Around the Kampfire

I'm joining LOTS of other bloggers in a BIG blog hop to share
some bright ideas and time-saving tips you can use in your classroom!

Here are some ideas for making the most of your anchor charts!

Anchor charts are a wonderful tool to document students' thinking and learning

and serve as a visual reference of our learning process. They keep what we are

currently learning accessible and enable students to make later connections.

Anchor charts "anchor" our learning, bring focus to a particular strategy

or standard we are working on and support students during independent

practice, class discussions or whenever they just need a little reminder.

For me the most effective charts are FUN and made with my students.

I sometimes am the 'recorder' for their ideas, questions,

noticings, and thinking, but I also like to make our charts interactive.

One way I do that is by making my own sticky notes with construction paper

shapes that fit the topic or theme of the lesson. My students love these

and it's a fun way for them to add their ideas!

I use removeable glue sticks so that pieces can be moved

around or sorted. This also makes your charts easy to reuse!

I also collect all sorts of Post-Its and sticky notes. You can find seasonal

ones at craft stores and in the dollar section at Target.
If you have a die cut machine at your school those
work great too!

Be flexible.

Let's face it. Some charts can be time consuming to create. I don't always

go all out. Sometimes the need arises and you seize that

teachable moment by grabbing the nearest piece of paper, making a chart,

and turning it into an impromptu lesson!

Other times I plan my charts ahead so that I can reuse them from year to year.

Those are the ones I gussy up with color and spend more time on.

Cut that baby up and reuse it!

I've learned to work smarter not harder when reusing my charts.

Don't be afraid to cut them up and reuse your artwork if you decide to

take the learning in a different direction!

Love these ideas? Pick your favorites to PIN and share
with your teacher friends!

For more anchor chart ideas visit my Anchor Charts board on Pinterest!
Visit the Bright Ideas board for lots of bright ideas for your classroom!

The next stop on the hop is Arlene from LMN Tree.

Hop over for some bright ideas on using poetry to engage

your struggling readers and ESL students!

You can also search by topic using the link up below

and move along to any blog on the hop!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy almost St. Patrick's Day!

Here's a fun and easy math idea for working with arrays.

I used little cauldrons I had left from Halloween and turned them

into pots of gold!

Shhh....The "gold" is Lemon Heads candy. You can also use

butterscotch hard candy and black salsa bowls usually found

in most grocery stores.

They make good St. Patty's Day pots too!

Have your students use the candy to make equal groups. They then write

the addition sentence and the multiplication sentence in their math journals or

you can use this little recording page.

Download this student page {HERE}

Here's a little pot o' gold writing craft to go along with your math fun.

This St. Patrick's Day Writing pack includes lesson visuals/printable charts

for 2 mini-lessons on the history of St. Patrick's Day and defining a leprechaun.

It also includes a bulletin board display title card.

We used gold ribbon left over from Christmas to add the "gold touch"

but you can also use yellow tissue paper. Simply cut the tissue paper into

1-2 inch squares and have your students squish them a little and glue them on!

Since I'm on Spring Break I'm on a bit of a roll today! I'm also blogging

over at Owl-ways Be Inspired! Be sure to click the button and hop over

for another fun St. Patty's Day math idea and yep, another freebie!

Linking up with Teaching Blog Addict's Freebie Friday too!

Hop over after and take a look!

Graphic by Melonheadz Background by The 3am Teacher

Happy Spring! I am so enjoying our warm spring temperatures!

Spring weather means plantin' time so last week during Spring Break I spruced up

my little reading nook, planted all of my pots and finally moved my

(very messy) fuscia back outside.

She really needed to get out of the house and look!

She's already blooming!

It's almost plantin' time in my classroom too!

We're gearing up to study life cycles and I wanted to share some

of the fun plant activities that we do! This is one of my very favorite

units to teach and we incorporate a lot of

writing and hands on fun!

We germinate lima beans and start by soaking them to observe the inside of a seed.

These large beans are perfect for a close up view of the inner workings

and labeling the parts of a seed.

Last year I placed one under a document camera and my class

thought it was the coolest thing ever!

We'll place our seeds between damp paper towels (with a little squirt

of hand sanitizer to prevent mold) inside a sandwich bag.

We check on them every couple of days and record any changes.

We do several mini labs along the way including answering the question,

"How do leaves help a plant get light?"

We looked at different types of leaves and compare their shape, size

and outer covering. We predict which leaf types would help a plant

get more sunlight. We also ask ourselves, "Can we tell how much light

a plant needs by the type and shape of leaf it has?"

