We Survived! {Plus, Giveaway Winners}

Well Sandy has come and gone, and she’s left a lot of destruction behind.  We were spared where we live in New Jersey, but we aren’t so sure about my husband’s family’s shore house.  The shore took a beating, and we’re not allowed anywhere near the house until further notice.

Atlantic City, NJ {Source: ABC News}

We’re slightly emotionally exhausted right now, and I am bracing myself for Halloween parties and parades on our first day back tomorrow {can you say chaos??!!??!}, but I did want to pop in and announce the winners of my Candy Bar Election pack!

Yes. I said winners!  There were so many guesses that I  felt bad people had to guess candy bars they normally wouldn’t have just to get an entry.

Teri won because she guessed Twix, and Twix rocks my world.  I’m obsessed.  Whenever I buy the candy bar, I tell myself that I’m going to only eat one.  Yeah, that never happens.

And Kirby Miller, you’re my second winner, because random.org picked #10, but you didn’t leave your email!!  Email me {acrossthehallin2nd@gmail.com} before tomorrow night, or I’m picking another winner!

That’s all folks!  Keep everyone from Sandy’s path in your prayers, there are many who were less fortunate than my family and friends, including thousands without power.

~Halle

Have You Voted Yet?

Not for our real president.  Although, I have heard early voting is the way to go. 

I’m talking candy.  Candy for President!!!!

We’re going to start gearing up for the election this week {provided school isn't closed foreverrrrrrr due to Sandy!} with my Candy Bar Election unit.  I am sooo excited, because I do it yearly, and it is buckets of fun! {Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom of this post for ALL the Candy Goodness!}

Pictured: Ballot Box Sign, Press ID Badge, Ballots {color & Black and White shown}, Voter Registration Card, Newspaper Article

By voting for Candy Bars, students learn all the elements of a regular election {you can even hold primaries!}, but without any influence of their parent’s political beliefs.  Plus, students KNOW CANDY.  Really well.  I’ve had students get as passionate about a Kit-Kat bar, as people do about Romney or Obama!

Here’s a peek at what else My Candy Bar Election includes:

To make this unit fit all grade levels, many of the sheets come in a less “cutesy” format too!





If you’re still looking for something for the election, hurry up and snag it by clicking the Preview Picture below :)



Now, if you can guess which Candy Bar I would vote for, you can win this guy for FREE!  I’ll email it to the first person who guesses correctly.  Don’t forget to leave your email. 

And here’s a HINT:  My favorite Candy bar is not mentioned OR pictured above {I couldn't make it too easy!}

I’ll be spending at least the rest of the day today and tomorrow hanging out with the hubby, catching up on TV shows {as long as we have power}, and reading a book or two, while we try our best to avoid Sandy’s wrath!

Stay safe, my fellow East Coasters!

~Halle

A Hurricane's a Comin... So here's a FREEBIE

Happy {almost} Halloween! Things couldn't be any more normal over here in the tri-state area! As I am sure you have heard, we are expected to get hit with a MAJOR storm...Sandy is making her way with heavy winds and lots of rain. The past few days have been filled with panic and anxiety...Ant and I just went to the store to get bread, we are lucky we made it out alive. It was an absolute nut house! Not to mention, Ant isn't too concerned...I think it must be a man thing because most significant others and husbands  of my friends do not seem to be too worried about the storm. I, however, am very anxious. We are staying at our apartment in the city tonight and contemplating heading to Jersey very early tomorrow morning. My parents and grandparents are all at my house...talk about a family fun filled day! (Can't forget my little Kaimana!) I am worried because where we live is surrounded by lots of trees. I almost feel safer in the city, but knowing my family could be in danger makes me want to be there with them.

            We just got notice that school is cancelled tomorrow, School cancelled for weather reasons ultimately leads into an extremely crazy week with the kids eeekkkkk! Oh, and how could we forget...it's HALLOWEEN week! If we do go back Tuesday, I am sure they will be insane! Before all of this madness began I created a Halloween noun sort. I am posting it here FREE! Considering we don't have a colored printer at school, I only printed two copies. I had the students work in pairs to complete the noun sort. On Friday we have Free Choice, so I had them complete it then this way they were not missing any major work. They seemed to love it and were extremely engaged! ENJOY! Please feel free to leave any feedback! Have a great Sunday and Halle and I will keep you all posted on how we are surviving the storm!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/FREEBIE-Candy-Corn-Noun-Sort



- Jenna

We're Going Batty: A SALE!!!!

