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:

 

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!

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.

Book about the teacher!

Last summer right before school started Walgreens had a special where you got a free photo book, all you had to do was pay for shipping.  I decided that I would make a book about me to share on the first day of school and then to put in our library.  Here it is:

The book was a hit!  I put pictures and wrote simple sentences about my family, my dog, my friends, the college I went to, and some of my hobbies.  All throughout the year I saw kids reading it.  They loved it so much that the binding started to come undone and pages were falling out.  I took it apart, laminated the pages and am putting it on a ring for next year (unless there is another free deal, then I might just order it again). 

Make a book about yourself to put in your classroom library, your kids will LOVE it!

Clipboard!

What teacher doesn't need a clipboard?! Fun summer craft.  All you need is a blank clipboard, some scrapbook paper and a little ModPodge. 

Hope everyone is enjoying summer!

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 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!