School and the City

Few things at school stress me out more than holidays that require students to make gifts for their parents. I want my parents to be impressed and flattered, I really do, but I also want them to know that I use classroom time effectively to teach their students as much as possible.  Some of the gifts that I have seen teachers have their students make for their parents are over-the-top extravagant and, worst of all, expensive! Frankly, as a beginning teacher, I can't afford to spend more on my classroom than I already do. I love my students' parents and am so thankful for them, and I wish I had an endless supply of cash, but I would rather invest in books for my classroom library.  Last year, I created a product that would meet my needs as a teacher. Not only is the project print-and-go with no prep required, it also showcases a student's academic talent, creativity, AND - most importantly - his or her LOVE for mom!  My moms from last year absolutely loved ...

Hi, all! Long time, no blog. This quarter has been a crazy one full of extra-curricular activities, illness, and big decisions. I'm back today though because I COULD NOT WAIT to share with you about our classroom poetry caf é! We've been planning this for weeks... CLICK the picture to check out my editable invitations! My students worked extremely hard all month creating poetry books using my templates and adding their own pages. They turned out to be great little poets! I gathered some materials including a karaoke machine, a lamp, and some snacks. We practiced at least 5 times. I showed the students some video clips of kids reciting poetry and we practiced using vocal and facial expressions. I encouraged them to dress in all black and wear glasses or hats if they wanted to. I even tried to teach them how to snap instead of clap! For the real thing, I had about 20 parents show up to be the audience.  It was SO MUCH FUN for both the ki...

Words Their Way: SO overwhelming, am I right? We just started using Words Their Way this year. Although I was trained on WTW in college, I had NO IDEA how to implement WTW effectively in my classroom while differentiating to meet students' individual needs. Over the summer, my team decided that I was going to be in charge of word study, so I threw myself head first into Words Their Way. I read the books, read blogs, attended workshops, and watched videos.  I finally figured out how to implement WTW in my room. Maybe it will work for you, too!  ORGANIZATION First, you have to give your students the PSI or ESI test and score them using the WTW scoresheets. I don't fill out the scoresheets completely because I find that to be a royal waste of time. Instead, I circle the patterns that a student MISSES. When a student misses three in one column, I stop grading and plan to start the student on that skill.  I have a spreadsheet on Google Docs tha...

I posted a picture of my new bulletin board on my Instagram yesterday and had some comments requesting activity details. I don't blame you; Isn't is so stinkin' cute?!? I got the idea from a pin that I saw on Pinterest and adapted the activity to better suit my second graders. (Find my activity HERE on TPT.) First, we read The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I'm sure there are many books out there that have more to do with snowpeople melting, but I threw this lesson together at the last minute (lightbulb moment) so The Snowy Day - SUCH a classic - had to do. I stumbled upon this incredible " animated storybook " on the Ezra Jack Keats website. We watched it on BookFlix though because BookFlix shows the words. Then we watched Olaf sing his “Summer” song in a video clip from Frozen ... obviously that was a HIT with my second graders! They sang every word. (Okay, so did I.) Lastly, we talked about how we could relate the book a...

If you bribe kids with cookies... they'll work hard and be on their best behavior. If you give a teacher time to TEACH, she'll plan a fun and authentic lesson. That's rare; I know. I love to use If You Give a Mouse a Cookie to practice identifying goods and services. This was my third time teaching this lesson. Just like wine and Zac Efron, it's getting better with age! First, we reviewed prior knowledge. I define goods as "things we can touch and feel" and services as "things we do for others." We sang our goods and services song (more info here ) and the kids gave some examples of each. Today was the last day spent working on goods and services and the activity served as an informal assessment. Barnes and Noble's Online Storytime  includes a video / read-aloud version of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie . I don't usually use Online Storytime because it doesn't show the words, but it is a safe and quick option to hear t...

Do you ever have a light bulb moment and try to throw an activity together at the last minute? I do. All the time.  Sometimes I kick myself for it, but sometimes it works out wonderfully, like this one did. I present to you...One ODD Turkey. I had the idea that students could create a turkey that has all odd numbers of body parts.  (1 leg, 3 eyes, 5 feathers, 3 wattles, and so on.) Even and odd is a second grade standard that we practice throughout the year. Then I decided to take it a step further and create a classroom store so students could "buy" the materials they wanted to complete their projects. All second graders need practice counting coins and making change.  If I had thought of this farther in advance, I would have asked a parent or two to come help me. Instead, I did it all myself. In addition to all of the usual hats that teachers wear, I was also "cashier" and photographer. However chaotic, it was a BLAST! First, students ...

About a year ago, I created a monster: the Tattle Monster.  I saw the idea on Pinterest. If someone is hurt, the kids are supposed to come tell me. If no one is hurt, a student can write his or her tattle on a slip of paper and feed it to the Tattle Monster for me to read later.  #NEVERFORGET It worked GREAT last year. This year, not so much.  Today, after recess, I had four kids crowded around the Tattle Monster. I shooed them away and saw that I had 15 tattles in the box... from this morning only. FIFTEEN.  So I said, "This is the end of the Tattle Monster" and all of these things about how maybe we should all just be nice to each other so that no one has tattles to write. I may have gotten a little caught up in my not-so-kind speech about kindness that I may have made a big show of throwing the Tattle Monster in the trash can.  We're lining up to switch classes in 30 seconds, I told myself, I'll just get it out of the t...