Red, White, and Blue

Our story this week in Reading Street is Red, White, and Blue The Story of the American Flag.  Our weekly phonics skill is abbreviations.  You can click on the picture above to download your own copy of this game board.  

Have a great weekend!

It's Testing Time!

Well it's that time of year for us here in New Mexico... the NMSBA.  Our state standardized testing begins this Thursday and runs through the following week.  A few years back some of the staff at our school made this Rock the Test video.  It was a hit.  We even had t-shirts for the staff made that say "You Rock East Picacho!" hence why my blog is called 2nd Grade Rocks!  I thought I would share the video with everyone.

 I hope you find it useful or at least funny!

Only our 3-5th grade students take the test.  However I'll be helping administer it since I have a student teacher.  Our whole school really emphasizes the test and even our K-2 kids get to participate in a half day of water activities after it's all over for having good attendance during testing. 

Just Like Josh Gibson

Well my Spring Break will be over on Monday and it's back to another week of Reading Street.  This week we will be reading Just Like Josh Gibson from Unit 6 Week 1.  Here is my weekly game board that covers inflected endings.

For those of you just starting your spring break have an awesome week off!  Just 8 more weeks left until summer vacation for me!  Hip Hip Hooray!

Are You A Book Whisperer?

So this week was my spring break!  My family decided to have a staycation.  We really needed this week to rest and relax, and that's just what we did.  Our week didn't exactly go as expected.  We had a cold front come through last weekend and experienced 50+ mph winds in the desert.  We had a high of around 47 degrees on Monday when the normal temperature is usually around 70.  On Tuesday, I was finally put on antibiotics because I still wasn't getting over a sore throat that another doctor had told me was just a virus.  Wednesday the Hubs woke up with pink eye, and it was his turn to visit the doctor.  By Thursday the weather was back into the mid 70's and we were finally starting to feel better and enjoy ourselves.

So what did I do this week you may ask?  Well it was primarily spent reading and cooking (we also squeezed in some family pictures).

Last summer I read the Book Whisperer.  It was a great read!  It really instilled in me developing a love for reading to my students.  But somewhere that love for reading never really carried over for myself.  Don't get me wrong, my family will tell anyone that I am almost always within reach of a book.  However, most of the books I read were not for pleasure.  I have read tons of professional and spiritual books, but rarely did I actually read novels on my own.

This last November that all changed for me.  I went to see the latest Twilight movie, and decided I wasn't going to wait another year to find out what happened.  I began reading that series and have gone on to read series after series of books that I have had friends recommended.  Yesterday we went and saw The Hunger Games which I LOVED!  (Well except I didn't like that Katniss bought the mockingjay pin at the market instead of the Mayor's daughter giving it to her.  I don't know why that bothered me but it did!)  Anyhow, I had already read the trilogy and going to see it at the movies made me feel like I had one up on my husband who hasn't read the books.

So I ask, are you a Book Whisperer too?  There's nothing like reading a great book!  As I type this I see my iPad within reach and feel a little sad that it will still be a few more hours before I am able to finish up my latest novel.  The suspense of reading a fantastic book is almost too much at times.  I have to remind myself, "Put the book down before your family thinks that it will just swallow you up!"  HaHa!  Anyway, I thought I would share my two favorite boards on Pinterest!  My Recipe Board and Books Worth Reading Board.  If I'm not reading, you will most likely find me exercising or trying out recipes that are good, but low in calories and fat.

 

    

Well I gotta go make lunch and get back to my book!  Have a great weekend!!
    

K-2 Linky Party

Are you looking for K-2 blogs?  Well if you are, you can check out this cool linky party that Kindergarten Lifestyle is having on her blog.  She is trying to Pin all of the great K-2 Blogs that she comes across.

Check out her blog!  You might come across a few new blogs! 

Lucky Math

Here's a quick Roll and Cover Game that I created to play during math stations this week that I wanted to share.

Click on the picture to download.

Well I'm off to do odds and ends.  We've had the cold here at our home this weekend and it seems like I'm a bit behind on getting things done.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

More Blog Awards!

I have received another blog award from Beth Ann at

 

She has awarded me the Top 10 Award!
THANKS Beth Ann!

