Oh Five For Friday how we've missed you!

Hi friends! It's been way too long since I've written on this little 'ol blog of ours.

Here's why... Stacy and I lead CRAZY lives. Being a first year teacher is insane. It's absolutely the most joyful job I've ever had the opportunity to do but I honestly feel like I could work all day every day and STILL not be done with everything. Stacy just started another course towards her CAGS degree (because she's amazing) and so she's super busy with that, too.

We're sorry friends! We've missed you! But be sad no longer, because we're back with a late Five For Friday. We love linking up with Doodle Bugs!

1. Let me let you in on a little secret of mine... I'm obsessed with the sky. For those who know me, it's no secret. I'm constantly telling my friends to look up and I'm always in awe of the way that it is continuously changing. These pictures are from a night that I stopped my car on my commute home from work to watch my God finish painting. Man it was stunning. I tend to make stopping my car to watch the sunset a habit... and it's an incentive I use for myself to get out of the building at a reasonable time!! 

2. For awhile now, I've been venting (almost daily) to Stacy about how my literacy block is just NOT working for my students. I'm learning that with this particular group of friends, putting them in groups and setting a timer for them to move in rotations sounded ideal but is not realistic. There are way too many students that are reading at the same level but behaviorally can not be in groups with one another... it becomes quite the management craze and I'm just not able to fully work with my reading groups the way I've desired to. SO... I was searching the internet, processing with Stacy and inspired by Teaching With Love and Laughter and I woke up at 5am on a SATURDAY to put together a work/choice chart for my class. I'm currently creating must do and may do options and I plan to begin implementing this choice Daily 5 (ish) literacy time on Monday. I feel really good about it but I'll keep y'all updated. Any advice on a choice based literacy block vs. a structured group time or reading groups in general? I'd love to hear what you all do!

3. I purchased Amy Lemons' Let's Be Thankful! {Literacy and Thanksgiving Book Activities} for my second graders next week but tried some of it out while I was babysitting this weekend. I read “The Best Thanksgiving Ever” by Teddy Slater and Ethan Long to the kiddies and then we created turkeys with our hand prints and wrote on each turkey what we were thankful for. Some of my favorites from these guys... "chicken nuggets" and "the color blue". Nothing beats the cuteness of these munchkins. I created the model for my students too! Perfection. Ps. Amy Lemons is amazing and so is this bundle of activities.  

 4. In both 2nd Grade and The Reading Room, we've had the opportunity to use one of our favorite products, The Old Wild West. This bundle makes learning the concept of closed syllable exceptions /glued SO much fun! This 20 page bundle contains a Board Game, Card Game, The SCOOT Stampede, 48 word cards, 16 task cards and WEEK of reinforcing student printables! These games and activies are perfect for an ELA student center, partner work, small group RTI intervention, or whole class activity. I was actually playing the SCOOT game with my class when the principal and superintendent walked in [cue minor heart attack]. Everyone loved it! You may be able to tell that we are slightly completely obsessed with Melonheadz graphics and her Wild West bundle was PERFECTION for this awesome pack.  

I promise you it is child, principal, superintendent AND teacher approved!! 

Click the image above to grab your copy too!

5. Last but certainly not least, Stacy and some of the Kindergarten teachers at her school had the opportunity to use another of our favorite products, our November Literacy Centers. We, once again were just head over heels with the cuteness of Melonheadz and inspired to created that your pre-k/ kindergarten students will love! Students will have a blast practicing early literacy skills while playing the games and activities! This 30 page bundle includes THREE early literacy games, printables, and guided reading book. These activities are perfect for an ELA student center, small group RTI intervention, or whole-class activity.

Click the picture above to grab your own set at 50% OFF THROUGH THANKSGIVING!!

So there you have it! A random selection of 5 things from two overly busy teachers! Thanks for sticking with us through all that! We really do love reading all about your lives and teaching though so leave some comments in the comment section for us to stop by your blog too! 

Ps: When's Thanksgiving Break start for y'all? We get out Wednesday at 11:40 and I actually can't wait!  

