Currently December

I cannot believe December is HERE! 

It feels so weird saying it's December...and I've already mistakingly written November as the month on about five papers today! Yikes.

I love linking up with Farley for Currently posts each month! 

Listening: I'm watching Princess Diaries 2 with the roomie. This movie was one of my favorites when I was little! Gotta love Julie Andrews and Anne Hathaway in the same movie! 

Loving: I just got a gym membership as a graduation present to myself. I go with my sister (holla at my personal accountability partner!) and we are loving it! We are huge fans of the incline treadmill...it is great cardio!

Thinking: Tonight I turned in my final capstone paper! THAT IS SO WEIRD. I have no more college assignments due and nothing further to get done other than to attend my class tomorrow evening and finish out this week of student teaching. Um, where did the time go?! I feel like Back-to-School night was yesterday! I am going to be super nostalgic and sentimental for the next 12 days until graduation...eeep!

Wanting: I really want to go Christmas shopping some more. My favorite thing is picking out the perfect present and wrapping it up all special. Reality is, bills are due and I have to do that before I can spend anything for fun! Being an adult is not always fun! 

I could spend hours wrapping presents!

Needing: I have got to get some sleep. When I'm tired, my eyes get red and itchy. A few of my kiddos at school always say, "Miss Meyer, did you get enough rest last night?" when I come to school with tired eyes! Love how sweet and caring they are!

Giving: My store is having a huge sale right now! By purchasing one of my products, you'll receive 20% off in honor of Cyber Monday and an additional 10% off from the site. Don't forget to use the code TPTCYBER to get your savings :) 

Okay, y'all. Two posts in one night and I've gotta get to bed! I hope everyone had a fantastic first day of December! 

Hilary 

TpT CYBER MONDAY SALE!

This will be quick because I'm supposed to be writing my capstone paper...eeks! 

I'm having a SALE in my TpT store in honor of Cyber Monday! AND, the entire website is taking an additional 10% off all sales! That means...in my store you can get 30% off total! Please go check out my store and grab yourself some goodies! 

The sale will be going on December 1-2 using the promo code TPTCYBER! Go, go, go!

Thanks, y'all!

Hilary 

November Currently + FREEBIE :)

Wowwwwie, it's November, which means I'M GRADUATING NEXT MONTH. Ummm...what?!?! I am so excited, I just can't believe it is finally so close and I will soon be a Sooner alum. 

I'm linking up with Farley for some Currently action! Be sure you swing by her blog and check out what everyone is up to! 

• Listening: It's the 4th quarter of the Broncos vs. Patriots game and the Patriots have got this one in the bag. I love watching football with my boyfriend, who's always obsessing over his fantasy league!
• Loving: It's NOVEMBER! I love this month because it undoubtedly consists of lots of family time, with the Thanksgiving holiday and both my parents' birthdays. This month is also the one-month marker between me and graduating college! It is such an exciting season in life and I feel so blessed!
• Thinking: I think YOU should check out my newest freebie: "How to Make a Sandwich"! This product, found in my TpT store, is a thank-you to all my sweet followers for supporting me as I step into the blogging world :) "How to Make a Sandwich" is a simple flowchart activity you can use in your classroom to help your kiddos master the skill of sequencing through flowcharts. Visit my store to grab your own copy! 
• Wanting: In typical Oklahoma fashion, temperatures have drastically dropped to very chilly over the past couple days. I would love some new oversized sweaters to warm me up!
• Needing: This week needs to just fly by! I am going to my friend Nicole's wedding in the Dallas area this weekend, and I couldn't be more excited! She is going to be a beautiful bride! (P.S. She is a fellow blogger and teacher with a clear passion for teaching. Check out her blog!)
• Reading: Jesus Calling by Sarah Young is the best daily devotional! Sometimes, I read it and think, "Wow, was this written for me?!" It is so applicable to my everyday life and I love starting my day off with this devotional. 
• I would LOVE to know what you're reading right now, because I'm looking for a new book to start! 

What's on your agenda for November? As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts, comments, and ideas! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Hilary 

Sorting Common and Proper Nouns Activity Pack!

Hellooooo friends! I have been hard at work with another TpT product and I would LOVE for you to check it out! :) http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sorting-Common-and-Proper-Nouns-Activity-Pack-1512226

I made this activity pack a few weeks ago to use in my student teaching classroom (2nd grade). My kiddos loved the hands-on aspects of the activities and personally relating to common and proper nouns. All this meaningful learning made me happy, happy happy...so I decided to create a product to share with all of you! 

