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!!!!!

Classroom Activities This Week

This week we are having fun getting ready for our holiday break. We have been working on writing about our Holly Days!!! Here in picture you will see the holly leaves with students writing about their holiday with their families and their traditions. This is always a cute display that I have my students to create each year.

Next, my students did a GREAT job creating their winter snowman pictures. They are hanging in our hallway for all to see. Students will be writing a story in class to go along with their picture. 

I think they turned out fabulous. I love snowman. SO any chance I get to make something with them I do!!! This activity was in our ART center. My students always look forward to what I have each week for them to create in my ART center.

So being that I LOVE SNOWMAN. I have my door as one. A few years ago, I made my door into a snowman and the ladies on my grade level wanted one too. So this year this is my door. Each teacher on my grade level has one just like it in a different color.
Mine is LIME GREEN cause that is my favorite color.

Let me know what you think.

This is such a busy time for year. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Our Elf Has Arrived!!!

Today, we were surprised by the arrival of our classroom elf. Students couldn't believe that we had been sent an elf from the North Pole. We got to decide as a class a name for our elf. Each student submitted a name and a reason why. Then as a class, we voted on a name. So the name of our elf is.........CHARLIE!!!!

The next day, Charlie the elf was in our highlighter tub with highlighters all over the floor and he left a note saying HI!!!! SO we are off to a great start with a naughty elf. 

Then today, we found him like this in our classroom. 

He had a fun time with my tape dispenser and was tangled up in the tape. But he did leave all of the students a candy cane. 

Wonder what he will be doing tomorrow?????

Check back to see Charlie the elf and what he is getting into.

Getting Ready For First Day Of School

As many of you are doing as I am, getting your classroom ready for the first day of school. I always get excited at this time of year. Planning my classroom for my newest group of kiddos. This year is even more exciting since I got to move back to 2nd grade.

I will post a few pictures of my classroom and will display more as the days go and first day of school comes and goes.

Here are pictures of my classroom before I painted!!!!

 old paint and board

Now for a look at my room with a FRESH NEW PAINT JOB!!! I love the LIME GREEN board. Painting the classroom gives it new life. I love how it looks.

This is much better!!!!!

I use two shades of blue in my classroom. The front and back walls are the darker shade of blue with the two side walls being the lighter blue. I think it turned out great. Cant see in this picture but I even repainted the black baseboards too!!!

Here you will see some must haves I had to get for my room. I got the ORANGE lamp. Got the BLUE broom that matches one of the borders in my classroom and hallway. The chevron fabric is my curtains that I am putting in my classroom. My overall theme is the DOTS ON TURQUOISE!!!

Here is the start of my LIME GREEN bulletin board that I love!! I have my calendar on one side and the side you cant see has my Job chart. I will be adding my Daily 5 in the middle.

So there you can see that my room is coming along. I am very pleased with the progress. Come back to see more of my room and get some ideas for yours.

Before you go come check out this great FREEBIE at my TpT store.

I am using this for student to house their ipad work until completed to turn in. 

Technology and Education

During my career as a teacher, I was chosen for our school districts Pinnacle (technology) program this past year. As being a pinnacle leader, we were given ipads to use in our classroom with our students. In my classroom I had 22 students with 6 ipads. Having the ipads opened up a new resource for my students to use in their learning and creativity.

Using apps with the ipads was a great way to meet the needs of my students. Students worked in groups, with a partner and alone on numerous apps and our classroom kidblog. The ipads were used every day by the students. Kidblog was a part of our morning work everyday. Using the ipads with STEM was very beneficial for my students to discover and share with each other.

In my room, our favorite app was Toontastic. My students had the most fun with this app. Students worked collaboratively in groups with a leader. The groups were assigned different tasks each time. My favorite activity was for them to create a script for a story layout about bullying. There is one of these videos displayed on a post here on my blog.

We also have lots of fun using QR codes. My students always enjoyed the excitement of what would be in the code. A video, a link, a picture or answer to a question.

My classroom loved using the ipads in their learning. Using technology is a major component of my teaching. We used our school computer labs to work on project based learning. Students research about a county they choose. Did a presentation and were evaluated by their peers. Students made a powerpoint Biography that was shared with the class. At the end of the school year, students had to CREATE a newspaper. We used Microsoft Publisher for this. They had to create the layout, theme or newspaper and complete a full page with head line, articles with photos and share with class. My students really got into this one. Most of the boys in my class did it on Minecraft.

