Skincare & Summer!

Hello all!! I hope you are enjoying your summer. I can't believe we start back to school in about four weeks! Where has time gone?! During the summer I feel like it is so important to take care of your skin! I have extremely oily skin and it took me while to find a skincare that didn't enhance the oiliness of skin. 
#rewardedbyQVC
I am a HUGE QVC watcher and I have found brands I absolutely love; one being for my skin -- ELEMIS! I discovered this brand about a year and half ago and my collection and obsession quickly started growing to the point I have many pieces of their brand. 
The collection I started with is their Pro-Collagen AM & PM 3 piece set. This set has become my daily routine. You will received the AM cream which is their Pro-Collagen Marine Cream. When applying this day cream you only need to use a pea size amount. My skin quickly absorbs this cream and my skin feels light but hydrated throughout the day. It also serves as a primer when I apply my makeup. The next piece to this set is their Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm. This balm takes off EVERY bit of makeup, dirt, grime your skin has and it doesn't take much at all! You put this on without any water then I splash my face with water to activate the cleansing process. As you take it off with a washcloth you will see all your mascara, eye liner, eye shadow easily come off with one clean swipe!! Last but not least, is the night cream!! Again, you only use a pea size amount and this will cover your whole face! I have noticed a huge difference in my skin since using this line. My skin tone is more even and it's much smoother. But the biggest difference I see is my wrinkles aren't as prominent as they were. I have forehead lines and that dreaded line between your eyes and I notice that it has definitely faded since using this line!! 
If you would like to check out this line click the link below!! I promise you won't be disappointed! 

https://qvc-advocate.sjv.io/gedNB 

HW Charts...& HW club!

It's that time of year again where you're getting into a routine and you're starting to give HW. At our school, a lot of times we have trouble with the kids not doing their HW or they forget to bring it back to school. A couple years ago I started a reward system and it has seemed to work really well. Each time the student brings back their homework they get a sticker. Once they fill up their sticker chart, they get a free HW pass.  Well, since our school has departmentalized and I have over 60 students I was spending a lot of money on sticker charts. This year I decided to make my own & i'm going to put it below for a FREEBIE in my store!! I'm hoping to create monthly ones, so check back for more freebies!  This year I'm trying more positive reinforcement rather than punishing negative behavior. With that being said, I created the HW Club. If the students turn in their HW every time for the month they get a special prize whether it be extra computer time, another free HW pass, sitting at the teachers desk for the day, or writing with a pen in class for one day. I'm hoping this encourages them to want to do their homework and realize the importance of extra practice!  I hope you all are enjoying your school year so far!!  APPLE HW CHART! 

Going to have an aMASONing year!

It seems like I blinked and summer was over! Does anyone else think that too??  This week we started back to school, and I decided to completely redo my room! I had bright, neon colors for the last 4 years and I wanted something that was more muted. I decided to do a shabby chic theme and it turned out better than I had imagined. We are departmentalized so I teach all the Writing, Grammar, and Spelling. Last year I felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants a lot because it was the first year we had departmentalized, but this year I'm really excited to get started teaching.   Here are some pictures of my new room:

I'm a huge photography fan. Last Black Friday, I decided to purchase a Canon

DSLR camera and I've been taking random nature pictures. I saw this

Instagram board on Pinterest and thought it was such a cute idea. 

Students love seeing their work displayed so I thought it would

be perfect to display their pictures of what they do in class as well! 

This year I moved my desk to the corner. The last four years it sat right in front 

of the windows and I loved it there but found my personal stuff was always 

all over the place. Having it set up this way, all my binders and curriculum 

are on a shelf underneath my computer and everything is at my fingertips! 

These pictures are a few of one of my whiteboards. I have two in my room. I use 

this one for my journal entry board. I have 3 blocks so I love having two because 

I don't have to erase everything and then rewrite it. When I first changed my room

I was freaking out a little because it looked so plain with just the bulletin boards

up. Once I put up the mason jars, and the reference posters I fell in love with my room.

Here is a picture of my other whiteboard. This is the board that my projector is on

so I use it a lot for marking our spelling words, watching short clips of stories,

etc. The two bulletin boards I decided to use are Punctuation Central. Even at 

the end of the year, I found they needed a reminder sometimes on what ending 

mark to use. The other bulletin board with the stop light will be used for Transition 

Words. I used a reference board similar to this last year, and my students used it constantly. They loved getting to choose their own transition word and they got to the point where they automatically just wrote them without me to remind them.  

I hope each of year have had a wonderful start to your school year, or if you haven't started yet 

I hope it goes smoothly!! I can't wait to share ideas with all of you from my little shabby chic classroom this year!!

How To...

Before Christmas break I wanted to touch on How-To Writing with my kids. I've used Amy Lemons' and Hope King's Write On units all year long so of course I used their How To unit! I loved the interactive, introductory activity they created; which was How to Make Pie in a Cup. Furthermore, I recently purchased a new Canon DSLR camera and was able to get some action shots while the kids were making their pie. 
This particular activity made the students aware of each step of how to make the pie. It was a perfect activity because it helped the students realize and understand that adding those specific little details is crucial when you are writing a How To..I don't know how many times they just said, "Put the whip cream on." So I would take the whole container and just set it on the cup and they were yelling, "Nooo!!!" It was a perfect opportunity to talk about those smaller details in writing.   We then wrote a short piece on How to Decorate a Christmas Tree and most of the students added more details. They would say, you can't just write put the lights on; you have to say take the lights and wrap them around the tree! 
If you are looking for a supplemental or even a writing curriculum I HIGHLY recommend their units! They have made teaching all of the Writing & Grammar this year 10xs easier, and I love that the activities are colorful, use rigor, but are teaching them as well without pushing worksheets!! 
Here are some pictures from our Pie in A Cup How To... 