Here is my newest creation: Sorting Common and Proper Nouns Activity Pack!  

Labels for your center area if you use this pack as a center activity. I did, and it worked GREAT :)

Your children can master their classifying skills using this page.

Example of an activity found in the pack!

Common and proper noun activity cards--use these for sorting tasks to engage your students. If you purchase my product, you get OVER 200 activity cards!!!

I am so excited about this product, and I hope you can use it in your own classroom! :) 

Have a blessed week! 

Hilary 

Up for purchase in my TpT store...Choice boards! #mondaymadeit

Friends, I have created another item that is available for purchase in my store! Say hello to CHOICE BOARDS! I'm linking up with 4th Grade Frolics to share my work with you :) Don't forget to check out her page to see what everyone else is making! 

I used choice boards just last week with my 2nd graders. I was asked to review them on math concepts we've been working on the past 1-2 weeks. Here's a semi-quick summary of what I did to incorporate choice boards into the math review/practice time: 

1. My cooperating teacher and I chose a few specific areas our kids needed to practice on: money (counting bills and coins), odds and evens, addition number stories, calendar, and math facts. 
2. Then, we picked out some activities that aligned with each concept and sorted them into centers (the choice boards have 9 spaces, so I gave each center a number 1-9. Some of these were repeats because I wanted to make sure that all the kids HAD to cover certain concepts, like money, no matter where they drew their line). 
3. I gave each kiddo a choice board and explained to them that they needed to make a "Tic-Tac-Toe...3 in a row" on their choice board. I showed them how to choose 3 activities in a row and went over EVERY center with them. This was time consuming! However, I knew that lots of explanation would ensure that my friends would feel comfortable using the choice boards. 
4. Finally, we got started! The center activities were short and simple, so I gave the students 10 minutes to work. We rotated 3 times, so the kiddos were working a total of 30 minutes. You can lengthen or shorten this as you need to and depending on what you're doing, this is just what worked for us that day! 

Choice boards are COMPLETELY customizable, depending on what you want your learners to be doing and what subject/area you're targeting. That's one reason I love them---they can be used for almost anything :) 

Swing by my store to get your own EDITABLE choice boards...I'll love you forever! 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Editable-Choice-Boards-1473205

Thanks for the continued support! Y'all are amazing! 

Hilary 

Five for Friday!

My first Five For Friday linky post! Woo hoo! 

Here are my five random things!

1. My boyfriend is coming to town to visit for the weekend and I'm so excited :) We have plans to hang with my family Saturday and spend our spare time watching some movies...we both need some R&R! 

   

   This pic is an oldie goldie! I am one lucky girl :) 
2. This week in my student teaching classroom, we had our 2nd graders write a creative story. It could be about anything they wanted, as long as they wrote it with a good beginning, middle, and end. One of my sweet girls wrote a story about "Bayrs" (Oklahoma for ya!). Here is a snap from one of my favorite pages she wrote!

   

   "Oh no, for pitti sakes!" Ha! :)

3. I feel so spoiled by the people I get to work with every day. My mentor teacher is absolutely amazing and I learn so much from her all the time! Plus, she is so fun to be around and I love her to pieces! 

   

   Steph, you are such an inspiration to me! 

4. I am currently LOVING to watch Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team on CMT. It is so entertaining and I don't know why, but I can't ever stop watching! 
5. I can't believe I survived this week. I think I'm developing early onset of carpal tunnel from grading so many papers! I am ready to REST! 

Have a fabulous weekend, everyone!

Hilary 

BIG NEWS...I have a TpT store!!!

Y'all...I just took a giant leap of faith and created my very own store on Teachers Pay Teachers! I have been wanting to do this for a while now but just never felt like I could actually make it happen. Well, I am happy to announce that my store is up and running with a couple new products! 

Featured on my store: 

• Printable bathroom tickets (a FREEBIE) 
  
• Ice Cream Contractions matching activity (yes, I made my #tbt post a reality and I'm PUMPED!) 

         

I would love it if you would stop by my store to check it out!

I can't wait to see where this new little hobby takes me, and I can only hope that the things I create will help someone else!

-Hilary  

Currently!

Happy Labor Day! It is so nice to have a day off to relax, isn't it? 

