Spelling Wishes

Grading papers has become an emotional roller coaster for me! I find myself rooting for the kiddos and holding my breath with every check mark...

So this was a nice little reminder that they feel the same way I do:

So close buddy! Good thing it was only the pretest :)

Launching Read to Someone

As I mentioned the first week of school, our class loves to read!! These kiddos followed the Daily 5 model last year, so setting it up this year has been a breeze! The components are

Read to Self
Read to Someone
Listen to Reading
Word Work
Work on Writing

We spend about 45 minutes each day doing two rotations. In the coming week,  The students will get to choose what they will work on as long as they do each "station" twice. 

Here we are Reading to Someone,  EEK style (elbow to elbow,  knee to knee).

Anytime we are in Daily 5, the kiddos can have one comfy thing. We have rugs, pillows, and stuffed animals to choose from. We also have a been bag, rocking chair, and wingback chair. Choosing may be half the fun of Daily 5 :)

This is what it is all about: fostering a love for reading.

G - I love that letter!

Last week we focused on the two sounds of G in your Word Study. To really make the hard g (guh) and the soft g (/j/) stick, I found this awesome blast from the past!

I love finding songs that fit in with the curriculum! It just makes it so much easier for the brain to retain. I even use it for giving directions! If I tell the class, "Alright guys, turn to page 81" it becomes such a struggle.  But If I sing it, the whole class becomes my back up vocals and we jam until everyone is settled. Just another way to turn the little things into little spots of fun :)

To practice writing these words we used GEL PENS! This simple tool made writing our spelling words the best thing ever! 

"Hey! Mrs. Serio! Gel is a g word too!"

*bingo*

We also broke out the shaving cream. I remember doing this in school and it was always the funnest thing and made our desks super clean! In this, the learners had to sort their words based on if it was a hard g or a soft g. If they messed up, no worries! A little rub and it's gone :) 

To give a grade, I just snapped a quick picture of everyone desk with their name tag visible. Yay for paperless assessment!!

Word Work

This week, we introduced our first section of sight words, of the 300 that second graders are expected to be able to read fluently. Not only did we create flashcards but we took it to the next level and practiced alphabetizing. 

These kiddos are so sharp! They already knew to look at the second or even third letter of words with the same starting letter!

Pen Pal Launch!

This friday, We wrote our introducorty letter our Pen Pals in Florida. The great Kelley Dolling from Teacher Idea Factory hooked us up and I am so excited for myself and my students to learn about a different culture within our country!

Before writing our letter, we brainstormed ideas on what to share with our new friends. Because the our cultures are so different, we really wanted to share what our lives are about!

Dear Pen Pals, How are you? We are hot! We just came in from recess and it was 92 degrees outside. We are in second grade and go to XX Elementary. We live in a rural community. Our school colors are blue, black, and white. We speak with a southern accent, We are panthers. What are you? We like to play football and cheer. What do you play? We are happy to be your friends! Sincerely, Mrs. Serio's Class

As we were writing, we voted on how we wanted to word things. They decided we should say that have a "southern" accent rather than "country", and to sign off with "sincerely" rather than "love". After all, we are just now introducing ourselves ;) It was so exciting watching them be so excited!!

A Visit from our Wonderful Counselor

On Thursday, we had a visit from our counselor. She is so sweet and cares so much for our kiddos! 

She read Mrs. Joyce Gives the Best High-Fives as an introduction for what a counselor does. 

Listening along with the kids, I thought it was a great explanation on why someone may want to visit with her- anything ranging from test anxiety to trouble at home. 

The Desk Debacle

This is my desk today. 

This is my desk today with a tall coffee mug, two water bottles, and a hippo on it. 

This is my desk today with two professional books and a teacher's manual on it. 

This is my desk today with my planner, meeting notebook, and brain/clipboard on it. 

This is my desk today with lesson plans open, box tops forms that need to be turned in, and an encouraging note from coworkers on it.

This is my desk.

This desk is a sign of success.  

This messy desk shows that I did not sit there all day. 

This unorganized desk shows that I was a good teacher today.

I have given and received nearly 50 hugs today.

I have changed a lesson on the fly to better suit my learners today.

I have monitored my struggling babies, and given them encouragement at just the right moment(s).

