Super Sunday and "Teacher's Pet"

Happy Super Sunday!

The weather is kind of crazy around here- any other midwesterners have all the storms last night? I think we are supposed to get worse ones here this afternoon too....ugh.

The super themed item I have for you on this "super" stormy Sunday (check out that alliteration ;)) is our "Give a Super Compliment" activity. At the beginning of the school year, as part of our character building, we discuss what it means to give a compliment to someone. Then the kids practice writing compliments to one another. We discuss how to add important details, how to make them more meaningful (because otherwise you will get 100 "I like your shoes" etc.). I just have a little labeled bin in which I place the "Give a Compliment" papers and the kids can go pick on up at any time they feel like they would like to share something wonderful about one of their peers. They they put it in our fabulous "Give a Compliment" monkey basket, and I read them and pass them our at our morning meeting each Monday. 

Click on the handout to download the slips we use for this activity in English and Spanish!

I am also linking up with Sandy @ Soaring Through Second Grade for her ....

Who doesn't want to share about their pet? Such a great idea!

Thus, I introduce you to my furry friend (and furry is an understatement!)- Miss Bella Carlson. (It's pronounced the Spanish way, not like the Twilight character ;)!) 

Here is my little fluffball as a puppy!

She is a great helper.

So loving- and photogenic- Don't you think?!

The picture on the right is her most recent- she is growing up so fast- already 2 years old!

And she is ready for the summer time just like her mama!

So we are supposed to share one thing our pet has taught us. I honestly think there is probably more than one- but as most would say I am sure- just unconditional love. I come in from work and she acts like I have been gone for years (tail waggin, lickin, jumpin for joy)! Furthermore, she is just so full of personality. They say pets take after their owners and I see my goofy, flighty, yet high strung personality in her for sure! It's too funny!

Can't wait to see all of your "teacher's pets"!

Book Fair Beauts'

So our annual literacy night and spring book fair were on Thursday. I always love to see how excited it makes the kids about books and reading! 

As teachers, we have the opportunity to create a wish list. The PTO then posts our wish lists and when parents come to the book fair, they can purchase a book for their child's classroom.

I received some books that I am just jumpin' in my jeans' about from my students, so I thought why not share a few with you. Maybe they will be at your book fair too!

I spent my lazy Saturday morning reading these children's picture books on my porch. My neighbors may have been judging ;)....but I got some pretty snapshots for ya!

"Mother's Day Surprise" by Stephen Krensky, is a cute read aloud for Mother's Day about a snake who is having a hard time finding the perfect gift for her mother for Mother's Day. She eventually decides (as your can see in the last picture) to form herself into an adorable heart shape to show her mother how she feels about her. Cute one for the upcoming holiday!

"Manners Mash-Up" seriously just cracks me up! Each page has colorful illustrations that share what good manners are in a variety of locations. The authors share everything from classroom manners, to being a good sport, to my def. fave "not picking in public". You can see this page in the right hand corner. It seriously lists a variety of things - wedgies, noses, belly lint etc. that should not be picked in public! You gotta laugh!

"Heroes de la NBA" by Paul Ladewski. One of my boys got me this- and can we discuss how perfect to reel in all the boys when working on non-fiction retells and/or biographies. It has one page brief bios of a variety of players, and I was thrilled because this one is in Spanish! (I am sure it can be located in English as well). We will def. be readin this in the near future for a little main idea/detail action!

"Fancy Nancy- Poet Extraordinaire!" by Jane O'Connor and Robin Preiss Glasser- seriously you cannot find a more perfect book for poetry month! Of course it contains Nancy's typical "fancy" word breakdown throughout, as well as great ideas for students such as what to do if they get writer's block, how to set the mood for writing poetry and necessary materials, examples of a variety of types of poetry, etc. It is seriously extraordinary! 

Anyone else find any good reads lately? I LOVE new books! It's like Christmas in spring!

Money, money, money!

Our new math unit is all about equivalent coin combinations and making change- kind of a tricky one for little minds! We created these cute little resource books today that I got from Chrissy over @ Buzzing with Ms. B as an intro to our unit. They are a perfect review of coin combinations that make a dollar, as well as a great resource for the kiddos to refer to throughout the unit!

Here is a pic of the completed book.

Here is an example of what my students did on each page. 

They wrote the name of the coin, its value, and the fraction of a dollar that it represents.

