Happy Thursday!! We are linking up with Keepin' It Kool in KinderLand for a Super Bowl Party Sale! Score! I have to admit, my little second graders are almost all cheering on the 49ers. One even believes in them so much that he is putting a sleep over on the line with his friend. If they win, he will keep the sleepover, if they lose, the sleepover is off. Too cute (:
Now, on to the fun part -- SALE! I love a good sale. Our products will be up to 28% off this Super Bowl Sunday. This includes:
We are linking up with Teacher to the Core for her HIGH and low's from the month of January! Everyday I try to find a positive and reflect and remember that -- I almost feel like you kind of have to because there is always so much that happens in a day!
My high of the month is that my students did SO WELL with a main idea/detail lesson that was observed for the new rigor/relevance framework. I was so proud of their excitement, being on task and just really "getting" the lesson. Did I mention this was in front of 9 other adults?! They ROCKED!
Okay...I just have to share one other quick high from this month. I had blogged about it earlier this week, but Girls on the Run training this past weekend was so inspiring and heart warming and it just makes me feel so happy inside to be able to be a positive person in their life. Check out Girls on the Run story here!
Now, on to the low. My low would have to be not having enough time in the day! There have been a few days this month that I went day by day with making my copies and things for the day (I am really trying to stay a week ahead this year!). My working out goal has really gone down the drain, too. I was doing so good those first few weeks, then life catches up and something falls behind, aka working out for me. I need to get myself back on the workout train. Choo-choo! (:
Hope your Monday is off to a great start! Just a quick little post -- first of all, we are all healthy in my classroom! Thank GOODNESS! We are still keeping Lysol in business though (; Second, have ya'll heard of Girls on the Run? Our school is starting it this year and I am an assistant coach. Our training session was yesterday and let me tell you -- what a great organization. I can't wait to start and help enrich and bring positivity to young girls, especially at such a crucial age.
Alright....I wanted to give a little freebie. We have started common core this year, and the "W" questions (who, what, where, when, why) are a part of them. I wanted to do something other than just a normal worksheet, so ta-da! Here is a plan a party worksheet with all of the "W" questions incorporated! Love having standards and fun together! I may have my students design their own invitations to their "party" or do an extension writing activity. I tell them that in order to be fair, everyone in the class needs to come to the party (including ME!). Get this freebie here!
I also uploaded a Valentine's Day unit. It is packed with language arts activities, craftivities and things that can be center work, too. Take a peek! I have also linked up with Sunny Days in Second Grade Show and Tell!
Happy Friday, friends! Hope you had a wonderful week! It was a great week, despite having a Lysol party multiple times a day in my classroom! The new stomach virus hit hard this week. We are cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and trying to all stay healthy.
Before I give a quick update from this week - - I just had to share that my best friend is getting married this summer! She is having a Greek wedding and I can't even wait. I already told her that I will be buying cheap plates so we can truly have a big Greek wedding (with the dancing and plate throwing/breaking and all -- I swear I saw this on the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding -- right?!). We went bridesmaid dress shopping and let me tell you all, I am IN LOVE with the dress! It is the perfect shade of magenta and just fits great. I love when things work out the way they are meant to!
Okay, back to school -- this week was a whirlwind with some kiddos out sick, so we did some review of concepts. We finished our penguin research and made these cute penguins from my penguin unit located here.
We also made our Martin Luther King Nobel Peace Prize main idea/details craft. If you missed this freebie, hopefully you can use it for next year.
I am off to bed! I need to catch up on some much needed sleep. I will be working on a Valentine's Unit and Social Studies Unit in the next couple weeks. Stay tuned!
Hope ya'll survived the first week back and got some relaxation this weekend! Last week, in second grade, we worked on cultures, animal habitats, antonyms and New Year Resolutions. It is so adorable to see some of their responses. My favorites are when they say they want to stop picking on their sibling! They are so honest about their resolutions! Too stinkin' cute!
I wanted to post a couple freebies and talk about plans for this upcoming week! I hope you can use them in your classroom! The first one is a reading and tasks freebie. I laminate the reading questions and tasks and put these in a bucket and attach popsicle sticks to them. They are great for down time, challenging students and centers.
