Super Sunday Sale Linky Party!

Hi Friends!!
Are you ready for some FOOTBALL??  Eh... not so much for me. I'm not exactly thrilled that The Ravens are playing, since they beat my beloved Tom Brady and the Patriots. With that being said, I am rooting for a former Patriot, Randy Moss and his team, the San Francisco 49ers! Go Randy Moss! =)

I am looking forward to the fabulous TPT SUPER SUNDAY sales and I'm filling up my shopping cart already! Lots of awesome products out there!! We're also taking part in the SUPER SUNDAY sale on TPT!! All of our products will be 20% off starting Saturday and lasting through Monday!

I'm so excited to be linking up with Khrys at Keepin' It Kool In Kinderland. She's hosting a " Super Kool" Super Bowl Sunday linky party! If you're having a Super Sunday Sale, link up!

One of Khrys' linky rules is to share some of your favorite products that are on sale. =) Here are some products that are featured in our TPT store for 20% off Saturday- Monday :

Please check out the rest of our products on TPT and be sure to link up with Khrys! Have a fantastic Friday and enjoy shopping!! 

-Jackie-

The winners are... drum roll please...

Happy Sunday!!!
We are so excited to announce the two winners of our 300 follower giveaway! Congratulations ladies!! We will be emailing you shortly. =)
Thanks to everyone that entered and a very huge THANK YOU to all of our wonderful friends who helped us with this giveaway. We appreciate you so much!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have a wonderful Sunday!! Let's go Patriots!! =)
-Jackie-

A New Year, a New Challenge...

Happy Saturday!

I am so thrilled with the progress my class has made this year in reading. Everyone has put forth so much effort and their hard work is really paying off. I wanted to continue to accelerate their momentum by giving them a challenge. They were so good about picking out and reading their "good fit" picture books, but I wanted to see them use their stamina toward reading "good fit" chapter books.

During our first week back to school, I challenged them to think about how many chapter books they would like to read by the end of the year. We had discussions of attainable goal setting and how to chose "good fit" chapter books. Thus our class' chapter book challenge was born. Each child in my class has set a personal goal which they think they will be able to attain by the end of the year.
Yesterday during our teacher work day, I was able to put the finishing touches on the bulletin board that we are using to keep track. It's located outside of my classroom. They are actually tracking their books on a reading log inside the classroom and at the end of the day, I write the name of their book on a star a put it under their picture. As you can see, I have three eager kiddos who devour books. They are loving it, and I think they secretly love the competition. As you can also see, I have a few kids who need some extra encouragement to get moving.

I think I am going to add something their pictures which tells what their goals are. Maybe speech bubbles? We'll see. For now I am happy that they are so excited about this challenge. I know they'll all rise up to it. =)

One more thing... I'm not a huge fan of A.R., but we're required to do it. Before my kids write their books down on their logs, they have to take a test first. It's like killing two birds with one stone. =)

There's only a little over 4 hours left to enter our 300 follower giveaway! I wonder who the winners will be??

Have a great night!! -Jackie-

The Quietest Classroom Sharpener... it's quiet! =)

Happy Friday Friends!! 

Hope you all had an awesome end of the week! I'm sick AGAIN {ugggg}. I'm totally bummed 'cause I would rather be at an Orlando Magic game {with my sister} than sitting on my couch, but I actually had a really peaceful and highly productive day. My students were off and I had a teacher work day. I was able to cross off 7 out of  8 things on my "to do" list!! Not too shabby! Sometimes you just need a day by yourself to catch up!

Number 1 on that list was to try out my very awesome new sharpener from Classroom Friendly Supplies!! I love it! It makes pencils so nice and sharp. While it's not totally silent, it makes a LOT LESS noise than my electric one or the ancient wall cranking one. I was able to hold a conversation with my teammate, Melissa while I was sharpening... and we didn't have to shout!  The best news is that I don't think it will make me crazy! =) I may even allow my students to sharpen pencils during school hours, not just before school and at clean up time.  Of course it will have to come with some new procedure practice and lots of modeling!! 

These fabulous sharpeners come in four different colors {blue, red, green, and black}. Check out Classroom Friendly Supplies to order yours! 

 

You can actually still win one of these awesome sharpeners through our 300 follower giveaway!
Click the button below... you have 1 day and a few hours left to enter!!

Happy Friday! 

-Jackie- 

Winter... what's that? Show and Tell time!

