November Fluency Task Cards in Español

Hi, Guys! I'll make this post short and sweet! =)

I came across this amazing Freebie on Pinterest the other day.

As you can guess, I immediately fell in love and thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of this?!" "Why aren't they in Spanish?!"
Well, problem solved, Ladies and Gents! I took it upon myself to recreate/translate/modify these cards and made a Spanish version for all my Bilingual/Dual Language Peeps out there!

Click HERE for a copy of the SPANISH VERSION Fluency Task Cards
Click HERE for a copy of the ENGLISH VERSION Fluency Task Cards

Please keep in mind that Angelia over at Extra Special Teaching is the original creator of my Pinterest find. Head on over to her blog to check out these task cards and as well as other amazing products!

Oh, and before I forget, I am well aware that the O in "Expresion" needs an accent; the font I used does not have accented letters. =( Boooooo! (lol).

Parent-Teacher Conferences! Yuck!

Am I the only one that hates these?! Lol. I CAN'T be the only one!
This year, my students parents were all wonderful, with the exception of 1 or 2, but still I find entire day dreadful... as dreadful as checking your bank account when you know you've spent more money than you should or listening to your voicemail when you don't answer a phone call from your mother. Lol. I'm just a weirdo.

Don't get me wrong, deep inside me, I do enjoy being able to learn about my students through the formal conversations held with their parents. I had so many "a-ha!" moments yesterday that today I approached the day quite differently; which is something that may not have happened anytime soon if yesterday had not taken place. Today, was a good day. =)

To help me mentally prepare for the actual conversations, I made a sheet to help guide each conference. Over the weekend I pre-filled a sheet for each student with 2 celebrations, 2 concerns, and 2 suggestions for each child (even my Honor Roll students because there is always room for improvement). I also included a portion at the bottom for their IDEL and Mclass results.

Having this filled out before each conference gave me a peace of mind, so I decided to share it with those of you that get a little frazzled and need a little something to help guide you through the good, the bad, and the ugly conversations. =)

Click HERE for a copy!

Problema Del Dia

Even on a day off, teachers work. Doesn't it feel like our brains are on work mode 24 hours a day? I was making a purchase today and saw two children not being very friendly towards one another and I tried very hard to not to say something as I would in my own classroom, but I failed miserably and had to say something about their behavior. Needless to say it stopped, but I wouldn't be surprised if one day someone decides to punch me in the throat and tell me to mind my own business. Luckily today was not that day. =)

Teaching is a disease and there is no cure..... no one is safe around us. Lol.

Anywho, Do you guys solve a daily math problem? I started doing this a couple of years ago with my Firsties and it has been very successful in my classroom (in the past).
My first year teaching first grade I didn't do this until January (when I was sure that all but a handful could read and handle their own). Last year, I started at the very beginning of the year, but only because I had a high group of 1st and 2nd graders.... we solved a problem every day until school was out.
Below are some sample images of their P.O.D. notebooks.

Not bad for Firsties, right?

Although they have been successful before, this school year I tried to implement them a bit early, but it didn't go as well as it had in the past. Maybe the problems were a bit overwhelming for the little ones due to not all of them being able to read just yet. I'm going to try a different approach this week as I make an attempt to implement P.O.D. yet again. For this purpose I made a cute little pack of Halloween themed word problems to get the excitement going.... I mean, who doesn't love Halloween, right?

CLICK HERE for a sample of this packet.
For the full product CLICK HERE to go to my TPT Store!
If you do grab a copy PLEASE leave a comment below and tell me if you like it. If it's a hit, I can try to make a pack of word problems for November.

As usual, thank you for checking out my page! See you soon, Lovely Peeps! =)

Calendar Math

Happy Saturday!

TGFIO- Thank God Friday Is OVER! Maybe one day I'll enjoy Fridays again... in the mean time... waaaaaah (in my Snookie voice). Lol.

I'll try to stick to the REAL reason for posting without going off on a tangent about some random thing. =)

Last year, when I taught my 1st/2nd split, I was looking for a way to incorporate calendar math in my daily routine without it being too babyish for my 2nd graders or too difficult for my 1st graders; I came across this Calendar Math/Number of the Day Sheet on TPT....

(If you want a copy of the above Calendar Sheet you can click HERE)

..... it was JUST what I needed.... EXCEPT..... I needed it in Spanish!

Random thought: Why is it so hard to find resources for such a large population?! Ugh!

The resource itself was perfect, so I did the next best thing I could... I translated it. =)

It's not IDENTICAL to the one above, but it is very similar.
Click HERE to grab your Calendar Math sheet in SPANISH! =)

Villa Cuentos

Hi, Guys!
Hope you all are well! I'm excited that it's Wednesday, but not excited that Friday is near. I know what you're thinking, "What the heck is wrong with her?!" Lol. Believe me, I've asked myself that same question before. Although many of us LOVE (or should love) Fridays, they are kinda dreadful and stressful around my end. We (our school staff) have to turn in parent logs, reflection logs, and grade logs by the end of our school day (3:15) and also we have to submit our lesson plans by midnight Friday evening. It's a little overwhelming to say the least. We have "Freaky Friday's" (and not freaky in a good way) rather than "Fun Friday's". LOL.

