A New School Year Has Begun!

It is always fun, exciting, and nervous at the same time, when a new school year begins. Will I have my room ready in time? Will Open House be a success? Will my students be excited to be in my class? Will I meet the needs of each students in my class? These are questions that run through your mind as you prepare for a new school year.

This year my school has a SUPER HERO theme. SO my grade level did this for our doors. Each teacher has a different color background on their door.

My students will be the SUPER HEROES in TRAINING in my room. Each day will be full of training experiences to prepare them to launch into 3rd grade next year. We will be using technology to enhance our curriculum and learning in a variety of ways.

Here you will see that my room is setup for the first day of school. I am always so excite to see my students on the first day and to welcome them into our classroom community. Each student has a WELCOME pack for 2nd grade. I always begin with my desk in this arrangement so students can get to know each other. Then desk arrangements are changed as needed throughout the year.

Below you can see my new Job Board with the cutest kiddos from Little Lucky Learners. I love having a picture to represent the kid instead of just a name. Students has a job for the week. This is a part of building our community in our classroom. Students are held accountable for their job. We work together to keep the class neat and orderly.

Here is one picture of my students working hard. They have been some SUPER HEROES with Mclass testing that started on the first day of school. Learning classroom rules and procedures has been the main focus here for the first 2 weeks of school.

Come back soon to see what exciting things we will be doing with ipads and chrome books. I am ready to have a SUCCESSFUL year with this group of SUPER SECOND GRADERS!!!!!

Getting Ready For Back To School Blog Hop & Giveaway!!!

It is so hard to believe that summer break is quickly coming to an end. I have to officially return to work on August 17th for teacher work days. Then student return on August 24th. You always think that you have all this time during the summer but you blink and time is now ending. I have been to several PDs this summer and have more to  come.

Be sure to enter to win TPT items from my store. Join in on the fun to get awesome resources for your classroom to make this a GREAT year. A great group of educators with fabulous giveaways in this blog hop.

Summer Camp took place in my classroom this year again. So my room is still waiting for the flooring crew to coming and wax my floors. I always start freaking out when I am ready to work in my room and the floor is not even waxed yet. You can get a look at my room below with it being emptied out and packed up.

Most of mine belongings are stacked outside my classroom in the hallway.

SO now I have to wait until the end of the week before the floors are ready. 

Now since BTS is coming full speed ahead. I would like to give you a heads up on a great giveaway and blog hop. Be sure to check out all of the goodies that are in this giveaway!!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Hop & Giveaway

Best to all for your new school year and check back soon to see my classroom reveal with new shiny floors and room ready for students!!!

Getting Back Into The Swing Of It

Hello fellow educators!!! Sorry it has been a while since I have made a post on my blog. It has been a crazy start to my school year. I had moved back to 2nd grade with a whole new classroom make over. To top that off, our grade level was flooded with 2nd graders. I have 25 kiddos and we just got another teacher to make our grade level have 6 teachers. So now after all of that I am with 21 kiddos now. Then this week I had a student to move. Now my roster is sitting at 20, WHEW!!!!!!!

Now, since we have settled into our new roster and getting the students that moved into the new teachers room placed and started. I now feel like I can begin my year. Wow, it to say the least. It has been an emotional ride. Having to let students from your room go it very hard. I had already became attached to them.

On to better things, my classroom is doing GREAT!!! I feel this is one of the best group of kids I have ever had. The students do a fabulous job or working together to build a real classroom community.

My students love using the ipads on daily basis. We use them with math, writing, reading, centers, whole groups, guided groups and this week we are having 5th grade buddies coming to work with us too.

Scootpad is a great app/website that my students use to work on reading and math. They can also access their account and practice at home. It will give me a message about the weekly progress made by my students. I suggest you go check it out and see if it may be something for your students. You can assign what grade level you need. It is Common Core aligned.  It is amazing how the kiddos love it.

Come back soon to check out all of the fun and amazing activities my students will be working on. I look forward to hearing your comments on your classroom. 

Summer Break

Well another successful school year has come and gone! This was my first year in 3rd Grade. As I entered this new year with new grade level and newly adopted Common Core curriculum, I was a bit worried about doing a good job. I am thankful for a great group of ladies on my grade level. We all worked hard together to design lesson plans. As I reflect, I feel that I did a great job with this new challenge.

Now, I am luck to say that I am moving back to my beloved 2nd grade. My comfort zone, my home, my love for teaching GRADE. I have taught 2nd grade for 6 years. 2nd grade is my favorite grade to teach. I have taught several different grade levels. I will be with a group of awesome ladies. I will be moving classrooms again. But I am happy to do it since I get to return to 2nd.

Summer break has finally begun for me!!! I will be relaxing around the pool soaking up some rays. Spending some much needed time with my girls. Although it is summer break my To Do List is already started for jobs needed around the house.

I know I"m supposed to rest but this is the time for me to begin thinking about the next school year  and changes that I want to make to my classroom, lessons, and find new ideas and activities. School is in my blood and I will always be planning. I feel that is what makes you an awesome teacher instead of just a good teacher.

I would love to hear of some ideas that you are planning in your classroom for the next school year. I will be painting my classroom and redecorating some with minor changes. Adding some new pops of color and flair. I will post pictures when it is all finished.
 HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!!

New Classroom Pictures

I have been hard at work getting my classroom ready for this school year. Here is a picture of my Daily 5 board. I think that it turned out really well.

Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to find these amazing Daily 5 posters with cute kids for my board.

I am excited about using Daily 5 in my classroom this year. I have tons of stuff pinned on my Daily 5 board on pinterest if you are looking for resources. 

This image is of my reading area with my books sorted by AR level on the left book shelf and Genre on right book shelf. I love books and you can see that I have loads of them. I even did a good weeding of books this summer.

Students will be able to choose books for their book caddies easily from this wide selection.  I have books for all levels from 0.9 to 7.5 in my 3rd grade classroom.

I love how this title for my Reading board for displaying student work turned out. Great work will be displayed here as we create and sharing amazing ideas about reading. 

I will add more pictures as the next few days come and go with the start of school. We had Open House this past Friday and I had so many complements on my classroom and how great it looked. I had all but one student to show out of 22. I think that is amazing. Monday, August 27th is our first day with the kiddos.

I hope that you find resources and classroom design that can inspire you in your room.

Classroom Progress Update

Here is an update on the progress in my new classroom. This first image is of my room after a fresh paint job and all my junk being moved in. It is so hard to believe how much you can collect in a classroom after 6 years. As I was packing up my room for the big move, I was decluttering and weeding out all the unneccessay items. I gave away tons or stuff and still I am frustrated at all that  I still have.

As you can tell by all the stuff this is not the half or it, still more in the hallway. I moved all of it in all by myself. As I am setting up my classroom, I am getting rid of items that are only for 2nd grade now that I am  in 3rd grade. I have been working all week in my room to get ready for my students. We have orientation on August 24th. I hope, I will have my room ready!!!

Check out this amazing bins I got for my book caddies.

A colleague found these on Craig's List for 50 cents each. They were a gray color and I spray painted them. I am going to add library pockets on them to write student's names. I think they turned out amazing. I picked colors out of my borders Dots on Turquoise that I am using.  I will be posting more pictures as I get my classroom ready. 

Come back and take a look and let me know what you think. I hope this will inspire you with getting your classroom ready for a new year.