It's Fall Friends!

I am loving every second of this cool, gloomy weather.  I actually accomplished quite bit by staying inside.  I have been going back and forth on what to do about National Boards.  I am not questioning whether or not to pursue it, THAT IS A GIVEN!  I want to be a NBCT!  I just can't decide what certification I want, Early Generalist or Middle Generalist.  All I know is early elementary which I absolutely love, butIi wouldn't mind changing to the upper elementary grades in the future.  Having taught Kindergarten, 1st, & 2nd, I have been able to see how the curriculum adapts to each grade.  Hmmm, I'm just don't have a clue on what I should do???

Let me just warn you that I am about to jump all over the place on this post.  I have some of my pics from the past two weeks back logged and wanted to share some happenings in my life.

On Thursday,I received a letter from my local Congressman George Holding in my teacher box at school.  I looked at this huge envelope in my box and thought, "Oh my goodness! What is that?"  It almost felt like Christmas morning.  Then I saw it was from the House of Representatives and couldn't wait to tear it open to find this inside.

The envelope also contained an framed certificate, but I left it at school.  So, no pics right now.  let's just say I was in teacher heaven.  I still can't believe this is happening to me!  I also had a television interview with our school news channel.  I felt like I babbled on and on.  I am one of those people that doesn't like hearing myself on any type of video or recording.  Gosh, I am too critical of myself, but I really think I have a type of OCD .  I just want it all to be perfect. :)

The week before last, my students and my coworkers students created this pretty piece of art for our assistant Ms. K.  The students wrote tiny messages on the sprinkles and we hung it between our two classes to surprise her on her special day.  she loved it!  Our kids did an amazing job of keeping it a secret.

Also last week, my students began the writing process.  Narratives!  Such a big component of 2nd grade!  One of my sweet students wrote this about her best friend.  Too cute!  This activity really gives me an insight about each child.  Thus, I enjoy having my students complete this writing every year.  It was created by the talented Amy lemons and can be found for free {HERE}!

My plans for next week include seasons, weather, and Johnny Appleseed!  

It is that time of year my friends!

  

Author's Purpose, Exploring with PIE

One of my favorite things to teach is Author's Purpose.  I use the PIE acronym.  Persuade-Inform-Entertain!  Each year I find more and more great resources to use with this.  This year my students have Interactive Reading Notebooks.  You can find the one I am using HERE.  It covers all Reading Standards for Common Core 2nd Grade.  Nicole Shelby is fabulous!  My students and I love all of her packs.   I also use her Language Interactive Notebook which I will discuss at a later time.

I modeled how to complete each activity and away they went!!!

A flapbook to write the way to figure out the author's purpose by asking questions about a book.

Common Core Standard with the different type's of author's purposes.

This little piece of work was one of those last minute {AHA} moments.  I found this PREZI and I loved how there was a podcast of the story The Apple Pie Tree at the end.  I had students listen to the story and draw what they understood about the story.  Of course some students only drew one thing, but this little friend drew and wrote about everything she remembered.  I love how she analyzed the story and put her own spin on it.  Amazing!

We will continue discussing author's purpose for the next 3 weeks just to make sure they have it down.  I am having the students keep this in their journal so we can organize books we read into the 3 different categories. I want them to reflect on the stories we read so they are easily able to identify author's purpose when reading a story.  You can grab this freebie by clicking on the pic!

Have a restful weekend my friends!

Classroom Rules (I survived Week 1!)

Oh am I ever-so-thankful that we are into our 2nd week of school.  I love my new little friends!  They are a quiet bunch with such wonderful manners.  I usually have crazy dreams about my class leading up to the 1st day of school, but I didn't have any this year.  Perhaps the jitters of beginning a new school year disappear once you reach a milestone in your teaching career.

The BIGGEST thing I reinforced this week were the Classroom Rules.  We use PBIS, which I have mentioned before.  Every class has the same rules and expectations so there is consistency.  I love this!  The kids know the rules year after year, but I always have to reintroduce them especially because we get many new students each year.

This is what my classroom rules look like:

It looks so much better in person, but I wanted to take a quick picture of it with my phone so you could see how I put it together.  I had many requests for these rules, so I made many different templates for teachers at our school to use.  Click on the pictures below to get a free copy that you can use in your classroom.

Bright Classroom Theme

Beach Classroom Theme

Hope these help all of you get a great start to the school year!  I'll be back later this week with more things we are working on in 2nd Grade!