Happy Wednesday Friends!!
I'm linking up with Denise over at Sunny Days in Second Grade for her Show and Tell Tuesday linky party! This week's theme is WINTER!! I'm a day late, but I was feeling pretty gross last night so I went to bed at 7:30, right after Jeopardy. I think it was a record for me.

Ok... so I am going to knock on some wood right now because I am LOVING the fact that it hasn't been too cold here in Orlando so far this winter. We've had one or two days where there was a little frost on my car in the morning, but that's it. {knock on wood} It's been 80 degrees for a week now. Rough life, I know.  But it's hard to wear flip flops and sandals to work all of the time...your feet always have to look good! =)


With that being said, getting into the "winter spirit" has been a little difficult for me, and for my kids. I'm hoping to change that next week! Well, I hope the spirit changes... not the weather!  Anyway, my copies of my Magic Tree House Polar Bears unit are all ready to go and I've found a class set of both books {Polar Bears past Bedtime and Polar Bears and the Arctic Fact Tracker}. I can't wait 'till Tuesday!  We are going to work on this unit for about three weeks. I would also like to do some cute polar bear craftivities with it, so I'm on the hunt for some super cute  ones! If you've got any ideas, please let me know!  If you haven't seen my unit, check it out on TPT! It's going to be tons of fun!

Thanks so much, Denise for hosting such a great party!!

-Jackie-

P.S. If you haven't checked out our 300 follower giveaway, check it out, there's just 4 days left to enter!

Mid-Year Assessments

Hi Friends!
It's that lovely time of the year again... mid-year assessments. Over the years I've heard lots of moaning and groaning about this topic, but it's actually something I really enjoy. It must be the teacher geek in me! I like it because it's the time where I can see all of the work we've put in over the past 5 months finally paying off. Don't get me wrong,  I see the growth in snippets each week from progress monitoring, weekly assessments, or when I read with my kids for a minute or two during guided reading each day, but when I do my mid year assessments I see tons of growth in comparison to where they started! I also like it because it's 1 on 1... a time to connect with my kids in a quiet setting.

I do three different assessments. First, I do the DRA  assessment. I only have a K-3 kit, so for most of my students this is a great assessment. It's not helpful for those kits who tested out of the kit at the beginning of the year. I wish we had the higher level DRA assessment on our campus, but we don't. Today I was so excited {and relieved} when I tested one of my kiddos (who came to me a little over a half of year behind ) and he tested exactly where 2nd graders should be right now. That means he made a whole years growth in just 5 months!! I was so proud of him!! It tells me that what I'm doing with him works!! :-)

The next assessment I do is with our FRY sight words. Up until now, our 2nd graders were supposed to have the 1st 500 words mastered. While we teach and practice many of those words in class, many of the words have to be learned on their own at home. My students did really well on this assessment. It's a reflection of their hard work {and their parents} at home.







Finally, the assessment I leave for last is our FAIR {Florida Assessment In Reading}. About four or five years ago it took the place of DIBELS in Florida schools. I haven't started to FAIR test my students yet. I'm going to begin as soon as all of my DRA tests are done. My thoughts are mixed as far as FAIR goes. I've seen some discrepancies in the reading passages. There are a few passages on the 1st and 2nd grade test which are clearly way higher than they are supposed to be. I'm also not thrilled that students are given a probability of reading success strictly based off of how many words they can read in 45 seconds{list is in the picture above}. Other than that, it's pretty good information, but I don't use it strictly in isolation. DRA is an excellent supplement for it.

The thing I struggled with up until a few years ago was classroom management during my tests. I had a hard time figuring out what to do with my other kids while was testing. I used to have busy work packets and tons of interruptions, lots of clips moving down. My poor former kids!  For the past 3 years, I've been doing Daily 5. I absolutely love doing the Daily 5 in my class because my kids are completely independent, they know exactly what is expected of them, and they do it. Plus, it's benefiting them and they're not bored with busy work! If you haven't tried it, I highly recommend it!!

So that's my mid-year assessment routine. What's yours? What do you love& what could you live without? I'd love to know!

Happy Monday!
-Jackie-

If you haven't stopped by our giveaway post, check it out. There are tons of prizes to be won!!!!

Our 300 Follower Giveaway!

Hi Friends!! Thank you so much for being a part of our blogging lives! We can't believe we have 311 great friends who love teaching as much as we do.
To celebrate this very awesome milestone, we've teamed up with 11 amazing bloggers and Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies for this exciting giveaway. There are two chances to win through rafflecopter!

