Back to School Blog Hop

I'm thinking that you just rolled on in from Miss Squirrels.....she was busy doing her thing.  Did you know she is crocheting baby blankets now?  I had no idea she had that hidden talent.  Pretty cool!!

Well, we are off to a rip-roaring and populated second grade year.  Must have been something in the water!  There are 4 of us teaching second grade this year....the largest grade level in the school!

We have been using a great back to school packet by The Bubbly Blond Teacher that the kids are loving.  It is great to use right now because I am so busy getting ready to start my Back to School assessments.

Click here to buy it!

I am also using this great 'keep 'em busy' pack from Tanja at Journey of a Substitute Teacher.  My kiddo saw it printing out and was about to grab a sheet of it before I caught him...that's all I need...to be one short when there is a copy shortage going on!!

I am using this pack from my own store to have with sight words....we need lots of work on those!!  I wish I had been able to snap some pictures....but....the first few days back are tough!!  The kids loved matching the phrases with the pictures though!!

This is what I am using to do some of my assessing with.  It is FULL of different types of assessments so I anticipate using it all year.

Our focus right now is Problem Solving on your OWN!

Not that I want to start with the negative, but this may come in handy for you.  These two were pushing and shoving in the line...they were at the end, mind you....and could not work out their issue by themselves.  So, in my room, if you can't work together as friends, I will FORCE you to become friends!  These two spent about 15 minutes holding hands while trying to work together, getting water, and cleaning up.  Needless to say, at the end of that 15 minutes they were fast friends and ready to be rid of each other.  I haven't had any more pushing and shoving either!!  The wonderful thing about it---no parent can be mad at me for doing something ridiculous.  At least not too ridiculous.

Here is a little freebie from my store...I have lots more if you want to go grab others.  It is a beautiful welcome banner and it even has some dolphins!  I just took a little snippit of a pic just to make you curious!!  Go on and download it!!

So, it looks like you are off to go see Cupcake over at her place.  Leave her a comment when you get there and tell her hello for me.  She'll get a kick if you say "Jenn said to tell you hello!"  hehe