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

Sunny Summer Days Linky Party

Since summer break is fast approaching or already here for some of you,  we've decided to host a fun summer weekly linky party!  We thought this would be a great way for everyone to share what they are working on for the upcoming school year and share the fun vacations and activities that everyone is doing!  

Since we aren't on summer break yet, here are some things I've been working on to prepare for summer break.

I created the end of the year gifts for my students. 

I created some cute "Mickey" gift bags with each student's initial.  I love using my Cricut!!  Inside each bag will be a bottle of bubbles, goldfish, and end of the year awards.  I created some cute tags for the goldfish and bubbles.   To download your free copy, click on the pictures below.

I've also been working on my parent volunteer gifts.  

I found some colored water bottles from the dollar store.  I filled each bottle with lifesavers, starbursts, and a gift card to Starbucks.  For your free copy of these tags, click on the picture above or HERE.

These last few weeks have been a struggle to keep our kiddos motivated, so I created some fun QR Code activities.  If we've had a good day, at the end of the day, the class gets to scan a QR code for a fun activity for the next day.  So far, our kiddos are loving it!  To download your free copy, click HERE or on the picture below.

We would LOVE for you to join our weekly linky party this summer!  Please share what fun summer activities you are doing or what things you are working on for the upcoming school year.  

  

Please follow our blog and click on at least 1 or 2 more blogs linked up.

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.  

Since this is the first time I've added a linky, if you have any trouble linking up, please let me know so I can try to fix it!!  Thanks

*Carrie

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June Currently

This month Caitlin and I are linking up with Oh' Boy 4th Grade for June Currently Linky Party.  

Listening to - 

Caitlin: daft punk "doing it right"

Carrie: Real Housewives of New Jersey (Love the Housewives on Bravo!)

Loving -

Caitlin: summer is only 3 days away

Carrie: summer break is almost here

(Can you tell we are ready for summer???  It's going to be a rough week but we will make!  3 days and 1 hour!)

Thinking - 

Caitlin: can't wait to go to Montreal at the end of the month

Carrie: Dave Matthews Band concert in one month

We both have some fun activities planned this summer that we can't wait for!

Wanting - 

Caitlin: Wanting to get my new wood floors in my house

Carrie: My new Erin Condren planner to arrive (so excited to see it!)

Needing -

Caitlin: sun, warm weather, pool = tan

Carrie: some sun on this pale skin and some sleep!

Let's hope this rainy weather passes soon!

3 Vacay Essentials - 

Caitlin: a good book to read, a new play list of music and a camera

Carrie: iPod loaded with music, camera on my phone, and a credit card

Head on over to Oh' Boy 4th Grade to check out some other fun June Currently blog posts!

*Carrie and Caitlin

Addition and Subtraction Task Card Scoot!

As we wind up the last few days of the school year, we are ending our math unit with understanding how to add and subtract 3 digit by 3 digit numbers!  Students used a math graphic organizer to help them understand how bigger numbers are added.  We revisited one, tens, and hundreds place, read whole numbers to the hundreds place, and then practiced adding 2 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers with and without regrouping.  

It was evident that students had a grasp of how to do this, so I was ready to take it to the next step and teach how to add 3 digit by 3 digit numbers.  Students used the graphic organizer to help them with correct placement of numbers (place value) and regrouping.  Students either used the graphic organizer on a dry erase sleeve or on the ipad!  I had read about this app called "Good Notes" from my friends over at Learning to the Core.  

  

Basically the app allows you to download a pdf file so that students can write on it.  All you have to do is create a dropbox account or something similar so that you have a place to store your pdf file.  Once you log onto the Good Notes app, find the + sign, go to your drop box and add your pdf file to the shelf!  From there, students can click on the pdf and are able to write the desired responses!  This is such a great way to integrate technology, increase motivation, save lots of paper, and provide meaningful instruction! 

Drop Box Account

Good Notes App

Students had a blast playing Addition SCOOT!  Be sure to explain the directions very explicitly because there may be some confusion of where to go next since all of their seats aren't connected, not to write on the actual task card, write the problem in the appropriate square on the recording sheet, etc. To start the game, I used an interactive timer to help students keep track that they needed to beat the timer! For the first few problems I gave all the students one minute.  As time went on I would decrease the amount of time to see if they could apply their mental math skills even more quickly!  Students were all thrilled when they beat the timer!  After each buzzer went off I would shout out, "1,2,3 SCOOT!"  Students were fully engaged and anxious to get to the next problem!  Once we ran out of time playing, we went over the answers.  If students didn't have the correct answer the first time, I had students go back and figure out where the mistake was and fixed it!

VISUAL TIMER

 

Click here to grab Addition and Subtraction graphic organizers for tens, hundreds, and thousands.

Click here to grab the whole package of 3 Digit by 3 digit Addition Scoot game!

Click here to grab the whole package of 3 Digit by 3 digit Addition AND Subtraction Scoot game!

*Caitlin*