Teacher Balance...

Sometimes you just have to get away from papers (already graded anyway - BOOM!) and planning and cell phones and internet and tv and just relax. A much needed and much appreciated weekend away to charge me up for tomorrow! What did you do this weekend?

Mr. Roboto...

So last night I had a dream about robots taking over the world. See. I told you it's not easy being me.  Anyway, this week most of us were motivated to get though our work so could do a fun Semi-Directed-But-Pretty-Open Draw. We reviewed shapes and line-- and whipping out the oil pastels is always so much fun!

Get a load of some of our robots! 

Don't worry - these robots are not about to take over the world - but my students might!

Heart Maps

I love doing these every year. They reveal so much about my students and it's such a great way to get to know each of them.  We create heart maps during the launch of Writer's Workshop to help my students get ideas for writing. Some are still in process, but I can't wait to put them up on our wall - they really are works of he-art!

One Book, One School

We are fortunate to have a fantastic librarian who has literally transformed our library!
For the fourth year, we are participating in One Book, One School and tomorrow is the big reveal! My students are so excited. 

I gave them these clues today...

And read some of these books...

But they're still not sure. Tomorrow - all will be revealed! 

They are so excited!

What Does Mrs. Dixon Do At Night?

Covering 44 journals in clear contact paper. I know. Don't be jealous...

Mean Jean, The Recess Queen

Today my kids listened intently to the great word choice in The Recess Queen.  I just love this book and for 2nd graders - it really hits home. Spurred lots of conversation! 

After hearing and talking about Mean Jean, my students brainstormed all the adjectives they could think of to describe Jean and made a Thinking Map. They already know - if we're describing we use a Bubble Map! 

Check out their drawings of and adjectives about Mean Jean!

Reader's and Writer's Workshop

I promise myself every year that I am never doing this again.
Never pulling out the mass amounts of construction paper.
Never cutting huge quantities of scrapbooking paper in half.
Never taking the time to cut and peel contact paper to cover SO.MANY.JOURNALS!
But the students LOOOOOVE it so much! 
Each year my students take the time to create amazing covers for their journals and they become really treasured by the kids (and me).  This year, despite by promise, my students are doing it again. We already created our math journals last week, but today we created our Phonics and Reading Journal and our Grammar and Writing Journal. With their limited time, the kids did great!
Now - on to that contact paper...