Deep in the Heart of Texas Blog Hop

Welcome to the "Deep in the Heart of Texas" blog hop!  Over 40 Texas teacher bloggers have joined together to share what we love about our state as well as ideas and freebies that we love.  You will also have the opportunity to enter to win TpT products and/or TpT gift certificates by entering using the rafflecopters included in each post.  Down at the bottom, you will see all of the blogs participating in the hop.  Just click and you will be taken to their posts.  We hope you love what you find.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi y'all! My name is Daina and I'm a 2nd grade teacher in Fort Worth, TX! I was born in Dallas, TX! I grew up living in the country (on about 190 acres) and now live about 7 minutes from downtown Fort Worth. I am definitely a city girl for the most part but hold on to some of my country loves (like cowboy boots and horseback riding!) I'm so happy you are here! I apologize in advance for my overuse of photos. I'm a bit #addicted. 

The better question is what DON'T I love about my city/town! It would definitely be a much shorter list haha! I LOVE living in Fort Worth! And not just in Fort Worth, but in TEXAS! I am 110% Texan through and through. I think my number one reason for loving Fort Worth is that it has a sense of values and that little town feel even though it's a BIG city. I also love the never ending array of activities and places that you can explore. There's always something new to discover. And why do I love Texas so much? Simple. Because we have more state pride than any other state! :) 

Here's some pictures to show what I love about my city/state!

Sundance Square in Downtown Fort Worth (& more importantly, my AMAZING friends that I LOVE AND happen to teach with!)

The State Fair of Texas!!!!!

The multitude of shopping malls and holiday decor, Six Flags, Fort Worth Japanese Gardens!

Chinese Lantern Festival, AT&T Stadium and the Dallas Cowboys, and Sundance Square at Christmas!

That good ol' Texas pride. Cross/Flag hanging in my house and my favorite pair of cowboy boots!

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo!

I recently did a Text Features lesson and I was SO HAPPY with how it went!!! I have never seen the kids so engaged and anxious to get their hands on books! It was an AMAZING feeling. 

Here's the jist of how it went...followed by some pics.

1. Created Anchor Chart and covered all parts with sticky notes to add some mystery. 

2. Discussed WHY we need to use text features. Projected an ebook on the screen about Amazing Water Frogs and pointed out the text features I was focusing on as we went through the book. I revealed them on the anchor chart as we went. 

3. I then sent students to work in groups where I had placed a book bin full of nonfiction animal books on their AR level so it was differentiated. 

4. Students were given a little mini-reference sheet, sticky notes, and the books. They had to look through the books and do a "text feature scavenger hunt" by finding and labeling those text features. 

5. They then had to follow up by filling out a reflection type sheet where they told me what text features they found, what they think they will learn about in the book, and what they are still wondering about.

The following day we extended the lesson by making "text feature booklets" where I gave them lots of Scholastic News articles and they had to glue examples for each text feature to the correct page of their book. They did FABULOUS and begged me to do it again. To me, that = SUCCESS.

I originally found this anchor chart on Pinterest but can't seem to find it again. If this is your original anchor chart, please let me know so I can credit you! :)

Extension Activity!

In connection with what I shared above, nonfiction activities and resources are my favorite. It's my all-time favorite topic to teach about and the kids know it! My favorite freebie that I have is my Prove It! Non-Fiction Edition FREEBIE Sample! You can use the freebie as a stand-alone activity in your classroom and the whole purpose is to practice supporting answers using text evidence in a very systematic, memorable way! If you enjoy the freebie sample, make sure you enter the giveaway below where I am giving away my whole BUNDLE of Prove It! Resources!

You can click on the pic to download the freebie! Enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

Click on the buttons below to visit some other awesome Texas bloggers!

An InLinkz Link-up

Top 10 Insta Pics of 2014 {Linky}

I decided to link up with Natalie over at Teachery Tidbits for her fun linky!

I LOVE Instagram so I just couldn't resist!

So here are my TOP 10 Insta Pics from this year! I plucked 'em straight from IG so they have original captions and hashtags included, hehe.

I mean really, what teacher DOESN'T love chevron?!?

For this one, I'm guessing a lot of my followers either love Texas or Kahlua, or both! Hahaha. As for me, I love BOTH!

This was SO MUCH FUN. If you've never done anything like this before, I HIGHLY suggest you give it a try! I have ZERO painting experience but I'm super happy with how it turned out!

Self explanatory - Starbucks + Gift Card = Teacher Heaven

BOOK RAFFLES!!! SOOO much fun. I really should do a whole blog post about this! Perhaps later this week. ;)

LOVE that my followers are big comic nerds like me! I LOVE Harley Quinn and I actually plan on getting a Harley Quinn inspired tattoo for my birthday in April! I'm sure I'll end up posting it on IG too! :)

These were a lot o work to get prepped and ready but soooo worth it! I love it and so did the parents!

