Learning is Something to Treasure

I just started following a new blog and I am already loving the new ideas I am getting. Go check out Lisa's blog Learning is Something to Treasure and while you are there be sure to enter her giveaway for a $25.00 Teachers pay Teachers gift certificate  She also has some great freebies!

Mother's Day Gift

We made these for Mother's Day this year.  They turned out so cute.  I hope the moms like them.

Spelling Fractions Freebie

One of  the teachers on our team came up with this idea.  We used our spelling words and wrote what fraction of the word were vowels and what fraction of the word were consonants.  The kids liked it and it was a little extra practice in spelling and math.  Click here for a free copy of the worksheet. I have uploaded it in Word format so you can make changes.

Mailbox Magazine

I have to blow my own horn. I had another idea published in the June/July issue of The Mailbox Magazine. I must worn you that this is really deep material. If you subscribe look at the 6 Bright Ideas for Using Highlighters. 

My idea was to color code your grade book.  Highlight high grades in green, average grades in yellow and low grades in pink. Student progress will be clear at a glance.

Mother's Day Gift

These cute seed packets make a darling Mother's Day Gift.  Laminate when finished for a keepsake. They can be found here.

Money Matching Game

This activity will help children count money to a $1.00. Children gain practice in counting by tens and switching to counting by fives and ones. There are 36 cards to match. You can divide them into 3 groups carrots, peas and radishes so 3 children can play at one time and then trade cards until they have done the 3 sets.  Check it out in my TPT store.

Dr. Seuss Reward Punch Cards Free

Motivate Students To Achieve Specific Goals With These Colorful Punch Cards
This is one of 31 available Reward Punch Cards.
These cards feature 10 spaces you can punch out when students accomplish a preset goal. When all 10 have been punched out, students can return the card to you for a reward. Use an unusual punch so they can not punch their own circle. (not that they would) These can be used for behavior, homework, working hard etc. They can be printed on card stock and cut out. There are 8 cards to a page. If you do not see a theme that works for you, email me and I will create a custom design for your theme at the same price. kestnerg@gmail.com  
Download at
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Reward-Punch-Cards-Dr-Seuss

PBS LearningMedia

PBS LearningMedia™ is your destination for easy, instant access to tens of thousands of classroom-ready, digital resources including videos and interactive media perfect for the Interactive Whiteboard, plus audio and photos, and even in-depth lesson plans. You can search, save, and share with ease. Best of all, PBS LearningMedia™ is free for educators. Register today! This is the link for Illinois, but I think you can reach your states' site by replacing illinois with the name of your state in the url.

Common Core Widget

If you would like add a Common Core Widget to your blog like the one I have on the right hand side of my page, click here.  It is very easy to install, handy and the standards will always be at your fingertips.

It's Been Forever

It's been forever since I have been on my blog.  I had back surgery before Christmas and then developed a staff infection.  I am still not back at work, but will be soon. I plan to return Jan 30th and I can't wait.  My kids are missing me and I them.  I have a very good sub and have not had to worry about what is happening while I am gone.
I am going to throw a sale on all my Smartboard DVD's.  You are getting such a bargain.  There are 100s of activities available and I'm throwing in my reward punch cards also. Now is the time to buy before I come to my senses. Since I am at home you will get fast delivery if it is a mailable item.  Others can be immediately down loaded.  Check out the sale and save. 20% off Click  on the links below.
Reward Punch Cards
Smartboard 21 Lunch Count Activities
Smartboard 124 Primary Skills
Smartboard full year of Calendar Activities
Smartboard 40  Attendance and Lunch Count
Smartboard Sign-in Attendance 10 Themes

Veteran's Day

Thank you to all the strong and brave men and women out there that presently serve, served, or will serve our country. Everything you do I am so grateful for and always will be. A special shout out goes to my son Logan serving in Afghanistan.

Halloween Activities

Here are some Halloween activities we did this week.
                                 
 We learned the names of the main bones in our body. Q-Tip Skeleton

We read several books about bats and then wrote about what we learned.

Tissue paper pumpkins

                              We had a lot of fun this week while learning even more.

Isn't Love Grand

My son is home for 2 weeks from deployment in Afghanistan.  He and his girlfriend had some pictures taken on Saturday.  They are so happy together. The time he is home is passing too quickly.  Can someone slow down the clock?

Going on a Turkey Hunt

This is a Smartboard activity I posted on Teacher's Pay Teachers.  It can be used as math center or a group activity.

TPT TPT

Christmas Is Just Around the Corner

The Digital Crafting Mall 

I know that Halloween isn't even here yet, but there are only 62 shopping

days until Christmas.  With money being tight, why not make a gift for the people on your list.  It will mean so much more knowing you put all your love into the gift.
We have all kinds of background paper and clip art to make a scrapbook that
has great meaning.

For example.  The home farm means everything to my mother-in-law.  We
decided to make a farm alphabet scrapbook for her.  We have taken pictures all over the family farm that have letters hidden in the pictures.  We to a close-up picture of the barbwire fence post and it will stand for the E. The post makes the line going down and the barbwire makes the 3 lines across.
We took a close-up picture of a horseshoe for the U and a stained glass that is in the     shape of an Abridge across the creel for X. You find a few more letters for the scrapbook every time we go home. 

