First Week

I successfully completed the first week of school. I have 28 second graders. This is the largest class I have ever had in my whole six years of teaching. It's definitely more management at the beginning then normal, but I know it will be worth it. I have a pretty good class and I am looking forward to a new exciting year. 

Week in Review

Nouns

This week we have been working on nouns. The class has been pretty successful with knowing what a noun is and being able to sort them into a person, place, or thing. The first activity that we did was a noun search. After teaching and reviewing nouns on Monday and Tuesday, by Wednesday we were then able to work with a partner and find different nouns around the room. The students had to then decide whether the noun they found was a person, place, or thing and then put it in the correct column. On Thursday they got to complete a noun sort. The students had a lot of fun. At first they we using the picture sides of the cards to sort and then got brave and started challenging themselves with the word side.

Chrysanthemum

Every month we will be reading books by different authors. This month we are reading books by Kevin Henkes. All week we have been reading Chrysanthemum. It's a perfect book for the first week of school because it teaches the students that everyone is different and that is what makes you special.After reading Chrysanthemum a few times the students were able to make their own Chrysanthemums to display in the classroom.

I am linking up over at...

Bikini Bottom Math (Ocean Math) and Grammar Wall

I love Monday Made It and I'm a little sad that it has gone to only once a month, but I understand why. I guess that means I'll just have to keep going on my own. 

Made-It #1

I have been working on a math assessment program for a couple months now. I created a bulletin board in my classroom that I wanted to post on a Monday Made It, but since my unit wasn't finished, I figured I would wait. I spent most of today (Labor Day) finishing the unit. On a day where we should be relaxing and enjoying our day off, I am working on school work. I love it though!

First, I want to share with you my bulletin board.

I have always had my students coming into 2nd grade, not knowing their basic math facts. It would be wonderful if they could come in knowing their addition facts and all I had to do was teach them their subtraction facts. Unfortunately, I haven't even been that lucky. I knew that I wanted a program to do throughout the school year, but I wasn't sure what I wanted. I decided to make my own program. I call it Bikini Bottom Math or Ocean Math.

This is a math fluency program that will build and strengthen any student's addition, subtraction, and multiplication math facts. This program is designed for students to work at their own pace. The program includes a letter home to parents explaining the program. It also includes flash card, homework practice, math assessments, and completion certificates. 

I wanted this program to be self paced. I have always done Saxon math fact assessments, but if a student doesn't master their facts, the program just keeps going and they never truly learn their facts. This program is completely customizable. I have included three levels; addition, subtraction, and multiplication. My plan is to get my students through addition and subtraction this year and if some kids get to multiplication, hey that's wonderful!!

The way it works is ever student is assigned a number and jellyfish. Pink jellyfish means they are on addition, blue means subtraction, and yellow (gold) means multiplication. As a student passes their test, they get to move on to the next bubble. Once they have master all of their addition facts they move back to 0, but this time they have a blue jelly fish and the same goes for multiplication.

I will make a more detailed video with Bikini Bottom Math in action in my classroom. Also, if you are interested in me creating a file where you can create your own Bikini Bottom Math (Ocean Math) bulletin board, let me know and I can get to work on one.

Today ONLY, this file is 20% off in my TPT store, so hurry while the sale lasts!!

Click on the link to go to my TPT store.

Made-It #2

I teach an ELD class, meaning I teach English language learners. I focus a lot in reading, writing, conversation, and grammar. I created a grammar "wall" for my classroom this year that match the colors of the program that I use. 

I created them on my cricut (which I cannot live without)

I like to get creative with my space, so I created my "wall" on my cabinets.

So that's it for today's September's Monday Made-It. I'm sure I'll be back for some more later on durign September. I have soo many ideas!