September Already?

I hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday weekend! So sad that it is considered the last official weekend of summer... even though here in Chicago the 80+ degree weather is telling us otherwise. But now it seems everyone is back in school and back to routine!

With that being said, as every school year begins, come an open house of some sort! So I am sharing with you today the All about me puzzle that I created for Open House! My open house was Thursday August 28th, and let me tell you, it was one heck of a day! I had about 70% of my class show up which isn't too bad! It is always fun to meet the parents and actually get to talk to them face to face rather then through notes or those sometimes stressful conferences. Plus it's a great way to get parents in to see where their children are spending most of the day and meet the person their spending most of the time with!

So of course you always have student work up, an all about me for the students of some sort. I know that in second grade, the students love to do ones where the parents have to guess which one is theres. they always find it so funny when they're parents try to figure it out. There are plenty of these out there, but I wanted something a little different so I am up with this all about me puzzle!

The students write on the puzzle pieces different facts that make them unique! We then take a picture and put it behind the puzzle pieces. The parent then have to "put the pieces together" meaning try to figure out which puzzle pieces add up to their student. The enjoyed it. My whole second grade team actually used this activity and it went really well. Here are some pictures from my teacher example!

You can get this in my store here!

All in all, as the year progresses and I get to know my students more and more, I am really excited for what this year has in store! I am lucky to have such a great group of kids!

Hope this sparks some ideas for your open house!

Enjoy the Short week! Be Back Soon!

Classroom Part 2!

Gosh, I didn't mean for so much time to fall between posts! But again, we teachers know what the beginning of the school year is like!

I started week 3 today! (I know where did time go!) I would say that I am off to a good start though! Figuring out the students and what will and will not work. Starting at the beginning of the year, I often forget how taskful it can be reteaching them simple routines and getting them back into the swing of things! PLUS they're still little first graders at first until we break them in! But all in all, it is going well! I feel I am finally getting "ahead" (not that it stays for long!) but I definitely am back into a routine and plan to blog at least once a week! I feel I have so many fun things to share!

Speaking of sharing, Let me show you some more of my classroom! PLUS some freebies are hidden inside of these pictures! So keeeeeeep reading!

Let's start with my lockers and the above boards! Yes... these lockers are actually IN my classroom. But it is fun to add some decoration on them and use them to display things! Above I have my "I Can Write...." board which is a visual reminder of things students can write when they are stuck! In the middle I have my reading genre board! Then my Daily 5 board of the anchor charts!

Here is my writing board! This  is where I house my work on writing for daily 5! As well as my things for my writing workshop!

On the right are my 6 trait pencils! These are a hot seller in my store! There are two different versions... this chalk version as well as a polka dot version. You can get them here!

On the left are my Writing Aids.. to help students get started on their writing. Then of course the usual pencils, crayons, markers, glue, and scissors. On the right side at the bottom, I have my old mail boxes that I use to put writing paper in! Students can choose what they want to write during their free write time!

Then we have my guided reading board! My guided reading table sits right in front this board!

I like to make this board very interactive using post-it notes! The top posters are ones that I have bought from TPT! They are so cute! I got them from A Year of Many Firsts! Check them out if you like them!

The informational text 3-2-1! 3 interesting facts, 2 questions, and 1 opinion! Helps get the students writing about informational text!

Then here are some more freebies!

Good Readers can retell the story  (the purple)

Good Readers can ask questions (the green)

Good readers can sequence the story (the pink)

While the students are reading, I ask them to write a question about what they are reading, or to answer a certain story element on a post-it, then I stick it to the board! I use a different color for each group so I know who has done what! Great to get interactive and get the students talking and writing!

The beginning of the school year is definitely exhausting! Plus so many changes in curriculum and new things added! Then of course trying to manage your schedule and student pull-outs for services! This is what my life has consisted of! By like I said, I am finally falling into a sound routine and will be writing again very soon!

Please enjoy the freebies! Hope it inspires or sparks something new! Come back soon!

Crazy May-ness!

As many of you teachers out there know.. MAY is such a crazy month. The students start to get antsy, the teachers start to get antsy.. and Summer fever hits hard. ESPECIALLY when next thursday was SUPPOSE to be your last day…. until the polar vortex decided otherwise this winter. But we are toughing through it!

The last week of school, I always try to make to make it fun, hands on, but still keep as much content as possible! So I do a travel unit with the students. Our mornings are our literacy block, so we will read a read aloud about it, some informational text, fill out some story maps, and even work with vocabulary. In the afternoons for math, I introduce a little multiplication work, then of course review review review from the school year! And of course writing is included! Writing about their trip, about where they visited, and even making their own stories. Since our last week is usually 3-4 days with field day and assemblies, I plan 3 days of travel.

So of course they get their own "passports"

And we load a "plane". 

After we get off the plane we go through "customs" and they get their stamp from the country.

Then we start the day with fun activities from that country!

In Egypt, we read about Egypt and the pyramids. In guided reading groups I will pull non-fiction books about Egypt and work with the students on them. Then we will read the informational text provided and solve the mystery words using the facts we learned to find out even more!

There are even fun hieroglyphic writing activities.

For math we work with Egyptian "multiplication" where students work with arrays and writing both multiplication problems and repeated addition problems.

In Australia there is a lot of fun to be had as well! Learn about kangaroos with Marsupial Sue! (can be found on Tumble books! With great comprehension activities included. Also read informational text and answer questions. For math there is a year in review with place value, addition/subtraction problem, basic 2nd grade fractions, telling time, and more! The of course a post card to write home with!

Then for my last day we finish it off with Big Anthony in Italy! Read Big Anthony, His Story by Tomie DePaola! (not included) work on comprehension as well as work on new Italian Vocabulary from the book! Read informational text about Italy! And for math, play BINGO with place value and addition/subtraction facts!

Then of course, end each day with some journal writing and reflecting!

These great items can be bought separately if you would like to make it a one day adventure!

Egypt

Australia

Italy

Passport

(travel journal is included in each individual pack)

Or you can get them ALL in a bundle HERE!

Thanks for stopping in! Remember if you like what you see, Follow me!!!

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Happy May-ness! Hang in there we're almost done!

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More More Measurement!

We have wrapped up teaching measurement! (thank goodness!!) It still is not my favorite unit to teach, however, after we got past the part of the standard that required students to compare the difference between units of measurement, it got a lot easier!

So as we reviewed measuring, and worked more with measurement, I decided I wanted to do more hands on measuring and comparing, but in a fun way!! So I created the following math centers for students to work on!

There is an inch and a centimeter pack!
Both packs have 3 different centers within them. Each center is a different theme. The students measure the objects in each theme to the nearest unit of measurement, record it on the recording sheet, then answer comparing questions about their measurements!

It is a great way to have kids working hands on and being engaged!

Here is some samples below:

Click here to find this one on my TPT store!!

Click here to find this centimeter center on my TPT store!

Each center has it's own recording sheet..

and question sheet that allows students to make comparison and then answer it in a complete sentence..

 Please let me know what you think! I love making changes or adding things based off of what people find is helpful or useful!! Learning new things everyday!

Happy Spring! Hope all are doing well!!