This was the last week before break...

My kiddos were CRAY! But we had a super week filled with lots of fun activities and "learning."

We made our ornaments to decorate our tree at school and their trees at home! They turned out better than I had even expected.

I cut out the circles and the stands for the snow globes. Students got some white paint and made "snow flakes" on them! After they dried I put their pictures on the globe! Then I laminated them. I just love how they turned out! 

A year ago, I was blogging a lot about my new house. We were in the middle of building and had just gotten the front door on! I just love Facebook's Time Hop for reminders like this. The whole process brought back such good memories of building our home. 

I just LOVE it!

Our little school really gets in the Christmas Sprit! Each morning, on the last week before break, after announcements, we play a school wide BINGO game. The kids look forward to this all of December. Student council pulls the words and uses them in a sentence and it's a race between classrooms to see who gets a BINGO and calls the office first! Friday is a cover all...the competition is REAL. Everyone will be racing to call the office. I'm sure of secretary loves this.. HA!

The winner gets baby candy canes. Today, Santa will also be making a stop into all the rooms. Boy oh boy, the room is sure to be chaotic for sure! 

This is Polar Express week. I can hardly get through the last two pages without choking up every. single. year. I just love this story! We have been working through the book with my {Polar Express pack}. I updated it this year, and I'll just brag a little...it's pretty awesome. 

We have sorted vocabulary words, played a matching game, and used them in a zillion sentences. I even noticed students using these words in their writing! I'm working on transforming the way I teach vocabulary and so far its having a positive effect!

We have sequenced important points in the story. Students enjoyed this more than I thought they would. It was like a puzzle for them. 

We also colored nouns and did a super hard word search that I did not make. Even the most advanced kids were struggling with it, but they did not give up!! These kids were determined to finish that word search! 

The Good:

My sweet friend from Education Lahne gave me this super cute clipboard!! I'm obsessed with R's, chevron, and gold...and boy did she know that!! I also LOVE the Tiffany blue that is in with the gold! This is just so me! My amazing husband let me open one gift tonight...and it was a big one! I LOVE Oreos. They are my weakness. I can eat the whole pack in one night, one setting, one hour. (trust me.)

We do not ever buy Oreos because of this... Well, I ate one whole row tonight. And my stomach hurts:) #worthit

The Bad:

OMG This kid had JUST asked me to sharpen this nub of a pencil...after I said no way, not even a full minute later I hear, "MRS. RIGSBY!!!..." UGHHH I was soooo angry!! The pencil sharpener didn't even work in the first place, which he knew. This Christmas break is much needed, for everyone!

Head over to {Doodle Bugs Teaching} to find out what everyone else is up to! 

This week we worked really hard on getting things ready for our October bulletin board! Let me preface this with, " I HATE doing a bulletin board..." It's my least favorite thing ever, honestly. I'd take parent/teacher conferences and PD the day before school starts any day over trying to make my bulletin board cute, but this month is different! You know it's a big deal when your teacher neighbor calls you out on Facebook! 

We started with making a pumpkin using a glyph that I loved! It came from {Teacher's Take-Out}. We read the directions, and highlighted our answers. Then out came the construction paper! We wrote a rough draft describing our pumpkins, and typed them up today! I finished my board this afternoon! 

My favorite part is my "Happy Fall" banner! Get it {here} for free! {KG Fonts} are my absolute FAVORITE! 

Like I said earlier, we typed our first paper today! I cannot believe how smoothly this went! The kids opened Word, indented, typed, and many of them changed the font and size all by themselves! I was very impressed and proud of my kids for either already knowing these skills or picking them up so fast!

My friends over at {Classroom Friendly Supplies}have some exciting news to share soon!

I can't spill the beans yet, but you won't want to miss it! Keep your eyes open! If you haven't heard about the quietest pencil sharpener, click {here} to read my review!

Since we have happily ended our relationship with Accelerated Reader, my kiddos have been working hard on getting in the hang of their new reading routine. I have been slowly introducing them to the different things they are going to be doing with the books they read. I can't wait to really get started and start making commercials and hosting book talks! If you want to check out this pack, head over to {my store}!

