The Busy Life of a Teacher Mom

Hah - that needs no explanation, right?  

I had promised myself to blog at least once/week during the school year, because there's tons of time on the weekends, right?  I have to confess, that is NOT what I'm thinking Sunday night or getting up Monday morning!  It usually is more along the lines of "Where did that weekend go?  One more day!  One more day!"

I've signed up to do several blog hops/freebies that are coming up that I wanted to highlight before I get to share what we've been up to this week in our classroom. :)

Be looking for "Friday Fall Freebie" starting October 4!  Several bloggers, including myself, are sponsoring a freebie each Friday (I think there's 13 of us?).  So be sure to hit the blogs Friday/Saturday AM to check it out!  The theme won't necessarily be fall for all of us, but I know my first one is a cute Fall writing prompt that my class did on Thursday that I can't wait to show you pictures of!  Think 4-square and q-tips! :)

The second is less of a hop and more of a giveaway and linky!  I'm linking up my best-selling "Basic Fraction SCOOT" as a prize with Table Talk with C and C's linky, "Best Selling Math Activity Giveaway and Linky!".

We all love those SCOOT games!  It's a fantastic way to get your class up and in motion while reviewing a concept.  This is one of my early SCOOT creations, but a goodie.  I named it "basic" because it follows our second grade standards where students need to identify the fraction and are just starting comparing.  So, it's good for end of unit first and second graders, and a refresher at the beginning of unit for 3rd and up!  

I'm currently having an issue with Publisher to load up my original (and I have no idea how to pull pics from PDFs), so I'm sending you my link to go check it out (sorry!).  Click {here} to check it out in my store!

Okey dokey....what have we been up to lately?  These are some of the activities we've been up to in September, since I just realized I submit more on Instagram than blog!  Whoops!

Our Eric Carle Unit - our Harcourt Trophies has the story of  The Mixed-Up Chameleon, so last year I wanted to take it a step farther and make it into an author study with the books I had available, as well as some borrowed from a teacher-friend.  I plan this year on binding the projects together in a book for my students to take home!  Because of pre-testing for our district, it's been lasting over a couple of weeks....we have not painted nor read The Little Cloud, but it's on for next week!

Our school participated on September 18th in the United Way Day of Caring and each child, during resource time, got to put their handprint on the wall in the front hallway of our school!  Our walls were a drab gray before.  I know there's plans to decorate the whole school (we have colored tile scattered throughout the school which is what made up the colors of each square).  Doesn't it look cute?  Teachers and staff got to put their handprints on later in the day!  We had UW workers that are (somehow) connected to UVA (which is 30 min from us) to help out for the day!

Constitution Day - got to read my favorite We the Kids and we made our own class Preamble, which now hangs outside in our hallway! If you've never read or heard of that book before, it breaks the Preamble down to kid-language. 

Matter Ice Cream....every year at the end of our Matter unit, our 2nd graders create ice cream (liquid to a solid!).  Can you tell my kiddos were excited?  

Story Problems - we use Investigations series at school....if you've read my earlier posts, you know I am NOT exactly a fan.  In Unit 1, it has students adding 2 digit numbers with the strategy of drawing pictures, which is FINE except for my struggling lil' ones.  So, in order to assess their learning, but using smaller numbers, I created "From Apples to Bananas" which tests the same skill of understanding story problems but in smaller chunks!  Always a fan of clipart to make items more visually appealing, the kids really liked these and loved the variety that matched their interests.  I even have some "challenge" ones since my class ranges from below to above.  It's at my TpT store, if you want to check it out {here}

Finally, I wanted to share with you a Whole Brain Teaching strategy that has gone over so well in my class - the "Genius Ladder"!  As you can see below, you start with a "blah" sentence and add details, extend it, and make it into a story.  After doing this many times with my students whole group, I made one for my students' writing journals and we've done it together, so far.  My goal is to give them the "blah sentence" and have them do it independently.  To learn more about Whole Brain Teaching, their website is www.wholebrainteaching.com.  They have a ton of free stuff, but if you're interested in doing it in your room, I highly recommend buying the book.  I'm leading a PLC in our school about it (we are a very small group), so I'll let you know how it goes!  Since I'm a newbie at it, but have implemented it the last 32 days, I get to lead it!  Hopefully, I'll be able to post some information on here as I go.  You should definitely check it out!

 

So, that's been September in my room (or at least what I've taken pictures of!).  I fear I've been more loyal to my classroom blog than this one :( except for one Friday, so be sure to take a peek there as well at Youel Soar High in Second Grade.

One more plug - Limeades for Learning!  Sonic sponsors this along with Donors Choose, so if you have a moment, head over there and check out the great projects that are posted.  I hope you'll consider voting for one of my 2 projects.  I am VERY easy to find - type in "Youel" as keyword (I'm the only one in there!).  Thanks! :)

Adios for now - hasta luego!

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! :)

 

Blog Hops, Summer Reading, and Whole Brain Teaching

Christmas in July?  As scary as it sounds (it already makes me go "eek!" that it's July and half my "to do" list is not done!), there are 17 blogs out there not only having a sale, but having a blog hop AND a contest going on!  Here's a link to stop#1:

 

Enjoy and make sure to look for the flamingo/underlined word in each freebie to solve the puzzle!  I found the link when I opened up Pinterest this morning.  Thought I'd share! :)

Summer reading....I really like what I've been hearing about "Whole Brain Teaching."  Once again, a Pinterest stumble, but I really like the ideas that were posted and decided to go ahead and order the book.  Well, I did try to find it locally, but it seems it's only available via Amazon.com in my neck of the woods.  So, now I'm awaiting my book (hoping it's before next Wednesday, which is the estimated delivery date) and have downloaded most of the ebooks from the official site, as well as shared the idea with my teammates.

I'm gathering info and have started a new Pinterest board in case you're interested in looking at it as well!  There are a lot of blogs out there about WBT, so it's nice to find that support and people to ask questions!

With my safari theme, this is what I've created so far:

At some point, I'll have all this gathered together in a packet and share!  I wanted to read the book before I made anything available, to make sure I'm on the right track. :)  I'm also working on a planner that I hope to share as a freebie soon! :)

Do you do Whole Brain Teaching in your room?  How do you think it works?  It seems very successful and very to the point!  I also like the idea of the hand gestures and I'm always looking for ways to make learning fun! :)