Let's Get Organized!

First off, I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My husband is home for a few days and we celebrated our first Thanksgiving together as husband and wife. 

So while the husband was out shopping this afternoon, I looked over at my teacher bag and thought to myself wow I gotta get that under control. Everyone who knows me thinks I'm an organizational queen, but I'm a closet hoarder and it's mostly because I'm lazy. This is how I've been organizing my life.... 

Not very impressive is it? 

I decided to try out a binder. We'll see if I can keep it clean. 

cover

 The front has a pouch that contains my pocket calendar and pens. I also have a portable hole puncher so hopefully it will encourage me to use the binder. 

The first section is for my monthly curriculum maps. No more scrounging around because it's right there!

Next up, lesson plans. What am I teaching in science today? Well, let me just flip over to the lesson plan section and find out ;)

My meeting notes had a special place before... the garbage! Then I would forget dates or events that we discussed and get angry that I threw it away. Not anymore. I have a special section just for that :D

In this section I plan on putting the interest surveys that my parents filled out in the beginning of the year. These forms contain phone numbers, email addresses, and emergency contacts. Right now they are in a file in my cabinet, but I need this kind of information to be a little more readily available.

The back contains a folder for misc. things and I PROMISE it won't become another clutter folder and it also has some scrap paper. If you look at my folder on the very top of this entry you'll notice it was my file cabinet/notebook. No more writing on the covers of my notebooks! I have paper now :)

So I'm hoping this works out. We'll see. How do you organize?? 

Also, on Monday my TpT store will be 30% off. Use the code CMS28. 

**Homework** and a 4th of July freebie ;)

I've been asked several times how I do homework in second grade. For starters my school requires homework to be sent home each night (except Friday) in math and ELA. Math is easy because we use Saxon so the homework is already done. If I want to extend math I have many great resources by Scholastic and Mailbox that I can photocopy. I try to stick to a schedule because it's easy on me, the students, and parents. It looks like this: 

Monday- comprehension. I make quarterly packets which include both fiction and non-fiction passages. I do differentiate. Most of my resources came from Scholastic's e-book dollar days. 

Tuesday- writing. Here is a freebie. My students have a BEE binder which goes to and from school.Inside the BEE binder are plastic sleeves. One of the sleeves contains the monthly journal prompts. On Tuesdays my students take home their journal notebook and complete a prompt for homework. I leave the number of sentences blank on the document so I can write in individual goals for each student. Easy way to differentiate! LOVE how easy this is to manage too. 

Wednesday- I'm still debating on Wednesday. Last year I did grammar on Wednesday. I probably still will.. Unless I come up with something easier to manage, right now I just make photocopies from a Scholastic grammar workbook that I have. Any thoughts? 

Thursday- On Thursday the students practice their spelling words by using their speller's choice activities for the month. Again, easiest thing ever to manage. I just change out the activities each month in their BEE binder and they take home their spelling notebook to complete the assignment. 

Friday- The students don't have homework on Friday, however, each Monday they have to turn in their reading journal. I require that they write 2 entries a week.. don't care which days. This is another easy way to differentiate. Most of my students have to write at least a 5 sentence summary on 20 minutes worth of reading. My advanced readers have to make connections. This journal stays in their BEE binders at all times because when they choose to work in their journal is up to the student. 

Hope this helped!! Happy 4th of July :) Feel free to share how you do homework. I love seeing how things are done in other classrooms!! 

You really want to see my "nest"? Ok... you asked for it!

I decided to participate in Mrs. Farley's link party probably just to embarrass myself ;)

For those of you who have been following me for a while, you've seen the photos of my classroom.. it's the size of a bathroom. This shelf is basically the only place I can store "my" stuff and I only get 2 shelves. The very top just houses some assessment materials, the second to last shelf has paper to file and binders for data and curriculum information. The other shelves are student materials.The REAL nesting is done at home... 

This is my real "nest." I leave school ASAP to plop down and work there for a couple of hours. So yes, I am THAT teacher that leaves at 3:30 BUT only to work in my comfort zone! 

So this is a shoe closet converted into my classroom storage closet. Poor shoes :( This is mostly extra supplies and craft materials. It was organized in August but so much more has piled up since then. The point of the clear craft tub was for me to see what I have in there.. not so much. 

This is the "office" in my apartment. The real office is my couch.. this is more or less a storage area. The white baskets, fabric cube, and blue tub are all school/teacher related. What a mess!

