Our First Week!

The first week of school was a HOT one!  But we managed to survive...let's hope for air-conditioning for next year!  This week we were just getting back into the routine of school and the new routine of second grade.  A big change for kids this year is filling out a planner.  Every morning the kids come in and fill out their student planner with the assignments we will do for the day.  At the end of the day, they check off all assignments that are completed and circle any that are not.  Those assignments that are circled are then homework for the student to take home, complete, and return the next school day.  Parents should be checking planners every night and signing them so their child can get a responsibility star on the star chart.  Once a student has 10 stars in a row, they get a treat!  Some of the concepts we covered this week included: Place value (tens and ones); Capital letters at the beginning of a sentence and periods at the end of statements and question marks at the end of questions; Living and Nonliving things.  Our first spelling test will be on Thursday, August 29th.  Our words include a lot of short a and short i words.

  Here's a few pics of us working hard, despite the heat!

 

Our poor fan is working overtime!  But if the temps stay as high as they are supposed to, we will be having early dismissals all week long.  Here's to cooler weather hopefully coming soon!

The Room is Ready!

Well, school will officially start in 10 days!  My classroom is ready (at least I think it's ready!).  I'll have 12 students this year (about half of my class last year!).  This class consists primarily of boys.  There are 10 boys and 3 girls. Also to make things interesting, I'll have my own son in 2nd grade this year.  But I don't see that being a problem...I've already told him that his teacher knows his mother very well, so he won't get away with much!  Ha, ha!   Well, here's a sneak peak of the room...

 

 

This year, to keep the students more organized, I taped a pocket folder with their names on it to the sides of their desks.  This way, if they have any unfinished papers, they can put them in their pocket folders instead of shoving them into their desks.  If a student doesn't get their work finished before the end of the day, then he/she can get them out of their pocket folder and put it into their take-home, homework folder.

 

 

 

Here are our lockers.  I have the students names on some cute owls I found at the local dollar store. About the names I have some posters displaying character traits we want to work on at our school from the Boys Town Model of Social Skills.

 

 

 

 

Here's our AR tracker.  Guess I kind of have an owl theme going on!  I made a "bulletin board" on the side of my file cabinet to hang the AR tracker, that way I can use magnets with the students names on them to easily move from bird to bird to keep track of their AR points.

 

 

 

 

This is my Responsibility Chart and Daily Objectives Chart.  Every day, I write down the lesson objective for each subject we are covering.  That way students know the "reason" why we are doing what we are doing.  To go along with the Common Core Standards, the objectives are written in "kid-friendly" language.  The Responsibility Chart keeps track of my students' responsibility to get their planners signed and homework completed.  Everyday that a student has his/her planner signed by their parent and all homework (if they had any) completed, they will get a star on the chart by their name.  Once they get 10 stars in a row, they get rewarded with a treat.

 

 

 

Here's our "mailboxes".  To save room, I just use hanging file folders in a crate with the students' names on them.  Their take-home papers go into their mail folders and at the end of the day, they can get their "mail" to take home.

 

 

 

 

The Done Jar!  This will be my first year of trying this.  If a student gets finished early with an assignment, they have the option of choosing a stick from the done jar, telling them what they can do.  Some examples are: Read a book, write in your journal, practice flash cards, etc.

 

 

 

The Tattle Monster!  Using an old shoe box, I created a "tattle monster" where the students can write their "tattles" on a piece of paper and put it in the monster's mouth. 

 

 

 

Our "Cent-sational" Work Chart.  Every time a student passes a spelling test and/or a math facts test, they get a quarter to put up on the chart.  Once a student gets four "quarters" on either math or spelling, they get to trade in their dollar for a prize from the prize box. It's a little incentive to motivate kids to study their spelling words and math facts.

 

 

 

Pickles and Ketchups.  If any student is behind on work and needs to catch up, their name goes on the "ketchup" side.  On Fridays, when we get to have some free time at the end of the day, any student on the ketchup side, needs to try work on getting their work done.  The other students that are on the "pickles" side, get to pick what they want to do for free time: iPads, games, etc.

 

 

 

Our behavior chart.  Green smileys are good, yellows are warnings, oranges are a loss of 5 minutes of recess, and reds are a loss of 15 minutes of recess.

2nd Grade Common Core Standards.  Our standards are posted in "kid-friendly" language for the students.  Once we cover a standard, I'll cover it with highlighter tape to show that we've covered it.

 

 

 

 And finally, our classroom library! 

 

Well, there's my classroom in a nutshell...I'm really looking forward to another great year just around the corner!