I have dried a waterfall of tears today.

I have sung Frozen with my kiddos as we worked on projects today.

I have been a teacher today.

I will clean my desk tonight, come in fresh tomorrow, and mess it up again.

I couldn't be happier.

How do you Work on Writing?

We spend a good chunk of our day writing, and it helps if you're in a comfy position right? I know I do my best writing scrunched up on the couch, kinda like this darlin'

Some kiddos like to really lay out. 

And then there's kiddos like this!

I love seeing that thinking cap in action!

What Do Scientists Do?

Classify!

This week, I gave each table a bag of similar items, and asked them to put them in groups of like things.

These kiddos are pros! I was impressed by how quickly and efficiently these babies were able to make decisions and work together.

I was also met with a totally different approach at the end!

This little darlin' not only blew my mind in his thinking, but also in his ability to have his tablemates agree with him!

LOVE thinking out of the box!

Make or Break

After months of working on our library...

I have a whole class of can't-get-enough readers!

*happy dance*

faces blurred to protect the precious

The First Day!

 Monday morning came. In walked 40 little feet. In came 20 little minds. In came 20 smiles in all different sizes. Monday morning, my heart grew 20 sizes.

Early in the day we discussed our fears. I gave each table a piece of manilla paper labeled with fears. Their instruction was to right down their worries for the new school year without talking. Twenty little faces looked at me, worried. I told them it was fine and they could even cover it up. 

And so they began. Some knew right away what they needed to write. Others were reserved, and waited until they felt it was safe. We sat in silence for several minutes.

After I saw that everyone was finished, I asked them to stand up, walk around their table, and read their neighbor's worries to themselves. Then, we walked around all the tables.

We are all worried about the same things.

What if no one likes me?

What if my teacher is mean?

What if someone laughs at me?

I  pointed this out to the little minds around the room, and the air got just a bit lighter. I told them we are not going to let this stop us from having a great year! These fears are not going to hold us back!

We then proceeded to tear up every fear to shreds. We threw every fear into the trash. We had fun.

Next, I passed out another piece of paper, but this one was labeled "Hopes"

As they wrote, I could see the worried lips turned to pleased smiles. They wrote the things that had already made them happy that morning. They wrote about all the things they were looking forward to. 

It was magic :)

We kept these papers. We immediately put them up on the wall. 

It's going to be a great year.

Classroom Reveal!

Dun duh duh!

Here it is!

Here are a couple panoramic views. The first is taken from the back of the room at my sink.

 And this next one is taken from the whiteboard.

 I have my kiddos grouped together with their most used supplies in a caddie. I think The plants (fake) really make the space feel more home-y and light.

 From the white board, looking to the right, its out morning meeting area, library, and the table where our student computers will go. Our window brings in so much good lighting! I think there is something magical about a sheer white curtain :)

 I LOVE this chair! My sweet sweet friend and mentor is letting me use this chair and it is so comfortable! It sat in my living room over the summer and was well used there as well. This is our "Author;s Chair." The kiddos love getting to share their writing pieces from this spot. 

 Here's a closer look at our Morning Meeting area. When we meet here in the mornings, our circle resembles more of a looong oval, but we still have a good time!

 I had a hard time giving this wall some purpose. A lot of other teacher's in the building have the decor that they have collected over the years displayed up there. I certainly didn't want to leave it blank, so it is now home to some inspiring words. Im visualizing some classroom snapshots up there as the year progresses. 

I LOVE the wind chime I found at Hobby Lobby! I had a hard time this summer finding one that looked and sounded just right. I found this one TWO days before school started. That was a close call!

 This is in the library, looking toward the door. You can see that my desk is placed in the center of the room. This was very important to me, because I wanted to not only make it accessible to me, but I also wanted to make the whole wall the library. I had a couple challenges in making sure my desk would work here, such as fining internet cables that would extend that far, and finding a way to cover up said cords. I have been very impressed with the responsiveness of our tech department. They ROCK!

 And lastly, gere is the view from my desk :)

Here's to a year of laughter, love, and learning!!

The Wall of a Thousand Staples

or "How to put up an entire wall of paper by yo sweet self"

Early in the summer I went in and was surrounded by the blankness. Oh, the blankness. Thankfully, I have been shopping for my classroom for over a year, and managed to find several rolls of fadeless paper on sale!!