Ooohh.. this picture doesn't look so bad! The bottom shelf is all professional books, the top shelf has about 20 packages of .01 loose leaf paper, and the purple crates contain more professional development items. Oh and that toolbox is wonderful. I keep all my "most used" materials in there and just grab it when I'm creating projects in the living room by my office couch. 

This is my desk that NEVER gets used. I store stuff on top of it, obviously. The clear bins are mostly die cuts, paper, markers, glue, etc. 

Can I just tell you how vulnerable I feel right now. Everyone describes me as the most organized person they know because that's how I like my living and working environments, however, since I don't go in the "office" it doesn't bother me. I will tell you this... when I finally own a home I WILL have my very own office with lots of built in storage and it will be so neat and perfect. Promise. 

Magic Eraser really is magic! :D

Thank you to whoever recommended using a Magic Eraser as the actual dry erase board eraser. It truly is magical!! :) I follow so many blogs and websites that I have no idea where I got the idea from. Erasing my white board and laminated items has never been easier. You don't wet the Magic Eraser.. you basically just use it as is. I don't have to press hard or use Expo spray anymore to get my boards and materials clean. LOVE IT!!

I'm an Organizational FREAK!

Link Party!

Let me just start by saying I LOVE anything to do with organization. I love to be neat, tidy, organized, and ready. You could say it's OCD. You may have seen these pictures before on my blog, but this time I'll explain my organization tips. 

So this mailbox organizes SO much! I have a small class so the 6 on the left are my students' boxes. The one on the bottom left holds file folders of everything I use weekly/monthly: clip chart sheets, speller's choice, spelling lists, and monthly writing prompts.

The middle section is broken up into the following: 

Birthday- this is where I keep birthday pencils and certificates

Star student- contains certificates and sticker

Awards- this is where I have misc. awards (like reader of the month or caught you being good), 

Forms- right now it's just "while you were absent" cards that I made on Vistaprint

CAFE- the bottom 2 contain various things I use for CAFE and my Fancy Nancy word wall such as sentence strips, checks for understanding, index card strips, sticky notes, etc.

The last section on the right is open for my students to use and they know exactly how I expect everything to be treated and handled. It includes: 

Construction paper

White paper- basically just printer paper

Loose leaf paper

Stationery- usually themed, last month I had Valentine cards, before that Christmas cards. 

Fancy paper- mostly cute paper from the Dollar Tree. 

Envelopes

Writing task cards- changed out monthly. Right now I have St. Patrick task cards that I included in my unit. 

And you'll notice EVERYTHING is labeled. I love labels. My kiddos must too because they pick, pick, pick at them! By now they know messing with my organization is a big no no. 

Again, LABELS :) These are mostly math manipulatives and have a cute little label. The middle row with the blue lids are my word work bins. All 3 bins have identical items and the students take a bin when they choose "word work" in the Daily 5. They include: dry erase crayons, stamps, markers, colored pencils, Wikki sticks, magnetic letters, and chalk. The cookie trays on the bottom are what the students grab if they are using magnetic letters. 

On top you can see my scissor bin, pencils, dry erase markers, dry erase crayons, dry erase erasers, sticky notes, index cards, writer's checklist, and editing pens/pencils.

My library bins are all labeled according to genre. The label also includes a number and the back of each book has a corresponding number. Wow my library stays so organized and clean this way :) 

On my shelf you'll see my teacher binders and papers to file, my CD player and CD's, the students' BEE binders and word study games, and on the bottom are individual book bins. 

Well, I think that's all I have to share right now. My room is so small that I've given up my shoe closet at home to store all my non-essentials like bulletin board materials and craft supplies. On Sundays I grab what I need for the week. If you have any questions about my organizational OCD please ask :)

Welcome to Second Grade!

Clip chart

I use the clip chart management system in my class. I like that it is a positive reinforcer and encourages and rewards my students that are always on task, which then motivates the students who are not quite always on task. Instead of writing the student's name on the clothespin I assigned them each a number. I do this so there is some confidentiality. The students will memorize each other's numbers but outside visitors (parents, teachers, other students) won't necessarily know who's clothespin belongs to whom.The students keep the clip chart daily report sheet in their BEE binder.There is a spot for them to write homework, teacher to make comments, and parents to respond or write comments. 

Job chart

Since community helpers is a big 2nd grade social studies unit, I decided to model my job chart after that. I only made 7 community helpers but use them if you would like. I'll be creating more next year with a larger class. The heads are attached with velcro as we change jobs each week.

