Sharks and Meerkats, Oh My!

Trying to catch up on my sharing of what I've been doing this year!  I previously posted about hosting our guest author, Ginjer Clarke.  I wanted to share with you some of the activities I did with K-2 before her arrival!

For PreK, K and first, we read the book, Sharks!  I started by showing a collage of different types of sharks and had students give me information that they already knew on sharks (an informal KWL, of sorts, but I've found with my limited time with my Kinders, I usually don't do the written version.  Same with first).  We then read the book Sharks!  The kids loved it!  We then did several themed centers, including Write the Room (I only did this with my Firsties, since it was the first time I'd done it in the library - they did a great job and LOVED IT!) and a coloring page.  I also had plenty of ocean animal books on hand, including sharks, on their level to check out!

With my second graders, we read the book, Baby Meerkats.  I have an actual "life size" meerkat I got years ago from Toys R Us in their Discovery Education line.  I have no idea if its still available today, but it was neat seeing the kids reaction on how small they really are!  They then had a few choices for centers:  Write the Room, a fraction based activity using meerkats, or a coloring page (because they still love to color and create at this age!). 

For my third graders, we didn't do any centers, but focused on the book, Gross Out!  The "Out!" series is wonderfully informative, but a little longer than the other two books I've mentioned.  However, we had a good time getting grossed out by dung beetles, possums, and more!  Fourth and fifth, we took to the Internet and wegivebooks.org to read an e-book "Maxed Out!" about gigantic (and now extinct) creatures.

   

This was a great way to get the kids excited about Mrs. Clarke's visit.  We also had some presales of her books, which she signed while she was here. 

If you'd like to check out my shark or meerkat packet, please click on the link below.  You don't have to use these books with the packets (although I highly recommend them).  I have to say, though, any author that writes about my favorite animal (meerkats), and I am definitely a fan!!!

Freebies, Sales, and More!

Have you heard?  Teacher's Notebook is running a surprise sale starting tomorrow, April 16th through April 18th!  Every purchase will be 10% off your total!  I decided to join in on the fun, and my entire store is 25% off (and then you get the additional 10% off!).  This includes my newest product:

Be sure to stop by my store and check it out!

Also, while you're there, be sure to pick up my newest freebie based off the book, Meerkat Mail!  Click on the picture to download! :)

Well, today at 3pm started our Spring Break, and I hope to post some more products by the end of the week, including some major Magic Tree House fiction/nonfiction bundles I've been working on with my kiddos (as well as some additional freebies)!  Until then, happy shopping and have a great week!

First Week, Classroom Reveal, and a SALE!

Okay, first and foremost -

I don't know how I almost missed the boat on this!  Oh yes, I know how - even though we had a short week with a Wednesday start, it was BACK TO SCHOOL with KIDS!

From Open House on Monday to Friday, I swear I did nothing but prepare!!!  Why is there NEVER enough time???  

The first week went well.  This year, I am completely sold on Whole Brain Teaching!  I have several "doozies" in my classroom (you know, the ones that the year before teachers see you, wince, and mouth "sorry" as your class walks down the hallway).  Well, from Day 1 we have practiced the rules, they LOVE the "class/yes" response, and they are AWESOME at "hands and eyes."  A few other things we need to practice/improve upon, but I am soooo excited!  The Scoreboard Game is a HIT!  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, make sure to check out www.wholebrainteaching.com and get the book from Amazon. (I thought it was very silly in the book when they said you would "weep tears of joy" on certain sections, but I can certainly see it now!).

My only problem with it - I am a long winded talker.  I'm having trouble with the "teach okay" bit - you teach in small chunks and they teach a buddy.  I keep forgetting to do it, and go back to my old way of repeating the directions, having a student clarify and going from there.  I have GOT to get better about that.  Of course, we haven't done anything other than "back to school" activities, so it hasn't been too bad (yet).  

Sooo...on to my "classroom reveal."  I am SO excited about my classroom this year.  It is definitely one of my favorites and looks great, if I do say so myself!  I did get a little insulted when a fellow teacher stuck her head in my room and said, "Someone's been on Pinterest!"

Don't get me wrong.  I LOVE Pinterest.  It's an addiction.  Really.  But, I came up with the idea to do a "safari" room because I wanted to do a meerkat job chart (seriously - came up with that at the end of last year!).  Other than the Whole Brain Teaching posters, the black paper above the board, and the dry erase circles, everything else was "original."  It's okay, though, and I guess I should take it as a compliment! :)

 My Whole Brain Teaching Rules, noise level, and "reminder" poster of WBT's strategies (class/yes, teach/okay, mirror, etc).  I used that to introduce it to my students the first day and it stays up there as a reminder.

 Daily Schedule, Scoreboard (when they won their first "prize"!  It took us 3 days, but we did it!), and clip chart.  We were told last minute that we were doing clip charts, so they laminated construction paper for us.  I decided to one up it a bit and had it match my theme! :)

 I used these cute pawprints to have students and parents follow to each of the different "stations" for Open House.  The students got a BIG kick out of it (even students who weren't mine!), so I decided to use it for lining up.  With the boy-heavy class I have this year, it was worked GREAT!  They know exactly where to stand and save the first two paws for the line leader and door holder.  It was one of those "duh" moments as in, "Why have I never done this before???"

