Classroom Garage Sale

Yesterday, we hosted our classroom garage sale!  This is one of my favorite things we do all year. 

The first day of our money unit I post a "Classroom Bank."  I'd really love to show it to you but unfortunately because it has all their names on it, I can't. :( But it's really simple to make.  All I do is get a piece of poster board and a meter stick.  On the poster board I section it off into 1 inch rows, one row for each student.  Then I write all their names along the side.  Of course I add some cutesy details!  Then I hang it up in the classroom, where it's nice and visible.  It's the first thing they noticed when they walked in!  There was quite a buzz around around the new addition to our room. 

So I sit them all down and explain that today we starting to learn about money and throughout our money unit they have a chance to earn some moolah!  They just LOVE that.  The next question is, "How can we earn money?" So I tell them all the things they can do to earn money: stack their chair at the end of the day, random acts of kindness, turning in homework, following directions... the list goes on.  I found some coin stamps at our local teacher store, they are a life saver! Every time someone earns money I stamp the coin in their "bank account."

Then I tell them in a few weeks, after our money test, we will be having a "Classroom Garage Sale" where they get to spend all the money they've earned! You might be wondering... "Where do you get the things to sell?" I send home this note with every child...

You can grab a free copy of the note here!

Yesterday morning, everyone counted up the money in their account and withdrew the money.  Then they took their earnings out to the sale. You would have thought it was Christmas morning! 

I had a WONDERFUL mom come in and run the whole thing! She priced and sold everything.  It was so much fun!

Five for Friday Linky

We're linking up again with Doodle Bugs for a little fun this Friday! 

This week has flown by and we want to keep you up with some happenings around our rooms...

1) We have a school-wide fundraiser going the next couple of weeks for Leukemia and Lymphoma.  We've participated in Pasta for Pennies the last few years and our school has raised a ton of money.  Anyways, today was PJ Day.  The kids and teachers love it!

2) Today, we also wrapped up our Money unit.  Before we took our assessment, we found this gem from The Primary Techie. 

The kids went crazy for it!  They watch the ppt, solve a math problem, and then color in the corresponding box on a hundreds chart.  The BEST part of this was that the students were so engaged and we got 15 minutes to check papers and get our lives together. :)

3) We had our 2nd and 3rd grade concert this week as well.  Talk about exhausting!  Try lining up 170 kids the morning of the show....but that's a whole story of its own.  In the end, the kids were cute and the parents loved it.   While we were waiting for the show, we ran up to California Pizza Kitchen for a bite to eat.  That place is sooo yummy!  We're trying to figure out if we can get this guy will deliver for lunch.

4) Since it's Poetry Month, we've been working, working, working away on some super cute poems for our upcoming Poetry Day next Friday.   These poems are just a sample of some of the poems added to their Poetry Folders.  The shape poems turned out so cute!

5) WARNING...this may frighten you...but it's too funny to not share!  This sums our our feelings completely!

Get out and enjoy this spring weather!

Bring Your Child to Work Day

I really can't believe this is an actual "day." I mean, I'm not complaining seeing as how I was down 9 kids all day.  What a difference 9 makes, it's a third of my class!  Needless to say we didn't get too much done because I'd just have to reteach it all again tomorrow. So you might be wondering what we did do?

Well, we spent the morning drafting and creating acrostic poems to add to our "Book of Poetry."  Each student used their first name to write an acrostic about themselves.  Then they did a watercolor self portrait.

To celebrate April is Poetry Month we are dedicating all of our writing lessons to poetry.  To celebrate our classrooms will be hosting, "An Afternoon of Poetry" next week. We are inviting the parents in to enjoy all of the hard work we've been doing.  We'll blog more about this later. ;)

Then we moved on to science, we decorated a face on a small cup and planted grass seed inside.  This way when it starts growing they can cut the "hair."  After they had them planted I found some of them holding their cup up to a lamp [because plants need (sun)light to grow] hoping to see a sprout. They are too cute!

  
During math we played Making Cents, a SmartBoard game, that I found at Lakeshore Learning.  It was a great review!  I love hearing the "Cha-Ching."

Speaking of money! We've been working hard to get a good handle on this skill.  I don't know about all of you but counting money is always a struggle!  We pulled out all the stops... worksheets, games, activities, journaling, practice, scavenger hunts.  I even established a classroom bank, they could earn money for various reasons.  They money they earn will be used at our classroom garage sale tomorrow. Check back for details on how I run that, this weekend. I think they are finally ready for the unit test tomorrow!  

1 more day!?!?

Happy New Year everyone!  I feel like I have been away from the "school world" for so long yet thinking I only have one more day is making me feel a little anxious.  Now don't get me wrong....I am sure you all feel this way.  NO one feels sorry for us for having to go back to work...and trust me I am NOT complaining about the length of time off.  Just seems like I always have lots of plans and before  I know it, it's time to return.  I've used the last few days to do laundry, returns, take down most of the decorations (no not the tree...yet) and work on some new things for TPT that we will be using soon.  Yes, it's been a BUSY few days.  My boyfriend wonders where I went! :)  I do miss my class and my "sister time" so going back isn't all bad.  To be honest with you, I will mostly just miss sleeping in!  Lol.

I share in Sister 2 and Sister 3's sentiments about our blog and TPT store!  I feel very blessed and excited to see that so many of you have enjoyed the ideas we are sharing and that you are bringing them into your classrooms.  Our first quarter surpassed what all three of us could have imagined.  So thank you, thank you, thank you!  When we return, we will be easing our kiddos back in by working on activities from our New Year's pack as well as our winter pack!  If you have the week or two back covered, you can look ahead as I did over break and start prepping for Valentine's Day!  Yes I said it....but people, February will be here before we know it!  We have created a Valentine unit that is packed with a variety of both ELA and math activities!  You can check it out here.  My class loves data collecting, analyzing, and graphing this year so we've included 3 different activities for this in this pack.  I get so excited making these activities, I forget we like to stay ahead of the game and we have about a month until we can use this!  We also are starting to prepare a few small activities for when we start teaching time and money.  Sister 3 blogged the other day about our telling time scavenger hunt and we've also made a fun money activity where students have to match money amounts, with the correct dollars/cents, with the correct money words.  If you are working on money with your kiddos, or planning ahead as we are, check out our money snowmen here. 

Also some news about when we return, I will be having a student teacher!  This is my third experience having one.  The first two went well and I am anticipating this one to be great also.   I am looking forward to "paying it forward" once again and sharing my knowledge with someone new.  Let's face it, another set of hands is always welcome and I know together, she and I will be able to do so many things with "our" class!  

Well the tree isn't taking itself down now is it?  So I'm off to complete that one last thing around here.  Tomorrow I will help my boyfriend take down the tree we put up at his house  and then it's time to settle in for a few last relaxing hours of vacation.  I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and New Years!  I hope that we can continue to share great new ideas with you.  If there is anything you would like to see, please feel free to let us know.  We love hearing from you and never stop learning from all of you amazing teachers as well!  

-Sister 1