Organization 101: Avoid the Sunday Planning Blues!

It's January 1st, which means everyone is setting New Years Resolutions for how to make their lives better in 2016.  Have you thought about what yours will be?  Many teachers I know are unorganized and scrambling to get things done in time - for whatever reason.  For me, I am naturally organized, and so is my classroom - so I have teachers in my building coming to me to help them get organized.

So, if teachers in my building are wanting organization tips - that must mean my sweet readers would too,  right?!?!?  I would love to start a series of organization tips that can help you get more organized - at school at least!

First up, how to avoid those dreaded Sunday afternoon planning blues.  Oh, you know them, and I used to too!  You settle down with your lesson plan book, school resources, and probably your laptop to get planned for the week.  You find some awesome activities that you have to make copies for - and you need them Monday morning - which means you are racing off to the copier Monday morning and probably have to wait in a line.  Don't start your week off stressed!

Let me help you do a little planning each day so that your weekends are last-minute-stress-planning-free and you can feel more organized!

My grade level plans together on Tuesdays while our kiddos are at specials.  As a grade level, we plan our phonics lessons/unit (Letterland) as well as our math lessons together.  For Language Arts, we try to cover the same topics and/or books each week, but that can fluctuate based on each classroom.

So, that means on Monday, I pull out my pacing guide and see what is on tap for Language Arts for next week.  I then grab my quarterly ELA binder with resources of TPT products I have purchased to use throughout the year and begin to make a plan for ELA for the next week.

Having a hard copy of my TPT resources in a binder (in sheet protectors), helps make it so much easier for me to see what I have and then I lay it out across my table by what day I'm going to use what.

Because some things, like our Letterland lessons are such a routine each week, I don't always fill in the boxes when I'm doing my initial planning - I just have to the change the unit number when I type my lesson plans.  D5 is Daily 5.  Our schedule is different each day because of our Recess/PE schedule, so I've got to make sure I get to the right place on time!

I pencil (or pen in) my ELA plans in my Erin Condren lesson planner and put my papers to copy in my "To Be Copied" basket for my next trip to the copy room.

Tuesday during my 2nd planning period, when my kiddos are at specials, I meet with my grade level to plan our phonics and math plans for the next week.

Once again, I am just penciling in my plans into my plan book, because later, I'm going to type them up and make them pretty!

Tuesday after school, I usually try to hit the copy room to get my copies prepped for the next week.  I am also the designated person on my team to do grade level copies, so I get those done then as well.  Now, let me say this - I am blessed that we are able to work it out on our team to have "carpool planning days" twice a week and I have a carpool parent help with my carpool duties in our school gym (we are a charter school - so we only have carpool!).  This is when I usually hit up the copy room - since most of the rest of the teachers are in the gym, I usually don't have many interruptions.

Either Tuesday night, or sometimes Wednesday during my planning, I get my lesson plans typed up into my Erin Condren Lesson Planner Template.  

So, my lesson plans go from looking like this...

When my typed lesson plans are done - they get trimmed and taped inside my plan book.

To this...

Now, I have pretty and organized lesson plans, plus I have a digital copy should I have to email my lesson plans in case of an emergency or for planning purposes next year.  Plus, ever since college - I've typed my lesson plans - so it's just my thing.

Here's a closer look at each page:

Wednesday is kind of my catch-up day, if needed.

I use Wednesday to finish up ELA plans if I didn't finish them on Monday, finish any copies I need to make, and check student papers (I'll blog about how to help you with that soon!).

Thursday is also a catch-up day.  Occasionally, if I'm feeling really caught up, like, I have nothing much to do (this doesn't happen very often!), I'll work on pulling and copying monthly resources (keep reading for more info on this).

Thursdays I also begin working on my weekly newsletter with HW for the week, need to know news, important dates, etc.

Friday - ahhh, I made it to the end of the week.  Friday afternoon, I have carpool planning again, so I get extra time in my room from 3-3:25, to get prepped for next week. 

A few years ago, I got a set of these book bins in the Target Dollar Section ($3 each then) and I use these to sort my papers for the week - by day.  During the week, when I may copies, I put them in the Next Week Box, which has a file folder for each day.  Copy, file in daily folders, and they are ready for me on Friday to move them to the correct box.

I then go to my awesome box in my closet where I keep my copies that I made "in bulk" (see below) and put them in the correct boxes, some around the room, prepped for things like Daily 5 for next week.

Once I get all of this sorted, I'm ready for next week, and it's not even leaving time yet on Friday afternoon.  We get out of school at 3PM, but are supposed to stay on campus until 4PM.

In recent weeks, I have been able to get my weekly newsletter finished and emailed out to parents on Friday afternoon before I leave for the weekend as well.  All these things I used to do on Sunday afternoons are no more!

Now, once in a while, I will stay late and have a date with the copy machine.

Since a lot of the teachers in my building are leaving around 4PM, I try to wait until then to head to the copy room for my massive copy session.

