Second grade freebie!

Since I promised myself I wasn't going back to school before I have to on Tuesday, I decided to spend my time re-organizing the files on my computer, which, frankly, has turned into a bit of a mess since I've been playing on it and creating things all summer long.  I was so amazed at all the stuff I found!  I had some fun reading some of my papers I had written in college and thinking "Wow!  Look at all those big words I used!"  Anyway, I ran across my Second Grade file from my first year of teaching and all the goodies I made then.  Because I can't really use them now in Kinder Land, I am giving away some of my grammar posters as a freebie on my TPT site!  Click to grab them now!

I printed these off, backed and laminated them, then used them as a reference for my kiddos when I was introducing a new grammar skill.  After the week of intro was over, I moved them to a different part of my room where the kids could use them as they completed a literacy center about the skill the next week.  Hope they become useful for you!  

Since I promised myself I wasn't going back to school before I have to on Tuesday, I decided to spend my time re-organizing the files on my computer, which, frankly, has turned into a bit of a mess since I've been playing on it and creating things all summer long.  I was so amazed at all the stuff I found!  I had some fun reading some of my papers I had written in college and thinking "Wow!  Look at all those big words I used!"  Anyway, I ran across my Second Grade file from my first year of teaching and all the goodies I made then.  Because I can't really use them now in Kinder Land, I am giving away some of my grammar posters as a freebie on my TPT site!  Click to grab them now!

I printed these off, backed and laminated them, then used them as a reference for my kiddos when I was introducing a new grammar skill.  After the week of intro was over, I moved them to a different part of my room where the kids could use them as they completed a literacy center about the skill the next week.  Hope they become useful for you!  

Classroom Sneak Peek #1 and a Freebie!

Whew!  I officially go back to school on Tuesday, but I feel like I have not stopped doing school stuff all summer long!  Not complaining though - I love creating materials and organizing my classroom.  As promised, here is a link to the new Math Journals I've been working on.  These fit on Avery 5160/8160 labels, so you don't have to cut them apart and deal with kiddos using globs of glue on them, then inevitably sticking the pages of their journal together.

Now, on to the classroom tour!  I only took a few full room shots while I was at school, but will upload more specific pics showing my centers and teaching areas later.  Here is my door, with my new Where Are We? sign (grab it by clicking on the pic!).  

This is the view when you first walk in the door.  Cubbies are on the right and my "Information Wall" is on the left.  The blue shelf is where kiddos will put their lunch boxes, folders, name badges, and the clipboard we have to carry to special areas and lunch.

This is a close up of my "information wall."  On the right is my How We Get Home chart (available for free on my TPT page).  The middle is my Wish List where parents can take a candy cut out and send in the item listed on it (I'm still adding to it).  The left is my class helper chart.  I have little cupcakes with each student's name on them and velcro on the back to stick to the "plates."

Stepping in to the classroom a little more, you see the student's tables.  I LOVE the chair pockets.  Our Kindergarten has an Intervention Aide who sews in her spare time and she was kind enough to make these (and my curtains) for me!

Here is a shot of my reading table with my teacher stuff in the back.  The yellow pocket chart on the wall is how I rotate my students through literacy centers.  I put their names beside a letter (A-J) and then move the letters down when they need to switch centers.  

More teacher stuff goes on this counter, which is right beside my reading table.  Ignore the fan!  It's in my room still from when we painted the walls before school got out!  The purple pocket charts on the wall is where I will assign students to go to math stations.  These are numbered, while my literacy centers are lettered, so I don't confuse myself!    Hanging from the side of the counter is my new Brownie Points tray that I saw on Pinterest!  I am so excited about this!  Each time they get a whole class compliment, they get to add a (paper with a magnet on the back) brownie to the tray.  When the tray is full, they get something special.  Still haven't figured out the something special...any ideas?

Bulletin board behind the reading table (not quite finished!).  The left has symbols for my reading groups (cupcake, popsicle, ice cream and candy) and the student names will be put beside their reading group.  The right side has signs for punctuation and noun, verb, and adjectives at the top (found somewhere on Pinterest...)  and the green poster is a Story Map that we can add post its to in order to describe our story we are reading.  I'm also going to add a Schema poster (to add post its to as well) and an academic vocabulary poster (from one of Kim Adsit's packs...check it out here).  Above are my ice cream scoop number words (available here on my TPT site).

Here is my carpet area.  It's to the right of my reading table.  In the far corner is my classroom library.  On the back wall is my word wall.  

Here is a shot facing the outside door.  You can see my writing center on the left.   

