Second grade so far....

It's hard to believe it is the end of the first quarter.  My new class of 21 kids has been keeping me very busy!  I have a sweet group that makes me laugh everyday and want to crawl in bed at 7:30pm....

We have had a busy year so far and have had a lot of fun together.  Here are just a few things we have been doing lately.  Again, I suggest any teachers to search on Pinterest for some fab ideas. Who wouldn't want help with creative lesson plans?

I found this printable on Pinterest and LOVED it!  I put it in a frame and place it on a new desk each morning.  Using a dry erase marker I write a note to the student and have it on their desk when they come in to the classroom in the morning.  It is a great way to encourage students that are shy or that make need a little encouragement to behave better :)

This year I am doing something new for positive behavior.  I got these printables from another second grade teacher.  The first one we had was an ice cream cone and now we are working on a popcorn party.  If the whole class goes the school day without having to erase a name on their card they get to color in a section of the reward card.  Throughout the year we will also have pajama day, sleeping bag day, movie day....it is a fun way to celebrate success in the classroom!

 The classroom is now decorated for Fall!  See the cute pumpkin with the moss and flowers in it?  Adorable- a sweet mom brought it to me the other day!

 I made this wreath last year.  The key is to use double sided scrapbook paper.  It took me a long time.  You fold thin long pieces of paper around a pencil to curl and then hot glue, again and again and again.....

 My sweet class.
We have been studying animals and habitats in science.  I ordered ladybugs and caterpillars from insectlore for our class to observe.  We watched them go through their life cycle.
Friday we let them go since we have a long weekend and they needed to live in their own environment.

I love this picture because the kids were so excited to learn about the proboscis and they could really see it the day we let them go!

 I love decorating the tree for each holiday.  This week we made bats from handprints.

 We had a great mystery chef last week that read a cute Halloween book and then made these Halloween cupcakes with the class.

 The trick to the ghouls face shape is putting a marshmallow below the cupcake before frosting.

We have been learning about place value in math so I wanted to do this tasty activity to get the kids excited!
All you need is marshmallows, round cereal, and tooth picks.

I also found these printables on Pinterest.  The tooth picks pushed into the marshmallows make them sturdy so you can pile up the cereal and create different numbers in the hundred, tens, and ones.

My kids made three digit numbers and recorded their numbers on a sheet that looked like their food!  They loved that they were able to eat their materials when they were finished.

 Friday we had a pumpkin cook off at work! I made pumpkin spice latte cupcakes.  I may or may not have eaten three of them throughout the day....

Today I was able to meet a sweet friend and her precious baby Brooks for lunch.

Now I am waiting for my husband to get home from London.

Happy weekend!