And So It Begins

     Wednesday was our first official day of school. I love that we start on Wednesday, it gives me time to ease back into our school routine. For the first time in two years, I have a brand new to me class, so we spent a lot of time practicing routines and procedures. We used the conversation starters from Amy Lemons and Hope King's Back 2 School Engagement Made Easy unit to get to know each other and practice our partner talk procedures. These students were really good listeners; they could always tell what their partner said when asked.

     Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes is one of my favorite back to school read alouds. Before we read, I told the students I wanted them to pay attention to how Lilly feels as different events happen in the story. As we read, I stopped at a couple of places to have them predict how Lilly was feeling after different events. Then we brainstormed Lilly's different feelings and added them to our chart. 

     We also started our self portraits. I love to do self portraits at the beginning and end of the year to see how much their abilities grow.  The students were pretty impressed with their drawing skills. On Thursday and Friday, we finished our portraits, created our all about me flap books, and then mounted our finished products on construction paper to display in the hallway. Both activities are from  Amy and Hope's Back 2 School Engagement unit. I'm so proud of how they turned out. 

      We review and practiced our rules using activities from my Classroom Rules Pack. 

     We also read Edward the Emu and used the predictions activities from Amy Lemons and Katie King's Rooted in Reading August unit. The students were excited to set up and begin using their reading notebooks. I can already tell I have a deep thinkers like this sweetie.

     My own boys started 1st and 5th grade this week. My step-son starts his sophomore year on Monday. Time seems to be moving so very quickly. 

                                      

    

     

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Classroom Rules

     We spent our Social Studies time the first week of school focusing on our classroom rules. On the first day, we introduced the rules. We talked about the rules contract they would discuss with their parents and sign for homework that night. We also sorted situations by whether or not students were following the rules and began working on our classroom rules book.

     On Thursday we sorted situations by the rule students were following. They were really into this! They got a little heated when they were explaining their reasoning. We continued working on our classroom rules book.

      On Friday we had a fill in the blank quiz about our rules. Then we finished up rules book. 

     These activities are from my Classroom Rules Pack. 

Peek at my Week-Back to School

     The first week of school has finally arrived! We have teacher inservice and meet the teacher on Monday. Then on Tuesday we have the day to use at our discretion. We can stay home or come in and work. Finally on Wednesday, the little darlings arrive! I am super excited because I will have two of my classes from last year.

     I teacher second grade English Language Arts and Social Studies in a university model of education school. We are a K-11th grade school this year. Next year, we will add 12th. We have two classes in each grade level. This year first though fourth grades will have all four core classes each day, so I'm going back to teaching five days a week after three years of teaching a Tuesday/Thursday only schedule. It's going to be an adjustment for our family, but I am so excited! I will teach 2nd grade ELA and SS in the morning to the B class, and then repeat the lessons in the afternoon for the A class. When the other class is not with me, they are with the math/science teacher. Our elementary students have PE two days a week, music two days a week, and art one day a week. We have a shorter school day; our students have classes from 8:30am until 1:50pm. Once I get my schedule worked out in practice and not just theory, I'll share that with you too.

      On to my plans. You can download the PDF here.

Resources for this week:

Pirates Go To School

Classroom Rules Pack


     Head over to DeeDee's to check out more lesson plans!

Back to School Resources and Sale

      Today begins the Teachers Pay Teachers two day Back to School sale! Here are some resources in my shop that are perfect for back to school.

     My classroom rules pack has rules posters in two sizes. It also have a couple of sorts to help your students understand what following these rules practically looks like. There is a rules contract to be taken home and signed by the teacher, student, and parent. There are also two versions (younger and older) of the Classroom Rules book for students to complete.

     My Pirates Go To School unit has reading, writing, and word work activities that are perfect for the first few days of school. The reading activities focus character traits, setting, and feelings. The word work activities include abc order and syllables. The word work activities are perfect to move into a literacy station. The writing is If pirates were in my class. These activities go with the book Pirates Go To School by Corinne Demas.

     Finally my School is Cool! literacy stations is filled with activities perfect for the beginning of the year and are a review of skills from first grade, but also address second grade TEKS. These stations come in a full color, partial color, and black and white version.

     You can save up to 28% off in my store with the code BTS15. 

Happy Shopping!!!

Classroom Rules Pack

     I just added my Classroom Rules Pack to my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Included in the pack are full and half page size rules poster as well as all the rules on one page.

     There are two different rule situation sorts. The first sort requires students to identify if students are following the rules. The second sort has students identify which of the class rules the situation card is describing.

     There is also a classroom rules book for students to make. The older student version includes a fill in the missing word with space to draw and write about the rule. The younger student version includes the rule and space for students to draw the rule.

     Also included is a fill in the blank worksheet that I use as an assessment at the end of the week, plus a contract to send home for students to review the rules with their parent. The contract has space to be signed by the student, parent, and teacher.

     You can purchase my Classroom Rules Pack here. It is on sale until tomorrow night at 8:00.