Next, we went outside and students worked in pairs to use their hands

as leaves to test their predictions and record their observations.

We demonstrated how different leaf shapes helped a plant

to get more or less light.

We did this little cut and paste activity during our literacy centers to help us

understand the causes and effect involved in a plant's life cycle.

During our unit we make several mini books to include in our

culminating project.

In order to manage our time, I spread this out across the curriculum

and students do some of these activities during our literacy centers.

Students research plant facts at the computer center or during our
computer lab time, and do some of the writing
during our writing block.

We used these charts to help us identify the parts of a plant and
to understand the process of photosynthesis.

You can download a free copy of these charts{HERE}

We later wrote about photosynthesis and how a plant makes it's own food

in mini books that will go inside of our final flower booklets.

We used yarn to make the roots of our flowers before writing

about the job of the roots.

Students researched interesting plant facts and included them

on the back of the flower's petals.

We compiled all of our learning and writing in our flower booklets.

My kiddos worked so hard on these and I love how they turned out!

During our unit we learned how a plant makes it's own food and why a plant's

leaves are green. For some Friday afternoon art fun we "painted" with

chlorophyll by doing leaf rubbings.

This is our spring hallway display for our open house with our butterfly haiku and acrostic poetry.

I love to tie in art wherever I can and this year we'll be learning about

Van Gogh's sunflower painting during our plant unit!

You can find all of these activities and SO much more in my Life Cycle of Plants unit.

Happy planting friends!

Happy Saturday! I hope you're enjoying warmer weather where you are!

I thought I'd do a quick post and share a little

impromptu lesson we did last week.

We're reviewing for state testing and since it's plantin' time

in our classroom and in the fields around my school,

we planted some arrays of corn!

Some of my students are still struggling with the concept
of rows and columns so we

had a discussion about things that are planted in rows and

things that are held up with columns.

Being close to so many farms where corn, alfalfa and cotton is grown

made for some good examples and was a huge help in getting

my kids to connect the horizontal and vertical direction of a row and a column.

Feel free to grab this image if you can use it to help your students!

I had students roll a die and use yellow cubes to build their cornfields.

Students "planted" their arrays on grid paper and recorded the

multiplication problem on their whiteboards.

I had students come up to the board and write the factors and product

in the multiplication sentence frame.

I added this little game and a recording sheet to our math stations so

students could practice independently.

If you have kiddos that need help with this concept, or you just need a little

extra something for your math tubs this week click on the

picture to download the student page or find it {HERE}!

You can see a lot more of our plantin' fun...

and yep, another freebie by clicking the picture above!

Happy weekend, friends! I'm headed out with my husband

for BBQ, coleslaw, and corn on the cob!

Welcome to another Bright Ideas Blog Hop!

I'm joining 150 different bloggers to bring you

tips, tricks and bright ideas you can use in your classroom!

Don't you love those mornings when you walk in to an

organized classroom with tidy desks and a CLEAN floor?

We all know that doesn't ALWAYS happen, but HELLO HAPPY when it does!

My students and I consider our classroom our little home away from home

and I remind them often that one of their jobs is to keep their "room" clean. Ha!

Here are some ways I've found to help keep my students and

their spaces clean, organized and running smoothly!

Teach your students how to be organized.

Show them how you expect their space to look.

What looks organized to a 7 year old may look like a hot mess to me!

I teach my class that everything has a home and there is a home for everything.

And...we need to keep our house tidy because you never know

when company is going to come! Ha!

Teach your students at the beginning of the year where to keep things
in their desks. We stack our folders and journals on one side with our

supply boxes on top. The books students are reading go on the other side.

These go in the middle and one pencil goes in the "pencil tray."

Find a place for the little stuff.

I make sure each student has a 5" x 7" size pencil box. I shop the clearance

aisles and even garage sales to collect these little gems so I always

have a secret stash in my cupboard for students who need one.

All of the "small stuff", crayons, glue sticks, scissors etc.

"live" in the supply box.

Organize on top as well as inside.

As every primary teacher knows, the younger the grade level,

the more "stuff" we AND our students have! Unfortunately,

we need and use EVERY BIT of it! My desks are arranged in groups we

call teams. Each team has a table box. We keep important odds and ends
students use on a daily basis in these.

Use foam shapes as coasters.

