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Monday Fun Day?

I have NEVER thought Mondays were ever fun... oh, except those special Mondays like Martin Luther King Day or President's Day. Yea, pretty much the Mondays that we have off. Ha! I do love my job, but we all know how Mondays are. So much to do... SO little time. Not today though. Today was a great day! Not only were my kids well behaved, but they are finally getting the routine down which means that we can move a little faster in class. Today the kids did not go out for lunch recess due to inclement weather. BOY! Was it hot!  It was muggy and felt more like we lived in Florida. Sorry Floridians...but when you live in So Cal, that is NOT the weather you expect. When we came in from lunch, the kids needed to get some energy out since they did not get to play. So we did our first of the year dance party! I put on some Kidz Bop and we just got all our little wiggles out of our bodies. I would have some pictures to show you but instead I videotaped and forgot to take pictures! Sorry. It was fun and I realized real quick who had older siblings just by the way they danced....uh hum...if you know what I mean. Lol.

Another thing that we did that the kids really enjoyed was my sentence muncher activity from my Houghton Mifflin Second Grade Resources pack. This unit is FILLED with common core, things that you can use for Daily 5/literacy centers, and Thinking Maps activities! It's over 250 pages for just theme 1 alone! Last week, I taught what a sentence was. Today we got to review it in a fun way. Since this skill was taught in our first story Dragon Gets By I created these little dragons to be sentence munchers.



I had a sheet of sentences/non sentences that the students had to cut out. Look at this sweet girl. She had all her trash and sentences separated in neat little piles. :)



Once they got all the sentences cut out, they worked together to figure out if they were sentences or not.



Then it was FEEDING TIME! :) Each dragon was labeled with a sentence or not a sentence.




Students took turns feeding the correct sentence strips to the appropriate dragons.





After they were done, they took the paper bag dragons off and these little tins were inside each dragon to catch each sentence strip.

 They checked their answers with the answer key that was glued on the back of each dragon.


  
  
Then, they took their sentence strips out of the tin and glued them onto the recording sheet.  They filled their plates with good sentences and threw the sentence fragments in the "trash". They LOVED this!

  
Their worksheet after it was all said and done....


 


My students had SO much fun with this activity because it wasn't the usual paper and pencil worksheet. You know what?? I *think* I even caught some of them smiling as the learned about sentences (which can usually be boring). Imagine that.... students smiling and enjoying the learning process.... :)

Have a great day friends and I hope that we can all make learning fun for our little ones!:)

Blessings,
Angela Linzay

Five for Friday

Hello Friends.

I love Fridays because not only is it my hubby's day off of work, but I love joining in with Doodle Bugs and her linky party. I had a wonderful week this week with lots of fun things planned.



1. This past Saturday (ok, am I breaking the rules talking about LAST Saturday????)  my sister planned a surprise birthday party for her husband. They live in beautiful San Diego, CA.  She booked a place right on the beach and rented out the whole restaurant patio. This was our view:


We had a table by ourselves while the kids sat with their cousins. It was the perfect set up... until the kids started melting down. They were hungry and tired (we did just get back from a camping trip earlier THAT DAY).... BUT that is just NO excuse to ruin a perfectly PERFECT dinner with a gorgeous view that was FREE for your parents.  Ha! Sheeesh! Kids these days. :)

2.On Monday, my husband sent me to get a massage and have dinner with his mother for her birthday. He did not have to ask me twice. I blurted our "Yes!" when I heard the words "massage" and "dinner". Plus, I love my mother in law so it was just a bonus. We had so much fun chatting and just hanging out. I would post pictures, but I have none because we looked like a mess after our massage, and really... I was just having too much fun to think about documenting.

3. On Tuesday,  my mother in law took our 3 kids overnight (I told you, she's AWESOME!) and my hubby and I got a much needed date night. I actually had a really rough day at work that day. Kids were chatty and I was tired. I felt like that day I was doing a lot of talking and not enough teaching. Boy, I was exhausted! The only thing that helped me through the day was the thought of a date night with my guy at my favorite sushi place.

Love me some wasabi!!

The waitress was surprised that I was able to finish off my whole plate! Love yakisoba!

4. On Wednesday, my students did AMAZING! They must have felt bad for their poor teacher or something because they were right on target! I was so impressed by them and just plain proud of how well they were doing in class.  Later on that night, I also had my girls over again for another Shutterfly night. I forgot to take pictures (sorry) but we had lots of fun. Girls brought their computers and worked on making their photobooks online. We had yummy snacks and just talked.

5. This brings us to today.  Today is our Friday Family Fun Day!  Since my hubby Greg is a pastor, his only day off is Friday (we have Saturday and Sunday services). In the summer time, we take FULL advantage of the kids not being in school on Greg's day off. Today we went to the beach for one last Family Fun Day before the kids start school next week. Love beach days!

