Happy New Year

Hey all!!!
 
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!!!  Have you set a few new resolutions for yourself?  I have, and one of my resolutions involves you!  I am going to try to blog more, which {I hope} is good news for you!
 
So...let's get started.  This morning I uploaded a new product that I will be using in my classroom when I return back to class in January.  It is all about the New Year and resolutions.



Click the picture to get to this product

Table of Contents:
Directions and lesson plans
Vocabulary posters
Vocabulary Cards
{with recording sheet}
Words to Know Center activity
{with recording sheet}
Alphabetical Order Center activity
{with recording sheet}
Vocabulary Fun Center activity
{with recording sheet}
Dictionary Skills Center activity
{with recording sheet}
Months of the Year Match Up Center activity
{with recording sheet}
Days/Months sort Center activity
{with recording sheet}
Final Minute Countdown
{with recording sheet}
New Year Supply Bag topper
Resolution vocabulary sheet
Activities to go with Squirrel’s New Year Resolution-
*Prediction of what Squirrel’s resolution should/ could be
*Sequence Character Cards
*Character Resolution match up
*What do you think-resolution writing
Resolution circle map
Resolution writing paper
Resolution craftivity
Student Calendar

 

Wow!!!  All of that for $5.00...but wait, there's more!  This product, as well as all of the other products in my store are 20% off until January 1, 2013 @ 11:59pm.  Happy New Year y'all!

 

P.S. Mystery Monday will return next week!  YAY!

 

 

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

My heart is heavy...you are in my thoughts and prayers...

Happy Thanksgiving and A SALE!!!

Hello all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

I hope you will all stop by my little ole TPT store for 28% off anything in my store.

Click here-to get to my store

Happy Shopping,
Coconut Cutie 

Mystery Monday is BACK...

Hello there my sweet friends.  So, are you back to school yet?  Today we started back for staff development and next week the kids come!!!  :0)  I meet my sweet students on Thursday for Meet the Teacher Night!  I have been working so hard on many projects to make my class excited and ready to learn.  I will try to share pictures for my next post.

And...without further wait...another A to Z Mysteries reading response journal...The Deadly Dungeon by Ron Roy.

Get yours by clicking here-The Deadly Dungeon

Enjoy,
Coconut Cutie

Back to School A-Z Mystery Style

Grab yourself a snack because this is going to be a long post.  :0)  I’m going to work backward a bit as I show you how I will be implementing the A-Z Mystery Series into my classroom. 

First off, I found a wonderful resource for this series.  Amazingly enough, it is Ron Roy’s {the author or A-Z Mysteries} website, www.ronroy.com.  Check it out!  He has stuff for kids, parents, and teachers.  It’s great!  What is SUPER great is that at the end of the 26 book series you can go back and do A-Z Mystery Trivia.  How great is that?  I totally can't wait!

So...the first week of school is super hectic as we all know.  I plan on beginning this series a few weeks in, as soon as everything/everyone is all settled and all of the routines have been taught.  I will be reading to the kids during their snack time and they will complete a reading response (see other posts about this) piece at the end of the chapter(s) and snack time. 

Before hopping into the series with The Absent Author, I thought I would do a few little pre-series activities that would include an introduction to the series, an author study about Ron Roy to learn a little bit about him and his life as an author. Ron Roy also has a pet dog, which I thought the students would enjoy.  I would also include a meet the characters activity, and a little map of Green Lawn activity. 

So, on Monday, I will introduce the book series by showing the students my 26 books in the series and discussing what we will be doing during snack time for the rest of the year.  I will set some expectations for this time.  If you have not purchased all of the books and you will be buying them/checking the out one at a time, you can go to Ron Roy's website and click the home page and select A-Z Mysteries and learn about each book.  Once that has been done, I will hand out their A-Z Mystery Reading Response Journals and allow them to decorate them to add their own little "spark".

On Tuesday I will introduce Ron Roy by going to his website, showing the kids his "welcome" page that has a letter to them, showing them the "about Ron Roy" page as well as "Pal's doggie page".  Then as a response page, I would have them complete this author study recording sheet. This page would get glued into their journals.  

 Click here to get your recording sheet FREEBIE!

On Wednesday, I will have the students meet the characters of the series.  We {as a class} will read about the characters by going to Ron Roy's website again and click on "games for kids" and look at the A-Z Mystery Menu.  We will select "read about the characters"and scroll over top of the pictures to read about them.  I will then give the students a character color sheet for them to color and label the characters.  Print Yours HERE from the Ron Roy website.  This page will also be glued into their A-Z Mystery Journals.