I'm linking up with Farley today for my first Currently post! Yahoo! :) 

Listening: I have been listening to Cee Lo Green's album, The Ladykiller! It's a bit of an oldie but a goodie. All the music is so upbeat and fun to jam in your car to. My favorite song on the album is called "It's OK" and I first heard it on the movie Bride Wars! 

Loving: Labor Day weekend...can I just say that 3-day weekends are a gift from God?! This has been a much needed break for me! This weekend I have gotten to spend time with my family, boyfriend, and friends...AND catch up on my sleep! 

Thinking: Time to clean! My normal Sunday clean routine has been cut + pasted to today. I tackled some of my scary laundry pile, but my room is still begging to be dusted! 

Wanting: Come back, Jordan! My boyfriend and I do the long-distance thing, and let me tell you, it's hard to go weeks without seeing each other! He came to town for a visit this weekend and we had a blast. We spent our time visiting my family, seeing the Ninja Turtles movie (it was really good!), going to church, cooking, and I even got him to hang up some new shelves in my room. He's a keeper :) He left for home earlier today and I already miss him!

Needing: I need to get started on my lesson plans! My cooperating teacher asked me to take over teaching Language Arts this week...yay! I have some materials to work with already, but I need to get some things organized. Student teaching is the best! 

3 Trips: Turks & Caicos, Italy, and Hawaii. Need I say more? I love to travel and these babies have been on my to-go list for quite some time :) 

Alrighty, I'm off to make some lunch! Go check out Farley's blog to check out what everyone else is up to! 

Sentence Surgery!

Hello friends! Hope everyone has had a spectacular start to the new school year :) 

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post! I have missed getting all my creative energy out through this blog. 

I spent this past summer working two different jobs, and I was basically operating at full speed all the time! I barely had time for a social life, let alone to catch up on my blogging! I have been itching to write a new post for months, but just haven't had the time! So, without further adieu, here is my first post for the new school year...

I am starting off this fall with a BANG, as I am now in my LAST semester of college ever!!! I am student teaching here in my hometown in a second grade classroom. I am working with an amazing cooperating/mentor teacher. She has been teaching for twenty-five years and she is a PRO at what she does. I feel so blessed to get to work with her! 

Student teaching is like having a full time job...you're at school every weekday working and collaborating with your colleagues and getting to know your student babies. Even though it's exhausting, I love student teaching! I feel like a REAL teacher because I get to help plan lessons, attend events at the school, and assist in classroom management. It is an amazing experience!

Today, I taught my first formal lesson to my second graders. We have been going over sentence mechanics this week, i.e. putting words in a logical order to be a sentence and using capitalization and period marks in a sentence. Therefore, my lesson today was aimed to be guided practice and application on using capital letters and periods. When planning the lesson, I was trying to figure out how I could make this FUN for the kiddos. Then, it hit me. In our lesson, we would be trying to fix up some incomplete sentences...these sentences needed to be repaired! We needed to do some "sentence surgery" on these poor sentences so they could be perfect.

• First, we practiced correcting some sentences that did not contain beginning capital letters or periods as a class. I drew clothespins out of a cup (each clothespin has the number of a student) to call on students to help me correct the sentence.
• Next, I read a "paragraph" to the class that contained no beginning capital letters or periods (e.g. "today I went to the swimming pool with my family I used to be too scared to swim in the deep end so I would only stay in the shallow end then I took swimming lessons and learned to swim in the deep end"). I made a huge deal out of reading the sentence fast with no breath pauses to emphasize the importance of periods as breathing cues. The kids picked up on this right away and helped me correct the paragraph. We broke things up into proper sentences and kept an eye on capital letters and periods :)
• Finally, it was time for the fun part! I split the students into partners and explained that they were going to be performing "sentence surgery" on these "sick" sentences! We discussed how we go to a doctor when we are sick, so we were going to doctor up these sentences to make them better. 
• I told students that each pair would receive a sentence strip containing a "sick" sentence. Their job was to place Band-Aids on the areas that needed repairs and use a marker to write the correction. They were so excited to do this---what child doesn't love Band-Aids?

Here is an example of a sentence strip that each "sentence surgeon" pair received. Here's a note: I wrote random sentences that I knew my boys and girls would be able to read independently. However, you can make these sentence strips include weekly spelling/vocabulary words, or include your unit! That's the beauty of it---you can kill two birds with one stone!

And HERE'S what my little surgeons did to fix up the sentences! :) They used one Band-Aid to change capitalization and another to add a period.

