Elf on the Shelf Fun!!!

This was my first year having an Elf on the Shelf visit our classroom. On the first day he appeared on our tree as a present.....  We named him "Jingles"

He wants us to play Kooshball on SMART Board!!!

He listened to our story "The Secret Life of Trees" and rode a pinecone!!!

Jingles found the recess games!!!!

Riding the Rosemont Rocket!!!!

He loved playing in our prize basket and treasure chest!!!

Jingles brought back "magic snow" that stayed cold all day!!!!

He decorated our SMART Board :))

Taking a rest!!!

Finally he decorated a Gingerbread House of his own!!!

Jingles made our holiday season sooooooo much fun!!!!

The kids loved him soooo much!!!!

Our Thanksgiving Table

We had a very quick and fun November!!! Here are two of our little creations for the Thanksgiving table.  A Thanksgiving Feast Placemat Glyph and one of my favorite crafts of the year, little pinecone Turkey. The students love making them!!

 

 

Hooray for the USA!!!

What a wonderful week this past week has been.  It all began with an historic election.  Our second graders participated in their first ever "mock" election in which they cast their ballots for President Obama or Governor Romney.  Our results were 45/33 for President Obama.  We also read many of our favorite books about elections, including Duck for President and Gracie for President. The girls loved Gracie and were hopeful that someday there would be a woman as our president.
Of course I totally agreed with the girls!!!!

 

Then at the end of our week we had the most amazing Veteran's Day assembly.  Our school hosted over 75 veterans from every branch of the US Armed Services.  We treated our veterans to two songs performed by our students and presented each with a pin and piece of artwork painted by our third graders.  After the assembly the veterans came back to the classrooms of the children they were related to for question and answer sessions.  In my room alone we had a World War II veteran who was a friend of Col. Paul Tibbits, who flew the Enola Gay which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.  We also had a Vietnam Veteran, a Korean War Veteran, a Gulf War Veteran and a Desert Storm Veteran and many current enlisted men.  What an honor it was to have all of these heroes standing right in my classroom!!!!

Thank you for your service!!!

 

 



Spookey Spider Pumpkin!!!

So our school PTA is gearing up for our first ever "after school" trunk or treat for our students.  A part of the celebration is a Classroom Pumpkin Decorating contest.  Thanks to my rockin' homeroom mom and Homeroom Nana here is our contribution.

    Isn't it adorable?!?   
 I hope we win!!!!!



Halloween Bookshelf

My kids love when I set up the monthly bookshelf.  They visit the classroom library during free time and guided reading stations.  During stations they complete short book reports.  One of my favorite titles on the shelf-Big Pumpkin!!!  My students also seem to love an oldie but a goodie-

Gus Was A Friendly Ghost!

 

Check out my Spookey Story Map!!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Holiday-Book-Reports

 

 

A Great Gift!!!

Whew this has been a very busy start to another school year!!!  My students have settled in and are doing a great job!!!  I have one thing to say about the first month-WE LOVE OUR SMARTBOARD!!!!!  Thank you to Mrs. D for purchasing 15 of them for our school before you retired-what a gift to leave behind!!!  We use it everyday-all day.  I have learned soooooooo much and it has energized my teaching techniques after 26 years!!!!

 

My kids love checking in each day using our Dr. Seuss themed attendance-Thank you TpT-

Ms. Magee

 

Classroom Tour 2012-2013!!!

Okay so I think I'm all ready for my little kiddos to come tomorrow morning.  First day of school-this will make my 26th opening of school and I still just LOVE IT!!!!   So here is a little tour of our classroom.

                                                    Our back wall in Dr. Seuss Decor!!!! 
                                                               Our classroom library :)

A view from the back- notice our new SMART BOARD :))

Our math centers!!!!

Behavior Management System!

Our writing Center!!

One of my favorite gifts from a former student!!!

One of my favorite things about our classroom-the VIEW!!!

Happy School Year!!!!

Back to School Cuties!!!

I have been making these little Back to School Cuties for MANY years now!!!  I use them for as Station sticks.  Each child is placed in a flexible group for Guided Reading Stations.  I switch students to groups throughout the year based on data collected at different times. Then at the end of the year each student has a momento of Second Grade to take home.  It's a busy time but I aways enjoy making these!!!

Holy Hit the Jackpot!!!

While at Target today I really hit the Back to School Jackpot!!!!   My theme this year is Dr. Seuss. SOOOOOO when I hit the dollar aisle what did I see? :))  Totebags, Dry Erase boards, stickers, erasers, and flashcards!!!

After that I headed over to Books-a-Million for some of my favorite Back to School titles!!!!!  I had some gift cards!!

Then to the Dollar Tree for Baskets and such!!!

Overall a very successful day!!!!  One last tidbit an idea for playing any game that involves rolling dice. Use these little gems!!!  Students roll the dice and they don't fall all over the place :))

Happy Back to School!!!

A new look!!

Just discovered ShabbyBlogs.com and gave my blog a new look.  I am soooo new to this and have taught myself almost everything!!!   It's nice to have time in the summer to discover how to do these things.

Awesome Second Grade Giveaway!!!

http://secondgrademathmaniac.blogspot.com/2012/07/super-spectacular-second-grade-giveaway.html
Hop over to Second Grade Math Maniac to enter this amazing giveaway!!!!  Good Luck!!!!  

The Grouchy Ladybug Games

Just finished another project for back to school based on The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle.  He has always been one of my favorite authors.  Follow the link to take a look!!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Grouchy-Ladybug-Games

Win an Ipad :))

Use this link to enter to win an Ipad-good luck!!

http://www.teachercreated.com/giveaway?rid=zpmywp4wdh

Whew!!-it took me all day, but I'm done :))

We teachers all know how critically important a strong sight word vocabulary is to reading acquisition.  These games help reinforce the Dolch basic sight words for grades K-3rd grade.  Check out these games:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Sight-Word-Roll-Games

Who doesn't LOVE Splat?!?!

Just created these really cute girl/boy versions of Splat as a response "craftivity" from the story Splish, Splash, Splat by Rob Scotton.  
 http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fun-with-Splish-Splash-Splat

Check out this AWESOME giveaway!!!!
http://www.kleinspiration.com/2012/07/biggest-give-away-yet-thank-you-readers.html

Just spent the most amazing time at Universal Orlando visiting one of my favorite places-- Seuss Landing!!  The Cat in the Hat ride was so cute with a ride through the storybook!!!  Loved it!!! 

Excited to begin my summer tutoring job today.  I've had lots of fun planning "girlie" activities.  We are starting with The Paper Bag Princess-an oldie but a goodie!!!  Pictures to follow.

My students presented this quilt to me for Teacher Appreciation week.  My two homeroom moms (who rocked by the way) secretly met them in art class one day to trace hands.  Then the one mom took each piece and sewed them to make a quilt.  Needless to say it will hang in my classroom for years to come :)

We had such fun this year reading Shiloh for our One Book One School program.  The students loved hearing a chapter each day.  In the story Marty saves cans to raise money to buy Shiloh.  So we made this cute doggy bank out of cans to remind us of Shiloh and working hard for something in which you believe in strongly. 

Check out these 30 games for Harcourt Trophies Reading series.  You can find them at Tpt.  My students love playing these vocabulary games. 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vocabulary-Roll-Games-for-Second-Grade