B2S Tip...

We've been blogging and Instagram-ing so much summer stuff, I thought it was time to start adding B2S setup ideas.  Yes, I know...no one wants to quite think about getting back in the swing of things yet but it is coming up quickly.  Based on Instagram, some people are already back!

This will be my 16th year (gasp) teaching.  I have no idea how I have stayed in my mid-20's and have that many years in (wink-wink) but I have learned a lot of things in that time.  I am no expert by any means and I still learn what works and what doesn't each year.  However one thing that I would say I feel I have mastered is the classroom library.  

Flashback to year #1....I was just excited to have books to put on shelves for my very first second graders.  I didn't have the abundance I do now but I had enough to start.  I went to garage sales, took books others were done with, and stocked up monthly with book orders.  But the MESS.  Oh the MESS of my bookshelves.  Too often I would spend hours making nice neat rows of books....just like in a real library.  I would gush at how neat they all looked.  The next day...back to a disaster.  I didn't understand....couldn't these cute little kiddos just take one and nicely slide one back into the row?  Ummm...hello 16 year ago self...NO.  They couldn't.  

I am totally OCD so I knew part of it was "letting go" a little and allowing a little mess.  This I learned early on. I tried many ways of organizing my books.  I tried rows, bins, DRA sorted bins, bins with pictures, but every year would be the same.  Nothing ended up in the right place and I spent even more time organizing.  Until a few years ago....

It finally came to me (and I may have seen it somewhere also...ha ha).  My students needed the books organized- yes.  So bins with labels like I liked did work.  But some students didn't understand my thinking in what went where.  Others just thought Fish went in the "Animals" bin not the "Sea Life" bin.  And yet others-  they were just too in a hurry to look where the it should really go. 

Enter amazing solution that works 99.5% of the time (there are still "I'm too in a hurry" students)!

My classroom library which now houses at least 5x as many books as it did that first year, is organized into bins.  Good bye to the neat library rows that just don't work in a classroom setting.  Each bin is labeled by topic/category/character.  For example...I have a Clifford bin, a Berenstain Bears bin, an Arthur bin, a science bin, Land Animals bin, Ocean Animals bin, Alphabet Books bin, etc.  Each bin label is ALSO assigned a number.  In each bin I have all of the books labeled on the back with a small round sticker that has the same number on it.  That way all the kids have to do is match the numbers when returning their books.  I get the organization that works for me and looks neat and my kiddos get an each system of number matching.  Arthur books are all in a bin labeled Arthur #1 and every Arthur book in there also has a sticker on the back with a #1 on it.  That way they know exactly where each book goes. 

Numbers.  Easy.  

Some of you may be saying...."Well of course!" but it took me about 12 years to get it right so for those few out there that are looking for something that works well....there it is!

My classroom right now is filled with lots of teal (some of you may remember my slight obsession with the color from my last post).  Here are the book bin labels I am using in my classroom right now.  I used to have black borders with cute clip art/pictures also but last year when I made these I changed the color scheme of my room and made these to match some border I was using.  They might work for you to use or give you some inspiration for making your own.  I made all of the text editable so if you want to use the teal polka-dot labels that I made, you can, but you are still able to edit the bin label numbers and titles.  Just so you know the text I used is from Kevin and Amanda's "Pea Fonts" and it is called Pea Angedawn.  This is the font that will open correctly on your computer so download it if you don't already have it.  You can always change the font using the editable boxes.

Get the FREE book labels here!

Enjoy.

~Tina  

Christmas Songs

We needed to mix it up today! My class is just crazy right now, as I'm sure yours is too. I threw out the plans and we had some Name That Tune fun. 

I scribbled out the titles of Christmas songs on scrap paper, folded them up, and put them in a bowl. Then I partnered up the students, had them pick a paper from the bowl, and gave them a sheet of white construction paper. Their job was to keep their song a secrets and draw it, no words, on their piece of construction paper. 

The room was silent. 

Once everyone was finished I set them around the room and gave everyone a recording sheet. They had to figure out which song each drawing was portraying. 

So much fun!! Grab it here free. 

