What If You Had Animal Teeth or Hair?

Happy Long Weekend!

Here's a freebie to go with your animal studies. It is designed to be a literacy and science response activity. If you are familiar with Sandra Markle's books, I hope you find this little freebie useful.

I've been pointing out to my students and my student teacher when I integrate subjects. I've totally dated myself by referencing the Reese's commercials from the 80's. I'll say, "Hey, I got art in your math!" Or, "We got writing in our reading!" Notice that it is called a vintage commercial. Ha!

Anyway... Things in room 203 have been busy with Star reading and math assessments, completion of round one of DRA, beginning DSA spelling groups, outside recess time cut in half due to temperatures and heat indices, and lots of practice with routines. 

A critical part of our routine process is learning or reviewing expectations for responsible choices. Our main rule is to live above the line.  I have several of the "bucket" books, and they're great, but I want to tell you about another one that I discovered. It's called The Invisible Boy. Oh, my goodness! Trudy Ludwig and Patrice Barton have brought examples of social interaction between children to life on the pages of this book. 

Preview it first. It's very moving. I thought I might cry when I read it the first time. My children were SILENT and STILL as I read it. 

I'll close with a few portraits, which are compliments of my students.

This "How Well Do You Know Your Teacher?" activity is from my First Day of School Kit.

And We're Off!

I know. I know. I've been slacking! Well, in terms of posting to my blog, I have been a total slacker. But... I'm back!

I went back to school, for inservice, on August 1. I met my sweet second graders on August 8. So, I've been a little busy getting back into the swing of all things school. Below are some before shots of my classroom. I'll post current shots soon. 

Piles and stacks!  

Bless the cleaning crew's heart! They put down my desks.

I didn't keep them this way. :)

I can say that our school opening has been hectic, but after eleven school days, my class is building stamina for rules and routines. I also have a student teacher, so an extra pair of hands and eyes has been a great help!

As you know, the first days of school are spent building routines while trying to administer assessments. I've completed 18 of 21 DRA's!  DSA (Developmental Spelling Assessment) is completed, my groups are all set, so spelling groups will begin next week. 

We have been using Developmental Spelling (Word Journeys, Words Their Way) since our school opened. Each year, the children are better and better with spelling and word study. What do you use for spelling and word study? Inquiring minds want to know.

It's time to wrap up lesson plans. I promise I'll do a better job of keeping things updated.

The Final Countdown

2.5...

The students have 2.5 days left. I have five. Five more get-ups, as I call it. I can do this... I can do this... I only have to pack up my room, finish report cards, get all of my checkout materials ready... I can do this!

This is kind of old news, but I never posted pictures of our fraction art. It's from Ed Emberley's Picture Pie book. It's terrific! My students loved doing these, and it was a great way to integrate art and math.

We've been busy working on our Tennessee Culture and History vests. We're almost done! I'll post pictures when they're finished. 

How is your countdown going? I hope it's going well! Have a great week!

Bears, Dirt, and Museum Displays

As Junie B. Jones would say, "Wowie-wow-wow!" School is hopping these days!

Here are some things that have kept me procrastinating from writing a post:

Field Trip #1 -- Disney Nature's Bears Movie

It's very cute! Our kiddos loved it! Amber, Scout, and Sky were cute, funny and educational. If you get a chance to see it, do! We're not playing Amber and Scout Quiet Bear at dismissal. It's just one of those gimmicks that gets the children interested in being quiet. 

Field Trip #2 -- Tennessee State Museum

We're wrapping up the year with a study of Tennessee's History and Culture. So, off to the Tennessee State Museum we go for field trip number 2. The children had four different docents who introduced them to the early cultures of Tennessee, outstanding Tennesseans who shaped our state's history, and all about how cultures survived. 

After learning new details about our state, we began working in our Tennessee Culture and History Books. This is from my Tennessee Culture and History Booklet and Vest Kit. The booklet will be our daily record of learning. We'll brainstorm, research and record our findings in our booklets. The vest will serve as a performance task to wrap up the unit. The kiddos are eager to make their vests, and I am, too!

There were a couple of murals, while historically accurate, were a bit racy for second graders.  There were giggles and pointing. One of of my sweet angels pointed it out as inappropriate. I did my best to explain that it was the artist's rendering, and that it reflects the way the Native Americans lived at that time. (There were a few adults giggling, too!) If you're a Tennessee teacher, consider yourself forewarned. :) Do go if you have a chance. Admission is free, and the docents are great. The content was a bit challenging for some of our students, but it was an enjoyable and educational trip. 

Tennessee State Museum

Great American Soil Project

We're wrapping up our soils study. The children have been excited to receive snail mail, and some of them are packages with maps and other information about the location of the soil. The children have been recording the soil properties and location in their soil booklets. I'll post a picture later. It seems I don't have one on my phone. 

Earth Day

We also took some time to celebrate Earth Day with my FREEBIE Earth Day Craftivity kit. Grab a copy for next year!

