Halloween Gifts for Students

Some teachers do Halloween Gifts for their students and some don't.  We are a gold medal school so we try to avoid candy and unhealthy treats.  That makes Halloween treats a little hard.  My kids needed pencils and erasers so I figured I could get those for them.  I didn't want to get the holiday ones however because they are not great quality and never work or last for long.  I got normal pencils and erasers and "Halloweenified"/"monsterfied" them.   I also threw in a Halloween fruit roll up, a little better than candy.  The kids loved their Halloween treat and maybe now I will hear a few less of the "Teacher, I don't have an eraser" comments. 

Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration

Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr.Seuss) was born on March 2nd 1904.  We will be celebrating his birthday in school this up coming Friday!  Last year I did not do too much for Dr. Seuss's birthday, so I am excited to be celebrating with my kiddos this year!  We will be having a read-a-thon, but since we all know that most Second Graders do not have the capability of sitting and reading for extended periods of time without becoming restless (especially when 2/3 of your class is boys), I am mixing some other things in.  Here are some of the things we will be doing:

When the kids come in in the morning I am going to have a bookmark on their desk with a Dr. Seuss quote on it.  They will get to decorate it or color it however they would like.  My roommate did this last year with her class and I thought it as a great idea.  The bookmark I came up with is very simple, it can be downloaded HERE if you would like a copy:

Of course the students will be bringing pillows and blankets and any books from home that they would like to read during our read-a-thon.

My kids LOVE buddy reading this year.  They are always asking if they can buddy read.  I will allot some of our read-a-thon time to reading alone an some of the time to buddy reading.   

I will be reading some Dr. Seuss stories to them from the books pictured above.  Since one of their favorite tings is laying down during read aloud (I allow them to when they have been really good all day)  maybe I will let hem lie down with their pillows and blankets and listen. 

I have also found some short videos of some of Dr. Seuss's books on YouTube.  We might watch one or two of these:

There are some interviews done by Reading Rockets with Audrey Geisel (Dr Seuss's wife) They are broken up into short 1-2 minute segments.  Some of them could be fun to show to the class.  My favorite is "I've Got It"  It talks a little bit about the process that Dr. Seuss went through as he wrote.  HERE is a link to the interviews

I think it would be fun to have the students interview each other about their favorite Dr. Seuss books.  This way, beyond just reading, they will be thinking about the books a little bit.  They will be held accountable for comprehension.  Each child will fill out the interview sheet for their Favorite Dr. Seuss book.  They will then get with a partner and they will ask each other the questions and respond to them.

This can also be downloaded for free by clicking the link above for the bookmarks. 

I found a FREE app for my iPad that lets you record your voice.  You can then play it back,e-mail it, save it, convert it to an MP4 file etc.  I think it would be great to have the kids practice reading a Dr. Seuss book or a portion of it for fluency.  After they have read through it a few times I can record it and then play it back for them so that they can hear how they are doing with speed, accuracy, and expression.  

I will pull individuals (lower readers) and groups of kids (grade level or higher) to the Guided Reading table and do this with them during our read-a-thon time.  I will probably pull back the kids who are seeming a little restless first. 

If you would like to download the app an play around with it it is called Voice Record Pro.  Here is a picture and description.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  Thank you for giving us a reason to celebrate literacy and reading!

 

Persuasive Writing and Turkey Disguises

I honestly d not know where the first quarter of the year has gone! Two more school days until Thanksgiving break - WHAT?! With Thanksgiving upon us we did some Thanksgiving themed writing this week.  Our writing from Journeys this week was persuasive letters.  What better persuasive letter assignment than to pretend you are a turkey and persuade a farmer that he should not eat you for Thanksgiving dinner.  This is a writing prompt that I have heard about from many different people, it is perfect for this time of year.  

