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Thursday, December 3, 2015

December Pinterest Pick 3

Welcome to December's edition of Pinterest Pick 3 Linky hosted by Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner! This month's Pick 3... is all about December classroom ideas!! Enjoy!




I am loving the festive look these lights create. I can already imagine our hallway decorated with these cute lightbulbs and students' name.


This is such a cute bulletin display! I love the bright colors used and hope my bulletin comes out this cute.  




I totally LOVE chocolate covered marshmallows! These can also serve as a great treat for holiday parties.



Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Teaching Inferences in the Bilingual Classroom


Hello friends! I am happy to link up today with some of my favorite Bilingual Bloggers from I Teach Bilinguals to bring you a new blog post! Today will be all about inferences. We all know how difficult this skill can be, however, with a few tips, your students will be experts at making inferences! Stay tuned there's a FREEBIE just for you!




When students hear "We will be making inferences," they do not automatically know how to respond to this. However, it is important to explain that they already make inferences on a daily basis. One student came up to me and told me, "Teacher, I think it might rain today." This was a great teaching moment. I asked him, "What clues tell you it's going to rain?" To which he responded that he had looked out the window, the sky was dark, it was windy, etc. That was a perfect inference! These moments can help students believe in their background knowledge and create inferences more easily. 



It is vital for students to be exposed to the academic vocabulary involved when making inferences. The following is a short list of words and inference stems I have posted in my classroom: 
~Mi inferencia es...
~Yo infiero que...
~Podría ser que...
~Puede ser...
~Quizás...
~Esto podría significar...
~Las pistas señalan que...
~Esquema...
~Creo... porque...

I enjoy using a photo of the day for students to build up on background knowledge and practice making inferences. They study the photograph, there's question prompts for those that need it, then students talk about what they inferred that is happening in the photo or what they infer will happen next. Students love the photographs and scenarios presented, and they keep a journal of these to refer to in the future.  




After these three tips, students feel more confident when making inferences on passages and readings. Hope these are helpful as we continue to raise rigor for our bilingual learners.

Enjoy these FREE festive inference organizers. I like to jazz them up with some glitter and decorate a bulletin board! How do you tackle the task of teaching inferences to your students? I'd love to hear from you in the comments :)

Until next time!


Tuesday, November 3, 2015

November Pinterest Pick 3

Welcome to November's edition of Pinterest Pick 3 Linky hosted by Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner! This month's Pick 3... is all about November classroom ideas!! Enjoy!



Who doesn't love seasonal crafts!?!  I know I do, and my kiddos love the festive mood crafts in the classroom create. Here's a pin with tons of ideas for November! Enjoy!



I am loving this anchor chart. Perfect brainstorming activity and then my kiddos could write amazing Thanksgiving turkey stories. 



This will be a great activity for the month of November. I love that my students will write daily about what they are grateful for and reflect on all the blessings and great things in their life. Hopefully, they keep these and can read them later on in life to reminisce about their gratitude journal.





Saturday, October 31, 2015

Fall/Winter Blog Hop

Hello friends! Welcome back to my blog where there is a fantastic sale, blog hop, and givewaway going on! I have teamed up with Island TeacherSra. Cruz, and many more Maestros de Español to bring you awesome resources you can use during this time of the year. Keep reading!


With the holidays fast approaching, here are two activities that will definitely be useful. 

1) Thanksgiving Turkey using paint strips. I plan on using these this year with my 2nd graders. They will definitely make a colorful bulletin board display. 
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/238127899025142061/

2) Christmas Tree using vocabulary words. I saw something like this on pinterest and "tweaked" to use it with my students. They wrote the word on the top green strip, then the definition, a synonym on the next strip, an antonym, and finally a sentence with the word on the last strip. 


This is definitely my favorite time of the year. So grab a coffee or hot chocolate and check out the resources that are on SALE just for you. The following 4 resources will be 20% off ONLY for the duration of the blog hop! Hurry on over and check them out with the hashtag #fallwinterspanishsale

1) Interactive Grammar Notebook - Spanish - This is my absolute best seller and perfect for any time of the year. This resource includes more than 35 pages of grammar rules, in an engaging and interactive format. I also include pictures of my own journal to use as a SAMPLE! Click on the picture to get this now!

2) Making Inferences Winter Edition - Spanish - Your students will definitely love this product. Inferences can be a difficult skill, so why not begin your unit with fun, winter-themed photographs! This unit will allow students to practice connecting photo clues with their prior knowledge to make an inference!! 

3) Christmas Word Work - Spanish - Perfect if you are preparing for the upcoming holiday season! Can you believe 8 weeks until Christmas!?! Here's a unit that focuses on syllable work, holiday writing, alphabetical order, and grammar.

