A Spooky Sale!

It was a last minute decision, but I will be having a {short} Halloween Sale in my TpT store!

Click the picture to check it out!

Tonight and tomorrow night only!

Happy {almost} Halloween everyone!

In Hurricane Sandy's Wake...

Well, yesterday was an interesting day.  Hurricane Sandy certainly made herself known in RI.  While we didn't get hit as bad as other areas, she left quite a trail of destruction in her wake:

I took this picture of Narragansett Beach last year:

And this is what it looked like yesterday:

I was extremely lucky to not have any damage or even lose power.  My thoughts go out to those who were affected by this powerful storm.

School was cancelled yesterday and today.  Since I didn't lose power, I got hard to work on some of my TpT products that I had started over the past few weeks.  Normally I am only working on one project at a time, but I've had so many ideas lately (and not a lot of time), that I keep starting new ones and not finishing them!

I don't normally use worksheets in my classroom, but I have some students who are really struggling with their vowel sounds.  I am going to be sending these home for homework with certain kiddos.

There are over 30 practice sheets!

{TpT}

{TN}

And thank you so much to those of you who linked up with us at Motivational Monday!!  You can still add your link and we will be back with another one next week!

Motivational Monday Linky

Two weeks ago, I shared a Motivational Monday post with you.  I had so many comments encouraging me to make it a weekly post or a linky party.  Well, it turns out that Kimberly, from The Learning Tree, does one too!  She contacted me and now we are hosting the linky party together, along with Classroom Cupcakes!

Don't we all need a little extra push to get going on a Monday?

This one from Steve Jobs is one of my all time favorite quotes.  I even have it on my Facebook page.

Source: Uploaded by user via Jamie on Pinterest

Many teachers (myself included) love their job and it is amazing to see their passion for their craft emerge, even when there are so many obstacles standing in their way.

And this is one that I've really had to keep in mind these past few weeks.

Source: media3.onsugar.com via Ann on Pinterest

What motivates you?  Link up below!

Reader's Notebooks

This post has been moved to my new blog, The Colorful Apple.  Check it out here!

Saturday...Sat...Sat...Saturday!

What is that from?  I sing that song all the time and can't figure it out for the life of me.  This is not going to be a school-related post, but it will be a fall-related one (and you can win something)!

Today was a great {relaxing} Saturday!

It started with Panera and a pedicure with my mom and sister.

Does the interior decorating in nail salons freak anyone else out??

Then we went shopping for Halloween candy!  It's our first Halloween in our house, which means our first trick-or-treaters!  Think we got enough?

I just hope Hurricane Sandy doesn't interfere with the holiday!

Then we raked leaves with the help of this little guy:

And I went shopping for some new fall boots!  I loovvee them.

I call them my "I've-got-great-boots boots!"  If you can tell me what show that quote is from (and leave your email), you'll win this:

Want a hint?  Join me on Instagram: @smilinginsecondgrade!

The first person to guess it right, wins!  Good luck!

Popcorn Letters!

I've been working with some of my students on letter recognition and letter sounds.  I decided to make it a little more fun and interesting.  I found this cool popcorn container at Target (hellooo Dollar Spot!). I created some letters on pieces of popcorn and put them in the container.  The students pull out a card and tell me the letter/sound.  I even through in some blank ones and if they pulled that one, they got to skip a turn (woohoo!).

Here they are:

Check it out!

You can pick up your copy in either of my stores:

{TpT}

{TN}

Base-10 Names

One of my colleagues found this project online (I'm not exactly sure where it came from) to help students learn more about Base-10 blocks.  The students got to create their name using the blocks and we turned it into a poster.  We then figured out how many units their name was worth.

We built our names with Base-10 blocks.

Then we cut out Base-10 blocks from paper and covered our names with paper those.  The worksheet can be found here.

Then we glued the paper Base-10 blocks onto poster paper.

And decorated!