One of the things that our little ones can struggle with sometimes is coming up with ideas of what to write.  Or in this case ideas of how to persuade the farmer not to eat them.  I though I would play a little dress up to get them thinking.  We have writing right after recess, so while my class was at recess (luckily I didn't have duty) I changed into some jeans and a plaid shirt and straw hat.  Overalls would have been ideal, but unfortunately I didn't have any and thy weren't in the budget.  When the students came back in I had them go into an empty room.  I came in and talking with a little bit of a different accent told them that I was Farmer Paul and that it was almost Thanksgiving and I needed to find a Turkey.  I told them that luckily I had lots of turkeys and pointed to all of them.  I had a few of them show the class how they might be able to act like a turkey.  I told the class that when I said go they were to go around the room acting like turkeys.  If I pointed to them with my arm extended and said "shoot" the whole class had to freeze and the person I said "shoot" to had to come up with a reason why I should not have them for Thanksgiving dinner, then we did it again only I would choose a different student.  My students LOVED this and they came up with some awesome ideas!

Some of them included things like:

- I'm to young to die

- I'm skinny, I don't have any meat on me

- I am a rare type of Turkey, I'm the only one of this kind on your farm

- I won't taste good

- I have poison in me

- I'm dirty

It was great when we went back into the classroom because I gave the kids a graphic organizer (they had to have three reasons why the farmer should not eat them with explanations for each reason) and they went to work, they were creative and didn't complain about not knowing what to write.  They had gotten enough ideas in our little drama experience to get them excited about their writing. 

After the graphic organizer we wrote rough drafts and final drafts of our letters.  Then today we did a little art project to go with the assignment.  I told the kids that their letters were great, but in order to make sure that the farmer really didn't eat them for Thanksgiving dinner they would have to disguise themselves!  We brainstormed some things they could disguise themselves as on the board.  Then I gave them some turkeys and some tips on how to cut the disguise to fit the turkey and they went to work!  Their turkeys are GREAT! I love looking at them in the hallway.  Here are a few of them:

The disguises below include a word wall letter, a barn, a ninja, fire, a bowling pin, a rose bush, an iPad, and a Christmas tree.

 

                               

                                        

                                   

They all did a great job and it is so fun to look at them in the hallway!

Halloween!

How has Halloween crept up on me so fast this year?!  Last day of October tomorrow. What?  They do say that time flies when your having fun, maybe that's why it's gone by so fast.  I love my kiddos this year so much, even my hard ones.  We have been having a lot of fun learning this year!  Here are a few more Halloween things we've done or will be doing:

Today in math we played a game called BOO!  It is basically the same as the game Bang, just Halloween style.   I broke my kids into 9 groups (3 kids in each group).  Each group got a bag full of math questions.  They take turns pulling out questions.  If a student gets a question right they get to keep the card.  If they get it wrong they have to put the card back in the bag.  If someone pulls a card out that says "BOO!" they have to put all their cards back.  They just keep playing and whoever has the most cards when time is up wins a prize.  The kids had a ton of fun with this one!  It was a good review of the topics we have covered thus far in math.  I the same game that I play on "Grinch Day" only pulling out a Grinch means you have to put all your cards back.  Now they will know how to play when "Grinch Day" rolls around in December : )

This week in writing we are talking about informational writing (specifically "How to" stories).  What better assignment than to have the students write about how to dress up as something!  Below is an example of a final draft.  The kids had to write the directions on the side with lines and then on the back there was a silhouette of a body and they had to decorate it in the costume they wrote about.  They used construction paper for that.

Tomorrow we will be doing monster adjectives!  I got the idea for this at a training last year.  My kids had a lot of fun with it last Halloween so I'm doing it again this year.  After we review adjectives a little bit I will divide the class into groups.  Each group gets a part of the monster.  They have to come up with as many adjectives for it as they can.  Then each group shares (I let students from other groups add to the list of adjectives that the group presenting came up with) and we put the monster together.

We will also make pop-ups with jack o lanterns in them and we will write a sentence as if we were the jack o lantern speaking to the trick or treaters walking by.

