Wow! Where Has the Time Gone?

Where does the time go? I ask myself this question all the time.

We have been in school for 37 days now! I can't believe it. We have already had our fall break (yes, we get a week off in the fall!) and now starting to get into the holiday craziness. We have been busy teaching, creating and having such a fun time with our kiddos.

We have some new products up in our TPT store. Find us here. 

Fall has started and we have a close read unit, which is great for high Kinders, 1st grade, and 2nd graders who are learning to access nonfiction text.

Find that unit here.

Teaching first graders to CLOSE read and access a nonfiction text can be a challenge. I am learning and thinking of new ways to help make it easier. This unit helps break it down and make it not as intimidating. How do you introduce nonfiction texts to your little ones?

Halloween is just around the corner and we have new nonfiction units about SPIDERS and math games to go along with them!

Find the Nonfiction unit on spiders here and the math games here.

And if you are studying butterflies... we have a new nonfiction unit that is great for the 1st graders to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly and there is a bonus mini unit on Monarch Butterflies. This is the time of year that they make their great migration.

Find this unit here.

We are LOVING our new blog designs are ready to hop into blogging. We would love to hear from you and see what new products you have been working on.

Happy Saturday!

Our Classrooms!

We are lucky enough to be right next door to each other! I love having my teaching friend so close to me.

I am so excited to link up again for the #2getherwearebetter linky hosted by Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd Grade and Lucky Little Learners  

This month we are coming together to talk about classroom reveals. We have been back to school for 16 days now! K has just moved to a new classroom and new grade and now E and K are classroom neighbors! We could not be more excited. 

Here is a peak into our classrooms.

Here is to new adventures!

This is my 1st grade classroom. My back wall is "under construction." I am still waiting for a new whiteboard to be installed. Can't wait!

This is where my kids can get writing supplies, group work buckets, whiteboards, or what I call "offices," which are privacy shields. 

I decided to do away with my "teacher desk," which basically just collected papers, filing, and was a great place to hide things and opted for this instead. I am LOVING it! I feel less cluttered and I have more room for collaborative tables for the kids to work at.

More pictures to come once my whiteboard is installed and the rest of my room can be put together, but I didn't want to miss out on this awesome linky! Pictures to come in the "Our Classrooms" tab soon.

Happy Wednesday! -K

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Welcome to my classroom! When you walk in, this is the first thing you see so I try to make sure it is bright, happy, and inviting. 

Smaller board with some adjective poems.

 I love showing all the kids' work. This wall holds up to 30 kids and the kids are all represented. 

My writing wall! Displays all the kids' work but also let's me quickly see who is still needing to finish.

This is the goal setting board. We use Whole Brain Teaching's Super Improver Wall accompanied by our brag tags. This is my first try using Brag Tags, but so far I'm loving it. I made a set of Bag Tags to go along with our Super Improver Levels. Click here to check them out. The kids have already made so many improvements!

 And of course! My room is full of books! I may have a slight book addiction. This is about half of what I put out for kids.

Finally, the storage! I love that my classroom has so many cabinets and I can hide the stuff **cough**junk**cough**. I also use it to display the love notes I get from my fabulous students. I love seeing their personalities in these friendly notes.

Thanks for letting us show you our classrooms! I'm off to explore the other fabulous classrooms in this link up! Love being inspired by other fabulous teachers! #2getherwearebetter

Happy Back To School Season! -E

All Things Bulletin Boards!

We are teaming up with the awesome Ashley and Angie of Schroeder Shenanigans and Lucky Little Learners to talk about Bulletin Boards.  

This year, I decided to use the windows as an extra bulletin board to display the anchor charts we are currently working on. This will also help with the infinite distractions of the 8 delivery trucks that pull up right outside my window every day. The best part, every time one of my lovely students looks out the window for a distraction (which I'm a-ok with) they will also be looking at content I want them to know. Bonus, bonus, bonus.

Every other board is reserved for student work or celebrating student successes. I make sure that for each work that I display, every child is represented.  If I hang up book reports, they all go up. If I hang up research projects, every child has theirs on the wall.This picture shows my main work displays.

It has a writing place for every child, their research projects on the windows (i.e. Delivery Truck Viewing Area) and another writing/art project from Hope King's Spotlight on Patricia Polacco unit.
I reserve one board for rules, tracking goals and other important things that everyone needs to see. The main focus of the board is the Super Improvers board from WBT. I use this wonderful tracker from First Grade O.W.L.s
 I love helping the kids set goals and celebrate their successes.Happy decorating!-E

Hello! I am a HUGE believer in covering my walls in all student work! I LOVE seeing what the kids work so hard in being hung up (and they love it, too). It drives them to work hard to do their best work to be hung up and it amazes me that they can do the amazing things they can do. Even when I show the expected outcomes and know they are ready for this activity, it still amazes me with the work that they can do.I have a small portion of my wall dedicated to anchor charts, but mainly that stays on my whiteboard in a section dedicated to anchor charts. Basically the ones they will be needing to access during that time will be hung up. Also, all the anchor charts for what I know will be difficult or hard to remember will be up in a special location they can always refer to. But mainly I fill my walls/bulletin boards with student work. (even most anchor charts are student work)I have one wall that is dedicated to student work, labeled "Super Stars." I mainly post their most recent writing here.

This is my "Super Stars" wall where all my writing is hung up. If you look at my walls before the start of the school year, they are basically bare.
But once that school year starts they are filled with all the wonderful things my students do. Sometimes I fell there is not enough space to showcase all of their hard and wonderful work they do.This is what my student work wall looks like. They are still in the process on working on things, but it also give me an idea of who is done with what. 

My walls are constantly changing and I LOVE it.

Nothing is better than seeing your students' work covering the walls, knowing they worked really hard and learned something from the lessons. I absolutely love it. They love it. The parents love it. And the school loves it. Be proud of their (and your) accomplishments!-K

Thank you for taking time to take a look into what we do for bulletin boards. We are having so much fun with our first blogging linky party!!

Thanks Schroeder Shenanigans in 2nd and Lucky Little Learners for hosting this link up! I can't wait to see what other people have to say about bulletin boards.

Head back to Lucky Little Learners and see what awesome ideas other people have because #2getherwearebetter!

Assess Me {Us!}: Week One

Checking in this morning for a little get to know me. We are linking up for the fun!

Thank you The Tattooed Teacher for hosting!

Have a good week!

That Roller Coaster Feeling: We're Entering the Blog World

Do you remember that feeling you got as a kid when you got in line for that roller coaster? That, “I’m so scared! Why am I doing this? It’s gonna be awesome!” feeling? That’s how entering the blogging world feels for us. But, we are ready for this adventure. Bring it on! We are both passionate about teaching and love working together to make learning fun. We like to think we perfected working as a team. Together, we push each other farther, push the learning deeper, and laugh a lot. Until this year, we both taught 2nd grade at the same school. This year, Erica will be teaching second grade and Kimberlee will be teaching first. It will be a new adventure and we are rollercoaster scared/excited to see what the year brings.We hope that this blog will be a place where we can grow our team to include people like you. Where we can show what we’ve been working on, talk about school and life, and share with others

Thanks for stoping by today! Say hi! We’d love to hear from you!

Happy teaching!