My First Week in 2nd Grade!

Wow, I can't believe it's been a week and a half since school started! It's been super busy and fun! I love 2nd grade.

Monday was Back To School Night! I got to meet all my students and their families. Everyone was so excited to see the classroom and ready to go back to school!

This is a bulletin board my husband helped me hang outside my classroom! I printed the word WELCOME and the Melon Headz Kidlettes on 11x17 paper to make them large enough for the board. The board is actually a piece of foam board used under siding on houses - we got it at Menards and used removable mounting tape to attach it to the wall. I got this idea from my new colleges. Our hallway  looks so nice, each teacher has a board outside their classroom!

I gave out these flip books to parents who attended so they would know a little more about our classroom! I got the template and instructions for making this Kelly at First Grade Fairytales!

School started Wednesday! My morning started out with this treat from our wonderful principal...

It's so nice to know you are appreciate as a teacher! Made for a great start to my day!

Here's a look at our first three day plans...

 

Here's some of those activities in pictures...

Getting started on name tags first thing! My class is full of artists! They love to draw and color, many of them brought the mega packs of markers, 150 shades! Every time we do an activity they ask if they can color or decorate it! Love it!!

Here's what the name tags look like on the door next to our classroom pledge poster!

We practiced lots of procedures and went over classroom rules. We used this "Classroom Rules" book from Amy Lemons! I love it, we wrote about each rule, drew a picture of what it would look like, and then wrote about how we can follow that rule.

At the end of the book is a contract that says I will do my best and follow the rules, the students signed it and took them home to share with their parents.

We also did this cut and paste what should I do/not do activity from Amy's Pack, and the good choice/bad choice cards. I had the kids "vote with their feet" when I read the scenario from the card if they thought it was a good choice they went to the right side of the room, bad choice left side of the room. Then we discussed each one. I loved everything in this pack! It really helped us get off to the right start.

We made a 2nd graders Can-Have-Are map together, and then they paired up and added new thoughts to a map of their own. Great practice in partner work and choosing a good place in the room to work.

They are great thinkers, they came up with awesome responses!

We compared and contrasted first and second graders.

We used the same process practicing how to work in pairs, use the correct voice level, and pick a good spot to work. Both of these Activities came from Babbling Abby's  Super Second Graders Pack. We also did the "My first week" book and First Day Jitters activities from this pack. All of them were great!

I introduced myself using this idea I got from Jodi at Fun in First grade. The kids LOVED it, Jodi has the tags to put on the bag free on her blog! I was so impressed with what students brought and how well they presented them!

 I made labels for all of our folders and notebooks. We took some time to get them set up and organized.

I printed all of them on label paper so they were easy to attach and the kids were able to do it themselves.

 

We made these "All about me" pennants that I will make into a banner for our classroom. I got the template from Brittany on TPT for free.

We read the "I can Be a Pal" Poem and did the activity from Kristen Smith's I can be a Pal unit. I love this unit, it has great activities for creating a classroom community!

We made this craftivity to record our goals for 2nd grade! Almost everyone wants to learn to write in cursive by the end of this year! This Activity came from Linda Kamp - Go For the Goal craft.

 

 

I love how they turned out, they are now hanging on the bulletin board in the hall.

And we practiced our reading fluency a LOT! They are already great at it! The first full week we were able to start meeting with the teacher because these guys already had 15 min. of reading stamina! I am so excited to start introducing more centers and they can't wait either.

I can't wait to share more with you. The last week we began our reading and math interactive notebooks, and dove into the curriculum a little more. I will be back to post about it soon!

Thanks for reading, hope you are all having a great beginning to your school year, or enjoying the last of your summer if you haven't started back yet!