Heart and pick up her Thankful Turkeys. These picture cards have words with the missing digraphs of wh, th, sh, and ch. It's a great practice for those who love a good game.

These kids love to pose for a picture. . . what oh what have we done to children that they are so fascinated with getting their picture taken, and then saying, "Lemme see!" right away!

Then we got out this compound word activity from  Sliding into 1st. 

Cait made these cute little weiner dogs and cut them in half to show the two words of a compound. These would be good for first or second graders. 

I picked this up last year, but it's still a good one to use. 

Those are NOT my blue fingernails. . . I wouldn't ever wear blue!

If you haven't already ventured over to Let's Talk Turkey, you need to do that soon too! That's where you'll find some cool and fun Thanksgiving activities to use before the Holiday is over!

Patty

Why read FREEBIE!

I'm drowning and I can't see the top of the water! Do you feel like that? Why do we do this to ourselves?

We . . . (no, I'm not going to drag you into this. . . ) I have to learn to tell myself no more often.

Monday night the board meeting is being held at my school. That's always fun to be sure that our school is all cutsified and that we will impress the board members. ..  but in reality it seems like they just whip right through the front door and down to the gym to get the meeting underway. So maybe it's the front door that needs to be cutsified because that may be the only thing they really look at!

Truthfully, there will be other issues on their minds this week. We are having a controversy in our town and it has really gotten the community up in arms.

(What does that mean? Up in Arms? Why does that mean in a tizzy! Who thought of that one?. . . oh well. . . )

While I shouldn't go into details here, I will just tell you that something went wrong between a coach, a  parent, and the superintendent. The whole deal is a mess and it was not handled right. That's all I can say.

On Monday we also start our RTI (Response to Intervention) time. We divide all the first and second graders into ability groups for 25 minutes. Each classroom does something that fits the needs of these students. This is where all of you come in handy. I get to use all the activities that you've shared or I have purchased from you. I will have only 8 first graders and that will be fun to work with them in small groups.

I have a freebie to share with you. Do your kids ever whine about wanting to skip reading at home? Do your parents ever act like it's not important to read each night? Maybe if you copy this off and share it with them, they will understand better. My teaching pal Cathie created this. (She loves to dig up math data, but then all that she teaches is math.)

Now I have a confession to make. I promised Maribel Sheehan that I would blog about her Christopher Columbus packet and well. . . I forgot. . . I think I got so wrapped up in other things, that it just flipped by me. I feel so bad. And even though Chris's Day is gone for this year, maybe I can still share with you about it, and then you can go and grab it so you'll have it ready for next year.  You can check it out at her site, Learning in Wonderland. 

This packet had many activities in it that are great for 2nd and 3rd graders. There is even a picture of him. My kids really studied him and thought he looked pretty different! The thinking maps help the kids sort through the information, plus there is also some vocabulary words that can be sorted into nouns. There's a Venn Diagram to compare traveling now and then and Christopher Columbus and the student. She also included facts and writing paper to create stories on. Please venture on over the rough seas of blogging to her Wonderful Blog. She's getting close to 200 followers, so maybe you could follow her and help her get to 200!

And . . . one more thing. . . . You haven't seen my granddaughter since she was born. . . Look at her now. . . She's 4 months old. . . Is she not the cutest! And check out that blanket she's on. My mathematical pal, Cathie made this for me. . . "I love Gramma!" It's the best!

Patty

A Halloween ABC Order Freebie

We have seen zillions of ABC order activities. . . mine is no different. . . I just wanted to make a quick one for my students and I figured someone out there in this big ol' blog world might also want a quick one.
And because it's small and only 5 pages long, I didn't think it was worth charging for. . . and so you're getting a freebie tonight!

It's called Halloween ABC!

I know that's a real original title, but hey, when it's almost 11:00 on a Monday night ya gotta be happy for what ever you can come up with!

The idea is pretty simple. They have to sort the pumpkins first by design then put them in ABC order. Or if you are really gifted, you can put them all together and put them in ABC order that way! Whooo ooooh! Except I didn't make an answer key for all the pumpkins together. . . maybe tomorrow! These pictures are also from the Spook Tacular Smiles CD from DJ Inkers. You can pick it up at www.djinkers.com
The frames come from their Kiddoodles Younger Years CD.

The fonts are my new favorites. They come from Rowdy in Room 300. I wanted to try them out and I'm so happy with how they look on the clip art. Don't cha agree? Thanks Nicole for the FREE FONTS!

Hope you like it! Let me know. . . don't just take it and fly away without leaving me a message. . . . You don't want the GREAT Pumpkin to come and take your spirit away do you?

Patty

DJ Inkers CD Give AWAY! FREE!

Yea! Today's the big day! I'm so excited for you! I'm also glad you stopped by!