For this upcoming week, we are going to be focusing on homonyms and homophones, MLK and penguin researching!
For homophones, we will be creating a pair of pears tree (picture from my class last year!). There are lots of cute books on homonyms and homophones and I really the one by Brian Cleary.
We will be doing some activities throughout the week to learn more about Martin Luther King. We will watch the brainpop video on him as well as listen to the stories on bookflix. I will be creating a super easy wixie for my students to complete after listening to one of the stories on bookflix. I will take a picture of it once it is done....but, I did just add a FREEBIE!!!! for MLK. It is a writing craftivity and students will be writing and then making the Nobel Peace Prize! I hope you can use it in your classroom this week :) PS. Don't mind my nails in the one picture! I really need to paint them, ha!
Lastly, my students will be starting their penguin research project. Students simply adore penguins (me, too!) and I can't wait to see how excited they will be when they find out what they're researching. I also have a penguin unit on TPT that you may find useful located here.
Hey everyone! Emily here (and Lauren at the end of this post!). Thanks for
stopping by our new blog! We
are so excited to be working on this together and to get the opportunity to
share new ideas with each of you as well as learn some ourselves. Before my first official post about classroom
happenings, I thought I would introduce you to where it all takes place…
everyone loves a little classroom tour! When I started teaching 3 years ago, I
could not come up with a classroom theme that I loved so instead I decided to
do some mixing and matching with pops of bright colors. This so called theme stuck and has really
worked for me and my 1st graders ever since. I think every teacher wants their students to
feel warm and welcome when they enter the door each day. I love looking to fellow teachers to see how
they create that classroom environment and how I can use that inspiration to
create my own ideas. And of course you gotta love TPT where many things on the walls in my classroom come from. Anyways, enough
rambling… check out where my first graders call
their home at school!
I (Lauren) wanted to give a sneak peek inside my classroom, too! I must say first, I absolutely adore Emily's room and think it is so bright and friendly! I do not have a "theme" either (I am thinking I might attempt polka dots and stripes next year -- hopeful thinking!), but think my room expresses who I am and is a place where a lot of learning, love and happiness takes place each day. I am very blessed to be doing the best job in the world. When I was in second grade, I came home and told my parents I would be a second grade teacher one day. I LOVE that my dream has come true! :)
Hi Everyone! It is Lauren and I wanted to link up and share some great ways we use technology in the classroom! :) We are very fortunate that we do have different types of technology at our fingers. We have iPads and computers in our classroom and some great technology instructors, too.
One website that I have my students use almost daily is Scootpad. It is an amazing FREE website that is based on common core. A teacher friend told me about it this summer and I have my students on it all of the time. It has math and language arts. After you give your students their password and user name, they can go on anywhere (and they have free iPad app, too!). It will give you information on all of your students and you can click on the standard(s) you are working on and it will create problems that go along with it. If students need additional help or enrichment, you can provide the appropriate problems for them, too.
A second website that I love is Glogster. My students love going on this website and creating their own online poster! My students recently interviewed staff members and made glogster biographies of them. They took pictures of their staff member from the iPad and downloaded it into their glogster presentation. They turned out really cute (I will try to post picture soon!).
Lastly, I use this, Sadlier-Oxford Phonics Games, during language arts centers to provide some phonics reinforcement (plus it is FREE which is always wonderful!!). You can have some students doing different grade levels to provide the differentiation.
I am always looking for new ways to use the iPad, too. We did an iMovie where students were weather people and made props and they will be making a commercial to try to sell a product for our economics unit. I also enjoy using comic strips and having students design and write about the plot of a story they read. I am also starting to dabble in QSR codes for a different way to teach things. I will write more about that soon!
Welcome to our blog! We are so happy you stopped by! Emily is a first grade teacher and Lauren is a second grade teacher. We teach right across the hall from each other and decided that our goal for 2013 was to create our very own blog. We have loved reading other teaching blogs and wanted to share some of our own ideas, too. There are some freebies posted that we hope will help you when you return to school from break! We hope you enjoy and have a great New Year! :)
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