Author's Party

This was a HIT!  It was one of those things where you think "I will definitely be doing this every year for as long as I teach."  Those moments don't happen all that often, so when they do...I figure it is something worth sharing!

My second graders have been working on narrative stories.  We have been working on them for about 3 weeks.  They started with their ideas in a graphic organizer, wrote a first draft, double checked it for capitals, periods, and adjectives, participated in an author's circle (where they read their story to a few classmates who then shared what they liked about their story and their questions or "wishes"), wrote another draft which included the "wishes", and then illustrated it after I had typed it for them. 

They worked really hard and I wanted to do something fun, so I decided to have an "Author's Party"!  At the beginning of the week I told the kids that on Thursday we would be having an author's party for anyone who had finished their stories.  A couple of kids took their stories home on Wednesday nigh to finish illustrating them, and some where finishing at school on Thursday morning.  Every single one of them was done in time for our party though!  Since I had been talking it up all week, I tried to make it really fun and special, after all we were celebrating them!  We were celebrating the fact that they were authors and we were celebrating the fact that they had finished their first story of the year. 

I had streamers in the doorway when they came back in from recess.  I also had party blowers on each of their desks.  And I had 23 balloons (with student names in them) blown up and taped to a door.  There was also a huge party hat (to be worn by the reader), and of course party favors.  All good parties have party favors. 

I had the kids take turns coming up and using a pair of scissors to pop the balloons.  Whosevers name was on the paper that flew out of the balloon was the one who would read their story.  The kids had fun putting on the party hat and then reading their story to the class.  When they were finished everyone was allowed to blow their party blower three times (as opposed to clapping) after which they placed it back on the ground in front of them.  I then called on three people to share things they liked about the story that had been read.  Following that we started the process all over again by popping another balloon.  Each child got to pop a balloon and each child got to read their story. 

Once everyone had read, I passed out the party favors.   Everyone got a brand new, fun pencil, so that they could continue to be authors!  There were some Smarties attached just to make it a little more fun. 

Fun was had by all!  I asked who had had fun at our author's party at the end of the day, and every single hand went up.  I even had a girl write about it in her journal the next day saying how much fun it was. 

I loved the fact that we got to celebrate the kids and their writing.  This one is a keeper!  I hope some of you will try it in your own classes.  Happy writing!

2nd Grade T-shirts!

In the five years that I have been in second Grade we have done all sorts of different designs for our t-shirts, this is my very favorite, and have done it two years...so it's the winner.  No other design has been done twice.  We write all of the student names, teacher names, field trips, programs etc. on the t-shirt.  Each class gets a different color so they are easy to spot on field trips, and this year the teachers got Hot Pink!  All the kids will be able to find us, that's for sure!  Let me know what you think. 

Camp Compliments

 

I've seen this before and apologize that I don't know who the original genius behind this was.  I told the kids at the beginning of the year that for each compliment they get (from another teacher or administrator) , we will add a link to our chain.  When the chain hits the ground we will have a class party!  They are doing AWESOME, we're almost there.  I'm not a huge fan of external motivation, I would rather it be intrinsic.  I am a huge fan of positive praise however, and this is a great way to celebrate compliments and positive praise.  It also makes the class have to work together as a team in order to earn compliments, I'm all about that!

Favorite First Week Read Alouds!

First Test of the Year

When I announced on the second day of school that we would be taking our first test of the year, my brand new little second graders were a little less than thrilled. 

When I passed out the test and they realized that it was a test about ME their teacher, their nerves were eased. 

I honestly don't know where I saw this idea, but it is GREAT!  The kids LOVED this and it was a fun way for them to get to know me. 

I read them all the questions and had them circle their answers.  Then we went over it.  I would have them raise their hands to show which answers they thought were right.  I had them get our a crayon and circle the right answers so they could see how many they got right.  I gave a prize to the student with the highest score. 

 

Side note:  Six weeks after this quiz, I was absent for the day and had the kids guess where I was.  One student guessed that I was at the pet store getting a cat because I had never had a cat, but I did already have a dog and a turtle and a bunny.  If you notice number five on the test that is the only time I gave them that information all year!

My Camp Classroom!

