I'm BACKK!!

So I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging! I kept telling myself I would sit down that night and blog but before I knew it, it was June, the year was over and I said, " better luck next year!"


WELP I'm back and ready to go! I crafted a little project today based on my teammate's idea! I made Book Sticks! Do your students ever misplace books when they're putting them away? Well look no further, I have a solution! The students each have a number which correlates with their book stick. When students are in the book nook and browsing books, they need to place their book sticks in the bin in place of the book that they are about to read. When the students are done reading, they will place their book back where their book stick is and browse for another book! Easy Peasy!

Here is where we started. Laminating pouches, calendar day cut outs bought at Lakeshore, and wooden sticks from AC Moore. 

Santa never fails. He bought me this laminator a few years back. Best gift I ever received! Especially for little projects like this! I can't be bothered by traveling around to make such a small amount. I fit all 31 numbers on 3 sheets! Impressive right?

Here are the 3 finished sheets. I know, I know what you're all thinking.... now the fun begins!

Yes, Yes I cut out each number! A little Bravo (Real Housewives anyone?!?!) and some laminate cutting never hurt anyone. I know we've allll been there!

TaDa! The final product! I hot glued each wooden stick to the back of the laminated numbers. Of course I couldn't let the craft craziness stop there. The book stick container was extremely necessary! I used an old Oatmeal container, covered it with colored paper, and used my Cricut ( bought at Michaels- another fabulous purchase) to cut out sticky vinyl sheets ( bought on amazon)! 

Any questions? Just ask!

Thanks for checking out my blog!

 ♥ Alyssa D'Amore

Sweet sweet summertime!

We made it!! Can't believe it's the end of the year!! Today was so bittersweet! First I read the students my all time favorite story; "I Knew You Could!" After the kiddos and I watched a 20 minutue movie slideshow I made and put music to! There wasn't a dry eye in the house. We spent the next thirty minutes hugging and crying! It was a sight to see! All the kiddies left with a copy of the video too! Welp it's vacation time now! Happy Summer!!!

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That...

 My new year's resolution is to start blogging more! I know it's the end of March but theres still hope right? Anyways here are some of the things we have been working on in the jungle!

 This game is called "Time Twister." The students ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT! I actually was working with some of my babies from last year and they were asking about this game! So I think this game is a real winner! I bought a cheap bath curtain from Target. Then I printed out clocks on the traditional Twister colors; red, yellow, blue and green. The students use a big Twister spinner that was recreated to match the traditional spinner. Before the students can go to their spot, they have to say the time on the clock! The students were in all sorts of knots by the end of this game! It was so much fun!

 Our snowmen for the winter time. Imagine 25 of these faces hanging in our classroom. A D O R A B L E  to say the least!

 During January and most of February our content unit was Ancient Civilization. I don't think it would have been possible to study China without having Chinese food... of course :) The students were licking their bowls!!

 We also studied Ancient Egypt. Above is a picture of the hieroglyphics that the students looked at to make their salt dough. This is one student's finished project. Afterwards we painted our salt dough hieroglyphics. 

  Don't you love our penguin snow measuring sticks! This was suppose to be used on our first snow day, which never happened!! Guess we'll have to keep these in safe storage until next year!

 This is one of my favorite art projects! The LOVEBUG! I love having these hang on our ceiling!

 Our Valentine/Winter window :) I think it was about 65 degrees outside! At least it felt like winter inside the classroom!

 An amazing Pinterest find! Our Valentine's for our parents. "I love you from the bottom of my heart to the tips of my toes!" Have you ever thought something would be such a great idea, then it happens and you ask yourself," Whose idea was this?!" That's how I felt about this art project! The final projects were adorable however, imagine 25 little feetsies covered in red paint stomping around our bathroom! I thought I was going to see red paint on the floor for the next decade :) Thank goodness for all my helpful  lovebugs!

 Our Valentine Mailboxes!

Another Pinterest idea! Obsessed with these precious butterflies :) The students loved it! It was super easy! All you had to do was print the template, copy on various colors, hot glue eyes to the tootsie roll pop and then sign your name! 

We are Homophone/Homonym masters in our classroom! We played tons of games and centers to help master these concepts. This poster is hanging in out room now! If you want to check out what we played go to my TpT store! Enjoy!! My TpT Store

Winter Wonderland!

Fall is my favorite season, however around the last week of November, I start ITCHING to put up my winter decorations! I love watching the student's faces as they come and walk in December 1st and see the room has transformed from a Fall Harvest to a Winter Wonderland! I love this time of year! Here are a few pictures of the room and some centers we have been completing! 

