A Freebie and Cyber Monday SALE!!!

Cyber Monday is almost here! I hope you all enjoyed Black Friday shopping :) I sure felt like I couldn't get anywhere fast enough! If you plan to do some Cyber Monday shopping on TPT make sure to head over to my TPT store Second Grade Discoveries where all of my products will be 20% off on Monday and Tuesday!  Happy Shopping :)

This week we will be exploring irregular plural nouns. I thought that after the direct instruction, my students could play this Go Fish game to help reinforce the concept! The goal of the game is to match the plural noun to the singular noun. Click the pictures below to grab your free copy from TPT! 

Kudos to Hope King!

This week my students turned in their pumpkin book reports from Hope King's Trick or Treat Pumpkin Book Reports.

They had two weeks to analyze the story elements presented in a specific picture book they chose for their book report. The students looked for the setting, main characters, problem, solution, story climax and wrote about their favorite part. At home, the students created "treat bags" that resembled the cover of the book they chose. On Monday my students came in with their arms full of pumpkins, treat bags and book reports! On Tuesday and Wednesday we started painting their pumpkins to look like the main character from their story! Here's a peek at their AMAZING creations!

This was an a wonderful pack and I could not have imagined a better way to incorporate literacy concepts during Halloween!

Question Words

I feel like a terrible blogger! This year has proven to be quite demanding of my time but I am LOVING every minute of it! We are piloting a new reading series entitled "Wonders" and one of the first main reading strategies presented was the ability to recognize, ask, and answer questions. To introduce the skills required to actively use the six question words, I created these posters with examples. We discussed each word, read the sentence and came up with our own ways to use these words. We eventually started using these question words to help us question as we read. We used the below graphic organizer to record our questions as we read! Click on the pictures below to grab your free copies! :) 

Patriot's Day/September 11th

I definitely forgot how overwhelming the beginning of the year is! I hope everyone is staying on top of things :) Unfortunately, blogging has taken a backseat to due to all of the back to school preparation I have to do this year but it's totally worth it to set up strong routines! 

My district requires their teachers to have set plans for Patriot's Day on September 11th. In order to make this day more kid friendly, I developed an activity pack that includes ideas to address this tough topic! It's hard to believe that these kiddos were not even alive during this event! I was in 7th grade on a field trip to Pittsburg when it happend and needless to say, our parents were at the school upon our arrival! If you are looking for some fun activities/craftivities for Patriot's Day, click the pictures below to snag a copy of my Patriot's Day Activity Pack!

Classroom Management and Parent Communication

I have successfully made it through my first full week! I am so thankful for the long weekend because I am exhausted! I hope everyone has had a wonderful start to their school year. I have been designing a few classroom tools to use in regards to reflection and classroom management. Click on the pictures to download these FREEBIES!

Weekly Reflection:
This weekly reflection tool was designed to give students the opportunity to reflect on things they learned and enjoyed throughout the week. After the students reflect, the instructor takes time to write a quick comment about the student's week that will be seen by the parent. These reflection sheets are sent home on Friday and returned the following week with a parent signature. At the bottom of the sheet, parents have the opportunity to comment an the weekly reflection. This is a great tool to use to foster reflection and communication!

Weekly Behavior Book:

This reflection sheet allows students to reflect on their daily behavior. At the end of the day, students highlight the section of the clip chart they landed on. This can be placed in a homework folder so that the sheet can be viewed by the parents at the end of each day.

Have a relaxing LONG weekend :)

My New Classroom!

I've been working tirelessly the last few days to get my classroom ready for our first day! We started on Thursday and we had 4 days to get into our newly reconstructed classrooms!!! They look wonderful and the students and families love the new set up! Here a few pictures of my new classroom :)

Our Door

Clip Chart

From the Doorway

Front Whiteboard 1

Front Whiteboard 2

Desk Area

Organized Files

Reading Table

Classroom Library

Back of the Room

Back of the Room

Jobs

Calendar

Super Star Board

Crate Chairs=Success!

As you might know from my previous post, I attempted to create the oh sooo cute crate chairs! With the help of my dad, I was able to put these wonderful new chairs together!

It took me FOREVER to gather all of the materials (mainly because I was extremely picky with the fabric!). Here is a list of the items I used and where I got them from!

