Teachers Pay Teachers!

I have signed myself up for this fabulous website called Teachers Pay Teachers, which is a common place for teachers to buy and sell products they have made! It's so wonderful that a place like this is possible because it  gives teachers a chance to make a little more money for the activities they spend so much time making! I'm very new to it, but am still hopeful that my stuff might catch on : ) Here's hoping!

 

Here's a a peek at some activities from my latest pack!

 

To any teacher friends out there, if you like it you can pick it up by clicking on the following link! Also, you can download the preview which is a fun spring themed ABC order :) Enjoy!

 

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Swing-into-Spring-Center-Pack

In honor of the great Dr. Seuss' birthday!

Over the week of Dr. Seuss' birthday we read many of our favorites for read alouds! The kids really enjoyed hearing about all the havoc "Thing One and Thing Two" created, and kept talking about what their parents would do if they came home to a mess like that! We thought it would be fun to have them write about what would happen if "Thing One and Thing Two came to my house..."! They have very wild imaginations!

 

I found the craft to go along with it on Pinterest, and we had a blast painting our hands! It definiately got messy, but it was worth it : ) They came out super cute and we had fun honoring a favorite writer!

Writing Machines!

How Tos are one of our favorite things to write in room 212. The kids really enjoy telling a teacher how to do something for once, and we love reading how they explain it in their own words (it can be very entertaining!)

 

How to blow a bubble. . .

 

 

How to plant a flower! The tissue paper flowers were the best part, and it really got us in the mood for spring!

 

"Hey you, your yard is looking pretty dull. . ."

They are all amazing little writers : )

 

Coletti/McKenzie Shoestore! This is a perfect way to incorporate our fairy tale unit with persuasive writing.  We read "The Elves and the Shoe Maker" and then the students get to design their own shoe, and have to persude customers to buy their shoe over anyone else's! They had a blast with this activity and their designs were VERY impressive! (We may have some fashion designers on our hands!)

 

"You want shoes that impress your friends? No problemo!"

Valentine's Day & 100th Day!

Having some fun and working hard on their 100th day activities!

 

Design your own mailboxes for Valentine's Day! This is my favorite activity to do with the kids : ) It gives them a craft/activity to do during the party, but also gives them something to take their valentines home in!

 

Keepin' Track of Kindness : )

Our students believed that all of their kind deeds and warm souls could melt even the meanest heart of all, THE GRINCH! Evey time they saw someone helping a friend or doing something extremely kind, they could fill out a heart and pin it on The Grinch!

Special delivery!

 

Room 212 received a special delivery right before our holiday party and our winter break! The kids we're beyond excited, and it was a great way to kick off their holiday traditions!

Becoming Mathematicians

We have been working incredibly hard in math this year! We started off our year brushing up on our basic math facts and money. The kids worked on combinations up to 10 as well as counting money up to $1.oo. Since the beginning of the year, we have also been teaching a number of strategies to solve word problems and double digit adddition/ subtraction problems. These strategies include mental math, using a hundreds chart, drawing pictures with sets of 10s, 5s and 1s, and writing equations. Our students never cease to amaze us in this area!

In November, we began our geometry unit, which has been a lot of fun so far! We began by exploring how shapes fit together and how shapes fit within each other. The students used pattern blocks and geoblocks to build shapes.

We also created shape monsters to help us apply new information about shapes!

After that, we learned about quadrilaterals, focusing on building and describing rectangles using rows and columns. Starting tomorrow, we will begin learning about fractions!

The wonderful world of writing!

We've done a lot of different writing so far this year! We started off just trying to get our students interested in the writing process (brainstorming, rough draft, editing, final copy), so we focused on creative writing.  We read the story "Where the Wild Things Are" as a class, and then had the students write their own "Wild Thing" story, in which they changed to fit their interests and experiences. . . Needless to say, they were very creative and very funny! Here's a picture of the start of the bulletin board.

Then we moved on to our poetry unit. In this unit, we study all different types of poetry, by reading some famous pieces and some silly ones (Shel Silverstein).  The children have really been enjoying this and have proven to be excellent poets in the making! For Halloween we wrote Cinquain poems about spiders. Here's a look at those. . .

Most recently, we have been working our haiku poems, which you saw in the previous post about the moon.  We also let the children write a haiku poem about anything they wanted (remembering that haikus are always about nature, and have to stick to the "5 syllable, 7 syllable, 5 syllable" format) It's a lot to ask, and as always, they impressed us with their skills!

 

We are taking a break from our poetry unit now (we will go back later on in the year), and are moving on to "How Tos".  This is an important part of the writing process, because it helps students with their organization within their writing.  By giving step by step directions, they make sure to include all details, ensuring they have a strong beginning, middle, and end.  This should then carry over to their regular writing effortlessly, making their written pieces stronger.  For Thanksgiving, the kids worked on "How to Cook a Turkey", which were funny seeing how seven year olds would do that! Today they worked on simpler "how tos", such as, how to make a peanut butter and jelly.  This has less steps, ensuring students don't leave out a crucial part of their piece.  They seem to be doing well with these and we will continue working on this type of writing for the rest of the week, then we are going to work on persuasive writing : ) Have an excellent Tuesday!

Exploring our world : )

In second grade, the main focus in social studies is Japan. However, we decided there is so much more we can teach the kids, and we decided to study all of the continents.  We finished our study of North America last month, and are currently exploring South America! Each time we move to a new continent, we take a "plane ride" to our next destination.  We move the chairs into rows on the rug, print our boarding passes for the students, and play videos of animals and cultures the students will learn about during our time there.  The kids REALLY enjoy this (and so do the teachers!).  We've been doing a lot of activities on the IPads during class, as well as center time.  They've had a wonderful time learning about the animals found in the rain forest and now have a deep appreciation for where we live after seeing that there aren't many "luxuries" in other parts of the world! We are finishing up our visit to South America this week, and then will be flying off to Antarctica on Friday!

Crazy about the moon!

Hello Families!

This is officially our first post to the webpage this year, and I promise they will be coming more frequently now! We have just finished up our study of the moon, and the kids had a blast! Aside from working hard and learning some very tough material, the kids were able to do a lot of fun experiments and projects. They all did incredibly well with this unit, and Kelsey and I were so proud of them.  Here are some pictures of the fun things we did!

We made phases of the moon crowns (surprisingly, the boys were even excited to wear them!). . .

 

 

We made "Moon Goons!"

 



And we wrote haiku poems about the moon (and sponge painted!), which went along with our literacy unit : )

 

 

PLACE VALUE

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to update you on what the students are learning about currently in math. We started slowly bridging the topic of "place value" over the last few weeks. We worked on "expanded notation" which is breaking a number apart based on its place value (369 = 300 + 60 + 9). On Thursday, I began teaching the students the standard algorithm.  This is usually a very complex and confusing concept for children of their age, but I am happy to report they are doing exceptionally well! Each student seems to have a solid understanding of regrouping within addition, and can accurately apply the algoithm into the hundreds! Tomorrow I will begin teaching them how to "borrow" (subtraction), which I am predicting will be a bit more difficult.  If you have any questions, or notice your child is having a hard time with homework, please do not hesitate to contact me! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend : )

OuR StUdY oF ThE MoOn!

The students created "Phases of the Moon" crowns which came out fabulous!!

Some old Halloween pictures!

So MuCh FuN iN RoOm 212 : )

Valentine's Day Party Pics!