Glad To Be Back!

So much has happened since my last post and I am glad to be back and ready to share all of the great things happening in second grade and in the adventures that have happened in the past few years.  

In February I got engaged! I was super surprised and we have been excitedly planning a November, 2016 wedding in CT.  Here is my amazing Fiance! 

(Photo Credit Stephanie Pavone Mills Photography. www.spmillsphotography.com) 

Now back to the blog. I am now in my 8th year teaching second grade in East Providence, RI.  Our school has undergone some changes lately and as is education, new programs and curricula.  This year we dove into Amplify's Core Knowledge Language Arts Program.  At first I was a bit hesitant but once I started seeing the way the my students were thinking and discovering information I was hooked.  We just finished a unit on the US Civil War and ended in a class debate. I might be a little biased but hearing 2nd graders debate about whether the south should have seceded in the first place was incredible!  My second graders were researching at the library on their own! They were talking at lunch about Gettysburg. I even had one student try to convince his parents to go to Gettysburg instead of Disney this summer. He wrote a letter with reasons as to why they should go! 

I've always had one huge goal as a teacher- instill the love of learning in my students and with the help of this program, it has been an exciting year! 

First Days...

            What an amazing first day! We had a great time getting to know each other and will learn even more about our new friends in the upcoming months.  Today focused on learning about our school rules and classroom manners.  We also toured the school for our new friends from other schools.  

             We started our year with a great science experiment which also focused on the importance we play in our community.  We started with a ZipLock bag of water.  We explained that the water in the bag is our community.  Then each student pushed a sharp pencil into the bag and all the way through. They thought it was magic because the water did not leak. We explained to the students that each pencil was a person in the community. Our community is better and stronger because we are all a part of it. Then we asked what would happen if one person decided not to follow the rules of our community?  What would happen if just one person decided to do whatever they wanted?  At this point we pulled out one pencil which represented one person. The water started to leak out of the bag.  

             Students made the amazing connection that our community would "leak" or fall apart if we did not all work together.  One student even said "I don't want to be the hole in my community bag!" After a bit of a chuckle the kids realized that this was exactly our point. Be an amazing part of our community and our world! 

(A few teachers asked where I got this idea. The experiment itself is all about molecules and can be performed many ways. I decided to add the community part because it was the beginning of the school year. It just kind of worked. :-) )

Amazing Blooms Taxonomy Resource

As most of us, I can easily spend hours searching Pinterest. Sometimes it is just to get a laugh on the humor page and other times I am actually doing real schoolwork. :) Today was my first day back and full of meetings and new information.  This year our district wants a push towards posting learning objectives. Although, we all post the standards we often forget to make them kid friendly. These objectives should be used to teach the children what they are learning about and how it will actually help/impact their lives.  I came across this amazing Blooms Taxonomy page tonight.  

It is a huge file with tons of information so check out the link above for the site and full image.  

Student Goal & Data Tracking Journal

Over the last few years I have noticed a shift towards students tracking their own data in order to create goals and track their own progress. I tried it a few different ways with my students last year and found that for their age (2nd graders) it was best to keep it quick and simple. I also found it a bit difficult to keep up with because it wasn't all in the same location.  

This summer I worked on creating a journal the students could fill out on their own. They can also keep all of their results and goals in one place. I think it will be a great journal for them to reflect on at the end of the year.  I also plan on using it during family conferences. I want my students to be motivated learners. Can't wait to see how they work! 

I included pages to track their reading testing, math testing, sight words, monthly goal pages (these include; what I am good at, my goal, how will I achieve my goal, and results) and a page at the end for a year long reflection and goal for the following year.  You can find the journal on my TpT store. Click the image below.

Find It Friday 8/29/14 ( A day late....)

This time of year it seems that organization is even more on our minds that usual.  I am a firm believer that an organized classroom and teacher makes for a much more fun day.  My friends often pick on me because I am typically at school by 7 am (kids don't come until 8:30 am :) By 3 pm I am as tired as the kids- the morning is my "get it done" time.  

Each year I try to release a little more of the learning to the students.  I love inquiry based learning and try to incorporate it into different aspects of my day.  Our science lessons are 100% inquiry based. I see how amazing the kids are during these learning times and want to incorporate it into more parts of my day.  

  This summer I tried to create a language arts lesson plan template that would help me create lessons in which the students are actively engaged all the time! I want to move even farther away from the "talk at you" teaching and move to more discovery teaching. Although I pride myself as being the type of teacher who guides her students instead of force feeding them facts, it is easy to slip into the talk, talk, talk lesson.  

Below is my first attempt.  My district has a great scope and sequence but we are in charge of creating the actual lessons. Eventually I will put it on TpT but for now here is a sneak peak.  I never put a product up unless I have used it with success. I'll keep you all updated! Enjoy!

