"Let's Find Out" in Spanish Magazine Review and Giveaway

Hello everyone!!!

I am soooo excited to be back with an AWESOME GIVEAWAY from Scholastic!! They have asked me to test their magazine for the month of March and do a review as an educator. I really enjoy looking at these magazines because it gives me a chance to see what other resources can be helpful for my kiddos. So let's get started!!

Magazine Set

The monthly magazine set comes with Teacher's Big Issues and student matching small issues (one per student). This monthly set is pretty amazing because it contains very good topics that would work perfectly for this time of the school year. The information given is great for students to read independently and very enganging.
The teacher's big Issue  is perfect to be placed on a board for a visual to engage students. If you use this in small groups, you can also place it on a easel and use it during an intro discussion before students use their own magazine. This magazine is perfect for Prek, K, and 1st grades. However, I can see a second grade teacher using them for students who might be below reading level or even during a whole group activity (for this especific issue).

I really liked the content because it contained enganging reading and interactive questions to go along with it. On the back of the magazine, it comes with an activity that students can either solve on their own or in a small group. These questions go along with the information given inside, so students are working on comprehension skills!

The monthly set also includes a small reading issue. This is perfect to use in small groups. The pictures are great and the sentences are mixed with pictures, which makes it a great fit for early literacy. 

You also get a Teacher's Guide. In there, you can find a snapshot of what you can find online for that monthly set (issue sample, videos, games, and activities) and lesson ideas for each issue included in the monthly set.

The Online Access

Besides getting the print resources, you also get online access to the magazine! In there, you can find the reading issue, and it has a feature where it reads out loud! How great is that feature for your kiddos?! In addition, there are enganging videos (related to the reading), games, and even printables!

The printables are easy to find and print! They include a variety of skills. You can find activities for vocabulary, personal connections, predictions (a big halleluyah!), bar graphs, and text evidence.

If you would like to taste the water before subscribing, try the 30-day free trial and find out more about the subcription HERE :)

Drums pleaseee!!!! Let's Find Out in Spanish and I have come together to giveaway a classroom set for the March issue (max 35 students copies) to ONE LUCKY WINNER! If you win a set, please know you must provide your full name and address in order to receive it. It is very simple to participate! All you need to do to enter is leave me a comment below telling me how you would use the magazine in your classroom and leave me your email.
The winner will be chosen and contacted on March 1st, 2018.

Thank you everyone for stopping by on my blog and good luck to everyone! :)

Stop! Life Cycle Time!!! :) Part II

Hi everyone!!!
I am back with some more news and pictures!! I would like to share with you my part II of life cycles. We had such a great time with my students when we learned about life cycles during our Science period. Last post was about butterflies and ladybugs (click HERE to see the last post), I would like to share with you about meal worms and frogs this time.

The best of meal worms is that is so new to them and they have never seen them before (they had more experience with butterflies or frogs). I am telling you all, they are so gross! and yet so cool!! :) My students couldn't stop looking at them and just observe them!
Here are some pictures I was able to take for the first days:

What I also like about this life cycle is that it's very simple to maintain them. Meal worms just eat decomposing fruit and we left some oats in there for them to keep on eating. They don't drink water because they get all the water from the fruit. 

I also found very cool videos on how these meal-worm "molt" (shed); they do shed several times during the larva stage. Now, I'll be honest with you, they are kind of gross, but they are so cool at the same time. My students were so amazed by just looking at these videos, that I was able to just keep on looking... lol Here are the you tube videos I was able to find:

This is the LINK

This is the LINK

This is the LINK

These are some pictures of our mealworms that have already turned into pupae! We did not get to see the action, but we sure could see the skin out and those white-alien looking friends! My students are so excited about them that the first thing they do when they come in is to observe them!

These are the skin that we found all around them. I pull them out so students could see them better.

The pupae are all over, but I circled some of them so you could have a better view of it :)

This mealworm had just turned into a pupa, it really does look like a white alien!

you could still see the skin near by...