At the beginning and end of our school year, our Arizona temperatures

can climb well into the 100's. My students often bring frozen or ice filled

water bottles. I like them to be able to drink water whenever they want to

without leaving their seats, but those frosty water bottles can make

a BIG SOPPY MESS! Here's a simple solution

I came up with to keep our desks and papers dry....

I use craft foam shapes from Dollar Tree or Michael's on each student's desk.

Students know that this is where their water bottle lives. Since my teams

are color coded each table gets the coaster that matches their team color.

This also serves as a visual for me when calling teams to line up.

Make neatness part of your daily routine.

Each day before dismissal have students do a quick check of their desk and floor

to make sure everything is tidy and picked up. I make a big fuss over how nice
each team's space looks and what a fresh start they'll have the next morning!

I hope you can use some of these tips to make life run

more smoothly in your classroom! If you've enjoyed these

bright ideas, I'd love for you to join me on Facebook,

Instagram, or my TPT Store for more great ideas and resources!

Hop on for even more bright ideas from 150 different

bloggers! Simply browse through the link-up below

and choose a topic/grade level that

interests you! You can also visit Bright Ideas on Pinterest!

An InLinkz Link-up

I know many of you are on Spring break this week and I hope you're

enjoying some time resting and relaxing!

Our spring life cycle study continues and over the next few weeks we'll

be raising butterflies, learning about the life cycle of frogs and writing poetry!

These little guys sure eat a lot and grow QUICKLY!

We used the little journal that came with our

caterpillars to record their daily change and growth.

While learning about pollination and the part that insects play in

the life cycle of plants I came across this fun activity on one of my all-time

very favorite blogs Hope King's Second Grade Shenanigans.

Hope has so many great ideas and this one is perfect for illustrating how

butterflies and other insects help to pollinate a plant and

continue its life cycle.

Each student had a juice box, Cheetos, and a die cut flower.

The bright colors and smell attracts the butterfly to a flower and students chose

the flower color that most appealed to them!

As my little butterflies landed on their flowers they used their proboscis

to drink a little of the nectar in their (juice box) flower. Their tiny little

butterfly feet (their hands) picked up pollen (by touching their Cheetos).

Next, our butterflies flew around the room and touched all

of the other flowers which transferred their pollen

to each bloom they "landed" on.

Last year we made this Butterfly Life Cycle On A String writing craft for students to

write what they have learned about each stage of a butterfly's life cycle.

This year we'll be making the Frog Life Cycle version.

We used beads, chenille sticks and paper to show each stage then students

wrote about each life cycle stage on leaves. We attached these in order onto

a piece of yarn and tucked them into the leaf pocket where the butterfly

lays its eggs and the life cycle begins again.

Butterfly Life Cycle-On-A-String

We tied in our poetry unit by writing haiku and acrostic poems about butterflies.

I added a little challenge to this by telling students that while they were

writing poetry and creating a mental picture about a butterfly

they could not actually use the word 'butterfly'.

Students used their journals to work out their poems before writing their final drafts.

We used watercolors to illustrate our poems.

We also wrote acrostic poems and used this format to tell a story.

I reminded students that each sentence did not need to begin

with the given letter but rather to tell a story

using the letters to guide them.

We'll be wrapping up our frog life cycle learning this week

so stay tuned for our frog fun!

Have a great week, friends!

Leapin' life cycles we had fun with these frogs! So far we've learned

about the life cycles of butterflies, plants, and now frogs. My team

and I decided we'd use life cycles as the theme for our

end of year open house and we've been busy thinking of ways

we can incorporate life cycles across our curriculum.

We read lots of nonfiction books about frogs and my class wrote

things they've learned about each stage of the life cycle on

these lily pad sticky notes. I drew the shape

then copied it on construction paper. We used repositionable

glue sticks to turn them into sticky notes. I used clip art

from Scrappin'Doodles for the pictures.

I've been working with my students on how to take notes and determining what

information is considered important and note worthy.

We watched some video clips on Discovery Education as well as

on Brain Pop Jr. and students took notes that they would

later use to write about the frog's life cycle.

One of the things we've talked a lot about is that taking notes means

writing down important vocabulary, main ideas, and facts rather than

complete sentences. This was so tricky for them at first and I'm

so proud of how far they've come!

As a culminating project, we made this

Frog Life Cycle On A String craft which will be part

of our open house display.

There are two versions of this in the download. An easy-cut 5-stage cycle

for younger students and a crafty-cut 7 stage cycle. I did a combo of both

and did a 5-stage crafty-cut since my students are able to cut out

more elaborate shapes. Students used their notes to write about each stage

in the little lily pad booklets.