1 more day... I can do it. 

-Amy-

Deck the Classroom! Linky Fun

We want to join the linky fun over at Step Into Second Grade! Here are a few things we've done to make our classroom full of holiday cheer...

You Light Up My Life!

Get it free here!

We also made some stockings using adjectives that describe ourselves.

Lindsay found this cute Christmas tree pattern on TPT. We had the kids add a few things they are hoping to see Christmas morning.

We also helped Santa find a great reindeer to add to his team. Thanks Hope King!

Mooseltoe is one of our favorite holiday books. We found this cute activity to go with it!

We just love Christmas activities!!

Why I Like Me!

This has been one of my favorite writing pieces this year! We started by reading the book, Me I Am by Jack Prelutsky.

Then we brainstormed some reasons why we like ourselves. The kids completed a thinking map. We love using thinking maps in writing... the final piece always comes out so much more organized with great details!

Then we worked on our rough copy organizer. Once they had their rough copies done we talked about editing. This is still a work in progress. They think everything they scratched down the first time is perfect! But clearly... They is not spelled thAy. hehehe They just don't believe me! 

Once we "edited" we moved on to our final copy. We added a cute drawing of ourselves to the final copy, it added a special touch!  Here's a few that are just too cute not to share...

That hair!!

Boys do rule!

I also love it when people cheer for me! 

Such a fun activity! If you want to add this to your bag of tricks grab it here! 

-Amy

Five for Friday Link Up

Hey everyone!

The sisters and I were texting back and forth last night hoping we'd get the call and like Sister 1 said... we did! Today was our 4th snow day in January. We've only actually had 10 days with students this month, which is pretty crazy to think about seeing as how it's almost the end of the month!

I thought I was going to wake up, make a cup of hot chocolate, and relax but instead I woke up to a missing dog! We could hear him crying but couldn't find him. Finally, we realized he locked himself in the bathroom. Poor baby, who knows how long he was in there! To make it worse he lost ANOTHER nail and has to wear a cone.

Once all that excitement was over it was time for that cup of hot chocolate. My relaxing didn't last long... an empty dishwasher, a clean kitchen and living room, vacuumed carpet, a little bit of organization in the bedroom, four loads of laundry, and a tasty dessert for later...here I am. PHEWW I'm ready for a nap!

Have you guys ever made these...?

I've been obsessed for the last month. They are super easy. All you need are pretzels, Hershey Kisses, and M&Ms. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Lay out all the pretzels on a cookie sheet, I like to line it with parchment paper (makes for an easy clean up!). Then put one Hershey Kiss on top of each pretzel. Put the cookie sheet in the oven for 5-6 minutes. Try to press an M&M in the middle, if they are still too hard put them back in for a little longer. Once they are melted enough the M&M will go into them easily. I put mine in the fridge, they are way better cold! WARNING: Once you have one you're going to want to eat them all!

Today marks 31 weeks pregnant! Holy moly... time is flying. Only 9 more weeks until I meet my precious baby. Tomorrow we are getting a 4D ultrasound done! I can't even wait. We're going to get pictures and a DVD so we can show off our baby to all our friends and family. Who will the baby look like... me or daddy?????? I hope a nice combination of both of us.

This past week at school we were very busy! Like Sister 1 said, we reviewed nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Grab a parts of speech freebie here!

We also talked a bit about geometry. We started by having the students build 2D shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks. It was a blast. Then we did a cooperative learning activity where students had to list as many things (with 2D shapes) as they could in 5 minutes. It was a lot tougher than I thought it would be, they struggled to think of things. I saw a lot of them looking around the classroom, I love that they were using their resources! Maybe the timer made them nervous????

We also talked about what makes a shape a polygon, they are experts at that now! You can grab a few geometry activities here for free!

We also started a chapter book study on Chocolate Fever. Thanks to Amy Lemons for an awesome activity pack! The kids are totally into the book. I actually hear "aww man" when I say that's the last chapter for today. LOL they wanted to finish the book in one day! Next week we have a cute writing project where they each write about a "fever" they might get. Look for a post about that at the end of next week.

