Ready or Not, Here They Come! The Classroom Reveal!

Well, I've done all I can! I'm out of time. It is what it is and it has to be enough! Ready, but not really. I need just one more week. Can we do a rewind please?

It's a work in progress and probably will be for a long time. All of this happened between summer school, meetings, in-service and professional development days, hallway and building closures and a four person switch, each of us moving in as the other before us moved out! I can't tell you how exhausted I am. When the kids arrive, it will seem like a vacation!

 Most of the decorating itself was done in one day with the help of my awesome family and student teachers! I cannot thank my family enough for all of their help and patience during this whole production of a move!  It's not Pinterest worthy yet, but I love my black and bright room! I hope the kids will too! This is my second grade classroom transformation!

Before

After!

Well, what do you think?

 This interesting desk arrangement was my son's idea. I like the students to be forward facing for the first week or two, then we move into groups when I know who will work well together.

This is my crazy colorful behavior clip chart. I left lots of room along the ribbon for my many clips that the kids get to paint and decorate next week at the starting card and to allow it to be very flexible.

 Next to it are my Beanie Babies reading strategies posters and a large closet that will be the location of our listening center when we're ready to roll with Daily 5.

Classroom jobs and genre posters are by my glider for morning meeting and to refer to during read alouds. As we study each one, they will be moved to the focus wall. Anything that has to be moved often is on the board with Bucky Ball magnets. Our Common Core I Can Statements and Focus Wall Poster Set will be in the center board. The borders are dots on black by Creative Teaching Press which I just love because they go with anything! The boards which span the entire wall are covered with black fabric to last. It took three solid days to do the fabric and borders! What a job! I love my alphabet by Kristen at Lady Bug's Teacher Files! 

A boring wall jazzed up with some fans from the party store hot glued to the wall. These shelves are full of my word work materials and some manipulatives we use often. I have bright and black labels made, but will have to replace them later on.

This is my freebie CAFE poster board. All of the Strategy cards will be added as we work on each skill. 

On the first day, we get to know each other by making a chart. Each student thinks of something they like that begin with the same letter as their first name. The kids come up with some really clever answers for this! Last year's class poster will be used as an example. This way, we get to learn how to read each others names as well. We reread the chart every day the first week. I have six of my first graders again this year so they'll have to come up with a new idea!

This will be the cozy reading corner and classroom library. The hundreds of books I have need more sorting by AR level and then the basket labels will be added. I bought the black baskets and bean bags at Walmart and hot pink and bright blue baskets from Dollar Tree. I bought out every store in town but still need more! 

So those are all of the pictures I have for now. I finally had to stop decorating and focus on team planning, my lessons and activities for the first week!  

I'll be back when I can breathe again with more close-ups, bulletin board pictures, cubby pictures and some photos of our first days fun!

Have a fantastic holiday weekend! It's my last summer hurrah! 

Technology Tuesday Common Core for Smartboard!

I just found a great site that has Common Core activities for the Smartboard and iPad apps too!

Go see Mr. N and check it out!

Friday Freebie!

TGIF! Wow! What a crazy buzy week! Ended summer on a high note today with a much needed break from school and a day at the water park floating down the lazy river! Wish I could do a rewind of summer vacation! It's been great!

Speaking of great, Vicky at Traditions, Laughter and Happily Ever After is having a giveaway to celebrate 800 followers! She's got some awesome packets and 8 items of your choice from her shop up for grabs for the lucky winner!

So, the freebie...

This is a fun little icebreaker activity I like to do with my students during the first week. I ask that each student assemble a "Me" box with items and photos that they can use as talking points to share things they like, activities they enjoy or to tell about their family! On the first day of school, I share my "Me" box and the kids really enjoy hearing about all of my favorite things. This is always so much fun! It's a cute thing to have on display for open house too! This is the note I send home. I copy mine on bright paper.

Click on the picture to download the note!

Parent night is right around the corner. I like to have notes or a presentation on the SMARTboard to keep me on track because there is so much to tell in such a short time!

 I just posted an EDITABLE open house PowerPoint presentation. The nice thing is that I've added a lot of content that is general and applies to just about any classroom so it's a great template that may not need to be customized much at all! Click on the first picture to see more pictures and a description at my shop!

Enjoy your weekend!

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

This is my post for Therapeutic Thursday! It's short, sweet and to the point! I'm taking advice from Dr. Covey~ prioritizing and working effectively! :)

Have you heard of the late Stephen Covey? I was lucky enough to be able to attend a Covey training and learn more about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People! I highly recommend this book. Here are some of my favorite Covey quotes:

Our most constant relationships, like marriage, require our most constant deposits into the Emotional Bank Account.

It is possible to be busy – very busy – without being very effective.

I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday.

Begin with the end in mind.

I can change. I can live out of my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past. I can become my own… creator.

It’s not what happens to us, but our response to what happens to us that hurts us.

Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice.

 
Quote #2 will be my focus this week! Which do you like best? 

My Home Away from Home!

Hi there!

It's Where I Teach Wednesday!

