This is my very first Stop, SWAP, and Roll product swap blog hop and I was super blessed to have Kelly from An Apple for the Teacher as my swapping buddy.  She is super talented and also super duper sweet!  I had so much fun reading her blog and getting to know her a little better through Instagram.  If you don't follow her blog, you should run over and follow her by clicking on her blog button below.

Over the last week, my students and I have been learning all about fractions so I knew that Kelly's Fraction Match-Up (Minion Style) would be perfect for them.  I love using games during our station time to help my students practice and review skills that I've taught them in math.

I mean who doesn't LOVE minions!!  My kids were super excited when I introduced the fraction match-up game and one of them even decided to try their very best Minion impression.

But don't worry Kelly's fraction match-up game is super second grade friendly and it was an instant math workstation hit!  I used them in our pocket chart station and the kids matched the pictures to the fractions.  I really liked that the cards are small because they were all able to fit easily into our pocket chart.

My kids even helped each other!  I loved hearing them explain to others when they found out that they had matched a wrong fraction to the picture.

Kelly's fraction cards are also great to use for a quick check!  I used the cards in a small group that needed some fraction re-teaching.  I projected the cards onto my activboard using my document camera and the kids recorded the matching fractions in their math journal.  Then, I called on different students to come up and write the fractions in our class math journal to check our work.

I absolutely LOVE that these fraction cards are so versatile that I could use them in a station, whole group, or in a small group.  They really helped my students get some much needed practice with fractions and the cute minions really helped engage them in the process!  Make sure you check them out in Kelly's store!

Click on the product cover to check them out!

She also has these other two great Minion games!  I can't wait to check them out!!

              

 Click on the product covers to check them out!

Want to win your own copy of Fraction Match-Up (Minion Style) to use with your class?  Kelly is super sweet and is letting me giveaway a copy to one of my lucky readers!  Make sure you enter the giveaway below.  Good luck friends!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kelly also got to choose a product of her choice from my store!  She picked my Reading Response Flap Journals.

 

Click on the image above to check out how Kelly used the flap journals in her classroom and enter to win your own copy! AND as a special treat...it is now 20% off for the next 3 days!!  You can grab it HERE.

The best part about these swaps are finding new amazing products from a variety of sellers, so make sure you visit the other second and third grade swaps going on this weekend and enter to win some fabulous products!
 

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Stephanie

I'm super excited to be joining Jessica from Mrs. Plemon's Kindergarten for her Tricks and Treats Blog Hop.  Isn't her blog hop button just adorable!  It makes me super excited for this season and I know my boys are so ready for Halloween!  Actually, they would both wear their costume every day if I let them.

Let's start off with a short classroom management TRICK...

I don't have a bathroom in my classroom and it's always been a bit tricky on how to handle who is in the bathroom and who has already gone.  My awesome teammate from last year shared this bathroom clipboard trick with me and I've used it ever since.  Thanks K!!  I just added the clothes pin passes and BOOM a new bathroom management procedure.

 

I have the bathroom clipboard hanging right by the classroom door and I use this simple sign out sheet.  There is a column for the morning and a column for the afternoon.  The students sign out before they leave the room and they pin the clothes pin onto their shirt.  If the clip isn't on the clipboard, it means someone is already in the bathroom and they will need to wait.

 

The kids don't have to sign out if we are at lunch or recess, so the morning and afternoon sign out only applies to when we are in the classroom.  It is so easy to monitor who is out of the class and the clothes pins are the perfect pass for our class.  I just labeled them with a sharpie marker.  The front says "boys" or "girls" and the back has my last name and grade level.

I hope this little classroom management TRICK will make your bathroom procedure less frightful!

Now for a little TREAT...

My kids and I are just finishing our Place Value Unit and we needed more practice with standard form, word form, and expanded form.  I came up with this simple craftivity to give my kids some extra practice.

The kids counted the base ten blocks to find their number and then they wrote the word form on the line below.  Then they wrote the standard form and expanded form on each of the pumpkins.  They LOVED it!

Make sure you click on the product cover at the top to grab this freebie.  I hope your kiddos have lots of fun practicing place value.  I can't wait till my students see the bulletin board tomorrow!

 I have one more TREAT planned for you guys.  I have all of my fall products discounted at 50% off through October 5th.  I hope it helps you get in the fall spirit.

Fix It Up Fall Sentences - First Grade
Fix It Up Fall Sentences - Second Grade
Fall Word Problems Mini Unit
Apples Word Problems Cards
Fall Word Building Printables

An InLinkz Link-up

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Stephanie

I'm joining Jasmine from Buzzing With Mrs. McClain for her fabulous You Oughta Know blog hop.  I was so excited to join in the hop last month, and I was even more excited to join in again.  Let's get started.

