I need advice..

Hi Bloggy World!

I am struggling. About 1/2 to 2/3 of my class is struggling with reading. I have about 7 students that are really not catching on to reading, and I am worried. These are 2nd graders and they should be able to read. There are about 7-10 students in my class of 23 that are reading under 25 words a minute with a lot of mistakes. I am doing guided reading groups, but I really want to make it meaningful. If you have any suggestions at all please leave a comment or send me an email. My email address is on the side.

Some of the things I am doing are 1st grade approaching level readers for my lowest group, and some regular 1st grade level readers to build confidence. Also, I am practicing sight words, doing word sorts, and some sounding out word activities. I really want all of my students to succeed, and it is very hard when some are not able to read the basic work. My school is lucky enough to be using lexile reading program, and they really enjoy that. I just want to make sure I am doing everything I can for my wonderful little friends.

Thanks in advance for all the wonderful advice I know many of you have. :)

Have a super Saturday! It is so gorgeous out here for middle of November in Minnesota.

Meg

Currently!

I can't believe it is already November! Loving is my favorite section of this currently! :)

Heigh-Ho Mozart is great! It is all instrumental Disney music! The kids love it! :)

Happy Saturday!

Meg

Week Recap and Happy 50th Day!

This week has been crazy. It has had extreme highs and extreme lows, but it ended on a great note! I am very lucky to have some friends in my room who are absolutely caring and loving. One of my little girls brought me a huge flower and the sweetest note ever today. I pretty much started crying reading it. Here is a picture:

So we did get some learning done this week. My friends have gotten really great at reading centers. Here are some picture of them working really hard!

One of our big focuses this week was the election. Two great packs we have been using are:

 I made these big posters to record our information on Obama and Romney.

At one point, some of my friends starting making fun of someone who liked Romney. I had to explain to my friends that everyone has their own opinion and you wont make fun of someone if they liked oreos and you liked chocolate chip cookies. It really helped them realize that they all like different things. It was really cute.

Today, was our 50th day of school, and my friends were really excited. One of the activities we did was to write "50 Reasons Why We Love School." They were so excited, and I had trouble keeping up with all of their ideas. Number 2 and 3 are definitely my favorite (and I didn't have to bribe them to say it!) :) Here is a picture of our list:

Well, thank goodness it is Friday! I am definitely ready for this weekend. :)

Meg

Happy Halloween from the Cows!

Just a quick post to say, Happy Halloween! At my school, the teachers and students picked costumes from picture books, and we celebrated books! Here I am with my 2nd grade buddy! :)

Good luck with the rest of the week everyone! :)

Meg

WHOOO loves 2 Digit Addition! Owl Freebie

Its Monday, and boy was my Monday eventful. I won't get into it, but I had a special friend lose his cool today. First, I want to send prays to my bloggy friends out East. STAY SAFE! I was teaching my students about hurricanes today, and we decided we would keep happy thoughts for everyone out East.

I wanted to post about a super cute little math owl we made last Friday. We had just finished our 2 Digit Addition unit, and I am happy to say they ROCKED IT! I was very nervous at first because they were just not getting it! We kept our cool, and kept practicing, and all but a couple friends Aced the test! Woo Hoo! To celebrate rocking two-digit addition we got to make this addition owls. They made their owl sorted the problems and we hung them up! Click the picture to take you to the pattern.

Enjoy!

 Happy Early Halloween! I had a fun get together with some friends on Saturday! It was great to see so many friends I don't get to see much! I dressed up as a 60s housewife. It turned out super cute! My co-teacher and I are keeping our school costume top-secret!

Meg

Going Batty and a Freebie!

So I planned on posting about this last Monday, but we all know life happens and I haven't been able to get to my blog all week! My class has been going absolutely batty over this unit!

It is so wonderful, and my friends love it. We have been working so hard, and I believe Jen does the Treasures series just like my school, so the grammer matches up perfectly. I have some pictures to show of my students working so hard and learning about bats! 

One of my favorite activities was the scavenger hunts, and being the bad teacher I am I only took one picture of my friend doing it. This was when we were searching for antonyms.

Another activity my friends loved was creating a venn diagram comparing bats and birds. It was our first time doing venn diagrams this year, but they picked up very quickly. After we made our class diagram, they cut and pasted their own diagram.

