Fun, Fabulous Friday with a Fun, Fabulous GIVEAWAY!!!

First, the Friday Fun!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday and Hoots n' Hollers for Fabulous Finds Friday.

I finally figured out Google Docs well enough to use for some visual lesson plans.  Now that I have that mastered, I'll be able to use my Planner Pages online and share my plans with you!
Visual Lesson Plans 

We have been working on the commutative property of addition in my class, and made these super-cute flip flops, as a visual reminder of what the commutative property means. They are a part of my Flip Floppin' Math Unit, which is one of my best sellers on TPT.

 We began using Math Mania, from Sunny Days in Second Grade this week.  My class caught on so quickly, and seemed to really enjoy doing the activities with the number of the day.  Well, we actually used the same number all week, and the same page, because many of these concepts are new to my babies, so we worked slowly, and together, but I noticed that on the MAP test this week, some kids remembered the expanded form and place value concepts from this activity - otherwise I haven't taught them yet, but they answered correctly on some of the MAP questions on these concepts!

We also began using the idea of Mentor Sentences from Jivey. After watching her video, I was amazed at how much work she did with just one sentence a week, so I gave it a try, too.  The only book my class has in common, because they are all on different levels and participate in leveled reading groups, is my read-aloud, Superfudge by Judy Bloom.  They LOVE this book, and beg for more, so we took a sentence from the book and used it just like Jivey does.  My kiddos quickly identified the nouns, verbs, learned what adjectives and adverbs are, revised the sentence to make it even better that Judy did, and finally wrote their own sentence, based on the mentor one.  I even taught a mini mini-lesson about the writing process through the mentor sentence, when we revised it!  My principal walked in, and was so involved that he asked me to show the kids an e-mail he'd sent out, and talked about how long it takes him to write it (his weekly bulletin), how many times he has to revise it, edit it, and finally send it.  This was a shining moment for me!  I felt like he was impressed with what I was doing, so a BIG shout out to Jessica for sharing mentor sentences!


Finally, I created my own birthday party invitations for my Clare's ninth birthday.  She is

the QUEEN of sleepovers, and wants one every year, so I always try to come up with a theme, but this year, she said, "no theme, Mommy, just a plain old sleepover".  Well, there aren't a lot of sleepover invitations in stores, so I thought I'd make them with scrapbook supplies, but then I realized I could do it digitally...DUH!  I thought they turned out to be adorable, and so did she!  I bought the clip art from Etsy.

 Now, for my Fabulous Finds...

 I've been trying to find more of these wonderful two pocket folders that I found ten of this summer, so I stop in at the Mighty Dollar weekly to see if they have more.  They are incredible!  Each one has four two-pocket folders spiral bound together, for the most organized way I've ever found to keep student work.  Well, they still didn't have more this week, but I did find some awesome stuff for just a dollar each!

One is Marimba, by Pat Mora, an ABC book with a jungle theme, in which each animal name is given in Spanish, which I love, because the rest is in English, so while reading, you really learn the animal name in Spanish.  Next week, I'll be visiting each of my students at home, and wanted to take a gift.  Now I have the perfect book, with our WILD About Learning theme, and a package of dry erase, bound addition and subtraction flashcards (also $1)!

Next, I found Diane deGroat's Love, Lola books, which I'll save and give as my Valentine - I'm so excited!

Well, if you stuck through all that, you deserve the Fun Fabulous Fan Giveaway!  I'm super excited to have made some great blogging buddies, who are helping me celebrate 150 followers very, very soon!  I just need four more of you to gimme some Bloglovin'!  I have prizes from Ideas by Jivey, In That Room, Barrow's Hodgepodge, Fourth Grade Flipper, Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin', Teaching with Moxie, The Bender Bunch, and of course, from me...so, hit that Bloglovin' button up to the right, and the Rafflecopter Giveaway will be underway!

Hugs till then,