We assembled all the pieces in order on the string glued on some

wiggly eyes (my kids LOVE wiggly eyes!) then added black dots

to the ~~beads~~ eggs with a Sharpie! Fun, fun, fun!!

Everything tucks into the large lily pad pocket for display and students simply

pull the string out slowly to reveal each stage!

Here's a little look at the 7-stage version.

If you're looking ideas for your life cycles unit and need some frog fun

click any of the pictures to find this in my TPT shop!

We wouldn't make it a minute at my school without our wonderful

office staff. They are the first responders for all the little ins and outs and

unexpected events that naturally happen when you work with children.

They truly are the glue that holds it all together

and we can't thank them enough!

{Download the gift tag here}

Here's a little way to treat your office staff to lunch, and say

thanks for all you do! I attached In-N-Out Burger gift cards to
this fun little tag but a gift card to any favorite lunch spot would do!

My end of year To Do List is long I tell ya! We've been busy, busy, busy

reviewing for our last quarterly benchmark, getting everybody's

end of year literacy assessments done, and finishing up projects

for our open house! My class is getting pretty squirrely and we're all

about ready for summer!

One of the ways I keep everybody on track and still learning

is with these end of year memory books!

Friends, these aren't your Mama's memory books!

Designed in the style of a graphic novel your class will love

these end of year memory books for K-3 include LOTS of fun ways

for students to showcase their memories as well as their learning.

Students have FUN writing about their favorite events and activities,

highlighting their learning superpowers, as well as writing and drawing about the

powers of friendship, laughter, celebration, kindness, and respect.

I've also included "show what you know" pages for each core subject to

keep it academic and help your little superheroes review! Use all of the pages or

pick and choose the superpowers you want your students to remember most!

Click on any of the pictures to take you to

all of the grade level versions and bundles!

Memory Book Gr. 2-3

Here's a little peek at all of the pages!

This little writing craft compliments the memory book and makes

a great open house display!

Students write an accomplishment or ability they are proud

of on the lightning bolt. Inside the chest is a booklet for students to

write about their goals and accomplishments, why they are proud

of them and how they developed their learning superpowers!

Superhero Writing Craft

I've had lots of requests for a K-1 version and I'm happy to say it's finished and

posted in the TPT Shop!

I've included a cover for Prep Year for my Australian teacher friends!

Memory Book Gr. K-1

Here's a peek at the K-1 writing craft for little Superheroes!

Students write about accomplishments on the lightning bolt!

Inside the chest shield necklace they write about how they met their goals or

achieved their accomplishments and developed their learning superpowers!

Each of these pieces can be purchased separately

or in a bundle. Purchasing the bundle saves

you money PLUS as a little time saving BONUS

I've included printable parent and student gifts!

K-1 Bundle 2-3 Bundle

Gr. 2-3 gift tags are shown below. The K-1 bundle includes K-1 versions

as well as Prep Year. All of the student gift tags are included in

both color and black and white.

I hope these help to save you some time, money, and sanity PLUS help you

check some things off of that long end of year To Do list!

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

To celebrate, everything in my TeachersPayTeachers store

is 20% off May 6 & 7.

Use the PROMO Code TPTXO to save an additional 10%!

Don't forget to leave feedback on previous purchases

so you can redeem your points at checkout and SAVE even more!

Thank you Michelle, for sharing your adorable button!

It's been a bit since I last posted with all of the end of year

craziness I'm trying to stay ahead of! Before I show you

what we've been up to (besides a multitude of assessments, a field trip,

our end of year open house, hit or miss specials/prep time, report cards,

IEP and MET meetings, team meetings and after school PD's...yikes!)

I just wanted to say that

{hashtag}jenjonesisagenius!

Seriously.

I swooned when I saw her Hashtag Fluency For Digital Natives unit but thought

maybe my second graders wouldn't "get it". Oh boy, was I wrong! Ha!

When I asked who knew what a hashtag was every

little hand started waving frantically! I guess that was a pretty

silly question! I forget how savvy they are sometimes!

I broke out these little ipads to all kinds of ooohs and ahhhhs! As I explained all

of the fun things they were going to get to do with these my kiddos were practically

drooling! I added all of Jen's brilliant little ways to practice fluency to

our literacy centers for the week and my class FUH-LIPPED!

Honestly, they were in hashtag heaven!