Enough of that... moving on.

Do any of you use Villa Cuentos as your reading series? I know we are in a Common Core day and age, but I still use Villa Cuentos for phonics, grammar, and extra skills practice. At our school we are required to submit 15 grades into our electronic Grade Book weekly, so our students have to constantly complete assignments, worksheets, and other mumbo jumbo so that we have stuff to grade and submit. Definitely not Best Practice if you ask me... but hey... I'm just a teacher. =/

I've created a couple of tools and assessments for a few of the lessons in Villa Cuentos. Today's post is for the story Gala y Vito or Dot and Bob. In this lesson, we are studying the V+vowel and the L+vowel syllables. The first printable has those syllables plus additional syllables to help students create the weekly spelling words.

You can get that freebie by clicking HERE

The next freebie assesses the skill for this lesson which is Characters. It also assesses comprehension by asking students about problem and solution. For number 1, students draw each character in the large boxes and write the names of each character in the small boxes beneath the larger ones (I hope that makes sense). The rest of the sheet is self explanatory, but if you have any questions feel free to ask. =)

Click HERE for the SPANISH version.
Click HERE for the ENGLISH version.
That's all for today... Thanks for stopping by! Happy Wednesday! =)

A Couple of Spanglish Anchors

Hi guys!

It has been a month since the Little Ones began the school year and it feels like time is going by rather slow.... Perhaps thats just me. I have a sweet group of kids... but my, oh, my.... some are going to be the death of me. Lol.

We have been working very hard (albeit, a bit slow) at establishing routines and expectations. Then just this past week, I had a sub for two days so that I could IDEL and TRC my Littles and upon receiving my classroom back again, I realized all that hard work we put in these past couple of weeks was sucked right out of them by the sub. Nice guy; bad classroom management. Lol. (Please forgive my run-on sentences; I-AM-BEAT!)

Back to my reason for this post: anchor charts.
Why are anchors in Spanish sooooooo hard to find?!
I have my own board on Pinterest from all the great finds, but man o man, it has been tough! At this point, if I find something great in English, I try to make it in Spanish. These are just a few that are hanging on my walls now.... I'll be taking pics and adding more to this post as time goes on, but for now these are the only ones worth posting about.

This is translated from a chart I found on Pinterest. Forgive me if the link to the original pin is not posted , but I'm composing this post from the Blogger App and I'm still not familiar with it.  The chart is more of an anchored Rubric for creating detailed drawings or drawings that make you say "wow!" It has made a HUGE difference!
UPDATE: Click HERE for the original English Anchor

This one is not translated, I made this for my Littles as a reminder of the steps we should take during writing. Usually they have 5 steps, but I created 4 for two reasons: 1)I want them to have steps 1-4 down before we work on adding details to our words. 2)It's not a very large sheet so #5 didn't really fit. Lol.

Last, but not least, I created the infamous "3 ways to read a book" anchor. I originally found and created one similar to that of Krista's @ The Second Grade Super Kids and although her charts are AMAZING, her third step was "resumir el cuento" which is great and makes loads of sense, but to me "resumir" sounds closer "summarize" rather than "retell" so I changed it on mine. =)
Oh and also, I just noticed that you can see the one of the charts underneath this one. Oops. Lol.

Note: before theses charts were transferred to the chart paper, I wrote them (as I taught them) on our dry erase board as a draft first. When the mini lessons were done, I converted them to the charts above. There is no point in just throwing a chart on the wall if the kids don't really know what it is or why it's there.

Hope you guys have a restful weekend! =)

A Tiny Glimpse into My Home Away From Home

Hi, Guys! This is my 3rd week back at work (but only my second one with the Little Ones) and although I no longer have a split room, I feel more stressed now then I did at the beginning of the year last year (though, according to my husband, I say that every year. Lol.). It just feels like it's going to be a Chocolate and Coffee kind of year for me.... let's see how it goes.

After starting my 6th year of teaching, I discovered that I'm TERRIBLE at the whole "First Day of School" thing (I know, 6 years is a long time to barely notice that the First Day is not my forte, but at least I figured it out on my own). I just assume that the majority of the kiddos know each other because they come from the same Kindergarten. I dread the "getting to know you activities" and I know that they are a must, but I kind of feel that some students may dread it as much as I do. I'm a weirdo. I really need to get it together and sooner than later would be great. Lol. Any ideas on how to make this better for next year would be amazing.

Moving on.... as I was stalking exploring all the amazing blogs out there, I found myself oohing and ahhhing as I saw the many beautiful and creative ways you all decorated your rooms. Your students must never want to leave! My students on the other hand basically trample me on the way out. Lol. (That was a teeny joke). Squirrel! Sorry, back to business... as I was saying, I'm in awe of how creative and inspiring you all are. I don't have any ooh's and ahh's of my own, but I still felt like sharing what my home away from home looks like around this time of year with all of you. =)


This is what my classroom looked like when I walked through the door. I have a fairly large classroom. I'm a lucky gal.