WOW!  It has been WAY too long!  Last year was crazy.  I loved my kids, but together they were a little bit of a rough group.  It's interesting how that can happen some years.  Between the struggles of my class and getting married in the middle of the year...the teaching blog took the back burner.  I have though about things I've wanted to post this year, but haven't yet had the time.  Now is the time!  I may just break one of the cardinal rules of blogging (if those are even a thing) and post multiple times tonight so that I can catch up!

I have had a travel themed classroom for the past four years!  This year I am still in second grade for the fifth year in a row!  I am about the only thing that has stayed the same.  I have had new teams and new interns every year.  I decided that I needed some form of change, so I decided to undertake changing my class theme.  I knew it would be a lot of work, but I needed a fresh start and I figured that would be fun.  With my married name being Graham (like the graham cracker), I thought a camp theme would be fun!

Here are some pics of the classroom. 

 

I let kids sit in the camp chairs and in the tent for read to self during daily five.  They love it, and I love the bear that I traced onto black cardboard and stuck on the wall!

 

 

My camp sign which includes different things we will be learning or doing in second grade.

 

Decorations and the "bathroom bear", the students have to put him on their desk when they leave for the bathroom.  This way only one student is ever out at a time and I can easily see who is gone.

 

My owls that are above my cabinets.  Thank you to my co-worker Lindsay for the great idea!

 

 

A close up of the tree over the tent.  This was a "must" when designing the new classroom.

 

My clip chart. 

 

Carpet, calendar, word wall.  I decided to start with all the words up this year so that the students can use the word wall as a resource throughout the year.  They have been looking at it since the first day to help with spelling. 

 

I love my "new" classroom this year!  Hopefully these ideas will come in handy for someone else as well!

 

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. 

Inferencing Bottles

We talk a lot about making inferences in second grade so I decided to make some inference bottles.  I spray painted glass lemonade bottles black and spray painted the lids gold and then used a sharpie to write the numbers 1-4 on the top.  I put different things in each bottle.  In one I put paper clips, in another I put pens, in the third I put water and in the last one I put plastic coins (all things found in my classroom). 

We talked about what an inference is and about how we don't just make a random guess but we use the information and clues we have to make a decision about something. 

I gave each table a recording sheet where they had to write down each bottle number, their inference of what was in the bottle, and three reasons for their inference.  I started each table with a bottle and then when they had made their inferences we rotated the bottles so that each table go to make an inference for each bottle. 

They did surprisingly well!  And they came up with great reasons for the inference they had made!

The students loved this activity and it was a great way to reinforce that we can't make random guesses, that we have to have reasons when we are making an inference. 

Here are some pictures of the before and after of the bottles:

 

Bucket Filling Display

It has been WAY too long since I have blogged!  Planning a wedding and teaching has proved to keep me rather busy, much more busy than I would like to be.  I'm so excited to be marrying my best friend in December though!

This year our school theme is "bucket filling".  We love that it focuses so much on the positive!  Kids are trying to be bucket fillers instead of bucket dippers.  We have little pieces of paper that we give them with drops on them that they earn when they are being a bucket filler.  There are then bucket fillers from each class recognized weekly. 

We have our class bucket (courtesy of the principal) hanging on the wall in our classroom.  This is where they put all the drops they earn.  At the beginning on the year when I introduced the theme I had the students write on their own bucket what they would do to be a bucket filler this year and then sign it.  I hung those up around the bucket that they put their drops in.  It makes for a cute display. 

Some Summer Organization

It has been WAY too long!  It has been great to have summer to relax and rejuvenate.  The highlight of the summer was definitely getting engaged to my best friend!  The big day is in December!  Now that I am headed back to work in a few days my mind is on school and I thought I would share a couple organizational ideas from this summer.

My hundreds, tens, and ones blocks used to be in a huge bucket and I would divvy them out each time we needed to use them in math.  In second grade we use these often (addition, subtraction, place value, double and triple digit addition and subtraction) and I decided that I wanted an easier way to pass these out.  Tupperware containers proved to be my perfect solution.  Now I will be able to easily pass out the Tupperware containers when we need to use the hundreds, tens, and ones blocks.  Not only that, but the students will be able to put pack them up and put them away easily. 

My students have pencil boxes in their desks with the things we use on a daily basis, including crayons for when they need to color.  For some projects however colored pencils are better and the students get excited about using markers every once in a while.  Since we don't use colored pencils and markers every day (or even close to every day), I created a basket with colored pencils and pencil sharpeners and a cup with markers for each table group.  When we need colored pencils or markers someone from each table group will be able to go get them (I like having in the cubbies pictured above because the kids can reach them and therefore get them and put them away).

