Table Talk with C and C: May 2014

Friday, May 9, 2014

Five For Friday and a Freebie!

Ahhh, at last a beautiful spring day here in Mundelein, Illinois! I should definitely be outside enjoying this weather, but I suddenly got the urge to blog this evening and share what we've been up to this week in math and literacy! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my 5 randoms for the week and FREEBIE FRIDAY with Teaching Blog Addict.

1. Our little 2nd graders have been working hard on learning about money! I always love teaching this unit and helping our little friends learn about how money works! Some of you might remember, but for those who don't, I am a special education teacher that works with a group of identified SPED students in Carrie's class. So many of my products are focused on grade level Common Core Standards with modifications and differentiated activities for my student's needs. Below you get to see our whole class having fun playing "MONEY TRIVIA." Students worked in tables to help their teams win each trivia question. Each table had an "ANNOUNCER" (speaker for the group), we had one TRIVIA READER (she had to decide the responses were correct--with teacher support at times, of course!), and then we had one TALLY FAIRY who kept track of the team points. Students had a blast working together and reviewing some basic concepts about money!

2. I worked with a small group this week on coin identification. Wowsers, this was a very difficult concept for my friends! We made money flip books, playing SPIN IT to WIN IT!, watched youtube videos, and played some interactive games online to help us learn our coins!

You can get my MONEY FLIP BOOK FREEBIE here

My MONEY MADNESS pack here.

Here are some of the videos my students enjoyed watching to help them learn about coins!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb-w3rqRoJ8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ARNqyQ0CuY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SGDAMKtHTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq3tVrTFcKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5Uo_4Vd3Fw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glGTuowt2Ko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq6rTT8RmzY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6A651vHK1o

Here are some of the interactive games my students enjoyed:

Simply, click on my COIN tab on my DRAGGO account.

http://draggo.com/ckramer/math

3. COIN VALUE MATCHING (Nickels and Pennies) and MONEY PROBLEM SOLVING WITH QR CODE TASK CARDS.

Students practiced matching values with coins using nickels and pennies. Then the past 2 days my friends have gotten an opportunity to use their problem solving skills with some QR code task cards. This is still a difficult skill for my friends, so I did a lot of scaffolding along the way… : ) But with support, they were all successful. Students loved reading the task cards and finding their name in the story problem! I always love to see how excited they get about problem solving when their name is in the problem…cracks me up!

For My MONEY MADNESS pack click here.

4. INFORMATIONAL WRITING

During literacy center time, I had my friends work on some fun informational writing activities. Students have been learning about animals and their habitats during whole class instructional, so I have been having my little friends practice some informational writing about animals. Today students got to log into their RAZ-Kids accounts on the iPads and find a non-fictiont text about animals. Students got to listen to the story, records their reading, and answer the multiple choice questions at the end. I have loved watching my students blossom this week and take more initiative in their independent work. It's never easy finding the "just right" material for my little friends because they are often distracted, forget what to do, don't ask for help, etc. This whole "independent work time" is still something we area always working on! : ) Anyhow, students got to write an informational writing piece about their animal book after reading. Students completed a little brainstorming sheet and then used this information to write their informational piece. Students referred to their criteria for success to make sure they included all of the parts of the informational writing piece.

Click here to have this *FREEBIE*
5. My Gardens are finally blossoming! It's about time we had some spring weather around here in the good Chi-Town (Mundelein), IL!! Last summer my mom planted tons of plants to help us build some more gardens in our front and backyard! I am so excited to see them all finally starting to grow this past week! I can't wait to see how they turn out! We still have a lot of work to do to fill in between the plants, but it's a start!

Hope you all enjoyed my 5 for Friday and my Freebies!! Make sure to link up! Can't wait to see what you've been up to this week! post signature

Sunday, May 4, 2014

May Currently and a Sale

May is finally here and that means it's time to link up with Farley for May Currently and we are having a sale! I can't believe that summer break is almost here. . . . . I'm ready for summer but still have so much left to do this school year!!

Teacher Appreciation week starts tomorrow and that means a TPT sale to celebrate all we do! My store will be on sale 20% and don't forget the code to get a total of 28% off!!

