Barnes and Noble Haul

I just recently went to Barnes and Noble to pick up some books related to teaching. I love watching hauls. In case you are not aware of what a haul is, it's a video in which someone shares what they bought. The reason I love watching haul videos is because I get to see things that are available that I may not have known of. I decided to create a haul video on my latest Barnes and Noble haul.

Christmas Happenings

It has been a long December. Usually we only have two weeks to squeeze everything Christmas/holiday related in. This year we had three weeks and boy did these three weeks drag on. I don't think I've ever been ready for Christmas to be over. We did have a lot of fun though. Here are a few snapshots of how we spent our December.

Since December started, we've been doing a lot of centers through out the day. December is a time when the normal, daily schedule is thrown out the door and you welcome the unknown. For our class we have a lot of testing during this time of year and a "normal" day is something we hardly ever see in December.

Speaking of not normal, the last week of school was spirit week. We had red and green day, pajama day, twin day, backwards day, and my favorite... crazy hair day. Crazy hair day is a favorite for anyone who has naturally curly hair. I have crazy hair every day, for one day out of the year, I have an excuse.

 

On pajama day we made hot chocolate and watched the Polar Express. 

 My kids were so excited to have hot chocolate. I wish I could show you their little faces with chocolate mustaches.  

Tried my best at getting a class photo without a tripod.

Then it was the day of our Holiday concert. Look at my precious little darling in the front with her big read bow.

On our last day of school I gave my students their presents. It was the book "The Night Before the Night Before Christmas".

They loved it and couldn't wait to read it.

Some of my students even read to each other.

Well that was it for our December happenings. I hope that you all have a safe and wonderful Christmas and New Year. I will be back in January with some brand new things and ready to go strong. See you in 2013!!!

Elf on the Shelf

This year I decided to do Elf of the Shelf with my class. I have always wanted to do it with my own children, but of course I don't have any yet, so I had to improvise. I only had him in my room for 4 days and it's a little sad that he is gone. Next year I will be bringing him in after Thanksgiving and he won't leave until Christmas break. My students this year went a little overboard with looking for him. I guess you can say this was my "test" year. This week I also found so many great ideas to incorporate into my classroom for next year. Since I have nothing too special to share with you, I will go ahead and leave you with some of our pictures of our elf, Skip.

We found Skip on Tuesday hanging onto our easel.

After decorating our Christmas tree with ornaments, Skip decided he wanted to hang out on the tree as well.

Reading a Christmas story to his friends.

Hanging on the flag pole.

Drinking Mrs. Ruiz's root beer.

Closeup of the root beer.

Just chillin' in the Smartie Pants.

I have so many ideas already for next year including: watching tv with the remote, writing a message on the white board, taking a bath in the sink with marshmallows. The possibilities are endless. It's been a little tricky because the students aren't supposed to touch him. I will have to buy him a few props for next year as well. I also need to add velcro to his hands so he can do a few more things. Already planning!!

I'm Not a Turkey

With Thanksgiving coming up, I am reminded of all the things that I am thankful for. I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends. I am also thankful for such a sweet bunch of second graders this year. I want to keep this post short and sweet so I will leave you with one of my favorite writing activities, I'm not a turkey. I'm sure there are many variations of this activity, but I just love it so much.

 I love the creativity that comes out during this assignment.

One of my favorites...
I'm not a turkey. A turkey has feathers. I have hands. Can I ask you a question? Do turkeys go to school? No they do not. I am a student. I talk a lot. If you eat me, I can talk in your stomach. If you eat a student, you go to jail.

Ohhh so creative!!

2012 Election

Happy Election Day!!

I love voting day. Ever since I was a little girl and they did kids vote in our area. Do they still do that anywhere else? Allow kids to vote for president at a voting location. They get their own little ballot and everything. I loved doing that. I started talking about the election on Monday and I started with Cara Carrol's unit.

We started off by reading Grace for President. Yes, I am aware that I spelled Gracie on my anchor chart... ooops! :-) I modified one of the graphic organizers in the unit and turned it into an anchor chart. I teach an ELD class so we color coded our nouns and verbs.

Then we read Duck for President and made a similar anchor chart. After reading both stories we had an election to see who would win. Grace: 10 votes, Duck: 11 votes DUCK WINS!!!

Then we read the book My Teacher for President. We made a chart explaining why our teacher (me) would make a good president. Then we took another vote. Grace: 1 vote, Duck: 5 votes, Mrs. Ruiz: 15 votes. MRS. RUIZ WINS!!!

Today we started to talk about the candidates that are running for office. First, we made a chart. Then we talked about why we vote. Next, my students were able to make their own voter registration cards (found in Cara Carrol's unit). Finally, they cast their votes. I even made little voting stickers for my students to wear after they voted. They had a blast! After the votes were tallied, we turned the data into a bar graph and answered questions that went with our standards. All-in-all it was a great election day in our second grade classroom!!!

James and the Giant Peach

Every month I like to read a chapter book to my students. Most of my students are reading below grade level and even though they can't read chapter books, I still want to expse them to great literature. Even though there are great picture books out there, I also like to incorporate chapter books. September is James and the Giant Peach and my students LOVE that story. I really wanted to make a unit to go along with the book, but I haven't gotten around to making it yet. I did make an art project or craftivity to go along with it. You can really use it any way you choose.

You can visit my TPT store and get this file for only $1.50. Click HERE.

Monday Made It

I am so excited that Monday Made It is back. I loved being able to link up every Monday over the summer, but now that school has started, I'm glad it's gone to once a month. Today for my monday Made It I created...

Last week on my Show and Tell Wednesday I shared my math assessments that included addition, subtraction, and multiplication. I went ahead and made an additional 3 files. They are separate files for addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Each individual file is only $2.50 and if you would like all three together, only $5.00 So head on over to my TPT store to pick up a copy of your own.