Don't Let Pigeon Drive the Bus

It's November and that means it's Mo Willem's month! I introduced pigeon to my students as well as duckling and they loved them. I ran out of time to read the other books so I will have to continue after the holidays, but Mo Willems was definitely a hit. We read a lot of pigeon books and even used him as our introduction to writing how-to's.

Pigeon also taught us how to include speech bubbles in our writing.

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I'm Not a Turkey

With Thanksgiving coming up, I am reminded of all the things that I am thankful for. I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends. I am also thankful for such a sweet bunch of second graders this year. I want to keep this post short and sweet so I will leave you with one of my favorite writing activities, I'm not a turkey. I'm sure there are many variations of this activity, but I just love it so much. I love the creativity that comes out during this assignment. One of my favorites... I'm not a turkey. A turkey has feathers. I have hands. Can I ask you a question? Do turkeys go to school? No they do not. I am a student. I talk a lot. If you eat me, I can talk in your stomach. If you eat a student, you go to jail. Ohhh so creative!!

Marshmallow Mouths and Toes

If you are anything like me, I enjoy having a straight quiet line while walking in the hallways. It makes me proud to show off my class because it shows that they have respect for other learners. And lets be real here, it is down right embarrassing when you have a noisy class walking in line. It's like a stampede is coming. For years I have used bubbles in your mouth and hands behind your back. Well this is good for the quite mouths, but I still get stompers in my class. Last year it wasn't a huge deal because our hallways were carpeted, but now they are just concrete, so noise spreads so easily. This year I decided to use marshmallow mouths and toes. I started off by bringing out the marshmallows. I had a lot of oooohhhhhsssss and aaaaahhhhhsssss... exactly what I wanted. We talked about marshmallows and used our 5 senses to describe them. This was also a perfect way to introduce adjectives. After we made a list, I let each of my students eat a marshmallow. WHAT?? We ge...

Classroom Management

With the school year starting soon, I'm sure a lot of us are reworking our classroom management plans. Some of you may even be making your for the first time. No matter where you are in the process, I always believe that it is the most important. I've always believed that if you don't have good classroom management, then everything else you do is a waste of time. What is the point in teaching a lesson while your students aren't paying attention? You're just going to have to reteach it. Why not use your time wisely and be productive. With all of the right procedures in place, your classroom will run smoother than butter! Sure classroom management and procedures take a while to teach and learn, but it is all worth it in the end. I am currently reworking my management procedures and when I do I will make an updated post. For today though I want to share with you what I did last year. When I first started teaching I was using this behavior chart. I wasn't really a f...

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