Book Report Cards

My students have DEAR Time aka silent reading everyday after lunch. It's a quiet thing for them to do to wind down, and during this time I also pull students to read with me, or work on other things. This year I've started something new for the kids to show understanding of what they've read - Book Report Cards! It's a simple idea I got from a college, students fill out a mini book report on an index card for each book they read. They keep the cards on a ring (I got mine at Lakeshore) and at the end of the year they can see how many books they've read!

 We made an anchor chart together so the students can have a reference of what goes on their book report cards. 

The cards are kept right next to their book bins for easy access.

What's in a Name?

At the beginning of the year, I like to do a lot of fun art projects that tie into stories. One of my favorite books to read to the kids is called, "The Name Jar" by Yangsook Choi. With a very diverse class, this book shows the kids that having a "unusual" name is special, not weird or embarrassing. This story is about a young Korean girl who moves to America and is feels so embarrassed by her name she wants to change it. Eventually, the kids in her new class convince her to keep her Korean name and she embraces it. It is such a sweet story and I've used it in my 2nd grade class, and also in my 4th grade class during student teaching.
The activity we did following a discussion of this story was to create a hanging name mobile. I cute 4x4 squares of construction paper in all colors. The kids chose enough squares for each letter of their name in whichever colors they wanted. Then, they created each letter of their name and we joined the letters together using yarn.

 I hung the names from the ceiling and ta-da! Super colorful and cute addition to our classroom. If I do this activity again next year, I may have the students create two of each letter so they are double sided and can be seen when the yard twists.

Another story in the "name" category is "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes. I'd say this is more appropriate and easier for younger students to understand.

Done with Set-Up! Classroom Photos

Finally!

After a week of working in my classroom, it's all ready for the first day of school tomorrow. Being my second year teaching, I spent a lot more time on organizing and detail. I am really happy with how it all came out! I don't mind spending a lot of time on my room in the beginning of the year since I'll be there every weekday for the next 10 months! 

Here is the view of my room from the door. I got these carpets at Ross for such a good deal, aren't they cute!? I like my students in groups, and have found that these "L" shapes work best. They aren't facing each other so there's less distraction, yet they are still able to talk and work together. Only 15 students this year, I kept two extra desks in formation just in case we have some late comers. 

In the back is my guided reading/small group/one-on-one kidney table. The empty white board space will be used for unit themes once I start teaching curriculum. 

This is the front of the room. The two light blue bulletin boards are connected to the white board, the two dark blue ones I made by just putting up butcher paper onto the wall and adding border. On the left we will post our goals for second grade, and the right will be an interesting fact about each student.  

 Another view of the front. I ended up moving the calendar to the other white board to make space for the daily schedule and noise meter. The green border with numbers is for group points. 

 Here is my prayer table. The small basket is a place where students can write a prayer note and place it inside. The bulletin behind it will be where we display what we're studying in Religon.

 Here is my huge desk! I also have all my curriculum and resources in the shelves behind it. 

 Here is the paper station. Construction paper, turn in bin and binder/ scratch paper. I always keep all the "messed up" print outs, or extras for scratch paper. We use it for quick checks, notes, drawing, etc. 

 Something new I'm trying this year. I got the bin idea from pinterest! The top will be for work students have graded, middle for non graded, and bottom one is where I will put papers that are graded and need to be passed back. I always have the kids help me pass out papers a couple times a week. 

 Each student in my classroom has a cubby to keep all their supplies and notebooks in. As you may have seen, my desks don't have compartments so this is where the kids keep all their stuff. I used calendar numbers to label each cubby.

 My kidney table! I acquired this from a teacher who left our school, so it's new to my room this year. I have a little container there with some supplies (pencils, highlighters, bookmarks, glue stick, etc) for easy access. I also separated books that I had at least 4 copies of for guided reading. 

 Guided reading books.

 I have class meetings with my 2nd graders weekly. If you are familiar with this system you will know what the Agenda is. It's where they write down issues that need to be resolved during the meetings. The Good Worker container is where Good Worker Tickets go, students can earn these for doing good deeds. 

 Another new addition to my class this year will be Star of the Week. Stars will fill in a poster (got them from Oriental Trading Co.) and post here. The small bulletin squares will hold photos the Star brings to share. They will also be able to sit on the bean bag during activity/DEAR time. 

 Behavior Chart! I am trying this out this year. I've seen a lot of these online, I changed the wording a bit to fit my system. The clothes pins have the kids names on them now.

 Homework board has each day's homework written on it for students to copy down into their planners. The "Second Grade Stars" is for students who end the day on the positive side of the behavior chart. If they earn a star for each day of the week, they get a small treat on Friday.

 My little library! This is my favorite part of my room. I spent the time to level the books this year. The tree is made of paper that came in a package from amazon - recycle! I'll probably change the leaves according to season. 

 I organized by putting starter books in the bins by level and an extra bin for science related readers, and chapter books by grade level equivalent. The chapter books have a small dot sticker on the spine labeled with 1, 2 or 3. On the bottom are picture books, and anything that didn't fit into the above categories. Students will pull from this library for book reports, DEAR time, etc. 

 My door. I got this cute jungle pack at Lakeshore and laminated them so I can use them again. 

 Class Helpers! I love these robots, I used them last year for jobs and like them so much I kept them around this year. I have 8 jobs, and students rotate weekly. On the right side are group paper passers and collectors (These stay the same until I change the seating chart).

 I'm also trying out a Noise Meter this year. I think it will be a good visual reminder of what kind of voice they should have while working, though I know I will have to remind them!

Daily Schedule for Mondays. I found cute clip art/ characters to go with each subject then printed and laminated! I didn't put times on them because each subject isn't always at the same time throughout the week. 

I hope you all enjoyed looking at these photos of my classroom! It always helps me to see other teachers' rooms for ideas :)

Choosing the Perfect Book: A Resource

This website shows you books you can use to help teach specific reading and writing skills. Comprehension skills, word study, genre study, 6 + 1 traits, etc. Their data base has categorized the books for you, so you just choose the skill you want, and there are books to help you teach it! A cool resource I plan on utilizing this year!

http://www.cleverschoolteacher.com/Shop.aspx