If you have been following me, you know that I'm a huge fan of DJ Inkers. I'm so glad they offered a license and I grabbed it right away. I have had a lot of fun creating things with their clip art. And of course just making up a worksheet is no longer good enough, it has to be cutsified with DJ Inker pics!

I have some REALLY good news to share with you. . . I mean REALLY!

I have a CD of their latest Halloween clipart called 'Spook'Tacular Smiles to give away. . . . yup that's what I said, GIVE AWAY!

It's free . . . .it's brand new. . . . it's still in the plastic shrink wrap. . . and it's loaded with some cool things.
Here is a FREEBIE that I made with this clip art to share with you. There are two worksheets in this Freebie!

I also made this pronoun activity that you can buy at my TPT Store. You can buy it in color or you can buy it in black in white. Or you can even buy it with both! What a deal! I know that some of you are unable to copy in color so with this option you'll be a happy camper  teacher! And your school will be happy too!

There are 18 task cards plus a recording sheet and answer key so this is an independent activity that would be great for centers.

If you are still with me, here's how you can enter to win the DJ Inker Spook'tacular Smiles CD. Use the Rafflecopter below to enter. Leave me a comment about your favorite Halloween activity with your students and follow my TPT Store. 

If you want to see more of what DJ Inkers has to offer you, click on their title and you'll see all they have for you.

My favorite activity is dimming the lights, putting on scary music, sitting in a circle, calling the spirits to ask the children to not talk during this activity. They are to say no words.

They may make sounds, but no word can cross their lips!

We are going to "feel" the ingredients that go into the Witch's Brew. I use about 10 lunch sacks with words like Franks Toes, (vienna sausages) Dracula's brains, (wet spaghetti) Bat's heart, (canned peach halves) lizard tongues, (pickles sliced the long way in quarters) Ghoul's hair, (pencil shavings from the sharpener) dried Mummy bones, (dry rice) and several others. But the last one is always MUMMY DUST and this is glitter of any color! Their hands are damp from the other things (they do have a paper towel in front of them!) so the glitter sticks nicely to them!

Don't forget to leave your email address too!

I'll want to find you to mail this to you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you win! So be sure to enter and just maybe you'll be getting an email from me in a few days with the good news!

Patty

Free me from Jail and a FREEBIE for YOU! ** FIXED

Get the hand cuffs out.

Call in the police.

Because I think I stole something from someone. . . but I don't know WHO!!!

I searched to see if I could find it and get it from them (because I think it was a freebie)

I put it on Facebook and no one fessed up that it was theirs. . . .

So I created my own. It is truly someone else's idea, but it was such a good one, that I couldn't resist using it. I may and probably have changed the actual wording of it, but the idea is someone else's.

If you recognize this idea, please post the bail money and come and get me out of jail. I will gladly give you credit for it.

This is what I took, borrowed, stole, recreated. Take Home Journals.

I made 10 of them. Each night a child can take any one of them home. Their family can read what someone else wrote, then they are to do their own writing. Each cover has a different topic and directions of what to write.

I started with these UGLY journals that Wal-Mart gave us (apparently NO one wanted to buy them!).

Then I laminated my journal cover and taped it to cover up those words. . .  yuck! (hee hee!)

Now that I have confessed to this crime, I will GIVE away all the topics that I made so that who ever originally created them, MIGHT not be AS mad at me.

Just click HERE to get them.

They are made with DJ Inkers clip art and fonts. They are so adorable!

So grab them for free, tell your friends, do what you have to, to get me out of trouble.

You see, tomorrow is my first day back to school. I know many of you have been there for a couple weeks or more, but for Michigan it is a law.  . . a LAW! We can NOT start school until after Labor Day. Do you want to know why?

Here's the deal. There are a lot of touristy things in the Upper Penninsula and in Upper Michigan near Mackinaw Island. Apparently the legislatures from that part of the state are pretty strong figures, and they were able to sway the rest of the state to make us wait until after their touristy season. They need their workers who were quite often students to be there.  But here's my question. . . there are a lot of touristy things in lower Michigan that happen in early June, when we are still in school. . . . so why didn't those legislatures win out?

Ok, I digress. . . or ***** SQUIRREL! *******

I've got lots to do to get ready for my first day of . . . . you guessed it. . .  meetings! But I hope to be back tomorrow to share something else with you. . . . y'all come back now ya here!

And just one more thing. A big shout of prayers to all those who could be or are in the path of Isaac. It's a huge pain and worry and something we Michiganians never have had to worry about.

P.S. There was a typo and Jane was kind enough to bring it to my attention. It is fixed now. So if you grabbed this yesterday, you'll want to come back and get the new one.

Patty

Free the lambs! No I mean FREE Lambs!

I am still up! Yes, it's past 11:00 and I'm stuck in my computer chair! Somebody come and get me out of here!
My husband is in bed so he can't help me. . . .

