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!

 

 

 

 

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. 

Question Cubes and Prompt Sticks

I had these great dice from the dollar store. I got two for a dollar.  I decided that I would use some of them as question cubes for Guided Reading.  I color coded them so that it would be easy for me to know which set to use.  The green ones are for my students who are reading bellow grade level.  The blue ones are for my students reading on or above level and the red ones are for non fiction books.  I love that they are made out of foam because they won't make too much noise when the students roll them on the table. These could be good for group discussion at the end of Guided Reading or it could be fun for the students to roll to determine what they will write about in their Guided Reading response journals. 

Dice, the questions, scissors, and a whole bunch of mod podge was all I needed for this project.  And some t.v. shows to watch while making them of course. 

Grab my questions for FREE HERE!

Another thing that I worked on today was a journal prompt jar.  I started with the prompts last year but then the project didn't get finished in time for school and they just sat around. If you are ever stuck on journal prompts I LOVE looking at this website for ideas.   

Now when I hear the oh so common "I don't know what to write about", I can simply reply "Go pick a journal stick."

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!

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. 

Geometry Matching Game

Click HERE to get a free copy. Print, cut, and play! Enjoy!

Dr. Seuss Birthday Celebration

Theodor Seuss Geisel (aka Dr.Seuss) was born on March 2nd 1904.  We will be celebrating his birthday in school this up coming Friday!  Last year I did not do too much for Dr. Seuss's birthday, so I am excited to be celebrating with my kiddos this year!  We will be having a read-a-thon, but since we all know that most Second Graders do not have the capability of sitting and reading for extended periods of time without becoming restless (especially when 2/3 of your class is boys), I am mixing some other things in.  Here are some of the things we will be doing:

When the kids come in in the morning I am going to have a bookmark on their desk with a Dr. Seuss quote on it.  They will get to decorate it or color it however they would like.  My roommate did this last year with her class and I thought it as a great idea.  The bookmark I came up with is very simple, it can be downloaded HERE if you would like a copy:

Of course the students will be bringing pillows and blankets and any books from home that they would like to read during our read-a-thon.

My kids LOVE buddy reading this year.  They are always asking if they can buddy read.  I will allot some of our read-a-thon time to reading alone an some of the time to buddy reading.   

I will be reading some Dr. Seuss stories to them from the books pictured above.  Since one of their favorite tings is laying down during read aloud (I allow them to when they have been really good all day)  maybe I will let hem lie down with their pillows and blankets and listen. 

I have also found some short videos of some of Dr. Seuss's books on YouTube.  We might watch one or two of these:

There are some interviews done by Reading Rockets with Audrey Geisel (Dr Seuss's wife) They are broken up into short 1-2 minute segments.  Some of them could be fun to show to the class.  My favorite is "I've Got It"  It talks a little bit about the process that Dr. Seuss went through as he wrote.  HERE is a link to the interviews

I think it would be fun to have the students interview each other about their favorite Dr. Seuss books.  This way, beyond just reading, they will be thinking about the books a little bit.  They will be held accountable for comprehension.  Each child will fill out the interview sheet for their Favorite Dr. Seuss book.  They will then get with a partner and they will ask each other the questions and respond to them.

This can also be downloaded for free by clicking the link above for the bookmarks. 

I found a FREE app for my iPad that lets you record your voice.  You can then play it back,e-mail it, save it, convert it to an MP4 file etc.  I think it would be great to have the kids practice reading a Dr. Seuss book or a portion of it for fluency.  After they have read through it a few times I can record it and then play it back for them so that they can hear how they are doing with speed, accuracy, and expression.  

I will pull individuals (lower readers) and groups of kids (grade level or higher) to the Guided Reading table and do this with them during our read-a-thon time.  I will probably pull back the kids who are seeming a little restless first. 

If you would like to download the app an play around with it it is called Voice Record Pro.  Here is a picture and description.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!  Thank you for giving us a reason to celebrate literacy and reading!

 

Compare and Contrast

Last week we learned about comparing and contrasting.  I threw together THIS PowerPoint to get the kids excited about it.  They loved the PowerPoint and came up with tons of ways to compare and contrast each set of pictures.  You know it is motivating when almost every child in the class is raising their hand wanting to participate and tell you how they were able to compare and contrast the pictures. 

I hope that you can use this and that your students will love it just as much as mine did!  Let me know what you think.

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!

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!

Nice Notes

Something that I think is very important and greatly influences the relationship I have with the students and the classroom environment is focusing on the positive.  I try to always point out the positive behaviors and work habits that I see.  Not only is it important to me to be verbal in the classroom about the great things I see, but there is power in writing it down and sending it home with the students.  Last year I tried to send nice notes home with my students, I was much better at the beginning of the year than I was at the end.  When those notes did make it into my students cubbies and home  it made me so happy to see how happy the notes made the students.  I think that it did help improve my relationship with each of my students because I was taking time to show my students that I notice and appreciate them and the work and things they are doing in class.

In order to keep myself on track next year and to make sure that my nice notes home don't drop off the face of the earth at the end of next year I made a chart.  Here I can record the names of the students under the day that I sent a nice note home with them.  It will be easy for me to see who has gotten one and who needs one.  Seeing the chart will also be a good reminder for me to write some every day.

 Grab a copy of the chart HERE

Another thing that helps me to stay on track is to keep a stack of nice note papers right next to my computer where I will see them and remember to write on them.

HERE is a copy of  my nice notes.  I just make a few copies of these and then slice them up and I am ready to go!

What are some of your favorite things to do to create good relationhips with your students and a positive environment in your classroom?

All About Me Bag

This is something that I did last year at the beginning of the school year.  The kids loved it and it's a fun way to get to know each other so I am going to do it again!  Simply give the kids a brown paper bag on the first day of school, have them bring it back the next day with four things in it that they can use to tell the class about themselves.  Throughout the day the second day of school I have a few different times set aside where I let the kids share their bags.  It is fun to see how excited the kids get when they discover that a classmate has something in common with them. This year I made a paper with directions to staple to the top of the bag so that it is easy for parents and students to see what they need to do! Get a free download HERE.

I know that there are many people who already do this activity but I hope that someone will find this helpful for the beginning of the year!