I would love to hear about ways you integrated technology with your students and what apps, or programs you use. As I head tomorrow for my 2nd year of Pinnacle. I am excited to see what new resources we will have to use with our students this coming school year. Here is to a new year or endless opportunities to reach every student that enters our classrooms. Happy learning!!!!!!

School Year Coming to an End

This has been my first year teaching 3rd Grade. It has been a great learning experience. My school district adopted Common Core this year, along with Readers and Writers Workshop. SO being in a new grade level with all NEW curriculum has definitely kept me very busy this year.

I have an awesome group of 22 students. Nine of them I had last year in 2nd grade. WE have be lucky to have ipads in our classroom this year by my Pinnacle Induction (technology). Students really love being on the ipads and learning new things. WE were able to be apart of a Pinnacle Technology Showcase, where members of the school board, administrators, etc were invited to see what our students have been creating with technology, specially with the ipads.

Students are working with the ipads. They are so amazing at their ability to use technology and work collaboratively.

Students are showing the apps that they have used in our curriculum. My students favorite is TOONTASTIC!! They love creating the story boards and recording their voices.

Working using QR codes is an activity that we include in all subjects areas. On the display board I use QR codes for students to learn about the bones in their Human Body. I got this great idea from the internet. I wish I had the person's name so I can give them the credit. Thank you for this great activity. My students work with QR codes for reading comprehension, for self checking activities and for locating information in our STEM lessons.

This year has came by so quickly. This time of year is bitter sweet. I am ready for summer break but I will also miss seeing these adorable faces everyday. My journey in 3rd is also coming to an end. I'm lucky to be moving back to 2nd grade. I have taught 2nd for 6 years. I love this grade. So this involves moving my class room again. This time I will be in a totally different room than I was before. But I am so excited to be working with some fabulous ladies on the grade level. 

Teacher Appreciation Week

All teachers, here is to wishing you a fabulous Teacher Appreciation Week!!! Now is the time to empty out your Teachers Pay Teachers wishlist. Today and tomorrow is the HUGE Teacher Appreciation Sale. come get some great items for your classroom in my store. Be sure to use the code in the image below.

Come to my store and see all of the products that I have. TPT store I know that I will be emptying my cart and grabbing some amazing items from some awesome teacher created products.

Again, have a great teacher appreciation week.

Best Item To Have In Your Classroom

Teachers everywhere!!!!!! I have been lucky to have the privilege to use this amazing pencil sharpener. This is the ONLY sharpener that I use. It makes the best point on the pencil. This sharpener is the quietest one I have ever used. It is very easy to use. My students use it to sharpen pencils in our classroom. It is student friendly. I HIGHLY recommend that you go and get yourself one of these sharpeners. It doesn't take long before you have the sharpest point on a pencil. This is a MUST in my room!!!!

http://www.classroomfriendlysupplies.com/

 

Ipad Fun in School

Today, the students were in groups working with the iPads. The students got to play with a new app that I showed them whole class how to navigate. The app was TOONTASTIC.

This group was working on setting up their story with backdrops and characters. The group did a great job working together to get all the elements of the story completed.

These guys were great working together to come up with a great story line using the characters and motions that could be created with sounds.

This four group had a fun time using the app. It was a fun way to create a story and all were in the decision making process. My students are enjoying the iPads.

These kids had the best time out of all I think. They were really into getting the scenes setup for conflict, plot, characters and setting. Adding music was a great way to set the tone of the story. We are on the road to having great collaboration with each other and using technology in a whole new way.

Each group had a different take on making their story. This is definitely an app that I would recommend for educators to use. It comes with several scenes that are free and you can add more for .99 cents. The students loved it. They cant wait until they get to work with it again. I have them thinking of their own writing and how this will be a great tool to publish their stories.

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.

Our Trip To Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens

We had a great time despite the weather. We learned about the gardens and the lifecycle of butterflies. We got to see the beautiful conservatory. My 2nd grade students enjoyed all of the fountains at the garden. This is a great place to visit with family at any time of the year.