spreading our wings

We had some visitors to our classroom this spring.

They arrived in a little cup and got bigger by the day. The kids were enthralled with these little guys. Before we knew it they had formed their chrysalides and then emerged as butterflies.

I felt sorry for my kids because all of the big events just so happened to take place over the weekend.  They never got to see the caterpillars in their J formation just before forming the chrysalis. They never got to see the chrysalis wiggle wildly with the emerging butterfly and examine them as they dried their wings. For both big events, we came back to school Monday and "ta-da!"

And somehow, I forgot to take pictures of any stage past the caterpillars.

When it came time to release the butterflies, this was the first class I did not have to spend a lot of time convincing that letting them go was the right thing to do. They seemed to understand right away what we had to do. The letting go ceremony was very sweet as they cheered for all 9 of the butterflies as they left the the cage one by one. One butterfly didn't make it because his chrysalis fell and the wings never formed properly.

In the midst of all of this, we created the butterfly life cycle with these materials.

The pasta represents the various stages.  I still need to take pictures of the final product, then I'll show you how we did it.

This spring also saw the return of the science fair projects. Our previous principal did not support teaching science or social studies as separate subjects, so we haven't had the science fair project around for a lot of years. Second graders are not required to submit an individual project, but we were supposed to do one as a class. We tested various liquids to see which will stay mixed with water. The kids enjoyed it! They are looking forward to next year when they will be doing their own at home. I'm sure their parents feel the same level of excitement. Ha!

And finally today, in the theme of spreading our wings. . .

I'm moving to third grade next year. This will be my third grade level move in three years, but I'm most excited about this move. I taught 3rd grade once, many moons ago, during my second year of teaching. Loved it. Various events since then have prevented me from being able to go back to 3rd grade. But now, the time is right. 

I am staring a LOT of work in the face right now. I'm going to be moving rooms (again!) so there's packing to do. I have to decide what of my 2nd grade stuff and what of my 4th grade stuff I will possibly need in my room and what will come home to storage. This is the tricky part, because I am not familiar with the Common Core Standards for third grade just yet.  

We only have 11 student days left of this school year, then my little 2nd graders will be spreading their wings toward 3rd grade as well. I hope they are ready! I know that all eyes are turned toward summer and getting their attention is trickier than ever! Who are we kidding - my eyes are turned toward summer too.

11 more days.

       

b or d?

Wow! This school year is simultaneously whizzing by and chewing up all of my time! It's been forever since I've seen the pages of my blog.

But now I'm on spring break and with a couple of house projects one house project finished and a serious dent in my Tivo list completed, it's time to spend a little time here. The kids don't have dance practice this week, so my biggest commitments are getting my hair done, renewing my driver's license, and going grocery shopping. The grocery shopping is already done! Is it a little ironic that I'm due for a hair appointment and renewing my driver's license in the same week?

I love spring break!  I wish we had it more often.

I've also been spending a little time working on new products for Teachers Pay Teachers.

The first one I've finished is designed to help students with b and d reversals. I have a few little ones who still really struggle with this. The activities are meant mainly for small group or one-on-one time, but could be put into a center once they have an almost firm grasp on b and d. Since repetition is the key here, all of these activities can be repeated again and again until b and d are solid.

To celebrate spring break, I'll give the B & Recognition Pack away to the first two commentors.  So leave your comment below.

If you are not one of the first two, I'm having a sale to celebrate spring break as well so you can grab this baby on sale.  My whole store will be 20% off! It will start tomorrow and run through Sunday, the 31st. We'll start the weekend early for those of you who are not on spring break this week.

See you around the school yard couch!

 

january currently

I know I'm saying what millions are saying ~ Is it really January already? Seems like this just happened for 2012. Well there's no denying it. 

It's time for Farley's Currently party. 

Oh.my.word! Between being lazy about the laundry and all the new clothes my little fashionistas got for Christmas, I'm currently climbing Mt. Washmore!

Loving winter break ~ need I say more. We get two weeks for break and we don't go back until the 7th, which seems to be coming faster than I want.

Two weeks is not enough time to accomplish all of the things on my to do list. In my head, I always plan way more than I can possibly get finished. Then, I get a little overwhelmed and do almost nothing. Case in point, I left the classroom with not a lesson plan written down. Um...still haven't done them. I'm sure they will get done before Monday. The upside to this is that I get lots of rest.

One Little Word ~ I'm stealing Farley's. It just made sense. I am always telling my students and my own kids that life is all about choices. Our choices go a long way in determining any outcome. What choices will you make?

What's up for January in the the classroom? We will be studying penguins and continuing our money unit. We will also be finishing our adjective unit. In second grade, January has been the month for penguins for quite a while, but I am looking to spice it up a little with some new activities. What are you doing in January?

