Eeek ... Spiders!!

We started our spider unit this week, and I was soooo excited with all the awesome resources I found on other blogs ...  Please check out the links from the following blogs, they all have such awesome ideas!  Thanks ladies :-)

We used this idea from Mrs. Carroll over at The First Grade Parade ...

The the students created Spider Facts from the chart and made their own sentences, and we put it together using this creative idea from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits , the kids loved

Then today we used the Spider Research Freebie from Mrs. Lemons over at Step into 2nd Grade with Mrs. Lemons and let me tell you my kids absolutely LOVED doing this, and they really did such a great job!!!  I was very impressed :-)  

Thanks for the resources!  

To Save or not to Save the Ant...

A few weeks ago we were learning about Author's Purpose ... I came across this super cute book, Hey, Little Ant.  We were talking about persuasion and this book was perfect.  The little boy in the book is about to squish this Ant when the ant tries to convince him not too, at the end the author leaves the ending up to the reader as to wether the boy should or should not squish the ant.  My kiddos were really into it and had a lot of responses about why the ant should live ... so we made these cute little ants with black construction paper and pipe cleaners.  Then I gave them each an index card and they had to write to the boy convincing him to either squish the ant or not squish the ant.

We are Bucket Fillers!

I finally made my buckets, I got them at Hobby Lobby and soooo excited for how they turned out!!!  So I would love to know how you manage your bucket filling ... the first day we did it they went pom-pom crazy so we stopped using the pom poms and went with the little letters I have found on other blogs ... so my problem is that they seem to want to write a note to EVERYONE and for EVERYTHING... don't get me wrong I love that they are so excited about it, but I don't want them doing it every second of the day.  So I would love to hear how you manage bucket filling in your classroom.  Thanks!!

I couldn't Have done it without all of you...

Five weeks ago I was setting up my room for my new 4th graders ... then 3 weeks into the school year I found out I would be going back to my old school and would have just 2 days to get my room ready for my eager 2nd graders!  I was happy to be going back and especially in 2nd grade, but a little overwhelmed when I knew I would have to take down everything in my room and start all over in only 2 days.  However with the awesome ideas I find on blogs and Pinterest I was able to finish with ease!  I am really happy with how it turned out, I must say it's pretty "bloggerific"  Thanks again to everyone who has inspired me, some ideas were too good to change, so I hope you don't mind I swiped with pride and my kids will truly benefit from all these awesome resources and ideas I am using!

Writing Center -- Idea from Persnickety Pickles

OMG!!!  I loved this the minute I saw it, and I love that my kids talk about being "Peacemakers"  Anyway this idea was way too cute and good to change in anyway so yes I followed every step down to the drawing!  Thanks soooo much to the The First Grade Parade!

 I love these math Key words, and I can't for the love of me remember where I found them, but thanks!!! :-)

My Focus Wall!!

My Leveled Library behind my teacher desk, I sorted all the books from the reading street adoption!  Something I wanted to do, and so glad I did!

Behind the teachers desk!

So you can't see it but I finally splurged and bought a mini fridge!!  Woohoo, it's right below these shelves :-)

A view from behind the teachers desk

YAY!!!  We are Bucket Filler!!  I loved how this turned out and so excited to see my kids writing nice notes to one another and how happy they were to get them at the end of the day ;-)

I hope you enjoyed a little classroom tour and again thanks to all the awesome ideas, I truly couldn't do it without you :)