Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Out with the old… In with the new….

After 9 exciting years of teaching Open Court/ Imagine It, I will be retiring my binders and starting new ones.  My district has adopted HM Journeys.  I went to training this summer and all I can say is WOW is this series packed full of components.  I'm not sure how its all going to work but I am excited to be reading/teaching some new stories.  I'm sure I will also be busy creating some new story projects.  

The first project I created was my weekly spelling word cards.  I display these on the board (using magnets) but you could display them in a pocket chart or pinned to a bulletin board.  I copy them on color card-stock using a different color for each unit.  



You can grab a copy at my TN Store!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

Catching up… End of the Year WrAp Up

Wow!  I'm so embarrassed it's been so long since I've posted on my blog.  I had a very demanding class this year and my daughter started Kdg. (so she took a lot of my extra time).

I would like to share my Learning Cafe with you.  All year long I save my students' projects and then have them share their portfolios with their parents.  
I love how our stained glass butterflies turned out.  They were also hanging on the windows inside our classroom.


We turned our classroom into a little cafe.  I had a few extra desks brought in (boy did we get a little crowded).

We did a little writing activity about how we've bloomed this year and hung them from the ceilings.  


 Ice cream shop poetry writing.





"Cooking Up Great Memories"  I used the chef patterns from: Miss Kindergarden.  I added some cute scrapbook paper to add some color:)  Then I created my own student cookie memory book for students to write in.  You can get a copy of the cookie book at my Teachers Notebook store. 




 My students wrote letters to their parents welcoming them to our classroom.  I had my students use scrapbook paper as the background - thought they'd look cute on the "tables" as the parents came in to sit down.


Here is the menu for our Learning Cafe.


Students gave their parents a little trivia quiz - they enjoyed being able to grade their parents. 



 My students wrote a recipe for their family.  We brainstormed different traits that make up families and then they wrote it into a recipe.  I was so proud at how hard my students worked on their recipes and how creative they were!


 The dessert table.  (They students were very excited!)


 Our room full of "customers!"  We had 100% parent support.  My students had so much fun sharing all the things they've learned in Second Grade.