Colleen's November Currently & New Product Announcement!

Well hi, friends!

Here we are... we've made it to another Friday!

And this one just happens to be the first day in November which means we're linking up with Farley from Oh Boy Fourth Grade for her ever popular currently post! 

This week seemed to go so fast and yet drag on forever. Halloween certainly riled my little second graders' brains... and mouths. We were chaaaattttyyy this week! Every time I stopped to listen to the conversations they went something like this... "So what are you being for Halloween?!" "NO WAYY! That's so cool" "I can't wait for Thursday!" "It might snow on Thursday" "It might rain on Thursday" or my favorite question of the week... "Miss McBride, why do we have school on Thursday? It's a holiday!!"

WOOF kiddies... please just take one small chill pill on the Halloween business. 

However, HAPPY NOVEMBER everyone, Halloween is over! HALLELUJAH!

I'm currently listening to this AWESOME playlist from a Worship event I went to last night at a friend's church. I'm just loving that this is online because I wanted to know what some of the songs were! It was such a great night. I was a little weary going out on a Wednesday (it's a big deal when you know you have 24 little ones awaiting you with Halloween expectation on Thursday morning) but I'm so thankful for the opportunity to worship my God with so many others mid week! It was a good perspective changer too. He's in control. You can listen here!

This Boston girl is LOVING the Red Sox win Wednesday night... even if it was nearly impossible to keep my eyes open to watch it! I distinctly remember and hold dear to memories I have of my dad and I going into Boston for the 2004 World Series parade. Today my kids came into school BEYOND excited on Thursday (that is except for my one little oppositional yankees lover) and the principal played Sweet Caroline over the loud speaker after school. The kids were up dancing and shouting and it was joyous. It was also moments before the release for Halloween night so it was l-o-u-d. Oh well, ya win some ya lose some! It was fun.

I'm currently thinking about this weekend because it means the 30 hour famine is FINALLY here! I've been helping to plan this event since the summer and I'm so excited that the time is here! The famine is an event sponsored by an organization called World Vision. From today at noon until Saturday at 6:00 PM, we'll give up food in order to focus on the the impacts of hunger being experienced by millions around the world. While we will surely not solve the problem, this event will help raise awareness among the participants and the sponsors as well as raise critical funds for people in desperate need. It's amazing to me that just $30 can feed a child for a whole month! Or $360 could feed a child for a whole year...

I love the famine and I love the teenagers at my church who are eager to participate in this event as well. Stay tuned for updates on the famine. I'm sure they'll be some good stories from hungry teenagers! :) If you feel led, and want to start November - the month of Thankfulness - by remembering how much we take for granted, our donation page is found here. We've already raised over $7,000 and I am just blown away by all that is going to do for the hungry children around the earth.

I'm currently wanting my Njabini slippers. My roommates from college absolutely hate them because I used to wear them at ALL times that we were at home but I just absolutely adore them. First of all, they're so comfortable and warm. My toes right now are FREEZING! Secondly, they remind me of Kenya and sometimes even smell a little bit like it there. And that just fills my heart. 

 I'm currently feeling as though I need report cards and parent-teacher conferences to be over. [I'm not even close... booo!]. Don't get me wrong, I love meeting with parents and firmly believe in working as a collaborative team to create a strong home-school connection but they are just plain exhausting. Ours span over the course of the whole month of November [each Wednesday afternoon we have them]. They wipe me out, that's for sure. 

I'm curious to know, how does your school do conferences? 

Who doesn't love chocolate fondue?  Look at this adorable idea from Clean and Scentsible!  This will definitely be on my Thanksgiving table this November!  What will be on yours?

Finally, we are super excited to release our newest product for our Pre K/Kindergarten friends, November Literacy Centers!  Your students will have a blast practicing early literacy skills while playing the games and activities included in this bundle! This 30 page bundle includes THREE early literacy games, printables, and guided reading book. These activities are perfect for an ELA student center, small group RTI intervention, or whole-class activity. 

 

Have an awesome weekend, friends and a great start to your month!

