Jennuine Teaching

Another week has come and gone. Last week was the second week of school. We started by taking our district benchmark tests for reading and math. All of the students worked very hard and they were excited to see all of the fun and exciting things we will be learning in second grade.   I love using manipulatives to allow the students to be hands-on during math time. Last week we worked with pattern blocks. We talked about the names and attributes of the shapes (how many sides, colors, etc.) Then the students got to discover the pattern blocks on their own. Here the students are working together to create designs. Here are some of the designs that they came up with on their own. I was very happy with how creative the students got. One student even gave his pattern block person a mustache.   On Friday we talked about repeating patterns. Students then worked together again to create as many repeating patterns as they could think of. I need to get in the routine of ta...

I successfully completed the first week of school. I have 28 second graders. This is the largest class I have ever had in my whole six years of teaching. It's definitely more management at the beginning then normal, but I know it will be worth it. I have a pretty good class and I am looking forward to a new exciting year.  Week in Review Nouns This week we have been working on nouns. The class has been pretty successful with knowing what a noun is and being able to sort them into a person, place, or thing. The first activity that we did was a noun search. After teaching and reviewing nouns on Monday and Tuesday, by Wednesday we were then able to work with a partner and find different nouns around the room. The students had to then decide whether the noun they found was a person, place, or thing and then put it in the correct column. On Thursday they got to complete a noun sort. The students had a lot of fun. At first they we using the picture sides of the cards to sort and then got...

Today is the first day of school and I am surprisingly pretty calm. Normally I can't sleep the night before and I get super nervous. I feel prepared this year and even though I am already at 28 students, and probably will hit 30 by the end of the day, I feel like it's going to be a good year. I wanted to get more done this weekend for Monday Made It, but my new motto is, "It can get done tomorrow". Normally I would have just stayed up all night making things and then go in super early to set it all up. Then I realized, it can all be done tomorrow. So I will show you what I made today and show you the rest... tomorrow. ;-) 1. Chalkboard Name Plate I bought these supplies earlier on in the summer because I wanted to get a head start on these name plates. Unfortunately for me, I waited until the last second. I filmed a quick tutorial, but I will be editing it late. Make sure to check back later to see how I made this name plate. 2. Teacher Binder I also put together my t...

Tomorrow is the first day of school and after a week and a half of redoing my room, I am ready to share what it looks like. First a quick story on my room. My first year of teaching I had a huge red wall and it drove me crazy by the end of the year. After that I ripped it all down and wallpapered my room in black. It stayed like that for 4 years. This summer I decided to redo one wall with purple fabric after talking to my teaching buddy/BFF. Once that wall was done everything else just seemed out of place. That's when I slowly created a purple theme. I didn't think anything was going to match, but somehow it all came together.  View from the door  My desk is to the right as soon as you walk into the classroom  Right side of the classroom  Front of the classroom  Where I display student work  Back of the classroom  Left side of the classroom  Bathroom  Word Wall  Anchor Chart Wall  Writing Wall Library I love my classroom this year ...