For the first raffelcopter giveaway, Danielle and I, along with these fabulous bloggers will be giving the winner an item or two {winner's choice} from our TPT stores.

Danielle and I would like to give our winner 2 items {winner's choice} from our TPT store!

Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper would like to give our winner 2 items {winner's choice} from her TPT store!


Jayme from Trendy in Third would like to give our winner 1 item {winner's choice} from her TPT store!


Heather from The Busy Beehive would like to give our winner 2 items {winner's choice} from her TPT store!
The Busy Beehive

Jessica from Ideas by Jivey would like to give our winner 2 items {winner's choice} from her TPT store!

Stacia and Amanda from Collaboration Cuties would like to give our winner 1 item {winner's choice} from their TPT store!

Beth Ann from Taming My Flock of Firsties would like to give our winner 2 items {winner's choice} from her TPT store!
Taming My Flock of Firsties

Finally, my very own terrific former intern, Brittany at Salt Life Teacher would like to give our winner 1 item {winner's choice} from her TPT store! She is a brand new blogger! Go check her out!




For our second rafflecopter giveaway, Danielle, myself, and these fantastic bloggers will be giving items away from our TPT stores that we think you will really LOVE! Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies is also in on this giveaway!

I would like to give our winner my newest Magic Tree House Polar Bear unit! I am going to begin working on it with my kids this week! They can't wait!

I would also like to give our winner my Magic Tree House Christmas in Camelot book study unit. Although "Christmas" is in the title, it's not really a Christmasy book. =)

Danielle would like to give our winner her So You Want to Be President? Exemplar Text unit, just in time for President's Day!

Danielle is also going to give our winner her Magic Tree House Night of the New Magicians book study unit. It's fantastic!! She's working on it right now with her class, and they LOVE it!!

Karen from Mrs. Jones's Kindergarten is giving our winner Sight Word Construction mats! They look awesome!! I'd like to buy them for my daughter. =)

Njat from Mrs. Murillo's Class is giving our winner her Martin Luther King day pack. This is perfect for MLK day!

Gina from Beach, Sand, and Lesson Plans is giving our winner her Common Noun and Proper Noun Practice Pack. Gina is so talented and super sweet too!

Melissa from Don't Let the Teacher Stay Up Late is giving our winner her Winter Literacy Centers. They look like fun!!

Last, but certainly NOT LEAST, Troy from Classroom Friendly Supplies would like to give away 1 of his absolutely amazing, Quietest Classroom Pencil Sharpeners to our winner in his/her choice of colors {green, blue, red, or black}. This is a $24.99 value for FREE! Wow!!

WOW!!What a giveaway! We wish we could win!! Just kidding!! OK... so how do you enter?? Follow the directions on these two rafflecopters for lots of chances to win... that's it!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you to all of our followers, old and new!! You mean so much to us! Thank you, thank you, thank you, to our amazing fellow blog friends who participated in this giveaway! We truly appreciate your generosity!!! 


If you'd like to blog about this giveaway in your own blog, and you want to include the flier at the top of this post, here's the code:

<div align="center"><a href="http://sisterteachers.blogspot.com/2013/01/our-300-follower-giveaway.html" title="Sister Teachers"><img src="http://i1343.photobucket.com/albums/o787/teachersisters/300_zps8adbfafb.png" alt="Sister Teachers" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 Happy Blogging!
-Jackie and Danielle-

A 300 Follower Giveaway, Polar Bears, and a Freebie!

Happy Wednesday! What an exciting day! We are so blessed and and extremely excited that we now have 300 blog followers! We love and appreciate every single one of you!! I am working on organizing our 300 follower giveaway and it's going to be great! If you're a TPT or TN seller and would like to help us out with the giveaway, please let me know. You can email me at sisterteachers@gmail.com or leave a comment below with your email address.

Speaking of 300 followers, our very wonderful bloggy friend, Holly from Fourth Grade Flipper is having a HUGE 300 follower giveaway with tons of amazing prizes! She's teamed up with us and 17 other fabulous bloggers for this giveaway! Check it out!! {Fourth Grade Flipper}

I am also sooo excited that I have completed my Magic Tree House Polar Bear Non-Fiction and Fiction book study unit! A very huge Thank You to Gina from Beach, Sand, and Lesson Plans for being such an amazing friend and proof reader! Your help is greatly appreciated!

My Polar Bears unit is up on TPT if you'd like to check it out! Please let us know what you think!!

I'd also love to share a freebie from my book study with you!

Click here: {freebie}!

Happy Blogging!! -Jackie-