Fabulous Feedback!

Who doesn't love positive feedback?  It's a wonderful thing!  Did you know you can leave feedback on your purchases from Teachers Pay Teachers?  You can!  You even receive credits for the comments you leave to use towards future purchases.  It's a win-win situation for everyone!

Sometimes buyers leave comments that say, "great" or "thanks."  While we all appreciate a good thank you, these just aren't super special.  However, there are some comments that are out-of-this-world!  These are buyers who go above and beyond and really put some thought into their comment.  As someone, who works super hard on all my products, it feels great to hear how much someone appreciates it!  It makes my heart smile!

I thought I would link up with Christina Bainbridge for her Fabulous Feedback Linky Party.  I am going to showcase the best feedback that has been left in my store.

Here are my 3 most favorite comments that I have received.  Seriously, these guys are wonderful!

 1. Writing Journal Prompts

2. Writing Mini-Offices

3. Owls in the Classroom

Do you see your TpT name on any of those comments?!  Today is your lucky day!  Leave me your email address in the comments below and you get to choose any item from my store for free!  Thank you for sharing your thoughts, you are awesome!

If your name isn't in those comments, no need to fret!  My entire TpT store will be 28% off tomorrow and Wednesday in honor of Teacher Appreciation Day.  That's right, I appreciate YOU!

Happy Shopping!

Let's Pretend That It's Friday...

Can we pretend that it's Friday?  And pretend that it's not TWO whole days past Friday??  I wanted to share my week with you because it sure has been a busy one!

1. It was Reading Week this week!  On Tuesday we celebrated by "snuggling up with a good book" in our pj's.  So comfy!  We also had Pirate Day but of course I forgot to take pictures!

2.  I found this comic in the newspaper this weekend and found it very appropriate for Reading Week.
I love the Family Circus!

3.  We also spent a lot of time learning about Earth Day this week since we are on vacation next week.  We read The Lorax.  Such a great read for Earth Day.  However, the word "thneed" is awfully hard to say!

 4.  To go along with Earth Day we created this cute guy from My {Not So} Elementary Life.  We don't do a lot of craft activities in our classroom so this was a big treat!  You can grab it from Heidi's store here.

5. On Friday we ended our Reading Week with a school-wide scavenger hunt and it was so much fun! The students were given a maze and they had to choose a path.  They followed the path by answering questions and completing activities.  Look for more about this in a future blog post!

Happy {end of the} weekend!

Five for Friday {Linky}

Yay for Friday!  And yay for a Friday off!  Since it is Friday, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching again for Five for Friday, where I share 5 random pictures from my week.

I don't have any pictures from my classroom this week since I was out all week.  I got the awesome opportunity to go on a 4-day, 3-night field trip with the fifth graders in my district to Nature's Classroom.  If you haven never heard of it, I highly recommend it!  Tomorrow's post will have more details  but here are a few sneak peeks!

1. The motto of Nature's Classroom is IALAC - I Am Loving and Caring.  Or you can make up your own phrase to fit the acronym. I Am Learning And Curious was mine.  The teachers and leaders wore these pins all week.

2.  At Nature's Classroom, the students are constantly learning (they just don't know it).  At mealtime, the students learned about ort.  Ort is leftover food from a meal that isn't compost.  Here's a picture of our compost plate from lunch.

3. At each meal, the students got to be a waitron.  They were in charge of getting all the food for their table during that meal and cleaning up afterwards.  They loved the responsibility!

4. While the students were in their groups, the teachers had a little downtime.  We decided to go for a walk and came across a part of the town that had been destroyed by a tornado in 2011.  Most of the houses had been rebuilt, but we saw the destruction of the trees.  New England rarely gets tornados, so this was an eye-opening experience for me.

5. And last but not least, tt's time to clean out those TpT wishlists!  I'm having a Spring Cleaning Sale!  Everything in my TpT store is 20% off this Saturday and Sunday!

Happy Weekend!

Five for Friday {Linky}

It's Friday!!  Time to share my 5 most random pictures of the week.

1.  I got a box, I got a box, I got a box hey hey hey!  Stay tuned to see what's in the box!  There may even be a surprise for you in there...

