$2 Tuesday

I'm teaming up with my Primary Peeps and Laura from A Grace Filled Classroom to offer you all a couple of deals and a sale in my store for one day only.

Did I mention that I am having a sale in my store for one day only?!!!!! That's right, I marked everything down.

Stop on by for my $2 specials.  These items are 2 of my best sellers.  Read the comments to see how much everyone enjoys them.  When you are browsing around, be sure to check out my other sales.

 When you are done shopping in my store, be sure to check out some of the other $2 specials.  If you all want to link up with us the link is on the bottom.

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Parent Communication with Mrs. Labrasciano

Parent Treat by A First For Everything

Parent communication and encouragement is a must! This week during conferences, I used some freebies from my good friend Julie from A First For Everything.  The parents really took notice of our small gesture.  They also loved the extra parent literature that we left next to the mints.

Parent Teacher Conference by A First For Everything

This week our progress reports coincided with Parent/Teacher Conferences.  This was a specific request from the teachers.  We wanted to be able to speak with the parents about the progress their kids were making early on in the year so that we could set the pace for the rest of the year.  Just like everyone else, I found myself to be overwhelmed.

Progress Alert Folders by More Time To Teach

Our district requires that we send progress alerts out for the students who are performing below expectations.  However, I send a report home with every student.  Keeping communication up with parents, shows the parents that you care about their child.  It helps to ease any fears that they may have from the unknown.  It may help to show them that there is a potential problem.  Every student has something that they can work on to be a better student.  This is important to communicate with parents.

Parent Progress Alerts by More Time 2 Teach

My good friend Melissa from More Time 2 Teach has a great freebie that allowed me to put together a Progress Alert Folder to send home with each child.  It tells the parents exactly where their child is and where they need to be at the end of every quarter.  I staple any testing data that is acquired into the folder throughout the year.  At the end of the year this folder goes onto the next teacher.  They can then see exactly how the student progressed through the year and how the parents commented.   Another benefit of having these folders is that you have all of the student's data at hand.  You can use these at conferences, meetings about the child and report card time.

Progress Alert by More Time 2 Teach

Progress Alert by More Time 2 Teach

Progress Alert Folders

Parent Teacher Conference Forms

Parent Notes

Introducing The Primary Pack Collaborative Blog

I am so excited and blessed to have the opportunity to work behind the scenes with the fabulous bloggers of The Primary Pack!  We are collaborating to bring you a rainbow of ideas!  Make sure you follow along to grab a bunch of colorful freebies, as well as enter our giveaway with $300 worth of prizes!

Hi! I'm Amy blogging from Learning Lessons With Mrs. Labrasciano. (La-bra-she-on-o)  I am a  Florida teacher who loves my family, animals and of course, my students. This year I moved back to 2nd grade ELA teacher.

When I'm not teaching, I'm with my family.  My husband and I have been married for 13 years. We have 3 beautiful girls who set the moon and stars for us.

We seem to collect animals that need rescuing.  Our family has currently adopted two cats, Lucie and Elsie and one dog, Hurley.  Below you will find Hurley.  He had a rough start to to life that has left him with some quirks.  I'm teaching my girls that everyone deserves love and help.

Our dog Hurley.

Enough about me now.  Let's focus on The Primary Pack.

To celebrate our new collaborative adventure, The Primary Pack is hosting a giveaway with tons of fabulous prizes!

Enter the rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

a Rafflecopter giveaway AND here's my "colorful" freebie!  Just click on the image!

 Hop along to meet our other bright bloggers and to grab a rainbow of freebies!

 

An InLinkz Link-up

Character Traits with Mrs. Labrasciano

The kids LOVED our character traits kick-off lesson this week!  They each did an amazing job.  To start the week off I explained to the kids that character traits were words that could describe us on the inside or outside.  After brainstorming positive traits I had the kids make their own character traits on personal busts.  This lesson led into more character trait lessons with picture books.  Students were able to describe a character's actions in the beginning of a book through the end of the book.  After they describe how the character changed or completed a character analysis.

Character Traits With Mrs. Labrasciano

After introducing personal character traits, we moved into Wemberly Worried.  I have a student who is just like Wemberly! This was a great opportunity to help them through their anxiety and work on our comprehension at the same time.  The kids love to put together projects so I made them a folder activity that helped us to see how Wemberly changes in the book.