Below is one of my favorite clock centers. I think I found it on whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com. I made 12 different clocks with different times on each. The SOL for 2nd grade is telling time to the 5 minutes.  Each clock corresponds with a letter on the recording sheet below.  I then place the clocks scattered on the walls of the classroom. I try to make them tricky so students have to really look for them! Then students record the time on the clock on their sheet! Its super simple but so much fun for the students! I love that it gets them moving around!

We completed a unit on geometry. Students were able to practice using various shapes to make winter designs. This is a picture of a wreath below!

The holidays are just not complete without Holiday Fast Fact Musical Chairs! Each chair has a fast fact equation on it such as 9+8, 6+6 etc that the students need to know efficiently. When the holiday music plays, students walk around the chairs. When it stops, students must correctly say the answer to their equation and then sit in the chair. We have judges walking around making sure students correctly answer! It is really a big hit in our classroom!

We had many centers that involved mooseltoe ( thanks to Cara Carrolls TPT unit), the grinch, and other holiday fun themes! During this time of year it is so crazy that I continuously forgot to bring out my camera and snap away! That is added to the list of my New Year Resolutions! The week before Winter Break students started a Chris Van Allsburg Author Study. We read each of his books that were available at our school. Students retold each book including the Author's Purpose. On the day before Winter Break we listened to the reading of the Polar Express! Then in the afternoon students drank homemade hot chocolate and received a golden ticket to come on board the polar express. After students watched the movie!! It was a nice way to end the week!!

Last but not least, Santa definitely made a stop in our room!!! My donorschoose.org page finally got funded!!!!! Meet our new wonderful amazing multi-spot rug!!!!!

50's Day

In our class, students celebrated the 50th day of school with many fun activities!! Students dressed as if they were in the fifties, chewed old fashion bubble gum, listened to 50's music and even had Root beer floats! During Math, all the centers, lessons and calendar time involved the number 50. Students had to skip count to 50, complete 50 jumping jacks, skips, hops and even bubbles. They even wrote word problems with the number 50 involved!! During writing students wrote a comparison between the women and men of the fifties and the women and men of the present. They were adorable! This was such a fun day!! Enjoy some pictures below!

Long Time No Post!!

It has been awhile since I posted pictures of whats going on in our classroom. Here is Thanksgiving in a nut shell! It's been a crazy few months with the classroom hard at work! Enjoy!!

 Thanks to Cara Carroll for this awesome center. Students had to make fact families with the turkeys. Each feather had a different equation on it. Students had to match the right equation with the right turkey! Super fun!

 Another center we completed during November was this Clock Turkey. Students used a clothes pin to mark the correct digital time to match the analog clock.

 During November, we learned about American Indians in Social Studies. This is one of my favorite units to teach! Students really enjoy learning about the three different tribes; the Powhatan, the Lakota and the Pueblo. After students learn about the Lakota and their houses, students then make their very own teepee!

At my mom's school ( she's a school nurse) this amazing teacher retired this past year. She was kind enough to let me literally RAID her files, belongings, and life! This outstanding MATH MAT was among those things. You would have thought I gave the students a million dollars! They are in LOVE with this Math Mat! The mat says equations like 9-4 and the students have a few seconds to step on the answer. My kiddies love it!

More Spooky Fun!

 This is how we display centers in the classroom. There are 5 students per group. Each center takes around 15-20 minutes. Students rotate clockwise once the timer goes off!

 This was a center that we used to help solidify the concept of comparing numbers using < , > or =. I took clothes pins and covered them with glitter. Then I laminated a set of numbers 1-20. Students compared two or three numbers using the clothes pins as < or > signs. The students really enjoyed it :)

 Boo Bump was an awesome game that I found on TPT for FREE! It was a great game to work on adding three addends together, which is EXACTLY what we have been working on!! Students used candy corns as game pieces to make it more festive!

 I found this candy corn game on http://thefirstgradeparade.blogspot.com/. Students matched the candy corn partners and solved the addition or subtraction equations. Then students recorded their answers on the worksheet shown. 

 I was inspired by Cara's apples we made in September to make candy corn stain glass window art. Can't wait to add our pumpkin stain glass next week!

 This week we learned about the pumpkin life cycle. I found this activity on Cara Carroll's Blog once again! The students had to match the pictures and sentences. 

 Students also wrote fiction stories about bats as the Writing center this week!

This was our ABC center last week. Students took whatever their word study sort was for the week and then had to think of words that matched their sort. Students did a great job!

This was another Free TPT activity. The students had to match the pumpkins to make compound words. Then students recorded their answers on their worksheet.