Life Cycles / Animal Stretch Books

Thanks to Kris at I {Heart} Teaching for posting the directions to make these fabulous books.  I came up with the idea to use them as a life cycles lesson.

 The covers were decorated using fingerprints and stamp pads.

 The students used spinners with different animal traits on them to create their own "new" animal.  It was from an AIMS activity.

The Learning Safari!

Today is what teaching is all about!  Every year I invite parents to come in and see what their children have been learning in Second Grade.  We turned our classroom into a Safari complete with Jeeps and all.  Then students took their parents through a journey of their Second Grade year.  They shared a book they wrote, taught their parents how to play a math game, read their favorite story from the Imagine It book, and shared their portfolio of all their writing projects from the year.  I enjoy watching all the giggles, smiles and enjoyment from parents and students.  The afternoon came to an end with the surprised Candy Bar Awards.  I love presenting these to my students and have so much fun matching their personalities to a candy bar.

Some cute monkeys greeting parents as they arrive (Thanks Mrs. Jump!  I got these from her Zoo Unit)

The students created a "map"and organized the things they needed.

We wrote about "Two" cans for Third Grade.  These writing forms and patterns are available on Teacher's Notebook.  Just click the picture above!

These are our portfolios.  Students keep their writing projects in them all year to share on this special day.  The idea came from "The Bag Ladies"

The Candy Bar Awards

We couldn't wait for the parents to arrive!

We had a full house!  Thank you to every parent who rearranged their schedule to spend the afternoon in Second Grade!

Learning Safari Sneak Peek...

At the end of the year I host a Learning Safari.  Our class invites their parents to come into the classroom for a few hours to see all the things we've learned and worked on in Second Grade.  The students share their portfolios, read their favorite Imagine It! story from this year, teach them a math game we've played, and present them with a "Family Fun" magazine that they created.  We are getting ready for our Learning Safari on May 25th.  Here is a few "past" photos and the current invitation we used.  I will update pictures as we get things prepared for it.

 

Our classroom will transform into a Safari.  Here is what our room looked like last year...

Hairy Grass!

As part of our plant unit we planted rye grass seeds.  The students watched as the "hair" grew and grew.  We measured how tall our hair grew, charted it and compared who in the class had the longest grass hair.  Then the students gave their person a hair cut.  We remeasured and compared our results again.  

If you would like to do this activity with your class, you can find directions and materials at my Teacher's Notebook Store.  - Thanks:)

http://www.teachersnotebook.com/product/dmlp/hairy-grass