Happy weekend everyone! Your favorite second grade bloggers are
back, this time with sweet savings for you. We have gotten together
to form a dollar sale linky party! Each blogger will be adding 2-4
products to the link up below that will be on sale for ONE DOLLAR now
through Sunday night. Come Monday morning, all of the products will go
back to their regular price, so make sure to grab them while you can!
Here's what
you will find for one dollar in my store, this weekend only:
At the end of this post, you will find previews and links for all of the items on sale for one dollar. Click on the links below and you will be taken directly to the TpT store where the products can be found to add to your cart. We hope you can find everything you need for the upcoming month(s). Happy shopping!
I am in need of some help from you all! Next month, my 2nd graders and I will be going to a local children's hospital to deliver Valentine goodies. This all inspired by the Teaching Tribunes Cards for Kindness. Head to their blog to read all about it!
My class is super musical, just like me, and we LOVE to sing everyday! I was thinking of putting together a CD of my kiddos singing some popular songs that would inspire these babies to keep on pushing strong. I definitely want to include Roar by Katy Perry, and Brave by Sara Bareilles but am in need of some other suggestions. What are some songs you think would be great to include on this CD?
Thanks for any suggestions you can give and hope you consider being a part of the Cards for Kindness party to spread some love.
Was anyone else in the snow day club today? It was glorious! We don't get many of these in NC so it was nice to wake up to that call this morning!
We needed it after our hour and 10 minute hard lock down yesterday. Let me tell you, being huddled in the corner with 19 antsy second graders is not easy! Not to mention it was hotter than blue blazes (as my aunt would say)!
Anyway- I wanted to stop by to share a freebie I just made for our Famous Americans project. The next 3 weeks are going to be all about biographies, contributions, and researching one famous american we are interested in. We started by introducing the project and this week students are spending some time exploring to find someone they would be interested in.
Here is my mini outline for the unit. Keep in mind that during the exploration process we have been/will be studying biographies, how they are organized, how to read them, etc. Then when we are researching- my mini lesson will focus on determining what is important and what we need to know.
I've made a list of some websites that students can use for their research and some graphic organizers for them to record their information. This first one is for the exploration part. I didn't want them to get overwhelmed looking at a ton of different websites so I stuck with one to start. After they narrow down to one, they'll get the larger list!
and here are our graphic organizers!
My plan is for them to take all of this information and make a poster than they can present to the class. We might decide to invite parents as well. Last year we did a Living Museum which was a blast! This year, I'm also going to try to put together a Voice Thread that we can put up on our class blog. Each student will have their own little "slide" where they will be able to tell why their American is important.
Click on the picture below to snag this freebie!
This is one of my favorite units throughout the whole year! How do you make learning fun for your students?
I had one heck of a day today! Did you? At 9:45 (When we had JUST left our room headed for P.E.) our secretary called a hard lockdown. {Whoa..What?} yea I never thought that would happen. Anyway- I hurried them back into the room and there I was, crammed in the corner of my steaming hot classroom with 19 second graders for over an hour. Now this is me...
After about 15 of those minutes, they could no longer sit still and how could I blame them? My sweet babies did such a great job! Unfortunately, we didn't get anything done today because I couldn't just make them go straight back to learning- they had earned a break. And now we have a 2 hour delay tomorrow. May as well just give me the rest of the week of, I'll come back Monday refreshed and ready to go! ;)
Well- I wanted to share some fun that went on this past week since I didn't get on for 5 for Friday (When do I ever-right?)
Since we got back to school after winter intersession, we've been all about economics. We've been building a little town with everything we have learned. You can read a little bit about it on the one 5 for Friday post I've gotten up in like forev! On Thursday, we put together our town map. Here they all are hard at work. It was the cutest thing with them all spread out on the floor, working to complete the map. I loved it!
Now that they've learned all about all of these important economics concepts, they are using all they know to plan to sell a good or service to other 2nd graders in our school. We are going to make commercials and everything! Super exciting.
