Half Way Point

I know it's been a while since I've posted. I spent the two weeks of holiday break visiting my boyfriend and his family. (I hadn't seen him in a couple of months, so this was an awesome way to spend break.) And I've spent the week since then getting back on track with school. (A couple plane delays threw off my plans of how to accomplish everything!)

On a happy note, we hit the half-way point last Friday. 90 days of school have passed and there's another 90 days left to get these firsties strong for second grade. With the 90 day mark passing, that means we have the 100th day of school coming up! What do you have planned for it? I would love to hear others' ideas for the special occasion!

On another note, my kiddos have really been enjoying my January work journal for morning work. I'm looking forward to creating one for each month from here on out. It has simplified planning for me because I know longer have to go searching for morning work each week. Instead, I run the book at the beginning of the month, the kids put it in their table baskets, and they get it out and work on it in the mornings. All I have to do is check it!  It has really been a great system. I'm greatly loving it.

If you'd like to get your own copy, click on one of the pictures above to find it in my store! For $2, you can have your entire month of morning work ready!  I will be adding up February in the next week or two. 

(P.S. I offered January's work journal for free to my Facebook followers. If you want to grab a February freebie, head over to Facebook and follow me in order to get the news about freebies!)

Now, I really want to hear about your ideas for the 100th Day of School! Comment with your favorite activities, printables, or blog posts about the topic!

Time to Bring Out the Elf!

Last year, I purchased an Elf on the Shelf after seeing so many great ideas on Pinterest!

Last year, I made things up as I went - it was a last minute purchase after all. I decided to go in armed with ideas this year!  So, after some Pinterest browsing, I've created a plan for the upcoming year!

Here's what I came up with. If you click on the picture, it'll take you to a PDF with links to my "Elf on the Shelf" Pinterest board and a free TPT activity I found.

Here's some shots of "Tiptoe" the elf from last year:

 He came in a box surrounded by "snow" from the North Pole with a letter from Santa.

He was waiting in the classroom for them after special area one day. I remember wondering if anyone was even going to point him out. They all came in, sat on the carpet, and no one said a word!

 

He left them a good morning message with our Scrabble Junior tiles.

 

He watched from the behavior chart.

 

He got into some copy room mischief one day and forgot to throw away the evidence!

 

He even thought he was a puppet!

 

 

My second graders really loved looking for him each day. I'm hoping my firsties get  just as excited this year!

 

I'll tell you about the advent calendar he brings in a post tomorrow. The kids enjoyed it as well. :)

 



Linking up with Flapjack Resources:

Stickers - Awesome Motivators

I have once again discovered the joy of using stickers to increase motivation. Every year I forget the power of them and then rediscover them.

My kiddos this year have been enjoying them and we've been collecting them on the front of their writing journals. It excites them that they have a place to store them where they won't get lost.

Discovering the power of stickers meant I also discovered I needed new ones. I got lucky and found two adorable sets at A.C. Moore that are appropriate for October. My kids are going to love them! (I may even have to keep a few myself.)

 

(For some reason, Blogger is turning this picture even though it's correct on my camera and computer. I wanted you to see the adorable owls and mustaches that were in the sticker pack!)

 

My Falling into Fall unit in action. My kids are loving the sorting game!

Open House Time

Tonight was our open house at school. I love seeing the kids and their parents; however, I dislike the long day at work and how exhausted I feel at the end. I've been doing really well with exercising every night this week and I'm currently trying to work up the energy to exercise tonight. No reason to stop a good routine, right?

Anyways, back to open house. (My easy-to-be distracted ways are kicking in majorly tonight.)

Open house is done drop-in style at my school. It begins with a spaghetti dinner hosted by PTO to raise money and follows with a PTO meeting and a visit to the classroom.

I decided my second year of teaching to make Open House about the kids, rather than about the teacher. Meet the Teacher night is my time to host. Open House is the kids' time to host. They show their parents around and tell them about the room. I also typically have lots of student work on display (like our pigs that I posted about yesterday!). 

Parents start the evening by playing "Guess Who" and looking around the room to find their child's work. These were pages I created that the students filled in on their own today. This was probably one of the few times in the year that I'll tell them "Don't put your name on it!"

Then, the parents sign in and take a bag of popcorn as a thank you. On the back of the student work, there were directions such as "Have your child show you our centers." This allowed the parents and kids to interact while the students showed them around the room.

How do you set up Open House for your students and parents?

Wow! Thanks Guys! & A Freebie!!

So, I was browsing around bloglovin' when I thought I'd pop over to my Moments to Teach page and see how it was doing. On Blogger, I have about 45 followers, which excites me greatly! I'm beyond delighted to have gained so many followers in such a short time (less than 4 months).

So... Imagine my surprise when I saw that I was up to 117 followers on my bloglovin page!  I'm thinking we're due a major giveaway when I reach 150!!  Spread the word and help get that number up!

Thanks to each and every one of you that follows my blog.

Here is a freebie just for you!  This file contains some of the morning work activities that my kiddos have done in the first few weeks of school. I will eventually be bundling a bunch of these to offer on TPT, but for now my followers get 4 days worth for free!

How I use these:

First, I print them two to a page to save paper. Then, I run them front to back (ELA on the front, math on the back). Each morning, students complete one half-sheet. Early finishers are able to select from our early finisher activities (more on that in a later post!) I walk around and monitor their work, but do not grade these morning pages. (You easily could though if you wanted to!)

This week, I am trying out a new system - I'm giving them a set of these pages (different topics) for Monday - Thursday. On Friday, they are going to get to visit "silent centers." I'll keep you posted on whether or not this is a successful experiment!

So pop on over and get the freebie!  It contains 4 short a pages and 4 addition/subtraction pages.

Thanks for following and spread the word so we can celebrate with a giveaway!!!