Second Grade Perks: October 2014

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Sunday, October 26, 2014

October Organization ~ Weekend Warriors ~ Day Two

Welcome to day two of October organization. If you didn't see my post yesterday on classroom organization you can check it out {HERE}. Plus make sure you get the Halloween skip counting puzzle freebie.

Before I forget we have a new Weekend Warrior Pinterest board that you will certainly want to follow for some great ideas!


Today I am going to share some organizational tips that I have not yet done myself but are on my to do list. These are for around the home.

The first thing is this awesome way to store flip flops. If you're like me you have a ton of them but they are all over the closet floor. Look at this neat little idea.


To go with all of my flip flops I of course have a ton of tank tops. Instead of using a zillion hangers or all of my drawer space I want to try this. Use a towel hanger and slide em right on.


In yesterday's post I told you I would show you how I organize my reading block, specifically small group time. This idea is super simple it just took me actually getting it together but it makes my guided reading/math life so much easier. I used a crate and hanging folders to organize all of my group materials. Each group has their own color folder and I keep two sets in the crate. One has materials for this week and the ones behind have their materials for next week . Most weeks we use close reading passages in our small groups. 


The huge binders separate my math and reading sections. Click {HERE} to download the binder labels. You can't see but in front of the binders is another hanging folder that stores the materials I need for all groups such as my schedule of who meets when, reading strategy cards that I printed 4/page on, laminated, and put on a ring{I got them HERE from Cara Carroll}light pointers {Read that post HERE}, and my response sticks

I also promised a reading freebie yesterday too. If you like my facebook page you get my reading response sticks for free. There is a 1st and 2nd grade version. Just click on more at the top and then fan freebies!

Saturday, October 25, 2014

October Organization ~ Weekend Warriors ~ Day One

Thanks for joining us Weekend Warriors for day one of October Organization. I hope you can get some ideas from this post for becoming more organized. These are just a few of things I do in my classroom to help myself stay put together.

This summer I decided to get my reading center organized. I made the READ posters and just bought dollar store frames to hang them in. If you want the posters click {HERE}. I got white baskets from the Dollar Tree and bought some chevron tape to make the book baskets. The chalkboard labels have the book levels that are in the basket. I would share those but they are specific to the levels of books in each of my baskets. The boxes on top are our Daily 5 boxes. These boxes are wonderful to keep my students organized. It holds everything they need when they go to their Daily 5 choices.They grab their box and on the wall behind the boxes I put a long strip of masking tape and put their number where their box goes so they know right where to put it. I wasn't sure this would work but it has!


Being organized means that right now I am planned and have copies made for at least the next two weeks. This is how I store my future copies. Simple and cheap, my two favorite words. I took two magazine boxes and cut file folders in half to make dividers. Behind each is the copies for that day.



On Fridays I take the copies from the box and move them to this pocket chart from Scholastic. I have Monday - Friday sections and I just slide the copies in. This way I can look at it during the day to see if I forgot to pass something out or use something I wanted for a specific lesson.


Here is how I organize my monthly materials. I bought 5 large tubs from Wal-Mart and keep two months in each. Sorry about the sloppy picture. My cabinets are not the nicest.


In the tubs I just keep one month on one side and the other month on the other side. As you can see on the right (Short/Long Vowel game) I use large clasp envelopes and laminate the student directions to the front so I can just pull them each month and stick them in a center.


As a thank you for checking out my blog today you can get a fan freebie from my facebook page. Just click on the facebook button below and click on more then fan freebies to download.


 It is a set of skip counting puzzles with a Halloween theme.


Make sure you check out these other great blogs for more October Organization and stop back by tomorrow to see how I organize my reading and math block. Plus if you do, you can snatch up another freebie for reading groups.


Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Big Surprise Finally Revealed!

If you follow me on facebook you have probably noticed that something great is coming your way. Well it's finally here. Some wonderful blogging buddies and I have collaborated on a brand new blog just for you called Primary Powers. We will be posting something new for you each day. Our theme is super heroes and for each bloggers first post they will be offering a freebie with a super hero theme just as a thank you to you for checking out our new blog.



And the news gets even better because we are celebrating the launch of Primary Powers with an exclusive deal with Educents!


21 instant downloads, over 1,000 pages of materials that are ready to use, and variety of topics to pull your through months of teaching!  $100.75 retail value available for a limited time for $29.99 which is 70% off!  Extreme value alert!

Concepts covered are:  addition, subtraction, graphing, time, money, reading, fluency, spelling, writing, close reading, grammar, story element in fiction and nonfiction, and much, much more!  

Products are thematically correct for the upcoming seasons!  
- spiders and camping for October
- turkeys, Thanksgiving, scarecrows for November
- winter, penguins, the holidays, and New Years for December

Other great items include:
- a calendar that could be used as a parent gift
- a data folder to track student growth
- literacy and math centers
- printables
- units of study

Check out the previews below...   






















And still that is not all. If you fill out the form {HERE} you can get $10 off. So you could actually get this amazing bundle for just $19.99. So make sure you check out this bundle of products and our brand new blog Primary Powers because there is even more..........


Check out these amazing prizes you can enter to win:

 






So I know that was a whole lot of goodness right there so to recap.........if you want to check out the Educents bundle click {HERE} and click {HERE} to get the $10 off form. If you want to enter the mega giveaway click {HERE}.

Good Luck!