This may have been me a little this afternoon. We have been reading the story Super Storms, which is one of my favorites because I love storms.  We watched YouTube videos of hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, and lightning storms. We ended the lesson with a little Ms. Frizzle and The Magic School Bus. These are so fun and even a little educational! 

Head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to find out what everyone else is up to!

Here we go!

Our school was able to finally get a subscription to {IXL}! In my room, I use IXL for RTI small groups. My students are able to review skills we have recently covered. They have a math and language arts program! The kids seem to really enjoy it so far. The only issue I have with IXL is the program doesn't have the option for students to have problems read to them. The beginning of second grade is a little rough with the reading everything on their own. With this being RTI time, I am also meeting with my group and just cannot read all the questions to the kiddos. 

I am not ashamed to admit I let a former second grader, current third grader, grade our math morning work for me! Luckily, he just had to make sure the work was completed! Morning work always includes a math review page from the lesson the previous day. Students take turns going to the board to work the problems after work time is over. As long as students follow along and fix their mistakes, they get full credit.

We have went noun crazy! One of my favorite beginning noun activities is to label the nouns around the classroom! I hand out 5-6 Post-Its and set the timer! They scramble around the room, covering it in Post-Its! It is so fun!

All the nouns in my room stood out, bright and orange! Even if mouse was spelled moose! Close enough!

Last year, I had a little bit of a {rough crew}. I was totally exhausted each day, many margaritas and bottles of wine were consumed, and boy was I grouchy! They were totally wild! This year, my kids are ANGELS, almost all 17 of them! My groups are so peaceful and switching gears goes so smooth! They listen to what I say, at least by the second time I say it! I just LOVE it! Look at these kiddos in the picture: ACTUAL BUDDY READING HAPPENING HERE! This was the view of my room all over!! All the kids were EEKK, taking turns, and reading (not all that quietly, but they were reading!)!! This year is going to be amazing, I know already!

Confession: I have owned one pair of tennis shoes since...senior year of high school...they were cheer shoes. My friends make fun of my shoes anytime I workout(which is not often) and beg me to buy new ones( Megan, you are welcome!). Well, I finally (after 10 years) got some new kicks! I love them so far! WAYYY less embarrassing than the cheer shoes! I still only wear them at home when I run, and never in public( I have an issue with my feet and tennis shoes), but I have new ones!

Head over to {Doodle Bugs Teaching} to check out what else is happening in classrooms all around!

We FINALLY got to move into the new house!!! 

Who wants to come for dinner!? haha! Everything has been such a mess... and you can't see it but there are boxes of food all over the floor in the middle over there! It took me all week to get everything arranged and set up in the kitchen. The poor table looked like this for a while! 

Everything got put away eventually and now it looks like this!

 We did some super fun "eggsperiments" last week! The one is my favorite of the year! I haven't gotten a chance to post  the directions yet...we don't have internet at the new house yet! I'm about to go nuts! 

This one teaches Newton's first law of motion: Objects at motion tend to stay in motion and objects at rest tend to stay at rest. Kids "Karate" chop the plate(object in motion) and the egg drops right into the cup (object at rest). 

The lip on the paper plate grabs the toilet paper tube while the egg drops directly into the cup! The kids love doing this! It takes quite a few eggs though! 

At the end of the nine weeks, our school does something fun for the kiddos. The first nine weeks is a school relay, the second is Christmas Bingo, and for the third: Game Day! We collect board games from each teacher and put kids in groups of about 15 students. They have about 45 minutes to play the games in their group! It is a great way to have the little students get to play with the older ones. It's a great time and a break from technology. Sometimes kids just need to play!

I wasn't assigned a group to monitor this year, so I was able to walk around and see what all my past kiddos were playing! 

We have been working on fractions the past two weeks. I love doing fractions! 

We went outside to make fractions with sidewalk chalk!

We made fractions with the consonants and vowels in our names! {This a freebie} in my {store} if you want to check it out! We used it like a Scoot game or Task Cards. Once they remember what is a vowel and what is a consonant, they do great! 

We also made some Fraction Friends from {Amy Lemons}! They turned out the cutest! 

This made me crack up! Do you get it!?

Have an awesome weekend!