On Thursday and Friday we will be doing some mapping activities with the maps of Green Lawn from the books.  I will gather all of my books, give each student a book, and have them turn to the maps at the beginning of the book.  The maps are right after the title page.  If you do not have enough books for each kiddo to have one, you could project it on the screen with a document camera.  On Thursday we would just note some of the areas of green Lawn and make any connects to the town that we could such as "I see they have a town hall.  We have a town hall too." etc.  On Friday we will again look at the maps and have a short discussion on the compass rose (north, south, east, and west).  I (the teacher) will call out a place for the students to locate.  Once the students locate that place we can discuss what is north or south, etc. of each location that I call out. 

I hope you found some ideas that you can do in your classroom as well.

Enjoy,

Coconut Cutie

P.S.  Check back NEXT Monday for another update.  This Monday there will not be a post.  Thanks!

Time to Shop Till You Drop

Hey all,

It’s Back to School Time and both Teachers Pay Teachers and I are offering an awesome SALE!!! 

I am offering 20% off everything at my store and TPT is offering 10% off everything on the site.  Together {my 20% + TPT 10%} that equals a total of 28% off everything at my store.  (I know what you are thinking, 20 +10 =30, not 28.  Here’s the thing, TPT’s 10% is taken off my already 20% off so that how it works out to 28%.)  This sale will run from August 12-13. 

Use the promo BTS12 when you check out.

To get to my store, click here

Happy Shopping,
Coconut Cutie

P.S.  Stop by tomorrow for a surprise FREEBIE and fun Mystery Monday {on Friday} update!

Mystery Monday AGAIN...



Hi ya!

I hope y'all have been having a wonderful summer and have had much needed rest and relaxation.  Are you back to school yet?  I head back in a few weeks but I will be working at home and in my classroom for most of it as I gear up for...Back To SCHOOL!!!  Are you excited?  I'm not quite ready, but will be soon.

I spent the weekend in San Antonio at another Frog Street Conference {SPLASH} and Oh.My.Word, so much fun and so many new ideas.  As you may remember, I was presenting on Guided Reading.  I have been uploading several of the items I was presenting on to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and will continue to do so. 

One of the kits that I have uploaded is some comprehension activities.  It is great for guided reading, centers, literature circles, etc.  Here are a few photos of *some* of the activities included.  Click here to get to my Rainbow Readers Book Club Comprehension Activities product.   Click on the preview to see more pictures :0)

  It includes this and is only $4.00:

  20 easy to read with full color comprehension cards 

7 different comprehension activities with complete directions on how to make and do:

· Pick Six

· Top Choice Two

(includes recording sheet)

· Sit and Snack Sack

· Pickin’ Questions and Popcorn

· Juice Box Jamboree

· Quiz Show

· True/False

(includes 18 true/false statement cards and labels)

So, also on the agenda for tonight is the A-Z Mystery Monday series.  This Monday's journal response kit is for The Canary Caper.    This is a Reading Level book 2.3!

Click here for your FREEBIE!  The Canary Caper.  Tune in next week for another A-Z Mystery!

Oh my...It's NOT Monday...

Do you have summer brain?  Did you ever forget what day it was because you didn't do "Calendar Time"?  Well friends...I must confess, this happened to me and alas, it is Tuesday, which means no Mystery Monday.  BUT...that doesn't mean I forgot the reading response pack so here is...The Bald Bandit by Ron Roy.  {If you have no idea what I am talking about, please check out my post on Mystery Monday here.}

Get your journal unit for The Bald Bandit Reading Response Journal Kit here.

Stop by next Monday {hopefully, just kidding} for your your next chapter journal reading response kit for

The Canary Caper!

Happy Reading,

Coconut Cuties

It's Monday...

If you are like me, you love to read, especially to your students. 

I like to read to them all the time, even during their snack time.  I thought it would be fun for the kids and myself to read a new chapter a week. 

A fun reading series to read to students is the A-Z Mysteries Series by Ron Roy.  They are fun books for elementary students because they each have a different letter in the title like The Absent Author and The Bald Bandit to name a few.  They have fairly simple text and plots so they are a fun group of chapter books.  Most are a reading level of 2.5 or 3.0 

{Please preview/read these books prior to using in your classroom}

  

These books can be found at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, Half Price Bookstore, etc.

I also like to have them respond to literature as much as possible so...I created this...

  An A-Z Mysteries reading response journal!  
This journal is going to be a quick one question reading response everyday after reading a chapter or two.    Get your labels for your students reading response journal here-A-Z Mysteries Reading Response Journal Labels .  These labels need to be printed on Avery Labels #5163.

