Word Work Still Works With Ten Days to Go (and a Freebie)!

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With only a few more days of school this year, the kids are getting restless!  The kids were starting to get bored of all of the ways they could practice their Word Work for Daily 5.  Luckily, my friends at MyBinding.com (shout out to Hillsboro, Oregon!!!) sent me C-Line's 9x7 Reusable Dry Erase Pockets, a fun, new product to try out with my students!  These pockets are heavy-duty and they are reinforced and sewn all the way around the edges of the pocket.  Plus, they have a little eyelet so you could hang them for easy access.  All I had to do was slip in a paper that I wanted my students to practice and voila! a non-prep, fun Word Work center was born! 

I tried having the kids use Crayola's Dry Erase Crayons first.  Here is one of my cuties practicing on his own.  At first I loved the crayons because they weren't stinky, but eventually it stopped erasing on the pockets because the eraser mitt it came with got covered in greasy crayon. Then, the kids decided to put the mitt and crayons INSIDE the pocket! Teacher FAIL! That is what happens when you don't give enough specific directions with a new tool!  So, I had to scrub it clean inside and out.  We won't be trying the crayons again. 

So, I got out the EXPO markers, which wipe off easily with a tissue or white board eraser.  Here are two of my kids playing, "Spelling Test."  I put a spelling practice sheet facing one way and a blank paper with handwriting lines on the other side.  That way, kids can practice with a buddy or one their own.  I wish you could hear how the "spelling test" was going!  He was giving the spelling test using it in a sentence, then he made up a sentence dictation sentence using the words (just like me!).  Too cute!  CLICK HERE FOR FREEBIE SAMPLE OF MY SPELLING PRACTICE SHEETS!

We are currently studying about plants and the kids have been working on adding science vocabulary words to their Plant ABC vocabulary sheet.  I slipped a few blank sheets into the dry erase pockets so that kids could add one of their words to the class ABC list.  Talk about easy motivation!  Some of the kids who don't always want to get their work done were scrambling so that they could get their hands on one of the dry erase pocket activities!  CLICK HERE FOR A FREEBIE OF MY ABC VOCAB SHEET!

MyBinding.com has other colors and sizes of these fun Dry Erase Pockets. Besides getting more of the large pockets,  I want to get some of the smaller 6x9 versions, too!  They'd be great to use with some of my other centers.  Instead of copying off a tree's worth of paper class set for every center game, I could just put out a few of the Dry Erase Pockets and I'd be set!  I think they'd be great as response boards, if you had a small or whole group set.  Thanks, MyBinding.com!!!


Sorry for the quality of the next picture, but it was too good not to include in my post.  When my kids turned in their homework yesterday, I came across this one that didn't quite get signed by the student and the parent...  LOL!!!   This little guy spent his Work on Writing time to draw me a picture and wrote me a note that said, "My teecher is a delaket flower and she is always HAPPY!"

We have only ten more days!  How are you spending the last day with your students?  I get to keep mine and loop up to second with them!  Yay!

Happy Teaching!
♥Corinna

Freebies, TpT's 28% Off Sale, & Super Bowl Flashbacks! Woo-hoo!

Today was a "Staff Development Day" without students, which is great news because I still have enough energy to devote all of my attention to my Teachers Pay Teachers wish list and shopping cart!
I don't know about you, but I am thrilled that the big 28% off sale is happening again!  Yay!  Ashley Hughes designed the super cute button below.  Be sure to check out her TpT store for fun graphics.


CLICK PIC TO GO SHOPPING!

I hear there is something else going on this Sunday, but I can't quite remember what it was... (hahaha!)  I'm not into football.  The only time I enjoyed myself was when I played in the marching band in high school and college.  I played the drums and it was fun to play music when our team did well.  But, my favorite part of my college marching band was a nice boy who played the trombone.  He also delivered pizza to help pay for college.  On Super Bowl Sunday in 1989 (you know, the one with the 1/2 time show requiring the red and blue 3-D glasses from TV Guide?!?), he delivered me a pizza--that I didn't even order--and he asked me out.  I decided that maybe Super Bowl Sunday wasn't such a bad idea after all.  I also decided he was a keeper!   We've been married 20 years and this will be our 24th Super Bowl Sunday Anniversary (and I still have those 3-D glasses!).

I'm linking up with TBA's Freebie Friday!  Here is a cute and easy way for your kids to do their Word Work with a little Valentine's flair.  I hope you enjoy it!  Click on the picture below to get your freebie!

I hope your weekend will be super!  Thanks for reading my blog.  I truly appreciate you!

♥Corinna

Freebie Friday Fall Work Work

I'm so happy to be done with Parent Conferences.  It was nice to meet with the families, but I am glad to have a three-day weekend to blog stalk, shop on TPT,  recover my voice and hang out with my Hubby. I know I'm kind of a dork, but I was super excited about coming home, checking my email and finding that I had sold a bunch of my TPT things! I am also getting excited about planning new November activities to do with my Firsties.  

I just had to use my new ThistleGirl graphics, so I whipped up a spelling practice page and linked up with TBA's Freebie Friday.  Write some of your spelling words in the first column before reproducing this page.  Then, students will practice writing the words in "pumpkin/Halloween-ish" colors.  I hope you can use it. 

How are you celebrating Halloween with your students?  We're going  to do Halloween themed math and literacy centers all day, followed by some goodies.  Don't you wish Halloween would just fall on the last Friday of October?  Obviously, nobody consulted with a teacher on this! 

