August Morning Work

Shawn had a HUGE medical school test on Friday that was out of town - a 9 hour test about anything medical related. Gross. Which means I was alone for a couple of days. So, what's a teacher in the summer with her husband away going to do?? Why, you watch movies on the couch all day long and make morning work packets! Obviously, right?!

I know you wish you had my life. (School starts in 2 weeks-gotta soak in the last little bit of summer laziness!)

I know there are several ways to assess what your sweeties know at the beginning of the year, but why not use a fun, engaging morning work packet to get an informal look at those sweeties' brains??

August Morning Work

My students have a folder just for their morning work. After they unpack and get settled in the morning, they know to get out their Morning Work folder and look at the board to see what page to complete. Nobody is walking around the room to pick up papers, turn in papers, or ask me 9732984 questions about what they are supposed to be doing. (I print front and back to save paper). I don't usually take a grade for it, but I'm trying to find a way where it won't consume my time for a quick grade. Open to suggestions!

Each page has 7 items-a mix of reading and math on both pages. As you can see, not every day has the same layout so it's new and fresh each morning (but still relevant!). This pack is mainly a first grade review with some 2nd grade skills that are super important all year long. I plan for the other morning work packs to be aligned with our reading and math skills in our curriculum for that month. Just waiting on that ever-wonderful pacing guide. :)

Stop by my TPT store by clicking the button on my blog OR get it here!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Blog Lovin'

Happy Friday, friends!
I had my first "back to school" dream last night-it was awful! (Isn't it too early to be having these already?!?) I spent all day at school yesterday and did some work on my couch last night, so it's safe to say I've got school on the brain. So, I'm thinking I should be totally lazy with my pup today. I mean, who wouldn't want to cuddle all day with this face??

K-baby is too cute. 

As I'm sipping my morning coffee, I decided to make a Blog Lovin' account so I can keep connected with what's going on out here in the blogging world. It's here!

Come follow me! :)

Emily

A peek into my classroom

Is it possible for teachers to not think about school during the summer??? I've been popping in our building since my floors have been waxed and shiny (My floor looks brand new! Considering what it went through this past year, it's amazing...really).

Last year, I was the new teacher on the block and didn't have a CLUE what to do with an empty classroom. Actually, it wasn't completely empty. The first time I saw my room it looked like this:

woah. 

Pretty soon, it was all cleaned out and I had nothing. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing. I scraped together enough materials in one month to call this thing a classroom and it looked like this:

Still a bit empty, but ready for some 2nd grade sweeties. So many people donated time and resources to help me start my first year. I am forever thankful!

At the end of the school year, I knew I wanted to change some things around for my next batch of sweeties. I've collected a bit more classroom goodies over the year, and I've filled in my room a little! I'm waiting to put names on some stuff everything until right before our Meet and Greet on August 5th. It will change several times until about the 2nd week of school! I've still got a bit more to put up, but here it is!

Now, it just needs my new 17 little sweeties to make it complete! 

Oh, and see that thing pulled up on my computer screen? A teacher-friend showed me an amazing interactive math notebook from Blair Turner and I think I'm going to be in LOVE with math journaling this year! Her 2nd Grade Common Core Math Interactive Notebook has "I Can" statements and vocabulary words for each standard which is simply fantastic. I spent my afternoon printing all the pages (there are quite a bit). They are ready to be sorted with tabs labeled by standards-not at all Type A, right?!

Christmas in July SALE!

We are officially less than halfway to Christmas, people!! What better way to start off this new month than with a TPT sale?? :) From July 3-July 6, 2014, my Christmas products will be 20% off!

Get these super cute writing prompts Here!

I can't wait to use this as a language center in December! Get it here!

This week, I've been working in my classroom and rearranging furniture (and of course, reorganizing everything!). Hopefully I will be able to post some pictures as soon as I finish. :)

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Emily Cecil

Workin' on It Wednesday: Christmas in July!

Happy Wednesday!

