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:

One Point Perspective! It's Possible!

Last spring I saw a pin on Pinterest from THIS blog post.  It is a one point perspective drawing that 5th graders did, but I thought it would be a fun challenge for my second graders.  They all had fun with it, and some of hem really surprised me with their work. 

The second grade team at my school does a program called "Arts Night".  Each class either performs a play or a dance.  In addition to that the whole grade level learns special songs to sing for the program.  We also hang one piece of artwork from each student on the wall.  I decided that this year I would try one point perspective with my class a little bit earlier so that I could display some of those at "Art's Night".

Once again I was very impressed by some of the drawings.  Here are some of my favorites:

Aren't these AMAZING for second grade art? 

The moral of the story is, one point perspective is possible with second graders as long as you lead them through step by step and give them a ruler : )

 

Idiom Class Book

Oh lovely idioms.  We use idioms all the time, some idioms are so commonly used that it is easy to forget that they are idioms.  I truly feel bad for anyone trying to learn this crazy language.  Can you lend me a hand?  Kill two birds with one stone.  Butter fingers.  On the ball.  The straw that broke the camels back.  Literally speaking, the words we are saying make no sense.  Kids often have a hard time with idioms.  This week we are making an idioms class book!  I had the kids draw pictures of the literal interpretation of  idioms (each student got a different one).  This is an idea that I got from a training two summers ago.  Tomorrow they will share their pictures with the class and then we will talk about them and they will write the actual meaning at the bottom of the page.  Some of the pictures were really cute!  Here are a few for you to enjoy:

     One of my personal favorites

yes...tht is a drinking straw

Here is also a PDF file of the idiom class book if you are interested in doing this activity with your class or in using it as a center or a fast finisher activity.

Thanks for stopping by my blog! Enjoy!

Odd and Even House

We just got through talking about odd and even numbers.  One of the activities that I did with the students toward the end of our unit was an Odd and Even House.

I had the students draw a house.  I told them hat they could put as many doors, window, chimneys, etc as they wanted.  I also encouraged them to put trees in the yard and pets and other details.  After the students were done with their house they had to turn their paper over and list how many of everything and whether the number was odd or even.  They loved it, it was a fun little review that integrate some art : )

Here are a few examples:

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!



Describing Fish!

I wanted to do something really fun with describing sentences this week!  I saw a link on Pinterest that showed a bunch of different things you could do with a paper plate.  One of them was to make a fish.  I thought it would be great to have my students make a fish and then use descriptive sentences to describe the eyes, teeth, body, and tail of the fish.  My students LOVED this activity.  They had so much fun making their fish and then describing them.  While they were working on their fish I overhead one of my students saying "this is like the best activity ever", to which another student replied "yeah it is".  Score!  Having a blast and learning too, how can you beat that?

Lovin' life in Second Grade!

Looking Back on Summer

Last spring I found this fun idea on Pinterest.  The kids draw pictures of what they see themselves doing during summer break in sunglasses.

I thought I would change it a little to make it a back to school project instead of a school's out project.
The tag line to go with the activity is "We're looking back on summer, this is what we see."

Have the students draw pictures of what they did over summer break in their glasses.  I'm going to have my students share their glasses with us when they are finished so that we can get to know each other a little better!

Here is a free download of the glasses if you are interested!

Art Project!

Thursday night we have Second Grade Arts Night. All of the second graders will be singing and performing(either a play or a dance), students will also have their artwork displayed. Our original class play "Puss in Boots and the Three Little Ninjas" is coming along! The students have had a lot of fun with it and I think that is what really matters. For our art piece I found an idea here that I loved and thought my students would enjoy, so we gave it a try.

I let the students draw a picture of whatever they wanted (they are always so much more motivated when they have a choice). After their pictures were done they traced over the lines of their picture with black Elmer's glue (Elmer's glue mixed with black acrylic paint). When the glue was dry they used watercolors to finish it off! The final products are pretty great! Enjoy!

Homophones

I haven't posted in a while, and I'm not even going to try to catch up. Things have been crazy busy,always so much to do and never enough time, but I guess that is just life for ya so I shall whistle while I work : )

I love pinterest and I love teaching blogs, but I love it even more when I come up with ideas on my own. I'm sure this has been done before, but I didn't find it on line so that makes me happy : )

We are talking about homophones this week. Today we came up with a list of all the different homophones we could think of. I let each student choose a set of homophones (quiet students frst of course) and then gave them a pair of glasess. They had to write one word and a sentence using the word in one frame and the other word with a sentence in the other frame. They turned out pretty cute! We can spot homophones!




Find the link for the glasses here!

Have a great week!

Katrina

President George Washington

On Thursday we learned a little bit about George Washington seeing as President's Day is quickly approaching.

We watched some videos, read from some books, and I told a few stories. Then we did this project! I gave the students sheets of pictures and we taked about what each picture represented in George Washington's life. Then the students went to their desks and used the pictures to create a George Washington face. After they created the face, they wrote about what picture they used for each part of the face and why. The kids had fun with the activity and it helped us to get in some informtional writing. Here is my example of the assignment. The pictures of the kids work are not uploadng, but if it ever works I will post them : )



Happy President's Day!

Love,
Miss Paul

93 years from now...

I will be long gone and my first group of students ever will look like this:

Hundredth Day!

O.K. so the hundredth day of school is coming up in about a week and a half. Usually I put my holiday ideas up after I have already done them. I haven't figured out everything that I will be doing for the hundredth day of school yet, but I do have a few ideas so I will put them up in advance : )

O.k. so one idea that I found on pinterest is that you give the students a hundreds chart and a dice. Have them estimate how many dice rolls it will take them to fill the hundreds chart. If they roll a 6 they fill in the first six squares. if they rolled a four next they would fill in the next four squares with a different color so that at the end they can count how many rolls it actually took.

In math we are talking about money! A fun money activity would be to have students in groups and have them find as many different ways as they can to make a dollar (since a dollar is 100 cents). The team with the most ways could get some type of prize.

Writing:
I am so excited for our hundredth day writing activity. We are actually going to start on this next week so that they can be finished and displayed by the 100th day of school. Students are going to write to the prompt: If I lived to be 100 years old I would... The first day we will just read a book or two, talk about older people and then brainstorm our ideas about what we would do, have, feel, want etc. if we lived to be 100 years old. We will put this information on a web. When the webs are finished we will begin writing our stories. We are going to do a fun art piece to go with our writing. We are going to make ourselves at age 100! Don't you love the torn paper for the wrinkly face? Well I do too...and I love pinterest because once again that is where I found this idea!

Here is my example of the art piece to show my kids:



I'm sure there may be other ideas, but they are not coming to me at the moment.

Loving this rainy Saturday!

It's a New Year!

Christmas break was fabulous and I have to admit that I wasn't quite ready to come back to work, but all it took was getting myself to school and I realized how much I absolutely love my job and the kids that I teach! With New Years right behind us we had to do some writing about New Years Goals. Today I had the students write one of their new years goals and how they were going to accomplish it.

We put them together like so and I'm in love with my students work once again : )





Thanks again to pinterest. On pinterest there were some where they actually attached party blowers to the faces, but we did it the cheap way or should I say the lazy way where Katrina didn't have to go to the store : ) The students who wanted blowers made their own by wrapping strips of paper around their pencils.

Happy New Year!