First Week of School

I had a very busy, great first week back to school! I love my second grade class! They are a wonderful bunch of kids and I feel lucky to be their teacher. We learned a lot of rules and continually went over school rules and class rules, We had fun meeting new friends, doing Read to Self and starting Buddy Reading on Friday, taking brain breaks with Go Noodle, playing at recess, and going to specials.

This is from the first day of school. I had my ki

ds all hold up this sign while I took pictures of them. At the end of the day I gave them these goldfish as a special treat.

Here my kids are finding new friends in our class and doing cooperative learning activities.

Here are my kids dancing to a Koo Koo Kangaroo video on Go Noodle. Those guys are hilarious! They will brighten anyone’s mood while getting some energy out.

Here was some morning work we did one day. I displayed in our class so we could read and learn more about each other.

   
Here is our schedule for the day:

7:50-8:35 Planning

8:35-8:45 Announcements

8:45-9;00 Morning Work

9:00-9:45 Specials

9:45-10:15 Whole Group Reading

10:15-11:15 Small Group Reading

11:15-11:45 Writing

11:45-12:15 Enrichment

12:21-1:00 Lunch/Recess

1:00-1:30 Whole Group Math *

1:30-2:00 Small Group Math

2:00-2:30 Science

2:30-3:00 Social Studies

Wednesday Math: 1:00-2:00 Early Dismissal Day

I’m getting used to having specials so early in the morning and lunch so late in the day but we are making the schedule work.

Now I’m getting ready for next week our second week in school! We start curriculum in all subjects and I need to start DRA testing my kids. It will be another great week getting to know my students and teaching second grade.

Classroom Tour 2015

This is probably my favorite time of to be a blogger! I LOVE seeing everyone’s classroom, gathering ideas, and the fresh new feel of the beginning of the school year. I relish in seeing how creative teachers turn a classroom into a beautiful, welcoming environment for learning.

Here is my 2015-2016 2^nd grade classroom:

This is the before picture. I had my work cut out for me this year since I moved classrooms.

I have moved up stairs to second grade! This is my second grade hallway and what I see every morning. I love the message it sends to the students.

This is what you se when entering the room. It is kind of a little hallway before you can see the whole room. My decor is from SchoolGirl Style Frog collection- I just took out the frogs and made it look more like the Paisley Blue collection. Other decor is either from Really Good Stuff or various blogs.

This is a view from the room once you enter.

This is the view when you turn right. From here you can see the word wall, cubbies, book boxes (dark blue bins in left cubbies), writing, word work, (next to the writing table in blue bins), and math games (green bins in the far right cubbies.

This is the view if you turn left. My guided reading table, materials, and computers.

This view is also to the left but in the center of my room, the classroom library.

This is my desk area and calendar area at the front of the room. I had no choice but to keep the desk and it had to go here because of plugs for the phone and computer.

This is a view of the front left part of the room.

This is a view of back of the room from the front.

Well that’s all folks! I hope you enjoyed the tour of my 2^nd grade classroom.

I am back to school ready! I got a haircut, laid out my clothes for tomorrow, and rested up this weekend. I’m ready for my first day of second grade tomorrow! 

Meet the Teacher

I just had my Meet the Teacher day this past Thursday. It is a whole day for our school! We start with Kinder-1st from 9-10 a.m. 2nd-3rd from 11-12 p.m.,4^th-5^th from 1-2 p.m., and then every one can come from 5-6 p.m. The purpose of Meet the Teacher is to bring your supplies, visit your classroom, meet your teacher, and please tell me how you are going home the first day! Around the school they can buy uniforms, sign up for clubs and afterschool, and learn about the bus schedule. In between Meet the Teacher times, I put away supplies and get stuff ready for the first week.

Come meet me! Your 2nd grade teacher! 

We make phone calls two days before to invite parents and students to our classrooms. On the phone call, I tell the parents I’m their students’ teacher and tell them the times to come to Meet the Teacher. Usually I get a voicemail but sometimes I’ll get the parents. This year when I called, two of my students’ parents were extremely excited and said their child had been hoping to get me all summer! That was nice to hear!

A little background information-I’m now teaching second grade and last year I taught first grade. So I know many of the students from enrichment, recess, and just being in the hallway with them. I did not get any of my same students but I still knew about half of my kids by name when they came to the room.

The room is ready! 

Back to Meet the Teacher: I have been using these super helpful signs from Reagan Tunstall for a few years and they make this event flow smoothly. Parents know what to do if I’m busy in a conversation with someone else at the moment. I make it a point to try and greet everyone when they come in and let them know the general information I need from them. The students during this time can sort supplies, find their desk, and wander around our new room. 

  Station 1: Find your folder on your desk and start filling out information! 

 Station 2: Sort all your supplies! 

 

Station 3: Fill out how your child will be going home the first day of school, take car tags or walker tags, sign up for school committees, and grab a wish list item.

I had all 16 of my families come to Meet the Teacher this year! I’m so excited I got to meet all of them. One of my sweeties even brought me a gift! How thoughtful! I know it is going to be a great year in 2nd grade! 

First few days back to school!

I started school on Monday and it has been a hectic start! We have some many new things that we're implanting this year. New reading and math curriculum, new lesson plan format from the county, new professional growth plan, new principal, and lots of new staff!

I've had an awesome start in my classroom though! My students are babies who need to be whipped into shape. I feel like I say this every year at the beginning! They are just so little and not independent at all! My feet hurt so bad from all the jumping up and walking around the room! I'm getting the kids comfortable with the routine, rules, and first grade work.

I've used Kagan structures this week for class building and team building. So far I've used Find Someone Who, Round Robin, and Timed Pair Share.  In Find Someone Who kids walk around when the music starts and when the music stops they pair up with the person who is closest to them. Then the students introduce each other. Then the person with the shorter hair (I just did because it was easy for the kids to determine) asks the other person if they can fill something out on their paper. I used Abby Mullins Find a Friend sheet from her Fun with Firsties back to school packet. It was perfect for first graders and easy for them to read. Then they switch and the other person fills out their paper. Then it starts all over again. The kids LOVED getting to know their classmates this way. They enjoyed moving around, meeting new people, and finding out new things about them.

Timed Pair Share is exactly how it sounds. In pairs, students share with a partner for about 30/45 seconds while the other listens and then they switch. This has been great for pair work and math talk!

I also used Round Robin for team building. the students shared what they did over the summer with their table. They just take turns talking about what they did to generate ideas for a writing activity. Everyone has a chance to talk and they keep talking about ideas until the time is up. We've done this with some other fun questions I just have a sleepy brain and can't remember right now!

Here is their writing from those wonderful summer activities: 

I'll have to take more pictures of my kids actually doing all this! I've been bad about taking pictures! I did take 1st day pictures of my cuties and I'll make a magnet for the parents of it for open house.

I'm loving the chalkboard stuff right now! I got this sign off Pinterest! 

I took some pictures of my kids doing read to self! How adorable! They read for 7 minutes! They were great at finding spots, staying in one spot, getting out and putting away their book boxes. We broke the stamina because one little guy was goofing off and "fake" reading which led to a whole new lesson.

I'm trying to stay organized but papers just keep piling up this week!

Thank goodness for cute binders and bins! 

I'll leave you with some school humor.

Hang in there teachers we're half way through the week!