This week, I am in AMSTI (Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative) training for math with other 2nd grade teachers in my county. It's been great to talk about our math curriculum without pressure (lookin' at you, data meetings). And it doesn't hurt that I get paid to go, too :)
(More info about AMSTI HERE!)

So, I appreciate Summer for lake days, swimming pools, the beach, and no school. But let's be real-this Alabama heat (and humidity) is no joke, and it's not my favorite thing in the whole entire world. That's why my Workin' on It Wednesday is devoted to one of my favorite things: Christmas! I won't let you in on how obsessed I am with that time of year-it's scary.

(Go see more ideas at Kindergals)

While I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, I'm making some resources to go with the skills we will be covering around that time. We start talking about verbs and how they {kinda} really need to "agree" with the noun in the subject of the sentence. And what better way to practice than with a Christmas theme!

Still a work in progress

However, THIS is finished and will soon be making it's TPT debut!

What better way to do some fun Christmas writing than with this writing pack?! It's got a variety of some really cute writing prompts that will be perfect to use in a writing center or as morning work. I can't wait to print them off at Christmastime!

I plan on having a Christmas in July event on TPT as soon as the month rolls around, so stay tuned!
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment! And be sure to visit my TPT store while you're at it :)
Emily Cecil

SURPRISE!

Yesterday was a Professional Development day for our SVE faculty. We talked about what we wanted our school to look like as we continue implementing the Leader in Me Program in our school community. We talked decorations, procedures, and school community. If your school is using this program, what is your faculty doing to implement this throughout the entire school? What are you doing in your classrooms? I would love to hear ideas!

(Student Activity Books!)

As for the surprise.........

I finished my Workin' on It Wednesday project early! (It's the little things that make me happy:)) My goal was to have it done by June 22, but I worked hard all day and finally finished! I'm pleased with the ending result, and I can't wait to use it this fall as we talk about nouns. 

Check it out in my TPT store HERE! 

The freebies are still up and downloading fast, so go check it out! 

Shawn has the night off from med school responsibilities and studying, so I will be enjoying my weekend. Happy Summer!

Workin' on It Wednesday: Nouns

Since exploring the blogging world, I have come across an exciting resource from KinderGals and Amy Lemons called Workin' on It Wednesday. Educators are using their summer break to spend some time working on personal and educational resources and sharing them with the blogging world. So in my attempt to join in this blogging journey, I've decided to join in!

This is what I'm currently working on as the hubs is studying at the kitchen table. The first part of speech we cover in 2nd grade are nouns. Nouns become the basis of everything we do for the rest of the year in Language Arts. Nouns seem like an easy thing to tackle, but I underestimated how much practice we actually needed at the beginning of the school year (Gotta love being a first year teacher!). I instantly knew this was first resource I wanted to make this summer--an in-depth practice pack of every kind of noun a 2nd grader needs to know.

In my activity pack are noun cards and mats. The students sort the cards into people, places, and things using the mats and then recording their answers on a recording sheet. I do this as a center with my phonics skill for the week, and my students love it!

(Mat for nouns that name things)

(Choose a person, place, or thing from the Word Bank to complete the sentences)

Learning plural nouns is CRAZY because of the 308302 different rules that apply! So I made a different practice page for each crazy rule that we cover in 2nd grade.

(Add -s or -es rule)

I'm still working on adding collective nouns, proper nouns, and a little bit of possessive nouns to the mix. Let me know if you have any suggestions or comments about what I'm working on. 

I'm adding some of these pages as freebies on my TPT store. While you're at it, check out my Summer Scramble. My mom made words for me to unscramble on road trips to the beach which I always loved, so here's my Summer Scramble freebie! Check out other products on my TPT store HERE!

I'm also working on staining my kitchen table that we inherited from Shawn's MawMaw. It's in great condition, but we want it to match the rest of our furniture which is a dark brown color. I would gladly welcome any tips/advice on this project since I am definitely not a crafty person!

Head on over to KinderGals to see what other teachers are workin' on this summer!