What kind of things do I copy "long-range"?

-Weekly comprehension passages for Daily 5

-Monthly mClass math practice booklets

-Monthly BAT (brains always thinking) booklets - my version of "I'm done, now what?" booklets - activities from Sunny Days in Second Grade

-Monthly Math Centers

Now, when I get back to my classroom from my massive copy session, I file all my copies in this big box with weekly file folders (by quarter) so I have the papers on the weeks I need/want them.  Where'd I get this awesome box you ask - it's actually an ornament storage box(they call it a light box now) from Target.  It has a hinged lid and is perfect for file folders!  I have a few of these boxes all around my classroom - great for storing student files and my mClass reading assessments!

1.7 = Quarter 1, Week 7, followed by the dates.  I update these sticky note tabs towards the end of each quarter as I begin to prep for the next month/quarter and need a place to put my copies.

Here's to an organized new year!

Making resolutions with your kiddos when you return next week - I've got you covered!

Grinch Week Recap

Hello friends - I don't know about you but I've officially made it to Christmas break!  We had an early release today and about 12:20 my principal came over the intercom and told us that all the K-4 kiddos had left so we could too.  It was a mass exit to the parking lot!  We have a nice, long 3-week track-out and return to campus January 11th.  But, before we could make it to track-out we had a week full of activities all about your favorite Mr. Grinch!  

My kids arrived Monday morning to the beginning of our Grinch/Elf shenanigans

Each morning we did some sort of comprehension activity to go along with the book - comprehension questions, moral of the story, retell - and then Grinch themed centers.  My kiddos are used to 3 rounds (total of 45 minutes) for Daily 5 centers each day, and we did 4 rotations this week, so I was pleasantly surprised with how well they worked on their centers - mostly focused and relatively quiet!  

Centers were a review of skills including Common/Proper Noun sort, ABC order, cause/effect, syllable sort, and more.  We even added in a center Tuesday and Wednesday of making and wrapping our presents for parents - handprinted wooden ornaments - turned out great, forgot to take pictures!

When I came up with the idea originally of having Grinch Day a couple years ago, I had wanted to also incorporate Random Acts of Kindness for adults in our school who don't always get thanked for what they do, let alone get Christmas gifts from kiddos like teachers do.  Last year, it just didn't happen and looking back, I wish I had done it because it turned out to be a great lesson. Tuesday and Wednesday this week during our intervention block, which is right after lunch, we made Christmas cards for a total of 8 individuals or groups of adults in our school.  We attached their cards to a box of Little Debbie Christmas Tree Cakes and then delivered them. 

The looks on my kiddos faces when we returned from delivering the treats was priceless - they felt so happy to have done something for someone else - what Christmas is about!

Who did we thank?  Our... school secretary nurse maintenance guys (3) custodian TA who organizes hot lunch and carpool 2nd grade interventionist technology guys (2) security officer Thursday finally rolled around which was Grinch Day.  Our kiddos wore green shirts, jeans and Santa hats - they usually wear uniforms so this was a treat!

After going at it all week, they finally became friends and sat down to read a book - the Grinch's favorite :)

The day seemed to fly by... We watched the movie Ate our Whobiliation Snack

"Roast Beast" sandwiches - Kings Hawaiian Rolls, ham, and cheese

"Who Hash" - Bo Rounds, or big tater tots, from Bojangles - should have gotten more of these, they were the crowd favorite!

Cucumbers and Green Grapes

Green Kool-Aid Jammers

No sugar crash happening for this teacher - less sugar makes for a happy teacher.  After lunch and eating cupcakes was a different story though!

Made Grinch Dust (1/4 cup sugar, 2 drops of yellow and 2 drops of blue food coloring)

We also added some green glitter that I found in my closet after everyone's sugar had turned green.

Watched some more of the movie Worked on a directed drawing of the Grinch Went to PE, Art, had lunch and watched some more of the movie Did our quarterly and Class Dojo awards Had our holiday book exchange Finished our Grinch directed drawings

Finished up the movie while they colored their Grinch! The kids had a blast and I was exhausted when I got home!

Throughout the day my kiddos (and I) added all kinds of Christmas and Grinch goodies to their personalized Grinch bags.  I set these up around my room and they make it so much easier for them to keep track of things like their Grinch Dust, gifts for parents, and more!  I added leftover candy, Christmas pencils, a Christmas Break Reading Challenge from Swimming Into Second, and few other goodies throughout the day. What a wonderful Grinchy week we had! Does your school do Grinch Day?

Planning for December!

Hello friends!  It is so hard to believe that it is November 28th and that December is 3 days away!  Where has this year gone?  I do hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday and are ready for my favorite time of year - Christmas!!  There is something magical about Christmas and I think I feel it more since I work with 7/8 year olds every day.  Seeing their excitement about Santa, gifts, goodies, our Elf on the Shelf, and more, makes Christmas that much more magical.  Since I don't yet have children of my own, I get to sort of experience Christmas through them - which makes it much more fun!

