Farkle

My husband's step father recently retired and has taken up the hobby of creating dice sets.  He uses lumber to create the dice and then paints the dots after drilling them for added fun!  I asked him to make me a few sets for my classroom to use with the game Farkle.  I then created labels to use on ice cream buckets I will store them in.  The version you see below is black and white...I have also included 6 color variations in my TPT store.  You can check those out by clicking the pictures!  I can't wait to get my kids practicing place value and addition with these nifty sets!  Thanks Gary! I know the kids will LOVE them!

    

Summer Creations

Now that summer has begun I have more time to be creative with things I want to use in my classroom next year.  I don't know about you but my Pinterest account is full of great ideas, but half the time I forget what I have pinned.  These few latest projects are variations of awesome ideas I have found browsing on my patio while soaking up the summer sun!

The first product I recently finished is one I look forward to keeping on hand for those few extra minutes at the end of class when the students need to release energy.  However, when I created them I realized they can be used with my second graders to teach the valuable lesson of cooperation and working together without arguing.  The following 5 games were adapated from an amazing post by Mel at topnotchteaching.com.  I changed some of the directions and names to fit my classroom but the inspiration has to go to Mel!  Thanks for the amazing ideas.  I look forward to getting my littles up and moving with these easy cooperative games.  If you would like to grab a copy head over to my TPT store by clicking the pictures below!

The second act for the day involves open house.  Crazy I know...thinking of open house already on June 13th.  Well, what can I say?  I live and breathe teaching...creating things that make my life easier is my passion.  The following idea came from Becca Morris at Simply 2nd Resources.  I love the idea of putting all the paperwork we send home with parents on open house night in a large envelope that cam be CLOSED.  Hopefully all the papers get home then right?  I also loved the idea of having a checklist on the front for parents so that they know what papers to send back to school.  I know I would love that so why not make my parent's lives easier too!  Here are a few pictures of my version (I used a couple fonts).  Thanks for the great idea Becca!! To grab a copy for yourself head to my TPT shop by clicking the pictures below!

  

Thanks for stopping by!  I hope you are enjoying summer as much as my little girl and I are!

Colorful art galore!

This week we have been reading The Goat in the Rug from our Journeys reading series.  The students learned about how the hair from a goat turns into a rug according to a Navajo weaver.  The students then created "rugs" using colorful construction paper.

Word Work

I created this little freebie to be used in my classroom.  My students practice their spelling and high frequency words each week in a way of their choice.  This organizer helps them make good choices.  I may laminate them eventually so students can cross out their choices.  This would prevent doing the same thing every day :).  

Goodbye tonsils - Hello week off to recover!

This past Friday I went under the knife to remove my pesky tonsils at the ripe old age of 27.  I had been having trouble with "tonsil stones" and it was decided they needed to go.  I was apprehensive but made it through and am recovering well at home.  The hardest part is being away from my class of second graders.  I miss their spunk and my awesome coworkers.  

But, in true teacher fashion, I knew I had to keep myself busy so I have spent the last few days creating some new things to use in my classroom.  It is a goal at our school to help students be as proficient as possible in basic facts by the time they get to third grade.  In reaction to this, I decided to create a booklet that could be used as a daily practice workbook in my classroom.

Up to this point we have been using games and the Everyday Math curriculum to practice basic facts.  I also use iPads to enhance fact practice.  I am all for interactive games but also see the benefit of physically writing numbers, with good old paper and pencil.  As a result my Basic Fact Daily Practice booklet was born.  I plan to bind the books with the "fancy black binding" and keep them in a tub in the room.  They will be used as a supplement in our Daily 3 math rotations.  

Click the pictures below to head on over to TPT.  You can grab yourself a copy there.  I will also include a few freebies along the way!

  

I have organized the book to go through the basic facts starting with +0/1.  The practice pages then move through  a progression of addition and subtraction facts up to 18.  Each new section includes tips and tricks to help students focus their work. 

Word problems/Explain your thinking pages are included in each section to get students thinking beyond the facts.  Language from the Everyday Math curriculum is used.  

Coloring pages and games spice up the practice pages.

Some pages need dice to be completed.  All other materials are easily found in student desks.  

Some pages include jokes to keep students engaged.  

The game above is FREE in my TPT store!

      

The final pages of the booklet include games to be played in partners.  These pages will be available to be purchased individually.  Check out my TPT store for the complete listing!

