Second Year Teaching Second Grade!

I told myself that I would keep my mind teacher free until I was back from Beaver Lake. The week I got back, I went back into my classroom and started getting it ready. It was SO much easier this year than last year. I was able to really organize and go through things. It feels more open than how I had it organized last year. More room for the kiddos to move around. A little tour...

My desk area

Color chart, Punch cards, Writing materials

AR/Math Wizard posters

My word wall at the front of the room

All those reading tubs drive me nuts but I moved them down so it'd be easier to get to them. We're still using the materials but creating things to be more Common Core aligned. Hoping this year is easier than last year planning everything!

Math manipulatives, flashcards, and games

Where most of the learning takes place :)

My helper getting things ready! The only problem was he picked up being protective and barking over the summer from Rambo. He was on high guard being in a dark school! Rambo taught Bear how to bark and Bear taught Rambo how to swim better. 

LOVE my new carpet in the classroom library area. 

Classroom Library

We have been busy this week learning the rules and procedures! I was more relaxed on getting through things this week and tried not to stress. We pushed a lot of things to the next day if things took longer than I thought. I have 23 kiddos starting the year off! They have all been really sweet. We used a lot of Kagan Classroom Building Structures getting to know each other this week and played a lot of games. We're already getting started into the curriculum this week which is crazy to think about.

Our Bulletin Board. We're going to use these to put on the door as the students receive Terrific Kid throughout the year. We used sharpies to go over our words and the kids really took some time to color them. They looked great! 

I planned a few Chrysanthemum lessons one afternoon. We completed a story map as a class, discussed things that made us wilt or bloom, made new words out of our names, and created these flowers.
The number of petals are the number of letters in the name and number of leaves is the number of syllables in their name.
I did this at the end of the school year last but decided it was perfect for the beginning of the year to get to know each other and talk about how everyone is unique and special. :)

Survived the first week, onto the second. :)

Summer 2014 Update

I wish I would have kept up with the blog through the first year of teaching. Needless to say, teaching took over my life and it didn't happen. I just finished my first week of my second year and I'm going to try to update it more often!
I had a really relaxing summer. Already missing it! Lots of time at the pool, lake, and spending time with the pups. Bear has gotten so big over the summer. He just turned nine months. :)

These three pups were my three amigos over the summer. 

We went back to Beaver Lake towards the end of summer. Love our annual lake trips. The place my Mom and Austin found was amazing! My brother came down with my nephews for part of the time which was a lot of fun. Momma Linda of course made a feast for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We're already planning our lake trip for next year. Nothing better than relaxing and floating in the water! 

The most important boys in my life! :) 

The older I get the more appreciative I am of everything this woman does for me. 

Love this guy. 

Miles is going to be a heart breaker!

Carter's frog he caught. He talked about getting a pet all vacation. 

Austin and my Mom named the boat after my Grandpa.

We've been going to Tuttle since we've been back and the water is 100% different! It was so nice to be able to see your feet and it being clear. Then coming back here, it's so dirty! We've still had a great time though. Sad that the weekends are limited but that just means football season is around the corner!

Hanging out at Council Grove at Caitlin's lake house. 

The Bittners at Tuttle. 

It was a great summer but I'm fully back into teacher mode. Missing the stress free days already. :)