Then we figured out how many units our names were worth.  We wrote that number 5 different ways (base-10 blocks, words, standard notation, expanded notation, tally marks, etc).

The kids loved it and they turned out great!

Busy, Busy, Busy

It has not been a relaxing weekend, but it's been a fun one!

Last night, we went to a a Masquerade-themed wedding (he was in the wedding party).  We had fun with it!

We had a great time with the Photo Booth!

This morning we went to a fundraiser to raise money for my high school track.  When I was in high school, we weren't allowed to use the track because it was in such bad shape.  After 10 years of hard work, my alma mater now has a beautiful track!  My mom is on the committee so she always forces asks me to volunteer.

I got a little sentimental watching my husband play soccer on my old field:

Then we cheered on the runners who were participating in the 5K:

And, now, as I'm watching the Patriots play, I whipped up a quick freebie that I'm going to use with some of my students this week:

I'm working on a bigger set but it's not quite done yet.  Look for it soon!

In the meantime, click the blog button to check out this awesome givewaway over at Hilary's blog:

It's HUGE!

Fire Safety

Fire Safety Week was last week, but we had our assembly today since we were testing last week.  This is, by far, the best assembly we have all year.  I love it.  The kids love it.  It sends such an important message.

We start off in the gym, where the town firefighters go over the importance of fire safety with the students.  They then put their firefighter suits on to show the students what they look like and what purpose they serve.  They point out that firefighters are not scary and that you should not run away from them during an emergency.

Then the students get to meet Sparky, the fire dog.

Next, we go outside where the firetrucks and ambulances are set up in the parking lot.  This prompts a lot of "whoaahs" from the students.

They get to squirt the fire hose.

They go inside the ambulance. 

And they go in the fire truck as well.

The brave teachers got to climb to the top of the ladder truck.

I was NOT one of those teachers.

At each station, the firefighters explain what the trucks are for and all the equipment inside.  The students get to explore the trucks and ask questions.  It really is an awesome assembly. 

Santa Clause Came!

Ok, he didn't.  It's October.  But my kids were convinced.  Everything was about Santa today for some reason.  I didn't want to tell them that they still had over 2 months until he made an appearance.

We received our pen pal letters today.  I have an aunt who teaches second grade in California and we decided a few years back to have our classes be pen pals throughout the year.  It's so awesome and the kids love it.

We got our first set today and I hadn't mentioned it to my student at all.  So I showed them the package that it came in (which my aunt always decorates and I forgot to take a picture of!) and asked them what they thought was in it.

"Letters from Santa Claus!"

Um.  Nope.  Sorry kid.
And since when does Santa write letter to children?  I thought it was the other way around?

Anyway, we moved on and started writing our letters.

I created this poster to help my students understand how to set up a letter:

Get it here for free!

While we were writing our pen pal letters, a large box was delivered to my classroom:

This box with such a pretty bow, prompted students to shout, you guessed it, "Santa Clause came!"

Nope.  Sorry kids.  That's a birthday present for Mrs. S.  

This is what the inside of the box looked like:

Yummy cupcakes!  My brother dropped off 6 of my favorite flavor for me and my friends.  He is a pastry chef and he works for a company called Sweet Indulgence.  Yeah, he makes cupcakes and candy for a living, how awesome is that??  Check them out - they make ahh-maazing stuff!  My IPhone photo does not do it justice!

Sooo, 2 Santa Clause shout-outs in one day?  It's going to be a long two months till Christmas!

And now I have blog news.  Every once in a while I check my blog stats.  I am always curious which posts get the most attention and where my readers are coming from.  This helps me become a better blogger!

More often than not, my readers come from Pinterest.  Today, however, a lot were coming from this site:

I had never heard of it before, so I checked it out.  I then realized that they did a whole blog post on one of the posts I had written - so cool!  Check it out here.  It is my most popular post and it is about using dancing to teach subtraction.