Snow days fly by! It's almost 5 and I haven't started dinner yet. Chili Con Queso Pasta Bake. Tonight is date night in... dinner and a Red Box. I might even make some Monkey Bread. :) Can you tell by all the food talk that I'm pregnant?!? It's all I think about.

Enjoy your weekend!
- Sister 3 -

Five For Friday Freebies!

It's FRIDAY!

Today we are linking up with Doodle Bugs. Who doesn't love Five for Fridays? Especially when it's five FREEBIES!?!

Our kiddies have a really hard time with the difference between nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I can't tell you how many times we've gone over them and yet they still get confused. We decided to do a little cooperative learning activity to help their understanding. We put one of these on each table. Groups of four had to work together. They got one minute to write down as many nouns, verbs, and adjectives they could before rotating to the next table.

They did a pretty good job... hopefully this means they are FINALLY catching on. Grab this nouns, verbs, and activities cooperative learning activitiy here!

This week we've also been working on skip counting, specifically by 5s, 10s, and 100s. To make it a bit more challenging we've had different starting points... so when we count by 10s we don't start at 130 but we'll start at 137. Talk about a brain bender! Gotta get these kids thinking. Grab a skip counting sheet here.

Next Tuesday we are going to focus our writing lesson around MLK. We have tons of great informational books to read and share with the students. We are going to use this organizer and final copy paper. It's nothing fancy but will get the job done. Sometimes that's all you really need! Why make everything a production???  Included in that file is also a winter writing organizer and final copy paper. Enjoy!

Evens and odds always need to be reviewed. We have a full evens and odds pack that will take you through the year posted on TpT but you can grab a free snapshot here! 

There you have it, 5 freebies.... just for you! We appreciate you visiting our blog and hope you stop by again to follow our journey in teaching, snatch some free stuff, and learn about us!

- Sister 3 -

Five for Friday!

Ohh how we've missed Five for Friday! It's so fun to recap our week and look back on all the excitement of second grade. So let's jump right in...

Johnny Appleseed Day! One of our favorite beginning of the year celebrations is Johnny Appleseed Day! We call it his "birthday party." We spend the week leading up to our Friday celebration learning about fall. (Even though it's been in the high 70s low 80s around here lately!... But we aren't complaining.)  On Johnny Appleseed Day we enlist the help of a few parent volunteers to run the centers. We had 4 centers this year and the best one by far was the apple pancake station! We also did an apple glyph, apple science with weighing and measuring, and apple math. All of these activities and more can be found in our Apples [A Thematic Unit] on TpT. Here's a copy of our apple pancake recipe...

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2! Today we went on our first field trip of the year to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2. We spent this week learning about weather... you know, trying to "connect" our learning. We also did a literature study of the book, which by the way the movie is NOTHING like.  We made a Weather Dictionary and by far one of the cutest activities we did was our precipitation umbrellas! You can find everything you need for the umbrellas in our Water Works unit.

Michigan Products Taste Test!  In social studies we've been focusing on communities: rural, suburban, and urban. Our communities unit is the biggest social studies unit of the year so we really get into it. You can find a ton of communities activities here.  Last week we talked about Michigan made products and you can't talk about Bettermade chips without eating a bag few.  We got 4 Michigan products and did a taste test.  Anything having to do with food and you've got the kids attention!

Here's an even and odd freebie!

We saved the BEST for last! Sister 3 got ENGAGED.

Check back next Friday for another BIG announcement!

Easter Fun Freebie!

3 more days!!  I don't know about you but the three of us can't can't wait!!  Are you looking for a little holiday fun to keep your kiddos entertained when all they can think of is the Easter bunny??  Us too! 

We came up with a few Easter fun activities that we are going to staple into a pack for some end of the week fun....you can get our Easter fun freebie here! 

Hop right over to grab it! :)

Give Us Your Feedback, Get a Freebie

We're so excited that we just participated in our first big TPT sale.  Now that we're gaining followers we want your feedback!  Please take a few minutes to complete the survey and you'll get a Christmas freebie sent to your email address!

 http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PCQ6QZF