Wemberly Worried

Wemberly Worried

Apples

Informative writing about Johnny Appleseed

Student Project - Finding Key Details About Johnny Appleseed

Asking Questions While We Read

I have all of my posters and resources set for Apple Week next week.  This week also coincides with the opening of our unannounced observations.  Rigor is a must at all times.  (Insert my eye roll.)  Stakeholders believe that fun in the classroom is synonymous with inept teaching.  Well, this is a post on apples so I won't tell you my personal feelings on that.  However, I would like to offer some suggestions on keeping engagement up in your classroom while  you teach with rigor.

During the beginning of the year we have focused on accountable talk and are moving on to asking and answering questions throughout our reading.  This week we will be reading informational books on John Chapman, the apple life cycle and apple harvesting.  My mentor text will be Apples by Gail Gibbons.  Every day I will model asking and answering questions in the mentor text.  The students will be released for group work afterwards to create questions in a text.  Once they have their questions, they will move on to answering their questions.  When this process is done, they will produce posters with facts about their topic.  On Friday, we will enjoy warm applesauce while each group presents what they learned.  This process encompasses several standards including speaking and listening.  Students love making something that they get to present to the class.  This really boosts their self esteem. Along with increased self esteem, they also will also have increased engagement.

Apple Posters

Did you know that you can print poster size on your printer? I didn't know until my good friend Amna from Teach Two Reach told me about it.  Doing this allows you to produce larger images for the students to use for their posters.  It also allows you to print anchors that might be important for the topic.  I have included a visual below for you.

Print in Poster Size from Your Home Printer

Flash back to First Grade.

Apple Stain Glass

 Last year we used die cuts to produce empty apple templates.  I cut contact paper to place over the templates.  The students were then able to place tissue on the contact paper and make "stained glass" apples.

Applesauce For The Busy Teacher

 Here's my tip for being a rock star teacher without all of the extra work.  I could not fit a "How-to Make Applesauce Unit" into my week last year or this year.  If you can, I highly suggest it.  (Food really can wake up the senses in the classroom.)  So I bought two large jars of applesauce and warmed them in the crockpot.  I allowed the students to eat the applesauce and write about it last year.  This year I will allow the students to eat it while their peers present their posters.  No instructional time will be lost to this process.  (Insert another eye roll.)

Persuasive Apple Writing - Which one should we try?

 This was a fan favorite last year.  The kids sampled red and green apples.  Then they decided which one Johnny Appleseed should eat on his birthday.  It was a blast.

Apple Picking

Inferencing

The kids loved their hands-on time with inferencing this week!

Inferencing Books

Monday

Monday I read a short story (pictureless) to them and we made a graphic organizer whole group.  We put our evidence in one column.  Showed our schema in the next column and placed our inference in the third. This chart is shown to the right of my word wall below.  I apologize for the picture.  This was the only picture that I had of the anchor.

Inferencing Anchor

Tuesday

On Tuesday we read Henry and Mudge and made another class graphic organizer.  This time we went down to a t-chart.  We included evidence and our inference.  After we worked as a class, we paired off and students rotated through inference bags.  They were able to make t-charts in their reading notebooks to organize their information.

Inferencing Bags

Wednesday

On Wednesday I read them a  poem and they worked in a group to make inferences.  They recorded their answers on a t-chart in their notebook.  Afterwards, they went back into pairs to work through the inferencing bags.

Inferencing Bags

Thursday

On Thursday we worked with wordless books.  I modeled using "The Red Book".  Afterwards, each group was given one book and they worked together to make inferences throughout.  My planning partner Amanda, tabbed places in each book for them.  The tabs were to show them great pages to infer.  They did a wonderful job.

The Red Book

Friday

Assessment day! Tests don't have to be boring or scary.  On Friday I put "The Red Book" on the document camera.  They used a t-chart to make inferences throughout.  I was so proud that they each made an inference.  One cutie even used her Writing Office to reference a contraction.  Love her!

Writing Offices

Here's what they did every day:
Every day they have to use the skill that we learned in shared reading during their independent reading time. So while they read, they also made inferences from their books.  I met with them all individually to check in on them.  These personal conferences helped me to gauge how much modeling I needed to do each day.

Here are some other ideas that we didn't get to:
There are quite a few inferencing lessons in Comprehension Connections.  I love these lessons.  I know that I had taught them the lessons last year in first grade so I went another route.

We considered covering a Big Book and having them infer as you rip one piece of the paper off the cover at a time.

My planning partner Amanda used the inferencing images to make a poster.

Inferencing Work

Inferencing Work

A big thank you goes to Amanda who worked so hard to help me plan these lessons.  The thank you will be continued through the year being that we will do it every week! Also thank you to Annie for sending me the pictures!