So I've got the wall, and the paper...and myself.

After a few false starts, I found the best way to get this down was to enlist some text books to hold up the roll while I stapled the paper.

In the picture, You can see that I circled my other secret weapons: paperclips and this AMAZING stapler.

I love this stapler because you can take the bottom off and use it completely flat without any fuss. And because the bottom is magnetic, it catches all the staples that get messed up!!

The paperclips really helped when it came to holding up the roll because I only have to hands. If you staple the paper as close to the roll as appeasable, it will stand up and place and let you go get more staples, eat a burrito, or turn up HGTV that's playing in the background. 

After I slowly made my way along the wall, I came across one of the 34536 outlets. I was really worried at first but it turned out not bad at all! I found the best thing to do was not to completely lock it in or you will get bubbles in the paper. Instead, staple above or below and also to the side to where the paper still stays in a level line. Then, because the paper is so thin, I was able to just use my fingernail to "cut" along the hard edge of the outlet.

 Okay crisis averted. But now it's ugly!! Have no fear- wash tape is here!

So much better. So much sparkle too :)

To be honest, I was nervous bout the sparkle tape, but once I did it to all of them, it looked much more cohesive. 

If you look back, you can see that I reached the end of my roll. This honestly came as a surprise to me. But then I remember that a 25 foot wall will in fact need more that a 12 foot long roll of paper. 

And because we don't live in a perfect world, the end of the first wall did not match up with the beginning of the next roll. Sad Day. So then I just lined it up as best as I could, and had to recover the outlet. No biggie.

Also no biggie. I think that's why border was created right? For teachers who can hardly cut a straight line?

Next task: the upper level. I had to upgrade my textbooks to a stool and then a box, and ten more books! Yes it looks janky. But it works!! I found it was much easier to go slow.

The upper level was much more uneventful. Which is a totally good thing. The next bump in the road came from trying to decide what border to use!

I had originally planned on using the sparkle border on the right but when I put it up, I just wasn't impressed. I texted the options to my SIL who teaches high school, who was with two other teachers at heaven Ikea.

The voted for the aqua polka dots. Which was secretly what I wanted them to pick. I was nervous though! When I think would grain, polka dots don't jump out at me as being complimentary. 

But look at it!

It's so pretty! 

And it matches my pretty bookshelves!!

Squeee!!

Thank oyu for sticking' with me on the Great Wall of Wood Grain. The amount of pride I have for this thing is unbelievable. It's the first thing you see when you walk in the room and it has such a calming effect! I really think the calm may transfer over to the students too. To some degree at least ;)

Have a great few last days of summer everyone!

Student Motivation FTW!

Hello Hello!!!

I am so pumped! I have been spending A LOT of time in my classroom this summer...like so much that I have had to sneak in sometimes. But all the work has put me so much more at ease as I get ready for my first year.

One of my little projects this week were these super easy motivation "posters." I have always been a sucker for motivational and inspiring quotes. So much so that when I was going into 7th grade, and chatting on AIM with my friends, I was googling quotes and copying them into word. Each quote got its own font, and then was cut out and stuck to my locker. I think another example of this was probably the best year I had in school when the classroom was COVERED in motivational posters. I quoted one in my teacher interview and it came off as very impressive. Thank you Mrs. M from third grade!!

Anywho. At the beginning of summer I made the trek to heaven Ikea and picked up these awesome little frames for 99 cents each! Their two sided and can be moved anywhere in the room.

Next, I took to Pinterest and printed out several pretty quotes that I felt were a good fit for the second grade maturity level, that promoted being a good person and the value of education. I cut them out (I just kinda guessed a sized...) along with a piece of cardstock the size of the plastic.

Now this is so easy and so low tech. I din't want this project to be more complicated than it needed to be :)

Then here comes the best part...peeling the film off the plastic!! And its on both sides of both plastic piece! YAY!

After that, its just piecing it all together...

And then sliding it in...

And then twisting on the bottom stand!

I love this little things so much! Its amazing when little things make the biggest difference. I plan on placing these around the heavily used areas of the room, or even on a desk for someone who needs it.

I just love it!!

Adios Contaminos!

And you know I mean contaminos in the nicest way :)