Friday Freebie and Five for Friday!

It's Friday and you know what that means!! Time to link up with Doodle Bugs Five for Friday linky!

I started off this week with a great workout and a little pool action at LIFETIME.  It felt so good to get in the gym again do my run and a little sworkit workout!  This is a super easy and user friendly app to help anybody work out! It gives tons of different types of workouts, different lengths of time to choose from, and helpful youtube videos to show you how to do each type of workout! Give it a try ladies {and gents!}! 

After that, I got to relax and enjoy some pool time while working on some new TpT products, of course!  Loving every minute of my summer!!

 Carrie is so excited to share that she ordered her erin condren planner!  I really don't know much about these, but I am seeing them all over instagram and thinking that they must be pretty darn amazing!  I am more like one of those people that keeps everything in my head, kind of an organizer or I just put my plans down in my calendar on my phone...but, I am sure I'll give in and try one of these bad boys out one of these days!

 Carrie also just had to download this awesome cocoppa app this week! How cute are all of her apps and background?!? I'd have to say I am a bit jealous and I will probably be joining the bandwagon and download this free super cute app!  Everything just looks so much more appealing...that makes me happy...Looking at pretty things {even if it is just a silly app on my phone}.

This past Wednesday and Thursday some of my favorite coworkers and I {including Carrie!} got to work on some lovely summer Common Core work!  How exciting, right?  I know you are all just dying to hear how we are still working on Common Core, even over the summer.  But I'm alright with it. I love my team, I get additional pay, and I am enjoying making new products to go with standards! 

So one of my tasks was to create a discussion rubric for both the teachers and students that goes along with one of our common core units.  The teacher rubrics align with SL 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.  Some of the concepts that I used came from our Skillful Teacher training professional development book which comes from the philosophy of "how to get kids smart."  I also created a student friendly rubric to help kids be aware of what it looks like to have a good discussion.  Last year when we started teaching common core skills, this skill in particular, was extremely difficult!!  Students were constantly talking over each other, not paying attention, off topic, and had difficulty building off of each other's ideas.  Hopefully a kid friendly rubric like this will help our little friends learn what it looks like to have a good discussion.  I hope you enjoy this freebie!  

Lastly, Carrie and I both worked on some new TpT products this week.  We both did products that focus on Dolch Sight Words. We are looking forward to using these products next year! Both products include all Dolch sight word lists {pre-primer-3rd}. 

Carrie's Dolch Sight Word product includes alphabet headers for your word wall and sight word cards for all dolch lists to go on your word wall. She created two versions, one with owl inspired icons and ones with just chevron backgrounds!!

Click here {Chevron Word Wall} or here {Chevron with Owls Word Wall} for Carrie's products. 

{SAMPLE WORD WALL CARDS}

{WORD WALL HEADERS}

{CHEVRON CARDS WITH OWLS}

 Caitlin {me} created a Dolch sight word powerpoint saved as a pdf.  What I love about this product is that it is visually appealing for students with its vibrant colors and it's an easy way for teachers to individually assess students on their automaticity of sight word recognition.   When you view the pdf as a slide show, students will have approximately 3 seconds to read the sight word before it goes to the next word {this gives more than enough time for the student to read the word}.  Again all lists are provided in the product and you can simply choose which list you need to assess your students!  I can't wait to use this next year with our little 2nd graders!  Click here for Caitlin's Dolch Sight Word Powerpoint Student Asssessment product.

 

 

Happy Friday everyone and I hope you are all enjoying your summer break!

*Caitlin & Carrie*

100 Followers giveaway help!

We have reached that milestone of 100 followers on our blog and 275 followers on Instagram!  And we want to celebrate!!!  We are looking for any of our blogging friends to help us out with our giveaway.  If you are interested, please fill out the google form below.  

This is the first form that I've created and fingers crossed that it works!  I couldn't figure out how to make it smaller and I got tired of fighting with it, but it does scroll down.  So, could you please comment once you've filled it out so I can make sure I got your information?
Thanks!!!!

*We just closed the form and will be posting the giveaway later today!  
Thank you to all who volunteered to help us!! 
 We really appreciate it!!

*Carrie and Caitlin

100 Followers Giveaway . . . .

We are so excited to be a part of Enchanting Elementary's 100 Followers Giveaway.  Check out her wonderful blog by clicking on the pic below and enter to win some fabulous items!

We are also so excited to be at 100 followers and over 270 followers on Instagram!  

Sooooooo  . . . . . we are going to be hosting a giveaway also!  Please check back for more details!  We will be posting details on our Instagram site as well, so if you aren't following us, head on over there and start!!  We LOVE our Instagram!!  So fun!!