I teach in a very large suburban school district in Michigan. I teach in my neighborhood school, so I'm a bit of a celebrity around town which can be both a good and bad thing! It's fun when I run into families and catch up with them but sometimes I just want to go unrecognized, so I'll go incognito to the grocery store and pray that no students pass by the house when I'm in my grubs doing yard work!

For several years my son was a student at that building and we went to school together! We both have mixed feelings about that as we look back.

I've been working away in my classroom getting set up and it's not yet ready for pictures to share. My plan to take pictures of the school itself didn't work out either because the hallways are being waxed so instead, I'll just give you the link to our school website! You've really got to see this fabulous site! Just click on the picture and browse around a little! You may get some inspiration for your own school!

This is the giant dream catcher in the atrium. We have beautiful Native American artwork throughout the halls. Our buildings are all named after Native American Tribes.

I'm proud of our school district, the programs it offers, the high academic standards we have and our wonderful staff! It's a great home away from home!

Technology Tip Tuesday and a Focus Wall Poster Set

I linked up with Blog Hoppin' for Teacher Week! 

It's Technology Tip Tuesday! Here are some random techy things I wanted to share that I thought might be helpful for you too. 

 I've been working on a few items for the new school year. Our school has parent night the first week. If you're like me, its one of your least favorite things to do. Nerves take over and it's never my best presentation. Here are some ways technology can help! 

Create a brochure handout for parents and use that as a guide to help you be sure you stay on track and cover all of the important points. 

Here is a template for a PowerPoint document. I find this to be much easier to work in than Word templates. You can easily change the text and pictures to customize it and add some cute! 

Here's a sneak peak at mine:

You can also create a Smart Notebook file or PowerPoint to show. I like to have my parents use the pen tools to sign in on the Smartboard. They love trying it out!

 Lots is lost over summer vacation. Sharpen a pencil and your student handwriting too!  Here's a link to a great site where you can create D'Nealian handwriting worksheets for free!

At a recent training, I was introduced to Voki. You or your students can create a talking avatar customized to resemble you to deliver any message you like. Yes, it talks and in different languages if you like! A Voki can be added to a PowerPoint, Website or blog. It's a real attention grabber! There are lots of tutorials on the site to help you along!

A day late...

Here's my Made it Monday and a Must Have from yesterday. This is a poster set for displaying common core I can statement posters and daily learning objectives in an organized way. It has several large posters with a variety of wording and lots of mini-posters for just about every subject area I could think of! I bought a set of fantastic common core posters and had no organized way of displaying them. Must have cute and color-coordinating things!

Focus Wall Poster Set

My Monday made it is not really a DIY or anything but this is what I brought home!

63 posters printed, laminated and nearly all cut out! 

I'm so excited about my new posters and can't wait to get them up! 

Look at these fabulous sets! 

My CAFE board

Table signs (my freebie on TPT), lesson plan book cover, welcome sign and name poster from Christie! If you know where to find her, please let me know so I can link this! I bought and downloaded so many great things recently, I'm losing track!

Genre posters from Ladybug's Teacher Files

Great stuff huh?

 

Teacher Bling Gift Idea and a Freebie or Two!

Every teacher needs a little bling on her desk! I found these rhinestone travel mugs at Walmart! This is what I will give to my rockin' teammates as a back to school gift. I think they'll love it!

Click the picture to download the gift tags!

I just finished making some table signs for the classroom. These will add some color to the room for sure! This is a freebie in my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop.

I'll be back on Saturday to announce the winners of the giveaway! It's been lots of fun! 

Smartboard Stuff Fantastic Freebie Finds

While enjoying my morning coffee, I found a few wonderful resources for the SMARTboard that I thought I'd share with you!  I know that many of you are just getting started with your SMARTboard and could use a little help. Creating SMART Notebook files can be challenging and often time-consuming. The Smart Exchange is a great resource, but I found more sites where you can download free files to get started.

Simply First Grade Fun has many math files for grades K-2. I just downloaded a super cute back to school bingo file to use on the first day of school.

Mrs. Sears website has tons of great files for every type of lesson and theme! You should go check it out and see if there are some freebies there to grab!

Even though I have had my SMARTboard for a few years, I find that I just don't have to time to create all of the files I want! The Smart Lesson Stop is site to purchase lessons for all subjects. Most files are only $2.50 which I think is a great buy! I have a fun and interactive Calendar Math file, a Gingerbread Man file and a few others at my shops too!

I just created a new Classroom Decor Set called Classroom Crazy! It will be posted later today I hope! Here's a preview! It is editable with the exception of the welcome banner and word wall alphabet.

Did I tell you I bought black fabric for my bulletin boards? It's a little unconventional for a second grade classroom, but I have zebra, neon and white accents and borders so It will be very bright when I get things hung up.

Have you entered the giveaway? There's still time! Since my building is closed this week, I brought home buckets of cutting to do! I just printed and laminated the Cafe Poster Set I'm giving away as one of the prizes! I can't wait to hang it up!

Have a super day!