It’s Wednesday and I just awoke from my normal mid-week nap. There’s just something about Wednesday that just about does me in. My body pretty much requires a nap to get me through the rest of the week. Well, heck, I could really use a nap every other day as well, but Wednesday it is for now!
Side-note: I get asked all the time “How do you do it all?” Well, right now my daughter is taking a bath which will last for about 45 minutes. She’s listening to the Disney Princess station on iTunes radio and is as happy as a plum. My sweet husband cooked dinner (for the 3rd night in a row I might add) and has refused to let me help. I am not in the habit of staying after school anyways, but this year I take my 2 nieces home after school. Having three little girls in my classroom after school is all kinds of fun, but ain’t nobody getting work done with a 5, 6, and 8 year old running around 🙂 So, we leave promptly at 3:20 everyday! I work like a crazy person while at school, and spend a lot of nights on the computer! I definitely don’t “do it all” but I do have the help of a wonderful husband and a daughter who is more precious to me than gold! And, now that I’m in my 5th year of teaching 2nd grade, I definitely have my rhythm down and am tweaking and adding to what I already do/love at this point!
Back to what I came in here for… sharing our Horrible Harry week! This week we are reading “Horrible Harry in Room 2B” as a class. I have about 12 of these books, so my students share while I read aloud. They come to the carpet each day, and we read a chapter. We stop pretty often to chat and discuss what is going on. They absolutely love it! We don’t always structure our reading block like that (in fact, I am about to make some drastic changes to the way I teach Reading… stay tuned!) but when we do, the kids always respond well.
After a few days, we have really been able to describe Harry!
Before I displayed my Harry and the adjectives that my students brainstormed, my students did this with their partners. They drew a little Harry and came up with 5 words to describe him. I pulled out quite a few of their words to make my chart above! But, I didn’t put anything up until they were done… because then they would have just copied mine, ha!
I have learned that they are really using the words all around my room this year. They want to spell things right so badly, and I won’t help them because I want their best effort, not my spelling skills when I get assignments turned in. I love inventive kid spelling anyways! But, I do like to display words that they may be able to use for the week or weeks to come.
Today my students made Harry and wrote a little about him. We are working on character analysis, so we are all about fun characters like Harry! You can get this craft HERE.
“That Harry has to be equal with everybody!” I just love it. You’re right girlfriend… Harry is horrible!
I’ve been asked before if I edit things like this before hanging it up… no, I don’t. I check over it to make sure they followed instructions and completed the reflection correctly, but I leave their errors all in it! My students are pretty decent when it comes to forming sentences, so I hardly have to say things like “go check for capitals and punctuation” this year… so nice! But, I do make them include those things.
And that’s that! I’m off to eat the supper that Jared prepped and then off for a prayer time at church! Hope everyone has a wonderful AND FAST rest of the week 🙂
Hi, I'm Amy
Hey, y’all! My name is Amy Lemons and I am passionate about providing students with both engaging and effective standards-based Math and ELA lessons.
That is so cute. I am amazed at the printing level and sentence structure level of the students in your second grade. I am teaching third grade this year and most of my students are at a first grade level.
I'm thinking I need a bubble bath with some music, too! Love your Horrible Harry's and can't wait to see what you've got planned for your reading block.
Do you put all your projects like this on your classroom walls? Are you rotating your displays every week? I've done a few of your projects (mathematician, self portrait, Chrysanthemum, and we just did this Horrible Harry) I have no more wall space to put up Harry. I love all the projects and they turned out really cute, but I'm worried about now having to replace wall displays every week.
Mrs. Hallworth- I have lots of wall space… 3 bulletin boards, my door and lockers that I hand stuff on PLUS hanging clothespins from the ceiling. I also have a ton of wall space in the hall that I can fill up. So, I always have plenty of room… of course, you could always save it for when it's time to change a BB out or just send it home 🙂
Mrs. Hallworth- I have lots of wall space… 3 bulletin boards, my door and lockers that I hand stuff on PLUS hanging clothespins from the ceiling. I also have a ton of wall space in the hall that I can fill up. So, I always have plenty of room… of course, you could always save it for when it's time to change a BB out or just send it home 🙂
I have tried several times to download your Horrible Harry freebie, which I LOVED, but was unable to do so. I am sooo sad about that!
I'm loving the character analysis activities you have posted this month! I love how they expand students' vocabulary! Thanks for sharing! 😀
You are so lucky to have such supporting people next to you. One day we all understand that family is the most important thing we can have in life and it is just great when we can rely on them. I also understand that we have to be thankful to our beloved, caring people and spend more time with them. That`s why I sometimes just apply such services like this HelpOnEssay.com if I need some kinds of reports or other papers. When such amazing teachers like you share their ideas, it is also very supporting. Thank you!
Thank you so much for posting all your creative ideas and especially for sharing your life so openly. I'm a first-year-back-to-teach “, 50-something teacher who is loving 2nd graders, but exhausted to the max! I'm at school more hours than at home, and bring home work. This has been a dream of mine, but I really rely on the experience and inspiration people like you share! I also pray for you often and for your cute little family! Thanks again!
10 Responses
That is so cute. I am amazed at the printing level and sentence structure level of the students in your second grade. I am teaching third grade this year and most of my students are at a first grade level.
I'm thinking I need a bubble bath with some music, too!
Love your Horrible Harry's and can't wait to see what you've got planned for your reading block.
Do you put all your projects like this on your classroom walls? Are you rotating your displays every week? I've done a few of your projects (mathematician, self portrait, Chrysanthemum, and we just did this Horrible Harry) I have no more wall space to put up Harry. I love all the projects and they turned out really cute, but I'm worried about now having to replace wall displays every week.
Mrs. Hallworth- I have lots of wall space… 3 bulletin boards, my door and lockers that I hand stuff on PLUS hanging clothespins from the ceiling. I also have a ton of wall space in the hall that I can fill up. So, I always have plenty of room… of course, you could always save it for when it's time to change a BB out or just send it home 🙂
Mrs. Hallworth- I have lots of wall space… 3 bulletin boards, my door and lockers that I hand stuff on PLUS hanging clothespins from the ceiling. I also have a ton of wall space in the hall that I can fill up. So, I always have plenty of room… of course, you could always save it for when it's time to change a BB out or just send it home 🙂
I have tried several times to download your Horrible Harry freebie, which I LOVED, but was unable to do so. I am sooo sad about that!
I'm loving the character analysis activities you have posted this month! I love how they expand students' vocabulary! Thanks for sharing! 😀
I've got a few students in my class that need a little reminding about being nice. This is perfect.
Sheri
http://earlyyearswithsheri.blogspot.com.au
You are so lucky to have such supporting people next to you. One day we all understand that family is the most important thing we can have in life and it is just great when we can rely on them. I also understand that we have to be thankful to our beloved, caring people and spend more time with them. That`s why I sometimes just apply such services like this HelpOnEssay.com if I need some kinds of reports or other papers. When such amazing teachers like you share their ideas, it is also very supporting. Thank you!
Thank you so much for posting all your creative ideas and especially for sharing your life so openly. I'm a first-year-back-to-teach “, 50-something teacher who is loving 2nd graders, but exhausted to the max! I'm at school more hours than at home, and bring home work. This has been a dream of mine, but I really rely on the experience and inspiration people like you share! I also pray for you often and for your cute little family!
Thanks again!