Hey there!

Like most of the Bloggy World, we decided to throw a little sale this weekend because…

Click the picture to head to our store :)

Our kiddos are off the wall!  And we have Monday and Tuesday to deal with before all the craziness of Halloween, and the aftermath that will be Thursday!

Oh, and not to mention a PERFECT STORM is headed our way!! Ahhhhhhh!!!

Oh well, we have Halloween candy to get us through.

~Halle & Jenna

Evolution of a Pumpkin

Darn squirrels.

-Halle

Naming and Telling Freebies

Hello!  

Happy Sunday!

We’ve been working on sentences for the past month or so in our 2nd Grade classroom.  We’ve covered capitals and ending marks, and all the different types of sentences with great success.  However, the whole naming and telling portion of sentences had my kiddos all sorts of mixed up.

Naming and Telling is 2nd Grade speak for Subject and Predicate for all you fancy folk.

For some extra practice, I took a bunch of sentence strips and wrote various naming and telling parts on each one.



I just grabbed strips.  They weren’t color coded for the most part {even though it looks like it here}. I thought color coded would be too easy.



I made a “correct” match for each sentence, but I also anticipated {and hoped for} some super silly sentences to be built once the students walked around and found their naming or telling partner.  The silly sentences were 10 times more engaging for them, and they still were exposed to the concept.  WIN! WIN!



I handed out the sentence strips face down.  Students flipped them over, read them, and decided whether they had the naming or telling portion of a sentence.  Then they set out to find their mate ;)



Once everyone partnered up, each pair read their sentence, and giggles ensued. We did about 5 rounds and it didn’t even get old! Imagine that!

I followed up the sentence strip activity with a partner worksheet.  I had my students who definitely “got it” fill out the telling portion, and my guys who were still struggling were assigned the naming part.  Then we switched papers and completed our sentences.  You can grab the printables below if they would help your class.

Click HERE to grab them!


I strongly suggest the sentence strip activity first.  If only for a few giggles.

And you know I love *notes*, so leave me one or two if you find this activity useful!

Have a good night everyone :)

-Halle

And the Winners Are…

 

Thank you to everyone who joined our giveaway, to our loyal followers, and to our new followers!  We are so excited to announce the 3 winners of our giveaway!!!  I am so jealous of your awesome prizes!

Without further ado…

Bren, Tara, and Kate, please be on the lookout for emails from the bloggers who contributed to our giveaway over the next few days! 

As a thank you to everyone for participating, we are throwing a sale in our TpT for the next few days!

Thanks Again Friends!

Halle & Jenna

Another Halloween Math Freebie, and a GIVEAWAY Reminder!

Well hello there!

Just popping in really quick with a little Halloween Math Freebie.

I know BUMP is nothing new, but these ghosts from Melonheadz are too adorable! I bought them this week when she did her {FREE} mini-bundles, and so I whipped up a game really quick.  I am so obsessed with these ghosts!!

Click here to grab them from Google Docs, or is it Drive?  Speaking of Google, did you see the cool “doodle” to celebrate Winsor Macay?  I need to do some more research on who exactly he is, but if Google is celebrating him, he must be pretty cool!

{There are 3 Versions: Addition, Triple Digit Addition, and Subtraction {with two 12 sided dice}

I also wanted to remind you of our giveaway.  You have until Wednesday night to enter. Even if you entered Giveaway 1, you can still enter giveaway 2 and 3 {and vice versa}, so make sure you did!  You can also enter daily by sharing our giveaway via Pinterest, Facebook, or your own blog!  {Click the picture to head on over}



Thank you to everyone who has participated so far.  We wish you call could win!!

Have a good one,

Halle

It’s Giveaway Time!!!

We’re so excited to celebrate a small milestone in blog land…200 followers!  As we hinted earlier, we have some of our biggest inspirations on board {can we please enter this giveaway…please???}

There’s so much to give away that we’ve created 3 giveaways in 1!  You can enter all three by following the Rafflecopters’ directions below!  Easy Peasy.  This totally awesome giveaway runs until Wednesday night {10-18-12} at 11:59pm



Included in Giveaway #1:

* A $25.00 gift card to Target from Across the Hall in 2nd Grade {that’s us!} PLUS our Spider Adjectives and Witch and Wizard’s Spell Activities

*Any item from The Teacher Wife’s TpT store…might we recommend her Double and Triple Digit Addition Unit?  It changed our lives!!! It’s awesome!

