Lessons With Coffee: SEPTEMBER SLANTbox Sign Ups are NOW Open

Lessons With Coffee: SEPTEMBER SLANTbox Sign Ups are NOW Open: Hey all.  I am packing for my trip to Europe so I will not be writing a whole ton here.  However September EVERYONE should be back in sc...

Chewin' Gum in Class

We conquered this week. Got (almost) everything done so with a bit of free time we did a super fun activity. The kids had a great time with an awesome gum exploration I found on TpT from BabblingAbby!

They had a ball as they predicted the favorite of their classmates, listed nouns, verbs and adjectives, wrote, graphed and chewed!

Of course, as luck would have it, we had a visitor from the office mid-chew so I was sure to explain the WHY behind the gum :)

Room with a View

I gotta say... 

I love my view everyday!

Drum Roll Please...

And he shall be named Willie 

for we read a book about a dog named Willie 

the day we voted on a name. 

We are Rocking Second Grade Already!

Every day gets better and better as far as the kidlets remembering rules and how to transition. We are getting through a lot more of the planned day! 

We created some fantastic joining stories...

And we did an AMAZING job with our first bubble maps! I love the kids illustrations of Mean Jean!

I adore these kids - what a great bunch of little learners!

Welcome to our new class pet!

Yet to be named (voting tomorrow) but completely adorable - welcome little piggie!!! 

Loved by the whole class already - even though he relieved himself upon introductions! 

Exciting News Coming....

All I'm going to say now is that I got a grant from this amazing organization...

Back to School and Weekends Look Like This...

I had to cover these journals so kiddos could use them. It's always amazing to me what kids will come up with when given a blank slate, paper, glue, scissors and time!

About Us

Our About Me boxes are amazing! The kiddos did a spectacular job showing who they are! 

Whoa! Great match this weekend!

About Me Box

Cannot wait to see my students' About Me boxes tomorrow!

Day 2 and Room Reveal

Holy Moly did we get a lot done today! We started our new social studies today, made lots of anchor charts, did some word play with The Recess Queen (LOVE that book), took a Words Their Way assessment (oh that's fun to score!), we made our math journals, took a big math assessment, listed to Chrysanthemum and wrote about our feelings. We learned the difference between tools and toys in math and started our word wall!

Did not take one picture of our day because we were busy the ENTIRE time! The kids are getting use to the routine and each day is better than the last! It's going to be a GREAT year!
And...
Here's our room...

Our first day...

Whoa! We hit the ground running today! After briefly meeting my awesome 20 we skeedattled to the gymatorium for a welcome assembly.

We learned some vocabulary with First Day Jitters, took a phonics assessment, decided on our rules, learned some procedures and found out what a mathematician is and wrote about our first day! And then we turned our writing into a snazzy hat! 

Can't wait for tomorrow! 

Room Reveal!

Those of you following know I've spent a good amount of time getting ready for this year. Heck, it started last spring with organizing EVERYTHING! 

But I feel like all of my hard work has paid off because our room is not only beautiful but functional - I gave great thought to the placement of everything to ensure good flow, ease of movement, simplicity, interest and  access. Cannot wait for Wednesday!

Until then, two more days at the beach!

But now.... Room reveal - with close ups on Wednesday! 

I Need a Pencil

This is one of our supply bins. Wouldn't it be amazing if it looked like this at the end if each day?

I'm assigning a couple supply bin monitors to be in charge of zhoozhing up bins before we go home and know this picture will help them remember how it should look. 

Here's to an organized and amazing year!!

BTS 2014 Day 5

Wow! Today was productive but slow. 

I was up and down a ladder more times than I count - adding border, general blinging of the boards. The kiddos have beautiful walls to fill with amazing work! 

I finished setting up our library and sorted out  our guided reading. 

I put up the curtain I made to hide some storage. Why must FOSS kits be so ugly?

And a peek at our science board...

And... finally --- I got my class list! I can't wait to put faces to the names and get to know these new kiddos!

B2S2014 4 Outa 5!

I have no idea what I accomplished from 7am to 3:10pm today.

I know I was in my classroom and it involved going through bags of summer conference materials and loading up a book carousel, setting up a listening center, rearranging things after my rugs were returned... and I know it involved compiling a homework binder For.The.Entire.Year. 

And  I know my back hurts. 

That is all.

BTS 2014 Day 3

Gotta say. It's Wednesday and I'm mildly freakin out.  Two more days to set up before our staff PD! Two days people. I don't know if it'll all come together. 

Today was a lot of setting up - writing center, math area, my curriculum binders... 

I have a lot left to do though and time is getting short. 

On the other hand, though, I did make a little TPT math fact tracking tool - can't wait to get that going with the kiddos this year!

KinderGals: Math Workshop-Classroom Set Up 2014

KinderGals: Math Workshop-Classroom Set Up 2014: It seems that we all give our language arts block lots of attention and time and it seems that often math is something that happens in more of a traditional direction instruction type way.  With the huge range of levels in my class - a workshop model is mandatory!

I love this blog post - especially as I move into a workshop model across all content this year! Eeek!

BTS 2014 Part 2

It doesn't feel like much was accomplished in my room today but I did get to do a few blingy things that the kiddos will (hopefully) enjoy!

First, I spray painted and glittered letters for our library! I hope the message isn't too subtle and they learn to love, love, love reading this year!

Second, I made our birthday board! I just need to buy one more goodie to go inside and put the month labels on... once I know who my kiddos are and their birthdays.

Last, I finished our front door. 

I  struggled a bit with this one. I made little dolphin name tags but I think it'd be a case of more is too much (GASP!) so I'm planning to add names to the fish and bubbles. 

At least that's the plan today :)

And the for real last, I took advantage of the TPT sale and bought an awesome interactive math notebook packet. I've done journals for math every year but this takes it up a notch!

OH.MY.GOD! And the for reals last and best thing? We're doing Pen Pals! That's right! Dixon's Darling Dolphins will be communicating with a 2nd grade class in North Carolina and I am so, so, so excited about this!

B2S Room Set Up!

I am so excited to start the new year - meet my students - get to know my awesome families - and get to learning! But first - I need to tackle this...

Ok.  Today was day one of the B2S organizing and decorating bonanza. It was a short day - trying to figure out where to put the new tables (YES! No.More.Desks!!!) and how best to arrange the new computer tables. 

I did make progress though and tackled a couple fun projects like fixing up our awesome book carousel!

Next - day two awesomeness! Stay tuned...

Learning Lessons With Mrs.Labrasciano: Monday Made It - Continuous Ink Supply System

Learning Lessons With Mrs.Labrasciano: Monday Made It - Continuous Ink Supply System: I'm linking up with the fabulous Tara from  4th Grade Frolics  for another Monday Made It! I thought that I was excited last week ...