Daily 5 signs

I made these signs for my classroom but thought I would upload them for anyone else that wants to use them. I also have CAFE strategy cards but I'm having trouble getting them to upload correctly into Google images. I'll post those as soon as I figure it out. Just click on the imagine and it will take you to the document.  Enjoy!

Serving Up Success in Second Grade!

I came across this idea last year from somewhere on the web. Of course this was before my Pinterest addiction and now I can't find it anywhere! The kiddos and I sat down and brainstormed traits that we would need to possess in order to have a successful year. We talked about kindness, trustworthiness, caring, honesty, perseverance, etc. I showed them a few examples of recipes so they could get an idea of what a recipe entails; how an ingredients list looks, types of measurements, and recipe directions. Next, they wrote their own recipe for success. When they were through, I dressed each kiddo up to look like a chef and snapped a picture. I displayed the pictures and recipes together and, voila! I now have a great back to school bulletin board!

It's Finished!!!

We had Meet the Teacher night Friday and it was a huge success! I always love having time before the first day of school to meet my new kiddos and parents. Everyone was thrilled with the classroom and very eager to start school on Monday. I managed to snap some pictures of my room before the first students walked in. I love how the room came together!

This is the view of the tables with the balloons, notebooks, and other items the kids pick up at meet the teacher night. The balloons have the student's names written on them.

These are pictures of my classroom library. I have a very large library! The bulletin board will be used for our monthly author study.

My butterfly garden and seating in front of the garden.

Calendar and meeting area with new crate seats!

Monarch of the Week Bulletin Board

CAFE and Daily 5 Board

Another nook in my library that I'll use for my music learning lab

Birthday board, book box shelves and learning lab chart.

Reading table and teacher area. Interesting word boardis in the background.

Homeworkopoly and shelf for homework binders.

Word wall and sink area. The colors are really washed out!

School starts tomorrow. I have no idea where the summer went; but I'm ready to start another fantastic year in second grade!

Birthday Fun!

I figure I would post twice today due to my foreseen absence from the blog world at some point this year. Yesterday I finished my birthday board. I am very proud of this board considering it is 100% MY IDEA! That doesn't happen very often folks. I am queen of stalking other teachers on the Internet and stealing their ideas. Now I do have to put a disclaimer out there. I didn't search FOREVER on this one like I normally do. So there could quite possibly be another birthday board somewhere similar to mine. For now I will claim it as my own (it makes me feel better!)

Are you ready?

Once again my camera (and the glare from the shiny bags) don't do the actual product any justice. Basically I used dollar store bags (3 for a dollar at Dollar Tree), curly cue present decorations (4 for a dollar) and sparkly foam letters (Walmart- $5 a bag but I've used these for tons of projects!) on the front of the bags for the months. Then I took some leftover foam bookmarks that I had and made gift bag tags. On the tags (the pics don't show this well) I used small foam letters to put on the names of the birthday kids on each tag. I hot glued the whole mess up and stepped back to admire my work. Please don't tell me if it's not as cute as I think it is!

Homeworkopoly

This is a fun little incentive for kids who bring their homework back to school finished and on time. It works exactly like the game Monopoly. Each kiddo rolls the dice and then moves his/her picture around the board the number of spaces that were rolled. Landing on Chance or Community Lunch box allows the student to pull a card from the corresponding bag. The cards have extra privileges that the students can redeem during the week. The Brain Bender space gives the students a fun thinking activity instead of their normal morning work, and landing on the "Take a Seat on the Bus" space gets them to the prize box.

While this is fun and encourages kids to do their homework each week, it also serves another purpose. In today's world of "everyone wins" (our city sports teams don't keep score until they are like 10) I have realized that many kids have trouble with losing. They need more practice with sportsmanship and learning how to be gracious losers. So, not every spot on the board wins the kids a prize or incentive. Really, out of 4 rolls (a month of homework) most kids will only land on something "good" one time.

I am actually pretty amazed with how well my kiddos have handled landing on the dud spots. So far no tears or outbursts. Actually the only kids who have been upset are the ones who didn't get to play at all because they forgot their homework. I bet they don't forget two weeks in a row!

You can download game pieces and instructions at Homeworkopoly.com.

Great Thinkers Wanted

This year I decided to use the space on the wall to extend my teaching. The Think Tank board is one example of an interactive bulletin board in my room. Each week I will place a different task on the board. The students have the whole week to solve the task and write their answer on the back of one of the blue fish that you see in the little container on the bottom left of the board. After they write their answer down, they write their name on the front of the fish and staple it to the board. On Friday, I take all of the fish off of the board and check the answers. The fish that are correct go into the fish bowl that you see on the blue shelf. Once every couple of weeks I draw out 5 fish and those students will get to eat lunch with me in the classroom. The board also serves as a quick assessment tool so that I can see who is understanding a particular concept and who will need a little reteaching.

The Think Tank tasks can cover grammar skills, math, reading strategies, or anything that I want to review. My goal is to put up tasks that require students to use problem solving skills. I find that word problems in math are especially challenging for second graders. For some reason they shut down whenever they have to "think" past basic computation. Hopefully the Think Tank will help turn my students into fearless problem solvers!

"Magnificent" Monarchs!

We are finally done with our "Magnificent Me" beginning of the year project and I think it turned out great! I found this idea online and thought it would be perfect for the first week of school. The kids drew and painted a large picture of themselves and then cut it out and glued it on another sheet of construction paper. They also cut out a large magnifying glass and traced and cut out their hands. The final step of the project was to write a bio poem that we typed up and copied onto transparencies. These poems then became the "glass" in the magnifying glasses. We have a few proportion issues; but, the kids had fun and they make a great display! Thanks Martha for your help with this project!

Sneak Peek!

I worked today for several hours to put the finishing touched on the classroom. Tomorrow I will put the labels on all of the reading baskets, and get together copy work and folders for the first day of school. I think everything turned out great! This is by far my favorite classroom. I think I learn a little every year about what the kids (and me) want a classroom to look and feel like. This year I added more rugs, lamps, Christmas lights, flowers and plants, pillows, and more seating. So without further delay...I give you, a sneak peek inside the new home of Mrs. McComish's Monarchs!

The right side of the classroom library and Homeworkopoly board

The view of the left side of the library and the Monarch of the Week board.

Non Fiction Section

The Butterfly Garden

New seating area in front of the Butterfly Garden

Seating insde the Butterfly Garden

Seating area in the front of the Meeting Area

The Meeting Area

CAFE Board (Reading Strategies)

Daily 5 Board (Not quite finished!)

Part of the Word Wall, Small Group Reading area

Calendar, Reading charts, part of the chapter book section

When we find interesting words in our reading we will add them to this board.

Let me know what you think!