My First Linky Party

I was so excited to join my first linky party.  This is a party hosted by LaToya at Flying into First.  It is a chance for all of us teacher bloggers to get to know each other.  This Sunday's question was what three things would you have to have with you if you were stranded on a desert island?  Okay, well I am going to assume my family is either out of the question or already with me, and I have the normal practical things... so here goes.

1.  Philosophy Amazing Grace Whipped Body Butter

It would definitely keep my dry, shriveling, leathery skin moisturized and smelling sweet!

2.  Journal and pen

This might technically be two..but I am counting it as one.  I can't imagine not having somewhere to communicate my thoughts and release my creativity.

3.  My scrapbooks

 I could spend days, months just looking at them and reliving all the experiences in my life.  I love not only reliving the experiences I scrapped about, but also the experience of scrapbooking itself. I go through so much to pick just the right color scheme, paper, layout, and embellishments.

Well those are my three, what are yours?  If you would like to link up too, just click on the link below!

http://flyingintofirst.blogspot.com

Have fun and always remember to be second best!

Laura

Interactive Poetry Experience

Although it may be exiting to us, poetry (unless it involves bathroom humor) is usually not exciting to second graders.  When I first read Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", even though I was all a twitter, it was kind of  a yawn fest for the students.  I was so sad!  I remember my mother reciting the poem from memory and listening as her voice would trail off as she repeated "and miles to go before I sleep...and miles to go before I sleep."  I wanted them to have that same awestruck feeling that I had as a child at the pictures Frost had created in my mind.  But how?  I decided to reread the poem as a dramatic reading.  They loved it!  They loved it so much that they said everyone should experience the poem the way they did.  That, of course, got me thinking.  I can't leave something like THAT alone.  So we brainstormed together and decided to create an interactive poetry experience.  I paired the students and gave them each a stanza or two from the poem.  Then they had to create how to make it come alive.  They were so engaged and excited.  The first thing they did was rewrite their stanzas in their own handwriting on sentence strips.  Then they started brainstorming how to make it come to life.  They came up the best ideas.  They glued cellophane onto blue paper so when you walked on it it crinkled like ice and snow.  The had jingle bells hanging for students to jingle at the right moment. They painted a grass skirt white so when you ran a twig through it it sounded like wind.  They took batting and glued glitter all over it.  It truly was amazing.  When we finally finished putting our display together and it was ready to be experienced by others, we included a blurb in the morning announcements that we were open and ready for business.  The students were so excited they were clapping and bouncing up and down in their seats.  I have included pictures even though the pictures really do not do it justice.  The school community had so many compliments for the students and what they had accomplished. Talk about adhering to Common Core!  They asked if we could do it again, so I am certain we will!

I "Mustache" You a Few Questions...

I had seen an idea on Pintrest by Christie (http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/I-Mustache-You-A-Question-Writing-Activity-More) where she had the students write a question.  Then she took a picture of them with a mustache and titled it "I Mustache You a Question."  I thought the idea was so cute and I had to do it with my second graders.  Of course it needed some adaptations.  The first thing I did was make it more developmentally appropriate. I told them to pick a character from their favorite book.  Then I asked them to have a topic sentence, ask the character three questions, and to get our higher level thinking skills in, I asked them to tell me why they wanted to know this information.  I especially like how this made wrting a question so concrete for them.  When we were done, they definitely knew the difference between an asking sentence and a telling sentence.  They even knew...wait for it...the difference between a question mark and an exclamation mark.  I know, right?  They were so excited and did such a great job!  I found these straws with paper mustaches so I gave them each their own mustache and took their pictures.  This turned out to be one of their favorite writing assignments...and one of mine too!

Red Ribbon Week Door Decorations

It is so hard to come up with something original, but I came up with this idea all by my little self!  I knew I wanted to do something related to Halloween, but what?  I finally decided on something witchy.  Then it came to me "Drugs are wicked bad".  I loved it!  I let the kiddos make their own witch hat (no template here) so it would be more personal.  They decorated their hat.  Then they traced their hat onto lined paper, cut it out, and wrote about why they are too busy to do drugs. I put the words on using black letters except for "wicked" I used purple letters with little gold stars (sorry it is so hard to see in the pic).   I added the cutest little witch's broom covered in purple glitter and a black bow and two witch decorations from the dollar store with lots of purple streamers.  The students enjoyed the project and we won the contest!

Drugs are Wicked Bad!

Their witch hats are too cute!

Happy teaching!

Top 10 Fav's in My Room

How much do we love decorating our rooms?   You will be able to tell really quickly that my room theme is Safari. I am constantly looking for things  that are not only decorative but that function well.   I can't even imagine what my room would look like without Pintrest.  So many of the things I do are inspired by all of you teacher bloggers and all the ingenious ideas posted on Pintrest.  So, here are my top 10 favorites!

1.  C.R.A.F.T. Bulletin Board

These were from 

http://www.ladybugsteacherfiles.com/2012/04/more-craft-cafe-headers.html

I love her stuff!  