I thought I would start a new thing on Mondays call Mystery Monday and its just for YOU!  Every Monday I will be uploading a new A-Z Mystery Chapter book reading response journal unit.  So, start making your binders to collect it all in.  Here is what mine looks like:

 

Gather some page protectors to keep the entire chapter's pages in. 

Each journal unit will include:

~Word Search

~Book review and Response Page

~Questions for 2 weeks (a question for each chapter)

~Questions for 1 week (a question for every 2 chapter)

So for the students, just give them a 70 or 80 count spiral notebook labeled with the A-Z Mystery label.  Each day, after you (or they) read, they will get a strip of paper with the question of the day on it.  They will glue it into their spiral and answer the reading response question.  Two responses can fit onto each page.  Be sure to leave enough room for a good response.  Depending on your grade level, you will expect more or less of a response. 

So, I know you are thinking...

THIS SOUNDS SO GREAT...

How much is it going to cost me???

You are in luck!  It is FREE, FREE, FREE!!! 

{Sorry, the book is not included}

Get your first chapter journal unit for

The Absent Author Reading Response Journal Kit

Check back soon for more fun ideas and especially next week for your next chapter book journal reading response kit for

The Bald Bandit.

Happy Reading,

Coconut Cutie

Fabulous Fun and Fantastic Finds at Frog Street

Well, I'm back from my fabulous Frog Street SPLASH Conference and I have gotta tell ya...I am EXHAUSTED!!!  Lots of great presenters were there with wonderful ideas.  It was a blast! 

I also had the opportunity to do a bit of shopping and here are the things I got:

First up are two A.DOR.ABLE puppets from Frog Street Press lovingly know as Fanny and Fernando.  I am soooo excited to use these new teaching tools in my classroom this year.  I intend on letting the students use them while reading independently at the reading center.  Either the kids can read to the puppets or they can read {as the puppet} to themselves.  I can't wait.

Click here to get your own!

Secondly, I bought this Stephen Fite CD.  I think after buying this CD, I now own all of them.  If you have not heard of Stephen Fite or heard any of his songs, I highly recommend you do so.  He has a number of fun, educational songs that will get your kids moving and learning as they sing.   Check out his stuff here!


Lastly, I got these super cute t-shirts and dress from the Pink Armadillo ladies.  Can't wait to wear these items.  Cute, huh?!

I even got an opportunity to meet Crystal from Kreative in Kinder!

 

Check her blog out here-Kreative in Kinder

I can't wait for what is in store for the Frog Street SPLASH in San Antonio at the beginning of August.  If you are scheduled to be there, let me know.

Happy summer y'all,
Coconut Cutie

A Sale!

In honor of my Guided Reading presentaion at Frog Street this week, I decided I would have a Teachers Pay Teachers Sale.  Everything at my little store on TPT will be 10% until Saturday.  YIPPEE!!!  Click HERE to get your goodies. 

Hey All, It Has Been Awhile

Well, I know its been awhile since I last posted anything.  So...let's play catch up!

• It is Summer
• It is Summer
• It is Summer
• WHOOO HOO

This summer has already been jam packed with such fun.  I have already been on two great vacations, been to the beach, the pool, and have read many summertime books.

I have also been very busy working on many Teachers Pay Teachers products.  Here is what I have in the works:

• Guided Reading Galore
• More Cut-It Up Sentences (Simple Sentences)
• Phonics Fun Spiral-Vowel Pairs #2
• Phonics Fun Spiral-Bossy R
• Phonics Fun Spiral-Compound Words and Contractions
• Writing Center-Part 2
• AND MANY MORE!!!

This week I have been putting the last minute touches on my Frog Street Splash presentation.   As you may remember, my presentation is all about Guided Reading and I am so excited (and a tad bit nervous) to share all of my fun, fresh ideas to my colleagues.  I sure hope that I get to meet some fellow bloggers at this conference. If you are going, please, come find me. I would love to meet you! It's gonna be a BLAST!

And now...for a freebie.  In honor of my guided reading presentation, I thought I would share with you one of my cute reading retelling/comprehension activities and a recording sheet that goes with it.  

 Get your recording sheet here-Bloomin' Questions Recording Sheet

First, gather the materials need to make the project.  I found my items at the Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby.  You will need jumbo craft sticks, some flowers, buttons, a hot glue gun, a sharpie, and little container to keep it all in.

Attach the flowers and buttons to a craft stick using the hot glue.  Write a number on each button and write a comprehension question on the stick.

Here is what I used:

1. Who are the characters?

2. What is the setting?

3. What happened in the beginning?

4. What happened in the middle?

5. What happened in the end?

6.What was the problem?

7.What was the solution?

8.What was your favorite part?  Why?