Now that Black Friday is out of the way, and you may (or may not) have started (and maybe finished) or Christmas shopping, it's time to think about what you are going to do with your kiddos for the next month.  We have 14.5 school days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, and I know I've got to keep them engaged and learning so that I don't go crazy (well, that might happen anyways!) So, I've loaded up my planning and copies box with all sorts of Christmas activities for language arts, writing, math, and even our Grinch Week the last week of school. Check out some of the resources I made for my classroom for December below: (click any picture to go to see all of my Christmas products in my TPT store)

Christmas with your Favorite Cats - companion activities to go along with Christmas books about Bad Kitty, Pete the Cat, and Splat the Cat

Judy Moody & Stink - The Holly Joliday - book study and craft for a short chapter book all about Christmas wishes and show

Christmas Jammies Fun - 5 ELA and 5 Math Centers

Topics Covered:

ELA - type of sentence/punctuation, noun sort, ABC order, possessive nouns, and facts/opinions

Math - double-digit addition/subtraction with and w/o regrouping, making numbers, word problems, spin tally and graph, and geometry/shapes

Rockin' Reindeer - 12 Math Centers

Topics Covered:

true/false equations, 3-digit numbers place value, double digit addition and subtraction, hundreds board hidden picture, skip counting, word problems, money, measurement, quantity discrimination, and fractions

Our Classroom has an Elf - perfect if you do Elf on a Shelf in your classroom!  Daily morning work pages/journal along with other Christmas activities and elf craftivity

Elf Writing Craftivity - this craft is included in the Our Classroom Has an Elf set - so don't buy both!! Check out my class' elves in action on our bulletin board.  We made our elves this past week when we had a couple short days.  That way, when we come back after Thanksgiving - we are ready for Christmas!

I'm sure that we are like many other schools that integrate The Polar Express or How the Grinch Stole Christmas into some of their holiday celebrations.  We celebrate Grinch Week Monday - Thursday of our last week of school with our Grinch Day being our culminating activity on Thursday of that week.  We will watch the movie, have a "Who feast" snack, hold our holiday book exchange and more!

Both products above included TONS of ELA and Math activities that can be used in a center as well as some other goodies to keep your kids occupied and learning during the final days leading up to your Christmas vacation.

Now friends, I'm sure many of you are like me and love a sale!  Were you a before the crack of dawn Black Friday, or even shopping with a turkey leg in one hand on Thursday looking for a deal?

Did you know that TPT is having a sale too!  Monday and Tuesday my entire store will be 20% off.  But WAIT, THERE'S MORE (cue commercial voice)!!  TPT will be offering an additional percentage off with the promo code: SMILE, so you can get a total of 28% off!

Happy shopping and Merry Christmas!

12 Books of Christmas Giveaway

Hey y'all (yes, I'm from the south!) I'm Allyson from Going Strong in 2nd Grade and I teach at a public charter school in North Carolina.  I've been teaching 2nd grade for 5 years and blogging for a couple years now.  I'm excited to be teaming up with 11 other AMAZING bloggers to share some of our favorite Christmas and holiday books in a fun 12 Books of Christmas Blog Hop!

Along with FREEBIES for each book, we are also giving away a copy of each book. Make sure you read all the way to the end of this post to find out how to WIN!

One of my favorite book characters is Splat the Cat.  Splat is always getting into trouble of some sort and has a mouse as his best friend - my kids find this strange.  So my book is Merry Christmas, Splat by Rob Scotton.
In this book, Splat begins writing his letter to Santa to tell him how good he has been during the past year, only for his sister to remind him that he hasn't been all that good.  So, what would any cat (or child) do in the days leading up to Christmas - try to be super helpful of course!  But, if you know Splat, his help isn't all that much help.  Come Christmas Eve, Splat is a furry ball full of worry that Santa won't visit his house that he stays up all night to watch for Santa.  But we all know Santa always sneaks in and out without being seen.  Christmas morning is quite a surprise for a tired Splat, and like always, the story ends on a happy note that'll keep your kids smiling.
So, I've got a little freebie to share with you that goes along with Merry Christmas Splat.  A couple weeks ago, we did an activity with cause & effect and my kids looked like deer in headlights, so we've been tying cause & effect into our lessons since then and they are really starting to become cause & effect experts.  This freebie is a cause & effect chart that will have your students identifying causes or effects for different events that happened in the book.

This activity is a part of a larger set all about some of our favorite cat book characters at Christmas.  The freebie above (only found here on my blog) is included in my "Christmas With Your Favorite Cats" set.  This product can be found in my TPT store!
Thanks so much for stopping by! Before you hop onto see my sweet friend, Tori over at Tori's Teacher Tips, don't forget to grab my number! Each blogger will have a number at the end of his/her post. Collect all the numbers along the way, and when you're done, add them all up and enter the total number in the Rafflecopter below!

Click on the image above to hop over to Tori's blog!
a Rafflecopter giveaway