This is how it looked after I organized the furniture. It was taken from a different angle. As you can see, my desk is in the far corner... I don't sit at it when kids are around, so I keep it out of the way.

This is what my science board looked like last year. I wanted it to look sciencey yet pretty, so I opted for flowered wrapping paper from the Target Dollar Spot instead of the typical butcher paper. I thought it was super cute! This year, it looks a little different because I wanted it to be cohesive with the rest of my classroom theme (Zebra and Neon).

This is my Morning Meeting/Math Board. The little black dots on my coin chart are magnetic dots that I bought at Lakeshore so that I can add and exchange coins easily.

This is a picture of my word wall. I used paper plates as the background for the letters. I only use this wall for English sight words. I have another word wall for my spanish words in the front of my room.

Here is a table that I dazzled up with contact paper. As you can see the table was an ugly one before the makeover. I dislike wood paneling; it reminds me of a basement. Thank goodness it no longer looks that way!

This is jewelry coin organizer that I use for behavior. Each pocket corresponds with a student. If students have 5 coins by Friday, they can buy a treasure from my treasure box. =)

This is all I have to show for now. I hope you enjoyed your tiny glimpse inside my classroom. I will try to update with pictures of my current boards so you can see the theme throughout.

A New School Year Starts tomorrow =/

Hello, Abandoned Friends! I can't believe the new school year begins tomorrow. Luckily it's just a week filled with staff meetings, so it doesn't feel like "work" just yet. In Chicago, it didn't really feel like Summer. It was pretty cold compared to last year so it kinda sucked. I didn't get to go to the pool at all (actually, I'm lying about this... I went to Vegas for the Differentiation Conference and snuck out to the pool twice). Bummer. On the bright side, I did get to spend time with my family, which is always nice. =)

Usually I have a Top 10 list, but since I only had a two and a half (yes, 2.5!) Week summer break, I could only come up with a Top 5.

Top 5 things of my Summer Break:

1) Spending time with my son and my husband.
2) Getting a puppy!
3) Going To Vegas
4) Buying a bicycle
5) Turning 30!

All good things are either too short, too expensive, or they make you fat. My summer break was all of the above! Lol.
Anywho, as I prepare my printables for the new year, I decided to share one with you. Click HERE to get your Freebie!

If you like what you see, please let me know!

Pass The Torch Linky in a Spanglish Setting... Say what?!

Get Ready for Bloggy Olympics!!!

Join The 3AM Teacher, the Reading Olympians, and over 80 SUPREME education bloggers as we take you through a tour of the Reading Olympians Root Study Program!!


My First post of 2013 and what a post it is! I’ve been meaning to catch up with the few of you who follow me on here (thank you, btw) on all the wild rides and funny stories that I have to share since November (has it seriously been that long?!). Before then, however, I want to talk to you about this AMAZING Pass the Torch Linky that I have been fortunate enough to be a part of.
Michelle from the3amTeacher.blogspot.com and Krista and Julie from the ReadingOlympian.blogspot.com have created an awesome “at your own pace” vocabulary program that scaffolds the learning of Latin and Greek Roots called Jr. Reading Olympians.
I was one of the approximately 90 teachers (yes you read that correctly!) who were able to implement a lesson (or more) in their classrooms.
Given that I teach a 1st/2nd grade split bilingual classroom this year, I only tried it with my second graders to help build their academic vocabulary and help prepare them for ISAT (next year, of course)… after all, knowledge=power, right?
Since their vocabulary in English is pretty limited, we started with cent given that it has a common meaning in both English and Spanish. We talked about Centavo and Centimetro and discussed what those two words have in common. Right away, hands flew in the air, “Los dos tienen las letras c-e-n-t”. Of course they do. =)

Here they are hard at work with cent =)
We spoke about its meaning alone and its meaning in context. Then one little curious girls asks: “Maestra, si “cent” quiere decir cien, por que cuando me dan presents para mi cumpleaños, no recibo cien? Tiene la palabra cent andentro. Pre-sent” All eyes on me *PANIC MODE ACTIVATED* My answer? “Porque lo compran con sus “centavos” y te lo dan con cent-imiento” (that was purposely spelled wrong, btw!) Lol! I’m so clever when I’m under pressure.

We also went into aqua, same idea, same result=success =) This one reaffirmed my love for teaching, specially when one of my boys says, “Now I know why they call him Aqua man! Because he shoots water!!!” LOL. How exciting for everyone! Really.=)
I wish I would have taken more pictures because my blog post may not do this justice, but believe me it was so fun and had them going; it’s not too often they ask for another word or graphic organizer. ;)




Discover the program IN ACTION in more K-6th grade classrooms as you Pass the Torch!! Get ideas, discover the progression of the program, and enter the Raffle for a chance to win ONE of the three prizes listed below!!

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  Prizes: Complete Reading Olympians Program
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   Prizes: $25.00 Amazon Gift Card
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Pass the Torch!!!
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