We will also be looking for anyone who is willing to help us out with this giveaway.  So, once I figure out how to create that google doc, I will have that posted.  Please check back!!  Thanks!!

*Carrie & Caitlin

A Few of My Favorite Things: Morning Must-Haves

We decided to link up with Across the Hall in 2nd Grade for her summer linky - A Few of My Favorite Things.

Here are a few of our favorite things that we must have in the morning!

Be sure to check out our summer linky party - Sunny Summer Days and share what you've been working on this summer.

*Carrie and Caitlin

Sunny Summer Days Linky Week 2 and Monday Made It

 Ahhhhh!!!!! I can finally say it's the first Monday of summer!  Boy, does that feel good!  I think we all darn well deserved it!   For those of you still going, your summer will be here soon enough.  Enjoy these last days with your students and make learning as fun as possible!  Carrie and I would love to hear what everyone is up to this summer!  Whether it's relaxing, vacationing, blogging, making products..anything and everything that you are doing on a day-to-day basis!! Make sure to follow us on instagram to see what were doing on these "Sunny Summer Days." You can find us at @tabletalkwithcandc. Share with us what your doing on instragram 

End of the Year Fun: To end the school year, Carrie and I did a fun math "RELAY RACE ACTIVITY" outside with the students.  It took up 2 days worth of math time (30-40 minutes/day)!! Wahooo!!  The relay consisted of kinesthetic and cooperative learning approaches to figure out the answers!  Our students absolutely loved it!!   Students were divided into teams of 4 or 5.  Each team had to work together to solve the problems on their slip of paper.  After they finished the problem, students had to show Carrie or I their work before they could go onto their next math adventure!  All of the problems consisted of various skills we learned throughout the year.  It was a great review and a great motivator for all!   

You can get your copy of this fun math relay race from the Queen of the First Grade Jungle. We are also excited to  be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made-It.

Pinterest Inspired Co-Worker Gifts: Sooo...it dawned on me pretty much 2 days before the last day of school that I needed to get some gifts for some of my colleagues! Ugh, I am so bad about remembering the fun and thoughtful parts about our jobs!  (It just gets so crazy busy at the end of the year! ) Carrie made me me this cute "Hope you have a sparkly summer" tag that came with nail polish and nail filer!  So cute, right?  Simple, yet so thoughtful and definitely going to be used!!  My other co-worker got me "The Little Engine that Could" book.  This year was a big year for our district as we took on a new initiative to take on "The Skillfull Teacher." Has anyone heard of it???   I'll give you the cliff notes version of it.  It's written by Jon Saphire and it directly correlates with the new Chorlotte Danielson Evaluation framework.  Is this sounding anymore familiar with anyone?!?!  I am sure many of you know exactly what I am talking about with all of the change in education and with Common Core. Anyhow, "The Skillful Teacher"  has a strong philosophy in teaching "EFFORT" and flooding your classroom environment with effort, etc, etc.  It actually is really good stuff..but I won't bore you.  So, "The Little Engine That Could" was the perfect book to represent effort as we take on this new "Skillful Teacher" adventure as a district!

Below are some of my pinterest inspired gifts for my colleagues!  I made Carrie this cute little clipboard and found some other fun ways to say "THANK YOU!"  We also had several retirees this year, so I found a cute note on pinterest that said "Your Retirement Sucks! (Seriously)! "  I had so much fun creating little thank you tags and buying simple yet useful gifts for my co-workers! 

End of the year Student Gifts! I love giving my students awards at the end of every year.  Something fun and to remind them all of what they've accomplished this year.  This year I created a few extra fun things for each student.  We also handed out "super sweet candy awards" from Hope King at 2nd Grade Shenanigans.  My husband helped me shop for the "movie size" candy for each award.  So fun!

Inside each bag -

We've been working on Super Improvers this last part of the year.  So I created awards for each student  for the level they ended on.

