Is There Anything Better Than a Snow Day? Linky Party and Freebie

Is there? Not in my book! Not sleeping much through the night so you can be sure to hear the announcement on TV that your system is OUT! Spending the day in your PJ's! Cuddling up to the computer or with a good book and a hot cup of tea!

But in order to have a precious Snow Day, we have to have SNOW! Maybe if enough of us get snow on the brain, the weatherman will get the message and put one in the forecast. Link up with your favorite snow-themed activity you have to share, your favorite snow-themed book to read with your class,  the best snow-inspired pin you found on Pinterest......anything snow related!

To start us off, here is a freebie based on Cynthia Rylant's precious book, Snow. Students distinguish between nouns and adjectives, then write sentences with two of the pairs.

Graphics by KPMDoodles.com  Fonts by KevinandAmanda.com

Grade Level Linky Party

What a great idea! The Teacher's Lane is hosting a grade level Linky Party so that we can always have a place to go to find blogs on our own grade level! 

Click on the picture below to link up.

Ultimate Linky Party!

Teaching Blog Addict is hosting the Ultimate Linky Party. Click on the image below to find some great Linky Parties and to link up your own. And while you're there, add your favorite Vocabulary Idea to my very first Linky Party!

Linky Party Alert!!!! Share Your Favorite Vocabulary Idea!

Don't forget my Linky Party for Vocabulary ideas! Please link in with your best vocabulary ideas.

And after that, go to the Ultimate Linky Party and check out all the other great Linky Parties! Click on the button below!

Post-it Linky Party

This is one of my most favorite Linky Parties ever!

Create-Teach-Share is hosting a Post-it Linky Party. Join in and add your favorite idea for using Post-its in your classroom.

I ask my students to write one important event from a story we are reading on a Post-it. We put all the events in the middle of the table. Each student takes a turn pulling one event from the pile and putting it in the correct order. What a fun way to review the sequence of events!

Grade Level Linky Party

The Teacher's Lane is hosting a Grade Level Linky Party. You can link to your grade level so that you can find other teachers with great ideas specifically for you! Go try it out.

Vocabulary Word of the Day

Each Second/Third Grade Looping teacher at our school has a Word of the Day posted outside the classroom. The kids all look at each other's Word of the Day as they travel from room to room and down the hall. We laminated a file folder to use.

Free Writing Station Labels with Pirate Theme

Here is a link to my first attempt at uploading to Google Docs. I wanted to share my Writing Station labels with a pirate theme. There are eight different labels, as well as the Header. I hope you will enjoy using them. It's my late attempt to join the Christmas in July Linky!

Writing Station Pirate Labels

                                                        

(I wasn't able to get the Google Doc to show in my post. Any ideas?)

New Blogs Linky Party at Set This Circus Down!

I just found this great Linky Party at Set This Circus Down ( love the name)!  Find a new blog (like mine!) and add to the Linky Party. You get new ideas and the blogger gets new friends! Great idea!!!!!

Vocabulary Literacy Centers and Linky Party

I read several books this summer that emphasized the need for good vocabulary instruction in all classrooms. If students cannot understand the meanings of the words in the reading selections, they will not be able to comprehend the text. Almost every book stressed the need for students to be able to recognize prefixes, suffixes, and affixes. If the students are familiar with these, they can apply what they have learned to figure out many new words. Combining this with my belief that literacy centers are the best way to provide meaningful practice for students, I searched for easy to make activities that were readily available on the internet to make for my students. The best site is the Florida Center for Reading Research. This site has easy to make activities correlating to the Five Pillars of Reading that we teach at Learning Way. I started with the vocabulary resources and have them ready! Access these activities at http://www.fcrr.org/. Click on Instructional Materials for Teachers. From there, choose the Student Center activities for your grade level.    

A great resource for a Making Words Folder for either literacy centers or individual student work is at the blog, What the Teacher Wants, at http://whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com/2011/06/making-words-folder.html. 

The Cornerstone offers ideas for free centers at http://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/free-resources/centers/free-center-activities.  

Mrs. McDavid’s Second Grade website has several ready to print centers at http://www.ourclassweb.com/center_activities/lang_arts/.  

Ms. Leslie’s Class Website has great ideas at http://www6.swlauriersb.qc.ca/crestview/ls/Teacher/Teacher_Literacy_Centers.htm. 

Check out Russ’ Rockets at http://www.mrsruss.com/Teachers/foldergames.html for lots of games for literacy centers.

Beth Newingham is my idol! I love her Literacy Centers page at http://hill.troy.k12.mi.us/staff/bnewingham/myweb3/, as well as her page at Scholastic at http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=3746.  Be sure to check ALL of her links!

These are just a few of the books I read that help me as I plan for the new year.

What Really Matters in Vocabulary, Patricia M. Cunningham

Literacy Work Stations, Debbie Diller

Making the Most of Small Groups, Debbie Diller

Practice with Purpose, Debbie Diller

The Book Whisperer, by Donalyn Miller

I'm interested in hearing from other second and third grade teachers with vocabulary ideas, games, and activities! Click on the Linky Party for Vocabulary on the right!