Come See the New Blog

I have started a new blog with a teacher friend (of 14 years 😃). Feel free to stop by and see the new ideas we post at Education Whimsy.

Huge Back to School TPT Sale and a Giveaway!

Starting tomorrow (August 1st) there is a huge Back to School Sale on Teachers Pay Teachers! Everything in my store "Second Grade Positivity" is on sale- 28% off. 

Also, everyone who makes a purchase from my store August 1st- 5th will be eligible to win a $10 gift certificate to Teachers Pay Teachers. You will be entered once for each item you purchase.

Happy shopping!

New Math Materials

I have been making items this year to go with the Second Grade (Go Math) Curriculum since this is a new grade level for me.

Here are some of the things I have finished. They are posted on Teachers Pay Teachers and right now I am having a 20% off sale until Thursday! (You can click on the picture to go see the product).

5 for Friday

It's a Boy!

My daughter is expecting a son in March. She is now 23 weeks pregnant and they are both doing well. I am getting very excited.

Monster Slime

As a culminating activity to our Goods and Services Unit, each class either made a Good or offered a Service to the children. My class made "Monster Slime". We created a store banner and made advertisements. Each class made a short commercial. 

They got to visit each class to watch the commercials and see the advertisements. Then they got to choose which Good or Service to spend their (play) money on. 

The kids loved it!

Rock Unit

We created a Rock Schema poster at the beginning of our Rock Unit. The children brought in rocks for us to study and sort during the unit. The book Rocks: Hard, Soft, Smooth and Rough went along well with our unit. 

Soil Unit

We looked at 3 types of soil: humus, sandy and clay. The students enjoyed getting their hands dirty.

Halloween snack

This is a snack we made for Halloween. I got the idea from Pinterest. It is a pudding cup with crumbled up Oreo cookies on it. There is a ghost peep marshmallow and a candy corn pumpkin in the oreos. The kids loved making them and eating them.

Teachers Notebook Sale

I'm having a sale at Teacher's Notebook. Everything is 50% off! Click on the picture above to see the items. Thanks!

Check In With My Guided Math Program

I have been back in school for 8 weeks now. So, I wanted to take time to evaluate how my Guided Math is going this year.

I moved up to 2nd grade and decided to try a more structured approach to my Guided Math time this year.

The first couple of weeks of school, I was just trying to get my classroom running smoothly- establishing routines, introducing Centers, and getting to know the children.

I introduced Centers one at a time and we practiced them as a whole group at first. Now, I introduce the new Center games on Mondays and they run pretty smoothly. The children have learned what they are expected to do at each Center, where to put any completed papers and what to do when they are finished.

I use these black bins I got from IKEA. I numbered them (1-4).

When the children are working at the Centers and/or Independent work, I am able to work with my Guided Math groups. I have 5 groups that I work with every week. Luckily, I have interns in my room 4 days a week so I sometimes have them working with groups also.

Here are some activities they are working on during Center time.

I have a Low group, 2 Middle groups (They are pretty much on the same level but there are so many of them I put them in 2 groups.), a High group and an Enrichment group. My Enrichment group consists of the 5 students I have who have been identified as Gifted. The group labels are just for me. I don't tell the children which group they are in and I try to act like I randomly call them to work with me. My groups are not a part of the Center rotations. I just call the students as I need to work with them.

I call one of the groups each day. I usually start with the Low group on Monday to review what we did last week and give them a head start on this week. It depends on which students are absent that day. I have had many absences and try to call a group that has everyone there that day and hope the other children come the next day,

I have grouped my students in 2 ways.We are using the iReady Math program on the computers. So, after their first Diagnostic test, I grouped the children according to the skills they need. I also look to see how the students are doing in our Math Curriculum work. Since I have so many interns, I am able to have them also work with groups. The iReady lessons are very scripted and easy to follow so it is easy to have them work on those lessons with groups. I also have the children who need to be challenged more working on projects with my interns. Right now, they are doing a Math project using the Scholastic Book order form.

Right now, I feel like the smallgroups are running smoothly and all the groups are being worked with on skills they need. It will be more challengng when I don't have interns 4 days a week, which will be in a couple of months.

Next, I want to work on my record keeping. I have the groups listed on my Weekly Lesson Plans, but I want to include the lessons and my observations for each group in my Guided Math binder.

Monday Made It

Fall Tray

I recently bought this wooden tray for $5 from Walmart. It was unfinished and I painted it turquoise to match the colors in my house.

However, when I put out my fall decorations, it didn't match.

So, I lightly glued on black burlap and orange ribbon around the outside of the tray.

Photo Collage

I got this wooden tray/frame from Hobby Lobby over the Summer.

Previously, I made a collage with pictures of my mother's family.

This weekend, I finished the collage for my father's family.

I printed out the pictures so they were about 2 inches by 3 inches.

I made small cards with each person's information. 

I added their names and birthdays on small cards.

I printed everything on photo paper and put Mod Podge over everything.