*Susan’s, {T.G.I.F.} All About Books



*Casey’s {Second Grade Math Maniac} October Mystery Puzzles



Enter Giveaway 1 Here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway 



Included in Giveaway #2:

*A $25.00 gift card to Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts and our Candy Bar Election pack

*From Raegan’s {Tunstall’s Teaching Tidbits} TpT store, her October Math Centers and her Spider Week Activities



*Any item from Teri’s {A Cupcake for the Teacher} TpT store…we’re loving her new Cupcake Birthday craftivity

* From Kelly’s {Owl Inspire You} TpT store, her Story Starters Pack and her Classroom Coupons Book


*Any 2 items from Tania’s {My Second Sense} TpT store….we love her Animal Research Project!

Enter Giveaway 2 here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


*Any 5 items from our TpT store! Click the pictures below to check out a few of our favorites!


*Any item from Amy Lemon’s {Step into Second Grade} TpT store…we love her new Halloween Centers

*Any item from Jessica’s {Mrs. Stanford’s Class} TpT store…we love her Dolch Sight Word Packet

*Any item from Kimberly’s {The Learning Tree} TpT store…her 2nd Grade Common Core Assessment Pack is on our wishlist!

*Any item from Amiee’s {Primarily Speaking} TpT store…we have her Fall Literacy Centers, and our kiddos love them!!!

Enter Giveaway 3 here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Remember, you can enter all 3 giveaways!!  We just broke it down to give you more chances, and spread the wealth a little bit!!

If Rafflecopter confuses you, just email us…we’re happy to help! {acrossthehallin2nd@gmail.com}

One more thing before we go…Kimberly from The Learning Tree is pledging a dollar to her school’s Relay for Life Team for every new follower she gets this week.  You’re automatically following her if you enter Giveaway 3…lucky you!!


Good Luck :)

Halle & Jenna

Just a Reminder...

“Words I Find When I Read” Freebie

I’m back with another freebie for you!!



We’re full force into Book Box shopping and Read to Self in my classroom now.  And since my kiddos love, love, love to read now, they’re always stopping to show me a spelling word they found in their books, or a popcorn word {high frequency words}, or their name, or their friend's name,or the word teacher.

{Note: This is NOT during Daily 5.  They know to read the whooooole time.  This is when they read if they finish early or right after recess, times I don’t consider Daily 5}

So, to save me some sanity, and save them some time, I whipped up these little “While I Read” books.  Now they record all the words they find instead of skipping up to my desk with yet another Henry and Mudge book!

The books are designed to take a little while to complete, and I told my kiddos that once it’s filled they can turn it in, and I’ll get them a new one as long as all their words are correct! 

We also had a talk about reading, and recording a word if we "stumble upon it", as opposed to just looking for words in their books.  

They keep them in their book boxes, along with their Poetry Folders {which they can also use to fill their books}.


Easy Peasy.

Click the pictures below to grab it from our TpT shop {in color and black and white}!







Have a good night!

Halle

Halloween Math Freebie and a BIG Giveaway News

Hello!

I hope everyone is having a great week so far!  We had off yesterday for Columbus Day, so today was our first day back, and I didn’t mind the extra day one bit!

We’re focusing on addition strategies and adding 3 numbers this week, so I made up a little Halloween Math Game for my kiddos.

I was inspired by this pin:

 Click the picture for the original idea that inspired me

I wanted a Halloween twist for mine, plus I desperately wanted another reason to use my adorable Melonheadz doodles, so I whipped a new one up yesterday. 

*Looks like I’m low on ink….again!!!

I hope you can use it in your room!  If you do, please leave a note letting me know!

Click the picture to grab it from TpT!

Before I go, I wanted to announce our 200 followers giveaway!!!!! We hit a milestone in blog land, and we can’t NOT celebrate it!  We’ve reached out to some of our biggest inspirations and they’re on board {I know, I still can't believe it!!}.  

This is gonna be a pretty amazing giveaway if I say so myself!

Look for it sometime this week, and tell all your friends :)

Have a good night,
Halle

PS: I’ve emailed the winners of my Halloween Products giveaway.  Thank you to everyone who participated!