To continue with the randomness. Here is a little clip of my dog being scared of a plant. Yes people, a plant!! (You can see he looks up at the plant to see that it is not attacking him after he grabs his ball)
And last in this post of randomness... Our school counselor (Who was way awesome and who we will never ever be able to replace) left us for a new school. She also has a baby on the way. Well- I arranged for any teachers who were interested to have their students write "Advice for a new mom" to put together into a book. These two just cracked me up.. can you tell why?
Off to bed- Since this was my Monday, I am exhausted. Sad I couldn't come home to relax in my bed with some Juan Pablo!
When you think about Martin Luther King Jr., what words come to mind?
Freedom?
Love?
Fairness?
Equality?
This is the exact question I posed to my 2nd graders this Friday as we begun a discussion about MLKjr, his contributions, his dreams, and big words. We read the fabulous Martin's Big Words...
Here's a read aloud on YouTube if you don't have the book.
I LOVE this story, especially for the younger ones because it talks about the challenges that Martin had to overcome and how he fought with words and love- without getting into too much detail. It's powerful and it's perfect for the little ones.
While reading we had a fabulous discussion. We talked about why Martin fought for civil rights, how he fought, and what he wanted us to learn. These are the big ideas we got:
*Hate only makes more hate but love can make hate go away.
*It's better to fight with words.
*Don't give up on what you believe in.
*Everyone should be treated equally and fairly.
Then I asked them again, "What are the BIG words that we think of and remember when we think about MLKjr?" and introduced them to our mini project. I asked them to think of that question and create a word collage of all of the big words that they've learned from Martin. I just gave them a large piece of construction paper and they were on their way. (Of course we also spelled the important words on the board). Here's the example I made for them and some of their work. They did such a great job!
I love how this one has the M coming together. So creative.
So- if you don't have any ideas for MLKjr day- here's a simple, free lesson/activity that will really stick with them! You could even encourage a little dinner table discussion that night :) If you do decide to do this project, I would love to see pictures of your students work so be sure to leave a link to your blog post if you post them!
Hope everyone who get's tomorrow off has a great day!
I can never seem to get this whole Five for Friday post actually posted on Friday. #Teacherproblems
Well, I guess late is better than never! And we had so much excitement in the land of second grade this first week back that I have a ton of fun to share! So of course, linking up with Doodle Bugs for Five for Friday.
This is our newest adventure. Stability balls! I have quite the active bunch this year and I found this fabulous grant opportunity. I filled it out thinking I would just try and didn't expect to get it but I did! Now I have a classroom of bouncing children! The bouncing is proving to be a little tough to get used to but the students are treating these new chairs with a lot of care and responsibility. They signed a stability ball contract on Monday and have really enjoyed their new chairs.
Raise your hand if you are wondering why in the world I am showing you a picture of my T.V. WELL- this is a perfect indication of my week. COLD!! My family was warmer in Reykajvik, Iceland than I was here in NC. We even had a delay on Tuesday due to the below zero wind chills.
Snowflake Poetry=Snoetry! This comes from my Snoetry pack and was so perfect for the first week back. It helped them get back into the swing of things easily and enjoy the week after break. They loved writing poetry for the first time this year and really enjoyed making their snowflakes.
^ This student is clearly obsessed with killing a grizzly bear. Too funny! ^
We wrote New Years Resolutions with Anna's New Year's Flip Flap Book. My kids just love these! I think they'll have a blast when we get to our animal unit and they have one for each animal group!
We also started our Economics Unit. I am not a Social Studies fan but I LOVE this unit. The class and I build a town where the students each have their own job. They have to create their business, write about it, and at the end of the unit they balance a monthly budget! This week we talked about wants and needs, goods and services, and producers and consumers. We also had a fabulous discussion about how businesses get consumers to spend money at their establishment through appearance, expertise, and specials. We even talked about how businesses "trick" you. You know what I'm talking about- those signs that say "FREE" in huge letters and at the bottom is says "But you have to give me your first born". They were so intrigued that they couldn't wait to find some of these signs around town! This is all part of my Independent Town Unit.
After this 2 week mini unit we'll embark on a bazaar journey where students will actually run their own business, making commercials and all! Can you see why I love this unit?
Hope you enjoyed taking a journey through last week with me. Head on over to Doodle Bugs to read up on other bloggers weeks.