I guess I'll just finish this one more thing and then I'll go to bed.
Do you say that?

And do you finish just that one thing?

Ya right, I didn't think so!

I remade a freebie that I posted earlier, but now it's in my TPT Store.

You'll love this . . . I added a bit to it and . . ..  It's still FREE!

There is nothing better than FREE. . . well, maybe a McDonald's Diet Coke, that's a bit better than FREE!

Raise your hand if you are one of those addicts like I am. . .

yup, 1, . . . . 2. . .. . .3. . . . ya, I see ya all out there with your hand slightly raised.

SQUIRREL!

I have to admit something else besides my addictions. . . My tpt store is pretty flat.
I mean I'm just not selling. . . so I've been thinkin and thinkin. . .

Then tonight I read over their TPT manual to see if there was something more I could do to boost my sales.
They said I should give something away for FREE! I like to be obedient and to follow the rules. So here's your FREE! But you do need to go to my store and look for the Subtraction With and Without Regrouping Lambs. They are pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. You already know that I'm addicted to Diet Coke, well, I'm also addicted to DJ Inkers. This activity plus a few more that I've added are created with those cutsy pictures.

Do me a favor, go on over to my store HERE, and just take a look around. Then if you do pick up something, be sure to leave me a good comment. And if you'd like to be "in like Flint" on the upcoming items, sign up to be one of my followers.

P.S. (added this morning) I did finally go to bed at 12:30. . . what in the BEEP am I going to do next week when I have to get up to an alarm clock and be out the door by 7:30?
Patty

My First TPT and it's absolutely FREE!

I did it.

I truly, finally did it.

I joined the ranks of so many of you.

 I made a TPT page. . . or do you call it store?

I think I have it all set up correctly and I think it looks normal. . . so I'd love to have someone take a look at it and see what you think. Of course it's cheap, inexpensive.  . . no, it's just FREE!

It's an activity on matching verbs to their other tenses. Click HERE to go to it.  . . Since this is my first one on TPT, I'd love for you to let me know if the directions are clear or if there is something missing. Each girl has a verb under her. The boys all have connecting verb tenses, but one of them is spelled incorrectly. Once you copy them, laminate them, then cut them out, they will be shuffled all together. The students must first sort them into words that go together, then decide which one should be discarded because it is either not spelled correctly or that it doesn't make sense.

I used the grapics from digiwebstudio.com

And the background from Corinna at Surfinthroughsecond. She has these wonderful blue stars, stripes, and polka dots. She also made a set like this in reds. Check out her work. . . she's purdy dern good at what she does!

So check out this freebie. . . and just TAKE it! GRAB it, DOWNLOAD it, and then don't forget to let me know what you think. . .

Muah to all of you for inspiring me to do all I can to stimulate the minds of my students.

Patty

Manic Monday Freebie

http://www.classroomfreebies.com/2012/06/welcome-to-manic-monday-at-classroom_18.html

Today I'm posting the flashlight poem for anyone who might have missed it before. It was a big hit as far as those who left messages said. So I thought I would put it up again on Manic Mondays in case someone missed it.  Go to this link to read more about it. Freebie

Patty

Locker Fairy Freebie (it's a repeat!)

Last week our library cleaned out books that weren't being checked out much. They stamp them with DISCARD and let the teachers take what ever they'd like. I grabbed a bunch of them and stuck them in the lockers of my kids with a note attached that said, "Just for you from the Locker Fairy!

When the kids returned the next morning, they were so excited to get something from the Locker Fairy!

One little guy even said, "Yea, I got this cool book from the Locker Fairy and I think she stole it from the Library!" Too cute!

The kids have their suspicions about who the Locker Fairy is, but I never let on! You can get your Locker Fairy notes here. They are created in color, but if you print them in black and white they do just fine.

I know that it's the end of the year, but if you're cleaning out cupboards and find stuff that you know someone would love, stick it in their locker with this note and see their faces glow. Sometimes we give to everyone and sometimes, it's just a couple kids.

I am going to become invisible for the rest of this week.  I feel attracted to blogging, but I really must push myself away so that I'm not up till past midnight on Wednesday night. I have report cards to finish as well as assessments to complete.

Tomorrow after school I am bringing 10 of my students to my house because they have completed or are currently working on Divison facts in our Rocket Math. They will come just for an hour and a half, but they love it a lot. I live next door to a park which has a community playground that everyone likes to play on. Plus they like to see my house and where I eat and where I check papers and where my bed is. . . it's a very fun experience to watch their eyes light up.

Plus I must leave time in my schedule to see my granddaughter. I am already in love and am such a sap over seeing her. She's changed so much already. 

Here's my favorite picture. . . and then I'll quit. . . .

 Have a lot of fun whether you are done or near done!


I AM counting. . . 4 days with kids, one with staff! Boo ya!

Patty