Something to "Crow" About!

As I sit here thinking about the week ahead, I am so happy that I stayed at school late on Friday to prep all the things I will need to have ready for my kiddos. This coming week I have parent conferences everyday. It just makes for a long week. Knowing that all of my plans are ready, materials are copied and my classroom is in "order" gives me piece of mind. 

I want to share with you, one of the Fall activities we will be doing this coming week. I just put the final touches on it the other day! 

I LOVE Fall and everything about Fall. The cool temperatures, the leaves changing colors, jeans and boots, scarves, pumpkins, lattes and oh so much more!  I wanted to bring Fall into my classroom because it just makes me so happy. I created this sweet, little scarecrow craftivity to help make that happen.

This packet includes all the templates to make this adorable scarecrow.

 It also includes:

-4 different writing prompts/ideas

- story writing paper

-describe a scarecrow bubble map

-classroom survey about Fall

-bulletin board letters: Our Writing is Something to "Crow" About

This is the perfect activity to get your kids inspired to write and to get excited for Fall.  If you want to grab a copy of my scarecrow craftivity, head over to my TpT store. I hope you love it!

My New Best Friend: Math Interactive Notebooks

For awhile now, I have seen and heard many people talking about interactive notebooks. I wasn't really sure what they were or even how to use them. I started doing some research- chatted with a few blogging buddies and my team partner about it and decided I wanted to jump in and give it a try this school year. I went out and bought spiral notebooks for A PENNY at Staples during their Back To School sale and got started.

I have to admit this was a HUGE decision for me. I was mainly worried about the time commitment it would take to properly implement the notebooks in my classroom. I thought I would definitely start with math first because our math series needed some serious overhauling to meet the common core standards. Then, when I started "shopping around" for second grade math interactive notebooks, there was one that jumped out at me from a very well known blogger and TpT seller. The item had tons of positive feedback, which further helped me to jump in and make the commitment to use the notebooks in my classroom. Once I purchased the product, I was so disappointed! There were so many spelling errors, unclear directions, lack of explanation of how to use the pages and many of the pages were not challenging enough to meet the CCSS for second grade. In other words.......It was a HOT MESS! That was the moment that I decided to make my own Math Interactive Notebook for my students. And I am happy to say, it is hot off the presses and ready to share with all of you!

We have been using some of the pages for a couple of weeks now and I am THRILLED with what my students are producing! We have been reviewing addition and subtraction strategies. Here are a few samples of what they have been working on:

Each page has a student friendly "I can" statement and a definition of the term they are working on. This page was used to review subtraction strategies. They wrote their own subtraction sentences on each wing. Under each wing, they drew a picture of one way to solve the problem. Some students drew pictures, some used a part-part-whole mat etc. 

We have also been working on problem solving skills. Each problem solving page asks the students to identify what is being asked in the word problem, draw a picture to show their thinking, write a number sentence and the answer. However, what is MOST important about the word problem pages, is an explanation of HOW they solved the problem. I love this part because it makes my students think and explain. When they can do that, they are more likely to understand and retain the concept being taught!

This teaching tool has it all! It comes with a student notebook cover, divider pages for each strand, notebook tabs and an example picture for EVERY page that is included. There are suggested usages and directions for assembling each student notebook too. Every Common Core Math Standard is covered. My students will use these notebooks to review for tests and during math centers. By the end of the year, they will have a comprehensive resource they can refer to for years to come. I hope you find this to be a valuable teaching tool for you and your students!

**I now have MATH Interactive notebooks available for grades K-5, as well as, reading and language notebooks for grades 1-3. You can take a closer look at each of them HERE!**

All About Me!

We have just started our third week of school and I have SO many things that I have planned that keep getting pushed to another day. We have Back to School Night in two days and I really wanted/needed to get our All About Me glyphs completed for our math board. It has been in my plan book since the first week of school. Today, I FINALLY found the time to have the kids make their adorable faces. They were 

THRILLED! 

I love this activity because it incorporates math, art and social studies all in one itty bitty project! What more can you ask for? We started off the activity with the kids answering questions about themselves and writing their answers on their whiteboards. Then, we used the answers to put together our All About Me faces. Here the kids are gluing their hair and hats onto the heads. Every color, shape etc represents something about the child. For example, the color hat is determined by the first letter of the child's last name. 

We worked through the project very systematically. Things could go very wrong if you just let them loose. It was also a great activity to test listening skills. Here are a few of the finish projects:

I displayed them on our math board along with the glyph key so people could see why each child made their faces they way they did. 

After we completed the glyphs, we worked together to complete data sheets about the information on their glyphs. We graphed our birthdays, how we got to school, our siblings etc. They kids loved sharing their projects too! Now we are all set for Back to School night and we can show off all we have been learning these last few weeks!

Five for Friday Wrap Up! & a FREEBIE!

This was a whirl wind of a week! I feel like I was barely keeping my head above water. I have so much on my "to do" list that I am not able to check off yet! The first few weeks are always nutty and this year is no exception. I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share my week. If you make it to the end of this post, there is a little surprise for you! Here are a few random pictures:

1. We finished up Our Favorite Things cameras from the Bubbly Blond. The kids had so much fun sharing them with each other. They will also look great hanging up for Back to School Night next week. 

2. I finished making my class name tags for our specials classes. 

3. I spent 4 days this week testing all of the second grade students with the beginning of the year Dibels. I am happy to say everyone has completed it and I survived the process!

4. I created tabs and dividers for all my students' interactive math notebooks and got them set up for the year! I am thrilled with how they turned out!

5. I redesigned and updated my Author's Purpose posters. I have created a set of whole and half sheet posters to use for whole group and small group instruction. I also post mine on our class Concept Board and we refer to them daily. Grab your set here for FREE or click on the picture above! I hope you enjoy them!

Happy weekend, my friends!

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!