"Winter" Break

Winter break is here!! (although with no snow and 50 degree weather it hardly feels like winter in Chicago)  But now that we've had a few days to recover & breathe, I thought it'd be fun to share how room 14 got in the Christmas spirit and made it through the last week before break.

A huge THANK YOU to Erica Butler for creating such a fitting teaching resource. Click here to get your copy! This was one of our most exciting weeks so far.  Let met break it down a little farther :)

Monday - We introduced Polar Express Week by passing out boarding passes as the kiddos came to the rug. Nothing like a dramatic hook to get the students interested & excite about the week!!
     *file to adjective vs. Noun sort to come
     *files for this week's ELA resources to come 

Tuesday - Questions about what we were doing in science? This week we finished our unit on matter. As soon as I'm sick of teaching it, I know they're sick of learning it! So we jazzed it up by relating it to Olaf today. We sang "In Summer" and built our own winter/summer Olaf friends.

 

Wednesday - Continuing our Polar Express Week, but my friends are getting a little excited and I'm feeling run down.  *Special trick/tip* Play some Christmas instrumental jazz softly in the background & use those quiet critters! Simple reminders to stay calm (without using your voice) make all the difference.

Thursday - Hot chocolate parrrrtayyyy!! WhootWhoot! As we made our coco, we took photos and discussed our mixtures as reversible/irreversible. (*lesson plan to come) Take a look at our anchor chart.

        

                           *photo of anchor chart to come

After our hot chocolate party, all of 2nd grade got together to watch Polar Express in the library. When we returned to our classes....AHHH!!!!! Santa left us each a bell from his sleigh. As a thank you, we sang jingle bells zipped them up safely in our backpacks :)

Friday - Phew.... we did it!!! In addition to our Polar Express Friday, we had our class party. We have the most creative moms to help. We shoveled "snow" (marshmallows) into cups with "shovels" (chop sticks) and timed ourselves, played winter charades, but mostly had a blast!

Happy 1st day of WINTER!

Daily 5 Rotations

Daily 5. Daily 5. Daily 5... I have really been anxious to organize the way I do Daily 5. I decided to start with how to organize the rotations.

Here is a picture of the PowerPoint I made for my "Rotation Organization" (Oh gosh I love making rhymes for the word "rotation"...I feel like it rhymes with everything). I this slide set up on a timer This 1st rotation shows for 15 minutes.

Once the 15 minutes are up, the students here the 'Chime' over the AppleTV and this screen shows up for 30 seconds. Trust me...having the timer is such a blessing!!!! no need to watch that clock ;) 

Now don't freak! No...you do not see "read to someone". This year I am going to incorporate buddy reading after lunch/recess. I think it'll be great for the sweeties to work with students outside of their Daily 5 groups.

I do 2 rotations of Daily 5 a day. So I have another slide (like the first one); and because I group my students according to levels, I just rotate the text boxes with their names in them. (Makes life easier!!)

My last slide has the students reflect on the focus and effort they put into their stations. We always regroup at the end and reflect.....and sometimes this is the perfect time to have a class meeting to review expectations. 

Getting sick of the pocket charts and interested in making your own? This video is brilliant. I hope you'll find it just as helpful!! 

  

 

Book Bin Labels

Hey guys!!! OK my TpT site is up and running. I'm super excited. I have lots of fun ideas I'm thrilled to share, but I need to be honest. Posting things on TpT has been intimidating! I would NEVER want to infringe on someone's copyright or trademarks, but I also don't know how to make my own clip art yet....so I read everyone's TOUs super carefully and I am honored to give them credit. I just pulled things together, in hopes it will save you some time and be helpful in your classrooms. So thank you to all my creative clipart friends. Check out the download for their links!

Back to my TpT site. My first item is a free download for Book Bin Labels.

Some of you might find this cute and helpful, especially if your classroom as limited storage for books. So...I'm trying this new organization this year. I have crates from Walmart that I store my display books, or books I use for lessons/read alouds. Each crate, or bin, is organized by the different times of year (Back to School, Fall, Winter, Spring, End of the Year).  I plan to use these labels on the front of my crates.

Graduations and Celebrations

Well HELLO summerrrr!!! If you're on the same page as me.... you're sleeping in a bit, crafting, finding time for yoga and the gym, and binge watching your favorite shows. Good for you, because if your also like me you are working on things for the upcoming school year as well! I'm so excited to post some of the things I have been working on.

In the mean time, this is the time of year graduation parties and many celebrations.  Here's a gift idea. Feel free to grab the tag (and similar ones) from my upcoming TeachersPayTeachers site this week!

 

 I'll be honest. Hallowing the bulb was challenging. Here's the video I had for help :) 

Hollow Light Bulb Help

BUCKETS of Fun!

AHHH!! I'm so excited about my end of the year gift for the sweet seconds :) If you're anything like me, I read these cute ideas on Pinterest. I make lists about where to get the supplies, but when I get to the dollar spot at Target...they are sold out! Luckily this year I bought these buckets a few weeks in advance, with exactly 24 in stock (Phew). I'm also excited about these cute tags I made too!

Monday and Tuesday left to go....

(Graphics for the tags by Graphics from the Pond, Lovin Lit, and Teaching Super Power)

Race towards the End

Oh gosh! We are in the race towards the end of the school year, in room 14. With 3 days left, we have started to collect student texts, pass back all portfolios, clean/pack up the room.........

It has been such a cool experience to have my own classroom and students for the first time. I just adore the kids to pieces, but in all honesty, I'm ready for a second year. The list of things to change, update, and add is pages long!!! (Type A: perfectionist) I'm so excited and thankful for all that this year's students have taught me. I will forever love these students that God hand picked for me.

As the race towards the ends continues, I have tried to shift my thinking to crafting outside of my classroom. I made this wreath for mother's day and am pretty proud. Truth be told, I love wreathes. I think there are so many creative ideas out there and this one cost less than $15 :)

(idea from The Thrifty Couple)

hose - thrift store

ribbon & butterflies - Hobby Lobby

flowers & gloves - Dollar Tree

hose ends - Home Depot

Room Mom Gifts

Two posts in one day. I've been busy trying to stay creative, as an outlet from the end of year marathon. Tonight I drew up some thank you labels on PowerPoint. It's been such a whirlwind of excitement and busyness. It's time to appreciate all the volunteers and moms that have helped throughout the year.

 Here are my simple, but fun, items for their gift bags.