Birthday Bash Giveaway and Brand New Products!

Happy Tuesday, everyone!  We are super excited to help Michaela from The Center Based Classroom celebrate her birthday by donating one of our favorite products, Sweet Tooth Crush, to her Birthday Bash Giveaway!  Over 30 Tpt sellers have donated products worth over $100.00!  There are some awesome products in the bundle that you won't want to miss!!  Click her Birthday Bash image below to enter this fantastic giveaway!  You can enter to win until Thursday, September, 5th!!

Speaking of birthdays, Nikki from Melonheadz Illustrations celebrated her birthday by offering 20% off in all her stores this past Saturday.  We were thrilled to take advantage of the sale to build up our Melonheadz clipart library.  In fact, we fessed up and posted Nikki's "I'm an Official Melonheadz Hoarder" button when we realized how big our inventory is getting!  Anyway, we were so inspired by her super cute graphics that we were able to finish two new products this weekend!
Sliding Into Home Plate not only celebrates the end of baseball season but also focuses on beginning and ending consonant blends for Grade 1 and Grade 2.  This 36 page bundle includes 136 word cards, 48 task cards, I Have-Who Has Game, Card Game, Roll the Die Game, and WEEK of reinforcing activities.  Your students will love running the bases as they practice reading words that contain beginning and/or ending blends! 

Let's Go to the Hop brought back fond childhood memories of watching John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John in my all-time favorite movie, GREASE!  All of our Kindergarten and First Grade friends will love this bundle for practicing cvc (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.  The bundle includes 72 word cards, Board Game, Hula Hoop and SCOOT Spelling, I Have-Who Has Game, and WEEK of reinforcing student activities.  I can't wait to put this bundle together!  Super cute!

We hope that you all have a fantastic rest of your week.  Be sure to check back with us later this week as Colleen links up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share her Five for Friday!!

Last Days of Summer...August Currently & Deanna Jump's Chit Chat Morning Messages

We are celebrating the last few weeks of summer vacation by joining Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for her monthly CURRENTLY linky party.  What a great way to meet new teachers and find fabulous blogs!  This month you will get to hear what Stacy is currently feeling as the summer comes to a close.

 

 listening:  the hum of my air conditioner reminds me that summer in the Northeast is quickly coming to its finale.  Which also reminds me that I have this to look forward to:

 

Though he is awfully cute (if I do say so myself), the snow is something I can't get used to even after living here for over 10 years.

loving:  YEAH...Logan is finished with day camp tomorrow.  Yes, he will be sad not to see his amigos AND I certainly was able to get a TON of work done these last two weeks but I am so happy to spend some mommy/son time before heading back to work.  We also are leaving for our final camping trip of the summer.  Four nights in a tent...lucky me :)

 thinking:  I really need to face reality and go here.....

 But where I usually end up is here:

wanting:  Everyone to love our new blog!  Colleen and I are super duper excited to meet new teachers and share ideas!

 

 needing:  I desperately need a new teacher's bag.  Mine is shameful, embarrassing, and belongs in a garbage can.  I love the quality of Lands End but maybe I should get something a little flashier.  Suggestions?

 

B2s must haves:  A close friend introduced me to Tervis Tumblers this summer.  Genius!!  After visiting her down in Florida, I found a RED SOX Tervis.  Hello!!

My second must have is mandatory since I am not a coffee drinker...

 

AND FINALLY...drum roll please....to celebrate the last days of the summer we wanted to share a fabulous product on TpT by  Top Seller Deanna Jump.  The packet is the first in a series. The skills covered in this unit are beginning sounds, rhyming, phonemic awareness, syllables and CVC words. There are 35 message skeletons that focus on beginning skills. The messages are available in 3 formats: color, black and white and clipart images to create large charts if desired.  What a PERFECT resource for my Kindergarten and First Grade teacher friends.  Check it out!!

And for my Second Grade Friends, please download our FREEBIE "Mirror Mirror on the Wall".  It's a great game to reinforce y as long e and y as a suffix!