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Welcome to the February edition of the Real Teachers of Blog County! Hoarder is kind of a harsh sounding word isn’t it? But I have a confession. I am a children’s book hoarder and I am passing that affliction passion down to my boys! (This is just what I found under my older son’s pillow).  He sleeps with 15-20 books per night.  “Just in case”… I have to tell you.  My husband is (GASP) not a school guy.  He didn’t have good school experiences growing up, so it is really hard to get him to come in to school.  So, when

Hello all!  Thanks so much for dropping by!  I can’t wait to tell you about this great product by Lisa at: This unit was AWESOME!  For the first time since I started teaching second grade we had school on Martin Luther King Jr. day!  (It was a built in snow day and we had 2 snows days).  So I was excited to actually get to teach my kiddos about MLK Jr. on his day! Lisa’s unit contains so many great things!  We started with the KWL chart: My kiddos knew somethings about MLK, but they were very curious to know

Hello all!  Today I am going to tell you about a fabulous product that I got to try out from my friend Stephanie Chambers of The Learning Chambers!  We swapped products.  I got to try her Reading Response Flap Books! This is a very versatile little product!  She has many different choices for different flap books that your kiddos could make!  We were reviewing Story Elements, so we used the Story Elements Flap Book!  These were easy for the kiddos to make on their own. I am a little possessive of my stapler, so I had to staple them for the kiddos, but

I am forgetful.  I mean, really forgetful.  While in my classroom I am so focused on the kiddos and teaching that I forget everything. So, I carry around a clipboard.  All day.  I even created special sheet to keep my on track! That was fine, but then I would be with my clipboard, but nothing to write with.  Then I found this: It’s called a Pencil Pull.  Carpenters us it to hook onto their pants and then they have a pencil when they need one.  My father in law had one and I got really excited, so he bought me like

Welcome to the November edition of the Bright Ideas Link-  Up! This one is a little different! Over the past 10 months, we   have shared thousands of great ideas through our monthly  Bright Ideas event. This month, we’re re-capping all of those great ideas, just in case you missed any! Below you will find some of my bright ideas from the  past several months (just click on the pictures and they will take you to the original posts):  I love to promote positive behavior in my classroom with my “Boasting Box”.  I try to recognize students throughout the week in my

Wow!  I have been AFB (away from blog)!  Sorry about that.  We had parent conferences this past week.  I really enjoy meeting with my cherub’s parents, but it takes a lot of prep! Enough about that!  I am writing about Reading Workshop today. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I love doing Reading Workshop everyday! I do a modified version of Daily 5. I do 2.5 rounds everyday.  How can I do .5?  I will explain below. Everyday everyone does Read to Self.  Then, I have a computer rotation.  I only have 3 computers in my classroom,

Howdy y’all!  I am so excited to share with you a new website (okay, so it is new to me) that a colleague of mine shared!  It is called: This is a free online sign up sheet!  Oh my goodness! You can create sign up sheets for volunteers or classroom donations.  Parents go on-line and sign up for a spot using their e-mail address (they don’t have to create an account), and then, Volunteer Spot will even send them a reminder  e-mail!   So, I am trying it for our upcoming pumpkin math. It only took about 5 min. to set it

Hello all!  Today I wanted to write about Writing Conferences.  Now, if this seems a little out of order to you, you are not alone.  I really mulled over the order I wanted to do my Writer’s Workshop posts in and #3 was supposed to be about Writing Mini-lessons.  Here is why it is not:   I have too many writing mini-lessons to put in one post! So, my plan is to do the mini-lesson post last, then do periodic Mini-lesson posts as I teach them throughout the year.  Does that make sense?   So, today I want to talk

Thank you to Creative Clips and The Enlightened Elephant for the clipart and Kimberly Gerswin for the font for my button. In my 13 years of teaching I think that I have tried every different kind of writing notebook out there.  I still haven’t found one that I LOVE.  This year, I am trying writing binders. So far, so good.  I wanted the kiddos to be able to decorate them with writing ideas, so I got the view binders.  The first thing that I did was to send home some writing homework so that the kiddos could design their Writing Notebook covers.  I sent home 2

I LOVE using binders in my classroom!  I didn’t love buying tabbed dividers, or trying to figure out ways to make my own.  Then, I had a brain wave one day and here is what I came up with!  Easy peasy.  I was a tad bit nervous because I could see the kiddos not getting it, but they did and it has worked beautifully!  Here you go:  I have a circle punch from my scrap booking collection. This would be even easier with a Circut or Silhouette machine. Each kiddo needs 2 construction paper circles. They put glue on the

Today I am blogging over at Who’s Who and Who’s New about snack time in my room!  Head on over there to check it out.  There is a freebie snack note for you to enjoy.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

Phew!  I know that all of you can sympathize.  I get so tired of hearing myself talk at the beginning of the year!  I always forget how many things there are to teach my new cherubs!  I no sooner start explaining one procedure, when I realize that I have to teach another one!  It’s exhausting!So, let me share with you one of my favorite things to do for the first few days of school.  Playdough!  Now, I know that I am not the only one who does this, but giving the kiddos a small tub of playdough for morning work has been