Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has survived this week full of halloween festivities! It has been a crazy whirlwind this year with halloween in the middle of the week!

Second grade has been pretty busy this week. We signed up to bring food for the staff as a halloween treat on Wednesday and it was ridiculous! My friend Florence already blogged about it with lots of pictures.
(Check out her post here -- madebyfirenze.blogspot.com)

Then, we decided to do some halloween activities to keep the kiddos engaged. We started out with a writing activity. Since the hamburger analogy is no longer being used to teach the parts of a paragraph, my brilliant colleague suggested that we use the analogy of a spider web.

A good paragraph has sentences that connect from beginning to end like a spider's web. The spider works very carefully to make sure that each thread is placed perfectly. We really wanted to emphasize that even in basic paragraphs they need to revise to make sure that all of the sentences flow together. Then we read a book about spiders and did some research before coming up with these awesome mobiles.

The kids went through the process of prewriting, drafting, revising with a partner, and then editing with me before writing their final drafts on a spider web and then typing their paragraph to publish.



We also did an intro to procedural writing with time order words by carving a pumpkin. It turned out really well even though our anchor chart got a little wrinkled.

Finally, we made fact family haunted houses and they turned out so cute! :)

Happy Halloween y'all! :)

Math Curse

One of my favorite lessons to do the first day of school is to have my kids do a classroom scavenger hunt. The questions are pretty straight forward. I ask about the number of chairs, desks, bookshelves, etc. Then I throw in this question, "How many numbers do you see in this classroom?" It is my absolute favorite question because the past two times that I have done this, my kids have figured out that there are thousands of numbers in the classroom. They start to see the number line on the wall, the clock, the hundreds chart, rulers, the calendar, book box numbers, clip chart numbers, etc. Some even noticed the nameplates on each desk that also include a ruler, hundreds chart, and number line.

My favorite memory of last year was when one of my kids stood at the front of the room, arms stretched out, and shouted, "THIS WHOLE ROOM IS MADE OF NUMBERS!" It seems like a silly thing for the kids to do but you really get to see your kids' ability to observe and think outside of the box. This little discovery leads into my explanation that math is EVERYWHERE and it is so important for them to realize the real world connections with math.

To close the lesson, I read The Math Curse by Jon Scieszka. It is a book that appeals to students from 2nd grade to college. My college professor actually read it to us during math methods. Some of it is way over my kids' heads but they still get the overall meaning that you can make anything into a math problem.

I love reading it!

Techie Post #4

I LOVE THIS WEBSITE!!! It is a free site that helps students master basic facts. It starts out with addition and subtraction but you can change each student's program to move up to multiplication and division as they reach that level of mastery. It is so easy to sign up and set up your class. Also, the site generates parent flyers that you can print out and send home. This allows for the parents to link to their child's profile. That way parents can see their child's progress through weekly emails. As a teacher, you get a weekly email showing the progress of your entire class. 

This can be done during computer lab or during your math block with students taking turns at your student computers. It only takes 15 minutes for the students to take a placement quiz, progress activity and race the teacher game. It is basically online flash cards but the kids love it and they get to see a grid that shows which facts they have mastered and the ones they still need to work on. Once they master a program, you will get an email that gives you a certificate to print out for that child. It is AWESOME. The screenshot above shows all of the instructional videos you can watch to walk you through the set up process. 

This screenshot is the sign up screen. Do it now and thank me later! :)

First Week of School :)

Well, I survived the first week of school! We spent the week setting up rules and procedures as well as launching R-time, Daily 5 and math stations. I am so proud of my little ones for doing so much so fast. We even got in a little science and social studies! :)

R-time: This is a new program that our school is launching this year to work on respect and using manners. It takes about 15 minutes and the kids love it. It involves randomly pairing students and giving them questions or activities for them to do together. It helps them to take turns, use manners and become a more close knit community of learners. We are still working out the kinks but it is nice to see the kids becoming more aware of manners and the importance of working together.

Launching Daily 5: Week 1

I started by teaching the good fit book "shoe" lesson from The Daily Five book by Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. It is so engaging because you use shoes to represent the different components of picking good fit books. Good fit books are books that the students get to choose, that have a purpose such as just for fun or research, and are based on interest. I brought a tennis shoe, a rain boot, and a high heel to ask students about the purpose for each shoe. Then I pulled out tap and ballet shoes to show interest. Then the next part of the good fit lesson is about comprehension and knowing the words. I used the suggestion from the book and had two students try to switch shoes. I love how this leads to "a good fit for one person may not be a good fit for someone else." This reminds students that they don't have to pick a book just because someone else is reading it. It also allows for students to feel more comfortable with their reading level. I created an "I PICK" chart with the kids and posted it above my library.

I - I choose the book

P- Purpose: Why am I reading this book? (for fun, daily 5, research)

I - Interest: Does this book interest me?

C - Comprehension: Do I understand what I'm reading?

K - Know: Do I know almost all of the words? ( Use 5 finger rule)

Then I allowed the students to "shop" for books in my classroom library and put them in their individual book boxes.

Then I went over the first part of Daily Five: Read to Self. The book is great about including photos of the independence chart or I-Chart. We make one for each part of Daily 5.

The purple poster is my independence chart. It sets the procedures for Read to Self. This leads into the idea that the students need to be able to read for a sustained amount of time. Students need to build stamina to the point of at least 20 minutes per day. Once they build stamina, they will able to eventually do all of the parts of Daily 5 for at least 20 to 30 minutes, allowing the teacher to meet with more small groups.

The thermometer poster is what I am using to track my students' progress. They have to be able to read for a certain number of minutes consistently (3 times) before I fill it in on the chart. They have mastered 5 minutes and we're starting to work on 7-9 minutes.

We are hitting the ground running with our math curriculum. We set up math stations and gave them a pre-assessment to see what they already know about place value to 1,000. I thought it would be way over their heads on the second day of school but they are already working on showing 3 digit numbers in standard, picture, expanded and written form. I placed some tiered activities in my stations that were pretty simple to put together. I placed place value charts, playing cards, and dice in each station. The students were expected to roll or draw 3 numbers/cards and then read the 3 digit number. I had students either building the numbers with base ten blocks, or writing the numbers in expanded and/or written form.

All in all, it was a successful week. I had more than enough stuff to keep the kids busy and I am exhausted.

At least I got a little present for surviving my first week all thanks to my room moms from last year. They knew just what to get me. TOMS! :) I finally used my gift card!

Now to enjoy the three day weekend... :)