We have 12 and 1/2 days of school remaining. I'm eager to have some time off, but I really love my class. I will definitely miss them. I suggested to them that I hold them all back, but they balked at that idea. They did promise that they'd come visit me every morning. 

Wherever you are, I hope you're enjoying a peaceful weekend!

Rocks, Mud and Soils

Our study of soils and rocks continues. The children wrote their friendly letters to request a soil sample from a friend or family member. Addressing envelopes with second graders is a test of patience, but my kiddos did pretty well. I shared with them that I had been dreading the task. They couldn't understand why I would be dreading helping students to write addresses on a tiny space with their large handwriting! Nevertheless, they were complete and mailed away. Next on the list is to make our Great American Soil Project booklets, so that we can record our observations between our local soil and the soil we receive. 

Soil Booklets from The Great American Soil Project

While we wait for our soil samples to arrive, we've moved on to a study of rocks. What is it about rocks that kids love? In all honesty, I have a thing for rocks, too. I'm sure I inherited it from my father. Before he retired, he'd bring home interesting rocks to give to me. I suppose I come by it honestly. But, I digress...

We had some great rocks and minerals to examine, sort and classify! Next week, we'll learn a little about Mohs Scale of Hardness by doing a scratch test on some rocks and mineral samples. We'll round out the four-day week (Hooray for Good Friday!) with a study of fossils. I'm sure fossils will yield even more excitement than rocks!

Dirt Made Our Snack

Yes, that's right. Our Friday snack was dirt. It was dirt of the chocolate pudding, Cool Whip, crushed Oreo cookies, and gummy worm type. We topped off our week with a little soil celebration to connect the consistencies and properties of real soil to those of the pudding and crumbled Oreo treat. The children weathered (crushed) the Oreos to mimic the effects of weathering of rocks and other components found in soil. We connected the treat our compost bags by adding a gummy worm to the creation.We had some great moms to send in supplies and more who came to lend a helping hand. It was such a fun time that one sweet kiddo asked if he could lick the spoon. (I said no.)

Can you tell the treat from the real thing? :)

   

Here's a cute song that my students loved to sing along to while we were digging in the dirt:

It's by the Banana Slug Band.

One of our lessons focused on the reaction of water with different types of soil. So, we made mud balls. Talk about a fun mess! Here are some pictures of our mud balls before placing them into our Mud Ball Museum.

The kids had a blast making compost bags. I thought I'd amuse them with a little joke, so, in my most serious face, I said, "Boys and girls, I have a confession. (long pause) I have worms." Their response? Shrieks and cheers. Apparently, and thank goodness, my kiddos have no idea of the other meaning of having worms. So, the joke was on me. 

After a good hand scrubbing to protect the critters, partners observed our new friends. I wanted the children to feel the setae on the bottom of them. They're tickly and fun, and also an important adaptation for these invertebrates. We wrapped it up with adding the earthworms, soil that the students brought from their backyards, a few bits of leftovers from lunch, and some objects like a paper clip, a stubby pencil, a penny and an eraser. We'll compare our 'with worms' bags to one that has no worms to see how earthworms turn soil, make tunnels, and nibble on decomposing organic matter.

This mud ball activity is a part of The Great American Soil Project. 

The Great American Soil Project

It's the time of year when I start to regret not doing some things, and I feel the pressure to squeeze in as many fun and meaningful learning activities as possible. With less than 40 days of school left, I am in full fun-and-meaningful-activity mode. Those year-end assessments are days away.They can wait. Right? We still have time for as many hands-on, exciting learning activities as I can squeeze into our remaining days!

We're just beginning our study of soils, rocks, and renewable and non-renewable resources. First up: Soils! The children brought a sample of soil from their yard, and we've been examining the soil's properties. We'll soon be making a Mud Ball Museum, which is always messy fun. The children don't know this, but earthworms will be arriving this week. We're making compost bags. They are going to burst with excitement when I unveil the earthworms. (My class loves critters!)

The exciting part of this study is that we're starting The Great American Soil Project. We'll be writing letters to friends and family members to request a soil sample from their area. We'll be mailing friendly letters to these friends and family members who live across America. The excitement level is going to skyrocket when the children's soil packages begin arriving. I've been doing this project with my classes for ten years, and I get just as excited as they do!

We just finished a fun measurement project. The children partnered up and traced one another on butcher paper. Then, we measured legs, arms, and all sorts of combinations to use addition and subtraction with 100 to measure lengths. Several district math coaches visited our school to observe math lessons in our school. The children worked with a partner to solve story problems related to this standard, and the they were terrific in giving academic feedback, using varying strategies to solve the problem and explaining their thinking. 

I think this one has an Egyptian flair!

Such a dapper kid with his necktie!

I will leave you with a joke that was from a book that one of my students shared this week. He wrote an entire book of jokes. 

Knock! Knock!
Who's there?
Tank.
Tank who?
You're welcome!

Cracks me up every time!


How is your week going?