As soon as I walked into my classroom and went to check our friends, this is the one I found (purple circle). Apparently he had already turned into a beetle over the weekend because he was already getting the darken color. The other friends had already the legs turned darker, that meant they were ready to turned into a beetle as well :)

On this picture, you can see more of the pupae that had already the legs turned a little bit darker... some others are still on their "resting" stage...

Sadly, we were not able to see any pupae in action... but we were able to see the first stage of the beetle. That means, the beetle is out but with a white/cream color (blue circle)

By the end of the week, we had more friends! but they all liked to be under the oats!! Only two (purple circle) were brave enough to come out! Maybe it's because beetles are nocturnal and they were all trying to sleep while we were having class!! ;)

These were the last pictures I took of the beetles. As you can see most of them (if not all) have already that brown dark or black color. They were ready to be released. We had such a great time with these buddies!

Lastly, we learned about the life cycle of a frog. This is our friend "Froggy." I taught the lesson, but I didn't get to see Froggy grow. By the time we got him (after our meal worms), I was leaving for maternity leave back then. So this is the only picture I got of it.

We made foldables for both meal worms and frogs. My students took notes of each cycle as we were talking about them at the carpet and fill out their own foldable :)

Before I let you go, I would like to share with you my unit :) The foldables shown above are are part of this unit :)
This unit come in English and Spanish. If you would like to have more info on what comes in it, click on ENGLISH or SPANISH to take you to each product :) Here is a preview of what the unit contains. 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today. I hope you are having a great weekend and I wish you a blessing week :) Stay tuned my friends!!! I'll have THREE new products coming  to you soon!

Stop! Life Cycle Time!!! :) Part I

There is no secret for my love to life cycles y'all!! I get really excited to teach about these cycles every time it's on my plans! After I started to teach about new life cycles in third grade, I learned so much that I started to love it even more!! I'll be sharing with you about the life cycle units I have in my store for the next couple posts. The first life cycle is the butterfly and ladybug.
I used these videos with my students. WE ALL LOVED LOVED to play them because they were excellent in focusing those little lady bugs!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE... BE AWARE THAT ON THIS COMING VIDEO, EXACTLY AT 2:50min, THE LADYBUGS APPEAR MATING. I STILL PLAYED THIS VIDEO TO MY STUDENTS BECAUSE IT WAS THE BEST VIDEO TO SHOW IN FAST MOTION THE WHOLE LIFE CYCLE; HOWEVER I USED PRECAUTIONS AND I STOOD BY THE LAPTOP TO STOP THE VIDEO AT 2:49min. SO I COULD AVOID THE LAST IMAGE.

This is the LINK 

These following video is also good. It has a person talking in the background; but it's not a video like the previous one. It has really good pictures and some very short videos of the larva. I still used it because the images were AMAZING! :)

This is the LINK

We also did a quick and fun craft. We cut and paste true and false statements on a sheet and did a ladybug craft. I think they turned out very cute and my students were really engaged during this activity.

These two activities are included in my new unit Life Cycle of a ladybug AND butterfly. This unit is great for 1-3 grades. I included lots of different activities!
If you would like to know more about my products, click on the picture and it will take you to my TPT store. I have created a unit for both English and Spanish.

This is the English version. For more details, click HERE.

This is the Spanish version :) For more details click HERE.

Remember I am on BlogLovin' and if you would like to get my posts through email so you don't miss the fun, you can sign up on "follow me by email" (click HERE for instructions)!

Have a great and restful Spring Break my friends! I am posting in a couple days about my other life cycle unit, which includes mealworms and frogs! :)

Landforms Freebies and Ideas!

Alright friends! This is an oldie, but definitely a really good one! This post contains two weeks of landforms activities we did with our children. I am telling y'all, they had so much fun with everything, I still remember how engaged they all were! :)

First, we have talked about different examples: Mountains, Hills, Valleys, and Plains. We wrote the meaning of each word with examples and non-examples in our journals.

