Hi everyone!
I am so happy to be here at Me and My Gang!
I truly hope that what I have to share helps you in your classroom and inspires you to create
and share your ideas as well.
My first week of school was a whirlwind....but went so well!! This is my first year in second grade (I taught first grade for 11 years) and I am absolutely amazed at how mature my kiddos have become over the summer! This had to be the easiest first week of school ever!! :)
One thing that really helped me was preparing all the labels for my many journals and folders that the students use in my classroom. I am the ELAR teacher to 36 very bright second graders and am using a reader's and writer's workshop model. I have tweaked it here and there to allow for it to fit within my block times and am refining the process for what works best in my classroom.
Here are a few of the things that my kiddos use in class:
Reader's Response Journal
Treasure Book (Personal Journal)
Writer's Notebook
Writing Folder
Work Folder
That's a lot of labels but what I have found is that my cute little labels help me stay organized!
Would you like a set of your own? Come on over to
and get your free set of labels!
Each year I try to set up with a second grade class for penpals. I was hoping I could use this blog to get it going for anyone else who was interested in using penpals as a way to generate the love of writing in their classroom this year.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have found works is a teacher who will commit and I mean commit to having students respond to letters once a month. If they can't commit to writing back once a month then being a penpal really isn't beneficial. (too much time passes between letters)
Also penpals should be from states that are far away from each other so students learn about different weather. And lastly the class size should be as close as possible.
I am in Delaware and have a class of 25. I normally model a lesson for writing a letter first. Many start writing in class, then I have them finish for homework. This way the letters get done within the week.
Please respond if you are interested.
donutdiva05@gmail.com