This is so 100% me. And apparently I'm not alone!

Still loving this job chart and so do my kiddos! It's by Mel D and you can click on the pic if you want to check it out for yourself! I just LOVE the colors!!

AND my NUMBER ONE photo from this year was actually posted today! It already has 109 likes because I teamed up with some of my best blogging buddies and we are giving away one of those adorable personalized pencil signs!!!

{P.S. It's not too late to enter!}

If you aren't following me on Instagram, I really would love for you to! I mostly share personal photos and some teaching tricks/tips and it's almost always different than what I'm sharing here or on my FB page!

You can follow me by clicking here or searching @stickynotesandglitter on IG!

Thanks for stopping by! Xoxo

All I Want for Christmas... is a TpT Gift Certificate! {Giveaway}

In case you don't already know, TpT has gift certificates available in various amounts and they make a great gift!

(You can click on the pic to purchase one on TpT - Make sure you are logged in or you won't be able to see it)

Looking for last minute Christmas gifts?? TpT Gift Certificates are quick and easy! No wrapping involved! :)

And guess what? Here's your chance to win one!

I'm giving away a $10 TpT Gift Certificate to ONE lucky winner!

Contest will end at midnight on December 23rd and the LUCKY winner will receive their gift card on December 24th!

Enter below and GOOD LUCK!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

But wait! There's many more chances for you to win! Be sure and visit all of these other awesome bloggers who are giving one away also!

An InLinkz Link-up

Holiday Gift Guide!

❄ Happy Holidays! ❄

The Educents team is excited to share their favorite deals and products with you this holiday season. Each staff member chose their favorite deal for the holidays and included it in this handy guide. Check out the deals, including free apps, art & craft supplies, personalized books, LEGO sets, martial arts online and so much more. They have something for everyone!

VIEW THE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE HERE

Prove-It! Non-Fiction Edition FREE SAMPLE

Hey friends!

I'm recycling this post of mine because I wanted to let you all know you can try a FREE SAMPLE of this product if you're still on the fence about whether you must have it or not! :)

Click here to try out the sample and check out the rest of this post for an in-depth look at what's included in the pack! 

If you are a fan on my FB Page, then you already know about my brand new product that I'm super excited about! 

Click on any picture in this post to view/purchase this product on TpT!

You may already be an owner of my other Prove It! resource that looks like this: 

Both products focus on the same reading strategy - looking in the text and finding the right there information to answer comprehension questions. That's why it's called Prove It! The students have to systematically prove their answers in the text to support their answers. A strategy that many students struggle with every year! 

How can students be expected to make inferences, compare and contrast, find the main idea and details, identify cause and effect, etc. if they can't comprehend the information that's right in the text in front of them at surface level. The answer is simple, they can't!

So I wanted to give you a first hand look at what's included in my new Non Fiction Edition of my Prove It! pack! 

Here's what's included in the resource:

Here's a real photograph of what the passages look like:

So as you can see, all you need for this pack to implement in your classroom is copies of the passages/questions and each child needs 3 crayons - A red, blue, and purple! 

I actually have a ziploc bag in my room with only these three colors of crayons in it and I just tell the kids who need to borrow crayons to grab the Prove It bag and they know what to grab and what to take out of it! :)

Every passage and set of questions is laid out in the same exact formatting so that students don't have to relearn what's expected each time. To prove answer #1, you always circle the sentence with a red crayon. To prove answer #2, you always underline the sentence with a blue crayon and to prove answer #3, you always box the sentence with a purple crayon!

You can use these in whole group, small group guided reading, centers, homework, enrichment, for early finishers, for remediation, or any other way you see fit! 

I really enjoy using them in small group because once we have gone through and answered/proven the 3 comprehension questions, we go back and look for current and past phonics skills such as words with r-controlled vowels, compound words, vowel teams, etc. and the kids love it! 

As of right now this resource has 15 Non Fiction passages and is $4.00 (the same amount and price as my original version) HOWEVER within the next week, I will be updating the Non Fiction version with 21 additional passages for a total of 36 passages! 

That's enough to do one passage per week the whole school year! Once I update on TpT, I will be raising the price accordingly so you can snag it now for $4.00 and get the update for FREE! 

Lastly, if you would like to pin an image from this post for a chance to win it, just leave your email and pin link in a comment below! I will pick a winner on Saturday. :) 

Thank you for checking my new resource out and if you have any questions, please ask! :)