Epic Fail and Pinterest Creation

My goal this year was to post more than once a week in my new adventure in 2nd grade.  I just realized that it has been more than a month since I posted.  We are not six weeks into the new school year and already my blogging has been an EPIC FAIL!
I must say that so far I am thrilled with my move down to second grade.  I am loving the sweetness of my second graders.  They are working so hard and already I am seeing a lot of progress.
Our school is in our second year of our Leader in Me training.  We are embracing the 7 Habits of Happy Kids and trying to instill leadership traits in our students.  As part of this we are required to have the 7 habits displayed in our room.  It is strongly encouraged to have the habits displayed on a tree.  When I moved into my new room, there was a Palm tree with the 7 Habits displayed on the Palm Fronds.  I didn't like it but it served a purpose, so I left it on my wall....until this week.  I finally decided what I wanted my tree to look like.  This summer I saw trees on Pinterest with framed family photos on walls everywhere.  I'm not a painter and I refused to pay an arm and leg for a vinyl tree.  Several weeks ago, Zulily.com had vinyl trees on their site.  Of course, I had to order one.  When it arrived the rest of my plan began.  I made a trip to dollar tree for eight 5x7 frames, and to Wal-Mart for the brightest spray paint I could find.  I found the cutest 7 Habits posters from Rachel Lamb here.  I went to school early the next day to put it all together.  I LOVE it!!!!

Wax Museum

Days like today make me proud to be a teacher.  After a trying week, I needed today.  I was so proud of the efforts my students made with their 7 Habits Wax Museum.  During the past few weeks students researched a person that represented one of the 7 Habits of Happy Kids.  After their research, they wrote and memorized a speech about their person and how they represented one of the habits.
As 1:30 approached I could feel the nerves of my students.  I was worried they would freeze when visitors and parents arrived.  I was ecstatic when my normally silly, rambunctious kids performed flawlessly.  They spoke clearly and not one forgot their speech.  This activity and idea came from a unit I purchased on Teacher Pay Teacher here.

Bear Bryant, John Heisman, and Shug Jordan

Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller, Maya Angelou, George Washington Carver

Maya Angelou, George Washington Carver, Clara BArton

Mae Jemison

John Heisman, Bear Bryant, Bill Gates

Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan

Clara Barton

Parents watching the performance!

Now we continue working on our PBL unit planning a field trip for a class from another school.

The Leader in Me

This is our first year implementing The Leader in Me program at our school.  Teachers were trained this summer and we have spent the year implementing the program in our lives and teaching practices.  We have also introduced one habit each month to the students.  I wanted to see if the habits had impacted the students and to see if they understood their meaning.  I had groups of students conference and as a group come up with a way to illustrate the habit in a photo.  After I took the photo, each group went to the "motivater" on big huge labs. They uploaded the photo, typed in the Habit and its meaning.  I think they did a great job showing the seven habits in the Leader in Me!!