Monday, July 15, 2013

Monday Made it... My First One!

Hey everyone,
I hope you all are having a great summer and are enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation.  I am so excited to be linking up with 4th Grade Frolics for my first ever...

I have seen so many cute frames for the first day of school pictures and wanted to make one for my 2nd graders.  When I was at the store getting all of the supplies... I forgot to get letters to say "First day", so instead I ran to Walmart and got a little oval piece of wood and painted chalkboard pain on it.  Now I can write "First day" and "Last day" on there!  I'm so excited.  Here is how my frame turned out...

And my little Paisley wanted to model what it will look like when someone is behind it... of course a child will be slightly larger ;)...

The next thing I've been working on is our 2nd grade FISH Books...
What is a FISH Book?  I'm so glad you asked.  A FISH Book is a school-home communication book.  I have seen many other teachers use the acronym FISH (which stands for Family Involvement Starts Here... cute right?) for their communication binders... but binders seemed a little bulky and we didn't want to overload it with too much info.  So we created our own school-home communication book... and they are pretty cute...

Inside we have a place for our students to do a daily reflection of something they've learned that day (Monday-Thursday) and at the bottom is a place for parents to write notes to us and visa-versa.  On the other page we have the Special for the day, their behavior for the day, and a place for them to fill in their reading log each day.  There is also a place for parents to initial next to the reading log so we can be sure they check their behavior and reading log each night.  We have been using this for the past few years and just LOVE it!

Last up on my Monday Made It are these babies... my Lock Smocks.  Here are the ones I had to send out today...
(Please ignore the mess of Paisley's stuff in the corner... those are her Christmas PJs poking out :) )

I have been working like a mad woman to keep up with all of these Lock Smock orders!  But I wont complain!  I'm so happy that people are loving them!

Head on over to 4th Grade Frolics to see more great projects!

Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Preparing for school...

Hey everyone,

It is already July, can you believe it?  We are starting school in just over a month!  Where did summer go?

To start getting ready for the school year, I've made a few resources to make your life easier... Who doesn't love that, right? :)  The first is a Classroom Emergency Procedures Handbook.  This handbook has basic classroom and school information, procedures for each emergency drill, and can be easily filled in by you for your classroom.  I have written out the basic steps for emergency drills and things like that, all you have to do is fill in the blanks for your specific classroom.  This is a great tool to have in your sub binder or sub tub (whichever you have).  I can't wait to get mine in my sub tub!  I am going to feel so much better knowing that any substitute that comes in my room will be better prepared for an emergency.

Click HERE to check this out in my TPT shop!

You can see everything that is included in this emergency procedures handbook.  

It comes with a few different covers, so you can pick the one you like best or the one that matches your classroom! :)

To help me be prepared for each lesson, I have created some 2nd grade Common Core student friendly learning targets!  Right now I just have Math done, but ELA is on the way!  These learning targets are not just the standards written over again.  Instead, I have taken each standard and broken them down for individual lessons and in student friendly language.  For example, 2.OA.1 says "I can use addition and subtraction to solve one- and two-step word problems."  Well, I don't know about you, but when I start the year I don't teach addition and subtraction or one and two step word problems in the same lesson.  So I have taken that learning target and broken it down into seven different learning targets!  And they are super cute!  Each domain is a different chevron color and they have adorable owls on them, made by the fabulous Crystal from The Library Fox.  I'm so excited to use these this year.  Check these out in my TPT shop HERE.
How cute are these owls!!

Each domain is a different color and has a different owl on it so you can easily organize them.  They also come in grayscale!

Here are a couple of examples for what my student friendly learning targets look like...
 
And the standard number is written at the end of the learning target so you will know exactly which standard it addresses!

That's all I have so far... But keep watching for 2nd grade Common Core student friendly ELA learning targets.  :)

Enjoy!

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Blog Hunt!

Hey everyone,
Don't forget to follow your favorite blogs on Bloglovin'!  If you set up a bloglovin' account, you should have been able to import your favorite blogs.  Remember, to follow my blog, just click the cute button that looks like this:
It is located on the left side of the page.

If you were unable to import your favorite blogs, don't panic... Just go on a Blog Hunt!

Laura Candler is hosting a little linky to make sure you don't lose track of your favorite blogs!  I'm sure you'll find a few new favorites too!


This link up is for elementary education blogs.  If you want to link up, please download and read the directions first.  You'll find a link in the Corkboard Connections blog post.