People Magazine (Mom of the Year)

         I just couldn't resist sharing my students' adorable Mother's Day Projects with you...but first I have to brag on my mom and grandma for just a minute.  I am so blessed to have been able to share Mother's Day with my mom at my little brother's college graduation.  I am so very grateful for her love, support, and encouragement always.  She is a nurse practitioner who serves very sick inmates every day.

       I also was thinking about my gram, who I miss and love so very much.  One of my fondest memories is how she would always genuinely light up when I walked in the house to visit her and be so excited to hear what was going on with me.  She taught me so much about how to take care of family, cook, and just enjoy life.

Wasn't she so stylish? :)

    Alright, I could go on for awhile but let's move on to my students.  Last year I found this great idea on (none other than) Pinterest.  It is from The Polka Dotted Teacher.  Even though the project was done with fourth graders, it fit in perfectly with my second grade unit on persuasive writing so I decided to give it a try.  Last year they turned out so cute that I did the same project this year.  I love projects that fit into academics and don't just feel like something "extra" you have to fit in. 

    To begin, I showed my students a copy of a People magazine (a school and age appropriate one of course) and we talked about how people that do important things get to be on the cover of People.  Then I told them they were going to write a magazine article for their mom about why she deserves to be on the cover, decorate a cover with her on it, and they were hooked.

    We went through the entire writing process and since it was at the end of our persuasive unit, most of my students already felt very comfortable writing a persuasive piece with a few paragraphs.  I created a checklist for them to use to help with revising.  It's nothing fancy but definitely helped them.  Click on the picture below to download it from google docs.  

       Finally, students edited and were ready to publish their final copies.  Check out how a few of them turned out.  They are so sweet!

"That is all I asked for was a great mom." :)

Carson was really trying to use character traits to describe his mom like

I modeled.

I love his closing.

       It amazes me how much many of their drawings really do look just like their moms.  Happy belated Mother's Day to all of you who are moms.

Favorite Teacher Appreciation Gift Yet

      So I just had to share this great gift I got today from one of my kiddos.  He has given me something different each morning.  Yesterday he gave me a bag of York Peppermint Pieces with an acrostic poem about mint.  And....here's today.

   I know it's hard to read...so here's the poem:

I know you like mac and 

I know you like cheese.

Next time you make some

can I have 

some please?

From: Carson

    So funny!  He looked on my favorites sheet from the beginning of the year where I said mac and cheese was my favorite food.  He's so thoughtful!

    TGIF (tomorrow)!

Spring Bunnies and Big Changes

   Hey, everyone!  Wow...so I've been MIA for a while but I have a good excuse. ;)  My life has been crazy hectic with flights and 18 hour round trips over the weekends because my husband and I are going to be relocating at the end of this school year.  This is a big move for us and a huge change, but I am completely in awe of how faithful God has been and continues to be.  He's provided both of us with jobs and a home.  So, as of July, I will officially be able to say...

   I have had tons of pics ready to share for a while but have just been overwhelmed with everything on my plate.  So, I'll get started sharing with some spring bunnies and poems.  We did the following art project from Deep Space Sparkle (awesome art blog) as a class celebration for filling buckets.  Do you know this book?  It's an awesome way to teach kids about kindness and making good choices.  Click on the picture to check it out.

     In the beginning of the year,  I read the book to the kids and we made a chart about how to be a bucket filler.  They each have their own "bucket" and we have a class bucket with my name on it as well.  

When the entire class is doing their job without reminders, I tell them that they filled my bucket and we add a cotton ball (pom pom actually).  When the class bucket is full, we come up with a few choices for how to celebrate and then take a vote.  Past celebrations have been: extra recess, movie and popcorn party, etc.  So, for the last celebration they voted to do an art project.  This is a special treat in our class because it really doesn't happen much.  

    I followed much of the tutorial from Deep Space Sparkle but tweaked it a little bit because of available supplies.  Here are a few of the bunnies and poems they wrote to go with them.

     I love that last one with the floppy ear!  Happy hump day everybody!

Merry Christmas

     I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!  Enjoy your time off from school.  And yes, my parents do have a big pink Christmas tree. :)

My husband and me

My sister, brother, and me

A Thankful Friday Flashback

      Going to school this week was different.  I was so thankful to get to see my little second graders on Monday.  I was thankful when they were sweet, hyper, not listening...just really blessed to still have the opportunity to go to school each day and be their teacher.  Here's a quick look back at our week before Christmas break.

     During reader's workshop we worked on inferring character traits and comparing and contrasting characters.  We read The Gingerbread Boy and The Gingerbread Girl.  You can click on the pictures below to check out both books.

              

             First we read The Gingerbread Boy and recorded character traits on a chart.  The sticky notes are our evidence for why we inferred each character trait.

Here's my favorite character trait they came up with: overcooked!  :)

       After finishing the first story, we read The Gingerbread Girl and compared her to the gingerbread boy.  We used a great freebie from Danielle at Carolina Teacher.  Students worked with their turn and talk partners as a I read the story aloud to record their thoughts.

      In writing, we had a publishing party today to celebrate their growth as writers.  The unit we just finished was from Lucy Calkins and was called Writing for Readers.  It was all about making their writing easy for other people to read...aka conventions.  So, for the celebration, they had to look through their writing folders and choose their hardest to read piece and their favorite easy to read piece. I stapled them on a large piece of construction paper so they could share how they have changed as writers.  

     

         We also finished up snow globes to go with their snow globe writing.  They turned out really cute!

Check out the Batman snowman. 

       Last but not least, today we made snowmen inspired my Mrs. Carroll at The First Grade Parade.  I really don't usually do a whole lot of artsy stuff with my kiddos but the week before Christmas break is an exception.  Who could resist?  To make it math-focused, I gave my kids a start-unknown story problem where they got to choose the other known part.  Start-unknown problems are the hardest type for kids and the Common Core Standards state that second graders need to be proficient at them with numbers through 100 by the end of second grade.  So, I thought this would be some fun, extra practice.

      Happy Winter Break!!