Why I love TpT & Blogging {w/ The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Hey y'all! It's Amber again from The Sunny Side of Second Grade. Can you believe we have been at it for a year already?! I cannot think of better people to have spent my blogging time with. Seriously we have an amazing crew here at The Elementary Entourage.

I started selling products on TPT a little over a year ago, and while I haven't created as much as I would like to date, I am happy with the feedback on the products I have completed. TPT has opened a new window in my life that has served as an outlet for my creative side. It is so relaxing for me to sit down and create products to share with other educators.

TPT is a win win for me. While it costs me money to create the products for other educators in need, I am also giving back to some of the same educators by purchasing their products. The items I purchase through TPT adds so much to what I do inside my classroom daily. I reckon you could said that TPT has made me a better teacher. Thank you TPT and teacher authors!!

In celebration of our yearlong blogging extravaganza, we have a very special giveaway for you! Please enter for your chance to win a super cool blog design. Who wouldn't want that?!



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On Track and On Target {with The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Hey y'all! Welcome back for another installment of our series on tracking data and setting student goals. We are all constantly trying to aim for student independence and standards mastery. What better way to do that than to track individual student data and goals? We can teach all day long, but if we have no way of tracking student progress, then how do we know for sure what we taught really hit home?

One of the items I use in my class is something I created to be used with my R.E.A.D.I.N.G. and iR.E.A.D. literacy station management packs. Inside the individual packs, you are given several planning and data tracking sheets to use when you meet with your small groups. These are tracking sheets I keep in addition to the data tracking I use with my district level tracking through mClass. All of the pieces fit together in a nice little puzzle that helps me figure out just what a student needs to be successful.

This planning page will help you work with students in small groups and target standards and even interventions within the group. It really helps me identify individual students that need additional support. Stay on track with this planning page, and keep your students on target with the standards they need to keep them progressing.

After meeting with your little sweeties for a while, you will be able to monitor their progress using this progress monitoring sheet. Specify the concept/standard you are targeting at the top of the page. I would recommend involving your students in their progress monitoring, explaining to them the purpose and allowing them to color in their own graph. This helps students take ownership of their education and push harder to master their individual learning goals.

If you like these planning and tracking pages, you can snag them for free here: Planning Reading Stations FREEBIE or you can grab these and more in one of my full literacy management systems: READING Literacy Management System or iREAD Literacy Management System.

I hope this has helped you on your individual journey to help your students learn and grow!

Meet the Teacher {Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Hello, friends! This is Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade here to talk to you about some ideas for back to school night. I hope you have enjoyed this series on our blog this month, and I hope you have been able to use some of the amazing tips we have shared with y'all.

Have you checked out Mrs. D's Corner on TPT? She is one of our fellow bloggers here at The Elementary Entourage, and I was lucky enough to snag one of her awesome freebies for BTS night. As y'all know, Dianna and I have been back to school for almost a month now, so we have already done all of our back to school stuff...including benchmarking! The little life/time saver you see below is easy to assemble and houses all the pertinent information you need your parents to have all in one little booklet.

{Click on the link above to download from Mrs. D's Corner on TPT}

Another thing I try to do each year, like most of us, is to have all of my bulletin boards prepped and ready to go for the first day of school. Parents like to see a well set up classroom, as do the students. Remember, this is an exciting time for both the parents and the students.

Setting the stage for your new year invites your new little sweeties with open arms. Parents feel more at ease when things are orderly. Yes, I know...the backgrounds look busy, but trust me, now that they have items hung it is not nearly as hard on the eyes.

How do you prepare for back to school night?

Thrifty Teacher Finds & a Giveaway {with The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

What teacher doesn't love chalkboard? I know it is old school, but there is just something about chalkboard that screams...Oh Teach With Me! With my three kiddos gone for the summer with Grandma, I decided it was project time. What better project than an outdoor art center? This is something that can easily be done for your classroom...or better yet outside your classroom.

When you have a handy husband like I do, you always have extra pieces of wood lying around. His latest project, building a television stand for our living room nook, left me with just enough pieces to play with. I had six pieces of wood, two different lengths and two different widths. I began looking at our fence and decided they would like mighty nice hanging outside as an outdoor art center. See the first set below:

I put these ones close together for my three kiddos, but I had handy husband cut them just so that the sweet nephews could play at their level too! {Yes the boards were even longer than what you see here} I think the kiddos approve! We staggered the second set since they were different lengths, and I think it displays creativity even more! Next step is to add an outdoor music center next to the boards. Oooooo I sense more dollar tree finds to bang on!

In addition to this cheap and easy outdoor project, I also scored some school supplies on the cheap from good 'ole Wal Mart! I just love these little mini bins for classroom supplies and manipulatives. I was happy to see they had the colors I needed from last year. I cannot wait to see my classroom all put together this year. And by this year, I mean next week since I get a new set of students on the 20th! :)

Bins $1 and Composition Books $.50....SCORE!

Don't forget to enter our Giveaway!! Since our family is growing, it only seems fitting we give away a little something to say thank you for your support and Happy Beginning of School!

First, say hello to our new family members:

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You Think You Know... About Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade

I am so excited to be blogging with my friends at The Elementary Entourage again this month. You know most of us already, but we have grown as a group and as individuals since we first introduced ourselves last year. I bet you didn't know there was even more to our stories. Keep reading to find out more about me, and stay tuned for more on some of our other EE friends as we close out the month of June.