If you would like a copy, click here to visit Ms. B's TpT store. It's free! (She even has a cute title to go with it in English- I just had my kids go ahead and write one!)

We embarked on our new science unit this afternoon- Plants (always a great one!). We shared our schema and questions about plants in this class KWL (or SQA as we call it in Spanish!)

I think I shared this before- but in case ya missed it- here is a copy of this KWL for your students. It's in English and Spanish! Happy growing! (I have never been great at the whole keeping plants alive thing- fingers crossed this year will be a success!)

"Go Fish" Freebie

Just a quick one for you guys today! During our enrichment/intervention block, I am working with a group who needs review of long vowel spelling patterns. To help us in our quest to remember long "o" patterns today, I created this quick game of "Go Fish" for my students to play for review. It's suited for groups of 3-5, and I would highly recommend either printing the cards on cardstock or pasting them on construction paper and laminating them for durability. Enjoy!

Super Sunday

First of all, Happy Easter everyone, and God bless!

Second, it's "Super" Sunday! Just have a quick super activity we did during the week to share with you all. It has been quite the busy weekend, and still have lots to do tonight to prepare for the week!

This week we culminated our unit on conserving natural resources by creating "Recycling Superheroes". To kick off this activity, I always read one of my favorite stories with my students that just ties in absolutely perfectly- "Michael Recycle", by Ellie Bethel. It's a story about a super hero (decked out in recycled goods) who goes to a town and encourages them to be more "green". After, I read the story each year, I share with my students that they will be creating "Recycling Superheroes", like Michael, out of recyclable goods, and will then write stories about the adventures of their "green" heroes. I will note that I usually read this story the day before spring break or before a weekend to give my students the opportunity to collect recyclable materials from their houses to bring in. I usually also send a note home that day explaining our activity to parents or stick it in my newsletter too! I would def. give yourself a little time to collect enough recyclable items to create the superheroes- because the more available to the students- the more creative they tend to be!

Here are some of the "Recycling Superheroes" my students created this school year!

One of my groups even created this skateboard for their superhero to get around! haha. I love second grade creativity!

This activity is included in my "It's Good to be Green" supplemental unit along with corresponding writing paper used to write about the adventures of the "Recycling Superheroes! Click on the image below if you'd like to check out our whole unit!

Egg Measuring

We did a little Easter related activity today during math to review for our upcoming assessment on measurement. This "Egg Measurements" activity I created made for the perfect tie-in! Click on the title page image to snag a copy. It is in English and Spanish!

I set up rulers on one table, measuring tapes on a another, and the one lowly scale I have on another in my classroom and set my students to work. It worked out for my kids just to walk from place to place, but you could do it however works for your students. I also gave each of my students their own individual hard-boiled egg. You could partner them up for it, group them, etc. We only had one egg casuality (after all my ranting and raving about caution), so I thought they did pretty well!

Here is what one of my students completed pages looked like:

After we finished our little measurement center rotations, we continued with our activity by measuring capacity. I enlisted the assistance of my students in measuring out the correct amounts of vinegar and water to add to some Easter egg dying cups! When it was prepared we dyed the eggs we used for our activity, and each student got to take their beautifully colored egg home!

Final thing- I had a request for the writing paper I utilized for my Spring Narrative Kites yesterday. I am glad that you enjoyed them! Click here if you'd like a copy!

Happy Easter!

Spring Narrative Kites

So each spring break I send a "Spring Break Journal" home with my students and ask them to write in it each day at the end of the day, relaying some of the days important events. This is an easy way to keep them writing over spring break.

Then when we return from break, the students use their journals as a tool for creating a narrative writing piece. I ask them to select one event (could be their favorite, one they thought was special, etc.) from their spring break that they had shared about in their journal. They then will use that event as their topic and elaborate on it to create a detailed narrative paragraph.

These are always so fun for me, because it gives me a glimpse into the kids daily home lives as well as is always interesting to see what they choose for their "one" event to base their story on. I had kids chose events ranging from Bull's games, to a play date with friends, to a trip to the laundromat, believe it or not- and they all did exactly as I asked- they told a story about an event in their lives!

To make them more spring timey and pretty to hang- we mounted our final copies onto scrapbook paper to make a spring kite and used yarn and colored tissue paper to create the kite string and matching bows! Have a look!

Anywho...here is what the rest of my night entails....

Anyone else having an egg-citing evening!?