Back to School Blues

Hey there friends! I hope everyone has had a refreshing and relaxing summer! Is it just me or is this summer positively flying? How is it that next Wednesday is already my first day?! I feel like I've been in my own little bubble pretending I never even had a job in the first place. 

Now that I'm slowly realizing that summer break ends NEXT WEEK, I'm starting to go into full.blown.panic.mode

That's right, August 3rd is my official first day of school at my NEW school and in my NEW grade. As hard as it was to say goodbye to my old classroom, coworkers, and kinders, I am over the moon with excitement to begin my new adventure teaching 2nd grade. 

As I'm sure you can imagine, I have been daydreaming all summer about classroom decor and setup and couldn't wait to get my hands on the keys to my new happy place. Sadly, that dream has been put on hold due to summer camps at my new school. That means I haven't set one foot in my new classroom and won't be able to until FOUR days before school starts. FOUR DAYS! 

To say I feel totally helpless and unprepared would be an understatement. So, in attempt to gain some sort of control over my current situation, I have been hard at work preparing activities for my new students!

I've been looking long and hard at the scope and sequence I have ahead of me, and trying my best to create fun and engaging activities to help my kiddos conquer all that lies ahead. Our ELA curriculum begins with a quick little unit on synonyms and antonyms. 

I really like the idea of beginning with this skill because it will be so beneficial as we start to introduce new vocabulary words. One thing I'm really going to try and focus on with my students is not just KNOWING synonyms but APPLYING them. That means trading out simple, boring words for more colorful ones in their writing. 

To help them get the hang of this concept and start thinking in terms of "shades of meaning", I put together this fun little unit. 

I tried not to focus too much on "practice pages". Instead, I wanted to create a variety of games and activities that could be used in numerous ways (literacy centers, anyone?)

I can't wait to get started in my classroom, and already feel better knowing I have these activities prepared for our first ELA unit. If you would like to check them out in more detail, you can click any of the pictures above to visit my TPT store!

I'll be back again soon with more updates! Good luck to everyone as you prepare for a great new school year!

Happy Holidays!

Hi there, sweet teachin' friends! I am so happy to be back here tonight posting on this little blog of mine. It is so hard to believe that the holiday season has already come and gone! I've been out of school for a week now and I still feel like I'm catching my breath! I hope everyone in this bloggin' community had a happy and safe holidays! If you're like me, you're already gearing up for our return to school in just one short week!

Tonight, I hope to share some of our wonderful Christmas activities with you. Unfortunately, I left most of our precious little projects still hanging up in my classroom, and completely forgot to take pictures! Fortunately; however, I got a brand new camera for Christmas, so I will be sharing those as soon as I can get my booty back into my classroom! Until then, I will share with you what few photos I was lucky enough to snap!

As I mentioned in my last post, the late-ness of Thanksgiving this year totally threw all of my Christmas teaching plans into chaos! I must admit, I am definitely overly ambitious when it comes to planning for Christmas. It's just that there are SO many wonderful, Christmas themed texts and activities that there is just NO time to fit it all in! Therefore, we were forced to squeeeeeeze gingerbread week into one teeny tiny day! It was exhausting but so FUN! 

We began the day by reading several different versions of "The Gingerbread Man" and talked about the many ways the books were similar and different. Next, I split the class into 4 groups and assigned each group a story element (characters, setting, problem, and solution). The kids then worked with their group to compare/contrast their story element in each of the texts. It was so great watching the kids work together, and they were so engaged in the activity, I not once had to re-direct them! When they were done, each group shared their findings with the class and we displayed their answers on a GIANT gingerbread house (picture to come), that I stole from here. It was so fun and such a great visual! Our gingerbread house is now safely hanging in our hallway at school awaiting for me to return and take its picture to share with you ;)

When we were done, we taste-tested gingerbread cookies and then used adjectives to describe them! I used this wonderful snack as a springboard for discussing similes. I recorded all of their responses on the following anchor chart. Yes.... that is an "ou" and not an "a" in delicious. Can you tell my cursive is rusty?

