Morning Work for 2013-2014

This morning work is wonderful. I am actually really proud of myself for going back, taking the time, and doing it the way it should be done. Check it out! :-)


October Morning Work

Morning Work for 2013-2014

Find it on my TPT account!

Teachers Pay Teachers Common Core Morning Work

I will soon have morning work for the ENTIRE year. It is just August to September right now.

Lots of informational reading aligned to science/social studies.

:-), KS

Kidblog.org

So, I've started up a kid blog for my class. SO COOL! Go to http://kidblog.org. My students love it. Yes, it has taken some time to set up but it is really neat and I have been posting questions for students to respond to. I am also having them do some of our whole group lessons in the iPads and blog. VERY COOL!

CRAFT

My headers for my CRAFT board instead of CAFE or FACE. I liked the idea of response to text! I will make individual parts for it later.

CRAFT Headers

My Classroom

So I came to school today. I was thinking "whoa!" Looks like a crazy mess. They just finished cleaning my floors. The nice thing was that I can now start arranging my room and put things up a little at a time. I know that it is summer but I mean really, I don't want to be the panicked crazy woman the week before school starts. Especially after the fact that I was hired 3 days before school last year and it was a race to get things done. Seriously, I didn't get things done until school was at the end. So this year I am going to be totally prepared. I am following this bird theme that I found on www.schoolgirlstyle.com . It is SO cute. I found a bunch of my color schemes at the dollar store so it must be meant to be!

The beginning.....

My VOICES menu for Language Arts. Here is a PDF that shows what will be under each heading. I changed it so that it doesn't have FL standards on it.

Just like in CAFE (which I am switching to CRAFT- Comprehension, Repsonse to Text, Accuracy, Fluency, and Text Structure) you teach a minilesson on each one. I will also use Awakening Brillance by Lisa Morris as a supplementary resource for teaching my minilessons. I liked how she did short minilessons with the Writer's Notebook on important writing skills. So I will begin using this format, along with her teaching method, and some of my own stuff and projects to start my writing off this year. Last year I really just flew by the seat of my pants. :-)

Also, I will post on the "A'tive Family". They are very interesting!

Common Core Math and Reading

So our school district isn't moving to common core for second grade just yet but we will be soon. K and 1 are on track and we will be implementing it before you know it. I figure I will get familiar with looking at these standards. Here are two documents I made that arrange common core standards for 2nd grade. One is birds and one is American flag themed. On it you will find the strands and organization. Also a place where you can write when you explicity introduced the standard.

America Themed Common Core Curriculum Guide

Bird Themed Common Core Standards Curriculum Guide

Dollar Store

So the dollar store is probably my favorite place ever. I was going online to look for storage bins and such to match my new theme. I am going to do a bird theme in my room with lime green, yellow, brown with white polka dots, and baby blue. Of course I found this idea on pinterest from School Girl Style. Also, my portable is so bland that I really need to jazz it up. But going on, I went into the Dollar Tree and found several organizers and baskets for books, pencils, and caddies for table supplies. Guess what color they were? You're right! Baby blue, lime green, and yellow. I mean seriously? And a DOLLAR! I bought so many. So just remember instead of buying seriously expensive items online or at walmart/target, check your dollar store my friends!

Dollar Store Find:

Yay! It matches my theme. I really wasn't planning on using group supplies but I would way rather do that now. I'm sick of hearing "I can't find my scissors!"

Writing- My Favorite!

So what did I find to be my favorite subject this year??? WRITING! Holy moley was it the best experience ever. I had several gifted writers and I did many fun lessons with them...check out some of their stuff!

Haiku at the beginning of the year. The students could not tell what holiday they were and had to stay with the 5, 7, 5 pattern. Then they did straw blow painting with three colors of their choice. It is a little draining to straw paint but I had a parent help.

This was the end of the year. They were SO into concrete poems! And I was LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

Check this one out....second grade...CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??

I Am...Poems! Listen up, if you expect something from kids they totally rise to the occasion. Biggest lesson of the year for me!