 

If you're thinking about doing an election unit, check out Learning with Mrs. Leeby's "Get Out and Vote" pack.  It is full of great ideas to use with your kiddos.

 

Have a super weekend!

Corinna ¢

 

 

 

Freebie, New Product, & Giveaways...Oh, My!!!

I am so excited about my upcoming 200 Fabulous Follower Giveaway!  I have a special prize (Yay!)that will be given away, but you'll have to finish reading this post for more details!

I thought it would be fun to make a sight word practice game or two for my little Firsties.  Well...that took A LOT longer than I had imagined, due to my OCD attention to detail.  But, here is a little sneaky-peek at my Halloween Sight Word Games.  What do you think?  It is available at my Teachers Pay Teachers store.  Click to check it out!

Thank goodness for Oregon's unpaid/optional 3 Day Weekend "Inservice Day" on Friday! It gave me lots of time to catch up on things that are really important, like catching up on reading blogs doing laundry. Hmmm...I think blog-stalking counts as Inservice! I downloaded over 60 new items from my favorite bloggers this weekend!  I'm late for Freebie Friday, but I created a Halloween Candy Word Work sheet.  I have to keep spelling practice fun for my Firsties.  Otherwise a lot of times kids say, "I forgot," when I ask where their work is.  I know what kids mean when they say "I forgot."  It means, "This is not fun or worth my time."  Like when "I forgot" to do my laundry this weekend.  *sigh*  So, here it is!  Spelling practice with the magic motivating word, "candy!"  Click on the pic to download!

I am almost to 200 Fabulous Followers!  That gives me another excuse to have a giveaway!  I've been so excited about this, but I won't let all of the details out of the bag yet.  OK fine...You forced it out of me...I'll just give you a hint.  A BIG hint.  How do you like my delicious, personalized notebook from Maybooks.com?  I bet you'd love one of your own?  In your own favorite design and colors?  Stay tuned...

Speaking of 200 Follower Giveaways...Halle & Jenna's Across the Hall in 2nd Grade is having a 200 Follower Giveaway with LOTS of great bloggers' goodies!  There are three opportunities to win!  Click below to visit.

If you've read this whole post, thank you!!!  If you'd like one of your products to be included in my giveaway, please let me know soon.

 

Have a great week, Everybody!  I'd love to hear your thoughts on my freebie and/or how you keep your kiddos motivated during the pre-Halloween weeks!

Corinna

Webby Wednesday: Literacy Websites

I joined Brenda at Primary Inspired ABC for a Webby Wednesday blog hop about fun literacy websites to use for Word Work activities.  She shared a fun site, so be sure to visit her blog, too.

One of my favorite sites is BBC Bitesize.  They have different levels of animated literacy games, plus other content areas.  The kids get a kick out of the games and they are great for use on a SMARTboard or other interactive whiteboard.  I plan to have this site as one of the choices my students can use during our Daily 5 literacy time.

I hope you link up and join in with other great literacy sites.  If you are new to my blog and you want to share ideas, be sure to follow me, leave a comment, and I'll be over to visit!

Corinna



Freebie Friday!

How did we get to the last Friday of July already?!?  Well, the good thing is that it is time for Freebie Friday again!  Here is a Word Work activity where students will use letter tiles to create their spelling words or spelling pattern words then use them in sentences.  My followers can download the activity for FREE.  Teachers Pay Teachers has been having technical issues, but the time you visit, check out my year's worth of Themed Spelling Test papers that I recently downloaded. 


CLICK THE PIC TO DOWNLOAD

Thank you so much for visiting my blog!  I appreciate all of your comments!

FREEBIE Friday!

I've been working on focus wall posters for our district's new Reading Street adoption.  All of that work was so boring fun, that I decided to make a freebie for Friday, the 13th!  It is another Daily 5 Word Work activity called "Sight Word Search!"  If you find that you'd like to download this activity, I'd love for you to "follow" my blog.  Thanks!  Click on the picture for your freebie!

 

Daily 5 and CAFE (aka FACE)

I have been thinking about teaching using Daily 5 and CAFE.  I know, it is summer, but I really cannot help myself!  I've been linking  up to the Daily 5 book study group, but I'm a bit off track (blog hopping + Pinterest = sleep deprivation!).  So, enjoy these  CAFE headers for your focus wall while I take a nap.

Click HERE for your CAFE freebie!
If you enjoyed this freebie, please consider sending some "blog love" my way by following my blog.  Thanks!

Daily 5 Book Study Blog Hop!

I loved using "Daily 5" in my second grade class!  Now that I'm going to teach first grade in the fall, I am eager to see how this will work.  I've been blog-stalking many great first grade sites to see how teachers are using Daily 5 with their students.  You can join in by joining the blog hop or just by leaving a comment. 

Click HERE to visit the Chapter One Blog Host Mel D.'s Post

I'm a few weeks behind, but I'll catch up soon.  For now, I'll share my Daily 5 Schedule Strips that I made.  I use them so that one D5 activity doesn't get too full of students.  I learned the need for this very quickly last year when a  hoard of eager students descended on the magnet letters for Word Work!  Oops!  LOL!  

Click HERE for my DAILY 5 SCHEDULE STRIPS FREEBIE!

Daily 5 Schedule Freebie!

Here is what I use for the first five weeks of Daily 5.  I start this the first full week of school.  You can have the kids write the book title they read for Read to Self or you can just have them check it off as after they finish.

Click to Download the D5 Student Sheets