Organization

This is how I organize most of my math manipulatives. It is 4 shoe organizers stacked on top of each other. I think I originally got them at Walmart. The bins with the blue lids are word work bins labeled 1, 2, and 3. They all contain the same items and are used during Daily 5's word work choice. They contain: colored pencils, markers, alphabet stamps ($1.00 at Target in the back to school bins), magnetic letters, clothespin letters, and dry erase crayons. 

Author of the month

Each month I focus on a specific author. I write the author of the month on this laminated file. As we learn about more authors, we compare/contrast writing styles. The students LOVE finding out who the author is each month. By the end of the month the students are talking about the author like they're best friends. It's great! 

  CAFE board

I implemented Daily 5 and CAFE this year which is off to a great start!

Choices
To begin reading, the students sit on the carpet and we spend the first 5 minutes making our reading block choices. This sheet is laminated (you might have to edit/play with the text since the font I used is a downloaded font). I, of course, have guidelines regarding their choices. 

 Habitats

While learning about habitats, we created a fresh water habitat facts bulletin board. The students colored and created pond plants and animals and wrote facts on lily pads. 

  BEE binders

Here is a look inside the BEE binder. This is my first year using this organization system and I think next year I want to use a smaller binder (1inch) and only keep their reading journals in it. 

 My library area

Each bin has a designated number and the back of each book is numbered. Let me tell you, this has made my life so much easier. I rarely have books out of place now. You can't really see it, but on top of my mailboxes I have a "book doctor." This avoids the emergency interruptions during small group instruction to tell me a book has a rip. The students put a sticky note on the page that is ripped then they drop it into the "book doctor" bin. Ahhh love it!
The book shelves are plastic storage shelves but instead of doing them 4 tall, I made them 2 tall and got two sets out of them. Perfect and affordable! 

 Organization

My students' mailboxes are on the left (very small class this year). The middle section stores birthday pencils and certificates, birthday certificates, absentee forms, and CAFE materials. The section on the right houses a lot of my writing supplies: construction paper, white paper, lined paper, stationery, fancy paper, envelopes, and writing prompts and topics that I change out monthly. 

Calendar 

I made pattern calendar pieces for each month of the year with a variety of difficulties. My students love trying to guess what the pattern will be.

Math/calendar area

 The bags are for the hundred day count. Each day the students put a base ten block into the "ones" when they reach ten they transfer a base ten tens stick into the "tens" bag. When the "tens" bag reaches 100 then the students will transfer a base ten hundreds block into the "hundreds" bag. 

Money

I had several questions about my magnetic pig, so let me explain it in detail. First of all, this was a trial and error project and it's finally working out :) I bought a three piece cookie sheet set. I used the largest of the 3. The other 2 sheets along with a couple other sets are used in my word work station for magnetic letters. I'm not very artistic so normally my fiancé does anything requiring skill for me. He's in law school, so sometimes I'm just stuck doing things on my own... like the pig. That's when I rely on google. I printed this pig template, cut it out, and traced it in pencil on the cookie sheet. I painted the pig using pink acrylic paint. It will take 2-3 coats and you must let each coat dry completely before applying a new one. After the last coat dries you MUST spray it with acrylic spray (can be purchased at any craft store) or the magnets will peel the paint. I have 4 quarters, 10 dimes, 10 nickels, and 10 pennies on the magnet board. The first trial I used the magnetic strips with the sticky back, but the magnets were not heavy enough and the kids would constantly knock them off. I replaced those magnets with disc magnets which are in the school supply section of Walmart and are about 6.00 for a pack of 50, I think.. I couldn't find them online. I used hot glue to attach them to the magnet. I've had no problems since I changed magnets. To attach the heavy cookie sheet to the wall, or in my case the door, I used picture frame velcro grips. They're fantastic! And supposedly, they're supposed to remove easily from the wall, but there hasn't been a need for me to remove them. Lastly, I cut, laminated, and hot glued this tag  onto the magnet board. My school uses Saxon math, so I write the money problem of the day on it and my math leader puts the correct number of coins on the pink pig.  

Writing celebration

We created t-shirts to celebrate our first published writing piece. The kids decorated the front with their name and year. For the back, I scanned each student's published writing piece and printed onto iron transfers. This was A LOT of work.. I'm not going to lie, but worth it ;)