Partners used these timers and took turns to see how many phrases they could

read before the sand was gone. They graphed their progress each time they played.

Students also sorted "hashcards" (as one of my kiddos named them..Ha!)

into piles of YES or NO depending on if they could read them correctly.

My students take home weekly fluency passages so they're very familiar with

how this works. I used these for partner reading. One partner read the

phrases while the other followed along marking any errors then counting

the number read correctly. I placed the lists in page protectors and had kids

use dry erase markers. After both partners had a turn, they choral read

all of the phrases.

This next game was another HUGE hit! Not only did my kids get the biggest

kick out of what the hashtags said but they LOVE using spinners and highlighters!

Let me back up a minute and tell you that before introducing my class

to all of this awesomeness I was a tad worried that I would undo all of

my hard work in getting them to use capitals and punctuation each. and. every. time.

they wrote a sentence. So before I even showed them all of the fun things

we were about to do I showed them this.....

I projected this on my SMARTBoard and made my kids

pinky promise that they would ALWAYS remember these rules!

Feel free to grab this image and use it with Jen's unit. (Google Docs is

giving me fits so I can't share it as a download but you can copy and paste it

into a Word doc or Power Point slide and print or project it from there.)

My class will be working on a super fun memory book next week

that is a real keeper! I wanted a memory book of my own to keep so

I thought it would be fun to make a {hashtag}memory book!

I used Powerpoint and shapes to make the little ipads

then cut and pasted my favorite pictures.

Well, my kids were already in bliss over all of this and then I told them about our

hashtag hop. Oh. my. gosh! They laughed and giggled and thought it was

the greatest thing ever! So we had ourselves a hashtag hop and went to town

hashtagging all of the fun things we did this year!

I printed out the pages and set them out on all of the desks. I made sure I had

a page for each desk and that each student appeared 2 or 3 times total.

We moved all of the chairs then students hopped and hashtagged all

of the pictures.

I LOVE how positive and encouraging they are toward each other.
They had a blast looking back at all of our pictures and remembering
the fun we've had this year!

Oh, sweet summertime! Friday was my last day at school

and before I forget I wanted to share some of the fun things

did for our end of year open house.

Every year I take all kinds of pictures of this wonderful event

but by the time I finish purging and packing up my

classroom I'm too worn out to post them!

I know you can relate!

This year for our celebration of learning we

decided to turn our hallway into a life cycle garden! Our last quarter is

all about life cycles and insects. We studied the life cycles of frogs,

ants, bees and of course butterflies!

We incorporated a lot of writing...

This one made me giggle...

"If I was a butterfly......I would fly on to my sister's door and listen to my sister

on the phone." Ha!

This one made my teacher heart happy! I love it when kiddos use the

vocabulary they've learned in their writing!

We made these little caterpillars to illustrate the stages of a

butterfly's life cycle.

My teammate made this butterfly writing craftwith her class.

These were a HUGE hit! We turned ourselves into butterflies

to go with our writing. My kids LOVE it when they get to

use pictures of themselves!

I took pictures of each of my kiddos then had them cut them out.

I gave each student about a 6" by 8" piece of tissue

paper to fan fold, then we stapled them to the back of

the photo. So simple, easy and FUN!

My awesome teammate made this honeycomb with her class to

showcase their writing about bees. We've been

working with our students on learning to take notes while reading nonfiction

as well as watching video clips. BrainPop Jr. and Discovery Streaming are

perfect for this and we're lucky to have both!

What's a garden without sunshine? We made these arrays of sunshine

from my friend Amanda Madden's FAB-U-LOUS blog Teaching Maddeness!

We also made butterfly life cycle booklets to showcase all of our learning.

I've wanted to pull our butterfly activities together into a unit for my TPT Shop

for a while now. I'd love to make a companion to my Plant Life Cycle unit and

I've been tweaking this one for two years. I just can't quite get it to be the way I want it yet!

These are some of the things we did while learning about the frog life cycle.

I posted a few weeks ago about these little guys. You can see that post HERE.

I love it when our families come to visit. It's so much fun to see them enjoying all of

things their child is learning about!

Well, I'm over and out! I hope you all have some rest, relaxation and most of all,

some fun planned for the summer!

I've been searching high and low for quite some time now

for something a little different in the back-to-school book department

and I FINALLY found it!

I literally got giddy in the bookstore over all of the things

you can do with this book!

Available on Amazon

Your're Finally Here! is written by Melanie Watt, author of

Scaredy Squirrel.( Love that Scaredy Squirrel!)