Sorry for the blurred picture but this is my hubby teaching our Little Miss K how to ride a boogie board. BEST. HUSBAND. EVAH. :)

My boys! LOVE!!!!

Little Miss K!

Aaaaaannnnd, this one had NOTHING to do with the beach but just had to throw it in because it made this mama's heart sing! My sweet 6 yr old had a "surprise" for me in the garage. When I went in, I saw this!! SO SWEET!!! Not only did it melt my mama heart but it also made my teaching heart happy!! Correct spelling and everything! Oh yea... and for an added bonus??? Complete with the correct punctuation. :)  In the words of my sweet Joshie "I love you.... Bam!" :)
 Be still my heart!!!

That's it friends. Hope your week is full of fun!

Blessings,

Daily 5 Read To Self

Hello Friends!

Today will be a short post since I have Back To School Night tonight. I job share so I am at home today and will go back to my school site later today to get the classroom ready.

I wanted to share a little about our first 2 weeks in implementing Daily 5. If you have not tried Daily 5 and have been on the fence about it, I would really encourage you to DO IT! I LOVE it and it really is my favorite time of the day. In fact, my sweet little Daniel from my class (and a couple of other students) kept asking when we were going to do Daily 5 again. They know that it's at the end of the day, but they were just SUPER excited to do Read to Self since they had earned sitting ANYWHERE in the room. Note: this year, I have a tough and SO VERY chatty class so I was a bit scared to see how "sitting anywhere" would turn out.

I start my Read to Self with them just sitting at their desks. I wanted them to build some stamina in displaying the right Read to Self behavior before I threw in the fun factor of sitting around the room, under the tables, at my teacher desk,  etc. I told them that if they made it to 6 mins, that I would allow them to sit anywhere in the class. They worked together and within just a couple tries, they did it. WOW! To be honest, I didn't think that they would get it that soon, but I am a woman of my word.... so I allowed them to sit anywhere they wanted... even under the desks....which I had to take back because they just weren't ready for THAT much fun this early. Ha! Well, I guess the excitement was just too much because our first try of sitting anywhere got us a whopping 16 seconds before someone was off task! I stopped them and they came back to the gathering place. We talked about what we did, we assessed ourselves with a thumbs up/down, reviewed our anchor chart, and tried again. This time I heard my students whisper to each other, "Come on guys, let's do it!" and "NO talking (insert name here) and "Ok, read the WHOLE time (eyes one the usual suspect who usually does not)." So we tried our round 2 of Read to Self and we made it 4 mins and 38 secs! They would have gone longer, but it was time to clean up so I stopped them (insert student groans here). They did great and I seriously was SO impressed by their teamwork in reaching this goal.  Here are some shots from our Read to Self.

Kids love sitting in our rocking chair. 

Love their little crossed legs!




We will continue working on stamina and introduce Read to Someone next week. I know that my students last year really loved reading with their friends.  Like I said, this class is making me earn my keep so I am a bit nervous about introducing this component. But I know that with a lot little bit of work and hair pulling patience, I can get them there.

Have a wonderful day friends!


Blessings,

TPT's Back To School Sale Starts Tomorrow!!!


I stole borrowed this ADORABLE image from The 3am Teacher :)

Hello Friends.

Since we are all teachers here, I know that we LOVE deals. This is why I'm letting you know, if you haven't already heard, that TPT is having their HUGE annual BTS sale! I will be joining in with them to give you the maximum savings of 28% off of anything in my store! Like all good things must come to an end, this sale is only good for 2 days - Sunday and Monday. So start window shopping and wishlisting so that you have your cart all ready with amazing resources at their lowest prices! Don't forget to give feedback to products that you've already purchased. It's like FREE MONEY ya'll!!! And you knoooow... FREE is the perfect price!!  I know that I will be shopping around and filling up my cart with things that I've had my eyes on and making sure I get all my feedback in from the purchases I've made so that I can pay even less with the credits I earn.

Happy Shopping Friends and hopefully you get some really great things that will make this school year much easier for you. :)

Blessings,


Five For Friday

Hello Friends!

Today is Friday and I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for her Five For Friday Linky Party! I love being a part of this party because it makes me slow down and reflect on the happy things that happened this week. Plus, I get a snapshot of all my favorite bloggers' week. I'm such a stalker big fan of them and have been so inspired by their creativity and enthusiasm for teaching.




1. I got nominated for the Liebster award!!! This award is given to up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers. Since I haven't had my blog for very long, I fit perfectly into this category and was SUPER excited when I was nominated by Ramblings of a Happy Teacher. I love this award because I've been able to check out other smaller blogs while looking to pass on this award to another teacher. I've found SO many great blogs that I might not have found because I stick to my usual "big bloggers". I've found that these teachers from smaller blogs are AMAZING and are doing some pretty wonderful things in their classrooms.