This is kind of a management wall.  The blue pocket chart will be home to my class partners.  This is something new I'll try this year - assign each kiddo a partner, so when we have an activity that they need to do with a buddy, they always know who to go with.  Hoping this will eliminate some of those partnerships they choose sometimes that may not be such good ideas!  I also have the common core standard posters from Deanna Jump and the gumball machine will be where I will put info so the kids know what we are doing that week, such as sight words we are working on, math skill words, etc.

That's all for now!  I'll take more pics when I go back on Tuesday.  I promised myself I wouldn't be back before then, but we will see if I can stay away that long!  

Whew!  I officially go back to school on Tuesday, but I feel like I have not stopped doing school stuff all summer long!  Not complaining though - I love creating materials and organizing my classroom.  As promised, here is a link to the new Math Journals I've been working on.  These fit on Avery 5160/8160 labels, so you don't have to cut them apart and deal with kiddos using globs of glue on them, then inevitably sticking the pages of their journal together.

Now, on to the classroom tour!  I only took a few full room shots while I was at school, but will upload more specific pics showing my centers and teaching areas later.  Here is my door, with my new Where Are We? sign (grab it by clicking on the pic!).  

This is the view when you first walk in the door.  Cubbies are on the right and my "Information Wall" is on the left.  The blue shelf is where kiddos will put their lunch boxes, folders, name badges, and the clipboard we have to carry to special areas and lunch.

This is a close up of my "information wall."  On the right is my How We Get Home chart (available for free on my TPT page).  The middle is my Wish List where parents can take a candy cut out and send in the item listed on it (I'm still adding to it).  The left is my class helper chart.  I have little cupcakes with each student's name on them and velcro on the back to stick to the "plates."

Stepping in to the classroom a little more, you see the student's tables.  I LOVE the chair pockets.  Our Kindergarten has an Intervention Aide who sews in her spare time and she was kind enough to make these (and my curtains) for me!

Here is a shot of my reading table with my teacher stuff in the back.  The yellow pocket chart on the wall is how I rotate my students through literacy centers.  I put their names beside a letter (A-J) and then move the letters down when they need to switch centers.  

More teacher stuff goes on this counter, which is right beside my reading table.  Ignore the fan!  It's in my room still from when we painted the walls before school got out!  The purple pocket charts on the wall is where I will assign students to go to math stations.  These are numbered, while my literacy centers are lettered, so I don't confuse myself!    Hanging from the side of the counter is my new Brownie Points tray that I saw on Pinterest!  I am so excited about this!  Each time they get a whole class compliment, they get to add a (paper with a magnet on the back) brownie to the tray.  When the tray is full, they get something special.  Still haven't figured out the something special...any ideas?

Bulletin board behind the reading table (not quite finished!).  The left has symbols for my reading groups (cupcake, popsicle, ice cream and candy) and the student names will be put beside their reading group.  The right side has signs for punctuation and noun, verb, and adjectives at the top (found somewhere on Pinterest...)  and the green poster is a Story Map that we can add post its to in order to describe our story we are reading.  I'm also going to add a Schema poster (to add post its to as well) and an academic vocabulary poster (from one of Kim Adsit's packs...check it out here).  Above are my ice cream scoop number words (available here on my TPT site).

Here is my carpet area.  It's to the right of my reading table.  In the far corner is my classroom library.  On the back wall is my word wall.  

Here is a shot facing the outside door.  You can see my writing center on the left.   

This is kind of a management wall.  The blue pocket chart will be home to my class partners.  This is something new I'll try this year - assign each kiddo a partner, so when we have an activity that they need to do with a buddy, they always know who to go with.  Hoping this will eliminate some of those partnerships they choose sometimes that may not be such good ideas!  I also have the common core standard posters from Deanna Jump and the gumball machine will be where I will put info so the kids know what we are doing that week, such as sight words we are working on, math skill words, etc.

That's all for now!  I'll take more pics when I go back on Tuesday.  I promised myself I wouldn't be back before then, but we will see if I can stay away that long!  

Back to work!

I have spent a few days this week working in my classroom.  We don't actually have to go back until August 7, but I've found that those teacher inservice/work days are NOT the time to try to get your classroom together.  Instead, I like to get it completely ready BEFORE we are even supposed to go back, so I can deal with all those extras that come flying my way during that first teacher week back.  Anyway, I promise more pics will find their way here soon, but for now here are two pics and a freebie.  First up is that completely finished (except for student names!) behavior chart I was so jazzed about earlier:

  

I just love how it turned out!  The second pic has a freebie with it.  Have you seen this thing on Pinterest?  It's such a fabulous idea:

I know last year I did the typical poster and wrote on it how my kiddos go home.  By the end of the year, it was pretty much completely wrong, because for some reason, this Kinder teacher just never could find the time to change it when a kiddo started going home a different way!  Imagine that!  Hopefully this will help me keep my act together since all I'll have to do is move a clothespin when a car rider becomes a bus rider.  Click the image to get it at my TPT store.  That's all for now!