4) Grammar Centers - Spanish - Last, but definitely not least! Here's a GREAT bundle that will work wonders during your grammar lessons. I use these as SCOOT games, centers, independent work, pre-assessments, post-assessments, reteach... any time my students need extra practice, these come in handy.


A sale and blog hop wouldn't be complete without a giveaway! Enter below to win a $10 TpT gift card! Just follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter, and you could be the lucky winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Don't forget to visit my bloggy friends below to enter many more giveaways!




Friday, October 16, 2015

Fluency Practice in SPANISH

Welcome back to my blog, friends! Today we are discussing Spanish reading fluency! As a second grade teacher, it is vital to have my students practice their fluency on a daily basis. At this point, they are still learning to read and are making the transition to reading to learn. It is common to see that most students who are struggling with fluency will most likely struggle with comprehension.

Therefore, practice is the key for building fluency. When I work with my fluency intervention groups, I target independent practice, small group activities, technology, and independent writing activities all using the fluency phrases below. Keep reading but make sure to subscribe to my email newsletter HERE. You will receive a FREE Spanish prefixes unit with a fluency sheet just for signing up and joining my email club! 




There are 80 phrases: 8 levels with 10 phrases each that the students practice and master to go to the next level. There is a lot of repetition and different types of practice for every learner.

PowerPoint slideshow: I like to use this during our breakfast time. As students are eating, I time the slideshow to project the phrases on the screen for daily practice. Trying to fit in as much as I can all in a day’s worth! :)

Flash cards: These are put on rings. I have all 80 in one ring for those students that can easily handle all the fluency phrases. I also have them divided by level for those that I want to practice a specific level.


Writing: I like to use these worksheets because I am targeting two skills in one: fluency and handwriting. I can easily slip these inside a sheet protector or dry erase sleeve to use over and over again!



Finally, the most important aspect of this fluency packet: assessment and progress monitoring. There is a student form, I only print one of these and enough copies of the checklist. I include a graph for students to monitor and color in their own progress. I test my students every 6 weeks, but also included a graph with more date slots just in case.



Head on over to my TPT store to download a PREVIEW of these activities and see if they are a fit for your students!


How do you target fluency in your classroom?  I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.  Until next time friends!

Monday, October 5, 2015

World Teachers' Day

Hello friends! Today I am happy to celebrate World Teachers' Day with you! My entire TpT store is on SALE just for one day. Below, I am highlighting a few of my October resources to help you plan for this month. There is also a FREEBIE AND GIVEAWAY for you at the end!


1) October Word Work in SPANISH! This 23 page unit is perfect for word work stations, independent practice, or morning work. It includes practice with syllables, shapeboxes, spin a sentence, and alphabetical order. ALL in SPANISH! Click here to see the complete unit!

2) Halloween Fact & Opinion Unit in SPANISH! Includes 24 black and white cards to use as task cards or SCOOT along with recording sheets. There is also cut/paste activities and writing extensions. Click here to see the complete unit!

3) Finish the Story Halloween SPANISH edition! This unit includes 12 writing prompts with both standard and dotted lines to differentiate for your student needs. These prompts promote creative thinking among students and are very low prep with these ready to print & go pages!! Click here to see the complete unit!


Time for a FREEBIE!!! Click here to download an October themed story map in SPANISH!

Now for a VERY special GIVEAWAY, visit I Teach Bilinguals, to enter for a chance to win a gift card of your choice!!! Hurry on over and enjoy World Teachers' Day!


Until next time friends, XOXO!

Saturday, October 3, 2015

October Pinterest Pick 3

Welcome to October's edition of Pinterest Pick 3 Linky hosted by Pawsitively Teaching and Inspired Owl's Corner! This month's Pick 3... is all about October classroom ideas!! Enjoy! Also, make sure to join my email club HERE. You will receive a FREE SPANISH prefixes unit just for signing up!





I am loving this craftivity and had to get it for my kiddos. Hope it turns out this cute and helps build up my students vocabulary!

Click here to see original pin!



How cute are these treat bags. I am thinking of incorporating sensory language with these. What do the treats look like, smell like, texture, taste, and smell. This will also help extend vocabulary :) 

Click here to see original pin!



What a cute activity! I can think of tons of ways to incorporate these in the classroom! 1) Kiddos can write clues to describe a picture/object, then have a buddy infer and lift the ghost to see if their inference was correct. 2) Write clues about a story (author, beginning, middle, end) and have students guess the book cover/title underneath the ghost. 3) Take a picture of kiddos in a costume and write clues for parents to guess what is under the ghost. Have more ideas? Let me know in the comments :)


Hope you've enjoyed this month's pins. 
Don't forget to check out more Pinterest picks from the blogs below!