Savvy Second Graders: 2011

Christmas Symmetry

I found this cute and fun symmetry activity in a mailbox magazine. All you do is pick out 4 different Christmas shapes. I chose a snowman, tree, snowflake, and gingerbread man. I used our die cuts and cut them out on white paper. I talked to the students about how both sides have to be the exact same. Then I handed out the shapes and had the students fold them in half. Then I had them trace over the fold with a black crayon. They glued the shapes on construction paper that they divided into 4 equal pieces. Then they decorated their shapes.

They had a lot of fun with this activity. They also loved that it was Christmas themed. They felt like they were doing more of a craft than a math lesson. This is one I will do each year!

Quick Christmas Craft

My kids were overloaded with assessments and work last week. I had some extra time on one of the days and wanted to do a craft with them. The problem was that I didn't have anything planned. So, I went straight to my go to Christmas craft. (I got the idea from Oriental Trading) This is an easy craft and the materials are ones that you always have on hand in a classroom. The kids loved it and they turned out cute as always!

Popsicle Stick Snowman

Materials: 9 popsicle sticks (per child), black & white paint, red construction paper, googly eyes, orange foam, and yellow stars

Directions:

1. Get 8 popsicle sticks. Paint 3/4 of each stick white. These can be painted straight across or at a slant. Then paint 1 popsicle stick black.

2. Paint the other part of the 8 sticks black.
3. Push the 8 black and white sticks together. Glue the the black stick straight across the 8 sticks. This is going to be the rim of the snowman's hat.

4. Cut the red construction paper in to strips. Glue a strip above the black popsicle stick.
5. Glue the star, googly eyes, and orange nose onto the snowman.
6. Paint or draw (with a sharpie) the snowman's mouth.

Christmas Writing

It's already Christmas time!! I can't believe how fast this year is flying by. The two weeks before Christmas break I like to review previous skills and spend time on writing. We have done quite a few writing projects already this week. The first writing activity was a persuasive writing. They had to pretend they were a reindeer and convince Santa to choose them to guide the sleigh for Christmas Eve. This is a lot like the Thanksgiving Persuasive writing. Since it was a familiar skill, they really enjoyed it and really improved. The other writing activity we did was a descriptive writing. They had to color an ornament and then write a descriptive paragraph. They really enjoyed guessing who colored each ornament. These are a few of the many writing activities that are in my Christmas Writing Packet. If you would like to check it out, head to my TPT store or click HERE.

Thanksgiving Writing and FREEBIE!!

I know I am a little late posting this on the blog, but I wanted to be able to display my students' writing examples!

For Thanksgiving, we only have a 2 day week. I like to do writing activities during these 2 days. We did a narrative story, a persuasive writing, and a descriptive writing. For the narrative story, I gave the students the prompt "Pretend you wake up on Thanksgiving morning and you are a turkey...." All of the stories turned out so good! This was by far the best writing they have done all year!! When they finished their writing, the colored turkeys to paste around the paper. You can check out our Scaredy Cats that were very similar. For the persuasive writing, they had to choose to have Tom the Turkey or Pat the Pig for Thanksgiving dinner. They had to persuade me to want their choice for dinner. This was a great time to explain why we should use a variety of descriptive words instead of just using good and bad. Finally, for the descriptive writing, they had to create their own recipe for a turkey. The ideas ranged from chocolate turkey to a fruit turkey recipe. They glued the pages onto construction paper to take home to their parents. All of these ideas are in my 21 page Thanksgiving Writing Packet. You can get it at my TPT store. Just click HERE.

Narrative

I woke up Thanksgiving morning and was a turkey....

Persuasive Writings

Turkey Recipes

Thanksgiving FREEBIE!!!!

Have students make a bracelet with colored beads to help them retell about the first Thanksgiving. To download the story and directions from my TPT store, click HERE.

Crafty Thanksgiving Plates

For Thanksgiving, we made turkey plates. I wanted something fun and cute for them to take home, but most importantly I wanted something that they wouldn't toss into the trash as soon as they got there. The kids LOVED this craft, and the parents have enjoyed it too!!

Materials: orange paint, green paint, yellow paint, brown paint, red paint, black paint, sharpies, plates (I got mine from the Dollar Tree for $1!!!), and high gloss finishing spray.

I brought the students back to my table one at a time. I painted their palm and thumb brown and the other fingers orange, red, yellow, and green. I placed their hand on the plate and pressed down. Once the hand print dried, I had them write Happy Thanksgiving and their name in a sharpie. Then they put their finishing touches on their turkeys. I let these dry for a day or so and then sprayed them with the finishing spray.

I am really excited about how these turned out!! I was also surprised with how excited the kids were. I can't wait to start our Cookies For Santa plates!!!

Cyber Monday Sale

Teachers Pay Teachers is throwing a huge sale on Monday, November 28th. They will be offering 10% off on top of products that are already on sale. I will be participating in the sale. All my products will be 20% off. So, that is 30% off products!! Just be sure to use the code below!

Daily 5 Tasks

I wanted a cute and organized way to display which task of the Daily 5 the students would be visiting. I found these cute task cards somewhere online over the summer. I printed and laminated them. Then I taped them to a metal strip that is under the board in the classroom. I put magnets on the back of the monkeys that I used at the beginning of the year. {You can see that post HERE} This helps the students and me know what task they are suppose to be doing.

