First Week Back: Saturday Snapshots!

It's hard to believe that my first week of school is complete! We were so busy this week getting to know one another with tons of fun activites. We still have several to complete next week too! 

Everyone took their first day of school pictures and we put them in these frames to give to the parents at Back To School Night!

We made our classroom banner. Each student drew and colored a picture of themselves and then we hung the banner in our classroom. The banner templates and other getting to know you activities are from my All About YOU! packet.

We completed our first week of second grade books thanks to the Bubbly Blond's Savvy in Second pack! We have several more activites from this packet to complete next week too!

I am so in LOVE with my new classroom library sticks. This all came together thanks to my mom! I was telling her how I wanted to make libary sticks for my own classroom to hopefully help the kids keep my books organized through the year. She walked through my classroom door on Friday afternoon with these in her hand! Just looking at them makes me smile. I can't wait to show the kids how to use them next week.

Thanks Aimee for the adorable B2S button!

If you haven't heard yet... TpT's HUGE Back To School Sale is this weekend! My store is on sale starting today (Saturday 8/17)! Everything is 20% off! I hope you all load up your wish lists and get some great deals to start your school year off with a bang!

Jump On the B2S Sale Train!

My first week back to school is complete! I have 23 little darlings who are eager to learn and I need some more things for my classroom. Thank goodness it is "that time of year". No, it's not Black Friday, yet. But it might as well be in the teacher world. This weekend is Teachers Pay Teachers most anticipated sale of the year! 

Starting tomorrow (Aug.17), everything in my TpT store will be 20% off! I don't know about you, but I am ready to clear my wishlist with tons of things I have been eyeing for my classroom! Here are a few items you might be interested in for the start of your school year. All you have to do, is click on the image to take you directly to each one on TpT.

All About YOU! is a great packet to use when getting to know your new students. I have used all the activites in my classroom this last week and they were a HUGE hit with the kids! We made a classroom banner, "all about me" posters and wrote clues about ourselves for our friends to learn a little more about us. We will continue using the activities in this packet, next week as well.

Most of us are new to using the Common Core Standards. I have created grade level Common Core Standards checklists for the ELA and Math standards for all grades kindergarten through fifth grade. I printed my second grade standards and put them in my lesson plan binder so I can monitor when I teach and assess each standard. I started using it last year and find it to be a great visual for me to know what I have taught and still need to teach.

Kindergarten Checklists, First Grade Checklists, Second Grade Checklists, Third Grade Checklists, Fourth Grade Checklists, Fifth Grade Checklists and K-5 Bundled Checklists.

I have also created CCSS ELA Vocabulary Cards and CCSS Math Vocabulary Cards for kindergarten through fifth grade. They are color coded by strand to make them easy to organize and use. These are great to help reinforce academic vocabulary and serve as visual cues for your students. Below are examples of the second grade cards.

My new Back To School Writing Prompts packet is sure to get your kids writing using the Common Core standards right away! There are two writing prompts for each writing form: narrative, informative and opinion writing. The packet also includes graphic organizers, writing pages, rubrics, student checklists and a craftivity!

The next two items I updated this summer with new graphics and lesson enhancements.

The first is my All About Me Glyph! This is always one of my favorite activities at the beginning of the year because it makes for the cutest bulletin board display. Also, the kids are learning about one another all while using their graphing and data collecting skills. There are ideas to connect the activities to writing and how to display the finished glyphs, as well. 

Finally, I updated my Oh, Boy! It's Apple Time Glyph! This is great to use during your apple unit, fall activites and/or farm unit. These apple glyphs can be two or three dimentional! Math and writing activities/ideas are included as well.

I hope you guys are able to load up on some amazing items! Head on over to my TpT store to see what else will be on sale! Happy shopping!

My Classroom Digs Revealed!

I am happy to say that I survived my first day of school today! I have a great bunch of kiddos and I can't wait to learn more about each one of them as the year progresses.

I am excited to be linking up with Blog Hoppin', Courtney from Swimming Into Second and Jessica from Tales of a First Grade Teacher to share my classroom digs with you! Be sure to check out their links at the bottom of this post.

This is a view of the main entrance to my classroom. It shows my classroom rules, student work cubbies, lunch and snack baskets etc.

This picture is a view of my room from my team partner's doorway.

This is our class birthday board which is on the door connecting to the room next to ours. I grouped the kids together and took pictures of them today.

This is our ELA Concept board to go along with our reading series! It features the Big Idea for the Unit, weekly theme connection, essential question for our weekly story, author's purpose, story genre poster, and a graphic organizer used to access information from the story.

