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Hey all! I don't know about you all, but I am over this start school in August and end in the middle of May-thing. Whatever happened to starting school after Labor Day? With the way weather is now, it's barely summer until July anyway. Who cares if we are in school for 2 weeks of June!
Regardless, I get to meet my sweet kinders tomorrow! We do a special Meet the Teacher with our kindergartners where they come meet us, drop off their supplies, and learn about bus safety! They get to come a week earlier than the other kiddos so they can come all by themselves and feel comfortable :) Then school starts next Tuesday! AHH! I still feel like I have so much to do!!!!!!!!!!
So obviously today, instead of curriculum planning or lesson planning, I crafted! I have two Monday Made-It's to share :)
Monday Made-It #1: 1st Day of K Frame!
I have seen this frame for all grades all over Pinterest and I LOVE IT! I think this is just such a wonderful gift to give parents at the beginning of the year and is a fun picture to put in their memory books at the end of the year :)
It was super easy and actually not that expensive. I bought:
-plain wooden frame (with no finishes) (about $9)
-plain wooden letters (1.49 per letter, about $9)
-black, green, and blue paint ($1 each, about $3)
-cute little wooden bus (50 cents)
-hot glue gun
-foam paintbrush
-clear acrylic sealer (I already had this, so I didn't count it in the price. It's probably not necessary, but I used it just in case!)
So all in all, it was about $20ish to make this. I bought it all at Hobby Lobby. I probably could have found the frame cheaper if I really wanted to or used an old one, but it was easier to get it all in one place.
These are some pictures of the progress. I just did all the work in my garage.
I touched up the paint and hot glued all the letters on. Then I sprayed it with the sealer. Here is the finished product :) I'm SO happy with how it turned out!
Monday Made-It #2: Magnetic Dice Holder!
Once again, I've seen this all over Pinterest, and I knew I had to make one for myself. Now, this was my first attempt at Modge Podge so it didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped but still super cute!
This one was much cheaper to make! I bought:
-cookie sheet from Dollar Tree ($1)
-green chevron scrapbook paper (50 cents)
-green ribbon ($1)
-small clear tupperware containers
-magnetic tape ($4)
-hot glue gun
-matte Modge Podge
-clear acrylic sealer
-foam paintbrush
I already had the Modge Podge and the sealer, but that would be about an extra $12-15 dollars if you needed to buy it.
I put about 3 coats of Modge Podge and 1 coat of sealer. Besides a few air bubbles that refused to come out, I thought it turned out pretty good!
Then, I got my Tupperware containers and hot glued the magnetic tape to the lid. This is the almost finished product! I didn't bring my dice home, so I'll add it at school tomorrow! My letters are also at school. So I will also be adding a dice sign :)
For the second part of my post, I was asked to do a book review! Blucy is an e-book coming out in a week or so, written by Julia Dweck and illustrated by Erika Lebarre.
It's such a cute story about a little girl who goes to the pound a finds a cat named Lucy. She finds out that this cat changes colors based on its mood, so she renames it Blucy! The book's illustrations are awesome as you see all of the mishaps Blucy gets herself in. She is a very lovable character :) At the end, Mandy discovers a special way to keep Blucy blue forever, but you'll have to buy the book yourself to find out how :)
Blucy is on presale now until 8/12 at 20% off on Amazon. You can buy your copy here :) It's only $3.19! What a bargain! Perfect for your classroom :)
Well I better go finish up everything for Meet the Teacher tomorrow :) I hope everyone's getting excited about their school year!!
Sarah
So I am totally dreading tomorrow because we are getting a completely new schedule! Can you believe it? Second graders totally and completely changing their routine?
It is all for the best, because our pull-out and push-in schedules are going to be better AND it means I'll get someone in my room everyday for an HOUR during reading. Cool right?
So, because of this I have been planning like crazy to make sure that our day runs smoothly and that everyone LOVES our new schedule.
Here is the basic run-down of our day:
8:45-9:05: Morning Stretch
The students will arrive at anytime during this 20 minutes, so I have to be prepared for students who arrive at 8:45 and 9:05. I want everyone to be doing something beneficial the whole time, so this is what I've got.
The students start with a 4-square. They are all review questions and should take the students about 5 minutes to finish. There is a question in each square (based on math/word work skills we are currently learning) that I project on the Smartboard, and students complete in their journal.
When they finish, students look at our Be Proactive board (7 Habits!). Students choose from this board anytime they finish early. If you would like a copy of this, you can get it here!
Book recommendations is something new that we are trying. Most of my kiddos are into chapter books, and I am trying to push the last few in there too!
There are different forms included based on the type of recommendation it is. Maybe they think they'll like the character or lesson taught, or maybe they know someone likes a particular topic like sharks. It is a freebie for you :)
9:05-9:20 Morning Meeting
This is my favorite time of the day! My kiddos share about their weekend, share things they are excited/scared/nervous/happy/mad about. We greet each other and begin with the end in mind (7 Habits!) by going over our schedule for the day. Getting them excited about what we are doing not only keeps me on track with what we are doing, but also helps the organize their day.
9:20-10:50 Reading
Our reading time has now increased from 60 minutes to 90 minutes! Ahh what to do? Luckily, for the next 2 weeks we are working on nonfiction reading clubs.
Our reading clubs are topics of the students' choice that they research with a purpose. For example, if their research is on sharks, their purpose could be Top 5 Most Dangerous Sharks. This way, they have a purpose for their reading and are forced to provide evidence.
They are LOVING this, so we are currently doing this for most of our reading time.
10:50-11:50 Writer's Workshop
I LOVE writing! It's my favorite thing to teach :) I always do a short mini lesson, with modeled writing. Then the students take their writing folders and work on their own ideas.
I call over writing strategy groups throughout writing time to work on handwriting, sentence conventions, story organization, paragraph writing, etc.
11:50-12:20 Lunch
12:20-1:20 Math Workshop
Math is probably my second favorite! We always start with a Problem of the Day. These are short math journal prompts that usually do not have only 1 answer. For example, I might say, how can you make 43 cents? Then, they show me as many ways as they can.
Then, we move right into math stations. There are 4 stations, and the kiddos make it to 3 stations each day, for 15 minutes. The stations are:
- Paper Practice: Anything from our Investigations workbook or any other worksheets to practice important skills.
- Math Tubs: Differentiated tubs (2-3 students share a tub) of skill appropriate games
- Computer: Math computer games
- Work with Teacher
For the last 10 minutes, we do a whole group activity.
1:20-1:40 Recess
1:40-2:25 Academic Lab
This is when most of my pull-outs happen. This is also the time I pull groups that don't fit anywhere else in the day!
2:25-2:50 Science/Social Studies
We alternate science and social studies units. We are currently learning about landmarks!
2:50-3:05 Pack Up/Stack Up
3:05-4:00 Specials
Specials at the end of the day? AHH! I know. Roll with the punches right?
So that's about it. Crazy right? I hope it goes well!
Sarah
