Holiday "Eye"-deas!

     The 2nd quarter has arrived and I, for one, am LOVING it!  My kids & I are in a routine, the weather is getting cooler {less humid anyway!}, and the holidays are right around the corner!!  I am a huge fan of all things Halloween, Fall, and Christmas and I enjoy finding ways to incorporate these themes into our learning.   Luckily, there are some pretty AmAzInG teacher bloggers out there who post lots of fantastic ideas to use with your students!  I've been scouring and felt that this one idea in particular just had to be shared.  Check it out below…
     My favorite new *idea* I have started using in our classroom is the "Eye" Like What I See behavior incentive packet created by Katie Knight at Teacher To The Core.  It is precious and is perfect to introduce this month with the goofy, monster-like faces!  Basically, I put up a small "Eye" Like What I See poster on my front white board and, each time the students do something to blow me away/go above and beyond, they earn a smiley face.  10 smiley faces = class reward :)  In addition, I also purchased a small glass jar from Hobby Lobby, filled it with googly eyes, and added a small chalkboard label that says, "All eyes on YOU!".  At the end of each day, the table that has been the most well-behaved gets to keep the jar on their table for the next school day, earns a point for their Class Dojo monster, and their table gets to go first for all of the activities on the following school day.  This incentive program goes hand in hand with the current behavior management program that I use and doesn't take a lot of extra class time or materials to implement.  It has been a great motivator for my students to really work as a team and try their best each day.  It's funny how a little jar of googly eyes can work for 7 & 8-year olds :)  Here are a few pics of the materials that Katie includes in her packet…did I mention it's FrEe on TpT?!?  She rocks!!!

     I'm going to stick with this little program for the 2nd quarter and then change it up in the 3rd quarter when my students come back in January.  Gotta keep 'em on their toes!  Happy teaching!

Poof! It's October!

     I seriously can't believe it's already October!  I am officially in the eighth week of school and I can say that I do feel like my class is "in the groove" now!  Something about October is truly magical…the changing weather, the beautiful fall colors, and the fact that 25 little people finally have our daily routine down is such a great feeling!
     Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of pictures to post this time {I keep forgetting to take pictures of everything!}, but I can say that I am enjoying teaching 2nd grade.  Of course, with every new endeavor there are growing pains and I'm living and learning, but I am proud of my students' progress!  We have begun Daily 5 with Read to Self and the kids have already made it to 18 minutes, 12 seconds!!!  I am so impressed.  Next week, I will introduce Read to Someone and they are pumped about it.  When it's time for Daily 5, the students cheer…what a WoNdErFuL sound to hear!  Now that the students are able to do Read to Self independently, I have started pulling small groups.  I feel that my small groups are very focused, but I have not been using the CAFE forms yet.  With all that comes with a new grade, I just haven't had the time or energy to begin another NEW thing.  I am recording the data from the students' small group work, but just using my own format.
     Speaking of CAFE, I am LOVING the portable CAFE board that I made over the summer.  I use it each week when we are learning our reading strategies.  I choose a student to write down the strategy on a sentence strip and add it to the board, where we reference it daily during our reading time.  It is such a great visual way to keep track of all the strategies we're learning and using.  Definitely something I will keep and continue to use throughout my teaching!
     So, on to the LIST of things that I want plan to do in the next few weeks….

• incorporate more anchor charts into math lessons
• introduce the remainder of our workstations {the students are currently doing computer, library, listening, art & writing…I still need to intro science, math, and iPods!!!}
• begin using the CAFE forms and pensieve

     I am excited to say that we've started celebrating our "Celebrities of the Week" and the students are working hard to be chosen!  I only choose students who follow our class rules and fill buckets, so it is very honorable to be picked.  They are rockstars!!!

     Now that our classroom and all things 2nd grade are under control, I will be posting more often!  Thanks for your patience and I hope your school year is also off to a great start!