Fun Day

We had such a fun day at school today.  We are learning persuasive writing.  At the beginning of each new quarter, I give students new seats in the classroom.  So, today I had them write a persuasive paper to convince me to let them choose their own seat.  I laughed and laughed as I read them this afternoon.  Here is my pick of the top 10 reasons using students own spelling:

•  10 - I only want nice people next to me.
• 9 - I want to sit by M because I'm kinda his friend.  I want to sit by M because I can see the tv better.  I want to sit by M so I will be closer to the door.  I want to sit by M to be closer to the rug.  (This list goes on and on always beginning with...I want to sit by M...Do you think he really likes M?  lol)
• 8 - I would start being responsbol (her spelling) of what I said.
• 7 - I will not pull their hair.
• 6 - I think that it would be fun because maby it might be good for you.  (hahaha)
• 5- I will pay you.
• 4 - I'll practice 3 diget with regropin in the summer.
• 3- Every time you choose my seat they are mean to me.  (says my BIGGEST trouble maker in the room..ha!)
• 2- Wore the coolest teacher in 2nd grade.  (well, that's a good reason!)
• 1 - Because your so nice and your the best teacher in the whole wide world.  And I love you so much.  And you get kids smarter in school.  (Quite a bit more on this one.  Awww...who am I kidding?  She did a nice job of sucking up, so she'll be choosing her own seat tomorrow!  hahahaha)

Cynthia

Multi-blog Give Away

I am sooooo excited.  I have been asked to join in on a HUGE multi-blog give away.  For all the details, hop on over to Karla's Blog to enter.  You can win over $80 worth of products.  Check out some of the TPT stores while you're there.  There are some awesome products at great prices.  It will make your life easier.  Personally, since I have discovered TPT, I have found so many great things to use in my classroom that not only is it making my life easier, but my students are the real winners by having some great games & activities made by ACTUAL TEACHERS in the classroom!!!

Happy Wednesday!  (Only 7 more days until Spring Break for me!)

Charity Preston

We had a teacher workday on Friday.  Today should have been a break, but we had 1 snow day to make up, so we had an additional workday.  (They let the teachers make it up for the students.)  We spent both days cleaning out our storage room and workroom.  Everything looks so clean and spiffy now.  With this warm weather, it almost felt like we were starting a new year!  lol

Nothing to write about really, but I found this really great blog article about Charity Preston (The Organized Classroom Blog).  She tells her story of how she started in the world of blogging and TPT and made money so quickly.  It's a very inspiring story to read, so I wanted to post the link for others to read.  I'm a huge fan of hers and while I don't think I will ever achieve what she has in one year, I still admire her greatly for doing what she has done.  Read it for yourself  here.  Be sure to watch the video she shares telling how to make your very own CHEAP dry-erase boards.  I'm headed to Walmart tomorrow!!!

Celebration...with a FREEBIE!

Whoo!  Hoo!  I've sold 100 items on TPT store!  I am super excited, since I only began doing this 2 months ago.  In celebration I am giving away my "Wild About Informational Writing" unit that normally sells for $4.95.

See more about it at my TPT store where you can preview it.  This includes the Common Core Standards to post and includes activities for K-3rd grade.

Are you as excited as I am??  (Probably not, but who DOESN'T love a freebie???  lol)

Here's how to get it free:

1) Follow me on here (of course!)

 2) Follow me on TPT.

3)  Like my page on Facebook.

4)  Follow me on Pinterest. 

 (This is a new one so even if you are following me on the others, add this one and you still win!)

5)  Last, but one of the most important steps...leave me a comment telling me the name you used to "like and follow" me with (some of mine are under Cynthia and some 2nd Grade Pad), along with your e-mail address so I can send your freebie to you!

Even if you haven't purchased anything previously from my store, you still benefit.  Don't you just love when good things happen and the love is flowing for everyone???  Don't miss out...

HOP TO IT!!!

:-)

(Promotion ends Sunday, March 25th)

Cynthia

BOGO FREE WEEKEND SPECIAL

I'm having a BOGO FREE WEEKEND SALE!

Buy 1 Literacy Station Activity and receive 1 Literacy Station of your choice FREE (must be same price or less). Check out my store now to view all of my items. Springing Into Literacy Stations is my newest! Please send me your e-mail and the item you've chosen for your freebie. I have items for kindergarten to 3rd grade, large bundled units, and individual.  I'm sure there is something to fit your needs!  :-)

Check out the linky party here to find lots of great kindergarten through 2nd grade blogs!

Organization in the Classroom

I have found a new blog that I LOVE!!!  If you haven't already, it is definitely a blog to join.  Check out The Clutter Free Classroom.  This is just what I need.  Let me give you a little background into the reasoning why...
This past school year our school system found themselves with a NINE MILLION dollar deficit.  Many people lost their jobs from the bottom all the way to the top.  They also closed two schools and combined into one large campus.  There were only two of the second grade teachers who got to remain in second grade.  Thank goodness, I was one of the lucky two.  However, I did have to move to the larger campus.  Instead of 8 second grade classrooms, we now have eleven.  You can just imagine the panic of so much fruitbasket turnover.  Added on top of that, we were not able to work in our classrooms during the summer because of so much moving.  (Not only 2 schools, but due to the fruitbasket turnover there were more classrooms that were moved, than those that got to stay.)  We had FOUR days to unpack our classrooms, figure out how to arrange furniture, and get everything ready for students.  (Actually 3 1/2 days due to Meet the Teacher Day.) 
Okay, maybe that's TOO much background information (LOL)...ANYWAYS, that's why I was so glad to stumble across this website.  I admit, it got to the point that things were shoved and hidden just to have my classroom presentable.  We were just told that we will be remaining in these rooms next years and will still be teaching 2nd, so it's time to get serious and get things like they should be.  We have 2 teacher workdays coming up (Friday and Monday) so I plan to do LOTS of work in my classroom.  I'm SO excited!

With all the teachers who were new to the 2nd grade, I have been doing lots of organizing of our lessons, mapping, etc. to help them out.  As I started doing this, I realized that it would help me be more organized to store my lesson plans like this:

I have 4 of these large notebooks that I made for each quarter.

I then took everything we are responsible for teaching (directly from our system's curriculum map) and put into a document called, "2nd Grade at a Glance."  This is for the 2nd half of the year.  I have these placed in the front of each of the notebooks.

On the inside, I have the months that are in that quarter on colored dividers.  Each subject of the month is then on yellow dividers.  I have my Standards Based Math Lesson Plans that I have made for each day in page protectors.  I can easily pull these out year to year to teach instead of having to pull out my big bulky teacher book.

I also made a shared folder that I placed on our school server for all the 2nd grade teachers to access as needed.  It is divided into months and all subjects as well.

How do you get organized?  I'm joining the Clutter-free Classroom Challenge.  I'll be posting more soon!