A Peek at My Week

Hello loves!

I am back after a bit of a hiatus to link up with Mrs. Laffin's Linky Party. ( I actually meant to publish this on Saturday but then life got in the way. oops!)

Reading: This week our Treasures reading story of the week is The Strongest One. It is a fun reader's theatre about an ant who is trying to find out which animal is the strongest one only to realize that he is!  It is such a cute story and the kids will get a chance to act it out which this set of kids will love!!

Math: We are working on subtracting with regrouping, particularly across zeros. I pray for patience this week during math!!

Writing: We are actually brainstorming for our first narrative piece this week. We have spent the first eight weeks of school doing narrative projects such as the "If My Life Was An Island" project and "I am" project. My kiddos LOVED these units and their finished products turned out beautifully.

Here are some I AM finished products:

Here is our work board with all of the finished projects. Only one empty spot for my poor little girl who has been so sick that she has been absent for 6 days!

 

I created an "I Am" unit for you to use with your kiddos. Just hop over to my TpT store to enjoy!

Here is our finished bulletin board that is displaying some of our "If My Life Were an Island" projects

Close ups of some of the finished ones

 

 

I will post  the "If My Life Was An Island" project in my TpT store, hopefully this week. (fingers crossed)

Science: We will be discussing the Piedmont habitat of Georgia and students will be working in their groups to finish this section of their large Georgia poster. (pics coming this week as well)

Social Studies: We will continue discussing Paul Revere's importance in the American Revolution and the events that happened after the Revolutionary War (i.e. creation of the Constitution). Also, on Thursday, an actor playing the role of Paul Revere will be coming to the school for the kids to meet and ask questions. I am actually excited to see how the kids react to this.

That's all for my week! I will post more pictures ASAP! Join the linky party to share about your upcoming week!

Thanks!

Updates, Bookmarks, and a Freebie!

Oh my goodness! I haven't blogged in what seems like forever.

School started for me August 7th and I have been super busy and way to tired to blog. My kiddos this year are much different than my students last year. Last year my students entered third grade with the responsibility, street smarts. and book smarts of fifth graders. I seriously could be absent for a whole day and my kids could run the classroom just as smooth (if not smoother) than if I was there. They truly spoiled me.

This year, on the other hand, is another story. My kiddos this year are pure second graders who entered third grade like a deer in headlights. I, also, have about 7 special needs students this year: 2 severe ADD, 2 ESL students who primarily speak Korean and Spanish (Google Translate is my favorite app this year), 2 autistic children, and 1 partially blind child.  I love each and everyone of them, but it really is tiring and stressful making sure each of them gets their needs met, as well as the other children without special needs. I was supposed to begin my Specialist Degree last week, but with this school year and class, I decided that I need to devote all of my time making sure these kids and I survive have a great year.

Now on to my bookmarks:

I was inspired by a Pinterest pin that I cannot find for the life of me now! It was a bookmark that a teacher made for her students that had their names on it with cute ribbon. (if anyone may know what I am talking about, please help me out haha). Anyways, I decided to make cute bookmarks for my kiddos. First, I got these colorful laminated index cards that I had last year for behavior management. I decided to use these cards as their book marks. Then, I hole punched one hole into the side of the card and tied five different color ribbons to the hole. I printed each of my students names on labels and stuck them on to the card. Lastly, I made another label for my student's AR information. I hate having to constantly tell my students what their AR goals are so I decided that the back of the bookmark would be a great place to put this information. (I was going to link this to Monday Made It, but the weekly series stopped as had gone to a monthly linky party, so I just decided to blog about my bookmarks anyway). Here is the finished product:

I, as well  as my students, love them!

Freebie Alert!!!

We have been studying map skills this week, including continents and oceans. I checked out several atlases and books on continents from our school library. With these, I plan to group my students into 6 groups, and have each group research information about a specific continent (excluding Antarctica). They will then present their findings to the rest of the class. Below you will find the worksheets that I made for my kiddos to complete on each continent.

You can get your copy of each worksheet for FREE here.

Talk to you soon!

* Classroom Reveal*

As mentioned in my previous post, I have spent the past week working in my classroom getting it ready before we are actually required to come back to work. Wednesday is approaching mighty quickly!

Anyways, I have finally finished 95% of my classroom and I absolutely love it. My classroom is my place of solace and peace and I decorate it knowing that I will be in there 8-10 hours of the day. So prepare for a long post as you take a glimpse into my classroom....

 Here is a picture of the front of the room. (Well, it is kind of the side since my room is a hexagon, but oh well.) Here you will find the Promethean board, computer table/desk, student white boards, dry erase markers and erasers, as well as their fuzzy boxes, which will be in their desk on the first day of school. 

 

 

Here is the other side of the front of the room (behind my computer table/desk). My whiteboard has a pocket chart to host our IB unit information. There are also shaggy rugs and a pillow that I got from Big Lots for the kiddos to use. On the left of the pocket chart is my Compliment Party Bingo Board. A close up is below. How it works: when my students receive a legitimate compliment from another teacher or adult (legitimate meaning more than "they did good today"), the student of the week gets to pull a number card at random from a bag. They then get to cover that number on the board with a star. Once the class gets a diagonal, horizontal, or vertical row, they get to have a compliment party on the following Friday. My kids LOVE this board.

 

 

 In the corner next to the IB pocket chart is more IB information that must be posted in our classroom for us to refer to.

 

I finally made labels for my "Bathroom Buddies". I absolutely cannot stand when students ask me to go to the bathroom so I use Bathroom Buddies to solve this. All they do is take the hand sanitizer for their gender and place it on their desk. They go to the restroom, wash their hands there, then come back and sanitize their hands with the bathroom buddy for extra cleanliness. They then put it back next to the sink. This has helped in so many ways!! First, they don't ask me to go. Second, only one can go at a time. Third, I know where they are because I can scan the room and see if they are in the bathroom by looking to see if the buddy is on their desk. I beg encourage them not to use the bathroom buddies while I am giving instruction but if they must go, I always tell them that they are responsible for asking a peer what was missed.

