It's Been a Busy Week

This has been my first week back to school.  Needless to say it's been a busy week.  It's 11:00 central time on a Sunday night and I'm now just starting to plan for my week and getting ready for Curriculum Night this Wed.

Speaking of Curriculum Night I have a free download of "An Apple for the Teacher" poem that I always use for Curriculum Night.  It is always important to let parents know that their involvement with their child is very important and that both parents and teachers need to work together. 
I have this in a baggie on each of the students' desk when the parents arrive. 

I see that I'm just 15 followers shy of 200.  So if you are not a follower yet; please be sure to do so.  When I reach 200 followers.  I will have another giveaway from the Teaching Oasis. 

Within the next week I will upload pictures of my classroom.

For my clip chart fans

This summler while creating the themed clip charts I had several requests for notes for good/bad behavior.  So I created clip chart notes available at The Teaching Oasis.  The notes are for Outstanding Behavior and an Oops note if a note is to go home to the parents.

For the Outstanding Behavior I write what the student did that day to move their clip up.  So many times at our school-  students go home and say that they made it to the top of the chart, but they don't always know/remember what they did.

For the Oops note I have the student write what it is they did that resulted in their clip moving down.  The student also writes what they will do next time to make a better choice.  Having students write in their own words/handwriting makes it harder for parents to say their child did nothing wrong.  (We all have a couple of those parents I'm sure.)

Currently I only made the clip chart notes for the themes I made the clip charts for.(If I forgot one please let me know.)  Since the clip charts have been so popular I will do my best to create clip charts for the rest of themes sometime during the school year.  Here's the sample of the Hollywood clip chart notes.

Tomorrow I will be back with an idea for a year long reading incentive for your classroom.

Problem Solving2

Just realized I forgot a problem solving strategy.  Write an Equation.  So add this to the others.

I will be adding more Problem Solving ideas this school year.  So check back often. 

Problem Solving

So as a kid I hated problem solving (word problems).  I dreaded working on those problems.  As a teacher I don't want my students dreading word problems as much as I did.  With the common core standards problem solving activities is going to be a must do.  So I've been trying to come up with activities to help students with this.  I created these problem solving posters.  So many times students don't know why they do what they do.  This year I want to emphasize thinking/think alouds in math. 

This is a good visual to start students with the math extended reponses.  Be sure to check out the Teaching Oasis for more Problem Solving ideas and for extended response ideas check out the Show and Tell Math.

Pinterest Linky Party

Usually don't post twice in a day, but when I saw this Linky Party I just couldn't resist. So head on over to Michele's Math in the Middle.  Pinterest is a great place to organize all the great ideas you find when searching blogs.  I will warn you in advance if you haven't checked out Pinterest- it is quite addicting, but it's well worth it because you will come away with many great ideas.

 This past weekend I started my own Pinterest page. You can find this by clicking on the red button on the top of my side bar.

Open House

This past school year I stalked many of blogs and received so many great ideas.  The problem was you would see these wonderful ideas being posted after a holiday/season.  So I just had to file away that idea for next year. 

Hope to plan and share some ideas ahead of time so that followers of my blog can use seasonal ideas this year.  We usually have our Open House in Sept. so I was going through some of my Open House ideas.  I have shared this scavenger Open House doc. on my classroom website for years and have gotten many requests to make that a fillable doc.  So here it is.  Just remember it is fillable not editable doc.  I created the boxes so you have room to type out two lines of text in each box.

So if you like this document and like to see more Open House Ideas be sure to let me know by leaving a comment below.  So I know what you would like to see more of when I blog. 

Be sure to also check out my classroom website for more ideas on Open House. (The same file of above is on there, but that one is not fillable.)

http://secondgradelockerroom.com/open_house_ideas.html



Everyday Games for Math Centers

This past weekend one of my neighbors were having a moving sale.  They were selling many of the games their children had when they were kids.  Well I found three games and I thought would make great games for math centers. No papers to check and would keep students busy for a quite awhile when I'm working with small groups.

