September Behavior Calendar

I can't believe how fast August has flown by.  We are getting progress reports next week and I am just now starting to get in a groove.  I was reminded yesterday by 2 of my sweet followers that I had not created a September behavior calendar yet.  GASP!  I am so glad they reminded me, I wouldn't have thought about it until Monday when my students would have reminded me.  So I got busy this morning.  Here it is.  Click on the picture to grab a copy. Thanks for reminding me!!!!  I'm barely hanging on these days.  This is going to be  challenging year.  I just keep remembering that God gave me these students and this number of students for a reason.  Everyday I try to purposefully find that reason in at least one child.

Enjoy the calendar.  I hope it makes your day a little easier.

Laminator Give-Away, Roller Coaster Class, & I am a FAILURE

Although I have been sick, I am still alive.  Sorry I abandoned my blog for the first 3 1/2 weeks of school.  My class has had me on a roller coaster ride.  I have caught a cold and a stomach virus so far.  I LOVE my class.  I have the sweetest children ever.  Unfortunately, I also have the most talkative group ever.  I love to hear them all tell stories, just not all 26 of them at the same time.  I have rearranged my desks at least once a week.  I think I have finally found an arrangement that is going to work.  We have a great day, we have a bad day (they talk non-stop), we have a great day, we have a bad day.  We actually had 2 days last week that everyone was on green.  That might have something to do with the fact that I worked their fingers to the bone those days in workbooks.  We didn't glue or cut on those days.  If I let them do something fun, they go crazy.  We are working on that though.  

I am a complete failure at Daily 5.  We worked so hard on Read to Self the first week of school.  We had our stamina up to 12 minutes.  The second week of school started and my quiet kids became loud.  The walls started closing in on us.  There are 27 of us in a 600 square foot room.  We have not done Read to Self again since the first week.  

We haven't had time.  (We have done several craftivites.)

Like some of this ELMER stuff.  

And I also have the Interrupting Chicken craft ready for Friday.

We also made these cool stop lights for writing paragraphs.  I cut out circles and let them write their sentences on the circles.  They then glued them onto a black piece of construction paper.  I have cut strips to do the paragraph like Mrs. Prince next week.  

We don't have room to  spread out.  

Each day we say we are going to get to Read to Self, but we run out of time.  I am just a failure.  We are going to keep trying to make time for it, but I think we are just too crowded.  When I rearranged my room to spread out the desk I had to use my meeting area. Maybe next year when I have a smaller class or bigger room we can attempt Daily 5 again.  

We have used the glue and the scissors and my kids think I am the coolest teacher because sometimes I write on the Mimio in cursive and I let them use the Mimio pen.  Apparently, some of the 1st grade teachers are more OCD than I am and never let the kids use the pen.  They made them use a dry-erase marker and just write on the white board under (or would it be over) the projected image.  (GASP)

We are having fun!!!!  I am ok with being a failure with Daily 5 as long as my kids are learning and still think I am cool.

I was contacted by MyBinding.com this week.  They are sending me a laminator to try out and also donating one for a give-away.  I can't wait to start printing some things to laminate and show you all how awesome this laminator is.  Watch for the give-away coming soon.  

Laminator Giveaway at Smiling in Second

Visit Smiling in Second for a chance to win a cool laminator. This is short because I am on my phone blogging while traveling.

I can't insert a link so you will have to copy and paste this link. Sorry.

http://smilinginsecondgrade.blogspot.com/2012/08/laminator-giveaway.html?m=1

Jennifer

Lesson Plan Template Legal Size

I have distressed over my lesson plans for a few weeks now.  Our school has an online subscription to a lesson plan site that we are supposed to use.  All of the 2nd grade teachers use the same login.  This year 2 of the other 2nd grade teachers are putting in the lesson plans for us.  I don't always stay on track with them and just do better with my plans written out.  I saw this pin and got really excited.  Then I was very disappointed just like the rest of you to learn the template was not available.

I finally sat down tonight and created a template in legal size to fit my schedule.  I really like the To Do list for each day.

You can purchase a copy of my template here.  It is in Microsoft Word format so it is editable.  I hope someone else can use it. 

I am using this along with my Daily 5 Planner.  I think I am really going to like this format.

Guess what I got for free today?

Today I had to run to town with my mom. I had seen this great post here.

I decided to run in Office Max and pick up a file box and some hanging file folders for my 31 school bag. Here's how mine turned out. Sorry about the low quality pictures. I took them with my phone.

I think this is the greatest idea ever for this bag. Now my papers won't get bent or crumpled.

Now for my freebie. As I was standing in line I heard the cashier tell the woman in front of me that she was getting 5 free composition notebooks for spending at least $5. What? Shut the front door! Free composition notebooks. I got out of line and found a nice young man to tell me where the free composition notebooks where located. I decided I would at least try and beat the system. I got ten composition notebooks. I thought I would be really smart and pay for my items seperately so I could receive 10 free notebooks. What? You know you would do the same thing! I got back in line. When it was my turn to check out with an extremely friendly cashier, I asked him if he could look up my max perks card because I can never keep up with all those cards I left it at home in another purse. He looked it up and said that since I was a teacher I could also get an additional 5 notebooks free. Shut the front door again!!! I asked him if I could also get 5 more for my second order. He said of course and that he could ring it all up together. Well that is 20 free notebooks and I have 26 kids. ................ My brain starting working. I informed him that I had 26 kids and asked if I could purchase 6 additional notebooks so everyone would have one. "No problem, I will give you 26 free notebooks. We really appreciate everything you teachers do," he said. SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!! Not only did he find a box to put all of my loot in, he put it in a buggie, carried it to my car, and put it in my car for me. Office Max is now my favorite place to shop!!! I love free stuff!!!

