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!!!!