High Frequency Words and Fluency Phrases

In my classroom, I have a "Spotlight On" poster.  It's where I post the 5 high-frequency words for the week.  We turn out the light and use a flashlight to put the "spotlight" on the words as we are going over each one.  It just makes it a little more fun! :)

I created a high frequency words and fluency packet to use.  This packet can easily be posted in any classroom with black and white "loopy" borders. Each word or phrase can also be cut and used as flash cards for small group or individual work with students.

                     Included: 164 Fluency Phrases and 221 High Frequency Words

and better than anything... it's only $2! :) Get it HERE!!! or HERE!!!

Teacher Appreciation and one crazy week!

This week was certainly a LONG one, however, I am  soaking up every single moment that I have left with my kiddos!  I had to monitor our state testing (PASS) in a 5th grade classroom  this week so my kids were split up among the other 2nd grade classrooms.  I was SO happy to be back with my students on Friday.  We had our usual "Friday Morning Dance Party" to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in honor of me going to see Michael Jackson's Cirque du Soleil on Friday night.  Always funny when someone comes down the hallway and looks in my window to see why in the world we have Michael Jackson blaring! 

And two of my sweeties brought this in for me on Friday morning.  Made my day, week... YEAR!  I felt so incredibly special!

They also gave me all of the extra candy.. which my sister and boyfriend have basically attacked!

Alright, I need to run to Target and get sand buckets... Saw them in the dollar section and I had already bought Hope King's Unit:

Dig Into Learning Summer Practice

to give my kids some summer practice on the things we learned this year.

Gotta love the dollar section at Target!!!!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there!  Maybe someday I will be blessed enough to get to be a mother but until then, I will continue spoiling my 2nd graders! :)

Smiles and Snapshots,

Courtney

Writing Process

As I've said before, I am involved in a Summer Writing Institute.  We have had two "Pre-Institute" meetings to prepare us for the summer (3 weeks of intense writing training).  The inner-nerd in me is SOOOOO excited!  We have been reading books, reflecting on our writing in our own classroom, and blogging within the group to share what we are learning so far.  The first thing I realized is that I needed some type of management tool for Writer's Workshop.  I wanted to be able to have a system where I could easily see where my student were at in the writing process and who needed a conference with me.  I came up with a poster system where students can move their clip from poster to poster, reflecting where they are!  The file includes green, yellow, blue, and black.  You can get it HERE! or HERE!

I'm super excited about implementing this in my classroom!  Grab it and let me know what you think.

Smiles and Snapshots,

Courtney

End of the Year Review and May Currently

So hard to believe that we are wrapping up this year.  I believe my paper chain that we made says 21 days.  CRAZY!  I wanted to review key items that we have gone over in ELA.  Each one is written on a small sheet of paper and placed in a balloon.  We pop a balloon each day that is hanging from our ceiling to find out what we are reviewing!  It's the 20 days of review!  We had to account for field day, field trips, etc. so we had to start a few days ago.  Here are the balloons in my living room floor before they made it to school.

My kiddos are LOVING this!  How do you make review more interesting for students?

And here is the May Currently from over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade...

Smiles and Snapshots,

Courtney