I have a scary story (with a funny ending) that I will share with the class.  Lights off of course.  For those of you who know the "Vinder Viper" story, that's the one I'm sharing.

I found a fun Halloween poem that we will make up actions for and learn as a class.  I'm going to have them help me create some additional verses.  I think I will tell the kids that if they get it down really good I will video them doing the poem and e-mail it to their parents (iPad baby!). 

 I saw on Pinterest the idea of having the kids create real estate adds for a Haunted House.  My kids created their Haunted Houses last week and tomorrow during writing we are writing the descriptions.

I've got some fun Halloween books to read if we have a few extra minutes here or there.  I hope we do, because I LOVE reading books aloud!

All of that and a 2nd grade party and a school parade.  It's going to be a busy, fun day in Miss Paul's Second Grade!

I am so excited to spend Halloween with my kiddos tomorrow!  Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Fun! Informational Writing!

When I saw that I was teaching Informational writing in October I thought that it would be fun to learn all about pumpkins and then write informational paragraphs about what we learned.  I figured we would do an art project with it too, we need something new in the hall and since this will be pumpkins it can stay up all month!

This week we are focusing on the fact that a informational paragraphs have topic sentences that state the main idea an that they have supporting details that tell more about the main idea and are written in the writers own words.

We did this activity to start off.  I put up two different paragraphs cut apart into sentences.  I mixed them up and had the students determine which sentence was the main idea or topic sentence.  We then made sure that all of the supporting details actually supported our main idea and also made sure that we put the supporting details in a good order. 

This is what it looked like when we got finished:

After this activity I had the students get out their whiteboards and write the sentence, Halloween is fun.  I told them that this was their topic sentence and that they needed to write at least 3 supporting detail sentences.

At different times over the course of the week we also did this same activity with the following sentences:

It is October.

It is almost Winter.

It is Fall.

The students have done a really good job with their paragraphs so far!

After learning about the topic sentence and supporting details of a paragraph I put up 5 pumpkins with categories on them.  We reviewed sequencing a little bit and I asked my students to think about what order they would put these 5 things in if they were going to write all about pumpkins.  We came up with this order:

Student Then glued those 5 categories onto the five tabs o their flip booklet in the same order.  One of my girls asked if she could "draw a setting around her pumpkin".  I let the kids decorate their flip books  little bit and they had a lot of fun.  Some of them turned out really cute! 

These booklets (each student has their own) are where I had the students keep track of all the different information that we were learning about pumpkins this week.  As we learned information we decided which category to put it under.  This way when the students were ready to write their informational paragraphs they already had their information organized and easy to access.    

We also wrote question that we have about pumpkins and put them under the corresponding categories so that we could make sure to answer the questions that the students had throughout the week. 

I found this video via Pinterest that we watched to learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin (how it grows).  I had the students just watch the video the first time.  I played it twice more after that and let the students write notes in their flip book about how a pumpkin grows.  Since their is no voice in the video, I read the words to my students as we watched.  

 

In addition to this video we read some books to get some information on pumpkins.  Here is a look at the books we read, I loved them all and they all had great information.  I just got them from the public library.

You can't learn about pumpkins without actually bringing a pumpkin in, especially when they are so easy to get a hold of this time of the year.

We learned some things from the books about what pumpkins are like on the inside and outside, but there is nothing like the real thing. 

Here is the pumpkin I brought in:

Students got to feel the outside and record adjectives for the outside in their flip books.  Then came the fun part!  While the kids where at recess (luckily  am not n duty this week) I cut the top open.  When they got back.  I pulled the top off under the document camera so they all cold see.  Each table group got a plate of pulp and seeds so they could feel it and describe it.

After the pulp was thrown away and the seeds were saved so that we can bake them and describe what they taste like, it was baby wipes for everyone!  They then wrote adjectives for the pulp and seeds in their flip books under the section "What is the inside like?" 