It's about a little bug-eyed bunny of a book character who is

waiting..and waiting...and waiting..

for his READERS!

When a reader finally opens the book the

bunny is beside himself!

Then he wonders...

He begins to tell the reader just how long they've kept him waiting!

Long enough to watch paint dry! Long enough to find a needle

in a haystack! Long enough to gather dust bunnies! (Oh, the idioms,

and the opportunities!)

He goes on to scold his new readers for keeping him waiting so long

and insists on knowing where they have been.

The bunny begins to make a deal with the reader but gets interrupted by a phone call...

and then HE keeps his READERS waiting! How rude!

I can not wait to read this to my new class on our

very first day! Stay tuned and I'll show you all the fun

things I have planned for this book!

I'm linking up with Mrs. Jump's Class for another Book Talk Tuesday.

Click on the button if you're on the lookout for new books!

It's the perfect place to start!

As I said in my previous post, I'm always on the lookout for
new books (or ones I haven't yet discovered!).
Especially those I can use at the beginning of the year.
(I'm still waiting for Natasha Wing to write

The Night Before Second Grade ha!).

Last year I discovered this precious little gem of a book called

Louder, Lili by Gennifer Choldenko. It is so perfect for those back-to-school

discussions on friendship, kindness, and noticing how what we say

and do makes others feel. Lili is so shy and soft spoken that her voice

is never heard until one day she finds the courage to speak up to help a friend.

Available on Amazon

My class really connected with this character last year and we had

some great discussions about respect, standing up for what is right,
being a good friend, and finding your own voice.

I found this great little book trailer on YouTube

made as a class project to give you an idea of
what it's all about.

This book lends itself to so many different teaching points and this summer

I put together a book companion unit with all of the things we did with it plus

LOTS of things I plan to do this year.

I thought I would do something a bit different this time. We all have such

varying teaching styles, student abilities, and let's face it district mandates,

that I wanted to create a unit that was extremely flexible with several formats

that could be used in multiple ways. Whole or small group, in literacy

centers, or included in interactive notebooks. I've included work

with story vocabulary as well as a comprehension and vocabulary

assessment with answer keys. Each color activity also comes in a

blackline version and I've added printables not pictured here for story mapping,

working with synonyms, abc order, and a fun little "Hamster Hop"

to get your kids moving while reviewing or practicing parts of speech.

Many of the activities can also be compiled into a booklet

and used as an assessment or an open house display.

I try to work smarter, not harder so I'll be using some of these over

the first few weeks of school to introduce how we use our supplies, begin to

establish our routines and procedures for working whole group and in our

literacy centers, as a back to school writing baseline to keep in student portfolios,

and as skills review from last year.

Week three we begin to focus on characters. Their traits, relationships with

other characters, how they respond to events in the story, and
how they change because of these events. We also begin

to really work with our kids on providing evidence and explanations for

their thoughts and answers.

Feeling "chart challenged"? No worries! I've included

all the chart parts you need plus a graphic organizer for students to use.

I've even included retelling and complete sentences crafts to practice

or review these important skills. I'll be using the retelling craft

to focus on important details in the beginning middle and end of the story

with special attention paid to writing complete sentences and using punctuation.

I know I won't have time to do this in one fell swoop so I'll

save the hamster craft for some Friday afternoon fun then add

it to our writing.

Here's a little peek at the whole shebang...

Psst...Be sure to add this to your cart so you're ready

for big Back to School Sale coming soon on TPT!

It's back-to-school sale time!

Everything in my store will be 20% off Monday and Tuesday

August 4-5. Save an additional 10% with the PROMO Code: BTS14

Here's a peek at some of my most popular back-to-school resources!

Math About Me

Go For The Goal

What Does the Shape Say?

2D & 3D Shape Activities

What's Your Superpower?

Goal and accomplishment writing craft

Check out my brand new back to school unit,

Louder, Lili

Here's how you can save even more!

Be sure to go back and leave feedback on all of your previous

purchases to earn rewards points.

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I've been waiting and waiting, printing and prepping, plotting and planning for my brand new class. I've looked so forward to meeting them, putting faces to their names and welcoming them to second grade. The pencils are sharpened, their desks are arranged, our room is all ready but where are they? What's taking them so long?

Meet the teacher night finally arrived. My shiny new second graders

approached their new classroom to this...

Then something happened that has never happened before.

Every.single.child asked me about that book. No one was shy,

no one was nervous, no wanted to know where their desk was.

