Word Work Worksheets

I had a lot of interest in my Word Work activities that I posted about yesterday.  I got to work and revised the worksheets that I use with my students.  I use these in the classroom and sometimes for homework as well.  They work for Daily 5 centers as well as spelling.

It's available in both of my stores now!

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Word Work

This post can now be found over at The Colorful Apple.  Click here to check it out!

One Year Later

Last year at this time, I was dancing the night away with my new husband...

Today is our one year anniversary!

My dad walking me down the aisle.

I had my brother make my husband-to-be a Yoda grooms cake for our rehearsal dinner.  We had to cut into his head!

It was an amazing weekend of family, friends and fun that I'll remember forever.

In classroom news...

I used to have this closet.  It was a scary closet.  I didn't open it.  It looked like this:

Then I worked hard to make it look like this:

And today?  Well that bottom shelf collapsed.  Out of sheer strain from all.that.paper.  And it made me bleed.  It was not a good day, closet-wise.

Poetry in Our Classroom

I love using poetry in the classroom, but sometimes it feels like there isn't enough time!  I started by giving each student a poetry journal for their book bag:

Each week we cut out our poem, color it in and then glue it in our notebooks.

We would practice the poem when I handed it out and that would be it.  The students could read the poems during Independent Reading.

This year, I decided that wasn't enough.  I am going to create a poster for each poem and we now recite the poem together during Morning Meeting. 

 On a random note,  I decided to clean out underneath my kids cubbies.  They haven't been cleaned since I moved into the classroom 4 1/2 years ago.  Talk about wasted space!  And talk about your dusty materials - eww!

Here's the before picture:

And the after:

I was prompted to do this when my students were trying to put away their Fun Friday materials above the cubbies (and wayy above their heads).  I was so impressed and proud of them for taking care of their materials!  But I was a little nervous that the game boxes were going to pop open and rain down on their heads.  Right then, I decided I wanted to dedicate the bottom of these cubbies to materials that they can use during this free time:

So much better!  Way cleaner and much easier for my students to reach.

Behavior Linky Party!

I'm linking up with What the Teacher Wants! to share how I manage behavior in my classroom.

Since I started teaching (a whopping 3 years ago), I have used a clip chart to track students behavior.  Here is an awful picture of it:

Each student has a clothespin with their class number on it.  All the students begin their day on the color green.  If a student shows positive behavior, they move their clip down to blue.  If they show more positive behavior, they move it down to the superstar.  The same goes for the other direction.  If a student is showing behavior that is not so positive, they move their clip to yellow, then orange, then red if the behavior continues.  

The students only move their clips one block at a time.  For example, if they are on green and do something good, I'll say "move your clip down" and they move it to blue.  However, if they then show a negative behavior, I will say move your clip up and their clip only goes to green.  The clips move a lot during the day, which show the students that their behavior is important all day long.

At the end of the day, the students fill out their behavior charts.  They have a weekly or monthly calendar with smiley faces.  Each student must color in their smiley face for the day that corresponds to where their clip is at the end of the day.

As you can tell from the picture, I use a lot of positive reinforcement in my class.  It is a rare day when a student moves past yellow.  If I see a child behaving incorrectly, I will praise the students around him/her for doing the correct thing.  It usually gets their attention!

At the end of the year this year, I decided to toss my clip chart.  It was falling apart and completely faded.  I wanted to stick with the same concept though.  The only thing I wanted to change was to move their clip up for positive behavior and down for negative behavior instead of vice versa.  I also wanted to add some word reminders on the posters.

Here is the brand new clip chart:

Yes, on my kitchen table.  I don't go into school much during the summer.  And, yes, it's polka dots!

You can grab it in my stores: 

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*I have an updated version as well, look for it soon in my stores!*

Additionally, I use a whole class system as well.  The students start the week off with 20 minutes towards Fun Friday.  As a class, they can earn or lose minutes depending on their behaviors.  If the whole class is quiet in the hall, for example, they earn a minute.  Anytime they earn a compliment from another staff member, they earn a minute.  However, if they can't quiet down to listen to directions, they might lose a minute.

At the end of the week, the students are given free time on Friday.  They are allowed to use pattern blocks, computers, puzzles, etc for the amount of time that they earned [if they finished all their work].  Works like a charm!

Phew, that was a lot of information.  Are you still with me?  What does behavior management look like in your classroom?

What Do I Write About?

"I don't know what to write about!"  

Is that a common complaint in your classroom?  I created a graphic organizer for my students to fill in with writing topics that matter to them.  We fill in the chart at the beginning of the school year and they keep it in their Writing Folders all year.

Any time a student comes up to tell me that they have no ideas for Writer's Workshop, I tell them to check their chart:

Usually, at least something jumps out at them and they are off and writing!

Check it out for free in my {TpT} store!

I'm linking this freebie up with: 

Learning the Facts with a Donation

One of the most important concepts in the Math Common Core for second graders is fact fluency.  They need to have those facts memorized!  I put together a product to help the students practice and to keep track of how the students are doing.

You start with a binder:

Inside, is a chart for the whole class.  Each time a student successfully memorizes a fact set, the teacher marks it off on the classroom chart.  It is a quick visual to see where each student stands.

I created a tab for each student:

Behind each tab, is a page for each set of facts.  I test the students in one set of facts each week.  I check off the facts that they get correct.