Drug Free Week

I needed a door decorating idea for Drug Free Week. I actually got this idea from Sunny Days in 2nd Grade. It was too cute to pass up. Just like the author from Sunny Days, I saw this cute spider on pinterest. I did not know how I wanted to incorporate it in my classroom, but with the help of Sunny Days I do now!! I even used her sign that she has posted on her site for free!! The only difference is I painted a web on my door and then taped the spiders up!

For the door sign click HERE. To get the spider template, click HERE.

Pumpkin Art

We made these before Open House this year. The kids did a really good job with them and followed directions really well. They were a quick, easy, and fun art for them. This is also a great activity to teach symmetry.

Materials: Black paper, orange paper, glue stick, scissors, and a pencil.

Step 1: Cute the orange paper in half. Give each student 1 piece of black paper and a 1/2 piece of orange paper.

Step 2: Draw half of a pumpkin on the orange paper.

Step 3: Cut out the pumpkin.

Step 4: Glue the outline of the pumpkin onto the black paper.

Step 5: Glue the pumpkin half on the black paper. Be sure to match it up with the orange outline.

Step 6: Glue the mouth, eye, and other half of the nose on to the black side.

Scaredy Cat Stories

Every year for open house I have the students write a "Scaredy Cat Story." This is just a scary story that they make up. I use the graphic organizer below to help them organize their ideas. This is the first big writing project of the year. So, the graphic organizer really helps them to develop their ideas. They always enjoy writing the stories as I play the spooky music. The Scaredy Cat template comes from the October Idea Book I purchased from Scholastic a few years ago. Click HERE for the Scary Story packet. (The Scaredy Cat is not included in the packet due to copyright)

AR Record Sheet

This is a sheet I give the students to keep track of how many AR tests they pass each month and 9weeks. As soon as they pass a test, they put a check mark under the month and 9weeks. This really cuts down on "How many tests have I passed?" The kids also enjoy keeping track of their progress.

AR Year Sheet

Journals

I needed an activity to use when I introduced writing in with my Daily 5. I wanted to have ready made journals for the kids so that there were no questions about what they were suppose to be doing during writing time. Below is a free sample of my September Journal. You can get the full journal HERE and you can also get my October journal HERE.

Part of September

Treasures Reading: Language Reviews

The thing I loved about Saxon math was that it was very repetitive. The students were practicing skills at the end of the year that they learned at the beginning of the year. I really think it helped the students learn and remember their math concepts. I decided to develop a Language Review that did the same thing. Students learn the 4 types of sentences at the beginning of the year. They will practice this concept until the end of the year. The number of problems for each concept just simply decrease. I have made these for all the reading stories except for the first 3 stories in the reading series. To preview these unit click on one of the following: Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit3, Unit 4, Unit 5, and Unit 6.

September 11 Tapestry

I found this idea online a few years ago and did it with my art class. The activity was done with grades 3-5, but I wanted to try it with my 2nd graders this year. I was unsure how they would do, but they did an amazing job.

1. The first thing you do is draw 2 horizontal lines. One at the top and one at the bottom. This will divide the paper in to 3 parts. The middle section will need to be a little bigger.
2. The top section is for American symbols. They can draw anything that represents America. We watched the American symbols on BrainPopJr to help us with this.
3. The middle section is divided into 3 sections. (invisible lines) On the first part, the kids draw what the twin towers looked like before 9/11. The middle part is for what it looked like when the planes hit. The last part is for what it looked like after 9/11.
4. The bottom section is for them to draw what people around the world were doing the morning of 9/11.

Below are a few pics to help explain how the project is completed.

Free File Folder Games

I found this link today and was VERY excited. I had to share my wonderful find with all of you!!! It is a website called File Folder Fun. It has FREE file folder games for grades K-5 and for various subjects!! This really helps me out because we do not have individual science text books in 2nd grade. The file folder games are a great resource to help reinforce my lesson!! Hope you guys find this as useful as I do!!!

Free for All Friday

I am a little late due to a busy weekend, but I am here still linking up with Blog Hoppin'!! Here is the Freebie for the week.

A parent got me a class set of Reading Log Charts. I LOVE them and want every child to have one at school and at home. So I recreated it. I hope to have a better copy to put on here later on, but here is what I have for now. All you have to do is print and laminate and they are ready to be written on!!

Reading Goal Chart

Three for Thursday

Today I am linking up with Blog Hoppin to tell you about my three favs!!! I will have to say that this is going to be very hard because I cannot just pic one for each category!!

Favorite Font

I like to use different fonts, but there is one font that I use the most. It is Cutie Pop. I found it by simply typing "free cute font" into google. I get most of my fonts from fontspace.com.

Favorite Blog

This one is impossible for me to choose. I have so many different blogs that are my favorite. One blog that I go to the most though is What The Teacher Wants. I have gotten a lot of great ideas from this blog!

Favorite Online Resource

My favorite online resource at the moment is Pinterest.com. A friend told me about this sight since I am currently planning a wedding. She told me it would give me a lot of great ideas. I get great ideas for home and for the classroom here!! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!!

Where It All Goes Down Wednesday

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' to show you my WONDERFUL WORLD!!

My area

Clips I painted to hang student work

Where students turn in their Monkey Binders each day

This is where students put their homework. It is a quick and easy transition to the next activity. It is quicker then putting work in binders during the school day.