What We’ve Been Up To

We’ve been up to our necks in knowledge in 2nd grade!  On top of our regular instruction, our little kiddos have been taking MAPS.  This is our first year with the MAPS assessment, and the kids loooooove it.  I’ve never seen them so excited about a test!  I know myself, Jenna, and our grade partner Erica are anxious to get the reports back and really dissect the data, and come up with a plan of attack. 

Do you MAPS? What do you think of it?

We’re also doing a major overhaul of our report card.  We used to give letter grades, but we’re moving to Progressing {P}, Developing {D}, and Needs Improvement {NI}. 

 I’m curious…what do you do for report cards where you teach?

Here’s a peek into our week in pictures.  We’re really getting into a routine with math games and Read to Self.  I am loving seeing my kiddos so engaged in everything!

Our book boxes on display.  They <3 their book boxes.

Read to Self on the carpet. I am loving this picture...everyone is reading, really reading!!!!

Our adorable I-Pick Chart from The Teacher Wife

Our current math games {Surviving the Little People and Live Laugh Kindergarten}

Our EnVisions math games can be pretty fun too!  I always laminate the Topic Openers from EnVisons because of the games on the back, and let them play them for the rest of the unit.

I also wanted to show our torn paper collages we made, and hung up for Back to School Night.  They’re too cute!

Adorable, right?

I’ll be back sometime soon with a post on how Halloween has thrown up in decorated our room.

Here’s a little sneak peek ;)

Happy {Almost} Friday!!

-Halle

Apple Mania, End of Quarter Sale, and Check Out This Giveaway!

Just a really quick announcement: I’m holding a 20% off sale in my store because it’s the last weekend of September.  Thank you everyone for your support of my store.  It’s crazy to me that my products are in classrooms all over the world!  Warms my heart :)

Now, on to the yummy stuff…

Apples have taken over the blogosphere classrooms, and our room was no exception.  Check out how we celebrated Johnny Appleseed’s birthday in our classroom this week :)







We started off by trying apple cider and apple cider donuts.  The whole class knows that Mrs. H loooooooves apple cider donuts, so they were pretty excited to share this bonding experience with me chow down.




Then we graphed the results.  Can I tell you how much they loved that the graph went off the board?  They were rolling on the floor.  “She has to get a chair to reach!!!!”  It’s covering the alphabet!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.  It was adorable.





Then we graphed our results on paper, and interpreted the data.  This was our first graph of the year, and I have to admit, they had some trouble comparing the results.  I was really surprised!!  Note to self: more graphs this year!

We complete the “Happy Birthday Johnny Appleseed” book from Alisha. {Sorry, no pictures, but the book is really cute!}

And we finished up our apple glyphs and apple writings from my “Favorite Way to Eat an Apple” pack.







I modeled the detailed sentences first, then a topic sentence, and well as a closing sentence.  We’re definitely working on organizing our writings.  There is a lot of room for improvement!



The finished result!  They look adorable in the hallway.

I hope to be back soon to share some Back to School Night photos and ideas, as well as offer up a pretty big giveaway!!!

Speaking of giveaways, check out “What Happens in First”.  You can win a LOFT gift card {something every teacher needs :)}


-Halle

My Classroom Reveal

We’ve been back in school for 3 whole days, and boy did I earn my weekend.
I am loving my new sweeties, and looking forward to getting them established in our classroom routines and procedures.  We had a lot of fun during our first 3 days, and I can’t wait to share some pictures of some of the activities we did.  Until then, I present to you my classroom for the 2012-2013 school year!
Starting at my desk, which is in the back right hand corner and moving clockwise.

This is the view I see when I’m sitting at behind my desk.  {Not much time to sit once there’s actually students}.  See what’s up on my computer??

This is my guided reading table.  Behind the guided reading table are my math manipulatives {on shelves}, In-Bin, clipboards, and teacher materials.  The table in front of my desk will eventually be where students head for “Work on Writing” and “Word Work” materials.  The bulletin board behind my desk is my word wall, and is by The Teacher Wife.  Even though it semi-clashes with my more colorful décor, I think it’s adorable, and I love using the phrase popcorn words to describe our high frequency words.  Students who can read all the words on our popcorn word wall get a bag of popcorn :)



