A Little Bloggy Catch Up

This past week was a tad crazy... so I kind of neglected my blog! However, there was so much going on that I HAD to do a Funday Sunday post to share all the great fun we had learning this week!

I am so proud of my kiddos! We are up to 15 minutes of stamina for Read to Self & Word Work as well as 12 minutes of stamina in Work on Writing and 8 minutes in Read to Someone.

I chose to introduce each choice (except listen to reading) within the first 2 weeks and work on building the stamina of each. Once Work on Writing is up to 15 the kiddos will get to choose between the 2 of them. They won't have full choice until all 5 choices are up to 15 minutes though.

In reading, we worked all week on asking questions while reading. We read The Dot & The Wednesday Surprise, stopping & jotting questions on sticky notes.  Kiddos' exit ticket was picking their "best question" and sticking it to our anchor chart. We then went back the next day to talk about which questions were answered "right there" in the book, could be answered with inferences & which couldn't be answered. We also tried applying this strategy during read to self... all definitely still a work in progress :)

We did a mix of fun activities during math this week... We did a lot of hands on manipulative work, specifically in figuring out if a number was even or odd at the end of last week and beginning of this week.

We played our first I have, who has? game - this was a free place value game I found.

We attempted "interactive journals" for the first time! (My first time too & I'm enjoying creating foldables for this coming week & our next unit too which I plan to share!) 

We launched Social Studies this week with a fun craftivity. We made these last year too and the kiddos enjoyed it just as much this year too. The "levels" are Me, My Town, My State, My Country, My Continent, My World. Will post this craft as a freebie soon!

I hope your week was as fun filled with learning as ours was!

Five for Friday 9.5

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for Five for Friday to share some fun from our 2nd week of school!

We loved making our giraffes "Reaching New Heights in 2nd Grade!" from A Cupcake for the Teacher. Get your copy here.

I wish you could see the serious reading faces I've been seeing the past week and a half when we are practicing D5 Read to Self... too darn cute! We made it to 8 minutes in 5 days of school... hoping for a big breakthough next week because we couldn't reach 8 on day 6!

It's fair time in CT... this is literally RIGHT next door! When the fair sets up our kiddos can't go on the playground or track that they normally are able to go onto during recess!

I neglected to take pictures of my kiddos doing our Whole Brain Teaching Oral Writing (definitely will have to next week) but my kiddos are LOVING using gestures to share with their friends what they're going to write about. We've learned the brainy gestures for capital letter, comma, period, exclamation point, question mark, however/but, and, because and "complete sentence please."

I have a very calm and small class this year and it was nice to see them loud and excited about learning when we were working on this!

New product in the store! I love these for teaching place value to 100. Within this unit in my district the kiddos need to learn word form, expanded form & place value so this creation is a nice culmination for 2-digit numbers.

This product is not available in my store yet, but if you "like" Teacher Will Run for Books on facebook, the post sharing a shortened version of this product for free is pinned to the top of the page!

Five for Friday - Back to School

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs to share my first week back to school!

If you didn't check out this week's Whole Brain Wednesday, be sure to click here to learn about WBT Scoreboard & for 2 WBT freebies!

I also created this fun sign for outside of my room... click it for a copy!

We've been working hard to introduce Daily 5 this week! It will take us about 3 or 4 weeks to be fully launched, but that time will be SO worth it when the rest of our year is smooth sailing. We increased our stamina to 4 and a half minutes on day 2! I was so impressed.

I'm loving how our Looking Back on Summer Sunglasses came out! It's not too late to do this kind of activity... want to make sunglasses next week, grab it in my TPT store here.

We are making our Reaching New Heights Giraffes from A Cupcake for the Teacher today so I'll share them next week for sure!

I love "Find Someone Who" type activities. I think I've used a different one each year. My kiddos had fun with one from Jessica Tobin, you can grab it here.

Loving our tables! The one year of desks taught me that desks are just not for me. We're using our book bins as folder-holders too so their book bin is ALL they ever need to carry around the room. I've also made sure supplies are available for just about every possible work area so kiddos don't even need to carry around supplies. I'm going to try for all our supplies to be shared. I asked families to use any "fun" supplies they bought for the year to be used at home on homework to prevent any arguments over pencils, erasers, etc. I had enough of the "That's MY pencil!" arguments the past 2 years... we'll see how it goes!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Last Summer Five for Friday

Linking up with Doodlebugs for my last weekday of summer vacation... *tear*

I have a few classroom updates since last week to share as I say farewell to a wonderful summer!

Loving the addition of book jackets to my library. I saw this idea last year towards the end of the year and just didn't have the time or energy to put up some string to hang book jackets on. I always take book jackets off when kiddo hands will be all over the book because despite keeping off dust, the covers get absolutely destroyed!

So now, books that are available in the library with covers taken off will have their covers hidden & a sign that says "Can you find these books in our library?"

 

The super improver wall is ready to go! Looking forward to name cards being all different colors as kiddos make improvements & move up the wall. I also can't wait until next year where the second grade number poster has to find a new home because I have faces of living legends in its place!

I finally took a picture of my picture book display. Normally I wouldn't post something as simple and classroom typical as well-loved books but check out the tag. I put a velcro dot on the book display and as I switch out different themed books throughout the year I will put the theme card on the book display... hooray for labels & organization (it really is the little things in life).

My mom made me curtains for my classroom and I have to say it makes a HUGE difference! The blinds in this classroom & the classroom in my old classroom are SO ugly and these curtains hide them perfectly and are fun and bright while doing so. The past 2 years my mom has made curtains to cover up shelves in my classroom closet, this year curtains for the windows, what's next year? haha!

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture (& Read on the Computer/Listen to Reading is cut off in the picture), but my Daily 5 i-charts & anchor charts for launch lessons are ready to go! So excited to start Daily 5 from day 1 with my grade level. I think it will be a success for sure and I am excited for the collaboration that will go along with it :)

Did you put your finishing touches on your room this week or are you already back at it teaching those kiddos?