2nd Grade Rocks!

It's back to school time!  School starts in just over 10 days now, but as usually happens teachers go back in three!  We are taking the first two days to do testing so classrooms have to be ready to greet students.  So in an effort to beautify my room I found this amazing freebie on TPT.

I love love love how the board turned out!!!!  It took some planning ahead to have last years 2nd graders complete the form, and quite a bit of effort on my part not to lose them after rearranging everything in my classroom, but it was worth it!

I made the guitars and laminated them last year so they would be ready, I knew I would have enough to do getting the inside of the classroom ready.  I wrote the names of my incoming students on the stars that a fellow teacher cut out on her Cricket machine, I need to get one of those! You can click here to download the templates from Hope King's TPT store. 

Classroom Library Book Bin Labels

To go along with my colorful chevron and polka dot theme I made some book bin labels!

It's been a loooong project with many parent volunteers helping out, but we've finally got every (almost) book in the library labeled and leveled based on the Fountas and Pinnell reading level.

I got the book bins several years ago from Dollar Tree, they aren't as study as I'd like but they've lasted a couple years so I got my dollars worth out of them already.  You can download the chevron labels on my TPT store here. 

Classroom Jobs

 I've never been able to find a job board that worked for me.  The cute ones are too much work for me to un-stick and move and re-stick on the next job.  I don't know why but it just hasn't worked for me.  So I just made my own board.

You can find the printable job pages at my TPT store here.  There are different patterns, white dots, as well as rainbow chevron with either black or white background.  I really love this!  I printed the pages I wanted, put on poster board and laminated. 

 

I'm hoping it will be really easy to move names around the board as jobs change every week.  Plus it's a great way to utilize the big awkward column that is in the middle of my room. :)

Common Core Workbooks

I follow lots of teaching and education pages on Facebook and in the world of blogging and when I ran into a post with the common core workbooks I jumped right on their website! The Common Core Workbooks have over 500 pages of worksheets, games and posters that with help a teacher effectively teach every common core standard in math and English.

There are also books for every grade that are assessments for each of the common core standards.  It is highly effective way to assess every students knowledge of the common core standards. 

I can't wait to get my copy of the 2nd grade workbook!  Such a great resource for any grade.

Pet Rock Experiment

I pinned this worksheet a while back and the publisher moved or deleted the file.  I had a copy and so many people interested if you want a copy just click below :-)

Pet Rock Experiment PDF

Dice Shaker

I love orange tic tacs and Walmart sells these giant boxes of them.  After I finished my tic tacs I knew there had to be some use for the empty boxes.  And viola! Dice shakers!  Might be a fun way to change up a simple math dice game. They don't have to open it to see their roll and dice don't get tossed halfway across the room. 

Check for Understanding-Daily 5

I'm going to do Daily 5 for the first time this year so I'm spending the summer getting materials created.  Made check for understand marks out of file folders. Going to get them laminated and have the kids use them when they partner read.  

Behavior Bingo

Made 2 behavior bingo posters for less than $2! Got a two pack of blank calendar posters, a two pack of calendar numbers, and glue sticks.  I cut and pasted the calendar to make it a 5x5, glued the numbers down and viola! I printed the monsters on card stock to use as markers.  Just need to have it laminated.  I will write the numbers 1-25 on tokens (poker chips work great) the students will have to earn the chance to draw a number.  We will mark that number with a monster and when they get 5 in a row they get a reward as a class, like a game day or a special treat.  

Monster teacher planner

After scouring Hobby lobby, Michaels and every scrapbook store near me I finally just ordered monster paper from scrapbook.com.  Love it!! Can't wait to plan! 

Monster theme!!

I am changing my classroom theme to monsters this year.  I made some monsters out if felt for decorations.  They are each about 5 inches tall.  I also ordered monster job boards and welcome bulletin board kit from Amazon.  Can't wait to put it all up!       

Inside The Earth

We are studying the layers of the earth. Yesterday the students made models of he earth using homemade play dough. I made the dough using 1 cup flour,1 cup water, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tbsp oil, 2 tsp cream of tartar and food coloring. Mix it all in a pot over low heat until it starts to stick together and forms a ball. Let it cool then put it in a bag or Tupperware. I made one batch for the core (red) and crust (brown-make orange then add a drop of blue until you get the brown you want) and then two batches of the outer core (orange) and the mantle (yellow).

