Friday, April 11, 2014

Five For Friday Weekly Linky Party

So it has been a while.  The weather has finally gotten warmer and the kids and I are so happy for this change.  We have also been SUPER busy at work in the classroom!

I'm so excited to participate in this linky party again.  I'm hooking up with Doodle Bugs and FIVE for Fridays!

Here are five items from the week!

I finished packaging up our book on leadership.  This is a book the kiddos write in class.  I send it out to a publisher and the parents are able to purchase their child's writing in a published book.  The kids love it, I love it and the parents definitely love it!    I know you will love it!  This is a picture of last years book.  Leave a comment if you would like information on this project and I can certainly post more about it.  It's free to teachers!

We added to our Million Dollar Math words list.  The student absolutely LOVE adding to this math vocabulary wall!!

I finished my multiplication array package for TPT.  I'm very excited about this set.  My students love practicing multiplication and as second graders they are so proud of themselves!!

The students also finished their writing on their Caldecott Medal books.  They had to write a summary, describe the mail character, draw a picture of the setting and write their opinion of the book.  

I survived my two grad classes this week.  Taking classes during the winter is a breeze, but taking them while the weather is warmer is VERY DIFFICULT!  I hope I do ok during the summer months! 

HAPPY  SPRING EVERYONE!!!  Please leave a comment and like my page!  I'd truly appreciate it!

March 3, 2014

Read Across America Linky Party!

I'm very excited to hook up with The Primary Chalkboard!

My all time favorite read aloud is Charlotte's Web by E.B. White.  I love how it talks about the value of friendship. I like to start each year off with this book.

This one may be a close second if not tied for first.  It's great story about how the rats build a colony and help Mrs. Frisby(a mouse) move her sick son.

My Favorite Children's Authors are

Link up here and share your favorite children's books!

Grab the link here The Primary Chalkboard.

March 2, 2014

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

I love Read Across America week!

I'm so excited for this week.  I love Dr. Seuss and the kids love him too!  It's a fantastic way to celebrate an amazing author and literacy in our country!  My all time favorite Dr. Seuss books are Oh The Places You'll Go!, Horton Hears a Who and of course The Lorax to name just a few.  They send such strong messages!

What's your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

I'll be linking up with the Primary Chalkboard to participate in a Dr. Seuss Linky party!  Come back this week to find out more about literacy in my classroom!

Friday, February 21, 2014

Five for Friday Weekly Linky Party

I'm so excited to participate in this linky party again.  I'm hooking up with Doodle Bugs and FIVE for Fridays!

Here are five items from the week!

Well after a Thursday snow day, Friday snow day and Monday being  President's Day, I'm finally on winter vacation for a week.  This winter in New England has been crazy!  One more snow day and we will have to come back on a Monday.  Late June can be HOT!

I'm so sorry that I don't have a picture!!!!

I rocked my grad presentation on the magic e!  This is what I used along with a video from you tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVeq9a4dFIU

and a book called Here Comes Silent e! by Anna Jane Hays.

Tuesday, February 18, 4 days late, we finally got to have our Valentine's Day Party.  As always the kids loved it and had a great time.  Here is s freebie I posted a while ago.

I started working on a geography unit.  More to come on that!  I'm so excited about this unit and I can't wait to complete it!

My stories of Bob the Sink Bug continue.  I am also working on a clip art for him.  After all we need a visual for him.  I know I can picture him, but I'm sure many of you are not picturing the cute adorable stink bug that I am.  Read about his adventures here!  Thanks for reading along with Bob!

Please don't look up an actual picture of stink bugs!  I don't want to scare you away.  I promise my stories based on actual events involve a much cuter guy!

Stink Bug Sunday

February 16, 2014

Well it's time for another adventure with Bob.  This is the story of how I knew we were correct for calling him Bob.  It was just another ordinary day of working, talking and students asking if they could go to the bathroom or get a drink of water.  Of course this occurs during the times when I'm looking for an answer and someone raises their hand and you think great they know the answer, but you get "can I go to the bathroom."  I think we have all been there.  It was a big discussion of how I knew Bob was a boy and not a girl.  The boys had their opinion and of course the girls had theirs!  Who was to win?  My brain as a teacher was thinking persuasive writing!!!  Anyway, when one of my boys comes back from the bathroom, he is all excited and makes the BIG announcement.  Bob is definitely a BOY!  "Mrs. Craig,"  he says "Bob was in the boys room, I saw him."  "He wouldn't go into the boys room if he was a girl."  Remember this is second grade so there is no way that would happen, even the girls were convinced!  So from then on Bob was Bob for sure!

Don't forget to come back next Sunday for more of Bob's adventures!

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Linking Party!

I'm linking up with Jacque at Mommy and Me Creations for her Just for the Teachers Tuesday Linky again!

I'm so excited for this linky party again!!

Each Sunday I have been trying to share my story about Bob and explain why my blog is called Bob the Stink Bug in Second Grade.  It quite a funny story.  See his stories here.  I'm sure many of you have similar stories involving critters in the classroom.  I'd love to hear them.  Please leave comments. 

I wanted to share my science journal labels since science journals have been the craze the last few years.  I hope you enjoy.  Please leave a comment and rate this product.  I'd also love for you to follow me!

