First Week Second Grade Success!

We survived the first week of school!!! :)

The kids had an awesome week and I'm sure their brains are on OVERLOAD, but they truly did very well for having a full 4 days of school, plus a half day!  What a long week for kids who just got back from summer break!  I am so proud of them!

2nd Day in 2nd Grade! :)

Keep reading to see a little bit of the first week in Miss Nederhoff's 2nd grade! :)

Last week and this week, we are practicing our Daily 5 centers in order to be productive and learn effectively during Reading time.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Daily 5, I will explain it briefly to you!

During Daily 5 time, there are five or six different rotations that the students go to:
1) Read to Self
2) Read to Someone
3) Teacher Time
4) Word Work
5) Writing
6) Listen to Reading

Last week and this week, we are busy practicing these centers by going through the rules and building our stamina to see how long we can work at one center!  Ask your kiddos about the word "Stamina!"  They will know what it means!

Last week, we practiced Read to Self and Read to Someone.  Read to Self consisted of teaching the students how to find a "good fit book."  Look at the pictures to understand what I'm saying, in order to find a good fit book! :)

Finding a "Good Fit" book rules! :)

Student's interactive sheet to check their books to see if they are a good fit!

One of my students checking to see if it's a good fit book!

We also practiced Read to Someone!  Read to Someone takes place in the library, where the students get to read with a friend instead of always reading quietly to themselves!  It creates a great learning community and it's fun to see the students helping one another while trying to read new books!  Check out the pictures below to see how we do Read to Someone in 2nd grade! :)

This is how we sit when we do Read to Someone! :)

Two of my students practicing Read to Someone!
They're doing a great job! :)

Last week, we also practiced using math manipulatives, learning how to treat them, what they are for, etc.  We each built a "Math Toolbox" where we covered all of our math manipulatives and we talked about the rules for each!  Check out the pictures below to see our "Math Toolboxes" and the kids interacting with the math manipulatives! :)

Our math tools! :)

Two of my students exploring the math tools by playing "BUMP!"

Overall, our first week in 2nd grade was a SUPER BUSY week, but we had a blast and I couldn't be any happier with my class on how they did the first week.  We had a couple times where we had to remember we were in school and not on summer break, but hey, they are 7 and 8 year olds and they can't concentrate the WHOLE time right?! That's why as a teacher, I am flexible and keep them moving so they stay awake because no one likes to sit in their seats all day!

Before I conclude this post, I have to brag a little bit........

On Monday, August 18 (because my older sister clearly doesn't know how busy the first week of school is with just school, love you Brooke ;) !), her and her husband blessed a new baby BOY!!! into this world!  So, this means I'm not only an aunt to my spunky little two year old niece, Emma Rae, but also an aunt to my new nephew, Evan Thomas, who is cuter than cute! :)  Check out the cutie below!

Thank you all for listening, and until next time, stay safe! <3

First Day Frenzy!

Says the first day of school perfectly.

The first day of school is over, and I can truly tell you that by the end of this year, this class will be a family.  They already get along great and are so excited to be at school.  I can't wait to begin this journey of a year with these students! The day flew by and the kids were so well behaved I just couldn't believe it!  I have an AWESOME group of kids this year and I absolutely can't wait to explore the next 179 days with them.  When you put it in that perspective, that's really not that many days to teach everything there is to teach to those little ones' and their growing brains! Let the rollercoaster of a ride begin in 2nd grade! :)

So, let's start off with the first day of 2nd grade!

**Note, I will not blog about every single day of school because that may be alot, but I will try and update you about every week on what we are doing in 2nd grade! :)

This morning, the students entered the room and had the chance to complete their first 2nd grade project!  We did a "What's the Scoop?" activity, where each student filled out an ice cream cone about themselves!  It was a great way for them to learn about each other, but also remind us that it is still the summer season, and on a hot day like today, ice cream would've tasted great! :)  Check out the pictures below to see the students completing this activity!

Morning Directions as the entered the room...the picture directions were a huge help for the kids! :)

One of my students sharing his ice cream cone with the class!

Class display on the window! :)

Chalkboard clips to display the students' work!

After completing "What's the Scoop?" activity, we had a nice chat about classroom rules and also completed a classroom tour so the kids could find out what was all in their 2nd grade room!  Again, the students were so well behaved at this time, and at one point throughout the day, one student reminded me that my noise level chart was on the wrong level...she is so on top of it! New teacher coming right up folks!? Such a cutie and said it so politely. :)  It's those things that happen throughout the day that help remind me that I am in the perfect career for myself! I just LOVE kids. :)

2nd Grade's noise chart! :)

The students then attended lunch and recess, where they ate corn dogs and then wore them off by playing lots and lots of tag on the playground!  They came in and they were SWEATY! Such a warm day but they had the best attitudes and I allowed them lots of drinks as they were VERY thirsty! :)

Once math time arrived, we completed a "Math About Me" activity, where the students got a chance to put their young lives into numbers.  Such a fun activity and a great activity for me to see where exactly their math skills are at!  The project turned out SUPER CUTE! See pictures below :)

Class display!