9. If you could change anything about the story, what would you change?  Why?

After students have read a book, they read the bloomin' questions and answer them on the recording sheet.

Enjoy!  I'm off to work on more stuff!

Happy Summer,

Coconut Cutie

Teachers Pay Teachers Loves You and I Do TOO!!!

Teachers Pay Teachers and I are having a sale May 6-8.  You can get up to 28% off (20% from me and 10% from Teachers Pay Teachers).  Click on the picture below to get to my store and  use Promo code TAD12 when you check out to get the discount!  Enjoy!!!

Animal Writing and Fact Family Fun!

For the next few weeks we (my class and I) will be working on animals.  Last we we started with general information about animals (food web, coverings, habitats, etc.)  To review what we learned last week, I had my students do a bit of writing. 


Each student was given a different animal sticker.  They created a circle map with the animal sticker on the inside.  Then they wrote 3 details in each section is, has, and needs. They transferred their circle map information into a tree map to organize their thoughts.  They completed their writing by turning that information into 3 quality sentences. 


We assembled this into a class book about Amazing Animals




This week we are studying mammals.  With all of the fun Easter eggs and such out there, I thought I would come up with something fun to be able to use those fun containers and tie into mammals for math-fact families to be exact.


So I gathered the following supplies:
~Carrot "eggs" from the Dollar Tree
~Stickers from the dollar store
~Mini craft sticks from Michael's craft store


To Make this fun Fact Family Math Center I programed 4 mini craft sticks with fact family information and placed them in a carrot.  I continued until all of the carrots were full.  I also create a recording sheet to go along with it and placed in a center for my students to practice fact families.

Get your FREE recording sheet here

Happy Teaching,


Coconut Cutie

A Pinterest Inspired Freebie!

OH.MY.WORD!  Inferencing is a VERY difficult skill for my students.  So...as any great teacher, I sought out for some help.  First stop, pinterest!  And here is what I found...

Inference mini file folder games.        

I am sure you have seen this floating around Pinterst. :0)  I must mention that this is NOT an original idea.  I just gathered the clip art and my student teacher wrote the clues.  The original idea and directions to make these folders can be found at here at Strong Start Blog Thank you so much for your great idea, Maureen.  She used magazines and such.  I decided to use some of my clip art. 

Click on the picture above to get your freebie!

Happy Inferencing,

Coconut Cutie

PROJECT: Teachers Taking Care of Teachers

Hello sweet friends,

I am proud to tell you that I will be part of a wonderful project called Teachers Taking Care of Teachers to help send support to the schools affected by the tornados earlier this month (March 2nd).  You can read about the project here at Kreative in Kinder.  Thank you soooo much to Crystal for getting this put together.  How you can help...Take a look at this spreadsheet and sign up in any open section.  Keep scrolling down once you get there.  There are many openings still.  Also, there are 4 tabs at the bottom, meaning there are 4 different schools that need help.

I have signed up for two classrooms and I hope you can help too.  Now, off to gather my stuff! 

Happy teaching y'all,

Coconut Cutie

WHOO-HOO Linky Party

I have joined a K-2nd grade linky party at Kindergarten Lifestyle.  There are so many great blogs out there.  Check it out here. She has some SUPER CUTE ideas over there.  So go check it out!

Spring Break FREEBIE #7

Well...my spring break is officially over :0( and it is sooooo sad!  BUT, on a brighter note, I get to see my kiddos tomorrow :0)!  I can't wait to see their smiling faces!  So...it's really late and I have to get up early, therefore this post is going to be short. 

The freebie for today is an alphabet helper.  I am reviewing alphabetical order, so I thought I would share with you.

Get your FREE Alphabet Helper

Happy Teaching,

Coconut Cutie

Spring Break FREEBIE #6

Ok friends, how many of you have students that rush through their work, forget vital steps like putting their name on it or date, skip things completely, OR, heaven forbid, all of the above! Come on, raise your hand, you know you do!!! I can't count the number of times I have come to a paper to grade and IT DOESN'T HAVE A NAME ON IT!!!! It blows my mind y'all!

Well, I have come up with a little reminder posters to {hopefully} help eliminate that problem. It does require some training, but it has helped most of my students to turn in quality work ***with their name on it*** :0) We know it as "Smiley Work". This is a "go-back-and-check-your-work" type poster.

Here's how it works:
Students will draw a mini smiley face at the top, right hand of their paper by verifying their work. {I even make this a possible point or bonus point if it is done correctly}

*They verify that they put their name and date on their paper-if it is done, they draw a circle. If not, this is a reminder to put it their info on their paper and then they can draw a circle.