 

I recently received this award and blogged about it {here}.  However, due to a lack of time I only passed it on to 5 others.  So here are my remaining 5 to pass it onto.

Corinna at Surfin' Through Second Grade has also awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award.  Thanks so much Corinna!  I recently received this award too and blogged about it {here}.

Signmaker's Assistant

This week in Reading Street our 2nd graders will be reading the Signmaker's Assistant (Unit 5 Week 5).  Our phonics focus is vowel patterns aw, au, au(gh), and al.  Here is my weekly board game that we will use to reinforce those skills.  

Click the picture to download.

Graphics are by The 3 am Teacher.  Don't you just LOVE everything she creates!

 

Empowering Books

At the beginning of the school year I had requested several books from our school librarian to purchase for our school.  I am big on Bucket Fillers and wanted more books along this same topic.  If you don't know about Bucket Fillers, you can read more about it in my previous post {HERE}. 

As we approach the end of the year, I know we all find that no matter how much we have instilled good habits into our kids many just forget around spring break.   So I was really excited on Monday when our librarian brought all of these books to me.  We have been reading one each day this week and really focusing on filling a bucket for classmates.  If you are in need of books about tattling or bullying I recommend adding these to your list. 

 

These books couldn't have come at a better time!  They were perfect for reinforcing bullying and tattling.  Some other books that I already have and like to use on this topic are:

Let me know if you have a must read book that's good about reinforcing these issues.

My Mail Man Made My Day!

Today was not a good start at our home.  Our 3 year old daughter had been sick in the night, and I think we all woke up this morning feeling tired and under the weather.  However we made it through the day feeling a little better minus our sore throats.  When I got home, I was half way expecting to see my March Birchbox, but no, the mail man left an even better surprise!  The first package was my stamp that I won from Farley's last giveaway.

Look at how great it turned out!  It has purple ink too!  I can't wait to start using it.  Eunice at www.MyRubberStamp.etsy.com makes all kinds of stamps that are really worth checking out! 

The other great package waiting for me was a new pencil sharpener that I recently purchased from {HERE}.  I had seen a few others blog about how great this sharpener was and decided to get one.

They must be out of this world!  I just noticed that they are currently out of stock in both colors.

I can't wait to start using these gadgets in my classroom!   Now maybe I'll get even luckier and come home to my Birchbox tomorrow!

Blog Awards!

I feel very honored to have been given some recent blog awards lately.  The blogging community has made me a better teacher, and I have really enjoyed reading about all of the great things that are happening to other teachers.  You guys are awesome!  So here are the awards....

I was given the "One Lovely Blog Award" from these fine ladies:

Beth Ann at Taming My Flock of Firsties

Mrs. Youel at Adventures in Second Grade

Amy, Gretchen, & Shelley at 3 Teacher Chicks

Mrs. T at Second Grade Math Maniac

Christa at The Second Grade Superkids also awarded me a top 10 award!

Please click on the picture for information on passing this award on.

Now it's time to pass on the awards!

I have found various rules, but am going to go with these:


1. Link back to the person who gave it to you
2. Pass the award on to 5 other Lovely bloggers.
3. Follow the person who sent it to you.

Here are my five!

Mrs. S at Staplers Strategies For Sizzling Second Graders

So, I'm just going to call this a double feature and pass on both awards to these wonderful ladies!  I hope that it doesn't offend anyone.  I think everyone who blogs does a fabulous job at it and everyone deserves an award!

March Currently

I'm linking up with Farley at Oh' Boy Fourth Grade for her March Currently!

Here's mine!!

Stop by her blog and see what everyone is currently up to!

Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores

Wow!  I feel like I have been a bit MIA!  We took a short trip (see more about it here).  Then it seems like I have had one project after another that has really kept me hopping!  This week we are reading Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores from Reading Street Unit 5 Week 4.  Here is my weekly game board to go along with the story.  Our skill focuses on Consonant Patterns ph, gh, ck, and ng.

Click {Here} to download your own copy! 

I've also recently gotten a couple of blog awards that I just want to say THANKS for.  Hopefully I can blog about those in my next post.