Synonym Rolls

We have been working on synonyms in my class for the past few weeks. When I saw this activity on Pinterest, I KNEW I had to do it one day. My students struggled with coming up with their own synonyms, but know they are coming up with them left and right. I will most likely wait until later on during the year. I wanted to share with you a few pictures that I took of my kids as well as the bulletin board that the whole 2nd grade team put together.

Our bulletin board. Each grade is assigned a bulletin board in the cafeteria that we are able to decorate. This is the first year that we decided to decorate it and I'm so glad we did.

This is me showing off our activity.

 A few of my little darlings. They were all so cute with their little chef hats on.

 Posing in front of our bulletin board. I love my team this year. I didn't get permission to use their pictures on my blog, but trust me, they are amazing!!

Now on to a freebie!!

While preparing for this lesson, I tried looking all over for a cinnamon roll template, but I couldn't find one. I went ahead and made my own. I am sharing it with you! Just click HERE to pick it up!!

I am linking up over at...

Day in the Life and September Currently

This week I tried to do a Day in the Life of a Teacher. It so didn't work. I even tried two separate times. I guess that goes to show you how busy us teachers are!!

Ever since I found out about the monthly currently over at Oh' Boy 4th Grade, I have been loving it. Here is this month's currently.

Needing...
Now that I have been teaching for 5 weeks, I am now back into my routine of getting things done. Now I need to schedule time for work, studying for my masters, exercising, crafting, and spending time with my family. There is never enough time in the day. It's either pick one thing over the other each day.

Favorite Things...
I am loving my new macbook pro. I still have my desktop computer that is a windows machine, but I love that I have an apple computer as well. It is so handy and very easy to use. I am absolutely in love with imovie. Usually when I edit my videos, I used my work laptop or my husband's work computer. Now I don't have to worry about either of those because now I have my own!!!

Last night I went to dinner with my BFF at Village Inn. We spent the entire time just talking and hanging out since we haven't really done that in a long time!! It was nice to relax after a long short week of work. Why is it that 4 day work weeks always seem longer than normal weeks?

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!

August 28, 2012

Dear Deer

I love doing art projects with my class. It reminds me of what excited me when I was a young student. Last week we studied homophones and my ELL 2nd graders were a little confused. We're going to have to keep working on them, but they did enjoy making their little deer and writing them letters.

I got this idea from Cara over at The First Grade Parade. I purchased her TPT file on camping last year and I never got around to doing it. We read Henry and Mudge later on in the year and it would go perfectly with that theme, but I was too excited to get those precious little deer up already!!

Tables vs. Desks

Now on to what I made this weekend. I saw this pin and I thought it was a good idea.

Then my coworker actually made on in her classroom. It looked so cute. I've always had a compliment chain, but it always took too long to reach the floor and it just wasn't that cute. I knew I wanted sometime cute, but I didn't want to use the jar. At first I was going to make Brownie Points and when students earn all of their "brownies" I would make them brownies. Very cute idea, but I went ahead and made a gumball machine instead. That way the students will be able to vote on their reward, that is half the fun and surprise!!

The gumball machine starts blank and whenever the class receives a compliment for making smart choices, or for having a nice line, they will get a gumball added to their machine. When the whole machine is filled up, they will be able to vote on a reward (extra recess, movie, free time, etc.)

I'm linking up over at 4th Grade Frolics for Monday Made it!!

August 17, 2012