Planning, Planning and More Planning!!!

Hey, Hey!!!!

It's been a super long week! On Monday, I finally gained access to my classroom and let me tell you, it was a MESS! This year, I am switching classrooms (again), so I spent all Monday and Tuesday deep cleaning and organizing my classroom. Needless to say, it's almost ready for my Big Reveal, so stay tuned! We started back to school PD's on Wednesday and it was great seeing my coworkers and meeting my new coworkers! I also found out that I will be stepping into the role of Mentor Teacher which means I will have a student teacher for the entire year! I'm so excited to have a co-teacher for my new babies this year!

Beginning of the Year Planning

At the beginning of each year, my team starts by planning out the year long scope and sequence of Common Core State Standards. Backwards planning helps us decide which standards are not covered very well within our curriculum. We utilize the Houghton Mifflin Reading curriculum, the Engage NY curriculum for Math and Write From the Beginning and Beyond for Writing. Year long planning helps us fill in the gaps. 

After we create our yearly scope and sequence, we begin quarterly planning. Here we focus on the specific skills within the standard we will teach and how long we will teach each skill. Finally, daily lesson plans are designed to actually teach within the skill. All of the front loaded planning sound exhaustive, but is necessary to ensure no CCSS stone is left unturned!

First Week Resources

Of course, I do not jump right into teaching curriculum on the first day of school! I use the first two weeks to build the classroom community, get to know each other, sight word test, and fun back to school activities. Thankfully, in our district the first day of school is a half day, so we will spend much of the day getting re-acquainted to the school and each other. I have several read alouds planned as well as fun back to school activities, such as a classroom hunt. I created this "First Day of Second Grade"sign for students to color and complete. You can grab your free copy below!

Copy of First Day of Second Grade Sign

Well, I'm off to spend the rest of this beautiful Sunday in my classroom. My kiddos return on Wednesday, so I want to make sure our room is picture perfect!

Have an amazing week! 

~Kay

Growth Mindset!

Hey!

This is officially my last Sunday of summer vacation 😢. Today, the staff received our first official "Welcome Back" email from our Principal (even though we do not start until Wednesday). All in all, I'm pretty excited to start this new school year and to meet my new babies! I've used this past week to begin planning the first few days of school, writing out my routines and procedures and checking out my "Back to School" books from my local library. This has been a pretty busy week to say the least!

Growth Mindset Read-Alouds

My favorite thing to do within the first few weeks of school is to teach about Growth Mindset. What is growth mindset? Well, it's the belief that your abilities can be developed through hard work and perseverance. It entails the belief that a student can succeed in any subject area by working hard to attain goals. My favorite idea behind Growth Mindset is "the power of yet". This means, I may not be able to do it yet, but I will keep trying until I learn. 

I highly recommend teachers to learn about and teach growth mindset. There are many, many resources on Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers to use. Also, there are tons of books dedicated to "Growth Mindset" and the idea of never giving up. Here are a few I plan to use this year: 

These books are great from community building and teaching Growth mindset! I can not wait to read these books to my students and create our classroom decor based on what we have learned (you can check out my Do Unto Otters blog post and grab a freebie here!). Growth mindset is a magnificent way to teach students that it is OK not to know how to do something and that they just may not be able to do it yet! 

What resources do you use to build your classroom community and to promote Growth Mindset? Use the comments to share! I would love to hear from you! 

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Until next time, have an AMAZING week!

~Kay

Back to School Teacher/Mom Hauls

Hey everyone!!!


Welcome back! I just had to stop what I was doing and tell you all about the great deals I found this week on school supplies!!! I did to mini haul shopping trips this week, one on Monday and the other today. I scored some great deals on school supplies for my kids as well as Teacher supplies for myself! Keep reading to find out how!

Mini Target Haul

After viewing the Target weekly ad, I noticed some great deals they have this week on school supplies. I also was able to stack some Sunday Paper coupons to go along with the sale. Here is the breakdown: 

Sharpie Highlighters- on sale for .99, bought 3 packs = $2.97, I used three .75cent off coupons making the total .72cent for the highlighters

PaperMate Pens- on sale for $1.49, bought 3 packs = $4.47,  I used three .55cent off coupons making the total $2.82 for the pens

Elmers Glue- on sale for .99cent- bought 3 packs = $2.97, I used three $1off coupons making the total $0. FREEBIE!

My total Target Oop was $3.54 Yayyyyy!!! 

Mini Walgreens Haul

Again, I was able to combine some great in store sales with the coupons from last Sunday's paper. Here's the breakdown:

Mr. Sketch Markers- on sale for $7.99 (with card), bought one pack, used one $2off coupon, making the total $5.99

Ticonderoga Pencils- on sale for .99cent (with card) bought 4 packs = $3.96

Wexford Pencil caps- on sale for .29cent (with card) bought 3 packs = .87cent

Expo Markers- on sale for .99cent (with card) bought 2 packs, used two $1 off coupons, making the total FREE

My Oop for this haul was $9.72

Awesome-sauce!!! Have you found any great deals on school supplies?? If, so comment below! 

Until next time,

**Kay**