Number Sense

A game for 2-4 players.  Object of the game:  Get your rack of cards in order from least to greatest first. 

I would start off by having kids order 4 cards from least to greatest and then increase the number.

Adding 3 Digit Numbers

Add up your points as you match up the Tri-ominos.  For younger students you can have them just match up the numbers for recognition.  2^nd graders and up and add up the three numbers as they discard the Tri-ominos.  Students can play according to the directions or you can adapt it to fit the needs of your class.

Students use skill and strategy to create sequential stacks of cards.  The winner is the first player to use all their cards in their stack pile.

Here’s another game that I have in my classroom that I purchased from Learning Resource.

I ran out of score sheets so I created a new sheet of my own.  You can also have students just write the math equations on dry erase boards to save paper.  (I know our district is always on our case about making too many copies.)

Back to School Freebie

This week I finally get to go into my classroom and upack.  I have two weeks to get my classroom ready and of course there are meetings/workshops already before school starts.  I'm starting to get stressed that it won't all get done by the first day. I hope to start posting some pictures (that's if I can find my camera that I packed up in my room.)

Well here's a back to school freebie for everyone.  I know we all get those students who never write their name on anything.  Having students highlight there name has cut down on the amount of no name papers.

Another way to make it easier to track down no name on papers is to have a basket.  On the rim of the basket have clothespins with either student names/numbers.  When students turn in their work they just look for their clip.  I do this for turning in homework.  It makes it real quick and easy to see who turned in their homework.  

Last update on Clip Charts

  **Themed Clip Charts for Purchase**
Are now available at the Teaching Oasis.  These are the themes that are available for purchase:
bee, camping, detective, frog, groovy, Hollywood, ocean/beach, pirate, polka dot, rock star, safari/jungle sports/baseball, star, Seuss, and western.

An apple theme is available for free.
All of the clip charts can be found on the classroom theme page.  Just click on the theme.

Aug. 8th- I can finally get back to my classroom.  During the next two weeks I will be unpacking my classroom and have several meetings to attend.  So I will not be creating any new clip chart themes at this time.

Recipe Linky Party

This week I'm taking a graduate class and it got me thinking about planning out recipes to make for quick and easy dinner ideas. I know during the school year we all are exhausted and the last thing we want to do is fix dinner. I know I enjoy picking up the cell phone and ordering pizza or chinesse food. That can get to be expensive and not always the healthy choice. (I always like to use left overs for lunch.) My goal this year is to make more homemade meals that are easy to prepare after an long day.

When the linky party is over I will post all the recipes collected into one document to share with everyone.  So you have a favorite recipe to share.  It could be a main dish, side, or a dessert. (my favorite.)
Here's a recipe to get us started:

Zesty Chicken Nacho Bake

4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves
3/4 cup chunky salsa
1/4 cup sour cream

3/4 cup crushed tortilla chips
3/4 cup shredded Mexican Style four-cheese blend

Preheat oven to 400.
Place chicken on foil-covered baking sheet. Slice 3 cuts on top of each chicken breast with sharp knife.
Top each chicken breast evenly with salsa, sour cream and tortilla chips.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven; sprinkle with cheese.
Bake an additional 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Back To School Freebie

Reading many of the blogs I follow I am amazed at how many schools have started or will be starting next week.  I thought our district started early.  So to celebrate going back to school I have a freebie. All I ask is if you download the file be sure to become a follower of my blog if you haven't done so already.

Since homework is something that students will be doing during the school year-  It is important that students set up a homework plan.  Here's a freebie for students to fill out along with their parents to set up a homework plan of their own. 

I either give out the homework plan on the first day of school or during Open House.  Both days you are sure that this sheet gets in the hands of the parents.

If you like that idea, you may also like this one.  On the first day of school I send home a Parent Brag Sheet.  This is homework for the parents.  The students love the idea that their parents have homework to do.  Parents fill out a form telling/bragging about their child.  There have been times where I had tears reading the parents comments about how proud they are of their children.  If you are interested in this check it out here at the Teaching Oasis.

Parent Brag Sheet

(Look under "Other Documents")