Hall Pass!

With two wonderful snow days to relax and recuperate, and giving me a nice long weekend, I thought I would blog stalk. I have seen tons of people link up to Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits for her Hall Pass Linky! 

Who doesn't love getting awesome ideas from each other?
So I will start with my favorite product. That's a tough one! And I'm kind of cheating, because it is more than one product BUT it is all based on the same concept. I LOVE my monthly calendar journals! Right now, they are available for August-March, with April, May, and June/July coming soon!

I think that calendar is the most wonderful part of the day and sadly I don't really get to do it anymore in second grade! So, instead, I have these wonderful calendar journals that some of my students use for their morning stretch.

These are just a few examples of the pages from the October journal. The calendars build off of each other, and become more difficult as the year goes on. You can find them all in my TPT store (August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March)

BEST OF ALL....You can re-download them each year with new dates FOR FREE!!! Yep :) One purchase and calendar journals for years to come.

My favorite classroom area is most definitely my classroom library. This is the most boring picture ever because it was before school started, but you get the picture.

This area includes our just-right library, where students choose leveled books for themselves, in addition to a theme/author library as well. They store their book boxes on the top shelf. The desk that is half cut off to the left is the listening center.

The voice signals that I have been using this year that I really like are:

• What I learned from whole brain teaching: Class, Yes (and all other variations)
• Give me 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and the kids hold up one hand and count down with you

I also have a Smartboard file that has 10 songs we use for various transition times (morning meeting, come to the carpet, clean up, line up, move stations, timer, etc.) Original idea for this came from Mrs. Lirette's Learning Detectives, but I tweaked it for my kiddos. IT IS A LIFESAVER and so simple. I will take a screenshot of the file and upload it on here later).

They are all kid-appropriate songs (most of them cut down in time). Other teachers come into my room are amazed when all I have to do is play a song, and all of my kids clean up their math tubs, move to the new station, get started with all their materials, and work quietly with just one little song!

Here are the ones I use:

• Morning Meeting: Sunshine Day by the Brady Bunch (whole song) It gives the kiddos about 3 minutes to finish their morning work, clean up, and all be ready for morning meeting on the carpet.
• Come to the Carpet: I Dream of Jeannie Theme (1 minute of song) Any time my kids are doing independent reading, desk work, partner work, etc. and I want them to come to the carpet I play this!
• Timer: Jeopardy Timer (for final question, 1 minute of song). This is perfect for stop and jot, elbow partner sharing, quick think, etc.
• Quick Clean-Up: Eye of the Tiger by Survivor (until the words start) I play this at the end of indoor recess or a craftivity.
• Line-Up: Andy Griffith Theme (whole song) Any time we are lining up to go anywhere, I play this song and they get right in line!
• Re-read Your Writing: Hawaii Five-O Theme Song (5 minutes) This is the last portion of our Writer's Workshop. They stop writing, and re-read what they worked on that day. This gives them the opportunity to fix quick spelling, capitalization, punctuation or organization errors quickly to make editing later easier!
• Problem of the Day: Mission Impossible Theme Song (1 minute) This is our transition song to start math. I play this song, they go to their desks, get out their math journals and do our math journal "problem of the day."
• Station Switch: Password Theme Song (2-3 minutes) This is what we use mainly when we switch math stations. This song gives them enough time to clean up, move stations, get their supplies ready, and get started!
• Stack and Pack: Pink Panther Theme Song (3-5 minutes) This song is PERFECT for those end of the day jobs and pack up. It is kind of quiet and I tell the kids to act like "spies" while cleaning. It is so cute and it is amazing how quietly and quickly we finish pack-up and jobs.

The way I keep sane is spending time with my teammates! Whether it is venting, sharing ideas, or just talking about life, they keep my head in the game. That, and a lot of caffeine (aka Diet Coke and Dunkin Donuts coffee!).

Stop by the Hall Pass Linky Party and link up!

Have a great weekend!
Sarah