Yay for a Good Day!!

I had an awesome day with my first and second graders today!! They listened most of the time, they worked super hard, and all these minutes showed up that I never usually see!

I think it was because I was more strict than normal right when the day started and moved a couple of kids' clips down for talking during calendar. I hate moving clips down and I would much rather focus on positive behavior, but I've gotten pretty frustrated with the extreme amount of talking that happens all day long. So I guess those kids sent a warning to everyone because the rest of the day was just lovely. :)

Today I started decorating the room for Christmas! The other day I saw this cute wreath idea on Dr. Jean's blog and decided to go with it! I don't have any store-bought decorations so everything I put up is kid-made (which I like better anyway)!

Admittedly, this is not really "kid-made" besides that those are really the hands of first and second graders. I first had them trace their own hands. After two kids who took 15 minutes EACH, I commandeered that situation and traced all their hands and cut them out in my free time. Our secretary had that sweet bow template and then I just cut some little circles for berries! I think it looks amazing, haha!!

I also put up my Dollar Tree Christmas bell! It's so close to the door that it won't even ring but I don't care!!

Over the summer, I signed up for a traveling stuffed animal project on Second Grade Teachers' Club and yesterday we received Tyrone in the mail.

The kids think he is the best thing that ever happened to them. One girl already is bringing him with her to everything she does... math stations... P.E.... the carpet.... I have to try and find a little pin to put on his vest!

With Tyrone, we also received a book - Owney the Mail Pouch Pooch.

I am not going to lie to you, friends - I was not feeling this book. It is a true story of a dog who hopped on trains and went all over the place. The story was pretty cool, but it was exceptionally long-winded and I got bored reading it. In my bizarro world classroom today, the kids stayed sitting and silent for the ENTIRE THING. Whoa.

I also started Words Their Way this week!!! It was a little hectic yesterday trying to explain what we were doing in life, but today when I had them re-sort their words into groups, about 80% of them were super into it. Hooray!!!! Yay for sorting!!! I have 4 groups and only 12 kids.... on one hand, I feel like that's kind of overkill, but on the other I do have two grades and incredibly varying ability levels. So I am feeling good about that!

And on a last, more somber note, one of my dear little frogs went to frog heaven today.

I am not really sad about it, as I only had them since August and the kids never cared enough to bother giving either of them a name. And this experience has taught me that I am not a class pet person. I think I'm more of a class plant person........ except I have a classroom that gets no natural light!! My wall of windows looks at the building right next door and we face the north! Any suggestions on plants that are cool with shade?

Getting Ready for Veterans Day

I was pumped to start my Communities unit in Social Studies this week, but then I noticed that Veterans Day was approaching! So I'll hold off for a bit.

Yesterday we watched our Scholastic News video a hundred times and read through the issue. Once again, it was a good one. I can't say enough how much I love Scholastic News! I just wish they could make some kind of 1/2 split issue just for me..... because the reading level is way above my first graders, but the questions they ask are way below my second graders. Sigh. Still love it.

Today we made the little soldiers from Deanna Jump's Veterans Day Math and Literacy Activities pack. I bought this pack just for the soldier directions because I thought they were SO CUTE. It was a directed art lesson. My kids are incredibly chatty and can be difficult to reign in to give directions, but they were amazing during this activity. I think they were shocked that a little stack of rectangles could be made into something real. Here was the one I made along with them, so, the sample! {We made sure to make some female soldiers... even though I doubt they wear their hair down...haha!}

And here is our little display outside our classroom.

I don't have any bulletin boards outside my classroom so I just masking-tape stuff up on the wall...... The yellow stars I sent home yesterday for my kids to write names of veterans in their families so we can connect what we're learning to home! And, of course, to honor our veterans.

I am super excited about our Veterans Day activity for tomorrow! So check back for that. :)

And a little something extra - today was one of my first grader's birthdays, and they are ALL obsessed with Angry Birds. Some don't even know what Angry Birds are but they still love them, haha! Anyway, my first grader brought Angry Birds cupcakes today and they were cute!

And one last thing! I did the primary spelling inventory for Words Their Way yesterday and the results were amazing to me!! I mean, most of them weren't a surprise but I was kind of surprised at how incredibly high some of my second graders are. I would not have put them into the groups that the assessment indicated, so I'm glad that I did it! I'll start spelling groups next week after I have a chance to figure out what I'm doing! Lots of exclamation points!!

November Currently

I haven't linked up with Farley at Oh' Boy 4th Grade for this Currently linky party since August!

 Here's what I'm doing currently...

We had a short week this week but it sure felt long since the kids were CRAZY! The day after Halloween was nuts, plus we had Mass since it was All Saints' Day. Wednesday and Thursday we had half days and then conferences, and the second the kids got to school, they were ready to go home. Plus, on Wednesday we normally have technology in the morning and music in the afternoon, but they rescheduled music to the morning, so I hardly got anything done on Wednesday between the two specials and morning recess!!

In other news, we have been getting lots of postcards from our awesome Postcard Exchange! I'll have to take pictures of the ones we've gotten. Our favorites so far are California and Hawaii - because when you live in flat land Illinois, those places are exotic. :)

This weekend I've been perusing Words Their Way.

Could this be the answer to my frustrations?? Do you use Words Their Way? I think I'm going to do the primary spelling inventory on Monday and use the data to make little groups. If you have any words of wisdom, I would LOVE anything you have to share!