Saturday, September 29, 2012

Fairy Tale Fun!

Hi friends!  Wow... I've been so busy teaching my fairy tales unit that I haven't had a chance to blog and share with you all these past three weeks!  Where has September gone?  Sorry I've been MIA here on Sassy in Second!  
This is the first year in a LONG time I've taught fairy tales and I must say, I had a BLAST!  The kids loved it! 
Last year my second grade team and I had talked about putting together a fairy tale unit to try out this year.  It was a goal of mine to come up with activities that we all could use!  I've created a few packets you might like to have!  Click here if you'd like a free copy of... Jack and the Beanstalk Story Retell and Sequencing!  It is much like the Goldilocks and the Three Bears sequencing activity in my Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Fables for a Second Grade Classroom.  We all enjoyed using them and I hope you will also.  Check both of them out below.

For some math differentiation and additional practice with place value skills, I also created my...Big Bad Wolf Base Ten Tiered Math Tub!  If you like using tiered tubs then this might be one for you. 
This was a fun activity because we had used Jen Ross' (The Teacher's Cauldron) writing center activity for...Who is the Wolf?  The kids looked for fairy tales and fables that had a wolf as the villain in the story!  These tiered tubs have three levels using adorable pics from The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, and The Boy Who Cried Wolf!  Check out Jen's wolf writing activity from her Three Little Pigs Math and Literacy Centers!
  
I began to make my Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Fables for a Second Grade Classroom by looking at the CCSS for second grade.  I narrowed in on some focus standards and created this parent letter to kick off the unit.  I then created teaching webs to help with integration of other subjects.
Here are just a few of the amazing resources out there on the web!  Wow!!!  I've said it before and I'll say it again... new teachers starting today are so blessed to have so many teaching resources at their fingertips.  When I started teaching all we had were resource books and teacher supply stores!!!
Here are a few of the great links for you to use when teaching fables, fairy tales, or folktales!  





I decided to make a three week unit beginning with fairy tales and concluding with comparison of folktales from different cultures.  Check out what all is included! 
I hope you will consider teaching fairy tales no matter what grade you teach!  I learned from this unit that you can make your instruction meet the needs of all ages!  Thanks so much friends!-Yvonne :)



Monday, September 3, 2012

Labor Day Sale!

Happy Monday friends!  For this Labor Day holiday I thought I would give everyone another chance to get your back to school and seasonal goodies on sale one last time before the holidays!  If you missed our huge TpT Back to School sale...this is a great time to get what you need at a 15% discounted price.  I'd love for you to check out these "oldies but goodies" for centers and teaching resources.  Below are a couple you might not have seen before.  Thanks so much and enjoy your day off today! -Yvonne :)
This is a unit I will use in a few weeks!  The Sun, Moon, Earth, and the Stars unit has been my #1 selling download for over a year now and I LOVE to teach it!  It is my collection of resources to supplement any solar system unit for primary grades.  It has a variety of activities for students to choose from.  I'd love for you to check it out and see if it would work for you.

With autumn right around the corner I wanted to share with you my Autumn Math and Literacy Centers!  Skills covered are everything from making words and comparing scarecrows on a venn diagram to pumpkin picking time and odd and even fun fall bears!

This was one of my first tiered math tubs I created for TpT!  This is one of my sports themed tiered tubs...Football Number Bonds.  These were the reason I started making products for my classroom.  Differentiation in math was something I needed and tiered (leveled) tubs have helped me so much this past year.  I plan to make lots more very soon!  
  
Here is a packet I've been using the past two weeks with my own kiddos!  Math Fact Fun resources has all of my addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division fact strategy cards along with activities and suggestions to help students master fact fluency.  I use these DAILY as we are working on mastering our addition and subtraction facts in second grade.
With pumpkin time being right around the corner, so is Halloween!  If you need some spooky skill review then you might like these centers.  Skills included are practice with base ten, homographs, graphing, making words, math facts, and more!  

These are some of the first products I created last year when I started making new resources for my classroom!  I feel like I've been so blessed to discover the world of blogging and TpT.  It has inspired me to improve each day and to make meaningful resources that work for our kids.  The sweet comments and suggestions I've received during this time have helped me to know what your needs are as well.  Thanks for that friends!  Enjoy your day and do something special for yourself!  -Yvonne








Saturday, September 1, 2012

Winner...Common Core Kickin' Combo Giveaway!

Drum roll... please!  Time for the drawing of our winner of our Common Core Kickin' Combo Giveaway!  What an awesome response we've had!  Thanks to each of you for participating!  Your comments have been amazing!  Please know that we really appreciate them!  Personally, I would like to thank Denise, Emily, and Heidi for joining in with their amazing Common Core resources.  It is so much fun to partner up with such talented ladies and I hope we can do it again soon!  So excited to congratulate our winner...
Congratulations Monica!  Thank you for joining in our fun and we will send you ALL of your goodies through your email.
Again, thanks everyone for joining in.  Please watch for future giveaways on each of our blogs...
Thanks all and have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!
-Yvonne :)