But everyone, with their bright little eyes opened wide, asked me,

"When can we read the book?"

And finally, after so much waiting, it was our first day!

They're here! They're here! They're finally here!

And we read our book. The very first thing before anything else.

And then I asked....."What took you so long?"

I know our little bunny friend was bored, but not me. I was busy!

As a little getting to know you activity after reading the book, all my

new friends turned to a neighbor and explained what took them

so long to get to my class. The giggles were priceless!

I have to admit, my class had some pretty good reasons for keeping me waiting!

We made these little booklets so they could explain.

While they were working I took some first day photos.

Later that day we played "The Bored Game" so my new friends could

connect, compare stories and find things they had in common. Hilarious!

On Wednesday, my kiddos chose their favorite reason from their

booklets and wrote it in a speech balloon for our bulletin board.

Then to get to know them a little better we all did this....

On Thursday, we talked about idioms and found lots of them in our book.

We worked in groups and roamed the room to figure out the

answers to some of these questions!

Our new friend the book character bunny talks about

how unfair it is that his readers keep him waiting. As unfair as having

to go to bed when you're not tired!

So to introduce our journal writing routine and to take a baseline

writing sample I gave them this prompt.

On Friday, I finished our bulletin board at lunch .......

and sent everybody home with a first day keepsake card!

If you're not completely in love with this book yet,

you will be after you watch this{so stinkin' cute}video clip!
(Thank you for sharing it with me Jennifer Ayers!)

click here

If you'd like to do all of this with YOUR class you CAN!

I've bundled all of our fun, into a little unit you can see {HERE}

I've included LOTS more not pictured in this post,

plus all the chart and bulletin board parts and templates you'll need!

Just click {HERE} or on the picture to head right to it!

Well, I already love my new class! How was your first week back?

I'm linking up with another Bright Ideas Blog Hop to bring you some time saving

tips to help you beat those back to school bulletin board blues!

When setting up my classroom I like to hang my boards first, before moving any

of the furniture. Use the empty floor space to lay out your paper or fabric to help

visualize where you want to place your boards on the wall. Keep in mind the other

things you'll be adding around the boards such as pocket charts and posters.

You don't want to have to move them once they're up!

Putting up bulletin boards at the beginning of the year can be a real workout!

Not to mention a little risky as you teeter precariously on any available

surface so you can hang that top trim! The most time consuming part for me

is climbing up and down a zillion times to see if they're straight.

This little tip has saved me a TON of time!

This year as I was using my handy dandy level necklace my teammate

wandered in and said, "I was hanging pictures this weekend and

I discovered I could put a level on my phone." I never even thought of that!

Most teachers know that fabric is a great alternative

to butcher paper. It doesn't fade and is super easy

to store. I get most of mine at Wal-Mart or on

clearance at Hobby Lobby or my local fabric store.

Think ahead about holidays, themes and content

you'll be displaying in your hallway.

Layer your fabric or paper to save time when changing them out.

Simply remove the top layer and replace the border.

At the end of the year, store all of the parts and pieces for boards

you know you'll use again together. Make yourself a little board-in-a-bag

so it's all there and ready to go. I've even taken a quick picture a time or two to

remind myself how I had it set up.

Often times our custodians aren't finished cleaning when we report back.

We sometimes have to wait for the carpets to be cleaned before we can

set up furniture. Keep your bulletin board supplies in an easy to reach place

so you can use that time to get started on your walls. When stuffing things into

cupboards at the end of the year I always pack my bulletin boards LAST

so I can get to them FIRST!

I hope you've enjoyed these tips and found an idea or two you can use!
You can see Part 2 of this little series by clicking on the image below.

For LOTS more ideas for decorating your boards

visit my Bulletin Boards on Pinterest!

I'd love to have you join me on Facebook, and Instagram too!

Be sure to scroll through the links below for more Bright Ideas

from 150 other teacher/bloggers!

Happy Back-To-School teacher friends!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Friday, teacher friends! I'm linking up with Doodlebugs Teaching

for anotherFive for Friday! Here's a little peek at my week...

I have to say that I'm loving these Frixion pens!

Fine line and erasable!

I found mine on Amazon.

If you're not already, you soon will be, deluged with running records,

phonemic awareness and phonics screeners, high

frequency word checklists and grading baseline writing assessments.

Am I right?

Every day at lunch we compare notes on how many we have left!

I am not winning.

I made these for my teammates (because they think I'm funny)

and to remind them of Rule Number 1:

A girl's gotta have a good pen when she's checking marking like a maniac.

