Math Websites :)

                                

Magical Door!

@learninginwonderland inspired me with her Behavior Fairy!!

I decided to buy 2 doors --- one for my school kiddos and one for my Darling Angel!

You can buy a Fairy Door Here!!

There are many different colors to choose from!

~pink~purple~blue~

I bought them both with different intentions. 

The one for school is for behavior, encouragement, and tidiness and the one for Jordyn is hopefully to get her to sleep in her own room!! 

It's past time! haha

The Fairy will bring little surprises for the kiddos when they have done an outstanding job with being kind to one another, helping out, and staying tidy.

I am so excited to see the look on the kiddos' faces Monday when they get to see everything!!

Do you countdown the days until summer break with your students?

I know most of you answered yes to that question! 

I know you are excited and I know most of your students are excited too. 

But, have you ever stopped to think about the student or students that do not want school to be over and are anything but excited?

I spend countless hours worrying about those children and I know you do, too. 

The last thing they want is summer break. If they could come to school every single day over summer they would jump all over the opportunity.

They long for that structure and nurturing that you provide for them.

They need that warm meal at lunch time that is often their only meal they get all day.

They need you to tell them you love them because some of your students never hear those words at home.

They look forward to hugs and laughs with you. 

They NEED you!!

 

Counting down the days until summer break may make your students think that you cannot wait to get rid of them. The thought of that breaks my heart into a million pieces. So, before you start counting down the days until summer break I would like for you to think about the message you are sending those students that NEED you. 

Some of you may have never even thought about this until now and that is totally okay, there is still time to stop counting down the days. 

If you absolutely must countdown, perhaps you could say 24 days until I MISS you.

With just a few weeks of school left, I challenge you not to think about how many days are left, but to think about ways you can make those last few days the most important days of the entire year.

Try Different Things... SAVE SOME TREES!!

Hello Friends :)

So... I have been reading a lot lately and something really stuck out to me!! 

Ask yourself this question... 

Would you like being a student in your own classroom? 

Loaded question huh? 

I pondered this question for quite some time and it lead me to an...

IDEA. 

(teachers and their ideas haha) 

I wanted to try a week with absolutely ZERO worksheets. So. I tried it. I must say... "WOW!!" It was wonderful and I feel like with the upcoming weeks of school there are going to be a lot of days without worksheets!! I cannot wait. I know, I know... lots of questions arise when you say ZERO worksheets. Below are some questions I have encountered throughout the week from other teachers and my students:

1. What did you do all day?

 We LEARNED and I must say we had a BLAST doing it!!

2.Did you just play all day?

(eye roll)

NO!! 

I just didn't overload them with a bunch of worksheets.

3. What are we going to do today?

The same as always, just way more of it! We used sticky notes, our desks, white boards, our voices, TECHNOLOGY, and our bodies!!

4. Grades---What about grades?

Well, I am not a grade driven teacher and I want my students to work towards internal motivation, but I know that grades are required so, I took participation grades and then graded what they have in their journals. 

5. Were you intimidated by not using worksheets?

Sure I was. As with anything new, I get a little nervous and that is OKAY. I planned a lot before I just said goodbye worksheets.

6. How did it feel not to have a ton of worksheets to grade?

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G

I am not sure what teacher can say that they LOVE grading worksheets. I sure do not. I would much rather spend my time creating something engaging for my students.

7. Are you saying all worksheets are bad?

No. No. No.

The movement in our classroom was outstanding. The student and teacher engagement was priceless. I found myself learning more with my students. This was really an experience that I would recommend to anyone and everyone. 

I am open to trying new things in my classroom and I am so lucky that my kids just go with the flow. They aren't really shocked anymore when I tell them that I came across something else I want to try. They think they are part of an experiment and really they are!

Directed Drawing

Greetings!! :)

President's Day is right around the corner and what better way to celebrate than by drawing pictures of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln!!

The school I teach at does not offer art class as a SpEcIaL ClAsS for my kiddos. I feel that it is my responsibility for them to still get that feel of art. I loved art as a child and I want my kiddos to also love it. So, I try to get them to do artsy things a lot. This being one of those times. 

Have you ever experimented with Directed Drawing in YOUR classroom??

 It is amazing and quite ENTERTAINING!! 