100th Day of School

Happy 100th day of school!

We celebrated the oh so EXCITING 100th day of school in second grade a couple weeks ago.  The students got so excited to do activities related to the number 100.  The day started out with a walk through our door streamers that read "We are 100 days smarter".  We then read Disaster on the 100th Day on our FAVORITE iPad app, Epic.  

**Epic is an amazing app that gives teachers and students access to quality, free books.  Some books can be read to the students as you see below.  We use Epic daily!

We then created our own book titled "Mrs. Nathan's 100th Day Disaster".  The kids all picked a different animal to add to our book.  All of them had very creative disasters.  

During math we used 100 toothpicks and 100 marshmallows to create the tallest tower.  The students worked in partners which surprisingly went off without a hitch.  I try to incorporate STEM activities into my lessons as often as possible.  It was fun to see the kids collaborate and "fail" as we like to say.  Our classroom motto is that "failure" is good because it helps us learn from our mistakes.  We even had some grandparents join us in the fun!

  

If you look in the background you can see our 100th day door streamers.  I cheat and use roll paper that is cut from the bottom and then write at the top of the paper.  It literally takes 5 minutes and generates smiles all day long!

I love to READ month!

Our school tries to get the kids excited about reading in the month of February.  We decorate our doors with a reading theme, this year I decided to go with Frozen because my daughter Lily is very into Olaf. The kids love giving him high fives on the way into the classroom! The saying in the bubbles goes..."Reading and books are both so intense, put them together and it just makes sense!"

I also had my students sign in Olaf's book "All About Summer".  

Class Dojo

I recently began using the app Class Dojo with my students.  This year has been one of the most challenging (who am I kidding, the MOST challenging) for me as a teacher.  My students are very talkative and my usual tricks were not working to the level I expect in my classroom.  Because of this I started searching Pinterest for ideas.  I have my own iPad that is used mainly by me and after reading a blog post by Allyson at Going Strong in Second Grade I decided to Class Dojo a try.

Needless to say I am hooked!  My students have responded very well and I love how parents can see how their child acted during the day.  My parents have also said they like the app and their children are excited to look at home.  Click on the picture above to take you to the Class Dojo website.

I also love how the Class Dojo easily allows you to change the positive and negative behaviors you give feedback on.  It is simple and VERY user friendly.  Class Dojo can be used either on a mobile device or a desktop computer.  I actually use both on a daily basis.

I plan to have a Dojo Store once every two weeks where my students can use their points to buy rewards.  These rewards vary in price and are experience related for the most part. Some examples are eat with the teacher, take your shoes off for the day, sit in the teacher's chair, write with a pen, and the list goes on.  I created credit cards for my students which I plan to use as a way to track their points.  You can find them here in my TPT store.  I will post pictures of the app in use but haven't remembered to actually take any yet.  Oh the busy life of a teacher!

2016

My goals for 2016:

1. Enjoy time with my family
2. Take time for the simple things
3. Keep current with this "blog thing"
4. De-clutter my classroom and home
5. Have fun!

All About Me Pennant

I am very excited about this product that I created (back in 2013, a little late on blogging it I know).  I have had many compliments on it's ease of use and wide range of applications in the classroom.  I hope you can also find it useful!  Follow this link to grab it in my TPT store.

Thank you!

I have to give a shout-out to my friend Lindsey Reichel for helping me design the new look of my blog.  Lindsey is a talented designer.  We grew up together and when it came time to tackle this blog thing I knew I needed an expert to help with the design aspect.

Lindsey was amazing throughout the whole process.  I couldn't have asked for a better person to help me "frogify" my blog.  I look forward to working with her in the future.  Thanks Linds! Check out her website by following this link.   

Leprechauns, Gold and Giggles

St. Patty's day came and went and we took advantage of it in 2nd grade.  We wrote "How to Catch a Leprechaun" stories thanks to the amazing work of The Think Aloud Cloud's freebie and created cute hanging decorations for our classroom.   I was very impressed with my students work and had to share it with all of you!

Click the picture below to get the "How to Catch a Leprechaun" Freebie from The Think Aloud Cloud.

Click this link to get the how to draw a leprechaun freebie.

 Our Pots-O-Gold...of course we had to use some glitter.  

