Surviving Second Grade

Wow! How is it November already? Cannot believe all that has been going on with my second graders this year. Since this is my first year teaching second I have been learning (and studying!) right along with my students. First, let's start with how my classroom turned out after I was done decorating. I vaguely remember how it looked before the first day. Boy, does it change as soon as you add students to the mix!

It was so fun starting out the year with some familiar faces! Since ten of my students came with me to second grade, I have to say it seemed to be a smoother transition back into school. Not sure if it was because I now have older students at the beginning, if it was because of the familiar faces in my room or both! Here was my First Day of Second Day frame that my sweeties all took their pictures with. I accidentally put 2014 on when I made it and one of my smarties said "Um, Mrs. McNulty, isn't it 2013?" DUH!! Since I didn't bring the number stickers with me to school, I had to cut a three out of construction paper and decorate it a bit to match. Proof that no matter how much we plan, things do not always go as perfectly as we try to! Good thing I have some smart kids to keep me in line!

I had an awesome teacher's assistant cold laminate the pictures and I use them in my Daily 5 and math stations pocket charts. Students (and me!) can easily find their pictures and know which station to go to. I will send them home at the end of the year for a second grade souvenir.

 So, way back in September we reviewed to start the year off! I got this great idea from Katie King over at Queen of the First Grade Jungle. Those short vowel sounds are always the trickiest and this was a great activity to help review.

I posted this awesome sign and practiced the sounds of each vowel.  We used our thumb and index finger to pinch the vowel sound as we said the word, a-a-a-apple and so on.  Katie explains it perfectly on her blog.

Then I had students hold up the vowel sound they heard in each word I called out.  At first I only used words that started with a short vowel sound and then after we practiced that, I added some CVC words.

It is important that each vowel sound has its own color so you can quickly scan the room to see who is comprehending and who needs more practice.

Whew!  That is just the beginning of what we have been working on these past two and a half months, but in the hopes that most of you are still reading this long post, I will stop there for now!  I have been trying my best to remember to take pictures while we are working, so I do have a few more posts coming soon!

-Emily

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Getting there...slowly!

Whew! Teachers have been officially back now for two days. Thursday was spent in long meetings so I didn't get anything done in my room, but Friday was a half day work day! When I finally left at nearly 5:00pm I felt a bit better about my room! As I told my colleagues, I think I could spend another month in my room working and still not feel done. I know most teachers feel the same! So here are a few of the pictures I took yesterday after I started to feel better about my room. Please ignore the large piles of stuff everywhere that still need to be sorted out!

This is a view from the back of my room looking toward the front.  I love my circus tent I picked up at Ikea.  I know the students will be thrilled when they get a chance to read in there!

Another view from the back of the room toward the door.  This large bulletin board is going to be my word wall (once I get my letters and words laminated).  

The final pic is looking from the front of the room toward the back.  As you can see, I still have a lot of things to put away!  Not to mention my walls are pretty bare, but I feel much better than I did last week!

Next week is a lot of meetings and a little bit of time to work here and there, so I am going to be cramming as much I can in as little amount of time as possible.  Thursday night is our big Open House where I get to see my returning students who are looping with me and meet the few new ones I may have.  I see lots of organizing, planning and copies in my near future!

New year new grade

This year is all about new for me, new classroom, new grade level (second) and therefore new standards to learn.  The only thing that won't be new are most of my students since I am looping.  (Yay!!)  My nights are currently spent perusing the Virginia Standards of Learning for grade 2.  Unlike the majority of the nation, Virginia does not use Common Core and has created its own criteria, the SOLs.  No, not that kind of SOL.  This one means Standards of Learning.  (Okay, so we might make jokes on occasion.)  Since my school district has a pacing guide for us to follow, I am slowly checking out September and the corresponding SOLs for each week.

I am also working on my day one plans.  I have a tendency to handwrite a lot of things, even if they will eventually be typed.  So here are my day one plans.  They are slowly starting to come together.  I even have sketched ideas of things I want to create for one of my math lessons.  Once the ideas started following, I had to start a Day 2 at the top.

Of course this is still a very rough draft and I am sure it will see many changes before the first day.  Then there is the fact that sometimes I forget to look at it on the first day because it is so hectic and time flies by!  I usually have WAY more things planned that could ever fit into a normal day.  It is always better to have too much planned than not enough!

So I have some lesson plans going and am learning all my new 2nd grade material.  The big question now is who's going to cut out all my laminating!?!

Getting back into the swing of things

I cannot believe how quickly my summer vacation went by.  (I know, if you had a dime every time you heard an educator say this!)  I have spent a few half days in my NEW classroom and cannot believe it still isn't anywhere close to being ready!  (In my defense, one of those days I had my 8 year old, 6 year old and 2 year old "helping" me.)  Moving rooms is serious labor.  It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff I have accumulated over the years and how much the room I am moving into already has in it!  Then there is the furniture.  Why is it that no matter what room I am in there always seems to be an over abundance of random shaped tables, desks, bookshelves.  It takes me forever to figure out how it is supposed to all fit.  They do know that I am supposed to have students in here too, right?

I only have taken two pictures of my room thus far and they are both of my awesome new curtains that my mom made for me.  She whipped these up for me during our annual vacation in Michigan this summer.

I am going with an owl theme this year.  Aren't these guys adorable!?!   I wanted to make sure they weren't too girly and I believe I succeed!  

I promise to add more pictures this week as teachers go back on Thursday and I hopefully will get some more time to work on making my room welcoming.  I have tons of great ideas in my head (thanks Pinterest), and I am hoping to be able to accomplish all of them!

Oh and I made my first visit to Ikea on the way back from Michigan and purchased some ADORABLE things for my room.  I have not put them together and out yet in an attempt to motivate myself.  I am not allowed to do the "fun stuff" until my room is done.  :)  We'll see if I can actually wait!

Here we are in Ikea!  My oldest son, Keagan, and my daughter, Maddie, are enjoying the free ride.  My youngest son, Gavin (who NEVER stops moving), is pushing the cart...you can see his little crocs behind the cart.  Ahh...never a dull moment!