This afternoon I am delighted to be linking up with my new friend Em from Curious Firsties! Thanks in advance for perusing my professional and personal reflections that are part of my first Wednesday WOW post! MY PROFESSIONAL REFLECTION.... I am just getting home on this chilly afternoon after working in my classroom  to pull files and literature related to our Social Studies unit on Famous Americans.  Biographies are my "genre of choice" during the months of January and February, and help my second graders learn timeline, non-fiction text features, and compare/contrast skills.   Last week my class explored the lives of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ruby Bridges.  My students were mesmerized during "Story Corner" when I read books about both of these courageous civil rights advocates, and the high point of our discussion afterwards came when one of my little gals quietly turned to her neighbor and whispered, "If we had lived way back then, we wou...

It's another snowy day here as the month of February begins, and what better way to welcome it than with an eBook created by seventeen of my teacher-blogger buddies?    LESSONS OF THE HEART was a labor of love and is full of free acti vities for you to use in your classroom!   W e hope that you will enjoy it!  Click on the link below the photo to access the eBook pdf through Google Docs!   Each page of the file has a clickable link either on the product picture or the blog button that should take you to the activity file!  Page 16 of the file features my FOREVER FOREST FRIENDS FLUENCY PACK, which is a FOREVER FREEBIE available exclusively through my blog.  As of 2/1/14, a revised pdf was uploaded with corrections and additions.     LESSONS OF THE HEART EBOOK I hope that you enjoy these materials, and encourage you to leave feedback in the comments!  Input on how to add to and improve the resources I create is much-needed and always appreciated!  My plan is to post p...

Running on... Running on empty, Running on... Running blind, Why does it always seem like I'm running behind? The paraphrased lyrics above are from one of my favorite Jackson Browne songs, and they describe how I felt all week!  Playing "catch up" and getting reacquainted with my students after a 23-day hiatus due our holiday break and Snowapocalypse 2014 was beyond exhausting, and I am grateful for this three-day weekend to just shovel myself out from under long to-do lists, write lesson plans, grade piles of papers, finish some resources, and begin writing progress reports! In hopes of saving time but still sharing some helpful information and ideas (and random reflections), I thought I'd combine my SHOUT OUT SATURDAY/SUNDAY post with DoodleBug's FIVE FOR FRIDAY link up, so here goes! DOODLEBUGS LINKY PARTY   Despite the fact that we are 13 days away from celebrating our 100th day together, my students seem to need a refresher ...

It is a foggy day here in my hometown, and the dogs and I are just in from our early morning "waddle" through the neighborhood. Brutus and Rose were both very happy to see that the snow drifts they'd been tunneling through all week have finally started to melt, and that patches of grass and the sidewalk are beginning to show.  This Basset Hound Mama was overjoyed as well!  I don't have a fenced yard, so getting them outside requires on-leash walks. Navigating our way through bad weather conditions is often a cold, slippery, and obstacle-laden task!  More about past "Basset Hound Smackdowns" that I've experienced will be shared at a later date.  Let's just say...." Hooray for the big thaw after Snowapocalypse 2014!" My purpose in writing today is to share the first of many SHOUT OUT SATURDAY posts.  It is important to me to "pay it forward" and do good deeds as I move through my personal and professional life, so I've decid...

 Well.....in my excitement to get my two winter FREEBIES linked up with my friend and fellow blogger Nancy Alvarez over at Teaching With Nancy , I hit some evil button on my laptop that deleted all of this morning's hard work!    Grrrrrr!   Sometimes I have the worst luck with technology, and then other times I have flashes of brilliance.  Sadly, today was not one of those shining moments! Therefore, this post is much shorter than originally planned.  The collection of snow-themed picture and chapter books that I wanted to include will just have to wait for this weekend, so please be sure you follow me on Bloglovin or by e-mail so that you can check back in! Since I am probably returning to school tomorrow, I must step away from my laptop now and finish printing, laminating, and cutting the materials I will need to keep my energetic second graders (who have been snowbound for the past four days) enthralled and enchanted! Before I do that though, I want to sh...

Tonight's post is a testimonial of sorts, as well as a description of how this "labor of love" called Stories and Songs in Second  came to be.  On November 13, 2013 I took a personal and professional "leap of faith" that I had been putting off for some time.  I started a blog, a Facebook page, and a TPT store all at once.  CRAZY.....I know!  TIME-CONSUMING....absolutely!  EXHAUSTING....very!  FRUSTRATING AT TIMES.....terribly!  Especially since the only knowledge I had about how to start was the information I'd gained after reading the sites of some favorite teacher-authors and purchasing products from some fabulous sellers.  Two months later, I'm still here... but the difference is that I am no longer alone in my journey!  The rewards from my experience now far outweigh the disappointments!  I have found mentors, advice-givers, and supporters through a variety of different forums,   and am "feeling the love" from them each and every day!...

The world outside the windows of my Little Condo in the Suburbs--as opposed to the Little House in the book series by Laura Ingalls Wilder that I loved as a child and sometimes read aloud to my students--is white, frozen, crystallized, and ice-covered.    These icicles look like they are direct from Disney's FROZEN movie! This is the surreal view outside my front door at 6 a.m.     No "deck sitting" in my favorite chair today! In the summer, I sit in the sun and read in this spot!    On this second day of no school, no driving, no venturing outside, etc. I am beginning to understand what the pioneers of long ago might have felt like.  I rounded up some candles and a flashlight last night before bedtime in case we lost power.  I washed, sorted, and folded laundry and/or read magazines for three-hours earlier in the evening when I was without cable TV or internet due to a neighborhood outage.  I am wearing layers this morning even though my furnace...

  In honor of tomorrow's day off due to the raging winter storm outside and not having to set my alarm to wake up and return to school tomorrow after a glorious holiday break with my family in sunny Florida, I am linking up with Farley in Oh Boy 4th Grade to finally complete my CURRENTLY for January! In reading it over on this quiet winter night, it reminds me to feel lucky and blessed each and every day!  Enjoy!      ...

  MY FINAL THREE GOALS FOR 2014     Now that I am back home from my family vacation in Florida, it is time to address my FITNESS, PROFESSIONAL, and  goals for the new year.  I must morph out of my "laying in the sun in a lounge chair" mode and get busy making my personal space more organized, improving my personal health, and improving my professional satisfaction. I have begun to follow two "organizing blogs" to help me be less of a pack rat and impulse shopper.   Living Well and Spending Less  has wonderful tips on being more frugal, and A Slob Comes Clean makes me laugh while staying motivated to clear out my condo one pile at a time!  Both of these blog authors are very good at "keeping it real" and make my goals seem less overwhelming and more manageable.      A SLOB COMES CLEAN     LIVING WELL AND SPENDING LESS   In addition to improving the state of my personal space and my personal finances, I really need t...