Second Grade Rocks

adjectives, Santa, writing

Santa Adjectives

December 16, 2015

I found this adorable lesson from First Grade Wow, and wow was it cute! You need to check her post out for all the details {here} My version is definitely not as “wow” as hers. But, I thought it would be a fun way to work with adjectives during this last week before Christmas!!!! We started by watching an old (I use the term loosely) School House Rock adjective video on YouTube. The kids really got into it. After the video we brainstormed adjectives for Santa’s beard. First Grade Wow used Santa’s cherry nose. I am already doing similes with Rudolph’s nose so I went with his beard. Once we had a supply of adjectives to choose from we moved on to this ADORABLE Santa craft. My kiddos oohed and aahed when I showed them my sample. I knew it was going to be a hit. You can get the patterns {here} for FREE because First Grade Wow is that awesome. The kiddos then wrote adjectives describing Santa’s beardalong the edge of the beard. ADORBS!

christmas, writing

Needs vs. Wants Santa Fun

December 15, 2015

This is our last week before Christmas break and my kiddos know it. They are soooooo excited. This week we are writing our letters to Santa so I decided a lesson in needs vs. wants was in order. I found {this adorable activity from The First Grade Parade} and I just knew we had to do it. I started the activity by opening my Santa sack and pulling out a variety of objects. We talked about whether they were needs or wants. After we did that we sorted a few clip art pictures onto our needs and wants Santa sacks. The kiddos really enjoyed this. Finally, I gave them 2 index cards to draw and label 1 need and 1 want. We reviewed all the needs and wants together before I turned them loose to fill out the graphic organizer. You can download the graphic organizer {here} for FREE. The kids were finally ready to choose 1 need and 2 wants for their Santa letter. We turned on some Pandora Christmas music and the kids got right to work. They are very serious about their Santa letters. I just love these. We will write our final copy tomorrow with a craftivity…

hour of code, ipads

Hour of Code Fun

December 13, 2015

My firsties had so much fun participating in the Hour of Code. I used {this video} by one of the creators of minecraft as an introduction. My kids were pretty impressed that I knew what Minecraft was. Ha ha. I also showed them my blog and we typed something together. I then showed them the blog page translated into html code. You could do that with any webpage by right clicking and choosing view source. My kiddos were riveted and they were super excited to try coding. I used the app, “Daisy the Dinosaur” as our first hands on experience. We are lucky enough to have Apple TV so we could project he app onto the Smartboard. The kids were completely hooked at this point so I turned them loose and they LOVED it. I’m sure coding will be part of our classroom throughout the year.

facts, reading street, research, writing

Animal Fact Fun

November 10, 2015

One universal fact is that first graders love animals! Love! I knew the story, “Animal Park” would be hit with my group of animal lovers. I wanted to channel some of that enthusiasm into a research writing activity. I also came across these amazing reading street supplemental units on TPT by Lendahand’s Printables. I chose to use one of the close reading activities provided in the unit. I blew the page up to 11×17 on the copy machine. I knew the big paper would really get my crew excited and they would know this was a “serious” research assignment. The students buddy read, “Animal Park” and put a sticky note on their favorite animal. Once they chose their favorite animal they wrote one fact about their animal and illustrated their fact on the 11×17 sheet. I mounted the “research reports” on colored construction paper and they make an awesome hallway display. The kids love reading each others animal facts.

reading, reading street

Get the Egg!!

November 9, 2015

I told you I would be back with an explanation for Easter Eggs in October. I am happy to report that the kids and I thoroughly enjoyed this activity and I am sure your firsties will too. I teach reading first thing in the morning so I had the all the eggs placed around the room prior to the students arriving. Of course, the eggs were spotted right away and the kids were SUPER excited to find out what they would be used for. We reviewed our anchor chart on sequencing and I told the students that they would be buddy reading, “Get the Egg!” I told them to pay attention to the order of events as they read with their buddy. Once they finished buddy reading the story I had the students gather at the carpet. I explained that they would be working with their partner to find 4 eggs that had 4 different events from the story. They could only have one partner hunting at a time and then they switched places. It worked out great with 4 eggs to find. Once they had their 4 eggs they had to put them in order. I came around and…

reading, reading street, sequencing

Easter Eggs in October? Say What?

October 27, 2015

So excited about this fun activity! I can’t wait until Thursday when I will put this plan into action. This week we have our field trip to the pumpkin patch, and my kids are super excited!!! I know I have to bring my A game if I have any hope of any actual learning taking place. We are reading, “Get the Egg!” From Reading Street this week and my little firsties need some eggstra sequencing practice. See what I did there? Ha ha. Honestly, this story was pretty ho hum for me so I really wanted to jazz it up. I decided I would have my kids play a game called, “Get the Egg”. I know, very clever game name. I chose 4 main points of the story and one of my awesome parent volunteers wrote them on plastic easter egg halves. She made 12 sets of 4 eggs. I will scatter the eggs around the classroom prior to starting the activity. The students will work in pairs to “Go Get the Eggs!” Each pair will need to find 4 different events from the story. Once they have collected their 4 events, they will work together…

rooted in reading, sentences, spiders, writing

Eeek! Spider Facts!

October 26, 2015

Last week my firsties tackled complete sentences. We have discussed how sentences start with uppercase letters, end with a period and words are 1 finger space apart. It was time to see if they could apply these skills during independant work time. I have been dying to use Amy and Katie’s Rooted in Reading October edition . I had the chance to work with spider texts during small group time. I actually used leveled readers from Reading A to Z so every student had a spider text at their reading level. Towards the end of the week, after we had interacted with their text several times, I paired the students up so everyone was paired with a buddy that had a different spider book. The pairs were tasked with reading their book to their buddy and both buddies hunted in the texts for spider facts. They wrote their spider facts in complete sentences and made the accompanying spider craftivity. I never thought I would use adorable and spiders in the same sentence, but these spiders are adorable!!!! Most importantly my firsties have mastered the elements of a complete sentence. Win-Win!

pig in a wig, plot, reading, reading street

Pigs in Wigs Cuteness

October 24, 2015

My firsties loved making these Pigs in Wigs. It was the perfect craftivity to teach plot. If you need this cuteness you can find it here!

Halloween, math, Math Expressions, Number Partners

Number Partner Fun!

October 19, 2015

I am completely in LOVE with Deanna Jump and DeeDee Wills Guiding Firsties Math Workshop activities. My school uses the Math Expressions curriculum and I have been able to integrate this workshop model into my math block. We used this activity for partner work as we were learning the break aparts for 10. I used some Halloween erasers from the Target Dollar Spot (Holla!) My littles loved this and had so much fun. I am hoping I am able to integrate their other units as the year goes on, fingers crossed.

KWL, pigs, reading street

Pig in a Wig Fun!

October 19, 2015

Last week my firsties read and worked with the story, “A Pig in a Wig.” Our Big Question for the week was, “Who Helps Animals?” Firsties LOVE this topic and fancy themselves little animal experts. We had a ton of fun with our K-W-L as we revisited this question throughout the week. Somehow our K-W-L didn’t quite match up with what the teacher’s manual suggested, but that’s how we roll in Room 6. We also made the pig you can see in the corner (from the Glyph Girls) when we wrapped the story up. They were adorable! You may be asking yourself why I didn’t post that picture if they were so cute. Well…. I’ll be honest. I wasn’t deliberate enough in my teaching of tail placement. I’m sure you can imagine what that bulletin board would have looked like. Let’s just say, I sent those pigs home as soon as they were dry. Lesson LEARNED!

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