Back to School Language Arts Stations

I have been on a roll this week,  my Back to School Language Arts stations are complete! 

I created 8 low prep stations that are aligned to the Virginia 2nd grade standards but most certainly can be used in Common Core classrooms as well. These are perfect for end of the year (or summer) review for 1st grade or beginning of the school year review for 2nd graders.

Simply print and laminate station directions and task cards, cut task cards apart, run copies of the recording sheet and store together in a drawer cart or even large zipper bag. 

Click Here to download. I'm finishing up some Fall Stations now and hope to have those posted on Monday!

3 Weeks In...

Week 3 was definitely one for the books! We spent 3 hours on Monday sheltered in place, meaning, from 2:40pm-5:30pm my students and I were hunkered down in the hallway in tornado drill position. When it was all said and done I think there was about 10 confirmed tornadoes in Central Virginia that day. Many parents rushed to pick up their children as soon as they were able to. My last child left at 6:45pm and most of the buses started pulling in around 7pm. They had to run their middle school and high school routes before they could even head to the elementary schools. I'm thankful for the safety of our students and all our families. 

I took some updated pictures on Friday of my classroom I wanted to share. 

Math Board

Addition Strategies Anchor Chart

Our Super Improver Board- They're moving on up!

We read The Bad Seed and made a Growth Mindset Craftivity. I'm also happy to say that all of my students still have their original pencil from the first day of school!

Books with a Common Theme Board

Our Bucket Fillers/Dippers Chart

We Learned about Nonfiction Text Features last week

Our Reading Posters

More Anchor Charts

Even More Anchor Charts

We started talking about Growth Mindset this week

Our first Wonders were about Hurricane Florence

We read The Jelly Donut Kindness and discussed ways to be kind to others

Close Up of Craftivity

Inside of Craftivity

Back to School Night was Thursday- waiting for parents was their child's Learning Handbook (study guides for every subject), a copy of my Parent Handbook with all policies and procedures, Movie Permission Slip, Computer Log in Card and a note they could leave for their child

4 for Friday: Favorite BTS Read Alouds

My 4 for Friday is pretty late today... my husband and I have been vacationing at Massanutten Resort this week. Indoor Waterpark, Ziplining, Tubing, Rock Climbing, Go Karts, great food and great weather! 
Now that my vacation is over and I resort back to work in one week, it's time for me to look at lesson planning. Here are my favorite back to school read alouds.
Back to School Read Alouds

1. Do Unto Otters- This is most favorite back to school book! It's a great book about manners and the perfect book for character building. Usually we would just discuss the book but this year I took it a step further and purchased the unit from Stories by Storie. I hope to include activities from this unit this year. 

2. Jelly Donut Difference- This is a great book about spreading kindness. It's become one of my favorite books. This year I plan to read it at the beginning of the year as opposed to middle and I purchased the unit off of Stories by Storie and will include activities from there. 

3. Potato Chip Champ- This is another book about spreading kindness and even explores empathy. Last year I read this at the beginning of the year and did the potato chip craft and displayed it for Back to School Night. 

4. The Bad Seed- I just discovered this book this summer, bought it from Scholastic. 

From School Library Journal-Corn kernels, pistachios, peanuts, and other seeds gasp and point as a "baaaaaaaaaaad seed" goes by. When others mumble about him, he can hear them because he has "good hearing for a seed." The bad seed tells "long jokes with no punch lines," lies "about pointless stuff," and never puts things back where they belong. But he did not start out that way; it was only after a traumatic experience that he became "a different seed entirely." 

After I purchased it, I found a great unit that tied the book to Growth Mindset. 

I'd love to hear about your favorite BTS read alouds, leave a comment here or hop on over to our Facebook page and leave a comment. 

2nd Day of 2nd Grade

I spent my weekend working on 2nd Day of 2nd Grade resources! I use to do this back when I taught 2nd grade and then a couple of years ago I started celebrating the 3rd Day of 3rd Grade. Here are some snapshots of some of the activities I created:

 

 

 

 

If you're a 2nd Grade teacher and would like to celebrate as well you can download the 2nd Day of 2nd Grade.

Survived BTSN

Well, I've survived the first two weeks of school and our annual Back to School Night! I've been doing great with the goals I set for myself... except for goal #3, which is to leave school after the buses pull out. But I guess late nights are to be expected the first couple of weeks of school. But now that BTSN is over, I'll definitely be leaving by 4:15pm each day!

Me... rocking Back to School Night!

Speaking of BTSN, here's a photo of what I had waiting for parents on their child's desk. 

• Food Permission Slip
• Movie Permission Slip
• Learning Handbook (a copy of all study guides for the year spiral bound into a book)
• Parent Handbook (policies and procedures of our classroom)
• Student Log In Card for access at home
• "Pineapple of my Eye" paper for parents to write a note to their child on (Ford's Board)

student desk

I thought I share a couple more photos from our classroom so far.

We read The Potato Chip Champ by Maria Dismondy and completed a writing activity from Stories by Storie. 

We talked about mathematicians and completed an activity from Amy Lemons. 

My students have been earning Smart Tags and stickers on their Super Improver Cards

Here are some of our Anchor Charts that we've created.

Our "Stuck? Try 2 Before Me" Poster. Christina Bainbridge had this as a handout but I made it into an anchor chart for our classroom.

So that's what we've been up to in room 303, hope to share more photos next week!