Find out what your recipients passion is and make the letters from pictures for that theme. It may be old cars, or churches, banks or parks.  You can find the letter shapes in anything.

1. Start thinking in "close-up." Look around for items that when a photo is
 taken close-up will look like a letter. Look at architectural details such
 as windows, stair rails, wood and stone trims, etc.
 

2. Zoom in and snap away. Zoom in with your camera so that the photo is
 completely filled with the element that looks like a letter. Turn your
 camera so that all of your letters will be vertical photos so that you can
 line them up side by side across your scrapbook page.

3. Select print size. Once you have all of your letter photos on your camera
 card, you will need to decide how large to print each photo. Check with your
 photo developer to see what your choices are for sizes.

4. Print in black and white or sepia. To remove distractions from the letter
 shapes in your photos, print them in black and white or sepia.

5. Use some of the background papers and clip art from The Digital Crafting Mall to make layouts for your photos.

 6. Put in a scrapbook and it will become a treasure handed down from
 generation to generation.

100's Chart Scroll

One of the teachers on our team came up with the idea of using 100's chart to write numbers into the thousands.  I thought they would get bored after two or three charts were filled in.  Boy, was I wrong.  The kids are begging to add to their scrolls everyday.
We took a 100's chart and had the kids write their numbers from 1 to 100. When they finished we stapled another chart to the bottom of the first chart and they wrote the numbers from 101 to 200. I checked to make sure there were no mistakes and that they knew how to transition from one line to the next line of numbers. When the third sheet is added the paper is too long to put on their desk so, we rolled them from top to bottom and paperclip the roll.  When the students aren't working on their scrolls they are stored in a tube from a paper towel roll.
A copy of the 100's charts can be downloaded here.

Main Idea and Details

We have been working on finding the main idea and details  in paragraphs. We read a story about the saguaro cactus in our reading series. We then worked in groups the write the main idea and 4 details about the saquaro cactus. The details were written on the arms of the cactus. We used toothpicks for the prickly parts of the cactus. The next time we do this I will have the  students write the details with crayon or marker so they can be seen better.

Teacher's Pay Teachers

There has always been a discussion as to whether teacher's should share their materials or if it is ethical for teachers to sell what they make.  I thought long and hard about it and then my husband lost his job.  I knew I had to do something to add to our income until he could find a job and bring our income back to where it was.  We have two children and one is in college.  The bills keep coming no matter how our lives change.
I decided to take what I make everyday for my classroom and sell it on TPT.  I am proud to say that there are teachers out there willing to pay for my work.  I don't charge much.  My items are between two and five dollars.  It's amazing how those small amounts add up. I doubt if I will ever replace my husbands income, but I'm proud to say I've made $2000 this quarter. This will pay for the apartment my daughter shares for almost the entire year.
If you need extra income you should really consider becoming a seller.  Click here and get started today.  It really is a good felling to know others appreciate your work.

 

Georgeanne

Kestner's Kreations

Corn Maze

We went to the local corn maze last week.  The kids had a great time.  They had to find 20 different stations and answer questions about Illinois history.  Wish we would have had more time.

Smartboard Giveaway

This smartboard activity is to help improve sentence editing in the primary grades.  Students make corrections in the sentence on the slide and then click on the box to reveal the corrected sentence.  The number of errors in the sentence is given as a clue.  The activity also includes a worksheet with all the sentences so students can be involved throughout the activity.   The activity can be downloaded in my googledocs.

Phases of the Moon

We read the Reading Street story Exploring Space.  We talked about the planets and the moon and then used Oreos to show the phases of the moon. The kids couldn't wait to eat the leftover cookies.  I hope they take something with them from this lesson other than how good the cookies were.

Teacher's Notebook

 Teacher's Notebook

EXCITING NEWS - No monthly fees!

As of today, members can open a shop by paying a one-time setup fee of $19.95 that includes the following:

• No Monthly Fees
• No Sales Fees or "Royalties"
• No Listing Fees
• List Unlimited Items
• Keep 100% of every item they sell

Yes, you read this correctly. You can setup a shop for only $19.95 and that is it! You never have to pay a monthly subscription fee and you never have to pay a "royalty".

 

Teacher's Notebook

Fluency

We have been working on developing fluency in second grade. We use reader's theater and poetry to read more fluently.  I recorded the kids reading a poem the other day.  Here is a sample of what we did. 

One Week Down

We just finished our first week.  The kids are very chatty, but a very nice group.  I posted some pictures on my web page if you care to look.  There is a tour of our room, and some pictures of the kids presenting their 5 things I like.  It helped the kids get to know each other a little bit. View the whole website at Mrs. Kestner's Second Graders are Groovy .

Teacher's Notebook

Teacher's Notebook has extended their ONE-YEAR FREE TRIAL program until the end of August, at which point the FREE TRIAL will revert back to ONE MONTH.
Join before the end of the August to take advantage of this great offer. It's easy to get setup and you can begin selling your items in no time at all.
Some of the main reasons to sell your items on Teachers Notebook include:

• You keep 100% of every sale from your shop (minus normal PayPal fees)
• You get paid right away via PayPal - no waiting months to get paid!
• Buyers who buy from your shop earn rewards points!

Click on the button to the right that says Open Your Own Shop