I think you oughta know about....Remind 101.  Do you struggle with sending home reminders to your classroom parents?  I know I did and then I found Remind 101.

It's free to sign up and super super easy to send messages.  The best news is that the parents don't see your phone number, so it is totally safe to use.  Your parents will just text your class code to the phone number given when you sign up.  There is also an app that they can download to receive the messages.

My favorite part is that you can schedule messages to be sent on a certain date and time.  How awesome is that for all of us busy teachers?

I hope you are able to use Remind 101 in your classroom this year.  It has been a real time saver for me!

Now that you've read my You Oughta Know blog post, click on the blog links below to read about other cool things that will help you in your classroom.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Stephanie

I'm linking up with Buzzing With Mrs. McClain for the "You Oughta Know About..." blog hop to share with you a Math Facts website that I used last year with my kids.  I think that teachers "oughta know about" Xtra Math!

I know that we all have a love hate relationship with math facts and getting kids to practice their math facts can be frustrating at times.  I  heard about Xtra Math at the beginning of last year at a math training.  I signed up my class that night and it was super easy.  Plus it's free!  Nothing can bet that right?!?!

I have two different math classes, so I created two lists of students and named them their class names.  I would open XtraMath on one of the class computers and then the first student would click on their class name.

Then the first student would put in their Student Pin.  I gave each student their pin ahead of time and had them write it on the back inside cover of their math journal.  It was a great place to store our pins and none of my students ever asked for their pin again.

I don't have my classes divided into groups just yet, so I just added my name to show you guys what it looks like.  When you enter your students' names, it will give you the student pin numbers.  I gave each student their pin number ahead of time and had them write it on the back inside cover of their math notebook.  That way they always had their pin number with them.  After awhile, most of my students were able to memorize their pin number because it's only 4 digits.

 It's also great because once the first student is finished with their math fact practice, it goes to the next student on the list.  If the student is absent or busy, the first student has the option of selecting the busy or absent button below.  Then it just goes on to the next student.

The very first time the students log in, it gives them an intro video to watch to help them get started.  Then it gives them a math facts quiz based on the grade level you entered.  In second grade, it starts with an addition quiz.  It keeps track of the facts that the student missed and you can view the reports online.  My students really enjoyed XtraMath and even reminded me when I forgot to turn it on.  I can't wait to use it with my kids this year.

An InLinkz Link-up

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Stephanie

Welcome to my stop on the Spring Has Sprung Poetry in Elementary Blog Hop hosted by Line Upon Line Learning.  My name is Stephanie and I teach 2nd grade in a two-way dual language classroom.  That means my kids are learning to read, speak, and write in 2 languages (English and Spanish).

The kids and I just started our poetry unit.  We started the week focusing on how poets use sensory images to help us visualize when we read a poem.

In Science, in my partner's room, the kids are learning about weather so we focused on topic poems about weather.  The first poem we listened to was about rain.  I had the kids close their eyes and visualize what rain looked like, sounded like, smelt like, and felt like.  Then they wrote a short journal reflection.

They wrote ...
- What was the poem was about?
- Described if the poem used rhyme, rhythm, or repetition.
- Then wrote and drew what they visualized.

I love how she drew a picture of her thinking bubble in the top left picture :).

Then in writing we focused on using our senses to prewrite out a poem.  I gave the kids this little interactive journal flap book and they got to choose one type of weather that they wanted to write about.  Then they closed their eyes and visualized that type of weather.  Lastly, they just jotted down what it looked like, sounded like, smelt like, and felt like.  This was a prewrite, so I always tell my kids not to worry about spelling.  I also explained that "felt like" could also describe your feelings.  Some kids added a heart on top of their hand to represent "feelings".

The next day, after the kids had finished writing in their flap books we started to draft out our weather poems.  We decided to use acrostic poems.  Here is the anchor chart that I created during our mini lesson.

The kids were really excited to get started and a lot of them have great poems.  We are in the middle of the writing process, so the kids still need to revise and edit before they can write their final drafts.

Click on the button below to grab my Senses Flap Books Prewriting Templates.

I working on some weather acrostic poem writing paper and will share it as a freebie on my blog when I'm finished.

Thanks for reading all about how we are using poetry in my 2nd grade classroom.

Click on the button below to head to the next stop in the Spring Has Sprung Poetry Blog Hop.

Michelle from BigTime Literacy shares her favorite collections of poetry and has a wonderful blog!

Also, before you go, I would love for you to check out the post below this one.  I'm hosting an awesome giveaway to celebrate my new blog design.  There are products from 20 fabulous teacher bloggers.  You should go check it out :).

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Stephanie