Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night Game Board

Hi Everyone!  This one is short and sweet.  Here is my latest game board that uses consonant blends.  It goes with Reading Street 2nd grade Unit 1 Week 3.

Click on the picture to download your own game!

That's all for now...

Exploring Space with an Astronaut

Here is a weekly game board that I have created to go along with Reading Street's story Exploring Space with an Astronaut from Unit 1 Week 2.  It's focus is on long vowels.

Please click on the picture to get your own copy of my game board.  I'm off to finish up more tasks before my weekend is over.  Have a super week everyone!!

Cool Screen Saver

Hi everyone!  I just wanted to share a screen saver that I thought was too cool!  Another colleague showed it to me this summer.  I finally got around to finding it online the other day.

What I really like about this screen saver is that the note pad changes the message, displaying different facts.  I thought that would be too cool for your students!  If you like this screen saver, click on the picture to download it!

Reading Street's The Twin Club

Hello everyone!  Long time no see!  I've been in training after training it seems all month long.  Although I am now an Instructional Specialist, I will still be working with 2nd graders in Reading.  I have created a weekly game board that goes along with Reading Street's story The Twin Club from  Unit One Week One.  Last year I didn't start making the games until about one month into the school year, so if you were missing some of the games I made last school year hopefully, I will be able to complete the missing ones.  Although, since our state has moved to CCSS, I may not be listing any of the missing stories in the same order that the publisher has them.

Click on the picture to download.

 I hope to post pictures of my new room soon.  I'm still completing a few tasks before I'm ready to take pictures!  Have a great week!!

Random Name Generators

Hey everyone!  Back in April I remember seeing Shannon from

write a post about using various random name generators.  She has some really cool ones that you can use in your class.  Click on the picture and check them out!

Active Learning and Engagement Strategies

I was recently given the opportunity to review a copy of Active Learning and Engagement Strategies by Paula Rutherford from

Let me say, this book looks wonderful!  It is full of strategies and exemplars from previous books published from Just ASK Publications.  It is a quick and easy reference tool to use when you are designing lessons and want to select a strategy depending on your goal.  It has extensive self-assessment, guidelines for structuring small group work and setting up cooperative learning, an extensive array of products and perspectives to use in creating real-world assignments and assessments.  If you click on the picture of the book, you can see a 15 page sneak peak of what this book entails for teaching and learning in the 21st Century.

Useful Websites for ELA

Hi everyone!  I have a list of useful websites piling up, and thought I would pass them on.  This first one comes from one of my teamies who recently left our school to become a middle school librarian.  Click on the picture below to see the best websites for Teaching and Learning from the American Association of School Librarians.

This next link is for Reading Rockets.  If you have never checked out this site, it's well worth your time.  There are a ton of resources for Common Core State Stanards ELA.

Now this link was suggested to me at a recent workshop for Common Core State Standards ELA for Close Reading.  It also has other resources worth looking at.

This next link has been around for quite some time.  I have used it for literacy stations in my classroom.

Moving on, this link was also recommended at my recent training.  It's another one great for CCSS.

Wiki-Teacher

Last, but certainly not least, here is Eric Carle's website.  You can show students an animated version of Eric Carle narrating his own book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  This one got me thinking that maybe the next time I want to introduce a book to students that perhaps I should look on the author's website for more resources.