Egg Hunt Review

This is going to be a "Throw Back Thursday" post.  I didn't blog nearly as much as I would have liked to this past year.  I had a great group of kids and it was a really good year.  I was sad to see them leave at the en of the year, but look forward to their smiling faces in the hallways as third graders after a well deserved summer break!  I am excited that I have some time to relax, rejuvenate, get some projects done for the classroom, and do some blogging. 

Towards the end of the school year I am always looking for fun games and ways to review math.  I have posted about some of them in the past.  This year I got some plastic eggs and put a math problem in each one.  I numbered the eggs and then hid them around the room while the kids were at prep. 

When they came in they each got a recording sheet with 23 numbered, blank boxes on it (similar to the recording sheet that you would use for the game "scoot" if you are familiar with that).  I then explained the rules that students had to find each of the eggs and put the answer to the question in the corresponding box.  There was also a rule that there was not to be more than one person at an egg at a time and the eggs needed to be put back right where they were found. 

The kids were completely engaged and had a great time with the review.  I love when I can let them be a little more active while still being engaged in learning or in this case reviewing. 

While I did this at the end of the year, it could also work as a review for a single unit in math or be adapted and used as an activity to practice a literacy skill.

It's feels good to be blogging again, hopefully I can keep it up through the summer and do a little next year too!

 

If you would like a copy of the review questions I used, you can find them here.  Happy hunting!

 

 

 

 

Reading Bingo

I have seen a lot of different reading bingo boards on Pinterest.  I've been wanting to make one of my own for quite some time now.  Now that it's summer, I did!  One thing that I didn't like about some of the reading bingos that I saw was that they were fun and motivational for kids, but they didn't emphasize reading with a parent.  Being a second grade teacher I am constantly emphasizing the importance of parents reading with their children.  Students can sound like they are reading great but they may be making up words or skipping words unbeknownst to whoever is listening if they are not following along with them.  Here is my reading bingo that involves lots of reading with parents!  

Grab a free coy HERE!

   

I'm excited to share this with parents in the fall as a way for them to help their children to be motivated about doing their home reading each night.  This would also be great to send home at the end of the school year to keep kids motivated to read through the summer. 

Love Notes Scrapbook

This year I got lots of love notes from my students and lots of pictures as well. Throughout the year I would either hang them up behind my computer or put them in a file folder and save them.  At the end of the year the file folder was bulging.  I decided that I would make a scrapbook of the love notes I received.  It will be great to look back through it on those rough teaching days or long after I have stopped teaching.  Someday way in the future I bet my kids will also get a kick out of reading the notes that my students wrote to me when I was a teacher. 

I got a 12 x 12 scrapbook. It has a spot for a picture in the front so I put a picture of my class in it.  I also bought a pack of 12 x 12 paper.  Then I spread out all my love notes and got to work putting them on pages.  I cut up some of the pictures and just used pieces of them here or there as I needed something to fill a certain space. 

Putting this together was a fun summer project that only took about a day!  I loved my kiddos this past year and I am so happy that I now have their love notes all together in a cute scrapbook that I will enjoy looking back on for years to come :)

I think this will be a must-do again next year!

Pop Rocks Poetry

We are working on poetry this week in class.  Yesterday I decided that I was going to do a lesson on Haiku poems today.  Now the question was, how would I make it engaging for the kids?  I remembered Pop Rock - an awesome candy from my childhood!  I knew that getting to eat and write about Pop Rocks would be motivating to my students.  After going over what a Haiku poem was, the format, and emphasizing the difference between number or words and number of syllables I passed out the Pop Rocks.  Each student got a baggie with Pop Rocks in it.  After they had eaten them we described them so that they would have some words and phrases to go in their poems. 

I passes out some papers for them to do their poems on and they got to work.  Some kids could definitely use some more time and practice with Haiku poems, but some of them did a great job!

As we were winding down the assignment and getting started with Guided Reading and centers the school lost power.  Fun, fun, fun.  Always an adventure in Second Grade!

Review Fun!