I love how the last group did several operations before getting it just right! :) Also, I have found that throwing in relatable components to lessons keeps the children engaged. I have no clue how to play the game Mine Craft, but all my kiddos are obsessed with it. They were very excited to see Mine Craft being mentioned in their assignment!

 

The sweeties loved being hands-on with the Band-Aids! I was so proud of how well they worked with their partners and cured their "sick" sentences! I feel like they really have this concept down now, although I know it will take a lot more practice for it to become second nature. All in a day's work, right?! 

• Last but not least, I, the "head surgeon" :), checked their sentences out to make sure they were corrected appropriately. Then, I had the students write their sentences on a piece of paper and turn it in to me so I could have some form of assessment to refer back to. 

Thanks for sticking around through this long post :) I can't wait to keep updating y'all on my student teaching experience this semester! 

Hilary

#tbt Ice Cream Contractions

To begin a culmination of the lessons I have created, I will be doing a series of #tbt (throwback Thursday) posts this summer to share those lessons on my blog! The reason that the posts will be #tbt is because these are lessons I have already created and used in the classroom during my field experience. 

To start off my series of #tbt posts...here is "Ice Cream Contractions"! 

Who doesn't love ice cream?! I know I do. Any kind of ice cream will usually hit the spot for me, but when I'm being choosy I love the Cookies & Cream and Birthday Cake flavors from Braum's :) I wanted to bring my love for ice cream into the following learning center I created for second grade (it can work for first grade, too)! 

Here is my learning center: 

In learning centers, I like to have a cover sheet that states what skill the center is targeting and the Common Core State Standard connection for easy reference.  

This learning center could be used as a daily classroom center activity, extra targeting for students who struggle, extra practice for early finishers, and more! It requires 2 students minimum, but can be modified with no huge issues. Contractions (cannot = can't, etc.) are a second grade skill and can be linked to the CCSS here. 

Here are the directions for how to complete the learning center. I like to include directions with the learning center as well!

This learning center is engaging for students because they are getting meaningful practice with finding/sorting contractions as well as speaking them. They are using visual and kinesthetic skills to pair appropriate contractions together. They are also using audial and listening skills to say the contractions out loud. 

My favorite part of this learning center is the ball toss! Kids love games, so why not make learning into a little game? The ball toss locks them in and keeps them focused on pairing those contractions! 

I used one of these squeezie balls in my learning center, but any ball will do! 

Here's the directions for the learning center again: 

• Match all the ice cream tops to their proper cone. 

These just look good enough to eat! 

Another way to do this would be in a targeted teacher-student practice situation. You can give the student a contraction and have them pair it to its proper match given a few choices. This may help learners who are struggling or need things more condensed (Possibly English Language Learners, students with learning disabilities, etc.).

• After you have made the matches, play the tossing game! 
• Toss the ball back and forth with a partner. The first person will say a contraction aloud (example: don't) and the second person will say its proper match (example: do not).
• Use your cone pairs to help you go in order and get through all the contractions.
• Play the tossing game until time is up. 

This learning center is simple, yet fun! It can be added to daily instruction through centers or used for extra practice. 

That's all I have for now! Thanks for reading and have a happy rest of the week :)

Hilary 

I survived the PIP!

Hello all! 

I am writing this post while I lounge on my mother's couch. There's nothing like kicking back and relaxing after the end of a long and challenging semester! And...this semester is worth celebrating, because I have earned a 4.0!!!!! 

Praise the LORD! 

I am so fortunate to study what I love at the university I love! I have wonderful professors, mentors, peers, and family who help me be the best I can be every day. Now, only one more semester until I am a college graduate (and looking for a job)! 

Celebrating the last week of classes with my PIP friends: (from left) Abbey, Lauren, Miles, Tori, and Alex 

I couldn't have made it through this semester without you all!

My last week of classes consisted of finishing final presentations, taking the Oklahoma Reading Test (required for all preservice teachers), and wrapping up my field experience. It was a busy week! 

I just want to say how grateful I am for this Pre-Internship Practicum (PIP) semester. I had the chance to get to know 24 wonderful first-graders and a lot of great teachers. My mentoring teacher, Carissa, was especially incredible! I learned so much from her that I will continue to use and grow from as I move forward. She was so easy to work with, and made me feel right at home in her classroom. I am so thankful I had her to help me create my lesson plans, bounce ideas off of, and chat about life with. I feel like I gained a true friend! 

Carissa and I celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday...Lorax style!