Our classroom library is the last thing along the back wall.  I have a lot.of.books.  Tons. You can’t see about 18 more bins in this picture.  {I forgot to get a long shot of the library}.  I’ve been using Reagan’s Classroom Library kit to organize my books this year.  {They’ve always been organized my category, but I decided to get much more specific, finally}.  It has been a lot of work, and I’m still not done, but I know it will be worth it in the long run, when my students spend so much less time shopping for books, and so much more time reading them.
{PS: She’s doing a pretty amazing giveaway right now.  Head there as soon as you’re done reading my post :)}
Christina Bainbridge posted about her magnetic bookshelves, and I had to have them.  They cost me a pretty penny, but I have been looking for a space saving way to display seasonal books since my first year of teaching 5 years ago.  A Cupcake for the Teacher found some at Lakeshore for a slightly smaller price tag, and I’m trying to stop myself from snagging those as well :)  I have all the books I will read the first few weeks of school up there right now.  Most of them go with my Back to School {MEGA} Book Pack.  My kiddos LOVED the Stripes  and Chrysanthemum activities
I’m not loving all the different color bins, but that’s what happens when you keep buying books, and The Dollar Tree doesn’t make your favorite bins anymore.  The rocking chair is begging for a really cute paintjob, but that’s gonna have to wait.  Mr. Owl is begging for a new eye, but I don’t know how to sew, so that’s never gonna happen.  What? It gives him character.  The rug?  I definitely didn’t pick that out!!!

This is the wall above my classroom library {left side of room from desk}.  I decided to use the long bulletin board above the chalkboard as my writing bulletin board.  Right now it’s displaying characteristics I MUST see in their writing at the start of 2nd grade.  Above that is the most adorable math alphabet from Little Lovely Learners.  I love how much color it has added to my room, and I can’t wait to refer to it throughout the year.
I hate the way the chalkboard looks, so I covered it on the right with butcher blog paper, and in the middle with streamers.  I’m debating covering the left side with contact paper, but if they decide to ever give it the whiteboard treatment, I’m scared the contact paper would ruin it.



Still along the left wall, are my student computers, as well as what I guess you could consider a math bulletin board.  I don’t really do calendar in 2nd grade, but I do refer to it as often as possible to reinforce calendar skills.  This is the first year our 2nd graders are coming to us having not been exposed to money in school {Common Core}, so I put up money pictures and words right away.  I’ll alternate this section to include place value displays and money values.  The Hundred Chart will come down about halfway through the year.  The Best Friends {numbers that make 10} and Flip Flop display are on an actual bulletin board.  They’re the first skills we teach/review {along with doubles facts}.  I’ll also change out this bulletin board to reflect what we’re learning in math, but the best friends stay up all year long because I LOVE them so much, and because they really are key so many math concepts we’ll hit throughout the year.
I have an extra desk because, rumor is, I’m a desk hoarder getting a new student.  Until then, it houses our pencil sharpener {and tissues now too}.  That table all the way to the right is our listening center.


A far shot of the wall.  The rolling cart houses math bins, hundred charts, and flashcards.  Oh, and dictionaries because that makes sense :)


The closet to the left of my door is where I display my {FREE} owl birthday charts.  A small bulletin board next to my door houses our adorable owl job chart.

The wall to left of the door {right of my desk}.  The sentence strips say “In __________ I can”, and are where I’ll list my daily objectives for each subject.  The direction cards are from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  The pencil says “Word of the Week” {words in this case}, which students wait for my to say before they do anything {line up, take out their workbooks, etc}.  The vowel glue bottles are from The Teacher Wife.  Below the whiteboard is our gumball machine, which is our whole class reward.

Last picture!  Here’s my polka-dot clip-chart, which you can get here for free.  {It doesn’t print crooked, I just glued it that way…oops}.  The rules to the left are modified whole brain teaching rules from Fourth and Ten and they’re adorable.  I am really trying to incorporate more WBT into my classroom this year.  I could watch videos for hourssssss on WBT, it’s amazing.  To the right of the clip-chart are schedule cards by Cara Carroll.  Our schedule is extremely routine, so I will probably change that board once we start our reading incentive at the the end of the month.
Well, that’s it!  I’m realizing now I forgot a couple of “bigger picture” photos, so I’ll try to get those up eventually.  When I heard I was moving rooms for the 5th time in 5 years, I didn’t think I would ever get here, but I am pretty proud of how my room’s turned out!
I hope you like it too!
Enjoy your weekend!
Halle

Our Inspiration :)

Where we got our inspiration: {1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5}, {6}, {7}

Where we got our inspiration: {1}, {2}, {3}, {4}, {5} We forget! If it's yours, let us know!, {6}