"grudgeball"

I found a review game called "grudgeball" on Pinterest.  Check out the original blog post HERE!  The game is originally meant for middle schoolers, but I found that my second graders loved it!

Here is how we played in Second Grade.

I put team numbers 1-5 up on the board.  Each team had 10 X's.  I got the kids into 5 groups.  I gave groups questions one at a time.  If a group got a question right they were able to erase two X's from the board (from any team they chose or they could split it between two teams).  They also got to shoot a ball into a container.  They could choose to shoot it from a closer line (1 point) or a further line (2 points).  If they made the shot they were able to earn either 1 or 2 X's for their own team.  The goal is to have the most X's at the end of the game.

It was very interesting to watch my second graders with this game.  At first they didn't realize how it would feel to have another team erase their points, they were angry.  They retaliated.  There were some contentious vibes.  Then one of the students shot for a point and barely missed, it bounced off the rim.   I heard a few players from a different team than the student who had shot say "God job" "Nice Try".  I promptly stopped the game and explained that I was going to reward the team that has people being good sports by giving them an X.  When the next person went up to shoot they missed and automatically the whole class erupted in cheers. They were saying things like "Great try!" "Good Job!" "Almost."  That is a moment I will remember for a long time!  It was the greatest thing to see my kids cheering each other on!  After that one of the students came up and asked if they could give teams points instead of take them away.  When it came to their turn they crossed out one teams X and then gave an X to a team that needed it.  How cute is that?

My class was reviewing addition and subtraction, they were having a blast, and they really had an awesome bonding experience!  When we were finished they were asking if they could play again when they got back from computers. 

I would say it was a review success!

Literacy Review Ball

Another thing that my students loved was this Literacy Review Ball! There are tons of things like this on Pinterest too.  Unfortunately I do not know who was the first, so to whoever you are, thanks a million!

 I decided that on my ball I would just put a to of questions, all having to do with literacy/skills we have talked about this year.  Homophones, contractions, compound words, synonyms, antonyms, multiple meaning words, short and long vowel sounds, the works. We tossed the the ball around the classroom.  The person who caught it got to read the question under one of their thumbs.  I would then either have the whole class answer the question, ask a certain student who was raising their hand to answer, or have table groups talk about the answer.  After the question as answered the person who had read the question would pick someone quiet and throw it to them...and so it continued.  This would be really easy to take outside too if the weather was nice!

Review Relay

I was at Dollar Tree the other day and I saw some pails.

I came up with the idea of a Review Relay!  I would have four teams.  Each team would have two buckets about 20 or so yards apart. All the review questions would be in the buckets on one side.  Each team would start at the same time.  They pull out questions one at a time and work together as a team to answer them.  Each team would have a whiteboard, a marker, and a number line if they needed it.  When the question is answered they peel the tape off the back of the question and see if they got it right.  If they got it right they run and put the question into the other pail.  if they got it wrong they keep it with them (outside of the pail).  They can't try again if they get it wrong because they will already have seen the answer.  This will put the pressure on them to get the right answer the first time and not guess.  When the runner returns the next question can be taken out. 

The team who finishes first wins,unless they got questions wrong and another team got more questions correct than them.  Doing the math right and getting the right answer is the most important thing! 

Pails: 2 of each color.  One at the start (with all the questions) and one at the finish (with the questions that were answered correctly).

   Pails lined up at the finish line! Go team, go! Tape hiding the answers on the back.

     Running the questions down to the end quickly and coming back quickly for the next question to be read!

My kids really enjoyed this today!  It was a great way for them to review and get their spring/it's getting close to the end of the year wiggles out. I will definitely be making up some new sets of questions so that we can play again next week.

I hope that at least one of these ideas will find its way to your classroom (or blacktop).  Happy reviewing!  Let me know how it goes : )

End of Year Student Gift

The school year is over and I can't believe it! I had an AMAZING first year teaching, and I can't wait for more fun next year (after summer break that is)! For the end of the year I made a video of all our pictures from the year and burned a copy for each kid. They LOVED it! This is something that I will most definitely have to do again. Wordle was perfect for the cover! Hope you are all enjoying summer, or making it through the last few days of school!