Solve It, Santa! Story Problems

Ohhhh, math is going to be filled with fun this next week! I just finished a math center for solving story problems. I'll be using Solve It, Santa! to work with a small group of children who need to practice problem solving. I put it on TPT for a $1 try me price. Here's a peak at it.

I have a feeling that the Elf on the Shelf might be making his first appearance this week. I'm braced for his tricks. Do you have one of these in your room? What are some of your elf's actions catastrophes? It's a cute idea (wish I'd thought of it!), and the children are eager to find out what Dodger's latest shenanigans are. He is named after Jordan Sonnenblick's character, Dodger, from the book Dodger and Me. It's a great read aloud for second graders. 

Have a great Saturday!

The Mitten Tree and Acts of Kindness

I've been busy planning for December fun in my classroom. My teammates and I are planning a second grade yard sale in a couple of weeks, so I am putting the finishing touches on materials for that. It's a super-fun way to give our kiddos a real world opportunity to practice money skills. 

In the finished column, I wrapped up two TPT products this past week. The first is a writing and word study kit based on the cute book by Marla Frazee. I'm looking forward to using Frazee's book as an anchor for teaching ELA skills next week. What a great way to kick off December! Can you believe that December begins on Sunday?!?

In an effort to keep my students (and myself) grounded during the upcoming "I want!" frenzy, I've put together several acts of kindness, focus-on-others activities that I have used for the past few years. I love Candace Christiansen's, The Mitten Tree, so I used it as a theme for this kit. 

On a final note, Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful that I was able to spend quality time with my sweet family. While I was there, I was able to visit with the chicks and ducklings that we hatched in my classroom about six weeks ago. Look how big they are! My students are going to be shocked by their growth. They had a great time munching on my brother's fall garden. 

New Laptop ~ New Materials for December

Remember that Florida beach trip that I mentioned not taking? I took some of the money that I would have spent and got myself a spiffy, new, PURPLE laptop! While I'm bundled up in these freezing temperatures, working on school stuff, I can dream of a beach trip by looking at this.

Three Sisters Beach, Great Exuma, Bahamas

I've been taking advantage of the peace and quiet to work on my plans for December. I just finished Santa Claus: The World's Number One Writing and Word Study Expert, based on Santa Claus: The World's Number One Toy Expert by Marla Frazee. I love this book!  Here's a peek at the two literacy centers with Santa's To-Do Lists and Claus Clues, which focuses on context clues.  I can't wait to put this into the hands of my second graders. I think they're going to love it, especially the cards with QR codes that link to websites for some real world research. 

However, for now, it's time to rest and plan a day of shopping. I am going to try to finish my Christmas shopping this week -- before Black Friday. I am not a fan of shopping, so I am motivated to get it done to beat the crowds!

Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving!

A Thanksgiving State of Matter

We just wrapped up day 72 of school! It never fails; about this time of year, the days seem to fast-forward.  I'm thankful that I have a job that is fun and filled with sweet children who make me smile, and dare me to be better than I was yesterday. I am also thankful for a full week off to recharge my batteries. (I'm also kicking myself for thinking that I was too tired to take a short trip to the beach. It's freezing here!)

Things in second grade have been active. We've been telling time to five minutes. My kiddos are making progress. My small group focus has been to challenge my high kiddos (using riddle-writing) and to fill in gaps with students who need to shore up their time-telling skills. The children had fun making clock faces to practice quarter after, half past and quarter to skills. We added some details to make it more interesting: our favorite color, our favorite treat, and our favorite book character. 

We jumped into studies of states of matter in science. Excitement goes with experiments, so we had tons of fun watching "explosions" of a mystery solid (Alka-Seltzer) and a mystery liquid (water). I love to take advantage of that interest! 

We finished our Thanksgiving is a State of Matter projects, and the results were cute! Each section of their plate had an illustration of a food or drink they'll enjoy at their Thanksgiving meal. They used oil pastels to illustrate them, which made the illustrations vivid and beautiful. Each child added a decorative border or design to his place mat, which was a 12 X 18 sheet of construction paper. The corners were cut off to make them rounded. 

One student's yummy Thanksgiving "matter".

The word bubbles had explanatory sentences that described the state of matter of each food item. This fun science/writing/brainstorming activity always puts me in the mood for my mother's delicious food and the wonderful company of my family.

Hand print turkeys were a popular decoration on the place mat.

Yummy Thanksgiving "Matter"

I hope your holiday is wonderful!

Bugs, Globes and Books

I started the week with the stomach bug that is swarming through our building. It is fast and furious. Thankfully, it only lasts about 24 hours. We have scrubbed every surface in the room to hopefully keep everyone else bug free. The rest of the week was packed with activity.

The children finished their Monsters in a Jar narratives and designs. They are very clever. Don't you love how this one is posing? The children had a great time sharing their pieces and getting constructive feedback from classmates. It's so wonderful to see how my second grade authors are gracious in accepting "you need to read with more fluency" or "you need to add more details to the ending" types of feedback. It's more powerful than the gentlest comments I might make. 

The monster writing was fun. Pumpkin globes, not so much. I asked my kiddos if they knew the Taylor Swift song about never, ever getting back together. Amid a chorus of "Yes!", one little voice said, "Please, don't sing that song!" I told them that we are never, ever, ever making pumpkin globes in my room again. Talk about a headache! The acrylic paint wouldn't stick. Some children brought huge pumpkins, which made it tough to get the right scale of continent shapes to cut and glue on them.   Lesson learned. Next year, we'll go back to the flat, construction paper maps. 

Another piece of good news is that we had our school book fair. It's always fun to shop the books and see the children's excitement about books. I am blessed with generous children and parents, so our classroom library grew by about two dozen books. I always like to read the first few pages of a new book that has been donated, so that the children are tempted to read the book.I think it honors the child who took the time to pick out the book for our class. I call these teasers. One book that is really cute is, Jeff Mack's Good News, Bad News. It is perfect for teaching inference! 

It's time for some housework to make my house ready for company this weekend. I'm sure I'll be shopping with my sister-in-law while my brother, niece and nephew go to the Titan's game on Sunday. At some point this weekend, I have to prep for an observation. Yikes!

I also have to wrap up planning for the upcoming weeks before Thanksgiving break. We're going to be studying states of matter in science, so I'll pull out my We're in a Thanksgiving State of Matter activity. It's a neat science + art activity that makes an adorable hallway display.

Have a great weekend! Stay warm!