2. This week was my sweet baby girl's 3rd birthday! She has taught me many things, especially humility. Ya see, I raised 2 wonderful boys who are well behaved, obedient, and agreeable.  Right when I thought that I had it all together.... then came my #3.... AND it was a girl! While I LOVE LOVE having a girl, she is SO different from my boys. She is feisty, disagreeable, drama, Miss Independent, you name it. My hubby told me that having a little girl explains A LOT to him why I  I mean.. uh hum.. girls act the way that they do.  Some question nature vs nurture in the way kids behave....NOT her. Seriously, she was just born this way. While she can be a little ornery at times, she still has my heart and I LOVE LOVE that I have a little girl!


Seriously! How does SO much cuteness get into such a little body??!!!
 3.  My church is a host site for a leadership conference every year. It's called The Global Leadership Summit. Although it's hosted at different churches, not all speakers are Christians. I got to hear some AMAZING leadership principles from leaders of all kinds of background.  Here are just 2 of them:


This is Mark Burnett. He is the executive producers for hit shows like The Voice, Shark Tank, Celebrity Apprentice, Survivor, The Bible Series, etc.  He was amazing and had some great leadership tips. 

Colin Powell was absolutely inspirational!!!! He was amazing and IS an amazing leader!!!

4. This week I introduced the Daily 5 into my classroom. Last year was my first year doing it and I LOVED it!! Now, I'm starting over again with this year's group and it makes me miss my last year's group SO much! I'm sure you all know how it is. This group is tough and I know that they will get there, but it's gonna take some... A LOT of work. They actually did REALLY well for their first round of Read to Self. It took us a couple of rounds of practicing, but we made it to 3 mins!! I was so proud of them!





5. We are camping with our friends as I speak. This is our last camping trip before the kids start school. I LOVE our little camping group. We are at a beach called Bolsa Chica and are just steps away from the sand. We've been camping with this group of friends for over 6 years! Our kids have grown up together and just play well with each other. Camping with each other is something our families look forward to every summer.


This is the view from the steps from our RV. So close to the beach!!!







Movie time in our RV with the kids

Feeding time!

Friends since birth


That's a snapshot of my week. Hope yours was just as wonderful. And for those who have not started back at work, enjoy squeeeezing out the last bit of summer. :)

Thanks for reading, Friends.

Blessings,

I Got the Liebster Award!!!

Hello Friends!

So excited to share with you that my humble little blog here was nominated for the Liebster Award! I was super excited when  Melissa from Ramblings of a Happy Teacher told me about it. Thank you Melissa for the awesome nomination!!! So SWEET!!!  


Soooo... What is the Liebster Award you ask? I had the same question. The Liebster Award is for up and coming blogs that have less than 200 followers. Liebster is a German word that means sweetest, kindest, dearest, cute, endearing, etc. Such a thoughtful award! Here are the rules to accept this award:

1.  Link back to the person that nominated you.
2.  Answer the questions from your nominator.
3.  Share 11 random facts about yourself.
4.  Nominate 5 more blogs with less than 200 followers.
5.  Pose questions for your nominees


 Thank you again sweet Melissa from Ramblings of a Happy Teacher for thinking my blog was special enough to receive this award. You made my day!!!

Questions to Answer:

1)What is your ideal vacation? My ideal vacation would be going to Hawaii or the Bahamas (LOVE warm the water!!) and sitting with a nice book on the beach. Food would be all inclusive and my hubby and I would go on different excursions and get massages everyday! OR the mountains cuddled up on the couch with a good book with the fireplace going.  Kids would be at their grandparents house. Sorry kids!

2)If you had an unlimited budget, what would you purchase for your classroom? A smart board, Ipads for all my students, a nice color printer, seat sacks, a beautiful rug, and home decor things. 

3)What is your favorite way to de-stress after a long week? a massage and then hot tea and dessert on the couch with my honey watching a chick flick. My hubby loves chick flicks! Ha!

4)Tell us your most unforgettable student response/comment you've ever had. I was asked by one of my former 3rd grade students if I would go to the doctor with her since she started her period. So sweet of her to want me to be there! 

5)What is your favorite season and why? Fall and then into winter. I LOVE the smell of fall and how it begins to get darker earlier. I love warm scented candles. Then I LOVE Christmas. I LOVE the hustle and bustle of it all! I love EVERYTHING about the season. In fact, it's hard for me to actually enjoy Christmas because I'm always sad that it's going to be over soon. LOL. 

6)What is your favorite way to reward your class for excellent behavior? Show up at my students house with balloons. My kids love this and so do I!!!