Black Crates-Target <3

Plywood (6-13x15 pieces)- Well, that came from my dad's shop! I'm a lucky girl to have his direct access!

Fabric (approx. 2 yards) and Ribbon (2 rolls)-Walmart (the fabric is lime green although it looks a bit yellow and it SPARKLES)

Foam that went over the plywood-Ollies which is a small store in Cleveland with EVERYTHING you could need at a cheap price :)

Staple Gun- I already had at home.

When I totaled my spendings, it was roughly $14 per chair. It was such a fun project and I cannot wait to put these around my reading table! Hopefully I can get into my classroom on Monday! Our classrooms are almost finished but they are still under construction! I'm a bit stressed since we start August 23rd!  If you have the time, I highly recommend creating these!

Graphing Weather Owls and Weather Spinner!

By request, I have created....Weather Owls! These cuties can be used to track the weather in your room on a weekly/monthly basis.
-This product includes 6 sets of weather owls (rainy, snowy, sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy, and windy)
-The small owls were created to fit a 1.5”X 1.5” weather pocket chart. -The small and larger owls can be used to graph or chart the weather of a given week. 
-Two week charts are included to chart the weather for each day of the week. 
-This pack also includes a weather wheel and arrows that can be used to display the weather for a given day. 
Hop on over to check out this product! Weather Owls

In other news, I found out that I will be able to get into my new classroom on Monday!!! I am MORE than ready to get started and I'm trying to gather/create all of my last minute materials! My next project is constructing those cute crate seats for my reading table! I first saw this amazing project here!

Well I hope everyone else is in their rooms and enjoying the set-up process! I will be joining you all soon :)

OWLS Math Workshop Center Rotations!

This year I am looking to make my math block more center based! I think that this will allow me to meet the varied needs of my students. I have created math centers that are structured in rounds and use the acronym OWLS. You don't have to have an Owl themed classroom for these centers but it would go well with one too! Click on here to grab a copy of the O.W.L.S. Math Workshop Stations!

The O.W.L.S program was designed to be used as a center based math workshop implementation. These centers represent multimodal learning to adapt to the needs of all of your learners. The centers are sectioned into 4 rounds. Depending on your math block the times will vary. IN order to keep groups fluid, the student group cards were designed to be moved from week to week, or even day to day. Adapt the center rotation cards to fit your classroom needs! That’s what they were designed for!

The acronym is as follows:

O- On your Own- This station was meant to allow for individual math work. This can be seatwork, an individual math game, or a worksheet.

W-Work with Your Hands- (My personal favorite) At this center, students work on activities that use manipulatives. Many of the math games that I use in my classroom fit into this category so I use this station for games as well. 

L- Learn with Your Teacher- This center was designed in relation to a reading group. This can be where you use direct instruction or intervene with small groups.

S-Solve Math Facts and Problems- This station is the “problem-solving/fact recall” station Depending on your students’ needs, you can have students work on math facts or problem solving activities. This is also a great place to have a parent volunteer to help with flash cards!

This Pack Includes:

-2 Math Workshop O.W.L.S Headers

-Small, medium, and large O.W.L.S explanation cards

-A set of small Rounds cards for the side of the board

-Small, medium, and large group number cards to indicate which group students are in.

-Small group cards to place student names under

-2 sets of blank student name cards

       -Set 1- with Owls

       -Set 2- Plain Cards

-4 Center titles to place above the task cards to indicate which activity will be completed at the center

-65 Task cards to place underneath center titles (Blank cards included for personalization! ***I will customize these for you if you would like!***)

-1 picture to show how the bulletin board is set up

 O.W.L.S. Math Workshop Stations

That's all for now :)

Bright and Owl CAFE Poster FREEBIES!!

I just finished planning the first 3 weeks of The Daily 5/CAFE with my teaching partner! I am thrilled to be using these programs next year and I feel that I will be a much more effective reading teacher! In order to effectively implement this program, I have created a few Daily 5/CAFE posters that I will be hanging in my classroom and I want to share these FREEBIES with you :) Click the pictures below to be directed to these free posters at my TPT store. Enjoy!!! P.S.....I hope you're not surprised by the Owl theme that carries into a few of these posters :)

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