Those are a couple of my organization projects from this summer.  It is nice to be teaching second grade for the fourth year! I can focus a little more on organization and other things that may help the year to run a little more smoothly. 

Good luck to all you teachers out there with the beginning of your school years!

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!

 

 

 

 

Fortune Teller Antonym Practice

Growing up in the 90's fortune tellers folded from paper were all the rage.  As I was trying to come up with a fun way for my students to practice antonyms they came back to mind. 

Monday my students will get to put 8 different antonyms in these fortune tellers.  They will then practice away!

Here is what it might sound like:

Student 1: Give me a number
Student 2: 7
Student 1: (moves the fortune teller back and forth on their fingers 7 times) 1, 3, 5, or 7 (I numbered the words so that they could pick the word without saying it)
Student 2: 3
Student 1:  What is the antonym of happy?
Student 2: Sad

This would also work great with synonyms!  I hope that you can put this idea to use in your own class!

Happy Birthday Place Value

We have been studying place value.  This is our last week and we are just reinforcing and doing activities that give the students some extra practice.  My birthday is this week and I figured that it would be fun to do a birthday place value activity.  Here is what I came up with.  The students get a piece of paper with a cake, candles, and sprinkles for them to color.  They then cut them out. and glue them on a piece of paper.  The layers in their cake represent 100's, the candles represent 10's and the sprinkles represent 1's.

Students them write how much their cake is worth.  They also write it in expanded form and word form. 

 

If you would like to use this activity with your class whether it be for a birthday or not,  grab a copy here. 

 

Place Value Boo!

Wow, it has been a while.  It has been a busy beginning of the school year,  I feel very fortunate however to have an amazing class this year!  They are so sweet and good, that has definitely made it easier since it has been so busy!

We have been talking about place value for the past few weeks.  This next week we will be doing some fun review.  I decided to make a "Place Value Boo!" game.  It is essentially the game "Bang", but I changed it to go along with Halloween to motivate the kids!

 

Here is how you play:

 

Students have a set of cards in a bag.  They take turns picking out cards and answering the questions.  If they answer the question correctly they get to keep the question card, if they answer it incorrectly they have to put it back in the bag.  If a student pulls out a "Boo!" card they must put all their questions cards back.  Whichever student has the most cards at the end of the allotted time wins!

 

Grab a free copy of the game here!

 

Try it out, let me know what you think : )

Hard and Soft C and G Word Sort

We are talking about hard and soft c and g this week.  I figured a word sort would give the kids some good practice determining whether a word has a hard or soft c or g sound and it would also help them to realize when a letter makes the hard sound and when it makes the soft sound.  Grab my freebie HERE!

Here is a picture of what it looks like: 

 

The kids did great with it and had a lot of fun : )

 

We also did our describing fish today!  These were a favorite from last year, so I had to do them again.  Read about it here.  Here were some of my favorites from this year!  They look awesome in the hall and the kids are so proud of them. 

Superheroes for the year!

Traditionally in Second Grade at our school we teach about relationships and consequences as part of our communities unit (teaching the kids how to be a good citizen/member of a community).  This year I decided to do communities and relationships and consequences at the very beginning of the school year.  It's something that I wanted the kids to get right from the beginning of the year and not in the middle somewhere.  I had a three day unit and the kids LOVED every day!

Day 1:  Emotions

I put up a list of emotions on the board.  We went through all of them.  I had the kids show me what they looked like and we talked about when we feel the different emotions.  We played the "mirror game" where two students stand across from each other.  One student would have to use their body and facial expressions to display an emotion.  The other student had to mirror (copy) them and then guess what the emotion was.  Each partner got to lead a few times.    After  that activity I had a bunch of pictures of people displaying different emotions.  The kids had to decide which emotion each picture was showing.  After this we talked about how we should react and interact with people when they were feeling each of the different emotions.  We then broke up into groups and each group was assigned an emotion.  The group had to come up with a skit with some people showing the assigned emotion and others reacting to it.  The kids loved the lesson and I think they really took it to heart. 

