You Know You're A Teacher When...

Abby is hosting a "You Know You're a Teacher When..." Linky Party!  Click to link up to the fun!

You Know You're a Teacher When...

- You can't get past the dollar section at Target without buying a few (or LOTS!) things of things that are just PERFECT for your classroom!!

- You say, "I better not hear the "F" word come out of your mouth..." and you are referring to the FAIR!!!!  Seriously...in the small town where I teach, the fair is BIG NEWS and the talk of the town that time of the year!

- You mention a SKITTLE (only ONE), kids immediately straighten up and are little ANGELS!

- The laminator, Cricut, and Sharpie Pens are your best friends! :)

- Your iTunes playlist includes Addition and Subtraction Rock, Disney, and Morning Meeting Songs.

- You pick out kids in your class that you want your own kids to be like...and those kids that you don't want them to be like! ;)

- You would do ANYTHING to see a student succeed and LOVE the look on their faces when you tell them you think they are AMAZING!

- You have to use hand sanitizer after checking their Take Home Notebooks....ummm...Can we say GROSS!!!

- You spend the summer planning, creating, and devising new materials to use next year.

~`~-Lauren

It's Review Time!!

I have been on Spring Break this week...and like most teachers, I have been doing school work!  I'm just so glad that my job is also one of my hobbies!!

In two weeks, my sweeties will be taking their End of the Year test for second grade.  I want to review as much as I can with them in the next couple of weeks in both Language Arts and Math.
Here is a little book of Language Arts Terms that we're going to be reviewing:

Language Arts Book:

I would also LOVE to know how you review at the end of the year with your kiddos.  I can't wait to hear your responses!!

Happy Friday, Everyone!!!

Fluency Folder

At my school, students take the AIMS Web reading test so fluency is HUGE in the lower grades.  This year has definitely been a learning experience for me as far as how to organize my students' fluency charts, words, passages, etc.  Now that we are three-quarters of the way through the year, I think I finally have it figured out!! YAY!!

Fluency Folder File

AMAZING Giveaway!!!

Check out the AWESOME giveaway from the ladies at What the Teacher Wants!!  They are giving away a $100 gift card to The Container Store!!  Who doesn't LOVE to be organized...I know I do!!  Thank you What the Teacher Wants for offering this fabulous giveaway :)

Classroom Photo Linky Party

One of my FAVORITE things to do is look at how other teachers organize their classrooms so I was really excited to see Mrs. Patton's Classroom Photo Linky Party!!  I haven't taken any pictures of my classroom recently, but here are a few from the beginning of the year. (Note:  I have made a LOT of changes since Day 1!)

Word Wall Board  

(We add words as we study them and it now contains High Frequency Words)

For each book we read as a class, we add a new bug with the title :)

Teacher Corner

Buddy Reading Tent

My kiddos LOVE this!!  It has 2 sleeping bags and animal puppets for them to cozy up to while reading with their buddy!!

Morning Meeting Area

My parents bought me the AMAZING campfire rug to go along with my camping theme!  

Behavior Board

Center Organization

SmartBoard Computer and Elmo

WOWIE...I hate these antique desks!!  But...I do LOVE my cute chair bags!!! :)

I hope everyone has a great week!!  We have 5 more days until SPRING BREAK in our county!!!  I hope all you teachers on spring break already have a COMPLETELY RELAXING week...YOU DESERVE IT!! :)

Did You Hear That Sound???

This week our spelling/phonics skill is Silent Consonants.  I am soooo excited because I made my first CUTE game to go along with our words!!! :)  I hope my kiddos love it and I hope some of you other amazing teachers find it useful as well!!  Click on the Frog to view the game!

My sweeties have been pretty good so far this week.  Of course...a little bribe does go a LONG way!!  Since we have SPRING BREAK (YAY!!) in 2 weeks, I decided to have a FuN FrIdAy the last day before a much needed vacation!!  My sweeties are trying to earn a letter a day in order to get their extra recess/snacks.  (I told them I'd give them a free letter each week!)  I hope they keep up the good behavior! 

Hope everyone had a great Tuesday!!

It's Graphing Time!!

This week my class has been studying pictographs, bar graphs, and line plots.  My sweeties had a lot of fun surveying classmates figuring out our favorite candy bars, sports, and how many brothers and sisters we have!!  Check out some pictures below:

Click for graph PRINTABLES!!!

Welcome to Second Grade Sweeties!! Meet the Teacher!!

Welcome to Second Grade Sweeties!  I recently started following some great teachers' blogs and decided it was time to start my own. I can't wait to share ideas and get new ideas from other creative teachers. 


My name is Lauren Harrington and this is my second year of teaching 2nd grade.  I graduated from Lambuth University in Jackson, TN which is where I met my amazing husband.   We got married this past June.  He teaches and coaches (basketball and baseball) at the local high school.  Being a coach's wife is a challenging job! :)  I love spending time with my family and friends...and consider myself very blessed to live the life I live!!!


Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t a teacher?                                            
A:  Something crafty!!!  I love to scrapbook...but haven't had time to recently!

Q: What are your hobbies?                                                                                   
A:  Scrapbooking, camping trips/vacations, going to my hubby's ballgames, reading (when I have time), finding cute/creative things to use in my classroom!                                                                

Q: When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?                    
A:  Surprise, Surprise...I ALWAYS wanted to be a TEACHER :)
  
Q: What are your guilty pleasures?                                                                 
 A: Coke Zero, Reese's Cups, The Bachelor TV show, spending toooo much time on the internet finding new ideas for my class!!

Q: What is your biggest fear?!                                                                      
 A: Storms and being alone!!!!

Q: When you’re on vacation, where do you like to go?                                  
 A: Somewhere RELAXING!!!  The beach or the mountains :)  My most favorite place is Bar Harbor, Maine!!!
                                                          
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?                                                 
A:  Give all your worries to God....He will never give you more than you can handle!!

Q: What do you value most in others?                                                                  
A:  A sense of pride for what you do.  RESPECT!!

Q: If you could choose one of your personality traits to pass down to your kids, what would it be?                                                                                                       
A: I don't have kids yet, but when I do, I want them to have my trait of having FUN and SMILING!!  Life is too short to take way too seriously!!!    

Q: If you could have lunch with anyone in the world….living or dead…who would it be?                                                                                                              
A:  I know it's cheesy...but I would pick my MOM!!!  She is also a teacher and and we always have SOOOO much to talk about!! :)

Now tell us one random thing about yourself:

I have never broken any bones or seriously injured myself!  I hope it stays that way :D