I really wish I would have gotten pictures of their sequencing books, but I of course forgot! If you are looking for a unit to finish up October. I HIGHLY recommended doing this unit, it was so amazing!

After seeing how much my students love scavenger hunts around the classroom, I made this one for them to work on their 2- digit regrouping. My students are really not getting regrouping, so hopefully more practice like this will help. I hope you can use it in your classroom too!

You can click on the pictures to take you to the download! :) Or you can just go to my TPT store. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Monday. I have friend who has started bringing me an envelope with a little piece of candy each day. It is soo sweet and brightens everyday!

Meg 

Fire Safety Dog Craftivity!

I am so excited for this post! I love this craft and so did my students! We just finished our fire safety unit and to wrap it up we made these super cute dogs.

I used them as a review tool.  My students wrote fire safety tips they had learned in class on the bone. They had to choose three tips and write them on their bone. Also, I had them write their names on their  badges. This friend meant to write Chief, but forgot the "i"! All of these turned out so cute, and look adorable hanging up in my classroom.

If you want to make these cute pups with your students you can pick it up at my TPT store for only $1! :) I have to admit, I am a little nervous putting these for sale because it is my first item I am selling.  Please let me know what you think! I would love some feedback. 

Also, because this is a brand new product the first two people to leave me a comment on here with their email can get this for free!

TPT

Love, 

Meg

Brain Break Video! What's that you say?

So I was surfing Pinterest tonight, as I often do most nights, and I saw this Youtube video. It caught my eye because the guys from Koo Koo Kanga Roo went to my college. This wouldn't be that strange, but my college had around 1300 students. I decided to watch the video and I FELL in love with this one! They, also, have a ton of different dance-a-longs. CHECK IT OUT!

I hope you fall in love with it just as much as I did! I am so excited to use this with my friends tomorrow. We could have really used it around 2:30 today. From 8:30-2:30 my friends were amazing and they worked so incredibly hard, then 2:30-4:10 I think little Halloween Monsters decided to come a little early! I know tomorrow will be a better day. Hope your days was wonderful.

Meg :)

PS I might have been dancing to this in my apartment by myself! :)

Big Pumpkin and a Stylish Linky Party

I can't believe how chilly it is outside! Every morning, I wake up and wish I could stay in bed in a sweatshirt and sweatpants. October is in full swing in my classroom, and we are obsessed with Big Pumpkin  by Erica Silverman. Even during quiet work time my students will ask me just to put on the audio of the book, so that they can listen to it as they work! Well, in our reading curriculum we are working on sequencing, I made this little cut and paste and writing activity for my students to go along with their favorite book. If you read this book in your classroom I hope you can enjoy this activity!

TPT

Whats your classes favorite halloween book?

Onto a super cute linky party by Mrs. Prince & co. I know she says snap a picture tomorrow morning, but I thought I would share a picture of me and my co earlier in the year! :)

Here is me and my beautiful co-teacher in her 2nd grade classroom!

You should link up too because I need more outfit ideas! :)

Love from Minnesota,

Meg

Taking a break from putting in my grades for Currently!

This was a much needed grading break! I am so tired of clicking each grade. At my school, we grade our students on a variety of different things on a scale from 0-4. In math, there are like 17 and times that by 25, it is A LOT of clicking!

Well here is my currently:

Love from Minnesota,
Meg :)

First Month: Check! Very Tired: Check! Blogging: :(

Warning: This blog post is going to be all over the place! :)

Well I am back, and by the title of this post you can understand this has been a crazy year so far. I was  inspired by a new kindergarten blog to get back on the blogging train! I will share this brand new fabulous blog at the end of the post, but let me tell you it is worth going too! It is a kindergarten blog, but she posted a syllables freebie that I definitely using this week. This blog post is going to be all over the place!

Alright let me update the blog world on my year so far...

My students are so wonderful. I have 25 this year, which is a big handful after having 14 last year. This year though my students are so much more polite.  I dealt with a lot of attitudes whenever I would give my students work last year, and this year that does not exist. A lot of that is due to the fact I have supportive families, I believe. It is great to have so many parents that want to be involved. :)  A large struggle I am having this year is that my students cannot/barely read.  I feel like I need to teach 1st and 2nd grade this year, and that is a lot of material. We will get there though. I have been doing reading centers which allows me to work with the students that really need it.