Posted with Blogsy

I Will Survive

I have almost survived my 1st week of school with students. We usually start on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. I personally prefer having the kids first day be on a Friday so that I have the weekend to recover.

Only 26 of my babies showed up. The 1 that moved is the one that I actually stole off of Flo's list because he stole my heart last year. He moved to Arkansas. I'm thinking about trying to transfer there with him.

This week was pretty uneventful. I had one girl wet her pants on Tuesday. She has nearly wet them 50 more times. The mad pooper struck again yesterday. We were hoping he had gone to the middle school. Anywho, that's a story for another day.

This morning some of Flo's students made a discovery in the girl's bathroom before school. They came in whispering to her, "What do you want us to do with the pair of underwear on the floor? They have #2 in them." She came and got me to go investigate with her so she wouldn't be alone of they really had #2 in them. Sure enough, there in the middle of the floor was a pair of underwear (2nd grade sized) with #2 in them. We left them there and happened to catch our principal in the hall. We told him at least our kids weren't as bad as the mad pooper. They left their poop in their underwear. I still wonder what student spent the whole day without underwear on????

On a good note, my class Read to Self for 10 whole minutes today!!!

But we burnt up in the fire drill because I had the time wrong.

Jennifer

Classroom Handbook

Tomorrow is my first day with my students!  I am excited and nervous.  I pretty much finished my room Friday.  The only thing left to do this weekend was create a handbook.  I used graphics from Thistle Girl Designs. 

The fonts used were CK Handprint, MTF Jumpin Jack, and Babe Bamboo.  I hope this will help someone else with ideas.

You can purchase a copy of my handbook in Microsoft Publisher here for $3.00.  I have deleted the graphics as they are copyrighted to distribute in Publisher.  I have also changed all fonts to Times New Roman.  You can add graphics and fonts to fit your class theme. I inserted 2 jpegs from the Behavior Charts found on The Inspired Apple blog for my behavior pages.  You can edit this if you have Publisher and tweek it to fit your class.

Wish me luck tomorrow.  I can't wait.  I just love teaching!!!!

Back 2 School/Open House

 

Yesterday I went back for my first workday. It was good to see everybody. We basically sat in a meeting, had a small break, sat in another meeting, set up for the luncheon, had the luncheon, cleaned up after the luncheon, had another meeting, worked in our room for 10 minutes. If you were super teacher you were then free to leave. I am not super teacher. Open House is today from 1-6. I had to get my room ready. We have more meetings today from 8-12.

I don't know how y'all do luncheons at your school. We are a small district. We have one elementary, one middle, and one high school. We have a beginning of the year luncheon and an end of the year luncheon. Each school has to take turns hosting. Last year we didn't have to do any of the work enjoyed the luncheons hosted by the middle and high school. This year it was our turn. Because we are more creative elementary teachers we tend to go all out. Last week our principal called some of the teachers in on our day off to make these.

These were the center pieces for our tables at the luncheon. They were a lot of hard work fun to make. I had to come home and take a 2 hour nap after we were finished. I was too tired to blog about them last week. Making them took something out of me that I haven't gotten back yet. They were worth it. We each got to keep one after the luncheon. This is now mine.

 

Now back on track. I didn't leave at 3:30. I wanted to leave and go get a butterscotch snow cone. I called my husband to tell him I was going to get the snowcone (I have to go to the next town, we don't have a snowcone stand). The phone conversation went something like this. Me: I am going to go get a snowcone and then come back to finish my room. Him: You have worked all summer what else is there to do. Me: Lots. Him: I thought we would go out to eat since the kids are at your mom's house. Me: Well if you will come help me finish then we can go eat, if not you are on your own because I am going to get a snowcone for dinner. So he came to help, we went to eat, & the snowcone stand was closed by the time we finished. So today I will get a snowcone for lunch. He stuffed my envelopes and fixed my binders for me.

Here is my room ready for Open House.

My angels will bring their supplies with them today. My goal is for them to organize their supplies today themselves so I am not at school until midnight tonight doing it myself. Here is a look at my system.

It is very high tech. They read the board and put their supplies in the correct spot.

 

I think I have failed to mention. I HAVE 27 ANGELS ON MY LIST!!!!!!!!!! I have never taught 27 angels always been lucky enough to have around 20 angels. I don't think I can handle it will have to learn to handle 27 angels. These cups are for poor angels that don't have a spot in the supply storage on the back of the door. We were supposed to have 24 kids each. So when we sent our copies up we only got 25 copies each. So now I have to make 2 more copies of all of my papers for the 1st 2 weeks of school.

This is what will be on their desks. The papers on the right will be for the parents to fill out today and leave with me, so I can get to know their children over the weekend before school starts Monday. The manilla envelope is full of papers for the parents to take home and fill out over the weekend. I can't remember where I got the binder covers or the welcome bags. If you really need to know leave your e-mail address and I will search until I find out.

 

Because I have 27 angels, I have decided I need room parents this year. So I made this sign to hang outside my room to hopefully get volunteers.

.......................................................................................................................

I made these to give my team mates in 2nd grade. I got the idea from Pinterest from several different sources.


Our theme this year is Rock and Roll. Our elementary t-shirts say Jackets Keep Calm and Rock On. So when I saw this coffee mug I had to get it. This is pretty much going to be my motto this year with my 27 angels.

 

Wish me luck today.



 

Posted with Blogsy