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Bob Comes to Music

So as I promised in my last post I'm going to share a little bit more about Bob.  I know I have an unusual blog name.  After all, why would anyone want their name attached to a stink bug?  Since Bob adopted our classroom he literally went everywhere with us.  One Thursday on our way to music, the class got to the door to enter into music class.  One of my students noticed Bob walking towards the music classroom as if he were going to join the class.  Once one kiddo noticed him it was a big hoopla telling each other "don't step on Bob."  Each student turned to the person behind them in line to ensure Bob's safety.  It was quite funny!  The students were no longer grossed out by Bob, but were now on the lookout for where he was going to show up next or what he was going to do. I knew I was on to something to keep them engaged.  I came up with several lessons around Bob (more on that later).  Stay tuned for more adventures of Bob next Sunday.

Do you have any critter stories from your classroom?  I'd love to hear them!

Just the Teacher Tuesday Linky Party!

I'm linking up with Jacque at Mommy and Me Creations for her Just for the Teachers Tuesday Linky!

I'm so excited to take part in this linky party.  It is my second party AND I have a snow day tomorrow!  They are calling for 8-14 inches.  It's so nice when they make the decision at night and you don't have to wait for the early morning call.  Is anyone else closed already?

So I created this for one of my favorite books Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner. I absolutely love this book.  I did the writing in class and collaborated with my art teacher to create a snowman picture using crayon chalks.  We will display these at our school's literacy night.

This product offers a graphic organizer, final draft writing paper, an adjective poster with winter adjectives, a verb poster with winter verb and a winter adjective/verb sort for any center or Daily 5 word work activity.  I hope you enjoy and please leave a comment and like my page.  I'm always looking for advice since I'm new to the blogging world.  I hope you enjoy it.

Tune in this Sunday to hear about more adventures about Bob the Stink Bug in the classroom!

Sparking Student Motivation with Bucket Filler Themes

Joanne from Head Over Heals for Teaching is having a motivation linky party.  It made me think how do we do this everyday.  It's almost second nature to teachers.  

I wanted to share one idea with you.  In the beginning of the year I read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud like many of you probably do.  

The kids love it and they are excited to write notes and add little pom poms to each other's buckets.  After a few months the novelty wears off.  I started to think how can I keep the positive motivation going in the classroom and keep the excitement of filling each others buckets. 

So I came up with the idea to create themes!  

On my morning message I give them a theme on what their bucket note should be about.  For example, one day they should write to a friend about how they noticed they did well during math that week.  I encourage the students to write something specific perhaps how they answered a question or tried hard solving a problem.  The next time it might be to write something to a friend about how they noticed something they did during language arts, science, social studies etc.  

Other ideas are how they worked hard doing something, helped someone, used polite words or pick a student that you have never written a note to.

This really gives the students ideas and they need to pay attention to their fellow students a little bit more closely. 

Do you use the bucket fillers in your classroom?  What do you do to keep the positive motivation going in your classroom?

New Dollar Sale!!

Happy Friday!  Second grade bloggers are here to off you a sweet second grad savings.

  Jessica from Literacy Spark has organized this linky party.

Each blogger has added 2-4 products to the link up below that will be on sale for ONE DOLLAR now through Sunday night.

Here's what you will find for a dollar in my store, this weekend only.

 

SALE on Dolch Words!!!!!!!!

My Dolch Words are on SALE! This includes all of the dolch words along with a checklist to keep track of which words the students could read within three seconds and and assessment sheet where they have to use the words in a complete sentence.  They are also color coded by level, pre-primer through level three.

I hope you enjoy it.  Please leave a comment and rate my product!!

Five for Friday

I'm so excited, this is my first linky party.  I'm hooking up with Doodle Bugs and FIVE for Fridays!

Here are five items from the week!

My blog was born!  So excited to join the blogging family!

All about Bob! I published my first of, hopefully, many posts.

My first freebie was posted on my page!

I created a Facebook page in order to draw in more people.

https://www.facebook.com/bobthestinkbug

I posted free Valentines Day cards!

If you want to participate in this FIVE for Friday linky party be sure to head over to Doodle Bugs blog for details. 

Also, any advice from more experienced blogger for a beginner like me would be much appreciated.  Feel free to leave comments.

Valentine's Day Freebie

Are you getting ready for Valentine's Day?  I can't believe it right around the corner!

Here is a freebie for you to give as a Valentine's Day card.  Simply attach a pencil to the card and give a treat to your kiddos.  This is especially great for me since I work at a healthy school.

Sharing a Freebie

To celebrate my new blog I'm sharing the link to my free emergency binder cover.  It comes with three different graphics.  I hope you enjoy it. Click on picture below.

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Emergency-Binder-Cover-1068410

Meet Bob

Okay, I'm sure you're wondering "What's with the title Bob the Stink Bug?", well let me start with a little story.  About a year ago our state became infested with stink bugs when a car company sent over a shipment of cars that was full of stink bugs(true story).  The bugs made the best of it and stayed out of the cold New Hampshire winters by taking over my school among other places.  These little critters seemed to especially love my classroom, which caused chaos with all my students.  To ease the excitement, I introduced him as Bob the Stink Bug, our new class pet.  So the adventures began as Bob would follow us everywhere, to art, library, music and even the bathroom.