Second Grade is Going to be a Hoot!

If you have been following our family, you know that there is a lot of changes going on around here.  For one, Gracie is going to start First Grade, which means she will be in school ALL day and she even gets to eat lunch there!  The twins are going to start preschool 2 days a week a different preschool than where Gracie went.  Our family finally sold our townhome and we are building a house!  But not only that, there are plenty of personal changes for me too.  For  one, I had my surgery and have a nice new look to me but also, after 12 years of teaching 3rd grade, I am going to be teaching 2nd grade this year! 

I won't lie, I am pretty excited about this.  It was hard to pack up my old room and leave some of the best teammates you could have asked for I am handling this change well.  I spent  quite a few bucks buying some new decorations which I haven't done in years.  I used to work at the local teacher store, The Chalkboard so they were excited to see me again.  I went with the theme of owls.  I love owls. I think they are so darling. They also remind me of my grandma and she was such an inspiration to me so it's kind of a reminder of her looking over my shoulder everyday.  I know she is so proud of me in my educational endeavors and came to watch me graduate with my bachelors and then again with my master's. 

One thing I love about teaching elementary is setting up the classroom.  I used to have one in my basement when I was little and it was the best.  My dad hung up big pieces of cardboard and those were my bulletin boards.  I always was down there decorating and playing school.  So what does my new 2nd grade classroom look like?

Well, take a look,

Welcome to 2nd Grade!

 

My mom made the door for me.  Isn't it a hoot?  Whooo is in our class?  Each owl represents a member of our class.

 

Each of my 23 (my smallest class ever) has an owl magnet to move every morning to tell me they are here and whether they are having hot or cold lunch.

 

Here is a look at part of my room.  It looks at the front.  In the doorway is one of my old and new teammates, Becky!  Again, I am truly blessed to be working with some amazing people!

 

Here is my little math corner where all the math manipulatives are stored and math games and books too.  I'm going to give guided math a shot this year and that means I'll be teaching math in small groups.  

 

The cubbies are where the kids store their stuff and I have lots of storage inside and on top too. But on the doors you can see what is going to be my word wall.  The letters are little owls but they are hard to see.  I would like to thank Pinterest for lots of these wonderful owl-fully cute decorations!

 

Here is my word work station which is part of my Daily 5.  The kids can make words, play with sentences and so some word sorting here.  Lots of posters make for some good reference.

 

The front of my room again with my new classroom jobs display that is going to let us know whooooo is helping out!

 

Here is another look at the front where I will be welcoming my students in 2 more days.

 

Here is my desk and my area.  I know I have lots of stuff. It's my organized mess.

 

Here is my writing wall with the writing center table in front of it.  Lots of fun writing activities for Daily 5 and lots of cute colorful posters from Pinterest.

 

There is my writing area. I have lots of great writing activities like dice and spinners that give kids a start at writing a story, games, and all kinds of fun paper to use.

 

Back here you can see my Boggle board to the left where kids can make words for working with words.  At the table is where I will meet with my small groups for reading and math. There is a big area by the red rug where the class can come sit and listen to stories.

 

Here is my little library too where the kids can sit and read by themselves. Another big change I made was going through my hundreds of books and leveling them!  That took quite a long time!

 

So that's what my new classroom looks like.  I met some of the kiddos today and will meet all of them on Thursday.  Wish me luck on yet another new journey!

School Shopping!

We went school shopping a few weeks ago. Toys-R-Us seemed to have the best deal on backpacks and all 3 kids needed one so there we went.  Presley was the only one who knew exactly which backpack he wanted from the start. Actually he wanted Ninja turtles but they were out so he was cool with Power Rangers.  The girls orginally picked out the backpacks as shown in this picture.  They loved the Princess ones.  But after like an hour of looking and trying on backpacks.....

 

Evie finally settled on a sequinny Minnie Mouse one and Gracie picked a Lego Friends backpack in which she took home, took nail polish to the girls' faces, and now it looks even prettier....The thing with buying a backpack at Toys-R-Us was that you get a free lunch tote.  Now I know the little ones won't be eating lunch at school but Gracie will and that it a huge deal for her.  After some more careful consideration, Gracie chose a Doc McStuffins lunch tote.  Evie wanted a Winx (fairies?) one and Bub found his new favoirte Ninja Turtles lunch tote.  We were set.  The kids wore their backpacks out of the store and away we went to Target to get our supplies.

 

Each of them had their supply list and we found all our supplies. Gracie needed all kinds of things including notebooks, folders, a binder, crayons, glue, scissors, a ruler, markers, pencils, highlighter, and erasers. Evie and Presley mainly needed 1 folder, a box of crayons and a glue stick each.  

They were happy campers.  They got their supplies.  We headed home and labeled everything and packed our backpacks.  I can't believe all 3 of my kids will be in school in 2 more days!

Goodbye Summer!

Once again, it with heavy heart that we have to say goodbye to another summer.  Boo.  It's been fun and went by way too fast.  Although I had my surgery and was down for a little bit, we still managed to squeeze in lots of fun. We made it to the zoo, the arboretum, Blackberry Farm, Pirate's Cove, the Children's Museum, Raging Waves, saw "Planes" and "Dispicable Me 2", took swim lessons, Gracie went to VBS, Bub did t-ball, the twins did preschool class, swam, went to the beach twice, playdates, went to Plainfield Fest, went to the dentist, went to some parties, saw fireworks,  many garage sales, played outside, got a new park at Grandma and Grandpa's, I went to NKOTB, a couple of trips to the library, some playtime at school, and of course...we bought a house!  So that's our summer in a nutshell.  It was great!  There were some great days and not-so-great days.  The kids are getting older and the fighting and not listening days are just beginning......ugh.  Gracie is getting ready to head off to first grade!  The twins will be starting preschool.  And I start my new adventure of teaching 2nd grade. And we all start on Thursday!  Stay tuned for pics of that.  But in the meantime, here are a few pics I found that have not been posted yet and I don't want to forget a single summer memory because they are some of the best!  Goodbye summer 2013. 

Beach!

School starts this week so headed out for one last day of fun......

 

at the beach!  Our friends Kyle and Heather invited us to their beach club and the kids and I had a blast.  We played in the water,the sand, and the park!  We had lots of yummy food and the kids made new friends. It was so cute.  There were even babie there!  Good times!