Hey Girl. Download the cards here.

We wrapped up our Louder, Lili book study this week.

I love this book! It is the perfect beginning of the year story for talking

about kindness,being a good friend, standing up for what is right

and treating others the way you wish to be treated. We reviewed

all sorts of skills with it and my class really connected with these characters.

They were mortified by how one of them tries to treat the class pet!

I overheard them talking about it all week!

Last week we did this Math About Me activity and defined

ourselves using math!

I got the nicest email from Gail Collins, a middle school counselor,

to share how she used my Superhero Writing Craft

for a back to school career counseling display!

How creative is that? I love the message! Thank you for sharing this, Gail!

Our center rotations are in full swing. I wanted to do

something different in my poetry center this year so we're doing it

Teacher By The Beach-style!

Jen has a great poetry station routine that I just love!

A little fluency practice, a little sound/spelling pattern identification or skill

practice with a highlighter (Pure kid-joy!), spelling practice, illustrating and labeling

and VOILA!

I've since added having students write sentences using the words from their list

on the back for some of my kiddos.

You can read all aboutJen's poetry routine and fabulous phonics centers

and find them HERE.

I introduced this center routine with a sweet little poem by Kristin Smith

from A Day In First Grade. I purchased this poem with

her I Can Be A Pal pack. It tied in perfectly with our

how to be a good friend writing.

Just like Jen, I typed up the poems I wanted to use

from Scholastic's Big Book of Phonics Poems plus some other random

poems I've gathered over the years. You can purchase

the Scholastic book HERE.

I had a parent copy and cut the whole year's worth and all I do is

change the poem each week. I love easy!

And since I also love these silly Hey Girl's so much

I'll leave you with this...

Be sure to stop by Doodlebug's for lots more

Five for Friday!

Have a restful weekend, friends!

Happy Sunday friends! I'm over at Owl-ways Be Inspired today with
some fun book ideas and a freebie for teaching about cause and effect!

Head on over and check it out!

Welcome back to another Bright Ideas Blog Hop!

Last month I shared some time-saving tips for hanging

and storing your back to school bulletin boards in

Beating the Bulletin Board Blues!

This time I'm back for part 2 with some fun ideas for making them POP!

Fancy up your boards with butcher paper! It's bright,

easy to work with, and readily available!

There are so many fun fonts out there its hard to choose

which ones to use! Don't be limited to the lettering you can buy

at the teacher store. Customize your boards with your favorite fonts

in the colors you need. No more running out of certain letters or having to

work around pre-made lettering that is too big or too small!

Your local party aisle has a treasure trove of resources for making

your boards POP! They're inexpensive, easy to use, and best of all

easy to store! The possibilities are endless for what you can do with

tissue paper, balloons, ribbon, and paper plates!

It is pure kid-joy for my students to get their pictures taken!

They absolutely love seeing themselves in our displays and showing

their friends is an added bonus!

It's not always evident how you got your students to where they are now.

There's a whole lot of teaching that goes into each and every

project your students create. Share that process by including prewriting,

graphic organizers, notes or journal entries in your bulletin board displays!

I hope you found some tips and ideas you can use in your classroom!

You can see Part 1 of this little series by clicking on the image below.

For more Bulletin Board Ideas visit my board on Pinterest!

Follow me on Facebook or Instagram for teaching ideas, resources

and giveaways!

Be sure to hop through the links below for lots more bright ideas!

An InLinkz Link-up

Bright Ideas! Making the Most of Your Anchor Charts!

Working With Arrays And A Multiplication Freebie!

It's Plantin' Time! Writing About Science & A Freebie

Planting Arrays & A Freebie!

Student Spaces The Desk Fairy Will Love!

Poetry and Painting and Butterflies, Oh My!

Leapin' Life Cycles!

Office Staff Appreciation Freebie

Graphic Novel Style Memory Books for K-3!

It's a Teacher Appreciation Sale!

#fluencyfun!

Ending Our Year In A Life Cycle Garden

You're Finally Here! {Book Talk Tuesday}

Louder, Lili: A Little Gem Of A Back-To-School Book!

Back To School Sale!

You're Finally Here! {Our First Week Back}

Beating The Bulletin Board Blues!

A Girl's Gotta Have A Good Pen {Five For Friday & A Teacher Friend Freebie}

Find Me For A Freebie!

Beating the Bulletin Board Blues 2: Make 'Em POP!