Monday Made It

I have taken ALOT of time away... but I'm back!

There are some major changes going on in my school next year. An addition on our building, LOTS of new teachers, and a new principal... lots of change!! I am a very flexible with change... not one to normally stress out...but I have a feeling this year may be a little different. We have a lot of new teachers and many of them are coming to second grade. Four new-to-our-school teachers will be added to my team!

I'm trying to not think about all this until at least July, and so far I have done NOTHING school related (besides some tutoring on the side). But, today I actually started getting some stuff organized. I still have committed to myself I won't go in to school until July, at home there are a TON of things I can do!

So, I am doing my first link up of the summer for:

I really only made one thing this week and it was inspired by this pin:

This is adorably handwritten, but I made it a little more my style:

I plan on getting it printed LARGE and hanging it on my door with a cute border around it (hoping to cover a hole that someone punched in my door!!)

You can download this freebie if you "Like" me on facebook and Click on my "Fan Freebie". 

Hope to have more for you soon! :) Happy Monday reading.... I think I am off to the pool!

math centers = loud

Yes, it is loud! I don't mind it so much, because I know MOST of the kids are learning something important, but DANG it is loud! Sometimes it's hard for me to teach a small group it is so loud.

So.... I took a break from math groups (and blogging... if you didn't notice!). I don't know if it's the last month of school or just the pure loudness of math center time, but I needed a break from the everyday routine of it all. So we have scaled back... and I mean waaaayyy back to once a week. I feel bad because I know whole group doesn't always work out for all my kids, but I have a few stinkers this year that will not stop talking LOUDLY! 

Anyway, I really do enjoy math rotations when they are being performed correctly and when I can meet with small groups and really get that "bang for my buck". As I mentioned before, I am beginning to feel the summer itch in these last few weeks of school, and to be honest the games in math rotations have been "rotated" one too many times! So, when I was recently asked by Casey at the Second Grade Math Maniac to check out her "Take Home Math Kits", I was hoping they would be a good fit in my math centers. Her packet includes a TON of games at all different levels, so I picked out a few that would support a skill that my kids need major practice... MATH FACT FLUENCY! 

Most of my kids are decent with their facts, but as 3rd grade approaches I am scared for them. It is no joke.. and if you are a third grade teacher you know what I am talking about. Casey has some great games in her kit. 

This kit is actually designed for kids to take home games to practice, but my kids aren't real fond of "homework", so they worked out perfectly in my centers. There are games with a similar format that deal with a range of skills from telling time to shapes to subtraction facts. 

My kids especially enjoyed playing paper plate subtraction. 

**Picture coming soon!!**

(Of course, I left the camera I took the pics on at school!)

Anyway, I would totally recommend this product and she has it on sale right now! Click here to check it out. 

If you have any ideas on how to keep my math groups quiet, so I can stop feeling guilty and get back into the groove of math rotations... please leave me a comment! 

rule breaker

I don't know about you but I have trouble following the reading series straight through. I mean sometimes there are stories in Journeys that I could use at different times because they go well with science and/or social studies. Of course I want to try and plan cross-curricularly as much as possible, so I am kind of skipping around in Journeys.

Not drastically... just skipping a story here or there. I can always go back to those stories, and we will for sure cover the skills, but we just swap the stories up. No harm done!

So, this week (after a little shifting) we are reading a realistic fiction and a biography. We started working on biographies the past week and a half with Helen Keller. It seems like perfect timing with MLK now, next we will jump right into Black History Month early.

The story we are reading this week is Luke Goes to Bat with a companion story about Jackie Robinson. I am trying include a close reading component at least once a week to practice finding information in the text. So, I used the companion story (Jackie Robinson) and made up a little directed close read for it. Copy it front and back and use it small group, whole group, or let students do it by themselves.

Click the picture above to download the freebie. 

We are learning about MLK this week, and we started our mini-unit with a little activity I like to call:

Drink and Draw

You may have been to something called Sips n' Strokes- which is basically like a painting class with wine (can't go wrong there!). Well, I changed the name and threw in a juice box and now we have Drink and Draw. We use a directed drawing (like this one) and have a good ol' time.

It is really fun!

Off to bed... ready for the 4 day week! :)