I Love Teaching in the Fall!

Well bloggies, I feel like I have not been able to blog in forever, and I have to say that it is because:

I LOVE THE FALL!!

We are finally getting glimpses of cooler weather, and fun lessons about Halloween and crunching leaves are here!!

In honor of one of my favorite seasons to teach, I am throwing a SALE on my Halloween Unit.  From now until Sunday, the Halloween writing unit is 10% off, making it only $3.15!  Hooray!  You can access my unit HERE.

Here are a few things that we have been up to this Fall:

FIELD TRIP!!  Oh boy!  Every teacher's dream day!  Just kidding-but I really did have a lot of fun taking my kids to the Imagination Station.   Here are a few shots of us at the station and eating lunch at Toisnot Park!

We also did a little "Shaving Cream Spelling".  Don't freak out when I say this but.....I have never done this before!  It was super fun and the kids were hilarious with their shaving cream hands!

Lastly-I would love to share some of my personal photos-Ha!  My husband and I went to the Bahamas last weekend...Holla!!  It was such a blast! Here I am on embarking day:

That's all for now!  Happy Fall Everyone!

Spellin' like a felon!

Ok, so after battling-literally battling-with Google Docs, I have it uploaded.  Finally, after weeks of work, I have finished my spelling plan for the 2011-2012 school year.  It may seem like no big deal to some, but as a second year teacher, I struggled with spelling instruction-fitting it in my schedule, teaching explicitly and in a focused way, etc.....Let's just say...it is so stinkin' hard to fit spelling in!

That being said, I decided to come up with a very direct way to teach spelling.  I took ideas from various sources, mostly using the ideas from Beth Newingham.  She is wonderful!  Here's what I came up with:

Monday:  30 minutes of spelling instruction based on the spelling rule for the week.

Tuesday-Thursday:  30 minutes of spelling practice based on the spelling rule of the week. The activities on these days can vary depending on the needs of the group.

Friday:  20 minutes of spelling assessment.  This will include the spelling tests for the current week and spelling pretests for the following week. Pretests are given, and if students make a 90% or better on the pretest, they will receive a challenge list for the next week.

The google doc that I have attached is a list of all of the spelling lists needed for the ENTIRE YEAR!!  That is all of pre/posttests, the regular study words, and the challenge words!  I am extremely excited about finishing this list, and I hope you enjoy it and use it in your classrooms!   I consider this to be an extremely useful FREEBIE!!

Spelling Instruction 2011-2012

And below is the much cuter version I published on Scribd!!

Word Work 2011-2012