It was so hard to say goodbye to my first graders and Carissa on my last day. The class surprised me with some precious cards, a book they created called "What Makes a Great Teacher", pictures, and some math doubles and triples dice that I will definitely use in the future! Thank you Mrs. South's class! I can't wait to come back and visit soon :) 

This stuff gets me through the day!

My Journey of a Future Teacher has been amazing so far, and I am so excited to keep going! Thank you to everyone who has supported me and sharpened me throughout this time in my life! 

Hilary 

The Amazing World Of Clouds!

I am currently wrapping up my Pre-Internship Practicum (PIP) semester with my university. I am placed in a first grade classroom two full days a week with a wonderful mentoring teacher! This semester is really designed for you to get a feel of what it's like to be a teacher before you start student teaching. This fall, I will student teach full time and I can't wait! 

As a part of the PIP, I was required to teach two formal lessons in each core subject area: math, science, language arts, and social studies. Last week, I taught my last lesson for my first graders. It was an integrated lesson over the three main types of clouds combining science, literacy, and a little math. I broke it into two days because there was so much to explore and learn!

I am so proud of how well my kiddos did during this lesson, so I wanted to share it here! 

Day One: 

• First, we read two books: Clouds by Marion Dane Bauer and The Cloud Book by Tomie dePaola. I skipped a few pages in the dePaola book that contained information about the subtypes of the three main types of clouds. I didn't want to overload the kids with information!
• As we read both books, we looked for the terms cirrus, cumulus, and stratus. We wrote the words on our whiteboard as well as some adjectives to go with each word.

  

  Excuse the *fun fact* on the bottom! It was from our morning message, and the kids didn't want me to erase it :) 

• Next, we went outside to observe the clouds in the sky. I had the students write and draw their observations in their journals. I'm sad I didn't take pictures during this! 

Day Two: 

• We picked up where we left off by having a review discussion over the three types of clouds. I wrote down the students' responses on the whiteboard. I was surprised how well the kids remembered everything! After a little discussion, I displayed a picture of our whiteboard from yesterday on the SmartBoard for easy reference.

  

  Just a little review to get our minds going! 

• I told the kids to picture the clouds we saw yesterday in their minds. Were they fluffy? Wispy? Big? Small? 
• I showed the kids three banners around the room. Each banner contained the name of one of the types of clouds we had been learning about. I gave each child a sticky note and told them to place it on the banner they believed represented the cloud they saw outside yesterday.

The majority of the students chose cirrus, which was indeed the type of cloud we saw yesterday! 

6 students chose stratus. This one seems to be the one with the most misconceptions. 

2 students chose cumulus. 

• We counted the sticky notes up in tallies and discussed how many more, less, etc. for each banner. That was my tiny math integration!
• Finally, we began my favorite part of the lesson: the cloud flip book craftivity! I saw this cute freebie on Dragonflies in First and just had to try it! Thanks, Traci! 

The kids loved these flip books!

A pretty great example of a cirrus cloud!

The cumulus clouds were the easiest to make :)

The cutout cloud descriptions were wonderful and helped us create our clouds accurately. 

I loved seeing the kiddos' favorite clouds! They had so much fun with this!

• The flip books did not take the kids too long to complete. I had already made the flip books before teaching the lesson, so all the kids did was label each tab, cut and glue the cloud descriptions, and glue the cotton ball clouds down! I would have loved to let the kids color their flip books for a little more personalization, but we didn't due to time constraints. 

This lesson was so fun for me to share with my first graders. Integrated lessons always take me longer to plan and teach, but I think all the work was worth it! One of the best moments of the day was when I was walking the students to specials later in the day. A bunch of the kids were pointing up at the sky saying, "Look, Miss Meyer! It's a cumulus cloud!" I was SO PROUD! :) 

Wow, what a long post! Now it's time to enjoy this beautiful Friday. 

Hilary 

Well...here goes nothing!

This is my first official blog post...eeek! As of this semester, I have become completely obsessed with reading teacher blogs (my favorites right now are Step Into Second Grade, The First Grade Parade, and Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits, they are all so amazing) and decided to venture into the blog thing myself. 

I am still a teacher-in-training at my wonderful university, and I obviously still have a lot to learn about the teaching world! For right now, I want this blog to be a reflection of what I'm experiencing as a preservice teacher. I am learning so much every day and I can't wait to start sharing little bits of it here! 

So, in keeping with my post title...here goes nothing! :)

Hilary