I have spent a few days this week working in my classroom.  We don't actually have to go back until August 7, but I've found that those teacher inservice/work days are NOT the time to try to get your classroom together.  Instead, I like to get it completely ready BEFORE we are even supposed to go back, so I can deal with all those extras that come flying my way during that first teacher week back.  Anyway, I promise more pics will find their way here soon, but for now here are two pics and a freebie.  First up is that completely finished (except for student names!) behavior chart I was so jazzed about earlier:

  

I just love how it turned out!  The second pic has a freebie with it.  Have you seen this thing on Pinterest?  It's such a fabulous idea:

I know last year I did the typical poster and wrote on it how my kiddos go home.  By the end of the year, it was pretty much completely wrong, because for some reason, this Kinder teacher just never could find the time to change it when a kiddo started going home a different way!  Imagine that!  Hopefully this will help me keep my act together since all I'll have to do is move a clothespin when a car rider becomes a bus rider.  Click the image to get it at my TPT store.  That's all for now!

Math Anchor Charts

I went to an inservice last summer on Math Workshops and one of the activities we had to do was to, in groups, create an anchor chart on some math topic that we could duplicate with our class.  After everyone made their charts and shared, they were placed on tables in the back for us to look at.  This was last year and I am just now figuring out a way to get the pictures off my phone so that they might actually be useful!  First up is graphing - tally marks and bar graphs:

Numbers, number words and quantities:

Different ways to sort (I love the illustrations on this one!):

Basic addition:  

Different ways to make ten.  I liked this one so much that I made a flip chart for my ActivBoard where you can plug in any number from 0-10.  Get it for free at my TPT store!

I liked that one so much that I tweaked it for Kindergarten and made a flip chart for my ActivBoard where you can plug in any number from 0-10.  Click this image to get it for free at my TPT store!

Ok back to the charts...Comparing numbers - More and fewer:

Patterns (I really like how this tells all the different things you can use to make a pattern):

And subtraction:

Ok, this one was a little different.  The people who made it said to make it on a paper grocery bag and hang it from a hanger that has clips on it.  Then each kiddo can make their own on a paper lunch sack and place manipulatives inside.  LOVE this idea!  It makes the aspect of an anchor chart so much more engaging and personal.  

Well there you go!  It only took me a year, but now these wonderful ideas have finally left my phone and will hopefully be useful to someone!  Thank you to all those people who made these wonderful charts!

I went to an inservice last summer on Math Workshops and one of the activities we had to do was to, in groups, create an anchor chart on some math topic that we could duplicate with our class.  After everyone made their charts and shared, they were placed on tables in the back for us to look at.  This was last year and I am just now figuring out a way to get the pictures off my phone so that they might actually be useful!  First up is graphing - tally marks and bar graphs:

Numbers, number words and quantities:

Different ways to sort (I love the illustrations on this one!):

Basic addition:  

Different ways to make ten.  I liked this one so much that I made a flip chart for my ActivBoard where you can plug in any number from 0-10.  Get it for free at my TPT store!

I liked that one so much that I tweaked it for Kindergarten and made a flip chart for my ActivBoard where you can plug in any number from 0-10.  Click this image to get it for free at my TPT store!

Ok back to the charts...Comparing numbers - More and fewer:

Patterns (I really like how this tells all the different things you can use to make a pattern):

And subtraction:

Ok, this one was a little different.  The people who made it said to make it on a paper grocery bag and hang it from a hanger that has clips on it.  Then each kiddo can make their own on a paper lunch sack and place manipulatives inside.  LOVE this idea!  It makes the aspect of an anchor chart so much more engaging and personal.  

Well there you go!  It only took me a year, but now these wonderful ideas have finally left my phone and will hopefully be useful to someone!  Thank you to all those people who made these wonderful charts!

New Behavior Chart and Freebies!

So my next project of the summer was revamping my behavior chart.  Last year I used the basic daily  red, yellow, green clip chart with an "Outstanding" purple level at the top for those kiddos who were having an Outstanding day.  The problem with this:  I always forgot to have someone "move up to purple," so it didn't really have that positive reinforcement value.  The year before (teaching 2nd grade), I used library pockets with cards: 2 green, 2 blue, 2 yellow, 1 red and it lasted all week.  The problem with this:  forgetting at the end of the week what kiddos were on when I marked behavior charts and what exactly they had done to make it to their "second blue."  So, with a little inspiration from one of my coworkers, I'm trying yet another behavior chart this year.  Drumroll, please....

