Something Good!

I love that Jennifer at Rowdy in First Grade is trying to promote some optimism with her linky party!

{which totally puts this song in my head!}

I'm definitely needing to push myself to do this. Life has been... well, kind of stressful lately, so I'm going to make myself think of 3 for each.

Something Good at School:
1- It's FALL BREAK! Wooo! We have just one day off, but it feels incredible to be sitting at home right now.

2- One of my ESL students who came in as a Level 1 (very low English skills) is picking things up so quickly. He still struggles, but he finished his personal narrative, and I am blown away by all that he has learned already. I can't wait to see where he ends up in May.

3- I'm doing an integrated literacy/ social studies unit right now. I went to a really wonderful week-long class this summer, and I'm getting to use some of the planning and resources now. It's going so well, and when the teacher came to observe me, she had so many positive things to say, too!

Something Good at Home:
1- My husband has been uber-supportive lately. Last weekend I went out of town and he knew that the sheet multitude of laundry I needed to do was leaving me feeling swamped and overwhelmed. He did almost ALL of my laundry for me while I was gone! We've only been married a year, but this Sunday is the anniversary of when we first started dating- SEVEN years ago!

2- I got to spend last weekend helping my "twin" celebrate one of her last weekends as a single lady! She and I have been friends since we were 2 and 3 years old, so it means a lot to me that I get to be in her wedding in a few weeks.

3- Currently a looot of our money goes toward my husband's tuition bills, but we only have one more fall payment and one more semester until he will graduate and (hopefully) get a job! We may have to move, but... man, will it feel nice to be done with those payments for awhile (even if it means we have to pay off student loans next).

Whew. A little optimism does the heart good! Time to get some work done so grade cards can go home on Monday!

BOO'ED! ...with links to 5 freebies!

I've been "booed" twice! Thank you, Amanda from Inspired in Second and 'Sina from Field of Poppies.

Since I've been boo'ed, I'm joining the October Linky at Tori's Teacher Tips!
 

1. Give a shout out to the blogger who booed you and link back to their site!

2. Share 3-5 October activities, books, products (yours or someone else), or freebie(s) that you love!

3. Share the Boo love with 5 bloggers- make sure you check this link to make sure you don't boo someone again: http://toristeachertips.blogspot.com/2012/10/ive-been-booed-fun-october-linky.html And don't forget to tell them that they have been BOOED!

4. Link up {here} so that others can find you and read about your October ideas! And while you are there... check out the other great blogs!


Here are some October goodies I love:


Ms. Preppy's Place Value Candy Corn Puzzles {free!}
Great review for my kids when they finish their work early.

 
Sunny Days in Second Grade's Weekly Word Wizard- Halloween Edition! {free}
If you don't use these in your classroom, you really should!




A Series of 3rd Grade Events' Pumpkin Prefixes {free!}
Perfect activity to practice prefixes for centers or Word Work.





Fourth and Ten's Branches of Government Flip Book {free!}
I'm using this next week, and I am ridiculously excited about it.

And finally... a brand new product of my own!



Trick or Treat: A Multisyllabic Word Game! {Only $2}

I see all kinds of great games for sounding out words with short vowels or long vowels, but a lot of times my intermediate kids can do that in isolation. What they can't do well is to use those phonics skills to sound out longer words.

To help my students with "chunking" longer words, I created this freebie. It includes liiiittle spaces between chunks (usually syllables) to help kids visually break the words apart. Most words are 4-5 syllables long!

Each adorable Halloween bat or spider (thank you Mercedes of Surfing Into Second!) codes to a certain ending (-tion, -ing, -le, -al, -less, -ment, -ly) except for the pink bat cards (which are random extras like -sion and -ary). You can start your kids out with all of the cards, or slowly add in as you introduce new suffixes. You can also use the color coding to help identify if there are specific endings your kids are having trouble with!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be kind and say "thanks" if you download! :)

Linked up... well, just about everywhere. Go forth and download freebies!



Corkboard Connections




Hopkins' Happenings


Rockin' Teacher Materials



Freebie Friday on Teaching Blog Addict

Off to Family Math Night!