2.  In attempt to hurry spring along, I decided to finally take down my winter decorations in my classroom.  Bye, bye penguins!

3. We did Acrostic poems this week.  Here is our class example (seriously, winter, go away!):

 4.  We made towers in science this week (I'll share more later!) and today we wrote about them as a class.  I love, love my projector and my Elmo!

 5.  Last Friday night, I went to Drink and Dabble with my friends.  The concept?  Drink a little and dabble with some paint.  Now, I have never painted in my life.  Ever.  The closest thing I've ever come to painting were those painting books that already had color, you just had to paint with water.  Remember those?  Anyways, I had a nice tall glass of Coca-Cola with lemon and came up with this:

What do you think??  I'm making my husband hang it up in the house somewhere.

How was your week?  Go share it with Doodle Bugs!

Currently... {and a Freebie}

It's a catch up on linky parties weekend over here at Smiling In Second Grade.  Yesterday it was Five for Friday and today it is the March Currently!

S is a pretty easy letter and I still had a hard time with that last one!

I like smiling, smiling's my favorite.
I lovee to eat s'mores.  {see proof here}
I despise snow.  And shivering  And shoveling.  Come onnnn spring!

And here is my freebie just for you!  Some fun St. Patrick's day activities.

Just head on over to my TpT store to pick it up!
Let me know what you think!  Enjoy!

Five for Friday!

It's Five for Friday time!  Okay, okay.  It's been a busy week.  It's Five for Saturday time!

1. We started geometry this week.  Geometry in second grade is so much fun!  Geometry in high school?  Well that was a different story.  We started the week by making robots with our pattern block templates.

2. In Word Study we've been looking at the different ways to spell the same vowel sounds.  For example, long -a can be spelled -ay, -a, -eigh, etc.  It's a tricky language we have!  At the end of the unit, we played a Guess Who type of game.  I'll share more on that later!

3.  This week we also started our science kits!  The kids have been itching to do experiments since the box was delivered to our door.  Our kit is all about Matter.  We started by discussing the different properties of solid objects.  We got to play with some objects, what's better than that?

4.  Last weekend, my husband and I went out to dinner with friends.  For dessert, we got S'mores!  How cool is that??  They even brought flames to our table so we could roast the marshmallows!

5. Last night was the Spring Dance at our school.  So fun!  It was so cute to see all the little kids dressed up with their parents.  The PTF also did a great job decorating and setting up the high school gym.

Hall Pass {Linky}

Tonight I'm linking up with Reagan to share my "Hall Pass"

Here's how it works:

P is for Product

My favorite product, without a doubt, are my Writing Journal Prompts.  The reason is two-fold.  One, I use them Every.Single.Day in my classroom!   It's my kids morning work every day so it gets in a little extra writing (and illustrating!) time, but also keeps them busy while I take attendance and lunch count. Two, they are my best-selling item, so I know they are helping other teachers and students around the country (and the world)!

A is for Area

Ok, I have two favorite spots in my classroom.  The first is my desk area.  I recently converted it to an area to meet with students (read more here).  I love getting this one-on-one or small group time with my students.  They really open up and share!  Oh, and they love the stools too!

My second favorite area is my library.  I've always loved my library and I've always loved switching it around!  Right now, I am in the process of getting new baskets that match and that fit correctly on the shelves.  My inner-OCD is cheering very loudly right now.

S is for Signal

My time-timer.  It is seriously the best purchase I have ever made for my classroom.  Not only does it keep me on schedule, but the kids are aware of how much time they have left.  They know exactly what to do when it beeps.  I do wish the beep wasn't quite so annoying, but it works!  It is amazing for setting routines.  I used to joke last year that my classroom could run itself as long as someone went in and set the time for them!

S is for Sanity

Hmm...I think I need a little more work in this area.  I have a "teacher drawer" that holds these:

I can satisfy my sweet tooth with just one (really!) and the cute little sayings in the wrapper always make my day!

I also like to come home and check in with all my blogger buddies.  They keep me uplifted and motivated!

What does your Hall Pass look like??