The Polar Regions

We had so much fun learning about the Polar Regions!  My students read articles, researched in books, and looked up information via the internet.  We practiced using nonfiction text features, main idea/details, and context clues.

First we started off learning about the Arctic vs. Antarctic.  We got a lot of information from a little brochure I typed up for them.  I also had the students do a "close" read using a Reading A to Z book - "Polar Regions of Earth" (you can find it by clicking on the title).  Both of these reading passages allowed for a lot of practice with text and graphic features.

After reading and discussing these texts, we created a Venn Diagram to sort out what we learned about the two different regions.

After we learned about the two different regions.  I split the class into two "expert teams;"  The Penguin Experts and The Polar Bear Experts.  I split the two teams into two smaller groups so I had groups of 3-4 in each.  They worked in their groups to gather information about their animal and how they survive in the Arctic or Antarctic.  My students used chart paper to record their findings.  (They just loved writing on the big chart paper with markers!)

Then I paired a Penguin Expert with a Polar Bear Expert and they had to share their knowledge with each other.  

The final step was to "formally" record all our learning.  They took their research and expertise and recorded it into a little report.  I think they turned out so cute!  

Here's our display… two of my teammates also used this unit in their classrooms.

To extend our learning, my class completed a little Take-Home project.  I think these turned out so cute!!!!  They created a "Cereal Box" Report.  You can pick up a copy to use with your students in my Teacher's Notebook Store.

  

Place-Value Fun! and a Little Bit of Blends….

We are off to a busy start to the 2014-15 school year!  So hard to believe we've been in school for 5 weeks already.

This week we are focusing a lot on 3 digit place-value.  Here are a few things we've been working on:

I LOVE Marshmallow Place-Value from Babbling Abby.  You can grab your own copy from her website.

Next up, we extended our learning with the AIMS Activity: Basic-ic Buildings.  My class couldn't believe I was letting them "build" with the base-ten blocks:)  

Click on the picture above to get this activity to use in your own classroom:)

 Our Phonics / Spelling focus in Journey's this week was reading and writing words with Consonant Blends.  So I created this little activity to glue in our interactive notebooks.  

To start off the lesson we formed partners by matching up consonant blends with word parts.  You can find that activity here: Mixing Up Some Word Fun created by Sam Nowak on TPT.  Then they worked in pairs to come up with word blends to complete their "Flower Foldables."

**This Interactive Notebook Entry is part of an on-going (hope to be done soon) project!  

I am working on creating an Interactive Notebook to match the 2nd Grade Journey's Reading Program.**

Successful Project!!!! Glass Magnets

I have seen these adorable glass magnets all over and I finally took the challenge to create my own!  I'm so excited about how cute they turned out and can't wait to use them in my own classroom.

 I got my supplies at JoAnn's Fabrics (love the teacher discount and 40% coupons!)  Bag of approx. 77 glass tiles, E6000 glue, and button magnets about $13.00 before discounts.  I read other blogs about laminating and how bad they turned out - but they were using modge podge.  I decided to try the laminated paper with E6000 glue and it worked perfectly.  This whole project did not take me very long at all - about an hour.

If you would like to make these yourself, please feel free to grab my templates at my Teacher's Notebook store!  They include 20 Melonheadz Girls and 20 Melonheadz Boys.  It is even editable and you could type your student's names or any other wording you'd like to use!

A New Year! 2014-15

Well, I have set many goals for this new school year.  One of the big ones are to get back into regularly posting on my blog.  I have neglected it way too long:)

We still have one week left of summer vacation and I've already started planning.  I'm proud to say that I've gotten my welcome letters written and printed - yeah me!

My Welcome Letters turned out so cute - thanks to Melonheadz clipart.

I like to send a little "Get to Know You" sheet home with my students.  Every year I say I'm going to reuse the old one... and I end up making a new one:)  I use this sheet at the beginning of the year and read the responses throughout the week to get the students to guess who each other is.  I also saved them all year (it was a miracle that I didn't lose any) and reread them.  The kids had so much fun guessing who everyone was now that we had spend 180 days together.

Good Luck with your back to school preparations!  Check back for more:)

Native Americans

We just wrapped up another successful Native American Unit.  My students had a lot of fun and were very engaged in learning about the 5 different Native American Regions.  Here is a peek at our projects:

Here are all the projects we created as we studied Native Americans.

 Each Region had its own page in our mini- Interactive Notebook.  Students complete a chart with facts about the region such as which tribes lived there, food they ate, homes they lived in, etc….  Then they did partner research with an additional article (I got from Evan-Moor) about a specific tribe from the region.  They then created a foldable with facts.  Finally, we ended each region with creating an artifact that matched.

 We made these Parfleche (Friendship Bags) to hold all our materials and artifacts.

Our Totem Poles from the Pacific Northwest

Straw Loom Weaving - My students had so much fun with this!  This was even easier then last years paper plate looms.  Even my not so coordinated students were able to weave with very little help!  The end result turned out beautiful and some of my students are still wearing them as bracelets.  Another idea would be to only use 3 straws and they could make bookmarks.

Their Teepee's turned out awesome this year!  I'm very proud of the details they put into them.

The Resources I Used:

McGraw Hill: Who We Are As Americans Textbook

This was a great resource.  This is where I got the Buffalo Page from.  I also used reading passages from Evan Moor to complete the foldables.

The Foldables came from:

This is a great resource from Teach123

Starting Off With Journey's

Wow has this school year been very, very busy!!!!!  Our district adopted new Reading and Math series so it has taken a lot of my time planning and getting familiar with the new material.

Here are a few activities from the beginning of the Second Grade Journey's Text:

Henry and Mudge Sequence and Craftivity:
We had so much fun making these and sequencing the events from the story.

Many of the stories in the first unit were about pets or taking care of pets.  So I created this little research/ extended learning project for my students.  We completed this over a few days and it gave me time to squeeze in the end of the unit assessments.

Check back… I will be loading even more Journey's extended learning projects:)

Patterns and activities to upload to my Teacher's Notebook Store Soon (Sometime in early January)!