Must Haves of 2012

With the New Year here and 2012 gone, I just want to look back on what was a must have in my classroom during 2012. I know that we all have those tools of the trade that we couldn't live without. Today I will be sharing with you what my must haves of 2012 were and still will be for 2013.

Scholastic Storybook Treasures
We all have those teaching days where we can't stop looking at the clock waiting for the day to end. This is when "stories" come into play. I love stories. They are a collection of popular children's books put on film. Some are just narrated and others are recreated to be actual cartoons. I love being able to pop in a story and have my students watch a couple each day. It's a great way for students to enjoy reading, they get to see their favorite characters come to life, and it's also a great way to incorporate with current themes you are studying in class.

Thirty-One Organizing Utility Tote
I'm sure we all saw this lovely bag all over Pinterest earlier this year. I can't believe I ever lived without this bag. I don't have to worry about loosing anything. I carry my wallet, water bottle, keys, lesson plans, you name it, it's in there. I even made a video describing how much I love it!!

 Pinterest
Enough said. We all know how much Pinterest has helped make us better teachers, wives, mothers, crafters, chefs, cleaners. Pinterest in full of amazing ideas that I have used in my classroom this year.

 Teachers Pay Teachers
I've heard about Teachers Pay Teachers for a few years now, but I never really looked into it until this year. Man, am I glad I did that. TPT has almost everything you are looking for. Whenever I need a thematic unit, instead of having to recreate one on my own, I just hop on over to TPT and most of the time I find just what I'm looking for!

Donors Choose
 I can't express how truly grateful I am for Donors Choose. I recently made a blog post all about DC and how I've received over $7000 in resources for my classroom.

I hope that you take a look into my top 5 items that I found useful in 2012. I plan on using these for many more years in the future. Now it's your turn to share your top resources of 2012. You can write about your top 5 or your top 100, whatever you want to share. Then come back here and link up so everyone else can profit from your amazing recommendations. Make sure to link back to this blog post as well so others on your blog can join in on the fun. Just grab the code below and add to your blog post. It's that simple!!!

<div align="center"> <a href="http://www.darlinglittlelearners.com/2013/01/must-haves-of-2012.html" title="Darling Little Learners"><img src="http://i1208.photobucket.com/albums/cc380/JennuineCrafts/musthaves_zps3ed4b759.png" alt="Darling Little Learners" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

I'm linking this over at the Ultimate Linky Party!!

Donors Choose for Teachers

If you've been teaching for a while, you know how much money you have invested into your own classroom. During my first year of teaching I was going out every weekend and shopping for my classroom. I ended up taking a lot of my money and investing it back into my classroom. At the time I thought I was doing a good thing. I realized that I was spending money on things that I could be getting for free. In this blog post, I will explain how I've gotten $7000 worth of resources and supplies for my classroom for little to no money at all!!

I'm sure most of you have heard about Donors Choose. Some of you may use it religiously like I do. Others may have an account, but never submit a grant. Some of you may have never heard of it at all. I have gone ahead and created a video explaining Donors Choose and how it works. In this video I walk you through the process of creating your own project.


Once you start using Donors Choose, you will realize what a great resource it is for us as teachers. The best part is when the students actually get the materials and resources in their hands. I love taking pictures of them using the donations. Part of the thank you package is writing thank you letters to your donors. I have gone ahead and created a file that includes three different templates for you to use. You can find that file by clicking here.

This file is not only great for creating thank you letters for Donors Choose projects, but they can also be used for general thank you letters. If you have any questions regarding DonorsChoose.org please feel free to contact me. You can find my information in the contact section of my website.



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!!!