This is our classroom banner that we just completed today. If you follow me on Instagram, you already got a sneak peek of this. All the templates for the banner are in my All About YOU unit along with several other getting to know you activities. I think the kids did an incredible job!

Our behavior clip chart and classroom helper board. The job description is written on each of the job pockets so students know the expectations of them.

This is a very new addition to my classroom-like TODAY new. I have always used hand signals in my room but I have never had visual reminder cues. I found these EDITABLE hand signals from Keeping It Captivating and I have fallen in love because I can make them work for me! I placed these in the front of my classroom above my alphabet cards.

This is my area to display student writing. I do NOT have very much bulletin board space so I made individual cork boards for each student and mounted them to my cupboards. Now I can hang a piece of writing from every student at the same time. The kids wrote clues about themselves and drew self portraits. Tomorrow we are going to read them and guess who each student is. This activity is also in my All About YOU packet.

Well, there you have it- an inside look into my home away from home! 

Now, head on over to Swimming Into Second and link up with Courtney to see some more incredible classrooms. Just click the link below to take you there.

I am also linking up with Jessica from Tales of a First Grade Teacher to share my classroom digs! After you check out her adorable classroom, link up and share yours too!

 I can't wait to see them all!

Five for Friday and 2 Giveaways!

This is it, my friends! My last Friday on vacation! We have a PD on Monday and then my new kiddos arrive on Tuesday! Here is my week in a nutshell...

1. Cleaned and organized my closet! I bought these new space saver hangers from Costco and went to town! SO MUCH BETTER!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

2. I have been working in my room like a crazy woman! I finally got my class list and was able to start labeling all my kiddos things. These are our attendance/lunch pockets ready to go! The kids put their lunch money in it so nothing gets "lost". Then the pocket goes in a basket by the door. On their way out to lunch, they grab their money. If any pockets are left in the pocket chart in the morning, I know the student is absent.  This serves two classroom management purposes! 

3. I received my Classroom Rules decal from Wise Decor this week. I am so excited how it turned out! You can read the post about it HERE and enter my giveaway for a $75 gift certificate to Wise Decor!!

4. BI-COASTAL GIVEAWAY!!!
Who doesn't love a little B2S fun? I am teaming up with some sweet blogging friends to bring you a B2S celebration like no other! Molly from Lucky to Be in First and Deirdre from A Burst of First have organzied this amazing giveaway where you can have the chance to win up to 23 back to school products to start your school year off in the right direction!

You will have the chance to win my It's All About YOU packet for the beginning of the school year! It is filled with "get to know you" activities to ease those first few days of jitters.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and if you are back to work, I hope you are loving your new kiddos! Make sure to link up and share your week!

B2S Wise Decor Giveaway and Review!

Do you LOVE to decorate you classoom and home? Do you love HELP to decorate? Do you love EASY to decorate ideas? If you answered yes to any of these questions, I have the place for you and an awesome giveaway to go along with it!

Wise Decor Decorative Wall Lettering to Personalize Your World

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Katie from Wise Decor about trying one of their products and giving away $75 to their store to one lucky person. I was thrilled for this opportunity because decorating is a weakness of mine. So, I searched their website and found the PERFECT teacher item- Classroom Rules Modern Wall Decal- in turquoise and black to match my school colors and classroom theme, of course. It arrived this weekend and I put it up in my classroom today! Here is what it looked like when it arrived.

I found the perfect spot in my classroom for the letters and cleaned the surface before I measured where I wanted the letters to go exactly. Then, I used packing tape to put the letters in place on the wall. I wanted to make sure they were straight and centered before I adhered them.

Next, I peeled the back layer of paper off and slowly and gently pressed the letters to the wall to get them to lightly stick. This picture is really showing you step 3. I was doing this by myself and couldn't take a picture while I was peeling the back layer because I didn't want to move the letters out of place!

It is really important to use the squeegee to help secure the letters in place. Go over the letters several times before peeling the top layer of paper off.

Tada! My classroom rules are up and ready for the year! 

Now, this is the perfect item for me because I have been in the same classroom for 12 years. If you move rooms a lot this item might not work for you BUT there are TONS of items to choose for your home as well!

 Another item I LOVE is the mongrammed chalkboard calendar:

Chalkboard Calendar

Now it's your turn to win a $75 gift card to Wise Decor! All you have to do is follow Bright Concepts 4 Teachers and a few other enteries! Winners will be announced next Monday (the night before my first day of school with kiddos).What a great way to start the year! Spread the word and let's all start off our school year with beautiful decor! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway