Summer Projects!

One thing I love about summer is that I have so much time to work on projects for my classroom!  It seems that when school gets out I have this sudden energy and excitement and I am able to get a lot done.  I have to run with it while t lasts, because I know that it won't last all summer.  School has been out for a week and a half now.  Here is what I have accomplished:

- I moved my classroom (I am moving to a room that is bigger).  I organized everything as I went so everything in my new room is super organized which is great!  I even labeled cupboards and drawers so I can stay organized throughout the year.  I also got rid of stuff that I haven't been using or that had been thrashed by the kids.

- I made a homework binder that the kids will sing each week if they have not done their homework.  It is organized by week (we have 30 weeks worth of homework packets).  This will be an easy way for me to notice who is not turning in homework and allow me to contact home. I also have plastic sleeves in the back so that I can keep a black line of each weeks homework in the binder so that it is easy to make additional copies if needed.

- I updated my "teacher binder" I created a few new forms for it and put it in a new binder.  My one from last year was completely falling apart.  To read about what I have in my teacher binder click here. 

- I created my sharp and dull pencil jars.  Due to the fact that my kids always break my pencil sharpeners (without fail), I will be the only one sharpening pencils next year.  They can put their dull ones in and take a sharp one and then at the end of the day I will sharpen all the pencils that need to be sharpened. I got the ins for 1.00 each at target : )

 I created class journals!  I plan on using these as fast finishers.  When students are done with assigned work they can respond in one of the class journals.  Each journal has a prompt on the front and some ideas of what types of things to include in the journal entry.  Student can latter go back and see how their classmates responses to the journals.  I got this great idea here. 

If you are interested in using my prompts you can download them here.

- I made my math Guess That Number game using an old Guess Who game.  Read about it here.

- I made a jar for Box Tops using an old Ragu jar

- I made some new signs to go by our calendar.  These ill be laminated so that the kids can write on them each morning as we do calendar. 

- I made up some "Fast Finisher" signs that I can put up on the boars (a few at a time) so that students know what their options are should they finish early with an assignment.  I got this great idea here.

- I made some glitter clips to use to hang up "World Class Work" in my classroom.  These were super easy an I love how they look! Got the idea here. I made 12 of them : )

- I cut scraps of old t-shirts for my students to use as whiteboard erasers.  I made a T-shirt quilt last summer and saved the scraps so that Icould use them for this very reason.  I still have a ton of t-shirt scraps left.  It will last me for years to come : )

- I printed out these keyboards that I found here for my students to practice typing their spelling words on for word work. 

- I also came up with a book report form and a missing poster that students can choose to fill out as a fast finisher.  I used a lot if ideas from here free download of a book report.

- I made a reading bingo board to hand out to parents in the fall, you can read about it here.

- I made some question cubes for Guided Reading.  Different colors are for different reading levels.  I got the foam dice in a 2-pack at the dollar store.  They will be great because they will not be loud on my guided reading table and will therefore not distract my class : )

I have also managed to hang out with friends, go to the movies, exercise, make a scrapbook of all my love notes from my kids this past year, go on a camp-out, blog a bit, go to the pool, eat my first snow cone of the season, and find a place to live next year!  Next project here I come!

Guess That Number

It is summer break and therefore project time!  I love having time in the summer to get ready for the new school year.  My to-do list right now has about 50 things on it.  We will see how many I get through. 

I have seen people revamp Guess Who games to be faces of presidents or other people.  I got a Guess Who game from my mom.  There were a couple of faces missing, so I decided that I would revamp it and make it into a math game for my kids.  It will be great for practicing place value and for practicing using the terminology "odd", "even", "less than", and "greater than".  I'm sure that it will quickly become a favorite math fast finisher activity.

Here are some pictures:

After I printed out the numbers I mounted them on card stock to make them more durable and to make them look good from the back.  This will also keep the two sets of numbers separate should they be taken out for any reason. 

I printed 3 sets of the same numbers.  I used one set for each board and the other set as the cards to draw from.  The numbers in blue are odd and the numbers in black are even to help my lower kids be successful. 

I also made a sheet with the different questions students could ask.  This will help them to use the proper terminology as they play.

Here are the questions:

Is your number odd?

Is your number even?

Is your number greater than ____?

Is your number less than _____?

Is the number in the tens place greater than ____?

Is the number in the tens place less than ____?

Is the number in the ones place greater than____?

Is the number in the ones place less than____?

Does your number have a ____ in the tens place?

Does your number have a ____ in the ones place?

Is your number ____?

Let me know what you think!

 

You can grab a free download of the questions and numbers here.

Money Dice!

A while back I saw a worksheet where students were supposed to cut out dice (that had a different set of coins on each face) and then tape them together and use them for an activity.  Seeing the worksheet sparked an idea and this is what came of it!