My idea is to highlight the standards and essential questions for that particular day & lesson. 

Wicked Website Wednesday! 8/27/14

This week my Wicked Website Wednesday post comes from my friend Amy Pinhancos. Amy is an amazing Physical Education teacher in my district. She recently started integrating math and ela in her lessons along with the physical education standards she is responsible for. Round of applause for AMY! :-)

And the site of the week is....

click to go right to the site 

This is an amazing free site for brain breaks.  It integrates subjects with yoga, relaxation, dancing, and you can even register your class and compete against other classrooms in your school.  My class is registered and I even practiced a few. Can't wait to teach the kids! 

Want to be mentioned in my next Wicked Website Wednesday post? Send me your favorite site and I will mention you and your site in an upcoming posts! Please leave your name, school, state, and website.  Thanks!

Bucket Seat Fun!

Pinterest has definitely taken over my world! :) I could spend hours browsing the pages and pinning away. One of my projects this summer was to create bucket seats for my reading table.  Home Depot was wonderful and donated the buckets and covers. I bought the foam at Joanne Fabrics and I had left over fabric from the curtains I made last summer.  I painted the buckets with spray paint made for plastic but if you can get solid colored buckets- and don't have to paint them- do it! The painting was tedious and it has chipped just a bit.  And the total.....drum roll please.....$2 a bucket! Here are a few pictures ...

It might not be pretty but no one will see it anyway. I simply cut the foam in a circle, cut a square of fabric, wrapped it up and stapled it down. 

This cutie is my friend's daughter. She was such a good helper when I was painting. haha :) Notice the Charlotte's Web book in the background... I am never without a book. 

The finished product! I love how they came out. The next step is to organize and store my science materials in them. Great double use! 

Quick Notes for Journal Writing

         One of my personal goals this year was to respond to my student's journal writing on a more regular basis.  Our writing journals are used throughout the year. Sometimes I assign a quick write and other times the kids just enjoy writing stories. I find that I am recording information about their writing anecdotally and on checklist rubrics on my clipboard but I don't always record something for the students.  In second grade we learn that writing is an ongoing process so sometimes the kids will go back to old stories and improve on them.  Like most students, they always want to show me their writing.
        This year I started something new...I call it the Love and Look! My students have class numbers so on Mondays I read journals 1-6, Tuesday 7-12 and so on.  If the student has something they want me to read, they put it on my desk on their assigned day.  I read them at lunch and leave them a sticky note message. I tell them something that I loved about their writing and something they have to look for. Hence the title "Love and Look". My kids love seeing their stickies and always try to improve their "look" for the next week.  Plus, it is quick and easy for me. I simply put a heart and an eye!  :-)
          This particular student had a great story with wonderful word choice but many errors that could easily be fixed by reading aloud to check. I find a lot of kids are excited to get their work down on paper. Simply reading aloud to check often finds the simple mistakes.  I told her that I would post a follow up picture of her edited work.

Science In A Bag!

The fourth grade teachers in our building love science! Recently at a staff meeting, they showed us their
"Science in a bag/box" take home science experiments.  They create bags or boxes (depending on the materials) that contain an experiment that goes along with the science unit they are teaching.   The other second grade teacher and I decided to give it a try with our second graders on a smaller scale. Here is what we came up with.
We bought the bags at the dollar store and created a booklet for each bag. Each booklet has enough materials for 6 kids.  (We made 5 bags in all.)We will rotate the bags every three days.  The booklet includes a few directions and rules pages, a vocabulary page, short reading, two recording sheets, and a short questionnaire at the end for the parents.  This will help us determine what parts of these bags were successful and what parts we can improve.  We decided to have the experiment pages in the booklet so each student can see what the student before them did. This will also be a great guide for the families.

We send the first set of bags home tomorrow......hope they enjoy them!

Testing time interrupted....

We all know that testing has been a very hot button topic lately. There are many forms of assessment and yes, sometimes kids have to sit down and take a test. :) Just as my kids sat down for their big end of unit science test we head a loud grinding noise.....and then a jack hammer....and then a huge machine rolled up next to our window.  I spoke with my kids about distractions and that this would be perfect practice with zoning out the background noise and staying focused on the task at hand. Five minutes in even I couldn't concentrate.  The kids all wanted to watch so over to the windows we went. :)

Earlier in the year we studied simple machines and at the end of the unit they had to build, with Legos, a machine that could help us do something.  Our challenge began...how many simple machines can you find?  They named a ton! I was so impressed.  

This was the beginning of what became a 2 hour long adventure in my classroom. The road was sawed, jack hammered, dug up, pipes lined up, and concrete poured.  Needless to say, the test was saved until the afternoon and it was a perfect lesson in flexibility.  But, it does make me reflect on the high stakes testing we have to administer. In that situation I would not have been able to put the test away and use it as a teachable moment. The test would have gone on with an incredible amount of distraction for children.  