7)Sweet or Salty? BOTH!! Trail mix suits me just fine! :)

8)When you have time to read for pleasure, what do you read? Blogs, books that challenge me and make me a better mommy, Christian, wife, etc. 

9) Reality TV - yes or no? Yes. Loving my Duck Dynasty!!!

10) Where is your favorite place to buy school clothes? Oh man, I shop everywhere depending on what I need. I like Forever 21 for trendy things, Old Navy for more preppy things, and even Target. :)


11 Random Facts About Me

1. I worked as a carhop (rollerskating waitress) right before I got a job teaching.
2. I have a movie in my mind. I see everything as a movie.
3. I LOVE surprises!!
4. I would have 7-8 kids if I could think I could handle it. 
5. I love to dance and express myself through that.
6. I wish SO badly I could sing.
7. I used to be a Budweiser girl and a ring girl for boxing matches.
8. I've been to Africa on a mission trip and want to go back!
9. After this year I will have memorized 6 chapters of the bible! So exciting!
10. My husband is a pastor.
11. I am a bit OCD and will obsess over things I take on. It will consume my mind and I just get hyperfocused on things...which can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on who you talk to. Ha!

I would like to nominate (drum roll please).......



Questions for the nominees:

1. Why did you become a teacher?
2. What grades have you taught?
3. What website/blog do you go to for teaching inspiration?
4. Describe your ideal date.
5. Where do you live?
6. Tell me about your family.
7. What was one of the best lessons you've ever done in class?
8. What is your favorite TV show?
9. What do you do to relax?
10. Why did you decide to start a blog?




Rollerskates, A New Product, and MY FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY!!

I am doing my FIRST ever giveaway and I'm super excited about it!! More on that later....

Today was a fun day as I went back to my old workplace to celebrate my mother in laws birthday.  I worked as a rollerskating waitress at a 50's place right before I started teaching. Yes, you heard right.... a ROLLERSKATING waitress. They called us carhops. We danced and performed in various places with celebrities and have been on countless TV shows. I used to swing dance on skates and do lifts and flips. Yea... those were to good ol' days. Now, I'd be lucky if I could even rollerskate. LOL.  Those were such fun memories! When I first pulled up, this catering car was parked out in front. OH. MY. GOSH. No words. Really.



This is a really a....um..... non flattering picture of me on the catering car. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't  DRIVING ALL OVER TOWN!!!!! Sheesh!  My kids however thought it was pretty cool....except my firstborn. He let me know that I looked "weird" because the windows of the car just happen to land right on me. Of course. You see. I told you. I have NO. WORDS.



The inside of the restaurant is REALLY cool. We sat in a real car that was cut up. Kids loved it and loved our carhop that skated up to us to deliver our food.  Not only is this a fun place to be but the food is fantastic! I worked there for MANY years and never got sick of the food.

Another thing that I did this weekend is put a new little product on TPT. It's my fully editable table number labels or rather, just labels that you can use any which way you'd like. It's on TPT for only $1.50 and comes with 8 different designs. Maybe you can use them in your class to label supplies, table numbers, or whatever.





I used them in my class for table numbers. The picture here is not the best since my printer at work was all screwy and made the chevron pattern weird. I assure you that the file is perfect though. I tried it at home and it was fine. School was starting the next day so I just slapped some construction paper on these and used them for my class until I can get back to reprinting them this week.



OK, now....for my  (insert echo sound here) FIRST EVER GIVEAWAAAAAAYYYYYY.......

Since I'm kinda a newbie on this TPT thing, I haven't gotten the hang of everything yet. It takes me FOREVER to get my units ready to be posted on TPT.  Creating the previews take a long time. I don't know if I should do a collage of all the pages or full size sample pages... so I do both. Collages do take up a good amount of time for me. I feel like I'm taking the long way around to do things. There are other things that I could use help on in being more efficient in making my products. I seriously feel like I need some of these expert TPTers to sit with me while I create my units so that I can ask them all the questions I want as I encounter them. Any takers??? :)

SOOOOOO.... that got me thinking....I NEED the expertise of all YOU wonderful TPTers out there...which leads me to this contest.  Just do 2 simple things to enter:

1. Follow my blog on Bloglovin
2. Give me the BEST TPT advice that you have from organizing files, creating previews, getting your product ready to be live, to advertising and getting your product out there more, to whatever! I will take ANY and ALL advice that I can get. I not only need to be faster at creating and posting these things, but I need to get them out there for others to see.

I will pick TWO WINNERS.  Those who give me the BEST advice will get to pick out any one item OF THEIR CHOICE from my store!  Winners will be announced on Tuesday, August 13 sometime in the evening. Please leave your advice in the comment section below.

You can check out which unit you would like in my store here.

Thank you friends and I look forward to learning from you all!


 Blessings,