Going back to library pockets (except these were made by my Cricut and are actually open envelopes) with a twist.  This time I have these also:

Tiny buckets from the Target Dollar Spot!  Each bucket will have colored popsicle sticks in it that match the bucket - red sticks in the red bucket, green sticks in the green bucket, etc.  Each color represents a different place where students could get into mischief - classroom, lunch, hallway, special areas, recess.  I am hoping the color coding of "put a stick in your pocket" will help solve another problem - remembering what a student did to get in trouble!  By the end of the day last year, if it was a particularly "eventful" behavioral day, I sometimes had difficulty remembering which little darling did what to get their clip on yellow!  Hopefully this will help me remember - if they have a green lunch stick, I can probably make a good guess on what they did.  Now, my printer is low on ink right now (and I'm waiting on a printer ink sale to occur), but each bucket will be labelled with one of those places I mentioned earlier.  Here's the file if you want to use it:

Click here to download this freebie!

 The link to the freebie also has a half sheet to send home if a student has a really troublesome day.  I'm thinking three sticks deserves a note home that has to be signed and returned.  

 

I used something similar to this last year and LOVED it because it's just a few checks to let parents know what happened to their sweetie that day, instead of writing a whole long detailed letter.  Also included in the packet is a "Today I went to red because..." in case you use that system.  

Now, I loved the idea of "moving to purple" like I had last year, but just wished I actually used it.  This is my positive reinforcement plan for this year: I think I'm going to choose one student per day to send home a "happy note" with to let parents know that they had a SUPER day.  This is also in the freebie:

I'm going to run it on fun, bright colored paper and stick it in the take home folder of one AWESOME student at the end of the day.  So that's my new classroom behavior plan, we will see how it goes!  I'll be sure to post pics of the chart and buckets when they make their way to my wall!  Any classroom behavior plans you use that you love?

So my next project of the summer was revamping my behavior chart.  Last year I used the basic daily  red, yellow, green clip chart with an "Outstanding" purple level at the top for those kiddos who were having an Outstanding day.  The problem with this:  I always forgot to have someone "move up to purple," so it didn't really have that positive reinforcement value.  The year before (teaching 2nd grade), I used library pockets with cards: 2 green, 2 blue, 2 yellow, 1 red and it lasted all week.  The problem with this:  forgetting at the end of the week what kiddos were on when I marked behavior charts and what exactly they had done to make it to their "second blue."  So, with a little inspiration from one of my coworkers, I'm trying yet another behavior chart this year.  Drumroll, please....

Going back to library pockets (except these were made by my Cricut and are actually open envelopes) with a twist.  This time I have these also:

Tiny buckets from the Target Dollar Spot!  Each bucket will have colored popsicle sticks in it that match the bucket - red sticks in the red bucket, green sticks in the green bucket, etc.  Each color represents a different place where students could get into mischief - classroom, lunch, hallway, special areas, recess.  I am hoping the color coding of "put a stick in your pocket" will help solve another problem - remembering what a student did to get in trouble!  By the end of the day last year, if it was a particularly "eventful" behavioral day, I sometimes had difficulty remembering which little darling did what to get their clip on yellow!  Hopefully this will help me remember - if they have a green lunch stick, I can probably make a good guess on what they did.  Now, my printer is low on ink right now (and I'm waiting on a printer ink sale to occur), but each bucket will be labelled with one of those places I mentioned earlier.  Here's the file if you want to use it:

Click here to download this freebie!

 The link to the freebie also has a half sheet to send home if a student has a really troublesome day.  I'm thinking three sticks deserves a note home that has to be signed and returned.  

 

I used something similar to this last year and LOVED it because it's just a few checks to let parents know what happened to their sweetie that day, instead of writing a whole long detailed letter.  Also included in the packet is a "Today I went to red because..." in case you use that system.  

Now, I loved the idea of "moving to purple" like I had last year, but just wished I actually used it.  This is my positive reinforcement plan for this year: I think I'm going to choose one student per day to send home a "happy note" with to let parents know that they had a SUPER day.  This is also in the freebie:

I'm going to run it on fun, bright colored paper and stick it in the take home folder of one AWESOME student at the end of the day.  So that's my new classroom behavior plan, we will see how it goes!  I'll be sure to post pics of the chart and buckets when they make their way to my wall!  Any classroom behavior plans you use that you love?