• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Meet Amanda
  • Blog
  • Shop TPT
  • Nav Widget Area

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest

Second Grade Smiles

A Teaching Blog by Amanda Taylor

back to school

First Week of School Read Alouds and Activities That Help to Build a Strong Classroom Community

Thoughtfully selected first week of school read alouds can help to set a positive and welcoming tone for the school year. With this in mind, I look for inclusive titles that will support me in honoring all students as valued members of our classroom community. For me, this means books that feature diverse characters with […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School, Classroom Community, Favorite Read Alouds 2 Comments

Making Flexible Seating Work for You

Let’s talk about why teachers are investing in flexible seating! What’s all the buzz about? Research shows that our brains form maps from the body’s “relationship scenery”. That means that changing a learner’s position in the room throughout the day can provide more unique “learning addresses”, which can contribute to better recall of learning. Further, […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School, Creative Teaching Ideas Leave a Comment

My Best Advice for New Teachers

Looking for advice for new teachers? If it is your first year teaching, congratulations on landing your first teaching job! As you embark upon this amazing journey, you will impact the lives of twenty-something little people in countless ways this year. It is an awesome responsibility and a privilege. There will be smiles, moments of […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School Leave a Comment

Creating a Calm Corner in Your Classroom

Now more than ever, our students need our classrooms to be safe, calm spaces. I wanted to take some time today to share a classroom space that has helped me to successfully support students who may have had difficulty self-regulating or just occasionally needed time and space to regroup – my classroom’s calm corner. Calm […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School, Creative Teaching Ideas 5 Comments

Storage Solutions for Multisensory Word Work Materials

Multisensory word work practice plays an important role in developing fluency with sight words and phonics patterns, but center rotations go by quickly. When my students visit the word work center, I want them to get to work quickly and engage with the materials in a focused and meaningful way. This can be difficult to […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School, ELA, Learning Centers, Multisensory Learning Leave a Comment

Multisensory Sight Word Centers with Visual Directions

When I first started teaching it took a lot of coaching and repeated practice to teach my beginning readers and language learners to work with multisensory materials like playdough, letter stamps, and magnet letters appropriately and independently. I couldn’t write out directions for them because they couldn’t yet read them. I ended up missing out […]

Filed Under: Back to School, Creative Teaching Ideas, ELA, Learning Centers, Multisensory Learning 6 Comments

Tips for Stress-Free Learning Center Activities

I love that running daily learning centers in my classroom gives me the opportunity to work with small groups and differentiate my guided reading instruction. It also encourages my students to build independent and partner work skills. Over the years, I’ve learned that thoughtful planning and routines are key to setting up my classroom for […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School, Learning Centers 4 Comments

Building Relationships with Students Beginning Those First Weeks of School

You’ve heard it before – building relationships with students is key to both your students’ academic success and successful classroom management. It makes sense. Students perform better and behave better for teachers who they feel a connection with, the people they know care about them and have made an effort to get to know them. […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School 3 Comments

Back to School with Guided Discovery of Materials

Appropriate use and storage of all your classroom materials – from pencils to glue sticks to tablets – goes a long way in helping your classroom to be safe, organized, and smoothly run. Knowing where things are when you need them and being able to trust that they will be in good condition saves time. […]

Filed Under: Back to School Leave a Comment

Math Manipulatives You’ll Need to Teach Second Grade

There are so many options out there for teaching second grade math using hands-on manipulatives. It’s easy to feel like you need it all, but if you’re like most teachers, you’re on a budget. Here are the math manipulatives I couldn’t live without and some tips for making your own or finding them at affordable […]

Filed Under: Advice for Teachers, Back to School, Math Leave a Comment

Primary Sidebar

Follow Along

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

Find it Fast

Categories

  • Advice for Teachers
  • Back to School
  • Classroom Community
  • Creative Teaching Ideas
  • Digital Learning
  • Distance Learning
  • ELA
  • End of Year
  • Favorite Read Alouds
  • Holiday Fun
  • Inquiry Based Learning
  • Learning Centers
  • Math
  • Multisensory Learning
  • Science
  • Writing Prompts

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Labels

100th day of school advice advice for new teachers aging booth app back to school calm corner center activities classroom community classroom management creative writing prompts decompostion digital learning distance learning earth day first week of school activities free teaching resources Halloween hands-on learning inquiry-based learning January learning centers manipulatives math math activities mystery creatures number of the day October past tense verbs read-alouds read alouds science SEL showing gratitude sight words spreading kindness staff appreciation standards for mathematical practice student-teacher relationships Teaching with Google Apps technology Thanksgiving twosday winter word problem of the day word work

Footer

Helpful Links

  • Home
  • Meet Amanda
  • Blog
  • Shop TPT

Blog Archives

Find it fast

Recent Posts

  • Six Ways to Make Centers Self-Checking
  • First Week of School Read Alouds and Activities That Help to Build a Strong Classroom Community

© 2018 · Design by Laugh Eat Learn · Theme by Pretty Darn Cute