I have always been a firm believer that if you are going to complain about something, you should try to fix it.  I was speaking to a colleague about our "teachable moment" and she mentioned that in some cities, construction like this is completed after school hours. They actually plan their construction in school areas around the school schedules. How amazing is that?! Maybe something we should look into? :)

Pebbles, Sand, and Silt Unit

Last week we started our Pebbles, Sand, and Silt unit. This unit and all materials are provided to us by EBEC (East Bay Educational Collaborative).  The science standards line up wonderfully and we can easily tie in our writing standards during the science notebook time.  On Thursday the students experimented with three rocks, basalt, tuff, and scoria. They could use water, magnifying lenses and the three rocks. It was so fun to just give them the materials and say "experiment, observe, discuss".  They had amazing conversations with each other.

Many of the students observed that when they placed the scoria in the water, air bubbles escaped. Simply through discussion with each other (and a bit of guidance on my part) the students were able to conclude that there was air in the cracks and holes of the rocks!  One student even told me it was porous! He remembered our vocabulary word from months ago. :) Inquiry learning at its best! 

Shameless Plug of the Week!

Here is my shameless plug of the week....Alicia T! (click her name to go directly to her TpT store.)

I have worked with Alicia for the past few years and she is full of amazingly creative ideas. She is actually the one who convinced me to start a Teachers Pay Teachers store. Although all of her products are great and very professional, her Mega Packs are amazing.

One of my favorites is her First Grade Math Mega Pack. It is incredible thorough....click here to view it. It includes an activity or two for every first grade Common Core math standard.

And for my shameless plug of myself- I just added two new items for common core language standard L 2.2. My goal is to have a packet for every ELA and writing standard in the common core. It is hard enough switching standards- I want to make it an easier transition.  I have many items completed but like to use them with my students before I post them. Kid tested I guess you could say :) Check to the right of your screen for a link to my TpT store.

Reading Week 2014!

I love reading week...maybe because it is the week before vacation....maybe because I love books.....

This year we continued our tradition of a Miss Alaineus parade.  If you haven't read the book by Debra Frasier, put it on your list! Check out her website here. It is a great book about a student who mistakes the word "miscellaneous" and it leads to a classroom catastrophe! It is a great book for vocabulary studies.  For the parade, all of the students pick a word and represent it in some way. This is one of a few things we do at school where the kindergarten is as excited as the fifth grade! Unfortunately, I can't put up their pictures but you can check out other parades on Debra Frasier's website. This year our staff decided to pick characters from The Wizard of Oz and then choose a word that represents that character. I was the yellow brick road and my word was journey. These pictures I can post :)

We also added the "Guess the Young Reader" board this year.  Teachers and staff provided pictures of them reading as youngsters with their favorite book. Students had to put a name to a face. It was a blast! (I'm number three!)

Mini Note Takers

I don't know about you all, but my students love to do things that they "older kids" get to do. During our recent Solar System unit I taught the kids how to take two column notes. We started slowly and with a ton of modeling but they loved it! (I should remind them of this when they get to middle school. hahaha)  As a reward for "class compliments" my students chose to watch a Magic School Bus movie on space. I was correcting papers when I noticed one of the kids not on the carpet sprawled out like the others. He was taking notes!!!! How adorable is this? I asked if he wanted to join the others but he told me "I have to study and go to college. I can watch movies at home."  Can't wait to see where this kid goes!

My Creative Ma!

Since I can remember my mother has created things; cloths when we were kids, cabbage patch kids because the demand was so high, beautiful woven scarves, amazing quilts, and most recently these amazing art quilts (and cards too!).  I hope that her creative gene rubs off on me!

My sister-in-law is a school librarian in MA (MrsLodgesLibrary.com) and she is incredible! My mother made us these alphabet letters for our classrooms.  I use them for for centers and decoration. Each letter has fabric that represents the letter. X has xray, Y has yellow and yoyo.  If you want your own, she sells them in her Etsy Store - To Keep Ewe Warm.  We have spent many trips to fabric stores trying to find fun fabric~

Math Manipulatives

Our current math program calls for the use of a lot of manipulatives. I am a firm believer that students at this age and developmental level rely heavily on the use of manipulatives.  I do find about 25% don't want to use the materials because they know how to solve the problem in other ways or as they say "faster ways". I usually have these students show me they know how to do it and then allow them to use their own way to solve.  It is important that students learn many ways to solve problems and then independently choose the strategy that works best for them. 

