Easter Close Reading Pack

Today is going to be such a long day! I have parent teacher conferences tonight, which means a lot of running around inbetween school and the conferences to get my son ready. I'm very lucky my parents are always ready to babysit (my husband is in the process of starting his own business so he always works late). I don't know about you guys but we start our spring recess this Thursday and we are going away on vacation on Saturday so I have a lot of packing to do. 

Last night I finished my Easter close reading pack (Logan, my son, fell asleep early!). This is such a great pack because it is differentiated on 3 different reading levels so it meets the needs of all my students. I'm using this pack with my AIS students this week because it reviews the close reading strategy and also gives them practice answering short response questions. 

Make sure to check it out!! 

Easter Close Reading Pack

Enjoy!!

Beach Bum Literacy Chick

A New Direction...

So as I sit at home trying to get so many important things done I try and think of what my next blog post should be... if I actually can fit in writing it.  I realized that just writing about what I do at work is such a small fraction of my life.  Trying to balance a career with being a new mom is rough and I often find myself trying to find other blogs out there to relate to.  I decided to shift from just education to fitting everything in because I'm hoping to have other people relate to me and my blog.

So I had a baby in September (2014).  I was lucky enough to stay home with my son for 10 weeks which wasn't nearly enough time but would any amount of time actually be enough?  I really doubt it.  So I went back to work knowing things would be harder than they were already but I never imagined it would be as hard as it was.  I was miserable leaving my son, knowing I was probably going to miss all the milestones like rolling over and crawling.  I also had a really hard time adjusting to being a teacher and a mom.  Being a teacher, like many of you I'm sure know, is beyond a full time job.  My school is completing 3, yes I said 3!!!!!, modules this year.  That in itself is an adjustment since it is all new.  So how do you balance being a mom and a teacher? Well if anyone has an answer please share!!!

Things have definitely started getting easier as I have found tricks to help me multitask.  I do still have breakdowns almost weekly where I just sit and cry because I don't really know how I'm going to get everything done.  Then I pick up the pieces and get everything done!

So multitasking tip number 1 for me was to really utilize my time while I'm pumping.  My number 1 goal after having my son was to breastfeed for a year but after some complications I became and "exclusive pumper".  This is so time consuming but I'm still determined to last a year.  So back to my multitasking tip! I have found I can get work done while I am pumping at work!  I now bring my computer back and forth with me and while I'm "in my office" as my friends and I call it I can get work done to run my TpT business that I am so desperately trying to succeed in!

I'm definitely open to anymore multitasking tips if you have any! Please share!!

:)
Beach Bum Literacy Chick

Two Bad Ants - Bundle Pack!!

My activities for the book Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg has been flying off the shelves!  I've decided to bundle them all together to help everyone save over 20%!!!

There are 4 different items available in the bundle pack.  The first one is one of my best sellers.  This is an inferencing pack.  This is differentiated to meet the needs of your students.  This particular activity below gives different quotes from different parts of the story.  I have also added in the clues for the students.  They then take that information to make an inference.  This is also given with the clues box blank for them to complete.

Next I have a point of view activity pack.  This book is a great way to teach point of view!  This was also a great way for my students to identify evidence in a text.

Before I read the story with my groups I introduced vocabulary.  There were a few words my students were unfamiliar with throughout this story so reviewing the words before hand really helped.  I put them on the board and we read them together.  Then when we came across them in the text we worked together to identify the meanings.

Finally I let my students play a comprehension board game.  They worked so hard throughout this unit it was only fair they get some time to play a game.  Plus the game was measuring their comprehension of the story so it definitely was a great addition.

Enjoy!!

Beach Bum Literacy Chick