Starting the school year a skill I realized my students did not have was calendar. It was clearly evident my students didn't know the order of the days of the week, parts of a calendar, and order of the months of the year. Here is a couple of freebies that helped my students pick up on these and I hope can help you if you need to refresh your friends. (Graphics and Fonts: Kimberly Geiswin, Kevin and Amanda, KPM Doodles, and Frog Spot)

Days of the Week Cut and Paste

Months of the Year




Okay now about the fabulous Kindergarten blog, go check her out and definitely choose to follow her! :) Learning with Mrs. Leeby

Love from Minnesota,

Meg :)

Back to School and my blog

This blog post has been started so many times, and I have not had time to finish it. I have been so busy with PD and getting my classroom ready, and all of the other back to school things. Last year was my schools first year. There was a lot of rough things my school went through in its first year, so this year we have a new director and a lot of new staff. I am hoping this year will be amazing. It will be my 2nd year teaching 2nd grade, and the 2nd year of the school. I am calling it my "Terrific Twos." On Wednesday is my students first day of school, and I have been so busy getting things ready. My classroom looks like it popped out of Teachers Pay Teachers. I have moved a few things around since these pictures, but you can get the general idea. This year I moved classrooms, so I got to make everything my own and spend the time making it look nice. Last year, we were in our rooms only a couple of days before the school year starts, and being a first year teacher I really didn't know super well what I was doing.

Here is the front of my classroom:

 Yes, I get the joys of using a chalk board. In this picture the numbers above my alphabet come from Amy Lemons. I think they look so cute up there!  My schedule cards and clip chart come from Clutter Free Classroom. My rules and glue bottle vowels are both freebies one is from 3rd Grade Thoughts and the other comes from The Teacher Wife. Also, my table signs come from SchoolGirl Style.

Next is the back of my classroom:

 Disclaimer: If I forget a product, PLEASE let me know! I am hoping to get everyone credit for their amazing work! :)

My good listener and daily 5 signs come from First Grade Fever. My Scientific Method and Cursive alphabet come from Ladybug's Teaching Files. My part of speech come from Hope King. The I can Write board, which is probably my favorite thing on the wall is from A Cupcake for a Teacher. I made the CAFE board myself. The one in my room is Zebra print, and the one in the other 2nd grade teachers room, which I made too, to go with her theme, is apples! In the pocket chart, I am going to put our spelling words in pattern for the week. That way my students will be able to use them for Work on Words. My bookshelf I got from a library sale. I LOVE it because my students can be on all sides.

Since, those pictures I have added I few more things. Hopefully, I will take pictures before school starts on Wednesday.

Here is a picture of my desk area:

I love my baskets for the days of the week, because sometimes not everything fits in a tub. I am hoping to get paper and boarder put on the side of my file cabinet too.


Well I hopefully I will have more pictures to share soon! On other excited news, I won Ginger Snaps 1500 follower giveaway, and got to choose 3 products! I am so excited! :) I love her work!

A couple of weekends ago, one of the Kindergarten teachers at my school got married, so me and the other 2nd Grade Teacher went. Here is a picture from her happy day!

In the picture it is Me, Kim, and Stacy (the other 2nd Grade Teacher). :)  Such a fun wedding.

Well good luck to everyone who starts this week. I know I am very excited to meet all of my new friends. :)

Love from Minnesota,
Meg

Monday Made It! :)

I am so excited to be sharing my Monday Made it this week! I love the idea of quotes around the classroom and on my bookshelf, so I made a couple of different ones so my students will always feel inspired. I am almost ready to move, then after that back to the classroom! I am getting so ready to be back being productive with my days. Maybe that will change after I move in with my best friend, but we will see. So here is a picture of my Monday Made It:

Well I should be cleaning my apartment instead of blogging! Can't wait to see what everyone else posted.

