Saturday, August 31, 2013

Five for Friday {A Little Late}

Hey everyone! I'm a little late to the party this week, but I made it! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for her fabulous linky Five for Friday. It has been a whirlwind these past three and a half weeks of school. I know y'all can relate! Oh, and yes, I have been back at school for about a month now. Dang we start EARLY down here in the south! 

Anyways... I'm doing my five random posts a little different this week. Since these first weeks of school have drained me empty {thank goodness for a three day weekend}, and I kept forgetting my camera at home,  I'm linking up Instagram style. Oh my good ole IPhone...

1. First up, I've already changed the way my desks were arranged... twice. I always forget how talkative these little babies can be at the beginning of the school year. They just weren't able to handle sitting in groups. Here is a picture I took of my first attempt at rearranging desks.


2. I graduated this past summer with my Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction {halleujah}. I also tacked on a Reading Endorsement. Reading is my passion and I want my kiddos to experience the same joy that I experience while reading. One thing I incorporate into my reading instruction is explicit instruction on reading strategies. This week we worked on making predictions. We read Cinder Edna and Hedgie's Surprise. By the end of the week, my second graders were rocking this reading strategy!


I used Leanne Prince's Sticky Note Reading Strategy pack for this lesson. You can check it out here at her TPT shop. If you also notice I put a GL at the top of the paper. We code our papers, so parents know whether the assignment was independent or done as a class. GL stands for guided lesson. Does anyone else do this? I find it really helpful.

3. I needed a way to display the days of the week that my kiddos can shop for books. This is what I came up with...


Each day certain numbers can shop for books in our classroom library.

4. I posted on Instagram an idea of mine that didn't quite work out the way I wanted it to.


My intention was to add a bunting for each book we read as a class. Well... I just couldn't keep up because we read A LOT of books! I am planning on changing this wall out next week and using this space for a place to hang outstanding center work. I got this idea from Michelle over at Fabulous in First. She is just so organized!! I just knew that I had to made a section for this in my classroom! I'm looking for center work that is complete, neat, and correct to hang on my "Wall of Wow". I think this will be a great incentive for students to produce quality work at centers! I'll post pictures next week of the final product.

5. I finished up my Exit Slip Early Finisher Board this week. My kiddos have already gotten into the habit of grabbing an exit slip after a lesson and jotting down "What stuck with them". It looks super cute hanging on my wall too! Love!





If you'd like to grab a copy of this pack for yourself, head on over to my little shop! Here's what's included...
-instructions for setting up your own Early Finisher Exit Slip Board with pictures 
-a title for the board
-student numbers {This is for students to display their exit slips. It also allows the teacher to quickly see who has completed an exit slip.}
-exit slips for math {two versions}, ELA {one version}, Social Studies {one version}, and Science {one version}

Since I use these exit slips for a quick informal assessment of student learning, I model for my kiddos how to fill out the exit slip to show their learning through the use of specific details in their responses. I check my exit slips at the end of the day and send them home at the end of the week.

I'm also throwing a little sale to celebrate the three day weekend! Head on over to my little shop for 20% off!! 

If your not following me on Instagram yet... head on over and follow Teach Dream Inspire!

Have a great weekend friends! 



Monday, August 12, 2013

Let's Talk About Me! {Meet the Teacher}

Oh my word... I'm so excited to link up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week 2013!



Here is what's in store this week...


1. My hubby and I celebrated our one year anniversary this past July! I feel so blessed to have this man in my life. He truly is my best friend. 



We have two fur babies that are my world...

 

2. We went on our Honeymoon to Sandals Montego Bay. We.had.a.blast. 



3. We also love, love, love to travel! We are taking our first trip to Europe this Christmas! We will be traveling to London and Paris. I am beyond excited, but a little nervous! Any suggestions?



4. Here is a picture of my first day of Kindergarten. My family actually lived in the Philippines when I was younger, so I went to Kindergarten there. Crazy! 



5. This is my second year in second grade. Before I taught second, I was a Special Education teacher in grades 3-5. I love second though! It is such a fun little age!


6. I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Middle Grades Education {and now I teach primary, ha!} from Kennesaw State University. Go Owls! I also just completed my Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction at Valdosta State University!


7. I am a member of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority. 



8. I am a true southern girl through and through y'all! Besides living in the Philippines when I was really young for a few years, I have always lived in the great state of Georgia. 


9. Being a southern girl I.love.food. I just feel like food brings people together and I love spending time with my family and friends.

Gotta have my Chick-Fil-A!



10. It goes without saying that being from the south makes me a die hard college football fan. I love Saturdays in the Fall! I also love my Bravos and you can find me on Sundays RISING UP!




Link up your post with Blog Hoppin'! I can't wait to learn more about all my favorite teacher bloggers!


Thursday, June 27, 2013

Throwback Thursday!

I'm linking up with the fab Cara Carroll again for another Throwback Thursday! 


Last week I shared some pictures of the inside of my classroom from this past year. Today I wanted to share a post I did about the outside of my classroom. Without further ado... last year's hallway/student work display.

Originally posted on September 11, 2012...