If a student gets all the facts right twice, they bump up to the next set of facts.  If they get one or more wrong, they get to take home a set of flash cards to study from the file bin:

Here are the flash cards that I use to test the students:

And I organized them in an index card bin:

Check it out!

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Today, my husband and I participated in our 8th Walk to Defeat ALS walk together: 

We met at the walk 8 years ago.  A few months prior, my grandfather had passed away from ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.  A couple years later, his father passed away from this horrible disease.  Needless to say, it is a cause near and dear to our hearts.

Since I finished my "Who Knows the Facts?" product today, I am going to donate all the proceeds that I make from this product through the end of September to the ALS Association of RI.  Please consider purchasing it, if only to donate to this cause.  I thank you so much!

Monday Made-It!

I had a dilemma this year.  I started using the back wall of my classroom for our schedule and our Morning Message/notes board. My back wall, however, is a folding wall, so the white board does not have a ledge.  Where to put my markers and schedule cards?  

I used to have a plastic magnetic box, but I left a white board eraser in it over the summer and the eraser melted to the plastic - eww.  That idea was out the window.  Then I found this at Target on clearance: 

And, while I believe in peace, I'm not lovin the pastel peace signs for my classroom.  Time to paint!

Ok, so the orange (after 2 coats) didn't work out so well.  I decided to go with a dark blue and then cover it in polka dots to match my classroom!

So excited to hang them up in my classroom today!

Classroom Scavenger Hunt Freebie!

An activity that I have done every year with my students is a Classroom Scavenger Hunt.  I always do it the first few days of school to help the students get acclimated to their new classroom.  I have the students work with a friend and they walk around the classroom with a clipboard looking for things that fit the different categories.

Here are my kiddos in action this year:

They did such a great job working together!  I give them about 15-20 minutes to work on it.  If they finish early, I challenge them to find another thing in the classroom that fits each category.  I also let them know that it is okay if they don't finish.  At the end, I call them all to the rug and we go over some of the answers together.  A lot of times, they come up with things that I hadn't even thought of!

You can pick up this freebie in my {TpT} store!

        

I'm linking this freebie up with: 

I also decided to jazz up my Classroom Jobs a bit.  Here is a {really bad} picture of my jobs from last year: 

I display all the jobs on the board and each student has their own classroom number (which I use for everything!).  At the beginning of each month, I take down all the numbers and randomly call the students to change their job.  They then keep their job for the whole month.  I make sure they choose a job that they haven't already had so that everyone gets a chance to try something new.  I also let the students know they might not be able to do every job.  I've never had an issue with it!

In the packet, I included small job cards, large job cards, student numbers and teacher checklists to keep track of which student has done each job.

Check it out!

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Open House

**Visit The Colorful Apple for an UPDATED version of this post!**

Hi all!  I've been MIA for quite some time now...it must be back to school time!  It was a bit of a challenging back to school this year, for a variety of reasons.  But my class was wonderful yesterday so I think we are going to have a great year!

Thursday night was Open House, so I wanted to share some  a lot of  pictures!  I borrowed a LOT of these ideas from fellow bloggers and Pinterest.  I will share where I got my inspiration from, although it might not be the original source.

Welcome to Open House!

This is the entrance to my room on Open House night.

The banner came from The School Supply Addict for free!  My resource teacher told me I should keep it up all year, what do you think?

This was out in the hallway:

The students created flowers were all of their favorite things in them.  I created the poster with Tagxedo.  Our school mascot is the SuperStar and it has all the kids names in it!

We created a Who Am I board:

I got this bulletin board idea from Surfing Through Second.

The students wrote a few clues about themselves and then drew a picture:

Underneath the flap, I pasted a picture of the student holding their name:

{another teacher told me the pictures looked like mug shots - oops!}

The kids had the best time making their parents guess which one was theirs.

Check out my information table!

My magnets with contact information from VistaPrint were a big hit!

Open House is always kind of rushed and parents are coming and going all night, so I don't really have an opportunity to make a presentation so I put all my information into a brochure for parents to take:

The apples in the top left of the table came from:

                                                                        Source: mrsterhune.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

Here is my version:

The bookmarks idea came from:

                                                              Source: aplacecalledkindergarten.blogspot.com via Nancy on Pinterest

Here are mine:

Clipart by Scrappin Doodles

I had the students write letters to their parents to leave on their desks:

This came from The Teacher Wife and it was also free!  I was so glad that I had it, because my students desperately needed the prompts this year.  My original idea was just to write a letter from scratch but that wasn't going to happen!

I thought about leaving a paper for parents to write back to their child, but most students come with their parents so I decided it wasn't worth it.

Here are some classroom pictures that aren't related to Open House, but I wanted to share!

I made some new bathroom passes and the kids love them!

Clipart by Scrappin Doodles

Here is the original pin:

                                                                 Source: 3rd-grade-thoughts.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

I also created a classroom timeline to put on our {very plain} closet doors:

Clipart by Scrappin Doodles

My goal is take at least a few pictures each month and hang them up on our wall.  I got this cool idea from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers.

And, lastly, the sweet chair one of my friends made for me!

She bought the chair from a consignment shop and painted it for me!  I put it right next to the table she made for me last year.  My kids {and principal} love it!  One kid told me it looked like Play-Dough.  Um, okay!

**UPDATE**
I've created an Open House packet for your classroom!  Open House is a Hoot is my owl-themed packet!  Click on the pictures to check it out!