New Year, New Grade!!!

Hi, well I know it has been quite awhile since I have done a blog post.  Let's be honest, life has just been busy like we all know.  I'm glad to be making a blog post again after a long time.

When I first started my teaching career, I started in Special Education and taught it for four years.  Then I went to first grade for a year and looped up to second grade.  I taught second grade for a couple years and then went back down to first grade and have been in first for the past 15 years.  The opportunity came up this year for me to move back to second grade and I'm excited to say that I am now teaching second grade.  I have always loved first grade, but really enjoyed second grade as well when I taught it.

The downside was that I had to move.  Although, there is a good thing about moving...it makes you or should I say me clean out and throw out what I don't use anymore!!  So, I made the move and changed rooms.  Since I would be in a new room, I decided to use some of the mint owl theme that we have on TPT.  I actually started school 1 1/2 weeks ago with kids.  I am loving 2nd grade!  Below are some pictures of what my room looks like now. 

Our reading area

An extra work area.  On the back board will be where I will show off their good work.

Word Wall

Calendar-I had to put a post it note on Friday because I tell the kids that day is my Sad Day because I don't get to see them on the weekends.  So we call it my Sad Day instead of Friday.

Material area and where we do our lunch count and milk count.

Another sitting area

My small group area

My dollar tree find-this room that I moved into doesn't have as much storage area as my other room.  I found these baskets at dollar tree and got chalkboard labels to label each one of them.  It definitely helped with more storage area.  

Hope all of you are having a great year so far if you have started back!

Curious About Our Top Five Selling Products???

I have confession to make. 

I pretty much only shop on Teachers Pay Teachers during a sale (which the BIG one happens to start tomorrow). 

I know. I know.

You're thinking, "You're a TPT seller!"

Yes, I am. We are. Kristi and both are pretty similar in this area. In all honesty, both of our districts provide great curriculum and we only buy (or make) things that supplement it. Hence the reason we have so many "I have...who has...?" games in our store. We aren't looking to rewrite curriculum or make millions on TPT. We have just made some things over the years that we like and thought other teachers might like too. :-)

Neither of us spend a lot of money on our classrooms either. Some might call us cheap...or wise...or both? I've purchased only 1 thing all summer, and that was mostly because one of my teacher friends needed someone to split the pack with her and I knew I needed another one for all my "I Have...Who Has...?" games. Ha!

I love these things... I now have 3 of them! :-)

Anyway, since the back-to-school sale is upon us, I thought I'd share the five top selling products from our store.  

Drum roll, please. 

#5 - Diphthong oi and oy Game Pack

#4 - -r Controlled /er/ Sound Game Pack

#3 - Vowel Digraphs /aw/ and /au/ Game Pack

#2 - Diphthong OU and OW Game Pack

#1 - I Have Who Has - Time to Hour and Half Hour

In my role as a reading specialist, I use the vowel diphthong and digraph games A LOT. Those more difficult vowel patterns take lots of repetitions for my kiddos. Even if we've moved on to another skill, these games are a quick and easy review for my readers. 

In the classroom, Kristi and I both love to immerse our kiddos in the "sound of the week" from our curriculum. I mean if we are working on the /oi/, /oy/ sound, we will play songs during transition times with that sound. Students will read decodable stories with that sound. Word work activities will be centered around that sound. The Connect 4 games from our packs with that sound make a great partner activity either during word work or as an option when work is complete. We use the "I Have...Who Has...?" in small groups or as a whole class when there was a few minutes to fill. The last year I was in the second grade classroom, I would put the "I Have... Who Has...?" game out as a morning tub activity as they trickled in after breakfast. I loved seeing my kiddos practice that sound by choice! :-)

If you're shopping the sale, have fun! Watch out for those sellers that raise their prices during the sale--ugh! That happened to me last year, and of course, I decided I did not need that product after all...because I'm cheap, you know. ;-)

P.S. I report back 2 weeks from today!!!