Up Close of what was on the Math About Me sheet :)

After this activity, the students got to go to their first "special" as 2nd graders, and that special was Music.  They came back and were smiling, so I think they had a fun time!

After the last recess, the kiddos returned and we started our Teacher Read Aloud book.  This fall/winter, I am going to have the students do an author study over Beverly Cleary, so today we began reading Beezus and Ramona!  Over the next few months, we will be reading different books written by this author and discussing similarities and differences.  This provides a little more reasoning for read aloud books and helps the kids stay motivated when I am reading for the 20-30 minutes :)!

Read Aloud book!

After this, the students and I went over Journal expectations and then they got a chance to write in their journal about their favorite part of the first day in 2nd grade!  I heard numerous responses such as, meeting their teacher, getting a classroom tour, recess, but MOST importantly, we named our class fish, and this was on quite a few of their responses!

They were SO excited to name the class fish...and as I reveal the name, I hope you all smile as you can imagine us voting for this name...MAX!  The three options nominated from the students were Max, Speedy, and Fred, but Max was the winning vote! :)  This was by far one of the most fun parts of the day was voting for the pet fish name! Haha :)

Well, I hope this updates you on what happened on the first day of 2nd grade in Miss Nederhoff's room!  Thank you all for listening and until next time, stay safe...and cool! <3

It's going to be a hot week folks!  Dress your kiddos accordingly! :)

Poppin' Into 2nd Grade!

If you didn't notice from my classroom tour, my classroom theme is a polka dot, multi colored theme!  If you know me, I am a very outgoing and peppy person so lots of colors and patterns is totally my style! I hope the kids like it to!  There is a design in the "teacher world" called "Poppin' Patterns" so that's the design I tried to base my classroom theme off this year!

So, to start off 2nd grade with a POP!, I decided to base my Open House night off on a "Popping Into 2nd Grade" theme.

Here is the bulletin board I had displayed in the back of my classroom....it included each child's name in a popcorn basket.

And here is their gift for coming to Open House..."Thanks for popping in!" :)  So creative, but yet so simple which is what teachers need the night before school starts! (Or close to at least!)

During Open House, I had numbered signs with different stations for the parents to visit, including my Meet The Teacher letter, Parent/Student Information, Holiday Party sign ups, and Conference sign ups!  It was a successful night at Open House and I can only hope the kiddos aren't as shy come tomorrow on their first day of school!  They were so quiet during Open House but I know it's because they are a little nervous and are just taking everything in :)

I can't wait to see all of my students in the morning...I probably won't get a lot of sleep tonight because I am THAT excited.

Hope you enjoyed my Open House tour, and until next time, stay safe and thank you for listening! :)

New Year, New Kids, New Memories! :)

This year, I am making a promise to myself that I am going to be a faithful blogger, but I have to say, being a first year teacher last year was a whirlwind and at times and I was just trying to keep my head above water. This year is going to be different.  I am going to be better at keeping everyone in my life updated as to what is going on in my life and career as well as the parents of the students in my classroom! So here it goes!

Welcome to a New Year, New Kids, and New Memories in  Miss Nederhoff's 2nd Grade! :)

I always start off the year with showing my room setup!  Hopefully this informs all of you as to what my room looks like and for parents, it gives you a good idea of what's going to be going on in 2nd grade!

Let the classroom tour begin!!! :)

Front left corner of my room
Includes the teacher table where the students will meet me during Daily 5 time!

Front middle of the room
Includes the daily bulletin boards, whiteboard and projector, and of course the student's desks! :)

This is the calendar area.
We will do calendar EVERY DAY because I think it's very important the students know this basic information!

Word & Number of the Day
Each day we will be doing a Word of the Day and a Number of the Day!

Front right corner of the room
Includes the teacher area, job chart, rules, and the I CAN board. (more to come about that later!)

Rules Wall! :)

Classroom Helpers chart!
Each Monday, the students will be able to pick a job if their picture is on the whiteboard! :)

Back left corner of the room
Includes the student's mailboxes, writing center for Daily 5 time, word wall, clip chart, and birthday board! :)

Back middle of the room
Includes the turn in paper area, the class fish!, main bulletin board, reading counts clip chart, and computer center! :)

Close up of the computer center, I'm in love with the fabric and the light! Makes it more homey! :)

Back right corner of the room
This is the Word Work area where students will be working during Daily 5 time!

Class Library!!!
This is the class library, and by far my most favorite part of the year!
 I added a couple rugs along with my homemade rocking chair my dad and I painted this year!!!
 So proud of how it turned out! :)

Overall, my classroom turned out exactly how I wanted it!  It's a lot different this year but there were a lot of changes I was wanting to make and I think the classroom is set up in a more organized fashion this year and easier accessible to students!  It was a lot of work before beginning school, but truthfully, I love decorating and organizing so I enjoyed every minute of it!

Thank you for joining in on the classroom tour and I hope you all approve of how my room is setup! :)

Thanks for listening, and until next time...stay safe! :)