 

 

Here is my math and science cabinet. Inside is chaos that I am too embarrassed to show. On the outside, however, are two spaces for behavior management. The left section is where our Essential Agreements (IB term for "rules") will be posted once we make them on the first day of school. On the right is where I will post the WBT callbacks that I frequently use in my classroom.  

 

Moving along..... This really is a long post.... Shout out to those who are still reading! This is my reading stations area. In the pocket chart, the students will find their task assignment in each station and in the right file folder hanger will be the materials they need for each task.

 

Also, I love love love love art! For the school wide art exhibition, each child had a piece of art that was displayed somewhere in the school for about a month. At the end of the year, several of my kiddos gave their art pieces to me and I put them above the reading stations area. I love them and think they added a lot of flair to my room.

 

Neatly labeled classroom supplies for the kiddos to use.
 

 

This bookshelf will hold my students Reading and ELA binders (hence the two empty shelves). On the top of the shelves is where they turn in their work and on the bottom is the resource shelf that holds thesauruses, dictionaries, atlases, and maps.

This shelf is in our library area and it holds our book bins (ice trays from Wal-mart)
 

 

My lovely little library. On the left are picture books and chapter books organized by series and author. On the right are books organized by genre.

 

 

This is my love wall. Seriously, every teacher should have one. It is behind my kidney table and is where I post all of my favorite pictures, notes, and cards from students, parents, and coworkers. I come here when its just one of those days and I need inspiration again. (FYI the stars are covering up cards that show my kiddos faces)

 

 

These are two more shelves, also behind my kidney table, that hold all of my resources, paperwork, small group materials, and junk. :) I am fortunate to have so many bookshelves in my classroom.

View from my kidney table. Yes, the student desks are uneven. Yes, this drives me crazy. Yes, this will be fixed before school.

 

Classroom Job Area next to the front door.

View from front door. I LOVE THE DECOR behind my classroom library shelves. It is the first thing people notice when they come in my room. I just have to put a quote on the green paper... when the die-cut machine is working.

 

Full view of the back of the room. All that I need to do is add birds to the tree but I can't do that until the student names are on them, which I cant do until I get my classroom list.
 

 

This is where my students go to get their "No Homework Form"(Post about this HERE) and their "Student Reflection Forms" for when a note must go home to tell their parents about their horrible, no good, very bad choices. These forms aren't in the folder yet. Still trying to tweak it from last year.

Well I hope you enjoyed this very long post and the glimpse into my room. Leave a comment telling me what you think. Talk to you soon.

10 Things I've Learned From Teaching Linky Party

I have been without cable and Internet for about a week due to my move to a new apartment. I have never been so happy to see a cable man in my life. I literally wanted to give him cupcakes when I heard the first sound of trashy reality TV blaring in my living room. I don't even watch that much TV but silence is deafening. I definitely need the background noise.

Needless to say, I spent a lot of time this past week working in my classroom. Exactly 8 days left of summer vacation. Can you believe how fast the summer went? I will hopefully post my classroom reveal later this week. :)

In the meantime, I saw the 10 Things I've Learned From Teaching linky party and thought it was too cute not to join. This will be my fourth year teaching and these are the

1. I really like teaching math. I was not a fan of math when I was a kid, but I absolutely love teaching it. The manipulatives, interactive notebooks, games... love it.

2. The classics I enjoyed as a kid are completely irrelevant to my students. One of my students was tattling gently informing me of another kid's misbehavior, and I told her to "Hakuna Matata".  She looked at me like I had three heads o_0. I then asked her if she ever saw the Lion King. She said no. I then, surveyed the class and only 4 out of 22 children have seen The Lion King. Four!!!! What a wasted childhood! Therefore, the following Fun Friday we watched the entire movie.  Common Core aligned activity, nope. Much needed activity, absolutely.

3. I am pretty in the eyes of most eight year olds. I have relatively adequate self confidence, but my students really make me feel like a model. I don't complain. Keep the compliments coming!

4. I have horrible grammar skills. I cringe when I have to teach grammar. I know that seems to be blasphemy as a teacher, but sometimes I just don't know the appropriate use of drink, drank and drunk. Don't judge me.

5. I don't like when students stand. When other students are sitting and one is standing, I have a small freak out. Standing gives me major anxiety. Weird? Yep.

6. My classroom is my place of solace. I think I love being there more than my own home sometimes. Glad I'm not charged rent. haha.

7. "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry". I am a compulsive planner. I literally have the first 3 weeks of school lesson plans already created and copies already copied. I know, however, that 30% of those plans won't happen. Got to love erasable pens!

8. Your coworkers are your friends and therapists. My "outside of work" friends underestimate the stress that teachers have. I am glad to have wonderful coworkers who just get it.

9. If I start any lesson with a story, video, or a joke, I have instantly hooked most of my kids into probably the most boring lesson ever (i.e. layers of soil.  Really, my third graders could really care less about this.)

10. I influence about 9 months of a child's life. Doesn't sound like much in the grand scheme of things, but 9 months can change a child's whole perspective on life, friendship, school, and responsibility.  I will never take those 9 months for granted.

I am exited to learn more as I continue on my teaching journey. Head to Miss Kindergarten's blog and join the party.

And the winners are.....

 

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway for the Erin Condren discount code. As promised, I chose, at random two entries and the winners are....

Congrats Danielle and Sarah! I will be contacting you through your email with the discount code!
Hope you love your Erin Condren product as much as I love mine!