I have linked up with JD's Rockin Readers for a chance for 2 lucky readers to win a $25 TPT Gift Card! She's also featured some amazing products from some fabulous TPT sellers that you don't want to miss out on!

Click HERE or on the picture above to enter.

Now . . . it's time for May Currently with

Listening - The husband (the Cubs fan) and I (the Cardinals fan) are watching the Cubs/Cardinals game. So far, the Cards are leading. Let's hope it stays that way!!! Go Cardinals!!

Loving - Summer starts in about 17 school days. I'm ready for some sun and warm weather, sleeping in, and relaxing at home!

Thinking - We are heading home to celebrate my niece's 5th birthday and my nephew's 7th birthday this weekend. They are growing up too fast!! Thinking about all the packing I need to do for our weekend trip. Can't wait to hang out with my family!

Wanting - I'm wanting some new spring clothes. Ready for some new choices in my closet!

Needing - My classroom is a disorganized mess right now and it's driving me crazy!!! Need to start getting it organized and ready to pack up for the end of the year.

Surprise - I just love following Run! Miss Nelson's Got the Camera on Instagram and her amazing blog. If you haven't checked out her blog, you simply must! She takes the most amazing photographs!!

If you haven't entered our How Sweet It Is Giveaway, click HERE to enter!! We have 5 giveaways and over 40 products. It ends on May 7th! You don't want to miss out!!

Happy Teacher's Appreciation Week!

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Five for Friday (on Saturday)

A little late with Five for Friday . . . it's been a crazy busy week!! Linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my 5 randoms for the week.

So let's get started . . .

We reached an A-Mazing milestone recently with 1,000 followers on Instagram, so we decided to host a giveaway!!

There are over 40 different products from some fabulous bloggers!! We broke it down into 5 different giveaways, so you have a lot of opportunities to win!! Click on the picture above or HERE to enter!!

This week we discovered Go NoOdle and our class hasn't been the same!

If you haven't tried it, you must!! My kids are loving the different kinds of brain breaks. They are obsessed with dancing and love running!! They are extremely motivated to "go noodle". This will keep us going for the next 17 school days!

This week we took our field trip to visit the 3rd grade classrooms in the intermediate building. But before we went, we prepared some questions for our 3rd grade friends.

Going to 3rd grade and being in a new building is a pretty big deal in 2nd grade! They had some very serious questions. During our visit, we paired up with a 3rd grade class. They answered all of our questions. Then we went on a tour of the building and learned where all of the important places are, such as the nurse, gym, cafeteria, library, music room, office, art room, and most importantly - the bathrooms! After our tour, the students created a fun bookmark with their new 3rd grade friend. This is one of my favorite field trips of the year. I get to see some of my teacher friends that I used to work with and check in with some of my 3rd grade friends that were in my class last year. I love how excited the 3rd graders are to see us and I am always amazed and how much they've matured and how tall they've gotten!

We have been studying animals and habitats for our last unit of the year. Right now, our students are working in groups to become "experts" on one habitat. I created QR code cards for students to use with their research. This has been a lifesaver! They scan the code and then go to the website to look for information. They are loving it!

Students are then creating flip books with their information. We are going to share our information about our habitat with the rest of the class next week.

Be sure to check out my animal and habitat unit for lots of habitat activities!!

Click HERE or on the picture above.

Here is a preview of what's included in this unit.

We have been learning about money in math. And my students LOVE a good "I Spy Around the Room" activity! This week, we did two! The first activity was finding different amounts of coins and writing down the amounts. The second one was finding the amount and writing what coins you would use to make the amount. They did very well with both!

Now don't forget to enter our How Sweet It Is Giveaway!!!

Click HERE or on the picture above to enter!!

Happy May!

Friday, May 2, 2014

How Sweet It Is To Have A Giveaway!!!

We recently achieved a major milestone for our little ol' blog . . . . over 1,000 followers on Instagram!! A-MAZING!!!! So that means it's giveaway time!!!

Who doesn't love a good giveaway? Well, you are in luck! We are having FIVE (yes I said 5) giveaways!! I am overwhelmed by the generosity of our blogging/IG friends and am super excited to share these fabulous products with you all!!

So let's get started.

Click on each picture or the caption below it to see what each item is.