Love from Minnesota,

Meg :)

Life is soo crazy right now! :) {A Little about Science in my Classroom}

This week is VERY busy! I am excited for it, but part of me is ready for it to be over. On Tuesday, I am moving out of my apartment, and then I can't move into my move apartment till Wednesday. It is hard though because most of my friends work Monday-Friday jobs, so a BIG thank you to my friends and family who are coming help. Moving stinks. All the cleaning and packing it takes, then you get to the new place and you have to unpack and clean. Hopefully, though by next weekend I will have it all done with. Then on Saturday, one of the Kindergarten teachers at my school is getting married!! :) My co-teacher and I are going to the wedding, and couldn't be more excited about it. At my school, there was 12 staff members engaged this year and like 5-6 staff members married, out of the around 25 of us. A lot of the engagements happened during the school year, too. It was almost every month someone was getting engaged.

I am still working on a couple different units to hopefully post soon, but coming back from Vegas and now moving, I have been away from my computer a lot. One thing I was able to get done was my long range planning guide for Science. My blocks in my day around 1 1/2 hr reading block, 1 1/2 math block, 45 writing, and every other day 45mins of either Science or Social Studies. We decided to switch of Science and Social Studies to give more time to Reading and Writing. Here is what our Science Long Range Planning looks like:

In Minnesota for Second Grade there is not a lot of Science Standards, so we made up a lot of our different units. You can see under each of the units, what standards it is covering. I love teaching Science. When I was going through school it was always one of my favorite subjects, especially physics. It is just so fantasizing to me to figure out how things work. The school I work at is a STEM school, so we have a lot of opportunities for science in the classroom.

I would love to hear about how science works in your classroom! Science is such a great subject for students, and I wish there was more time in schools for teachers to be able to teach it. There are some students, who really struggle in reading and writing, and science just clicks for them. But if they do not have the opportunity to learn about Science they will never know.

Pray for me that I get through this hectic week!

Love from Minnesota,

Meg

I'm BACK! :)

Hi Everyone!

I just got back from Vegas, and was sooo excited to see all my new followers! :) I need to go and follow all of your wonderful blogs now!! :) :) Like I just said, I just got back from Vegas. I went with some of my girlfriends, and we had a fabulous time! There was a lot of firsts for me on this trip. I flew on a plane for the first, I played black jack at a real casino, and I ziplined! There was many other fun things, but those were some of the highlights.  It is just so great that you can meet people from soo many different places. I met people from Montana, Denmark, LA, Kansas, and MANYY more places! It is so great how friendly everyone is!

Well back to teaching, now that I am back, I am working on a ton of new and fun things! I wish I had some things to share, but come back tomorrow and I will! :)

Love from MInnesota,
Meg

Blog Hop!!

Sorry for two posts in one day, but saw this and REALLLY wanted to link up! :)

Thank you to Grade 3 is the Place for ME for starting this!


    1.  what state you are in:: Minneapolis, Minnesota!

    2.  your current teaching position:: I am 2nd grade teacher!

    3.  your teaching experience:: This will be my Second year teaching! :) :)

    4.  when you started blogging:: June 2012

    5.  share a blogging tip / blogging resource:: I don't really have any! I just trying to get it figured out myself! :):)

Thanks for checking me out! I hope you start following! :)


Love from Minnesota,


Meg

Off to Vegas Tomorrow! :)

Hi! :)

I am so excited writing this right now! I am going on my FIRST ever plane ride tomorrow to LAS VEGAS! Woop Woop! :) Some of my college girlfriends and I are taking a trip there until Wednesday. :) :) :) :) I will miss my blog and blog stalking while I am gone.

I haven't been too busy this week, but I did make my science yearlong planning guide, so I will share that when I get back! If you have any tips for Vegas, or something I might forget to pack, Let me know!! :)

See you when I get back, and always Love from Minnesota,
Meg

Happy Wednesday! :) {FREEBIES}

Hi Blog World!

It was so nice to hear all the wonderful things about my Monday Made Its! :) At the bottom of the post you will links to download both the objective signs and the morning routine posters. Yesterday, I was planning on posting these, but I ended up being super busy! My co-teacher (Stacy, I will use her name to make it easier :)) and another kindergarten teacher decided to meet up and go to Lakeshore and then to school. I laminated SOOO many things, which would be great but I hate cutting it all okay. Can I hear an, AMEN on that! :)

Once we arrived at school we were surprised because half of the staff was there working on there classrooms! It was crazy, no one had talked to each other, but we all showed up on the same day! :) I got some more stuff done in my classroom, but I am not ready to show pictures yet. Then when we were leaving we asked how many 2nd graders there is so far. (I teach at a charter school, so parents have to enroll. It is the second year of our school, also, so it is up in the air how many we will have.) Last year, I bounced between 13-16, and Stacy didn't bounce and had the same 15 the whole year. They were such nice class sizes, but then we found out yesterday there is already 40 2nd graders signed up! OMG! We freaked a little because our neighborhood likes to wait till the last minute to sign up, so OMG! There could be A LOT of 2nd Graders!! EEEKKKKK

That was my panic moment of this post!

