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?