My meerkat job board (that started it all)

My "Genius Ladder" from Whole Brain Teaching (so excited to use this!)

Like my view of the playground?  Yeah, sometimes it causes problems but I tell the kids if we look out there instead of paying attention, our blinds go down.  Let me tell you, it's gloomy with no sunlight, so it only happens once or twice before they learn!  My palm tree I'm using to count "100 days" with ten frames that fit on each "rung" of the tree.

Open House Pictures  

 I was really excited to use the idea of the signs/stops this year!  However, most of my parents didn't make it past stop #2 with the supplies (which I just realized I didn't take a picture of.  Whoops!).  The kids enjoyed following the pawprints, though!).  I found the palm trees at Goodwill (lucky find!).  I'm pretty sure you can find them at party stores.

 "Station 2" in the distance....I labelled baskets/bins for supplies I collect and added a note that everything else went into the student desks.  It saved me a LOT of time from sorting/putting things away.  Most of our parents bring supplies to Open House.

Wish List - thought it would turn out better....too many monkeys (they were too large, I think) that covered up the vines.  I asked for cardstock (any color), playing cards (could be used), band-aids, stamps (for pen pals), envelopes, and spiral notebooks (our supply lists designate composition, but I like using spiral for our interactive social studies/science notebooks).

 Another view of stop #3 with part of my reading center in there.  I was so proud of how it turned out, I kept this photo in here...hee hee (you can see an earlier post about it with my classroom "peeks").

 

 Most of the items in the gift bag were from Oriental Trading (including the bags).  I made the signs.  The other side said "Come Join Our Learning Safari!"

 My "revamped" magnets I give out every year.  This time, I added cute graphics from Melonheadz to go with my theme.  I include my email, school number with my extension, our class blog, wiki pages, website, and Donors Choose page.

 Not sure if I've ever shared this last pic (maybe for a "Monday Made It" on Instagram).  The treasure chest was a clearance item  at Walmart ($4!) that was red.  The chair was a Goodwill find that I painted (the wheels were broken, so I took them off and added the tennis balls since I could see kids dragging it around and scratching up the floor).  I use it for my "read aloud" chair and for kids to "read aloud."  

So, that's my classroom/Open House for the year.  You can check out more on my Instagram account - I have a tendency to post on there more than any other place since I can snap pics with my phone, upload and boom!  It's there.  You can click on the button above to see my profile/pics, or just look me up at "adventuresinsecondgrade."

Whew!  Now to catch up on the laundry! :)

 

Bloggy Vacation, Instagram, and Yikes! Room Theme???

So, um, I took a little bloggy vacation and finally joined the ranks on Instagram!

My friend really encouraged me to take part in "Teacher Talk Tuesday" (#teachertalktuesday) on Instagram so I created an account.  You can find me as "adventuresinsecondgrade".  Please feel free to follow me!  Right now, I have the pics that were on my phone from our last day of school with Field Day and our Minute to Win It games! 

So, other than that, I have to admit, I haven't been very productive, other than trolling thru Pinterest, telling myself that it counts as my "1 teacher thing/day" I promised myself this summer! ;)  That, and helping out a friend in her classroom pack it up and start getting it organized!  She's already created a theme AND colors for next year! Whew!  Made me start thinking of my own theme...something with meerkats, but not quite sure WHAT...safari?  zoo?  Hmm...thinking on that one.  (Add another thing to the list!).

A big part of my to-do list was to clean up some of my end of year unit activities and share them!

In second grade in Virginia, we study ancient China and Egypt.  It's fun, especially since several years ago I earned a Playmobil grant and have many of the Egyptian line in my classroom for students to create with! 

One thing I created for my kiddos this year was an activity booklet on both cultures.  After my success with the paper bag books during our Famous Americans unit, I wanted an "active" book for them to contribute to as well as help me check that they were comprehending!

So....after many fights with the copier, I finally managed to have the booklets in order so that you can copy them double-sided.  When I say fights, I mean.....after doing a set of Egyptian ones BACKWARDS I told my kids it was okay, because in the Arab world they read stories right to left, not left to right, so we were okay. 

They liked that idea so well most of them decided to write their names backwards on their book!  Ha ha!  They are ALL too familiar of my fights with the copier (and that sometimes, the copier wins!).

So, without further ado, here's a peek at my books! I'm pretty proud of them! All clipart was from public domain or Microsoft.  I created them in Publisher but locked 'em into PDFs so I couldn't mess them up anymore! :)  Click {here} to see them closer in TpT and {here} for Teacher's Notebook for Egypt and {TpT} and {TN} for China.

So, I hope you'll check them out and tell me what you think!  My goal is to blog at least once/week (if not more) about what I'm doing to get ready for next year and *hopefully* share a few freebies! :)