We also created a construction paper representation of each landform; here are some pictures of my students work and I've posted a picture of my master sample. I saw a picture on Pinterest (Click HERE to take you to the picture I found) and decided to make my own since I added a few more details and I included the landforms we were learning. I honestly show them how to cut their own without any pattern; However, if you would like a copy of what we did, I have posted a FREEBIE on my TPT store... I included the landform vocabulary words in Spanish AND English... click HERE to take you to the product :)

For our lab day, students were working in groups and built a sketch with play-dough. Before we started, we reviewed each landform and its characteristics. Then, I advised them to use a specific color for each landform. However, I reminded them that this was their project and they had to decide as groups. I did not tell them how to make the mountains or any landforms, I basically monitored them and I helped only if they needed more guidance... I completely let them take ownership for their own work. They were soooo engaged and were working soooo well in groups that made this activity so smooth :)
Here are some picture of their work as they are putting it together:

On the second week of landforms, we added a little bit of sweetness to our project. I have looked on Pinterest several pins with different ideas, so I combined those ideas to make our own landform activity. We used Graham cookies, green frosting, light blue frosting, M & M, fish sprinkles, and Hershey Kisses. As the play-dough activity, I let my students decide how to create their landforms, as long as they include the landforms we have been learning about.

At the end of the week, we also compared Hills and Mountains by creating a Foldable that contained a Venn Diagram. We wrote similarities and differences in between these two landforms. Students worked in partners writing their draft on a paper and then, creating a final product on this foldable.

Hope you find these lessons helpful and you would be able to use them in your classroom as well :)
Thank you for stopping by my blog, see ya next time!

Looking for a Solar System Unit? Look HERE!!!

Hello friends and Happy New Year!
I have been very absent on my blog for the couple of months, so I am so sorry about that. First it was the hectic life of a mommy of two and then it was our long 3-week trip to Virginia to stay with family during the holidays! How was your break? I hope everyone had a restful break and that you are all charged for these upcoming weeks!
I would like to share with you my Solary System Unit. I have to be honest with y'all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE to teach about the solar system! I was always disappointed in second grade when we just taught about the moon. So when I was told I was moving up with my second graders to third grade, I was very happy and nervous. However, everything turned into more excitement when I found out that I was going to be teaching Math and Science. The solar system has always been something that amazed me and it made giggle (nerd!!)
So with all that said, this is a very special and close to my heart unit. I used a lot of these activities in my classroom. The focus on this unit is the solar system, but if you don't teach it, check out the activities for Neil Armstrong, Sally Ride, and the Alien writing... those might be fun to do for other subjects! :)

REMEMBER that most of my products (if not all), come in both English and Spanish. So this is not an exception :) Both English and Spanish units contain the following activities:

1.Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride posters for both beginning or high levels (poster designed for

teacher).

2.Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride foldables for both beginning or high levels.

3.Planets tri-foldable with labels: Planets, outer vs. inner planets, and planets’ characteristics

(including links to find information).

4.Information posters for each planet.

5. Foldable to write information about each planet.

6.Vocabulary matching cards, including fill in the blank cards to keep in their interactive journal.

7.If I was an astronaut (both boy and girl) coloring foldable.

8.Word search sheet for both beginning or high levels.

9.Cross word puzzle.

10.Alien writing craftivity based on a chosen planet.

Here is a peek of what comes in it. This is a preview of the English Unit, please know that the Spanish version looks exactly the same. The only difference is the language used :)
Click ENGLISH or SPANISH to take you to my product in TPT.

To give you a little taste of the unit, I created a FREE SAMPLE, which is a matching card game with a simple fact about the planet. It also includes black and white cards to fill in the blank. Students can keep these cards in their interactive Science journal.
Click ENGLISH SAMPLE or SPANISH SAMPLE to take you to my FREE product in TPT.

Remember I am on BlogLovin' and if you would like to get my posts through email so you don't miss the fun, you can sign up on "follow me by email" (click HERE for instructions)!

Have a great and restful weekend my friends! I am trying to settle back in so I can work on my next unfinished unit! I am excited so stay tuned with more news!! :)