2.  Daily 5 Choice Board

I got these from 

http://www.3rdgradethoughts.com/search/label/daily%205#.UG91gE1DTCk

Actually, I got them from her TPT store, but she has sooo much great stuff on the Daily 5 that I had to share her blog link.  I wrote the students numbers on flower petals and then put self-adhesive Velcro on the back.  It is a really easy way for the students to move them through the choices.  And yes, this is more of the $2.50 vinyl I bought at Wal-Mart that you will see in the project below.  I can't believe I got two projects out of this one piece of vinyl!

3.  Milk Crate Bench

The dual purpose of seating and storage is awesome!  My students love this and the best part is the vinyl I used for the cushion was on clearance for $2.50 at Walmart!!!  Here is the one that gave me the inspiration to give it a try.  

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3xlAgQWkDYn0BjrzZpMwlAKZJO0TPHhcIf1TS-l8h_Xcs9a2HWSEHORwJtmwIxc3p_Vkg9jRKYSoJw4EIM8f4cTxhJgV3VEVxsn_0quyLu9NYwhxHXJiSex-53t7CQMIDLw5J3aue2R4/s1600/bench+2.JPG

4.  Door Decorations

I love my door decorations this year.  I had the Toucan and knew I needed to come up with a clever saying. I thought this was kind of cute.  What do you think?  

5.  Top Banana Board

Every week I choose a student to be our "Top Banana".  I use this board to display pictures they bring from home and some of their favorites.  I put contact paper over the paper so I can use sticky tack on the back of the pictures.  That way it doesn't damage the pictures that I send back home and the contact paper keeps the grease from the sticky tack from staining my paper.  (Side note - the contact paper doesn't normally look this shiny - read yucky - this is just a reflection of the flash.)

6.  Class Library

I spent so much time making book bin labels and book stickers for my whole library this summer.  I put a sticker on every single book I own (with some help from my sister).  It wasn't until I was done that I saw that TPT had some great sets.  Oh well!  I still love my library and how much easier it is for the students to put the books back in the right place.  I love my little tiki hut!  I also made a book hospital which has worked out great.  Now they know not to interrupt me to tell me there is a little tear on page 54.  They just put it in the book hospital and I get to it when I have time.

Don't you love the giraffe with the nurses hat I glued on?

My inspiration:

http://www.learninginwonderland.com/2012/07/monday-made-it-owls.html?showComment=1343699094593

7.  Writing Process Bulletin Board

8.  Writing Process Clip Board

My inspiration

9.  Clock

I was so excited when I found these numbers to go around the clock.  I just printed them on dark green paper.  Loving it and so handy!

My inspiration

http://stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com/search/label/time

How great is Amy Lemons!  Ah-maz-ing!

10.  My Safari Theme

I am really enjoying this theme.  It is kid friendly, yet kind of glam too!

Well that's my top ten!  What's yours?

Constitution Week Ideas

As we all know, we never really take a break from teaching.  We are always thinking about our kiddos and new exciting ways to impart knowledge.  While on vacation in Boston this summer, I got very excited about all the history that makes this city so special.  I knew I had to buy something to take back to my class.  I decided to buy a "Make Your Own Constitution" kit.  It was the cutest thing.  It had parchment paper, a quill, an ink well, and "ink".  I also bought a copy of the our country's constitution.  I introduced the topic by presenting my copy of the constitution.  In an attempt to encourage some higher level thinking, I told my second graders that this was indeed the real constitution.  The conversation that ensued was comical, enlightening, and fun.  We finally determined that it could not be the real constitution, but they still thought it was a very cool copy.   Then I broke out the kit.  They were so excited you would have sworn I just told them I was giving them a million dollars...each.  We studied the constitution.  We took a day and just talked about the preamble.  We listened to and sang the School House Rock version too.  We took another day to study the articles and the signatures. I used the folllowing websites to help us:  http://www.usconstitution.net/constkidsK.html and http://www.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=391 .

By the third day we were ready to talk about how the constitution is a living document and always changing.  Finally, we were ready to write our class constitution and (hopefully) understand what it means.  They were so exited to sign their document using the quill and ink well.  It seemed so authentic to them.  We now have a meaningful document to live and work by!

Cute Fall Bulletin Board Idea!

I don't know about you, but I having been listening to so much about the Common Core that I could scream I feel very well informed.  We always do a mini-unit on apples in the fall.  I found this cute craftivity on Pintrest but couldn't find the source (sorry- if you are the original poster please let me know so I can give you credit!)  The students each received a paper plate then they cut two curved lines.  They colored the cut out pieces for the leaves and glued them on the apple core.  I loved this because the project has no waste!  I knew I wanted to display their work because they turned out so cute.  Then I thought about what cute caption I could come up with and this is what I did.  What do you think?  Very tongue in cheek, but I love it!

Let me know what ideas you have for fall bulletin boards!