Two for Tuesday: June 14

I'm linking up with Chalk One Up for the Teacher for Two for Tuesday today! 

Today, I'm featuring two of my top sellers that are essential for back to school: Math Facts Made Easy: Addition and Subtraction Addition!

This is part of a growing bundle {that I'm slowly working on finishing} and I love!!! 

Here's the details on the packs:

And some amazing feedback!

Head over to TPT to get these two products for the price of one before I remember to re-price them! 

Monday Made It: June 13 2016

Well, I just realized that today is TUESDAY and not Monday, but I figured I would still link up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made It! I've been out of school for a week, and have been busy working on a bunch of projects!

This summer, I was asked to teach summer school. At first I had a mini-heart attack ... 

And then, I found out that it was only a month, half days, and way more money than I thought... so I started doing a happy dance! 

We are teaching thematic units, which I am beyond excited about ... and we get to do ANYTHING we want ... It's like the teaching experience everyone creative has always dreamed about! 

It's going to be hard to wake up so early, but at least it will be FUN! 

I decided on Fairy Tales (specifically fractured fairy tales) and am so, so, very excited to wear a crown for four weeks! 

I also decided to try out planbook.com during summer school so that I could decide if it's something I want to do over the course of the school year. I wanted to make it cute, and luckily, I found Ladybug Teacher Files  tutorial on how to make this website work for me and have been playing around ever since.  I'm loving the way I can make it cute and organized ... and I can just copy and paste everything from year to year!!!! 

I worked hard at trying to balance work/social/home remodeling life last week! I also transformed my old kitchen table as my first diy of the summer ... unfortunately, I don't have a before picture, but I found a similar table on craigslist... below is a similar table to what I had, except it was round and all wood, no tile. I HATED the hunter green legs and the blah top (it was more of a cherry stain), and have had it covered with a table cloth for the past two years because it was the opposite of any kind of home decor that I had in my house (but I had bought it for a mere $40 at a Goodwill, knowing I could eventually make it look much better!)

Kind of Before:

After: 

I painted the legs black, sanded down the top and stained it with a kona color, and added a high gloss finish. I'm not so embarrassed anymore! 

I totally revamped my Calendar Math Unit, and if I do say so myself, it's stinking adorable!

I loved using this daily in second grade to reinforce math skills and get kids talking... check it out... 

What did you make this week?

ELA Vocabulary

This last year, my team and I worked HARD to get our kids ready for not only the state test, but our rigorous programs in fourth, fifth and sixth grade. We use the Wonders teaching curriculum, which has great stories to go along with the common core standards, but isn't always the most organized when it comes to close reading. We also use Spalding Spelling and Shurley to teach parts of speech and sentence structure. While this last year was a huge learning curve for me, I learned so much! One area we reflected back and identified a need for more direct instruction after receiving our state testing scores is ELA vocabulary terms. Everyday, we go over math vocabulary terms but we do not go over vocabulary terms. So, I set out on a mission! My teammate found a list of vocabulary words recommended by our state testing - ISAT, and I also looked up other words, and looked back and thought about terms that our kids struggled to remember this year. I came up with about 150 vocabulary words to go through over the course of the year. Now, I won't hit all these words daily. Just like everything else we do at our school, it will be done in a spiral format. I will start with the first five words of set 1 and cover those on day 1, day 2 the first 5 words of set 2, etc... So, by the end of the first quarter, they will have heard all of the words at least 5 times (with the words at the beginning of each set being added to every time we go back, so once you've covered the first five words of all four sets, you go back to the first set and do the first 10, then the first 15 and so on and so fourth) . It's what we do to teach math vocabulary and it works wonders!

In each product, there is: a list of all words included, student vocabulary cards with and without pictures to help jog the memory, and a PowerPoint slide show to review slides everyday.

I don't post the cards in the room for the students to see for a few reasons - I want them to memorize the definitions in order to use them when it comes time for end of the year testing, and I just plain don't have the wall space!  


I am so excited to use these products! I cannot wait to see them in action, and know that they will work wonders...

To see them on TPT:

To see my teammates math vocabulary:

Summer Reading List 2016

This year, I am teaching summer school for the first time, redecorating my bedroom, refinishing an antique dresser, creating at least three year long products for my team to use next year, and updating all of my files on TPT that desperately need updating. Among all that craziness, I will be tutoring, trying to move a ton of rock out of my flower beds, and having a social life. I'm also hoping to do some reading - just for me! I usually try and read a little bit over the course of the year, during breaks and when there's nothing good on TV.

Today, I'm linking up with Lucky to Be in First  and nailing down my summer reading list! I was excited to come across this post, because I've been thinking a lot today about what book to pick up first, and after reviewing my "want to read" list, I know which one will be accompanying me out in my lounge chair tomorrow!

So, first up is the list of books you should read- you should see a theme here - I'm a sucker for anything with a crime or with witches ...

1. Anything by Kathy Reichs ... I'm just slightly obsessed with Bones and these are such easy reads!

2. The Witching Savannah Series - Witches and magic galore

3. The All Souls Trilogy: More Witches

4. The Silkworm and The Cuckoo's Calling: Because, who doesn't want to read more JK Rowling?!?! 

5. The Girl on The Train: Gillian Flynn-esq masterpiece 

6. Gillian Flynn. All of them. 

1. Career of Evil: More JK Rowling/Robert Galbraith

2. Pretty Girls: Karin Slaughter

3. #Girlboss: Sophia Amoruso

4. The Good Girl :Mary Kubica

5. Go Set a Watchman: Harper Lee

6. Red Queen: Victoria Aveyard

7. Luckiest Girl Alive: Jessica Knoll 

I'm looking forward to having a busy yet productive summer, and reading lots! 

If you have a summer reading list, link up and share!