We made an anchor chart with all the adjectives we came up with about the outside and inside of our pumpkin.  They came up with some pretty good ones!  I reminded the students that using these words in their writing will give the reader a better mental picture of what they are talking about, it will also make their writing more interesting.

We learned some interesting facts about pumpkins.  I found information on the following websites 

Biggest Pumpkin

Biggest Pumpkin Pie

Giant Pumpkin Boat Race Video

I put the information into a book using the app Scribble Press on my i-pad.  I read the book to them and they loved it! 

At the end, after we have learned all about pumpkins and written our paragraphs about them, we will do a pumpkin art project.  The writing together with the are will go in the hall!

Here is a picture of the art project:

To do this The students will draw their pumpkin and their grass on a white piece of paper.  They will then use watered down Elmer's glue and spread it over their pumpkin and grass and then stick squares of tissue paper on it until it is covered.  It is o.k. if their tissue paper goes over the line of where they drew because they will be able to see through the tissue paper to cut.  When the glue has dried and the tissue paper is on they can cut out their pumpkin and grass.  They will then use double sided tape to attach the grass and pumpkin to the black paper.  A little more Elmer's glue for the eyes and a sharpie for the mouth.  We are about to have some really great writing and some really cute pumpkins in the hallway!

Happy Pumpkin Season!



Mother's Day

Mother's Day is right around the corner so we have been hard at work on some Mother's Day projects in my class. A while back I saw the idea for a Mother's Day ABC book. Unfortunately I don't remember where I originally saw it. Anyways that is what we are doing for mother's day, along with bookmarks that I found on Pinterest and fell in love with! Here is a look at our Mother's day books, they are turning out really cute so far! I hope that the mother's will love them!

If anyone is interested in downloading the booklet you can get it HERE! Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day from Miss Paul's class! We kept it simple. The students took turns going back and adding onto our world collage made with ripped blue and green paper. Then while the Sub was there she read them The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, they talked about how to protect the earth and then wrote their "earth day promise". The earth day promises are displayed around the earth.

Plastic Egg Word Work

With so many plastic eggs around, why not use some to make learning a little more fun?
This could work as a fast finisher or as a word work center for this week.

Each Egg has a different set of letters in it so that the students can do the activity multiple times. Have them see how many words they can make and record them!

Get the recording sheet and 8 sets of letters here!

Have a great week!

Katrina

February 14th with Miss Paul

February 14th aka Valentine's Day. It was fun to be back in an Elementary School for Valentine's Day today!

Here are some of the thing that went on in Miss Paul's Class today:

First thing this morning we had to make our monster Valentine bags for everyone to put valentines in:






We did some Valentine's centers this morning. We made animals out of heart and wrote about them and tried to see how many times we could write our spelling words in a heart!






For writing today we changed things up a little bit and used conversation hearts to make stories:





This last one was my favorite! It says "Once there was a girl and she wrote just one note to her friend, he wasn't too hot. The note said XOXO and you rock. And he went to the girls house and said you're so fine. And he said can you marry me? And she said yes."

I don't know what we are all so worried about... apparently it's as simple as that : )

During our party this afternoon we decorated cookies, played a Valentine's "I Have Who Has" game and of course played pin the heart on Cupid.





I got to make Valentines for my kids and pinterest gave me a great idea!



Each kid got one of these in a bag with a little plastic slinky and a bouncy ball! I was so excited because my kids LOVED these! It was so great! When I gave them to them the kids were all taking them out and showing each other and smiling so much and laughing! I will definitely do this one again next year!

I got my first rose from a boy today : ) Thank you to Bruce(age 7)


Oh and I also got a valentines card from a student that read: "You are so nice and funey. You are smart and when you read a book you yows good inpresn" I think he mean expression : )

That is just about how Valentine's Day goes in second grade! Boy am I lucky to have these kiddos!

Happy Feb14th! Love ya!

Miss Paul