I started with 3 wooden cubes (99 cents each at Hobby Lobby)

painted them three different colors

added coins to each side with Mod Podge

And Wala!  Money Dice!

Students can roll 1, 2, or 3 and add the coins.  I made it so that no side had more than 50 cents, that way if two dice are being used the sum of the coins would not equal more than a dollar.  Students could use these alone or with a partner (and race to see who could add the coins the fastest).  You could also play a game as a whole class and have two teams stand in single file lines.  The people at the front of each line would receive a die and roll it.  Whichever person could add the coins from the dice the quickest would get a point for their team. 

I'm excited for my kids to use these new money dice next year! These could also make a great gift for a teacher : )

Fast Finisher Done Jar!

I found the idea for a "done jar" on pinterest here and fell in love! Now that it is summer I have time to make my own! Save your peanut butter jars, that's what I used and they are perfect! I made two, one for "before lunch" which is our literacy block and one for "after lunch" which is math, social studies and skills. I used Mod Podge to put the colored papers on the popsicle sticks and it worked great!

Here is a list of some of the literacy fast finishers:
1. Write as many rhyming words as you can on your white board.
2. Make a Missing Poster for a character in a book.
3. Draw a picture of something you would like to invent and write about it.
4 Play Boggle (I will be making a magnetic boggle board)
5. Write a thank-you note to someone who has done something for you.
6. Work on a story in your Writer's Workshop notebook.
7. Write a letter to someone.
8. Play a bottle cap game. (I LOVE bottle cap games)
9. Make a poster telling people about your favorite book.
10. Make a card for someone.
11. Use an 8 page booklet to make a story. Make sure it has a beginning, middle, end, problem, solution, and setting.
12. Read a story then put the story in your own words in an 8 page booklet.
13. Write in your journal about whatever you want.
14. Draw a picture then describe it using as much detail as you can.
15. Read a book.
16. Do a puzzle (literacy matching puzzles)

For the math ones I put a number 2 on the end of the sticks that would require a partner. Here are some of the math ideas:

1. Write a word problem for a friend
2. Make a math test for a friend
3. Addition search puzzle (I will be making those this summer)
4. Subtraction search puzzle
5. Use money adding dice (making those too)
6. Make a schedule for your day, showing what time you do everything
7. Make up your own math problems on your white board and solve them
8. Greater than or less than war
9. Addition war
10. Subtraction war
11. Bottle cap addition
12. Bottle cap subtraction
13. Write on your white board how you would spend 100 dollars
14. Play money memory
15. Find 15 things around the room and measure them with a ruler
16. Draw a map of your house, include a key

 Hope that someone will find these ideas useful!

Math Match-up!

I saw THIS idea on pinterest and changed it a little bit to create this math center! I'm loving math centers for the end of the year! A lot of them will make great fast finisher ativites for students next year as well! Have a great weekend! Katrina

Math Facts Race!

Spring Break is a fabulous thing! I hope that everyone either had or is having a wonderful break!

My team and I have found that this group of second graders are very competitive! I came up with this game (using water bottle caps of course) that my competitive kids will love! Students will use a timer, they will set the timer for one minute or two minutes and see how many math facts they can find and record during that time. They can race against a friend or just race against themselves trying to get more math facts in a smaller amount of time. They can do addition or subtraction! Another way to do it would be to use a stopwatch and have students see how long it takes them to come up with the 30 facts and then see if they can beat their own score over time. This would work great as a fast finisher for high students or as extra math practice for those students who struggle. All the students in between will love it too!

I made up the addition and subtraction recording forms. They can be found here : )

Trash or Treasure?

Water bottle caps are definitely treasure! Save them and have your students save them too!

I have seen some different bottle cap activities floating around, but here is one that I made for my students to do during centers this week.



Contractions! This is a picture of one set (I made three different sets each with different contractions so that the students can do the activity up to three different times). Just write the contraction on one bottle cap and then the two words that make the contraction (each on their own bottle cap). Students grab a bag of bottle caps and match the contractions with the two words that make the contraction!

You could do something similar with pieces of paper laminated for durability, but bottle caps are very durable and you can probably round them up for free : )

Most people see trash, a teacher sees treasure!

Have a great week!

Miss Paul

Human Hundreds Chart

I actually made this over the summer, but am just now putting the idea up. One of my professors showed us this idea and I had to make one. It is a life size hundreds chart that the students can walk on. I used it to review the hundreds chart at the beginning of the year. I used it when we talked about skip counting and when we did graphing to make human graphs! Love this thing!



All you need is clear picnic table covering, clear packing tape (to piece the plastic together to make it a perfect square), and blue painters tape : ) So easy and the students LOVE using it!