I am a fitness enthusiast. I recently trained and competed in my first NPC figure competition. It was a little scary, but I walked away with 3rd place in the Easter U.S. All Military Forces and 5th place in the Gold's Classic (a double show in one night). Not bad for my first ever fitness competition...and I even qualified for Nationals! Here is a picture of me with my hardware. More to improve as I learn and grow in this sport! {Yes that is a tattoo...yes it is real...yes I have more...} :-D

I am a military spouse...so it depends on where I am when you visit! My hometown is Beaufort, SC, so we will go with that! Have you ever heard of Beautiful Beaufort by the Sea? Well that is home for my family and me. We love it there. To say you have to witness the beauty in person is an understatement.

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Beaufort is known for its breathtaking views, old Southern charm, and exquisite waterways. And it is also where I met and married my amazing husband! If you are looking for a place to experience true Southern hospitality, then Beaufort is just the place you want to visit. Oh and I hear we may be finally getting a Starbucks!

You mean before or after I was playing school with barbies and stuffed animals? The moment I truly realized teaching was where I was meant to be in life was when I took a "filler" course as a Senior in High School. We all know what senior schedules look like. You have to fill those schedules the last year so you are attending the school the "recommended" number of hours. {HeHe} 

I enrolled in a course called the Teacher Cadet Program. This program was funded by the state, yieled college credit at the end of the year, and was actually pretty cool. I went to class each day and learned about child development stages, learning modalities, and the teaching experience. We were educated much like we are in college courses, and at the end of the program, we actually got to observe a class for a week. Our final exam was the deliver a lesson to that class, all while being observed by that classroom teacher. It was really intimidating, but the experience led me to realize my dream of becoming a teacher.

I change things so much each year it is difficult for me to think of a teacher tradition. In my two years of Kindergarten I always did a Polar Express Pajama Party. Those little sweeties really loved learning and lounging in their jammies. The last year I did it, I even had a parent make golden tickets and attach bells to them. It was such a memorable moment for both me and them.

As I enter my third year teaching second grade, I realize that the only thing that has remained a tradition is my ability to change. Between adjusting to different standards and a new school, I have been nothing if not flexible and ready for change. I always have an EOY celebration around a central theme. This year I tried out a pirate theme, and I can tell you right now that this will be a tradition. The students loved learning about pirates all day! Look how much fun they had!

My latest saying that gets me through most days is Dream, Believe, Achieve! This is something I teach my students now because it is something I have learned to live by recently. Any dream can be achieved if you simply believe. I dreamed of becoming a teacher, I believed a could after receiving the necessary education, and I finally achieved that dream after several years of hard work. Anything is possible if we simply believe it and never give up!

Thanks again for stopping by The Elementary Entourage! What is one thing we don't know about you?

Professional Development Books Worth Reading {with The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Welcome back, friends! I hope you have been enjoying our posts about our favorite PD books worth reading. I know it can be difficult sometimes to find the time to read for ourselves, but I hope you have found at least one book to help you learn and grow as an educator this summer. For the last post in our series, I bring you an oldie but a goodie.

Ron Clark's The Essential 55 is a must read book for not only all teachers, but parents as well. Ron Clark outlines 55 rules that all students should follow. Most rules focus on things we teach in the first few weeks of school as part of our classroom management and classroom expectations: manners, respect, etc. Working at a school with a high population of students that need good life role models, this book has provided me with some essential skills and has helped remind me that I must teach students some of what many consider the "basics". For example, rule 37 states, "If someone bumps into you, even if it was your fault say, 'Excuse me'." This is something you would think all students would know and understand, but the sad fact is that they do not - they have to be taught.

Often times it is easy to get caught up in what we think students should come to us knowing. This book reminds us as teachers and parents to take a step back and ask ourselves if the child truly has the foundation we are expecting. This may seem simplistic and like a no-brainer for us, but for some students, these common sense "rules" are simply not what they are accustomed to. This book reminds me to not only teach the content, but the life expectations as well. Definitely a book worth reading!

Favorite Children's Author {Laura Numeroff from The Sunny Side of Second Grade}

Hey y'all. Welcome back to our lovely blog for another post in our series of our favorite authors! This is Amber from The Sunny Side of Second Grade, and today I want to tell you all about my favorite author, Laura Numeroff.

Everyone has heard of her. She is most famous for her series of books "If you give a _____ a _____". I must admit that I own them all and I dedicate at least a week each year to study her books. My main focus with Laura Numeroff has been cause and effect, especially when I am teaching expository writing.

We begin by making comic strips using sentence strips. This small project really helps students visualize how one thing truly can lead to another. {Sorry for the poor picture} This is our opening activity for our expository writing on cause and effect. From here, we read a Laura Numeroff book each day and compare and contrast the story. You really do get an awesome bang for your buck with her stories.

When completing the read-aloud with my students, I always make sure we touch on problem and solution. I usually display a graphic organizer like this on the SMART board for us to complete whole group. You could also reinforce this concept in small groups. Orrrrr....if you were around for my last post, screen shot this baby and put it into GoFormative for the students to complete online.

{Click on the picture to be taken to this Pinterest find!}

Your possibilities really are endless with Laura Numeroff books. A quick scour of Pinterest will show you a plethora of lessons and activities to accompany her adorable books.