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

Follow my blog with Bloglovin
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

Fall Word Work Freebie!

I'm just going to pretend that it hasn't been a few weeks since my last post.  To help you overlook that fact, I'm posting a Fall Word Work Freebie!  Just to make practicing their spelling words a little more exciting, my students will write their spelling words in fall leaf colors.  Writing words in color is SO much more fun for them.  Click on the picture below to download.  If you enjoy the freebie, I'd love to hear your comments!  Have a great week, Everybody!

Corinna