Pete the Cat - Reading Theme

Our school is using Pete the Cat as our theme this year to encourage reading.   The kids are loving it.  We even got stuffed Pete's to send home with one student (someone who has read each night) from each class each week, so they can read with him and take pictures with him (a la Flat Stanley).

At my house Pete ate some candy corn.

He read a little of my book:

He rode on my Bella's back.

Naturally a few of us teachers got some pretty sweet Converse shoes.

Easy-Update Bulletin Board

I have seen some cute bulletin boards that are made so that teachers can just switch out student work so they don't have to entirely redo their bulletin board each time.  I am all about saving time.  And when I helped my little sister set up her classroom she had a brilliant idea: burlap.  She got some cute, reasonably-priced burlap and we draped two rows of it across her bulletin board and stuck some paper clips up for student work.  I loved it.

So the logical thing for me to do was run out and purchase some burlap.  My whole classroom is about the Dots on Turquoise theme so I used that with the burlap I bought at Michael's (did you know teachers get a discount there?!).

This is my end product:

I put student names on the stars and intended to leave them up and hang their work behind their stars but the stars blocked too much of their work.  I think I'll use a clothes pin to put the stars back up right next to their work.

I'm stinkin' excited about just slipping work on and off the board this year.

Starting Off Right

Look what I made!  On the left is my teacher plan book.  I freaking love it.  Yes, I said freaking.  Love it.  I freaking love it.  I personalized the plan pages so that they fit my schedule and added calendars and note-taking pages for staff meetings.  On the right is my conference book (pensieve, a la Daily 5).  I have a section for each of my students (plus extras for move-ins) and a section of small group planning pages.

I can't wait until I actually start small groups.  I have been giving F&P tests to my students so I haven't been able to start yet.  Maybe (fingers crossed!) this week I can start small grouping.

On another note, the morning of Meet the Teacher I woke up and it dawned on me that I had no bulletin board plans at all.  Freak out mode set in.  My amazing husband (also a teacher) hadn't started back to work yet so he helped me set up this ah-mazing bulletin board inspired by this a Buzz Feed post.

I'm gonna be real honest.  Those balloons were a hassle.  Not making them or putting them up, but getting them to stay put so my student names were showing.  But I was still proud.  :)

If you like the style of my planner, you might be interested in my plan books that you can find in my TPT store.  You can snatch up my editable purple one by clicking on the picture below:

Or just print and go with this turquoise one (click the picture):

Or this red one (click the pic):

It's that time!

You know, I'm sad that summer is coming to an end because that means less time with family, but it also means that fall is coming and will usher in holiday season and that's my favorite kind of family time, so I guess I'll allow the change of the seasons to occur.  Heh.

So I went in for about ten minutes yesterday just to kind of start setting my desk up (I had them switch my desk out with a prettier one) and look around so I could start a to do list.  

I'm in love with this pen/pencil caddy thing I got a Mardel.  It's so cute and it rotates (bonus!).

Today I headed back to actually get substantial things done.  I have chalk boards still (I know - I think my district is stuck in the stone age in some ways) and I magnetize borders and put them around the chalk boards.  I rarely write on them so I mostly use them as magnetic bulletin boards.  I put back up my word wall and did a few other things around the room.  

One thing that I'm excited about is that I got new, cute file folders for my copies.  I think I got the idea for this type of system from The Organized Classroom Blog a while back but can't find the post.  

Basically I have a little box for hanging files and I put in a hanging file folder for each day of the week, plus one for extras for later.  

Then within each hanging file folder I put a regular file folder for ELA, Math, and Science/S.S.  This helps me keep my copies so I'm not searching forever when it comes time for me to actually use something.  

So each Friday I copy everything I'll need for the following week and sort them out into these so that I'm ready to go for the whole week.  

I also have a file in the back of the box for extra copies or for copies that I have copied further in advance than one week.  

How do you organize your copies?

Radishes to encourage reading

Recently my school bought us all a copy of this book:
 

This is a must-read for teachers, parents, and librarians. Really. Seriously. It's good. Read it.

Anyway, one thing that resonated with me was trying to make books 3-D, so today I brought radishes for my kids to eat. Sounds lame, maybe, especially for a second grader, but I was nerdishly excited about this. 

I've been reading aloud this to my class:

The chapter we read today was called The Radish Cure. It was about a girl who wouldn't take baths so her parents stopped making her bathe, then when she got dirty enough, they sprinkled radish seeds on her and let them grow, which was terrible enough to convince the girl to bathe. 

So I brought a bunch of radishes (88 cents):

I am pretty sure some of my students had never seen radishes before. Several hadn't eaten them. So I made a bag of radishes for each table (plus I threw in carrots) along with a small bowl of dip for each table, discussed food sharing etiquette, and let them eat while I read. 

Not sure why, but I felt like a pretty cool teacher. Because every student wishes their teacher would give them veggies, right?

But seriously, I'm looking forward to trying to make books 3-D for kids again and again. 

P.S. Read that book by Jim Trelease.

Word Work is changing!

After a recent conference inspired me (plus I was sick of how word work had been going) I decided to change up the way we do word work in our classroom. 

So I created task cards and recording sheets for students to choose from and use with our weekly spelling words. For instance, they can create a word search, write the words and circle the vowels, etc. 

I'm switching it all up with my kids after break so I just got everything prepped and I. Am. Stoked!

I put each task card on the front of an envelope with the corresponding recording sheets inside, so hopefully everything runs smoothly after I introduce the choices to my second graders. 

I just put them all in a magazine style box. I might keep them at my desk and be the word work police while I launch this change. I'm kind of a control freak like that. But it works out because this class needs that. Fo sho.

I hope my kids get as excited about this as I am!

 If you are interested in checking this out, you can find it at my TPT store. Just click {HERE}. 

Flapbooks & Foldables

It's been a while since I've posted a new product on TPT and I guess that's why I'm so stoked about what I just posted.  I actually created a ton of flapbook and foldable templates quite a while back but couldn't quite figure out how to package it for other people to use.  Now that I figured it out, I'm so excited to give everyone the opportunity to check this out!  

I like using flapbooks and foldables to get my students more engaged than the standard boring worksheets.  Here are a few examples of ones I've created for my classroom:

If you like this Native American one, you can check out my Native American packet by clicking {HERE} or on the picture above.

If you like this telling time flapbook, you can check out my telling time packet by clicking {HERE} or on the picture above.

Anywho . . . if you want to create your own flapbooks, you can grab a few freebies by clicking {HERE}.  If you want even more templates, click {HERE} or on the picture below to see my 29 templates that I just posted on TPT.  

To celebrate my new product, I'll be putting my entire shop on sale for 20% off through Friday!