For this particular lesson, students were just starting to learn about arrays, making rows and columns, and understanding that this represents multiplication.    On a previous worksheet, the students were asked to draw lines to represent the rows. I thought this group was so creative. Although I didn't ask them to draw the rows, they used their pencils! So creative. Just another reminder that allowing students to be creative always leads to something great! (my apologies for the crooked picture...looks like columns here :-) )

Poetry Week

With the new Common Core there are so many standards we are responsible to teach. Luckily, I found a way to fit in poetry! Reading Literature standard RL.2.4 states that students will describe how words and phrases supply rhythm and meaning in a story, poem, or song. With the kids surrounding me on the carpet,  I started our week by reading poetry by Shel Silverstein, Ken Nesbitt, Eloise Greenfield, Jack Prelutsky, Roald Dahl, and many others.  For thirty minutes straight my students sat in anticipation of the next poem I would read. Some made them laugh, others made them wonder, and still others brought out emotions that I don't think my students knew the written word could bring out in them.

I am still completely shocked that my students sat for a half an hour! It was such a lesson in how much children want to learn when provided with something interesting or new.  We discussed how the written word has so much power.  The words one writes can make someone feel a certain way.  My students were so excited to start their own adventure in writing poems.

Brainpop Jr. has a great short video on poetry. It introduces a few important terms and types of poems.  The kids and I made a KWL chart and picked three types of poems to write this week. On Monday we wrote acrostic poems using our names, Tuesday we wrote shape poems and on Wednesday we wrote Haiku's. Throughout the week students could add to the KWL chart themselves.

The new standards put a lot of pressure on teachers and I felt as though I had started to lose a bit of that freedom in flexibility.  I had started to lose those teachable moments that take you away from your intended lesson only to fall into a better lesson because of student curiosity and interest.  Yesterday I had one of those moments when you sit back and realize that your students were enjoying learning.  They got so into their shape poems. They started to naturally group each other by image and helped each other complete their poems.  I heard children asking each other questions, complimenting each others' pictures and poems, and generally working in cooperative groups.  I stood back and just watched for a few minutes. This was one of those moments that reminded me why I became a teacher.

It was all about ice cream for these girls! They came out great. I will post a few soon. 

School Is In Session!

Another great year has started! I have a wonderful group of students who are so ready to learn.  They have learned our classroom routines in record time and I feel like they have been in my classroom for weeks!  This year has brought a lot of changes to my district from leadership to curriculum.  It should be an exciting year...

I started a new board this year. The Target dollar spot last year had these french fry containers that immediately made me think of Fry words! I bought them all up and put them in a storage bin until just a few days ago.  I am not 100% sure how I will use them but here is my idea. My students are on various Fry word lists and gain new words at different rates. I have always put their individual words on rings but they tend to get lost in the shuffle.  This year I will test the students, put about 10 words at a time on their ring and they can keep them in their Fry containers.  When they have free time or need their words for center work, they can easily grab them.  We will see how this works! :-)

School Excitement! A New Year Beginning...

I have always said that the year I am not excited to go back to school, I will retire. Luckily I still get the butterflies of excitement thinking about my new class of students, new decorations and new activities and lessons to try. This year my goal is to blog weekly the amazing things my students do. I want to use it as a year long reflection of what I want to change and what I will duplicate for next year.

Every summer I think about a new theme for my classroom. I've had superheroes, animals, polka dots, under the sea, and retro. This year I am going to do something a bit different. I am  going to let my students decide.  The beginning of the year holds a lot of testing that is one-on-one with students.  I think that it will be fun to have the students get into groups and design classroom ideas for our year. They can present their ideas and the class can vote.  I am still working out the kinks but I think it could be amazing. I believe that students hold more pride in their rooms when they create the posters and help with the learning environment. My hope is that they feel like part of the process. (Plus, I am excited to see what they come up with!)

I don't want the room to be completely blahhh when they come in so I will have the bulletin board paper and door messages up and I am making small pom poms to hang from the ceiling.  My hope is to make about 40 by September- I'm on a roll....about 11 done! :)

Below I have included step by step directions for these pom poms. I have read and tried various versions but these seem to work the best and are the perfect size.

I got the paper at Homegoods. I tried to use dollar store paper but it was so thin it ripped all the time.  Place two of the same color on top of one another. Fold the paper in half and cut along the fold. You will now have four sheets. 

Fold the papers again and cut along the fold. You will now have eight papers. 

Accordion fold the paper and staple it in the middle. 

Round the edges. You can do a point also- I just like how the corners come out like flowers.  

Holding one end, pull and fluff down one sheet at a time. Don't worry about making them perfect here, at the end you can re-fluff to your liking :) 

Add the string before you fluff the other side. Makes it easier than doing it at the end.
(Trial and error research! haha)

Fluff them up and viola! Pom Poms!!

I'm Having A Sale On Teachers Pay Teachers!

My end of summer sale on TPT starts tomorrow! (9/12-9/15) All of my items are 10% off. Follow me on TPT to get advanced notice about my sales and special deals.  Follow the link here or click on my store to the right.