Five for Friday and a GIVEAWAY

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday. What a long and crazy short week!

I had such a great 3-day weekend and got so much accomplished on Monday. Weirdly, the more I get done, the longer my list grows somehow! One thing I finished was my newest product, Double Digit Addition (no regrouping) Activities. I've been making these math activity sets all summer that cover the 2nd grade Common Core standards. They contain task cards with QR codes and recording sheets, a practice page, a cut and paste page and a page for interactive notebooks. I use these sets in my math stations during math workshop. My students really love the variety of activities and I love that they are engaging and meaningful. It's on sale for $2 right now so run over there and grab it! Click here to read more about it and enter my Rafflecopter to win it!

Wednesday was absolutely crazy. I started my day at school at 7:20 because my district offers healthcare insurance incentives if we do annual "biometric screenings". They will come to my school site and do these screenings and offer flu shots. It's a hassle, but it saves $300 a year!

Next, BOTH daughters had HS soccer games, one at 4:00 and the other at 6:30. I also had open house that evening. We are lucky to have a 20 minute window for parents to come in (although there are stragglers). My school schedules each grade at a different time so we don't have to stay for hours. Last week I prepped a fun QR code classroom scavenger hunt for my families so all I had to do was stick the codes around the room, charge up the iPods and be available for families to chat with. Easy Peasy, right? Well, my school has recently changed the wifi and we had a few technical difficulties. It all worked out in the end and was fun! I looked up at one moment and my classroom was buzzing with excitement as students hurried to the next clue, dragging their bewildered parents along and happily explaining about our classroom and their work to their families.

Well, with all the running around town between two different fields, back and forth to school, and having such an early start, I was a big puddle of T-I-R-E-D at the end of the day. It was all I could do to eat a bowl of cereal for dinner and pass out.

Earlier this week, I also finished some exclusive TpT follower freebies. If you don't follow me on TpT, get on over to my store and follow me because I'm giving my followers an exclusive freebie each month. It isn't some dinky little freebie either...it is something I would normally sell in my store! It is just my way of saying thank you to all the people who follow me!

In class, we're learning about matter in science. I'm using this awesome product by Jessi's Archive called Does it Really Matter?.

It is full of great experiments, graphic organizers and vocabulary posters. I love that it is a complete unit and I all I have to do is make a few copies, grab a few common household supplies and go! I found a few great videos to show my students too. One of the biggest hits was this matter song that WILL get stuck in your head. It is also somewhat annoying, but the kids love it!

I'm finally getting to use some of the products I made this summer for my class. I just love using task cards with QR codes because they are fun, interactive, and can give immediate feedback. I print and cut the task cards, mount them on black construction paper and laminate them so I can use them for years to come. I often have willing parents to do most of the work for me, and believe me, I let them!

I store the task cards and recording sheets in gallon zip top bags and label them with the activity name. It makes for easy clean up and storage.

 This is how I set it up for a math center. All you need is one device (iPad, iPod, iPhone, tablet) with an app to scan the QR codes. Students are taught to write the answers down and then check their work.

Well, that's it for my week. I'm hoping you all have a great weekend!