Cause and Effect Groove

I recently came across a song on YouTube called the Cause and Effect Song.  I loved the idea of getting my kiddos up and moving to learn about cause and effect (a very hard concept for my 2nd graders).  We practiced the song and then thought of a few actions to go with it.  My kiddos were VERY excited and loved getting up and moving.  They have been singing the song all week.  We sang it to the tune of "The Adams Family" theme song and taped it to show to parents on our classroom website.  

Click here to get the file for the Cause and Effect Words.

Cause and Effect Song
To the tune of “The Adams Family”  

Whenever something happens
There always is a reason
You must ask why it happened
To understand the cause 

Cause and effect (clap clap)
Cause and effect (clap clap)
Cause and effect, cause and effect, cause and effect (clap clap) 

The cause makes something happen
It really gets things snapping
Just ask yourself what happened 
To understand the effect 

Cause and effect (clap clap)
Cause and effect (clap clap)
Cause and effect cause and effect cause and effect (clap clap)

This video was my inspiration - Thank you 

Donors Choose

I recently submitted a project on the website Donor's Choose and our classroom was funded!  We are so excited to use our new materials for math! I cannot say enough about the generous people out there that donated to our classroom.  It really means a lot to the kids and to me.  I have been meaning to get pictures up of the great projects the kids are doing in my room but for some reason the time just seems to fly by and I forget to take out the camera...anyone with me :)?  Here's a little prayer, a wise fellow teacher gave me, to leave you with on a Monday evening...

Hundreds Chart Puzzles

As we start the year in Everyday Math, you can tell the spread of my 2nd graders abilities start to show.  Some are trying to master sequences on the hundreds chart while others are ready for a more challenging experience.  To try and enrich the students who are done early I created this word document in the style of hundreds chart puzzles found in our Everyday Math journals.  The students who are at a high level will have the opportunity to create puzzles for friends to solve and I, the teacher, can create puzzles for those students who need practice in certain areas.  Click here to get this document for free from my TPT store.

A Hippo Ate the Teacher

As I get ready for the school day tomorrow I needed to share my latest creation.  In second grade we start off with the story A Hippopotamus Ate the Teacher.  We read the first part of the book and then create a drawing of our ideal teacher.  We talk about things that good teachers do and what the kids want out of me this school year.  I think it is fun to see the ideas they come up with and the things they see that I don't always notice.  We then proceed to feed their drawn teachers to the hippo that I made.  Lastly we predict what is going to happen in the story after the teacher gets eaten and then finish the story.  At the end of the story the teacher gets burped up and comes out of the hippo so of course we then shake the teachers out.  The kids love it. 

Here is how I made our class hippo.

1- draw a hippo on a piece of tag board.  You could also use a trusty overhead if you don't feel like you could draw one well enough.  

2-color your hippo for your desired look.

3- cut out the mouth of the hippo and then lay your hippo on the bag and trace where you want the cutout of the mouth to be.

4-cut out the traced part of the paper bag and glue your hippo to the bag so the mouth fits over the hole you cut.  

You now have a perfect teacher eating hippo for your class to enjoy :) Happy teaching this year everyone! I plan to post more pictures of my classroom but still have yet to remember my camera.  I think I may just have to many other things on my mind at this point in the school year :)

Easi-Speak Recorder

I was checking out some blogs this morning and ran into this awesome post about the Easi-Speak Recorder.  I instantly thought of ways I could use this in my classroom with my reading kids.  I can see my class using it to share their learning in so many ways.  It could be used to have students share writing, read books to model fluent reading (that others could then listen to), to record students as they read for AIMS Web testing that we do in our district, man the possibilities are endless!!

Click on the picture below to see the original post by 2nd Grade Shenanigans :) She has some great ideas!!

Greg Tang Math

My mother (a fourth grade teacher) sent me an email at the end of the school year about a great website that helps get students thinking differently about math.  I used some of the stratagies with my second graders at the end of last school year.  It really seemed to click with them.  Greg Tang does a great job using riddles and books to teach math concepts.  I signed up for a year subscription to his website for just 19.99.  I can add all my students to the website and they can then play the games and do activities after logging in.  I plan to use this website to boost my students understanding of math concepts this coming school year.  I like how the games and worksheets help the students think outside the box.  I think this will be especially beneficial for my high students in second grade as a way to challenge them to think differently about math.  Go check it out teachers I think you might find it beneficial :).....click here to go to the Greg Tang website

Here are some examples of the games I plan to use with my students...