Second Grade Perks: August 2012

Pages

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Unkas The Reading Dog and Tasty Tuesday

I discovered the neatest thing in my county. A lady has a dog named Unkas that she takes to the schools in our county and the kids go out in the hall one at a time and get to read to it. My kiddos LOVED this today. Here are some pictures.


 
 
We also started Tasty Tuesday this week. If you haven't heard of this you HAVE to check it out. The kids get to "cook" something one Tuesday every month and then write a review. I even bought aprons for mine and had Mrs. Perkins' Chef put on them. They looked too cute. We made Carmel apples this time. The kids thought it was just the neatest thing. Click here to get the Tasty Tuesday directions from Sunny Days in Second Grade. Check out some of our apples.
 
I have parents volunteer to pick up the pictures each month so I don't put the kids face. That's their number so we know who is who. You keep their pictures and recipes and make a book at the end of the year to show their writing progress.
 
 
This kid went crazy with the sprinkles.

 


Saturday, August 18, 2012

First Week Back Linky

Well we have been back at it for a whole week now. I LOVE my new class of little second graders. I have some cuties! I wanted to share what we did our first week back to school. Here are some pics of our finished products. Link up below to show what you did for your first week back.

First we used Hope King's Going for the Gold packet and made the adorable little glyph athletes. I wanted to use something with the Olympics since they were just finishing up, but I was shocked that half of my class didn't even know what the Olympics were.



We also made Olympic torches and wrote about what made us shine.


Here is our work in the hallway.


Then we used Babbling Abby's Super in Second packet to make these little backpacks. They wrote about what a second grader needs to be successful and put crayons in their pocket. So stinkin' cute!


Next, we read First Day Jitters, read Abby's poem, and made Jitter Juice. Oh My Goodness, the kids LOVED making this juice. They thought it was the neatest thing when we mixed the ingredients together.


I asked everyone to write a letter to a friend telling them about their new teacher. I went around reading them when they were at lunch and they were so sweet. This one if from my Korean girl. Love it!






Saturday, August 11, 2012

Winner of Giveaway and More Classroom Pictures

First, today was the last day to enter the big back to school giveaway. The lucky winner of all these fabulous prizes is Janine N.. You will be receiving your prizes soon.

For other news I have joined Corinna from Surfin Through Second's Classroom Theme Linky. I already posted a ton of pictures in my previous post, but I have some more to share.

I found this idea on pinterest. Just hot glued clothespins to my card stock.


This is my writer's eye wall. I am still working on my writer's area, so those pics will come later. I can't find where I got my owl posters but you can get a different set here for FREE.


This is my homemade pocket chart. I am not totally happy with the way it turned out but it will do. You can find directions on how to make your own here.


Here is my reading center. I have showed this in a previous post, but it is just my favorite part of my room. I worked so hard on this and am pretty sure the fire marshall will get me for it. But I guess until then we can enjoy.


These little letter owls came from here for FREE.


This is our listening center.


This is my school supply shelf and you can get the labels here for FREE.


 When my kiddos don't finish something they put it in the "I'm not finished yet tub."


This area is right behind my small group table. I know it looks like a lot and like it would be overwhelming to the students, but I plan to help them find the letter sound they are stuck on when in small group with me so they can figure the word out on their own. You can get them here for FREE.


 Here is my part of speech wall. It seems like no matter how many times you say an adjective is a describing word, they just can't remember. So, I thought it would be nice to have up all year. You can get these posters here.


Don't you always have the kids that want to turn their paper in first and miss half of the directions or write so sloppy you couldn't read it if someone paid you?? Well I found this adorable smiley work poster. This way they have to make sure they have done everything before they turn it in. There is also one for writing too. You can get them here for FREE.


Saw this idea on pinterest and HAD to make one. Just brightens up the room.


Here are my voice level posters that you can get here for FREE.


Here is our clock area. You can get the clock numbers for FREE here. I was very disappointed when I found FREE owl ones here though. The skip counting hands and feet can be found here for FREE. The key words for addition/subtraction can be found here for FREE.


Here is my new morning calendar area. I am using The Secret to a Successful Calendar that can be found here.

I am going to use table numbers this year. I get these adorable ones here for FREE.


I am also going to try the "Fill Our Class Bucket." I found this cute sign here for FREE and just painted a frame from the Dollar Tree for it. The rocks and green bucket also came from the Dollar Tree. We have 4 nine weeks so this sign works perfect for me.



I got this idea from here. You just make your own flash cards for whatever skill you want and they put the question side up in the top and it shoots it out answer side up. LOVE IT!!


Here are some pictures of the whole room from different angles.





Hope you were able to get something from this. Don't forget about the big sale from TPT. My products will be 20% plus the discount TPT is giving. August 12th-13th

Have a GREAT weekend!!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Overload of Classroom Pics

First TPT is having a big back to school sale August 12th and 13th. My products will be 20% off and then if you use the code below you can get another 10% off. Don't forget TPT also takes purchase orders now.

BTS 12 250x125


Now, I am one of those nerds that gets really excited about getting my room ready. I am doing the owl theme this year and wanted to share some a lot of pictures with you and where I got my stuff. Here we go!

These first four are the outside of my room. Here is my pinterest inspired crayon wreath. Sure everyone has seen this but just in case you can find directions here: http://momspartycafe.blogspot.com/2010/06/teacher-giftscontinuedcrayon-wreaths.html


This is a FREE welcome sign you can get here.


Another welcome sign that I posted onto super cute colorful card stock that I found at yep the Dollar Tree. Love me some Dollar Tree. This is also FREE from here.



I am going to try Daily 5 and Cafe this year. This is my board for that. I got these cute little owl signs here and here for oh yes FREE again.


This adorable wall art came from Kohls. The alphabet posters I got for only $2 here.


The number cards above and the month posters and days of the week posters I actually made myself and can be purchased here as a set for only $3.50. You can also search my store and purchase them as individuals if you don't need all 3.



This was another pinterest inspired idea. I just cut the letters out and hot glued clothespins on the card stock from Dollar Tree.


This is my boggle board and yes I realize I have the word dumb across the bottom. I switched it.


These are my classroom rules. I am also going to try whole brain teaching this year. You can get these rules posters here for FREE. I just attached them with some pretty pink and green ribbon.



I have more but I am going to have to stop here for today and I'll post the rest in a couple of days. Don't forget about my big back to school giveaway where you can win a lot of prizes. You can enter until Friday by checking out the previous post.