This year, the second routine I introduced to my class when we were learning our routines for Daily 5 was Read to Someone. In hindsight, I should have introduced this as the last of the five routines so my students had several weeks of reading in an I-can-hear-a-caterpillar-sneeze environment. When my
In my previous post about implementing The Daily 5, I outlined my weekly and daily schedule to provide some perspective on the block of time dedicated to Daily 5 in my second grade class. If you missed it, you can read my first post. The schedule I outlined was tweaked
This August, I made the decision to implement The Daily 5 in my second grade classroom. In planning for teaching a new grade level at a new school with a completely different structure for reading instruction, I figured Daily 5 would be my best bet for incorporating guided reading into
On Monday, September 15, our entire school celebrated International Dot Day. I am so grateful to my colleague who introduced this special day when educators can encourage student creativity and genius potential, inspired by Peter Reynold’s book The Dot. When the kids arrived at school on Monday morning, signs reading “Make
I finally feel like I have my feet on the ground after a whirlwind start to the school year. Teaching a new grade level at a new school has been an amazing experience, but has also left me very sleepy and slightly intensely scatter-brained. For this week’s Five for Friday Linky, I’m
Organization is my jam. It’s hard to say what I enjoy more; the therapeutic process of organizing every nook and cranny of a space; or the satisfaction I feel when I walk into a room or open a cabinet and see the organized glory within it. Although I do, indeed,
It’s Day 2 of Blog Hoppin’s Back To School Week 2014. Today is all about where I teach my students each day. Keep in mind, I am teaching a new grade level in a new district this year, which means a fresh start with classroom decorating. This also means my classroom is
It’s officially Back To School Week! Like many of you, this is one of my favorite weeks of the year. In celebration, I am linking up with BlogHoppin’ for their Back To School Linky. Today’s topic: Who. ME that’s who! I’m going to break my life down into a list
Okay, I’m trying something crazy here. I am morphing my classroom progress post into a Five for Friday post…let’s see how this goes!! One To start my week, I unpacked my classroom and I am happy to report it was a total breeze! Taking time to clean and pack everything
I have been looking forward to sharing this post with you all week and the time has finally come thanks to the Back To School Product Swap! I had a great opportunity to review a fabulous back to school resource; the Beginning of The Year Lapbook, designed by my friend and
It happens every year. Everything is chill. Summer is strolling along, you know the end will come eventually, but it’s allllll good. You kick back with your feet up, take a sip of your favorite summer beverage, think about how maybe you should get a pedicure today, and scroll through your
Well, it took me two days to recover but I am back (mentally and physically) from the first ever Teachers Pay Teachers Conference! The mental recovery was far more intense than the physical after a weekend filled with tons of nerves, amazing learning, new friendships and awesome memories. I