Day 2:  Consequences

I started by sharing a PowerPoint.  There were pictures that had clear consequences (for example a glass sitting on the very edge of a table).  I had the students raise their hands and tell me what they thought the consequence would be of each picture.  Through this we learned what the word consequence really meant.  After we were done with the PowerPoint we talked about how consequences can be bad or good.  I gave the students some scenarios and they told me what the consequence might be and whether it was bad or good.  After this I held up an egg (not boiled) and asked what the consequence would be if I dropped it (into a bowl of course).  There were audible gasps, I don't think they believed I would actually do it - but I did : ) Of course the egg cracked.  We talked about how I might be able to clean up the mess, but I could NEVER put the egg exactly back how it was.  That is how it is when we make a mean comment to someone, bully someone, or hurt them.  We may be able to say sorry or make up, but the damage has been done and we can't completely un do it.  I think this analogy really hit home for the kids and it made them realize that their actions are important.  It was a powerful teaching moment.

Day 3:  Kids can be superheroes!

Our school counselors have a superheroes theme this year and that is what got the thought process going on this lesson.  My final lesson about relationships and consequences began with a discussion about superheroes and what my students knew about them.  They were excited to answer and they shared a lot of great characteristics that they knew superheroes had.  I then asked them if they thought kids could be superheroes.  I was surprised that almost all of them said yes right away.  We talked about what kids could do to be superheroes and made a list of what they would do specifically this year to be superheroes.  We then went back to our desks and I showed them a couple of videos from a website called Kids are Heroes.  Find some of the videos here.  After that of course we had to make our own superhero faces!  When they were finished I put them around the superhero pledge we had made.  It turned out great and I am going to love looking at it in my classroom all year long.  It will also be a great reminder to the kids of the type of person they need to try to be this year!

Here is a picture of the pledge and the superhero faces:

Back to School

Well, it was back to work today!  We had our opening institute this morning and the keynote speaker was great!  He shared this quote from Rudyard Kipling:

No printed word, nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be.
Not all the books on all the shelves – but what the teachers are themselves.

I absolutely love this!  It is definitely good food for thought at the beginning of another year. 
After a great summer it feels good to be back, now I just can't wait for the kids to get here!

As promised here are some pictures of my classroom:

 

 

The board is all ready for our Open House on Wednesday:

(description of what is on the desks, what to take home and what to sign and leave)

 

(Sign ups for helping with class parties and volunteering during centers)

 

On each desk there is a packet of information about myself, my management plan, rules, procedures etc.  There is also a letter to the parents about the importance of reading with their child at home.  Attached to it is the first reading calendar along with some information on how to help students with reading at home, questions to ask students during reading, and a bingo board for some extra motivation.

 

 I can't wait to meet my students!

 

 

 

Back to School Gift

In the past I have given my students smarties on the first day of school with a little note on them.  See them here.  I decided to make it a little more exciting this year and add a pencil as well since I was able to buy 30 for $2.50 at Walmart. 

The note now says: 

I am so glad to have such a "sharp" student in my class.  What a "smartie" you are!  Welcome to second grade.  We are going to have a great year!
Love,
Miss Paul

Here is a picture:

 

I am moving apartments so I have spent the past few days working on packing, but I will be back to my classroom on Friday to add some finishing touches before I go back to work on Monday.  Classroom pictures will be up soon!

Marker Management

Ever have that time when you get to the board and intend on writing on it, but there are no markers there?  Since my kids have whiteboards and we use them quite often, on occasion my markers from the front board go missing.  Last year I saw a beautiful colorful pack of expo markers.  I decided that this would be a perfect solution to my missing marker mystery.  My school provides black, blue, green, and red markers, therefore those are my "student markers".  The rest of the colorful markers are my "teacher markers", off limits to the students. 

 

 

I keep my "teacher markers" in this pink magnetic container on my whiteboard that I got for a dollar at Dollar Tree.  The kids also know that the marker in the pink container are mine : ) 

 

 

This is my solution to the Missing Marker Mystery.

 

I hope that this will be helpful to someone else!

 

Miss Paul

Mailbox Makeover

It has been WAY too long since I have blogged!  Summer has been busy, but great!  I am enjoying what there is left of it : )

I have had a mailbox in my room for the past couple of years, but it wasn't cute.  It was silver and just the way my brother found it at D.I. I decided that this summer I would give it a makeover (sorry, I forgot to take "before" pictures)!  My kids will love putting letters, thank you cards, and postcards that they write to each other during "work on writing" in this mailbox to be delivered!