My friends were thrilled when I told them what we would be doing. We first did research on the two former president's and wrote research papers about them. I let them choose which president they wanted to focus on and surprisingly it turned out pretty even for the class.

After we did our papers we then broke up into two groups:

 1.Group Washington 

2.Group Abe

My friends met me on the carpet and we drew our Presidents all thanks to TPT Kindergarten Planet!!! 

This is a FREEBIE!! 

Once we were finished drawing we decided they needed color... WATERCOLOR!! 

They had a blast painting their portraits!!

Check out what my friends did...
     

             

I hope this makes you want to try Directed Drawing in your classroom!!

Have a WONDERFUL day!

BE AWESOME!!

Flexible Seating in Your Classroom!!

Wow!! 

It has been a while friends!! 

With all this snow in East Tennessee recently, it has made me slow down and take time for things that I love to do and BLOGGING is one of them!!

 So, HELLO! I hope you have been well. 

I am here to share with you how I have transformed our classroom into a FLEXIBLE SEATING classroom!! Really... it is quite easy and the kiddos love it. Flexible seating gives them the opportunity to work where they feel the most comfortable in the classroom. Some of my students still choose to sit at their desk, which will always be an option, but so many of them have decided to try out new places in our room. 

I must say, why didn't I try this sooner. 

It is amazing. 

For those children that cannot sit still at their desk, this is a MUST. You cannot expect students (7&8 year old students) to sit at a desk all day. This gives them the freedom to choose where they want to be successful in the classroom. With freedom comes responsibility, they know the proper procedures to use the wide variety of seating and also the consequences to abusing the privilege. 

I encourage you to use adverse seating in your room just to see how the students work differently.

Here is a picture of the yoga mats that we use in the classroom. The children who like to lay down and work really love this area.

Pictured here are some Scoop Rockers I found at Walmart all thanks to +Aly Hac (justaprimarygirl) !! They were under $5 dollars a piece! My 5 year old loves them!! They are NEW so I cannot wait to see what my 2nd graders think about them!!

Here are the Scoop Rockers in storage. They stack up easily and fit right into a corner!

 Here is probably my "favorite seat in the house!" It is amazing! I had one of our custodians lower this table ALL the way down or as far as it could go and bought some bench cusions at Walmart for $5 and BAM!! Flexible Seating at its finest!! Also, storage with these are quite simple, just stack them up when you are finished!

 This area allows my friends to stand and work on their task! Did you know? Students LOVE to stand and work!!

Coding in the Classroom!!

Coding in the classroom may be something you think of when you think of a college course!

NO! NO! NO!

My Friends are NOT in college.

We are coding in 2nd grade! You read that right... "We are coding in 2nd grade!!"      EEEEEEEEK! (my shrill of happiness)

What is coding?

"Computer programming (often shortened to programming, sometimes called coding) is a process that leads from an original formulation of a computing problem to executable computer programs." - dictionary.com

  

Pretty much computer programming is telling a computer exactly what to do!! :)

Here is an example of what they will be doing!! Each level is different and each level gets more complex as they progress.

I am so excited to share this with you guys. My kiddos were SUPER excited to take on the challenge. They felt very important and did I mention... They are coding to MINECRAFT... If you are wondering what Minecraft is, it is a video game that apparently ALL 2nd graders LOVE! So, when I told them I was combining Minecraft and coding together that was just the icing to the cake.

We took the challenge of "an hour of coding!" You can access the website by clicking HERE. You will absolutely love it and so will your kiddos! I promise!! It makes them think differently. Also, they are learning perseverance and teamwork. I did partner them together for the first round so they could bounce ideas off of each other. I do plan to have them do it independently in the future.

The kids were challenging each other and trying really hard to complete the entire game within that hour time frame. They were superstars rock stars!! Kudos to them for owning something that they were just introduced to. 

At the end of the day, they all wanted to know the website so they could go home and code!! WOW!! Amazing teacher moment right there! :)

 Oh!! How true! This activity really did teach my kiddos how to think and problem solve and most importantly learn together. They became a team and figured out how to get through it together. No one in the classroom was left behind and it felt amazing, as a teacher, to see all of your kids working so hard at something. They didn't argue. They all had one common goal and "WOW" is all I really have to say. I agree with Steve Jobs!!