We first put all the steps in order for our Pre-Writing... 

Then the Pie Making began! 

We carefully wrote our steps in-between....

Finally we're able to eat it!! 

Here is the link for Amy and Hope's How To unit... 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Write-On-Unit-3-How-To-WritingProcedural-Writing-2830963

M is for Monster...

So October is one of my favorite months of teaching! There are so many topics you can cover: pumpkins, bats, monsters, spiders etc. Last year I used Amy Lemons' and Katie King's Rooted in Reading unit but since I'm teaching all the writing this year I couldn't use every piece of it.  Instead I decided to create my own Monster Narrative unit. I wanted something to begin Personal Narratives that the students would enjoy. I created two different monster activities. The first one I created had the students create their own monster. They had to brainstorm ideas for its' name, hobbies, characteristics, favorites, family, and lifestyle. It was so funny to read what they came up with! I found a monster coloring book at Walmart that had pre-made monsters or outlines that the students could decorate on their own!!   Below are some pictures of the unit: 

The second part of the unit uses the monster the student created. This part of the writing has the student brainstorm something their monster has done like going on vacation, playing in the snow, helping them with math centers, etc. Any small moment the student can write about! It focuses on using transitional words such as First, Next, Then and Last as well as writing a Topic Sentence and a Concluding Sentence. 

My students really enjoyed this unit! They were so anxious for the part of our day when they were able to write about their monster! I teach the High, On Level and Lower students and these activities were perfect because I could add and take away what I wanted the students to include. My higher thinking students added more specific details while my lower level students worked on writing complete sentences! 

 Click the picture above to view this unit in my TPT store!!! I hope your students enjoy it as much as mine did! 

The Week Ahead....

It feels like it's been forever since I've blogged!! I can't believe it's already OCTOBER; my favorite month of the year!! I went to school yesterday and was somewhat discouraged! Last year, I used Amy Lemons and Katie King's Rooted in Reading: October and loved it! This year since teaching all of the writing, grammar and spelling I didn't think I would get to use their unit! I had already copied everything for the upcoming week and about 10 minutes before leaving school, I changed my plan for the week! 
So this week I am going to use their October unit with the story I Need My Monster...  Monday: My students will brainstorm ideas for their monster. Write facts about what their monster eats, where their monster sleeps, who are their monster friends, etc.  Tuesday:  Students will take their facts and create detailed sentences about their monster as their rough draft.  Wednesday: My students will work on going back and adding strong adjectives to make their description of their monster more detailed.  Thursday: Students will create their own monster by drawing or coloring one they have chosen. They will go back and continue to edit and revise their rough draft looking for capital letters, punctuation, etc.  Friday: Students will publish their final copies!   I chose this outline because I just finished teaching common nouns and their unit had the perfect daily lessons for Proper Nouns and I wanted to make sure I incorporated the book during these lessons. My original plan including using Amy and Hope's Write On -- Personal Narrative unit and begin with their Ouch Story but how can you not teach monsters, bats and spiders in October! I'm hoping this weekly plan works! I'll be updated next week with pictures from our Monster Themed Week!! 
What is your weekly plan this week?!   You can check out Amy & Katie's unit here:  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Rooted-in-Reading-October-Read-Aloud-Lessons-and-Activities-2116229

123 Write!

I am so excited about this new product! I recently found out that I will be teaching all the writing, grammar and spelling for our 2nd graders. I started brainstorming about activities that the students could do if they finished early. I was browsing on Pinterest and came across a pin called ELA BINGO from Musings from the Middle School but I wanted to make it my own. I was in the car riding home from my wonderful beach vacation and decided to create this 123 Write!  In previous years, my students have always complained "How many sentences do we have to write, Miss Strong?" As I was riding in the car I thought well if I make these simple writing cards and label my bulletin board 123 WRITE, my students will know that they have to AT LEAST write 3 sentences. Of course they can always write more, but that is the minimum requirement. I also didn't want to stress them out by making them write a whole lot towards the beginning of the year as well it wouldn't take them very long to answer these writing prompts.  I'm hoping to display the cards on the bulletin board and have the students pick which card they want to write about. This way it's not me telling them you must write about...... it give them more independence. I also wanted something easy they could go and grab rather than having to rummage around in their notebooks so I created writing prompt pages that coordinated with the cards. These pages can be used as a journal book, for homework, or with the cards. Once the students have written at least 5 of these extras they will receive some sort of reward (I haven't thought that far yet.) I'm hoping that these cards will help the students get excited about writing and they will have some independence about what they want to write about. There are topics from Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Silly Story prompts. The link below takes you to my TPT store where they will be on sale for 24 hours!!  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/123-Write-Fall-Edition-2650197