Some of their adjectives just astound me....scrumptious, crumbly?! I was so impressed! When finished, the kiddos created their own simile to describe their cookie and then got to make their very own {construction paper} gingerbread man.

Unfortunately, the template for these fellas are also in my classroom. I will post it with all the other missing pictures.

 The rest our time together before break was spent attending our first field trip of the year, practicing and performing in our annual Christmas concert, and celebrating the holidays with a class Christmas party! Whew! It was a whirlwind!

Although this is only my second year of teaching, I have already discovered that one of the best parts about being a teacher this time of year is all of the sweet letters I get from my students. This year, I got one that especially melted my heart:

I'm telling you, I just about cried when I saw this. Notes like this help me remember why I became a teacher in the first place. Now, I'm using all that inspiration to get ready for the upcoming weeks of school. To do so, I have put together a couple units that I hope will be helpful to you as well!

For a closer look at either activity, you can click the pictures and it will take you right to my little shop! Please feel free to e-mail or message me should you have any questions! As always, both items will be on sale until tomorrow night! Go snag em! 

Have a wonderful Monday, friends! Enjoy your break!
Happy teaching!

Let's Catch Up!

Hi, sweet friends! Long time, no see! I am so happy to be back to share a few updates on my classroom  this school year. 

I don't know about you but, back to school was pretty much a whirlwind for me. I traveled to Europe and returned a short 3 days before the kiddos were to arrive { What was I thinking?!}. Before leaving for my trip I had my classroom all ready to go, but when I got back I was offered a new classroom with a Smartboard! So, what's a girl to do?

Naturally, I picked the room with the Smartboard (duh!) and pulled a last minute switch-a-roo....with the help of my loved ones, of course. So tonight I have a few classroom snapshots for you. Unfortunately, I can't say that every.single.thing in my classroom is just how I want it to be, but it's pretty darn close. I feel like I am never 100 percent satisfied no matter what I do, but I gotta tell ya I am really liking the set up so far. I know things will change and be added as the year progresses, but I'm glad to have a good start. 

Am I the only one who feels this way?

As far as classroom decor goes, I typically like warmer color schemes and very little clutter. I am *somewhat* of a  freak for organization and labeling (just don't open my cabinets). That being said, I {shamefully} have not finished labeling everything in my classroom. Thanks to a sweet parent of one of my students, I was able to get this great cubby system to organize all of our math tubs and manipulatives. I actually have two cubbies side by side, with the manipulatives spanning the top 6 cubbies and math/ dessert tubs occupying the bottom two rows. 

Since I teach K/1 gifted, a WHOLE lot of differentiation goes on in my little classroom....which means I also need a WHOLE lot of storage for all these center activities. It took a while, but I finally figured out a way to keep it all straight (for me and the kids). My higher students use the blue baskets as math tubs and my lower students use the green baskets. Of course, no one knows which group they are in, they just know what color math tub they are to use. The dessert tubs are in the purples containers to the right. I keep a folder in each tub with the recording sheets that correspond to each activity. The students know which math tub they are to complete on each day, and they are responsible for getting the necessary supplies from the tubs. I typically make 4 different math tub activities per week for each group of students (that's 8 in all) and I usually set out 3-4 dessert tubs each week.

 Needless to say, my "Sunday Fundays" consist of wine, Breaking Bad, and my laminating machine :)

The top baskets house our extra materials (glue, pencils, scissors, markers, etc.) and I use the three tier paper caddy to hold loose-leaf paper, construction paper, and blank writer's workshop papers. 

On another note, our school-wide back to school theme this year was "Wild Wild West". It was so much fun to get the whole school dressed up and excited to start of the school year! To celebrate the fun, my students and I read How I Spent My Summer Vacation by Mark Teague, wrote about our own summer vacations, and finished up with a cute little cowboy/ cowgirl craftivity. It was a rootin' tootin' good time!

For the faces I simply used paper plates. I made a template for the hat and bandanna that I will be uploading as a freebie in the very near future. 

I can't wait to share more updates on my classroom with you, friends. 

In the mean time, enjoy your week!

 Happy Monday!