Oh Summer

Soooo I need school to start before my house and/or bank account explodes! Ha! I have way too much time to browse online and in the stores! 

Reading Log

Since I have two classes for language arts I was struggling to find a good system for reading logs. I didn't really want to make monthly copies (for some reason I just CANNOT keep up with that!) so then it dawned on me...

Notebook paper! (So simple!) I just stapled the pages together and TA-DA! Nothing fancy, but I told the kids they could decorate the outside pages at home. They were super excited about that! 

This is what I did on the inside and they will add what they read each night. I told them it would be fun to have a record of all the books they read at home this past year! They keep these in their take home book bags. 

And there you have it! Hope everyone has a wonderful Monday! 

New Start

This year I'm starting a new adventure as a language arts/social studies teacher! I'm switching classes with my teaching partner (and one of my closest friends) who is covering math and science. I'm excited for the challenge, but this world of departmentalization is completely new to me! Where will I put all their stuff? How will I manage all these kids? How will I have enough time? When do we switch? Wait…I have to teach all these kids writing?!?! Haha…maybe not quite that extreme but pretty darn close.

So I'm hoping this year I'll be able to log this journey as a newly departmentalized teacher in a second grade classroom. For a refresher, I teach at a Title 1 campus where over 90% of our kiddos are on free/reduced lunch. I always have a handful of ESL students in my class, and I've been at my school for 10 years!

So to kick it all off I thought I would show you some highlights of my room and organization ideas I've had.

My principal ordered these carts for us last year. I'm using it to organize their folders. They have a home folder and a work folder. The numbers on the box represent their table/group. The top row belongs to Class A, and the bottom row belongs to Class B. The middle boxes have spirals in them that I didn't know what to do with so I stuck them there (#reallife)  :)

Reading journals. I have two bookshelves back-to-back. I got these little clear baskets at Target last month (3 baskets for $2.99!) and they are a perfect size for their journals! Again, the numbers represent their table/group. I have two different color baskets for the two different classes. The other colorful paper baskets (on the bottom) and glimpse of the blue paper file will eventually be used for writing.

Book boxes. Oh my word there was absolutely NO WAY I could store 40 book boxes in my room! Finding space for 20 is hard enough! So I decided to give the kids ziploc bags this year. They are allowed to keep 5 books in their bags. They share a box with a student from the other class and the book box matches their locker number. For example, the two students from Class A and B with the number 3 share a book box. (Also, guess who doesn't get upset when their "brand new" book bag gets torn, ripped, caked with sticky food or any other tragedy since it can EASILY be replaced?)

So far it has worked out this week! There will be another bag in there as I add take home bags for guided reading. I'll update about that as the time comes. 

That's all I have for tonight! I can't wait to update again soon! I hope everyone enjoys their weekend and gets some much needed rest and relaxation! We survived the first week! 

Work Folders

SPACE!! If I could JUST get a little more space in my classroom I would be in heaven! Actually, I'm pretty sure I would fill that space with more stuff and then beg for even more space :) Anyways, I'm always looking for ways to save space, mainly at my students' desk. I use chair pockets, and there is a limited amount of storage in those suckers. (I LOVE chair pockets and can't imagine classroom life without them.) So last year I tried a work folder. It went really well, but by the end of the year they became ripped, torn, and full of random papers. I just needed a better way.

This year I went to Office Depot and bought a class set of WHITE plastic folders. I like the white idea because they are different and will be easy to spot in the classroom. 

I've also decided to divide the folder into "math" and "reading". I'm honestly not sure how this will work. It will DEFINITELY require me to have a time every Friday to clean out the folders instead of at the end of each month. I'm so curious and excited to try it out this year! 

I'm toying with making this a home folder as well so parents can see their child's work in progress…but I also don't want to lose these folders (you all know how that goes!) SO I might have this folder and then a Friday folder where they take everything home at the end of the week (I use class dojo for behavior so I don't need to sign a folder at the end of each day). We'll see how it all goes and I will update you guys with my plan! 

Sorry for the sideways picture, but I cannot for the life of me find where to rotate it! I've been out of the blogging loop way too long my friends! 

Word Form Reference Page FREEBIE

Hello friends! I hope everyone has enjoyed their summer so far! I was going through files on my computer a while ago and came across a word form page I made for my kiddos last year. I made it very quickly when I was annoyed tired of writing "eight" on the board for the umpteenth time! :) I thought some of you might be able to use it, too. If it can save one teacher from writing numbers in word form a bajillion times…it's worth it! I have my students cut around the border and glue it into their math notebooks. You can click on the picture to get this for FREE.

For My Firstie Texas Friends!

Just wanted to drop a note I have completed the TEKS posters for first grade this past week! They are upgraded to the 2012 Math TEKS revision.

The posters are available in my TpT store. I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer!

Second Grade TEKS

I just wanted to let all my second grade teachers know I have bundled all the TEKs/objectives posters for reading, math, science, writing, and social studies. They are available in my TpT store! Click on the picture for a link to the file.

Transformation

From this...

To this...

I've been SO BUSY I haven't even had a chance to show you guys my room! These were taken the week before school started. There is a little less clutter now, but all the caddies and lockers are full! I feel like I'm just now getting a feel for my kiddos and I have some great kids! I'm looking forward to an awesome year. I've already started district testing and have 2 more tests to get through before I can breathe a little bit and focus 100% on teaching. I always dread the beginning of the year with the testing, trainings, and more testing! Can I get an amen?!?!