   

passing notes & yellow pants day

Someone has been passing notes in class lately. 

This little someone is pretty sneaky too. 

I found this note on my desk one afternoon. This note came at just the right time ~ just when I was feeling a little frustrated and blue.

This little Shakespeare has left me several other notes as well.  All have some sort of sweet message. Today he requested to learn cursive soon.

In other, unrelated, news. One day the kids were coloring a series little of pictures that related to neighborhoods that they would later cut out and glue on a worksheet.  The Artist comes over to me and tells me her strategy for coloring these pictures. She explained that she used one color at a time, coloring everything in all the pictures that needed that color.

I told her what a great idea she had.

A little while later she showed me her work again and declared, "Look, it's yellow pants day!" Sure enough, all the people in the pictures had yellow pants.

Awesome!

     

columbus day

Columbus Day didn't sneak up on me like it usually does. In years past I have hastily read a book and done a worksheet or two to settle my guilt of forgetting Columbus Day even existed until a day or two beforehand.

This year, I was on top of things because we started our Columbus Day activities last week. My kids are slow pokes and we just finished. Sweet, yes. But definitely slow pokes.

Good thing we started early.

We watched a movie and took a movie quiz for a listening grade. This little activity confirmed my worst suspicions ~ these guys don't listen so well. They hear me alright, but listening? Not so much. 

The main thing we did was get into groups to read about Columbus and find important facts. After they researched for a couple of days, they wrote an informational paragraph {just 5 sentences this time}. Then, they made this adorable craftivity from A Cupcake for the Teacher.  This was my example.

They look so Columbusy & festive! Not everyone is finished just yet, but we left room at the bottom for them.

I love how even though they essentially all did the same thing, they each came out just a little different.

I told them to glue the writing on first, leaving a little bit of a black border all the way around. This little monkey clearly doesn't have the listening part down yet.

Or the neatness part.

Gotta love the stripped pants and shoes though.

This boat is obviously experiencing some rough seas! Nevertheless, Columbus is stylin' in his stripped coat.

Overall, the kids did pretty well on their first little research project. Most were able to write the five sentences I requested. But we do need to work on what is a super important fact and what is merely interesting to you and no one else.

   

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.

         

art for the classroom

This year I wanted to incorporate art more in my classroom ~ both visually and in the activities we do. When I was still deciding on the theme for my class, I was inspired by this photo on Pinterest.

(source)

I love the paintings these kids did. They are all the same, yet so individual. Don't they look happy about what they have created? I knew this would be the perfect painting for my class. 

By the way, this is a really popular picture. It has been repinned 65 from my boards alone. I wonder how many other people actually made an owl painting.

Here's my version. The main colors I used in my class this year are pink, orange, turquoise, and green, with the neutral of brown. I incorporated most of those colors into the painting.

It was fun creating this and thinking about the kids who will be in my class. I thought about the atmosphere I want to create for the kids and how I want them to feel at home. I put all of my positive teaching energies into this painting.

Heather made one of her own, but she's not quite finished yet. Hers looks wonderful so far ~ the same as mine, yet so very different.

The next piece of art I created was inspired by Farley. She did this project with her 4th graders last year. Check it out on her blog ~ here and here.

I looked at her students' projects a bunch and a bunch, but when it came time to do mine, I forgot to let the rays go off the side of the canvas. Hmm. Oh well. I still really like how it turned out. All along I was going to have the sun at the bottom until all the rays were done and it happened to be sitting on the table sideways. I decided I like it that way better. Good thing it was before I put the letters on.

She had her kids use a Sharpie for all the black. But, I'm really comfortable with the brush, so I just used black paint and varied the thicknesses a little.

Here they are hanging up in my class. I think they look lovely together. Hopefully they will inspire the students to embrace their creativity, remind them to shine & do their best, and make them feel our class is a homey place to be. The canvases are not huge (11" x 14") because I didn't want them to be the focus of the classroom. But they are just enough.

My art is certainly more "tight" and more controlled than the examples of kid art I was copying. At first that bothered me that I wasn't able to let go and let it be more loose. But then I realized I love what I created and that's all that really matters. I made the art the way I wanted.

Soon I will give you a tour of the whole class ~ including the bubbled paint from a leak from recent rain storms. See it above the bulletin board? Awesome, right?

School starts tomorrow.

I'm nervous.

I'm excited.

I'm ready to get back to work, but not ready for summer to be over all at the same time.

I won't sleep tonight.

I will stay up really late so I will be exhausted enough to sleep.

But I will have nightmares and won't sleep well.  Happens every year.

But tomorrow will be a great day! And this is going to be a great year! I can feel it in the air.