Place Value is "Snow" Much Fun!

Found this cute idea from here on pinterest and adapted it for second grade! The kids had a lot of fun completing their place value snowmen! They were so excited when I told them I would hang them out on the bulletin board. :) Here's how it turned out...

Thanksgiving Writing

"Gobble Up Many Thanks"

I'm a little late with posting this, but they turned out too cute not to share! Got this idea from, guess where....Pinterest!!! (Can you tell I'm addicted. I just find so many cute things to incorporate in my classroom!) And my philosophy is why re-invent the wheel?!

So I did the twist on the typical "write what you're thankful about" activity.  This teacher had such an amazing idea! 

The kids drew an item and had to say why they were thankful for it. They came up with some really cute ideas! One girl said she was thankful for coffee because without it her mom would "get mad" or "fall asleep." haha! Another girl said she can give her mom tissues if she "cries for her mommy who died." That one broke my heart! So sweet. 

You can find the templates here.

Classroom Jobs

Classroom Jobs!

It's ten o'clock and I am still wide awake! I know I should already be asleep what with the busy week to come and all, but I guess since I can't go to bed, I will do something productive and write a new post! I thought I would share how I do classroom jobs. First of all, my jobs are all movie themed.
I have a director, producer, agent, script deliverer, stage crew, extras, light crew, and actor.

The director is my line leader and the producer is the door  holder. The agent takes down the attendance and lunch count. The script deliverer is in charge of putting all graded papers into mailboxes. The stage crew is in charge of helping with the recess toys, taking them out and back in. The extras are my cleanup crew. At the end of the day, they can walk around picking up any scraps or pencils off of the floor. The light crew is my electrician and the actors are my pencil sharpeners. (This year the actors are actually my bathroom monitors. I didn't like the students sharpening the pencils. Now I just do it myself. It seems faster that way!)

I change out jobs weekly. Each student has their name on a popcorn piece with velcro. Half of the class gets a "break" from working for the week, while the other half of the class has a job. Every Monday morning, I call on students if it is their week to "work." I let them chose what they want their job to be for the week!  They love it when it is their week!  The jobs really help create a family environment where each student pitches in and has a sense of ownership for their job.

Here is the link to the poster I created for each
of the jobs! Grab one now!

Interactive Read Aloud

Interactive Read Aloud

I don't know about you all, but this week has been a very long and busy week! If you can believe it, I even slept past noon today because I was so exhausted! Next week is conferences, so I know it will only get busier!  It is hard to believe we are already finished with the first quarter of school.  It has just flown by! 

I wanted to take a moment to share with you all what we have been doing with our interactive read alouds the past few weeks.  I have been focusing on a different fairy tale each week and then reading a different version of that fairy tale. The kids are having a blast!  They love the fairy tales, especially the "fractured" version of the classic tales they haven't heard before! Our latest fairy tale is Little Red Riding Hood!  The first thing we did was focus on the character traits of Little Red. I better tell you all now...I LOVE anchor charts!!! Especially the ones where the kiddos help create them! This is our first anchor chart we created. As a class, we thought of different descriptions of Red. Next, students worked as a group to write one thing Little Red Riding Hood did or experienced in the story. Then, we put them in sequential order. Lots of standards were addressed in this one anchor chart!

Next, we read Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China.  We focused on comparing and contrasting the two versions of the story. They were on a roll with this one! They thought of so many things!

As you can see, sticky notes are my best friend! haha.  They come in so handy sometimes! Anyways, that is just a little snippet of what we have been doing!  Tomorrow is Sunday so I am hoping I have one more relaxing day before the craziness begins all over again on Monday!

Candy Corn Addition

So this is my first official blog! I can’t wait to start sharing ideas and posting teaching thoughts and happenings of my classroom.  I’m hoping this will help me remember some of the things my kids loved doing most, so I can repeat it again next year!

It is mid-October and my kiddos are LOVING all of our “Halloween themed” activities. Up first is our candy corn addition “craftivity” to show what we have been learning about addition with regrouping! I needed a cute October bulletin board and I think this one turned out great! I found a similar idea on Pinterest and modified it for second grade! (And of course, we ate some candy corns while we worked!)