Princess and the Pea

For our story and a craft on Friday we are read the story The Princess and the Pea. Our wonderful aide cut out 6"x1" strips of scrapbook paper for the blankets and we used craft sticks for the bed frame. I hot glued a mini green pony bead on their construction paper as the pea. They used 10 pieces of scrapbook paper and then drew their own princesses on top. They did a great job!!

New Classroom!

Since I switched grades from 2nd to 1st I also had to switch rooms.  My new room is huge and I love it!  The classroom is somewhat narrow and long which is difficult to arrange desks, luckily I only have 19 students so we can make it work.  Tonight is the second day for back to school night.  School officially starts on Thursday and I'm so excited to get the school year started.  I'm really looking forward to getting to know all of my students and teach first grade. 

Front of the Classroom

My desk and the teacher table/small group area.

Morning routine and rug area.

The other side of the rug area, coat rack and the entrance to the room.

New classroom!

Since I'm going to be switching grades from 2nd to 1st I also have to switch classrooms. Here is my room in progress. I painted the blue walls last week, Aruba Blue, I love the color!! Putting it together a little at a time :)

Paint Sample Words

I saw a similar idea on pinterest and adapted it a bit.  I would like to thank Wal-Mart for not getting made at me for taking about 50 of their paint sample squares. :)  I got a bunch and cut them in half, then punched holes on each side and used the links that one of the Kindergarten teachers just gave me.  I turned this center into a competition and gave a pencil to the student that had the most 4 letter words. It's a fun way to add some color and I didn't even have to get them laminated!

Organizing Binders

So I am a self admitted pack rat and somewhat of a hoarder.  So I keep every paper that I've ever copied during student teaching, subbing and now in my first year.  I have accumulated quite a nice stash of worksheets and activities from K-6!  I am constantly trying to get organized and I have finally decided that my system of tons of over stuffed file folders and hanging files in my too full filing cabinet and the 3 over filled crates was in desperate need of a change.  I was able to get some old binders from the IT company that I used to work at and got to work!  I am still not finished, but I've gotten a big chunk done!  I created some binder covers you can check them out here, they aren't very high quality but they sure are cute and they served my purpose!  My Reading Files binder has everything I need for reading separated by big categories like comprehension, centers and graphic organizers.  Then smaller tabs to break each down by sub category, like plot, main idea, theme, character etc.

Clothes Pins Spelling

I got this idea from my cooperating teacher during student teaching.  I wrote letters on the ends of clothes pins and tied a string to the end of a desk.  One side has capital letters, the other has lower case. 

Word Work Eggs

I got the idea of using plastic Easter eggs for word families searching the internet and adapted it a tiny bit and made it a competition.  I wrote words on the eggs, beginning sound on the long side of the egg, ending sounds on the smaller side of the egg.  I gave them a sheet that had 95 lines (I couldn't fit 100 on one paper), and told them whoever can come up with the most real words will get a special prize. They are so competitive that they stayed focused and determined through the whole center!!  I had one girl get over 110 words!  The competition worked so well I'm going to do at the word work center again next week! :) 

Classroom Library

Finally got my class library sorter, organized and labeled, ok well I'm 90% there. I'll be a spring break project to get it finished.  I found these collapsible colored bins at Dollar Tree and got started.  Each bin has a label and a colored sticker on it to match the colored sticker on the books that go in the bins. 

I have all the non fiction books, and special books like poetry, comics, and Dr. Seuss in the clear bins labeled and organized.

 

I'm not sure if this will help keep it organized but I'm hoping it will be better then the mess we had before!  All the picture books aren't labeled or really organized yet but that's my next on my classroom to do list. 

Pronoun Pockets

I found this idea on the Teacher Bits and Bobs blog and thought it would be perfect for my 2nd graders. So my bulletin board skills are somewhat, ok very, lacking but they are just tiny boards put up in my narrow hallway outside my room so I have little to work with and I don't have a lot of time to make them look good.   But anyway, we made these pockets for our phonics center. I just drew a template on white paper and copied it on construction paper.