*They verify that they followed the assignment's directions. This may mean that they need to look up at the the paper and reread the directions, or look at the board to view the directions - if this done, they draw one eye.

*They verify that the work is complete. This involves checking the page to make sure that all blanks are filled in, or look around they desk to make sure that they have not lost/forgot any cut/sort pieces, etc.-if this is done, they make another eye.

*They verify that they did their best work, meaning good handwriting, quality not sloppy copy work-if they did this, the draw a mouth.

*When all of the verifying is complete, they show they are ready to turn in by decorating their smiley face with hair and ears then turn in the work.

One of the first things that I check before grading a paper is to see if the Smiley face is there. If it is not, I call the kiddo back over before grading it to have them complete it. This allows them the opportunity to correct things one last time. I also take points off it the smiley face is completed, but I can see that they did not verify the work.

In sticking with with "smiley face" work, I also have a poster on my writing bulletin board that includes a "Smiley Face Writing" poster that I thought I would pass along with you too!

It works the same way as the other poster, but this time they are verifying their writing. This is used before teaching the editing process but this helps them to understand that later.

*A circle for name and date {that stays the same}
* An eye for capitalization
*An eye for punctuation
* A nose for spaces
*A mouth for their best handwriting
*Decorate the face with hair and ears when they have done their best work and ready to turn in.

Get your FREE Smiley Face Posters!

Happy verifying,

Coconut Cutie

Spring Break FREEBIE #5

Alright y'all, I must confess something but I'll try hard not to rub it in. I am typing this post on my ipad at the beach while basking in the sun and watching dolphins! YES, DOLPHINS! I saw them the other day too and I tried to swim with them but they weren't havin it :0(  I also did a bit of stand up paddle boarding in the ocean.  That is the board that I used today {it is upside down at the moment}

Anywho, needless to say, I am having a wonderful time and sad to see my time here end tomorrow. Then, it's back to the daily grind on Monday.

Well, back to business!
Do you label everything? I have a way of doing that because staying organized is a challenge for me, especially when I'm trying to finish one week's materials and plan for the next week. My team and I have an awesome plan for the entire year that we all keep in our plan book, in addition to our weekly lesson plan {we always know what is coming up next} so that's not the issue. 

What is the issue is all the papers and activities for the week. So, to help myself out, I created a little spot in my room to keep it organized. See for yourself below:

This is AWESOME if I do say so myself because it allows me to work for the week and also gather/prepare for the next week.

First I gathered some 3 drawer containers, stacked them and labeled them one for each day of the week. After making my copies for the week, I look at my lesson plans and sort the papers into the appropriate weekday drawer. I pull out the papers as needed. I also put any books or tracers, etc. in the drawer as well.

In the blue bins next to the drawers, I have one labeled "lessons for THIS week" and "lessons for NEXT week". These bins are where I keep the bigger items that don't fit in the drawers or the storage baggies for the materials being taught. In the bin for n ext week is where I keep all of the material that I pull for the next weeks lessons.

The green caddy is a new addition to my little organization station and I have yet to place the labels on but I will as soon as I return to school. This green caddy is where I store my file folders {filled with my original copies for each content area} for the week on the right side and on the left side the file folders for next week.

Behind the green caddy is a clear file organizer that houses my copies that I need weekly {center maps, book logs, homework logs}

Your freebie for today is my organizational labels. Hopefully you too will find them as helpful as I do.

Get your organization labels here!

I'm also curious, how do you organize your materials? Let me know! I can use all of the organizational info that I can.

Happy organizing,
Coconut Cutie

Spring Break FREEBIE #4

Good evening my sweet bloggy friends!  I hope this post finds you well and hopefully enjoying some of the fun freebies I have posted throughout the week.  This next freebie is one that is simple to make and easy to use.   Many of you may know this game as banger or some other name.  This is a game of sight words.  It can be played as a small group, a center or as partner groups.  This is a game that the kids ask for by name.  It's SHARK ATTACK!!!

“Shark Attack”

To make the game:  Print out page 2 of this packet on Avery Template 5195 labels. Put one label on a craft stick (you will need 60 small craft sticks).  I also put a bit of packing tape on them to keep the game nice and neat.  Place the craft sticks into a container.  Included in this packet is  a cute little label for your container as well.

 

To Play the game:  Have the students pull out a stick/word out of the container.  They read the word.  If they read the word correctly, they keep the stick in a pile.  If they do not read it correctly, they put the stick back in the container.  If they pull a “Shark Attack” stick, they say "Shark Attack" and have to put ALL of their sticks back in the container.  The student with the most sticks wins the game.

Get your free Shark Attack Game!

Enjoy and happy teaching,

Coconut Cutie