Double Freebies for Columbus Day!

Today was a great day! I'd love to say it was great because I taught a fantastic, inspiring, life-changing lesson on Columbus, but alas, that would be a lie. Today was great because my school is one of the the lucky ones that has OFF on Columbus Day! Thanks Chris ;) So instead of sailing the ocean blue I sailed the wine aisle of the grocery store and worked on lesson plans binge watched Gilmore Girls.

What made the day even better is that we're starting to see a glimpse of fall weather down here in Louisiana! This combination of glorious happenings has put me in a great mood, so I've decided to have TWO flash freebies this week! Both avaliable until October 15th!

Number 1: As this first nine weeks comes to an and your students' desks are probably in need of a serious clean out-I know mine were! Just put a few of these Desk Fairy Labels and a treat in the desks that are tidy, and like magic, the rest of the desks will be spotless within the hour!

Number 2: This Changes Activity is a great way for students to assess how they have changed already throughout their lives. I love getting a glimpse into their minds to view how they see themselves now compared to how they saw themselves just a few short years ago. This activity goes great with any Social Studies unit on communities and changes, and is a part of my Communities Bundle.

I hope all you other lucky ducks who had today off had a fantastic day as well, and to the rest of my teacher friends who did not, don't worry only 29 teaching days till Thanksgiving break :)

Flash Freebie!

This week's Flash Freebie is a special one featuring a product from my last post. I decided to give away my Banana Fact Family Activity for free until October 7th! Watch your students take on fact families with ease with this engaging and educational activity. My seconds loved how they made our classroom tree look, and I loved how quickly they mastered this important skill. Grab it now!

Liven Up The Reading Corner

During my late night Pinterest sessions I'm always amazed by the size of the bulletin boards in some teachers' classrooms! My largest board is about 3 feet long, which is definitely not big enough to display very much student work. I decided to start displaying my assignments in more creative ways around the room to accommodate my spacing issue. Now my reading corner is bursting with color, and my 2nds love it! 

Instead of fact families on paper, I created these cute little banana fact families. I was shocked at how much more excited my students were to work on their math, and they look adorable hanging from my classroom palm tree. :)

After finishing their tests on Fridays, I usually have a writing or math activity for my students to work on while their classmates finish up. To give this week's assignment a little more pizazz I decided to make these creative writing fish. Students can write down all the things they would do if they were a fish, then cut them out and decorate them. My spelling word pirate ship is finally complete with these little guys jumping all around it!

Pirate cove is home to some more traditional work. Students created paragraphs about the story elements from our weekly text, and this dollar tree valence was the perfect border to add some extra flair! Now when the kiddos are reading in our library they can also enjoy perusing their classmates' work. I wonder what we'll add next week!