So something I am working on is inspirational quotes around the classroom. Here is one I am working on:

Is there any quotes you would like me to make for the classrooms? Let me know!! :)

I was also awarded the versatile blogger award, but I am running late for a breakfast date, so I will do it tomorrow!! :) :)

Here is your freebies: Objectives and Morning Routine


Love from Minnesota,

Meg :)

Monday Made It! :)

I have been waiting on weekend for Monday! :) I have been so busy crafting this weekend. My boyfriend came and saw what I was up to, and decided when we are married I will get my own craft room! :)

So the first thing I made was a little door sign!

I think it turned out really cute! Originally it was a welcome sign that I bought at savers, and decided to paint over!

Next, I made some how do we start our day signs. These are just reminders on how our routine looks when we get to school. If you would like me to post the signs on here let me know! :)

I think these turned out very cute! Another thing I made we our objective signs, I saw one teacher used the dry erase sleeves, and I LOVED that I idea. I am sorry for whoever gave me this idea, I couldn't refind your post, so if it was you let me know!! :)

If you would like my signs for these let me know! :) ** EDIT! IF you would like a copy of these, they are at the bottom of this post! :) :) ENJOY THESE! :)


FINALLY, my most favorite thing that I made all week.

DRUUMMMM ROOOLLLLLLLLL :)

My pinterest inspired toolbox!! :) :) I AM SOOO IN LOVE WITH IT!!!!! :) The original pin lead to this blogspot on how to make it, so check it out if you want to make one too!!!


Well that is all! I am soo happy with how everything turned out!! :) I have a lot more that I am making this week, then on sunday I leave for VEGAS!! :)

Love from Minnesota,
Meg

Invention Unit Freebie!

Sorry for two posts in one day, but I am SUPERRRRR excited about this!! I started working on my invention unit today! In Minnesota, one of the second grade standards is about inventions. To start off my invention unit, I like to teach my students about other famous inventors. Here is a exploring activity for them to teach them about some different inventors. I want to offer this intro activity for free!! Look at the preview photos, pin them, share them, have fun with them :)! haha  Then head over to my BRAND new TPT store to download them, and use them next year! :)

As you can see, I have put some different size inventor cards, and two different versions of the worksheet! Let me know what you think! Invention Freebie Link!

Love from Minnesota,
Meg

Busy, Busy Week!

It has been such a busy week! On Tuesday my co-teacher and I went in and started decorating for next year, and planned unit for science, math, and social studies. Then the rest of the week I was on vacation back in my home town with my boyfriend! :) It was nice because he took vacation too, so we got to relax for a whole weekend.  I did take a little time to make my number line for my classroom! :) Down at the bottom you will find the freebie! :)

After reading on a lot of blogs about a circle cutter, I finally got one, and O MY GOODNESS it is amazing!!    I highly recommend getting one, it is fabulous!! :) The blog I read the most about it was:: http://www.ladybugsteacherfiles.com/2012/06/my-circle-cutter-and-special-signs-to.html ! Check it out it will be a great investment!!!! :)

So when I was at my classroom, I started to get some things done, and figuring out how I want my room to look. Here is a little picture of what I got done::

 The boarders are from Creative Teaching Press, black and white collection!!

This week, I am going to try to get my science year long plan posted to give ideas out there! :) I am lucky to be able to have a long enough school day to teach science and social studies every day, so if you need any units let me know! The one I was most proud of the past year was my invention unit! I didn't find anything on the web for it, so I made it up all myself!! :)

Well here is your freebie! :) I am going to cut out my numbers with my circle cutter!! :) :) :)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9XAXORI4DKsVnBlNzl1QS1zRDQ/edit

Love from Minnesota,
Meg :)