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!

Five for Friday--Giveaway, Games, and Freebies!

Happy Friday!

I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs for a peek at my week.

1

This is week 2 of my DIY version of the 21 Day Fix. I looked into buying it, but then realized it was really about making smart choices and portion control--something I felt confident I could do myself. I am so proud of myself for eating LOTS of fruits and vegetables--I even craved fruit yesterday! That's a new one for me! LOL!

2

So...this kid is so excited. I know it might not look like it. He shows excitement like his dad. What can I say? I had to make him smile! Some of you watched the video on Facebook of him running for the first time since February 23rd last week--now that showed a genuine smile.

He is released for cross country. He doesn't have to go to therapy for two months--when they will start working on making cuts, sharp turns, etc. for basketball. Woohoo! And mom and dad are happy that insurance is covering his expensive brace at 100%! Praise the Lord!

3

This pic takes some set-up.

I have not been sleeping well for months--which means hubby has not been sleeping well. We had our queen-sized bed for 15 years and it was a hand-me-down from hubby's parents so who knows how old it really is... 

On July 4th, we decided we'd had enough and loaded up in our truck and went shopping. We spent hours picking the perfect king-size (hubby wanted to go up a size)! To my disappointment I learned that we would have to wait 7-10 days to have the bed delivered. 

So we waited. 

It was coming the 10th day.

Then the 11th day.

Then they said it wouldn't be here until today (the 13th day).

So the mad face is on our old bed...that's how I felt about spending one more night in what I have not-so-lovingly termed the "torture chamber."

The other picture is me on my new bed that was delivered yesterday--hooray! 

Please ignore the snowflake pillows and camo blanket. The king-size means I got new sheets too--woohoo! And in case you're wondering, I slept like a baby last night. :-)

4

In case you haven't entered yet, you're going to want to click here to enter our giveaway! Prizes include $50 to Target, $25 to Amazon, and $25 to Etsy.

We're also having $1 Deals every day the giveaway is open (until July 20th at midnight). Today's deal is our Connect Four Sight Word Mega Pack--marked down from $5! 

Feel free to pass the word along about the giveaway and $1 deals.

5

Freebies!

At my school last year, we all had "versions" of the Whole Brain Teaching rules and they were all in different orders... Talk about confusing when we teach each other's kids for specials! In music, I'd say, "What's rule #1?" And the K and 1st would say something different than what I had in 2nd...etc. We decided to all get on the same page and I came up with these. Click the picture to grab them for free!

And...I've had some people ask me about our Robot Calendar. It is updated in our Robot Theme Pack if you purchased that. I decided to also put it on Facebook as our Fan Freebie for now. I tried to let our followers know, but considering it has only 30 or so views I think FB might be "hiding" it...so weird the way that works.

Speaking of FB hiding things, I wanted to let you know (in case you didn't see it) we have a little game going on over there too. Comment with what you would like to see as $1 deal in the coming days and on Monday will draw a winner, who will get whatever they selected for FREE! The game post is pinned at the top of our page for now so head over there to play along.

Okay, I'm out! 

Back-to-school panic is setting in...I report back one month from today, students the 21st and I have so many "projects" I haven't finished yet. Yikes! Need to stay focused today!

Monday Made-It - Fact Fluency Sticker Charts and Calendar (Freebies)

Happy Monday! 

I'm at a Pathways to Reading (PTR) training today through Wednesday. I absolutely love PTR! I was first introduced to it when student teaching with Kristi, and then of course, I had to be trained in it when I was hired on in that district/school. To be honest, I felt like that training taught me more about teaching kids to read than any college course that I had taken. 

My new school is going to be implementing PTR this school year. The other teachers went to a Year 1 training, but since I had already been I'll be at the Year 2 training. I'm a little nervous...I will actually be working with kiddos (that's the fun part) but since I didn't really do PTR last year, I'm feeling a little rusty...and I think other teachers and the trainer will be watching me. Ack! Hope it all comes back to me and quick!

Okay...enough about that. 

I'm linking up with Tara for Monday Made-It. I still haven't gotten crafty this summer (except for the Pinterest party wreaths), but I did manage to get some fact fluency sticker charts finished.

Last year, I started using the ones from The Curriculum Corner (great site w/ lots of free resources). The kids loved having a sticker chart on their desk, but they were all the same. I wanted to be able to see at a glance who was working on which set of facts so I decided to make up ones for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

 Let me explain a bit. I do math timed tests in my room two or three times a week, and no it is not the kind that gets my kiddos all stressed out and worried. I keep it very low-key and fun...joking about when to start, etc. In fact, my kiddos are always begging me to take timed tests. I'm also a bit of a softie and if I can tell someone has been working really hard to pass, I will make up a reason to give the class a few extra seconds to work that day.

