School and the City

Hey, friends! Back to school has gotten the best of me, as usual, but I'm glad to finally share this year's classroom with you. Life would be so grand if we all worked on the same hallway, but I am happy to virtually share with you my classroom reveal along with Theresa ( True Life I'm a Teacher ), Chandra ( Teaching With Crayons and Curls ), and Erin ( The Elementary Darling ). This year, I had more time to set up my room. Also, I had alllll year last year to think of ways to tweak my space! I'm much happier in my room already this year. I fully believe that I need to be happy in my space - my second home - to be the best teacher I can be. CHEVRON LETTERS I was totally inspired by Theresa to add some giant lettering to my wall. I don't have a Cricut { yet } so I printed these and cut them out by hand! I love how they look with my tassels from Target. Want this "Work Hard. Be Kind. Have Fun." printable?! This resource is now avai...

I DID IT! I survived the first week of second grade, again! It was actually probably my best first week yet! I spent lots of time at the end of the year preparing for back to school. Opening my Back to School box was such a relief, because so much work was already done! Of course, those are the perks of staying at the same school and teaching the same grade level in the same room. Life doesn't always work out that nicely. But as for this year, it was wonderful! We started off the year with First Year Jitters and "jitter juice." I know this is a popular first day activity, but I had never done with before. After researching "jitter juice" recipes, I ended up going with knock-off Sprite and rainbow sprinkles. Although I loved the sprinkles, next year I plan to add some color somehow, probably by mixing in a little punch. I continued to use First Day Jitters as a mentor text all week, because I am trying Jivey's mentor sentences this year Ano...

It's about that time. My Sneak Peek (or Meet the Teacher, whatever you want to call it) is on THURSDAY MORNING. Eeeek! I truly cannot believe that it is already time to meet my next batch of babies. I can't wait, but I'm also on edge! What a crazy time of year this is, filled with so many emotions! At my school, we are encouraged to have treats at Sneak Peek for students to take home with them. I prefer to do treats that are practical and not annoying, that was parents don't immediately hate me, and affordable for me! The past few years I have done Goldfish with a cute tag glued onto them. This year I decided to be a little more exciting and I bought the RAINBOW goldfish instead of the original orange Goldfish. Crazy, I know! You can download the printable card f or FREE! They are available for grades K - 6. Print the ones you need, and sign your name on the bottom. Buy some boxes of Goldfish, and ta-da! Join my list & I'll send the...

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links .** My team is AWESOME, y'all. I am so unbelievably lucky to work with them, honestly! So like so many of us do, I wanted to give each of my teammates a small back-to-school gift. Well, this idea stemmed from necessity. Our doors are HEAVY, the cheap plastic door stops don't work, and apparently decent door stops disappear in the night. We are all running out of wooden triangular prisms to steal from our geometry kits. So I decided to give my sweet coworkers a gift that is cute AND practical. I took to Amazon and chose  these door stops because they are white and the sides are smooth - perfect for decorating! They come in packs of two and the price is reasonable, I think! But you can also buy door stops at the Dollar Tree and hardware stores.   Next I bought some  Sharpie paint markers . I bought the pack with basic colors because I wanted to match our school's colors, but I love the neon pack , too! ...

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links. By purchasing an item from Amazon using these links,  I will receive a small commission on your purchase.** Oh, econ. It was the bane of my existence in college. Fun fact: Econ was my second lowest grade in college.  (My lowest grade was the class that I met my husband in... I guess I was a little distracted.) So how in the world am I supposed to teach ECONOMICS to 7-year-olds?! Actually, the first time I taught economics, it was to kindergartners. It was during my student teaching, and I had to create my own unit and materials . When I started teaching second grade and realized I had to teach "financial literacy," a prettier name for economics, I was much more confident. I took my kindergarten unit and expanded it to meet the academic needs of my second graders.  I will admit that second grade economics is much easier than my college course. Elementary school econ focuses on needs vs. wants, go...