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!!

Silence for Sandy Hook Elementary

He will feed his flock like a shepherd.  He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart...   ~Isaiah 40:11

May the Lord bring you comfort and peace.  

December Double It

     Just a quick post to let you know that I created a simple to play, Christmas-themed game to help students practice their doubles facts.  This could be used for centers, math workshop, or you could print enough copies for your whole class to play in small groups at the same time.  All you have to do is print out enough game boards and recording sheets for each student and it's ready to go.  Click on the pictures below to check it out.  It's on sale for less than a dollar through tomorrow (Cyber Monday).

      Students draw a card from the deck and double the number (playing cards or number cards will work).  If the number is on an ornament on their tree, they cover it with a counter.  Then, they record it on their recording sheet.  If not, they tell the answer, and then it's their partners turn.  Simple and fun!  

Game board

Ornament counters

Recording sheet

      Enjoy your last day of Thanksgiving break!!

Story Elements and a Sale

      I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  It's been nice to be off for a few days and spend time with my family.  First of all, I want to let you know that my Teacher's Notebook store is 25 % off now through Monday.  Plus, you get an extra 10 % off from the site for a total of 35 % off any item in my shop.  Click on the picture below to visit my shop.

      We only had school on Monday and Tuesday last week so I spent some time trying to help my students take what we learned the week before about story elements and "put it all together."  They all came in with solid background knowledge on characters but surprisingly many of them did not know/remember setting from first grade and plot was completely new.  They all know that stories have a beginning, middle, and end but in second grade, I introduce them to the words plot, conflict, and resolution.

     Since we are learning about culture right now, I read aloud a book called My Two Grannies.  It's about a little girl who has two grannies from different cultures- one from England and one from Trinidad.  They argue about what to do, what to eat, etc. with their granddaughter when they are babysitting her because they are part of different cultures.  In the end, they agree to take turns choosing activities.  It's a cute story about how culture can create conflict and how to get along with others who are different.  Click on the picture to check it out.

      As I read aloud, we filled out a story map together using sticky notes on a class size chart.  After we had everything filled in except the resolution and the important events at the end of story, I showed them the following anchor chart (without the words setting and characters written by beginning, conflict by the middle, and resolution by the end).  As I explained how stories are like roller coasters because they start slow and the excitement builds...I could see lightbulbs going on for many of my students.  

     Students were able to tell me which part of a story we meet the characters in and learn the setting, in which part we learn the conflict, and in which part we figure out the resolution.  We added that to the chart.  Then, we finished reading the story and filling in the story map.  The above chart was inspired by one I saw on Pinterest from First Grade Fresh.  That chart is below.  I used the same picture idea and changed some of the words I added to the chart to match what we were learning.  

    The Common Core Standards address this content in both first and second grade in the following standards:

    1.RL.5  Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types.

    2.RL.5  Describe the overall structure of a story, including how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

    Those standards are why I wrote "All fiction stories have plots" on my anchor chart because I want children to start to recognize the difference between fiction stories and non-fiction texts.  The roller coaster was a big hit with the kids and definitely caught their attention!

    How do you teach story elements to your students?

    Don't forget to check out my Teacher's Notebook shop while it's on sale.  I know I will be getting some things from my wish list.  :)  

     

Election Fun

      Last week my kids could not have been more excited about the presidential election.  To capitalize on it, we did a writing project where they got to imagine being president.  First, we read My Teacher for President.  Click on the picture below to check it out and get a copy for your classroom.

      We made a chart about all of the things that presidents do as we read the book.  This was great to give kids some background knowledge that they could use when writing.  Second graders don't come in with many concrete examples of different responsibilities that presidents have or things they do regularly.

     Then, we brainstormed what they would do if they got to be president.  Some students used ideas from the chart we made and others thought of their own ideas.  Check out a few examples of their writing below.  I adapted a great freebie from Primary Practice to accomodate my students.  They needed more room to write.

She is thinking about all the people affected by Hurricane Sandy.

If I were president, I would abandon cigarettes and plant apple trees and take care of the world.  And, take care of people and take people places they can't get to.  I will play with people that don't get played with. (How sweet is this?)

This one makes me laugh...because I want more people!

     I displayed these in the hall above their lockers with a sign that says, "If I were president..."  They love seeing their work on display.  I usually tell them when a project is going to be put in the hall or hung in the classroom because it gives those few kids that need a little push a reason to work hard and makes everyone pay a little closer attention to their writing.  :)

    One more thing...after the actual election happened and Obama won, we wrote congratulations letters to him so we could get mail back from the White House.  We had a nice discussion about what it means to be a good sport so even those people that voted for Romney can still say congratulations to the winner because that's being a good sport.  Regardless of our actual adult political opinions, this is a good lesson for kids to learn.

    This picture is just a rough draft but I wanted to share it with you.  It was so funny.  He asked the president, "Are you rich?" :)

    Let me know what you think and feel free to follow me.

Brown Turkey, Brown Turkey and a Freebie

     Even my second graders who have heard Brown Bear, Brown Bear and the other similar books since kindergarten still love them!  Early on in the year we read Baby Bear, Baby Bear and then created our own class book called Second Grader, Second Grader.  This is a great beginning of the year activity and helps students learn each others names.  Click on the picture below to download your freebie of this class book page.

      To continue the fun, I created a Thanksgiving version of Brown Bear, Brown Bear to read with my students.  I also included a black and white smaller version to use with students in guided reading.  This book would be great for students working on reading color words, other sight words, and books with predictable text.  To download the full page color version along with the half-page black and white student version, click on any of the pictures below.  To see all of the pages, download the preview file by clicking on any of the pictures to get to my Teacher's Notebook store page.

How cute is this little pilgrim?!?

         I hope you can use this great story with your kiddos!  

         On an election day note, my students were so darn funny today!  We had an election in our classroom and used the awesome freebie mini-unit from Katie Knight of Teacher to the Core.  We voted on the secret ballots and tallied up the results.  Romney won 12-11.  Tight race...;)  Later this week I'll post pics of their writing about what they would do if they were president.  

       We had to have a chat about being respectful of all people's opinions, even when they're different from our own.  It fit in perfectly with our unit "It's All About Culture" that we began this week.  More to come on that later...

       Happy hump day tomorrow!!