Second Grade Rocks -

Star Wars Day

Star Wars Day in the Classroom!

May 2, 2017

Star Wars Day 2020 It’s almost here….STAR WARS DAY! If you teach first, second or third graders then this is the perfect opportunity to incorporate Star Wars activities into your students’ learning and make it a day that they will never forget.Star Wars Day in my classroom begins with Lightsaber Reading. The students enter a dimly lit classroom with the Star Wars theme playing in the background. Each student gets a sheet of the Star Wars Words Hidden Picture. They need to use their lightsabers (finger lights) to find the 10 Star Wars words that are hidden in the picture and record them on the recording sheet. They can color the sheet after they have found the words. This activity works great as an opening task. Star Wars Day + Lego One of my favorite parts of Star Wars day is the opportunity to incorporate SCIENCE!! My favorite activity is the Star Wars Ship Build. I put the students into groups of 3 or 4 and give them the parts from a Lego Star Wars Ship polybag. Depending on your group of kids you can decide to put the parts in a separate bin without the package or directions…

adverbs, leprechaun

Leprechaun Adverbs

March 29, 2017

Adverbs! Honestly?! These sure can be tricky when you also have leprechaun enthusiasm exuding from every possible place leprechaun enthusiasm can exude from. I decided to harness that leprechaun enthusiasm and turn our adverb lesson into a leprechaun adventure. We started by sorting word cards by adverbs and not adverbs. Once they had a firm understanding of adverbs they chose 8 adverbs from their sort and wrote them onto the 8 pieces of orange construction paper strips. Then we made our leprechauns. Super cute. After the leprechauns were assembled the students wrote a story about their leprechaun that used all 8 of the adverbs they had written on the beard strips. We titled our stories The Adventures of Adverb Mc’ or O’ and their last names. The kiddos had so much fun!!!!! When their story was complete they highlighted their adverbs with a green highlighter. I think they turned out adorbs and I know my kiddos have a great understanding of adverbs now.

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Easy Easter Invitations

March 26, 2017

Little Miss S has an Easter birthday and wanted to do an egg hunt with her friends this year. We have done the egg hunt theme before and I wanted to do something a little different this year. I decided to get creative with the invitations. I am a full time teacher, momma of two, wife, blogger, tpt’er so when I say creative I actually mean cute, easy and different then the norm. Of course, I went to Pinterest first and found my inspiration piece and decided I needed to make it cheap and easy (story of my life). Inside each of the plastic eggs are the actual birthday invitations cut into puzzle pieces. As you can see here: I think they turned out pretty cute and Little Miss S loves them. If you are looking for cheap, easy Easter invitations then read on my friend. Supplies needed:Plastic Easter Eggs2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 treat boxes. These are the ones I used. 12 for $2.99Gift wrap shredded filler paper. I normally make my own with my paper shredder at home, but I found some at Target in the clearance section so I went with that (I told you-easy)Avery printable…

lego, robotics

Getting Started with Lego WeDo Robotics in the Primary Classroom

March 7, 2017

Yay! The day has finally come to start Lego robotics in our second grade classroom. To say the kids were excited would be an understatement. It was daunting for me as I unpacked my first kit and sorted the legos. I started to think I might have bitten off more than I could chew with this genius idea! How in the world could 7 and 8 year olds use all these pieces to make a robot?? Honestly! Spoiler alert- THEY DID IT! I knew planning and preparation would be key and so I went through the process myself several times and then I had my own 7 year old go through my lesson plan/idea. I was able to tweak a few things and had high hopes that my students would be successful in this process. Now, I’m sharing my process here with you!! First and foremost, unpack and sort all those legos. I planned to have 2 students per kit so I had 11 kits to unpack and sort. I assumed (I know, I know) that the bags would correspond to the type of lego and sorting would be a breeze. NOT THE CASE! Each bag has a little bit…

geometry, lego

Lego Geometry

February 28, 2017

We just finished learning about 3D shapes and I wanted a way for the kiddos to review their learning during their independent math time. I came up with this idea while cruising through the Lego store with the hubs. I filled a small box with a variety of legos and I had the kids open up the Lego Geometry assignment in Google Classroom. The kiddos were asked to build a cube and a rectangular prism. I debated about dictating the size, but decided to let them free build and I am glad I did. Once the students finished building they filled out their slides in Google classroom. I plan to print them out into a geometry book. You can see an example of the slides below. If you want a copy of the slides for use in your classroom, just click on the photos below.

100th day

100th Day Stem

February 24, 2017

Loved using these 100th day STEM activities. I set up stations around the room and the kiddos rotated every 20 minutes. They had a blast. Definitely a new 100th day tradition. You can download these activities free {here}.

100th day

100th Day Fun

February 21, 2017

I love the 100th day of school. This year it was supposed to be the day after Valentine’s day and that kinda scared me. Luckily, we had 2 snow days and that moved the 100th day to FRIDAY. That I can deal with. Our first grade classrooms do the 100th day collections. Each first grader brings in 100 items and the school walks through the classrooms and admires the collections. It is so fun. I love seeing the creativity. I didn’t want to do a repeat of that activity for second grade so we do the 100th day t-shirts and have a fashion show. The students are asked to put 100 items on a t-shirt and wear it to school that day. I roll out the red carpet- yes, really- a red carpet and turn on the disco lights and get some funky runway music on. The kids model their shirts on the red carpet. They love it!!

lego, stem, valentine's day

Valentine’s Day STEM

February 13, 2017

Nothing says, “Valentine’s Day” like Lego Catapults! Am I right? The kiddos had so much fun. I think this will become a Valentine’s Day tradition in my classroom. The kids were tasked with building a catapult that would launch the candy heart the furthest. I started the activity by showing the students the basics of catapult construction and recommendation of bricks to use for the lever and basket to hold the heart in. I made up some tubs ahead of time that held a variety of rubberbands and the bricks I had used in my demonstration and then I set the kids on their way. They worked in groups of 3 or 4 and that seemed to be the perfect amount. I just loved listening to their conversations as they worked together to problem solve and build with a purpose. Their catapults turned out great.

brag tags, math

Ninja Math Fact Brag Tags

January 23, 2017

This year I have been using Amy Lemon’s Ninja Fact Masters as my math fact fluency program and it has been AWESOME! My kids are really kickin’ those math facts (see what I did there?) Ha! They love moving up and earning a new belt for their ninja. But.. one thing was missing— BRAG TAGS! I implemented Brag Tags into my classroom this year and they have been a hit. Brag tags are a wonderful way to reward positive behavior and academic achievement in the classroom. I use brag tags every single day and I wanted to use them with the Math Fact Ninjas so I created a set for both addition and subtraction facts. There are math fact brag tags on TpT, but I really wanted to maintain the ninja theme. If you are looking for ninja themed brag tags you can find mine {here}. If you are new to brag tags, keep reading for some tips and tricks! My students keep their brag tags on these chains. I purchased mine from Amazon, but I’m sure you could make them if you are crafty. I have seen the chain in bulk form at craft stores. You can find my specific chains {here}….

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Get ‘er Done!

January 20, 2017

Sometimes my kiddos just need the some extra time to finish classwork and I find myself writing notes on assignments and I wanted a quicker way to communicate with parents why their child was bringing classwork home. So I created this form with the help of my teaching friend Mrs. Stewart. If you want a free copy of the form for your classroom just click the photo!

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Second Grade Rocks