fall sale

It's officially fall! Too bad the weather didn't get the notice. Maybe there are cooler days ahead soon. 

To celebrate, there are tons of bloggers throwing a little sale today and tomorrow along with Second Grade Math Maniac. I'm joining in!

In my class we are working on place value. Let me tell you, if I have to repeat how to add and subtract 10 and 100 from a number I just might catch my hair on fire. So we are moving on from that part of place value. 

End of discussion.

I've noticed that the little munchkins also need a little review with even and odd numbers. So this week we will be reviewing that, then doing a little around the room activity. Kids always love these around the room activities. Something about getting up and moving around changes ordinary math into extraordinary math. Amazing! You can get this super fun activity here. 

You can get other super fun activities in my TpT store, too.

henry and mudge under the yellow moon ~ graphic organizer freebie

Last week we read Henry and Mudge Under the Yellow Moon this week in class. We are using this story to start focusing on story elements. We concentrated on just character and setting for this story.

First, we created a flap book to compare & contrast Henry & Mudge. 

Click on the picture above to get your copy of the flap book. I copied the lines on the inside for the kids, but you can skip that step if you want. 

Then we talked about setting. 

Before we talked about the setting, I read When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant and we talked about the setting of that book. The setting in this book and Henry & Mudge are so easy, but I wanted the kids to really focus on the clues that help determine the setting. This also helps them provide evidence for their answer, which they will need to be able to do later on. 

The idea for the graphic organizer I made for the setting is right out of our Trophies book ~ I just prettied it up. I didn't put a title on it so it can easily be used for any story. You can grab that one too if you click on it.

Linking up with Darling Little Learners for Show and Tell Wednesday!

      

currently ~ september

It's time to link up with Farley again for another month of Currently.

Listening ~ We just recently started watching The Big Bang Theory. We have been recording reruns and watching them all summer. This show is so F U N N Y!

Loving ~ I'm still getting used to having to get up early and stay up. This means I need to go to bed earlier, which is difficult for this night owl. The first week of school I was so exhausted I was delighted to go to bed early. This past week I've soldiered through the sleepy portion of the evening only to get a second wind and go to bed way too late. So, a day that the alarm didn't ring at a ridiculous hour is quite welcome.

Thinking ~ I need more hours cuz I have more stuff to do. Simple.

Wanting ~ I'm done with the heat. The air conditioning at school has been alternately working and not working, with a whole lot of not working the past several weeks. I'm tired of feeling stinky.

Needing ~ I didn't finish my lesson plans yet, in spite of the fact I stayed at work really late last night. I brought them home. The fall craft shows will be upon us soon. I need to get busy. A nap? See "loving" above. :)

Favorite Things ~

• I love my Mr. Sketch markers for writing on charts. I was going to make do with a set from last year, but at the last minute I decided to get a new set. They smell lovely!
• Mmmmm ~ Mexican food.
• When I have a lot of stuff to take back & forth to school I love to use my rolling cart. I love to throw everything in there and be on my way. 

I haven't forgotten about that really fun project I promised you, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of it while I'm at school! Hopefully this week.

Go check out Farley's blog to see what other people are up to.

   

a finished room still in progress

Here's a peek inside my finished room, which isn't really finished after all. We are really never finished with our classrooms because there's always something to add or change. 

But this is how it looked when I snapped a few quick pictures after our Meet the Teacher night the week before school started. 

My door gives the kids a colorful welcome. I forgot to take a picture of the owls just outside my classroom. Too bad because they are pretty adorable.

For years, I have had only three rules. Simple. Easy to remember. Just about any behavior you can think of, good or bad, can fall into these three categories. I saw this idea for the rules in frames on Pinterest (can't remember where) and knew it was perfect for making my room a little more homey. These are just dollar store frames that I painted the colors I wanted to match my class.

This is the view from the door. See that brown paper on the pink bulletin board that's totally buckling? I'm not that sloppy! It's very humid around these parts in August and everything in the classroom buckles and waves. It will straighten out as soon as the air dries up. 

Most of my bulletin boards are bare because either student work or anchor charts we make in class will be put up soon.

See that wavy border?

I'm completely in love with the paper lanterns! Funny story ~ I ordered those over the summer online. I was having a really hard time imagining how big they would be, even with the measurements given, so I ordered many sizes of each color. Many. Then I only used three of the smaller ones. Hmpf. Stephanie and Heather are excited about that, though, because they both want one in their bedrooms.

This is our "carpet" area. It's not really big enough and some kids spill into my library.

I didn't get a chance to get name tags on the desk before the Open House. Gotta keep them wondering for the first day, right?

Now that school has started, I'm really glad I ditched the kidney table in favor of the rectangular table. It gives me more room in the class. This week we had our grade level meeting there and it was plenty large enough for five adults, so it should be fine for a reading group of small people.

This is the view from the sink. I caught my favorite visitors coming in at the end of the night.

I saw this on Pinterest too, and made one to match my class ~ again with a dollar store frame. I created the print on the computer and had a photo printed at Costco.

My first week of school was a good one. I have some very noisy boys who will learn this year the value of keeping your random, off-topic thoughts to yourself. Either that or I will become very acquainted with each of their parents. BFFs if I have to talk to them too much.

Remember we were getting a new principal ~ and assistant principal ~ and office manager? That feeling of the unknown is never comfortable. Thankfully that feeling is over and a breath of fresh air has been released into our school. With the addition of three new people in our office, the morale of the school has improved drastically in the matter of weeks. So far, this change has turned out to be just what we needed.

This is going to be a great year!

Next week I have a fun project from our apple unit to share with you when the small people are done with it. We've been painting and it's turning out so cute.