This year my classroom theme is Circus/Carnival. Think lots of red, white, yellow, popcorn, and stripes! I'm not crazy about clowns, but I do have a few here and there. You know all things circusy! Yep, I know, circusy isn't a word! :) 

I wanted to share my student work hallway display. I found the pennants at Target in the party supply aisle. I bought two so that it would be long enough to hang above my entire hallway display. I then took foam sheets, legal size, and taped them to the wall alternating between red and white so that it would look like a circus tent. The longer red and white pieces on both sides of the foam sheets are long strips of butcher paper that I cut to make the size I wanted. Student work is hung by clothes pins that I hot glued to the foam sheets.


and... A close up


The small popcorn piece accents are from the teacher supply store (here it's called The Schoolbox). This little craft we made is from Abby over at The Inspired Apple. I just love her! It's part of her Super in Second unit. Totally adorabs! I'm so excited to be in primary this year so that I can incorporate some of her fabulous ideas into my classroom!

Now for the freebie. My kiddos have been studying place value. More specifically, ways to write a number. I made this kite to use as a quick assessment. This is TOTALLY not my idea. One of my sweet teamies gave me hers, but I changed it up a little to suit my needs. I completely forgot to take the pics of my kids work. Darn! Anyways, I hope y'all can use it!

Click here to download from Google Docs.

Happy almost hump day friends! I'll be back soon with more classroom pictures. I'm finally starting to get my groove back. SLOWLY, but surely!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Throwback Thursday

Yikes y'all, it has been a hot minute since I've blogged! My poor little blog needs some love! What better way to get back into the swing of things than to link up with one of my FAVORITE blogs The First Grade Parade!


In case you didn't know, before I moved into second grade I was teaching special education in grades 3-5. So, I decided to link up with pictures from this year of my second grade classroom since it was my first year teaching gen. ed. I love looking back at these pictures because I can already think of a million things that I want to change next year! Teaching is a learning experience right?!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Five for Friday

{A little Five for Friday catch up}

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs to share five random things from my week... ok... two weeks because I was too dang exhausted to link up last week. Ha! 

1. My prayers and thoughts are with those in Oklahoma. May He bring you the strength that you need to overcome this terrible tragedy.



2. It's SUMMER!! 


Can I get an amen!

3. We spent the last week and a half enjoying some theme day celebrations. We had a Lazy Day at the Beach Day, Cool Camp Out Day, Friendship Day, Game Day, and Movie Day. What.a.blast. Theme days were the perfect way to end the school year! Here are some pictures...

Lazy Day at the Beach


Craftivity fun!


Froot Loop graphing



Find a Friend game



Beachy Snacks

Cool Campout Day



4. For each of our theme days, we had to have theme snacks too of course! Thank goodness I had some amazing parents willing to donate food for our class! To coordinate everything I used Signup Genius. It is super easy and makes planning for ANYTHING a breeze! My school also used this website for parent/teacher conference signups. I simply created an account at the beginning of the year and inputted  parent email addresses. Signup Genius notified parents to signup and done! Each time I added a new event, Signup Genius sent an email to my parents notifying them. You can create one time events or reoccurring events. This site is perfect for coordinating classroom volunteers also! My teammate, who introduced my school to Signup Genius, used it to coordinate everything when she was the head wrestling mom. 


Seriously this site made planning for our theme days a piece.of.cake.

5. The activities you see above from our Lazy Day at the Beach theme day are from my Lazy Day at the Beach packet. If you're still looking for end of the year ideas... head on over to my little TPT shop and check it out!



Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend sweet friends! Thank you to all who have served our great country! God bless America and our troops!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Daily Five

I've had a couple people ask how I organize Daily Five in my classroom. I thought I would do a little post to explain. It always help to have pictures! :)

First off, I have four pocket charts that I picked up at Target last summer hanging on the doors of my large black cabinet. Gotta use every stinkin' space available! Ha! I use these pocket charts to display Daily Five choices.


Each student is given a number at the beginning of the year. They use their numbers for EVERYTHING, including Daily Five. Next to their number they place their "ticket" to show their Daily Five choice for the day.  The "tickets" are from Ladybug's Teacher Files.


The "tickets" are hanging in small containers, also from Target last summer, on the side of my black cabinet. Each choice has a different container. Before Daily Five begins I pull popsicle sticks to call on students to choose their Daily Five station for the day. I limit how many students can go to Work on Writing, Word Work, computer, and Listen to Reading due to space constraints at each of these stations. One station I don't have a "ticket" for is computer. When students visit the computer station they can go to Education City or Tumble Books. I write down their choice on a Daily Five tracker chart I got off of TPT for free. I usually can only get to one round of Daily Five each day. I would like to do more, but I can't find the time. 


Listen to Reading and computers


Work on Writing (writing board from A Cupcake for the Teacher)

I have a separate table for Word Work, but I can't find the picture... boo! Word Work is the only station, besides computer, that I have my kiddos working on a specific assignment. During Word Work my kids work on Mountain Language before they choose a spelling task card. I got my spelling task cards from Amy Lemons. 



My system is by no means perfect and I already know about a bazillion things I want to change next year. Hopefully this gave you some ideas. I would love to hear how you organize/manage your Daily Five time!