Each time they pass (all facts finished and score better than 95%), they get to put a sticker on their chart. When they pass a mixed facts page and move to the next level, I buy them a pop. I had a handful of second graders that made it to division facts last year, and one that was soooo close to passing her mixed division. Through the year, I buy 12 packs of pop at a time depending on what they request. Then at the end of the year, I use the leftovers to have a float party...works out pretty well.

So...if you're interested, click here to grab your free sticker charts.

I also managed to upload my second how-to video. Click here if you missed the first one. Check it out if you want to see how I change up a PowerPoint file quickly by swapping out graphics (remember I don't claim to be an expert :-)). In the video, I changed our free robot calendar to a kids calendar (so it could be used with almost any theme).

Yours free if you'd like to have it. Just click here (TPT) or here (TN).

Looking forward to checking out the Monday Made-Its! Here's hoping I haven't embarrassed myself at the training...yet. :-)

Monday Made-It - Robot Cuteness (FREEBIE)!!!

Several months ago, I purchased this cute robot pack from Graphics From the Pond. I fell in love with those little robots, but at the time I really didn't know what I planned to do with them. Sadly, they sat in my graphics folder...lonely and dejected. Every time I thought of creating something, the robots were calling, "Pick us! Pick us!" 

Okay, not really...but that is what it felt like!

Last week as Kristi started talking about her plans for all the owl cuteness she was making, I decided to give a robot theme pack a try. If you've followed us very long, you know we have made some mini-theme packs before - baseball, football, sports, frogs, and a more general colorful pack. We kept them mini...you know? 

Well, these robots sort of took over my life last week and I came up with a not so mini-theme pack. Take a look:

I may have gotten a little carried away, but I was enjoying it! I made the full-color version, then decided some people might not want to use all that colored ink so I made a less-color option. Then I decided editable was the way to go and made almost the entire pack editable too! Call me crazy...I know. Anyway if you're interested in the robot theme pack, you can hop on over to our TPT or TN store.

What theme pack would be complete without a cute calendar to go along with it? You can grab this 2014-2015 calendar here for FREE (TPT) or HERE (TN)!

Next up...I'll be tackling the music room I ignored all last year. Some of you know I moved schools last year, and I worked really hard to make my 2nd grade classroom my own. By the time I finished that, I had no "want-to" left for the sad little music room. I'll post some before pictures soon...

Be sure to link up with Tara. I can't wait to check out all the Monday Made-Its!

Have a great week!

Classroom Tour

Here is a tour of my classroom this year:

 

The first set of pictures shows the whole room.  UGGHHHHH on the colors of my blinds .......Crystal did them (I am now in her room this year) and I love them except she used KU colors (they should have been purple)!!!  I am a KSTATE fan!  :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the baskets that I have in the middle of their desks.  They have pencils, erasers, germ-x, white boards and markers with pom-poms on them as erasers.  I found the pom-poms idea at Fifth Grade Frenzy and they work great!

 

 

These are my frog theme birthday straws.

 

My frog behavior chart

This is my chart where students pick a prize after having 10 good days.  They just put their clothespin on what they want.

 

Our cool book boxes this year.  Last year we had cardboard book boxes and this year we have plastic ones.  Notice they are purple!!!  :-)  YAY!!

Our Daily 5 Board (not much on it yet), we are still in training to do it.

 

My reading group area with my cat litter container seats that I made this summer

 

Calendar Area

Math Manipulative area

 

Mountain Language area with worksheets in the baskets

 

Lunch and Milk Count area.  Students move his/her stick to take lunch and milk count.

 

Our Morning Routine Freebie on tpt that I use every morning.

 

Job Chart

 

Also my mystery walker sign that I found at What Happens in First Grade

 

My Secret Student sign that I got at What Happens in First Grade

 

Rules and points that I give the students throughout the day for doing good things

 

My whole brain teaching posters

 

 

Area where students turn in their work.  They highlight their name before they turn it in.  The one on the right is where they turn in their homework.  They find their clothespin and put it on their paper.  This makes it easy for me to quickly see who did and didn't get homework done.

 

 

Work Folder-this is where the students put any work that isn't done or needs corrected.  My co-teacher's mom sewed them for us and did a fantastic job.  I love them!

 

 

 

My gym shoe and water bottle holder.  I had seen baskets put under chairs at Kindertrips and loved the idea.  So, when looking at our student chairs, I decided to use containers I already had and bungee cord them under the chairs.  This has given the students a great place to keep their shoes for gym class.  I also decided that I didn't like having water bottles on the desks because they take up too much room.  So I found holders and attached them with zip ties. 

 

Hope you have a great and restful 3 day weekend!