  Saturday Cook Out with Friends! I got to enjoy my first weekend of summer with great friends!  My husband and I had some friends over on Saturday for a little cook out!  The weather was perfect.  We got some yummy fresh burgers and brats from Marianos!! Anyone else just love Marianos!?!?  Made a yummy appetizer and guzzled down  a few delicious sangrias!  For those of you who are simple cooks like me...all this little appetizer needs is ....  1. French bread (cut thin slices, and toast!) 2. Salami (preferably sopressata) 3. Fresh Basil (cut into fourths) 4. Boursin Cheese (Garlic and Herb) 5. Artichoke hearts

TARGET Dollar Spot Find:  Had to do my weekly shop at Target today!  Little did I know they were going to have these great book boxes or organizational boxes!  I had bought a handful a few months ago, but definitely wanted more! I  can use these at school as student's book boxes for guided reading, my professional books, my guided reading lessons, literacy or math centers, etc!  I am also thinking of using these boxes in my office at home to keep me organized!  They sure are cute, so maybe it will actually motivate me to go into my office at home to do the fun "grown up" stuff (pay bills, organize bills, blah, blah, blah)! : )

What have you been up to on these "Sunny Summer Days?!?" We would love to hear about your summer activities, summer hobbies, books you are reading, things you are working on for next year, and anything else you would love to share! 

In case you are new to Linky Parties, here are some helpful directions! There are a few ways to copy the image for the Linky Party.  

1. You can right click on the picture and choose "Copy Image," 

2. You can take a screen shot.  I'm not sure how you do this on a PC, but on a Mac press "shift command 4".  Then trace the object you want to take a picture of.  It will save the image to your desktop.  

Now you have the image to insert in your blog post and link back up to our blog.  

*Caitlin & Carrie

Winner Winner!

A few weeks ago I found out I won a giveaway over at Bright Concepts 4 Teachers for her "Blogiversary".  I was beyond excited!!!!  I NEVER win anything!!  And this giveaway was A-MAZING!!!!

So, I thought I'd give ya'll a peak at some of the fantastic things I received (and can't wait to use with my kiddos next year!!)

Jaime over at Bright Concepts 4 Teachers has some fantastic units in her TPT store.  It made it really difficult to choose!!  The first product I chose was Beachside Mysteries.  This unit will go great with our mysteries unit we are doing.  I can't wait to try it out!

The second unit I chose was Earth Day Love.  This will be perfect for our recycling unit!

The third unit I chose was Spring Writing Prompts and Craftivity.  I can't wait for next April to use these writing prompts with my kiddos!!  

Seriously, it was really hard to choose from all of Jaime's great products.  There are several on my wishlist I need to purchase!

One of the wonderful bloggers that was part of the give away was Creative Lesson Cafe.  You must check out her store - Kidsrcute.  The first product I won from her was the Reading Comprehension Companion.

The printables in this unit can be used with your reading instruction as whole group, small group or independent reading.  This unit is aligned with the common core standards and can be used with a variety of levels.

The next unit I received from Creative Lesson Cafe was a Martin Luther King Bundle.  This will be great to use in January when we are studying Dr. King.

The third unit from Creative Lesson Cafe was Math Whiz.  This common core aligned unit has story problem cards and worksheets that would be great to use in centers.

The fourth unit from Creative Lesson Cafe was Fun Food Poems.  I have a poetry journal with my students and I can't wait to add these fun food poems!

And the fifth unit I received from Creative Lesson Cafe was Book Club Question Cards.  These will be great to use with my guided reading groups!

Erin over at The Open Door Classroom has these amazing "kid friendly" common core posters.  She has taken the common core standards and written them with "kid friendly" version on one side and the teacher version on the opposite side.  These will make posting the standards in my room each day much easier!!

Heather over at Second Grade Perks sent me the Daily Common Core Language Warm-Ups and the Daily Common Core Math Warm-Ups.  These units will make a perfect addition to our morning work!

Tania over at My Second Sense sent me the cutest End of the Year Award Buttons that are editable.  There are 40 buttons that will be fantastic to use with my kids.  She also makes them in Spanish!

Aimee over at Primarily Speaking sent me her End of the Year Activities for 2nd Grade - Common Core Aligned.  This unit has so many activities for the end of the year that I don't even know where to begin!  There are several writing activities, including "How to be a Successful Second Grader" and "Second Grade Rocks".  

Kate over at EduKate and Inspire sent me her unit called iStudent: An All About Me Book.  My students are obsessed with the iPads and iPhones, so this unit will fit in great with our biography unit.  I am going to have them use it when they write an autobiography about themselves.

Storie over at Stories by Storie sent me her Keep on Rollin Bundle.  This bundle has several fun math games that students can play with dice.  I can't wait to incorporate these into our math centers. 

Dana over at Fun in 1st Grade sent me her unit called Writing through the Year.  This unit includes monthly writing prompts for August-May.  It also includes a writing rubric.  I can't wait to use these!!

As you can see, this was an A-MAZING giveaway with some FANTASTIC units!  Be sure to check out these talented ladies blogs and TPT stores!  All you need to do is click on their blog names highlighted in pink to discover their great blogs or the pictures of their products to get to their TPT stores.

*Carrie