St. Paddy's Measuring

In need of a last minute St. Patrick's Day math activity for tomorrow? Look no further! Grab a box of Lucky Charms (or even the generic version will do) and this freebie and you will be all set for a great measurement review!

Here is an example of the activity from one of my kiddos last school year at this time:

I changed up the font a little bit this year (had to try out my "Luck O' the Irish" font by Kimberly Geswein) as well as changed the numbers a tad...but the idea is the same! Snag a copy in English or Spanish to use tomorrow if your students could use a fun (and edible) measurement review as well!

Graphics by Scrappin Doodles :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Bountiful Bios!

We have been working hard over the past few weeks on a biography unit. We studied the characteristics of this type of text, work to identify examples and information learned by reading several bios as a class and in small groups, and recently culiminated our unit by authoring our own super bios!

To gather information for our biographies we went straight to the source - the dual language staff of our building. I did this activity for the first time last year and it was a hit! Not only does it give my students the opportunity to gather info. from a primary source, but also, it gives them the opportunity to get to know teachers that they have had or may have in the future a little better! Plus it enabled my kiddos to do all of their interviewing in Spanish!

Here are their final pieces hanging in the pod (this is my building's lingo for the area in between a group of classrooms ;)).

And a few up close...

Finally, to give my students continued opportunities to read and reflect on a variety of biographies, I created a biography reflection page that has been added to their "Read to Self" center for students to utilize post reading a new biography. After the student hands it in, I have been placing them all in a binder in our student created book bin in the classroom so that others can read the facts they have learned about a variety of important people as well....and maybe it will even lead them to want to pick up the bio themselves!

Here is an example of the reflection sheet completed by one of my kiddos (she went a little above and beyond I must say!):

I photocopy my reflection sheet with Spanish on one side and English on the other so the student can choose which side to use based on the language of the biography they read. Both can be downloaded for free by clicking on the image of the sheet below.  Font by Kimberly Geswein and border by Creative Clips. Enjoy!

Let's Get Acquainted!

I am linking up with Latoya @ "Flying into First Grade" for her first linky! I decided I was way overdue for a good spill the beans about myself linky and thus, I jumped on board! 

(Plus I couldn't resist using this adorable image :))

So the idea is that we share something about us that we like or like to do using our initials. Good ole K makes it a little difficult but we shall we what we can do!

is for kickboxing!

Love me a good workout, but kickboxing is one of my faves. It is just such a great way to relieve stress and burn those pesky calories!

is for monkeys! 

I have a collection of sock monkeys that has grown over the years in my classroom! It started as one that my students took turns taking home and writing about their adventures, etc., and grew into many, many, more! Now it was become nearly a sure thing that I will receive at least one new one to add to the collection on any given holiday. 

This is the "basket-o-monkeys" we have in our reading area (there are many more hiding out in various locales in our room). The students can select one of these sock monkeys to read with during "read with a partner" if there is no one else available. I always tell them that they will be "great listeners ;)". 

is for candles. 

I LOVE AM OBSESSED WITH THEM.

My family swears someday I am going to burn down my house. However, it is a risk I am going to have to take for a good smelling place! Not to mention I just find them so relaxing! Can't get enough!

So there you have it! KMC all about me! Feel free to link up yourself by clicking on Latoya's image above!

PS the cute letters I used are from KPM Doodles.

Fact Family Album

I noted on our last math assessment that some of my students needed a quick review of fact families. Thus, I headed over to Pinterest to see what new and fresh activities I could find. I ran across an activity by Sarah at "First Grader...At Last" called "Fact Family Albums" that was just too adorable to pass up. Check out the original activity here.

Thus we reviewed a little with our anchor chart here...

Then set to work creating the "Fact Family Photo Album" as a class.

Each kiddo was responsible for contributing a different fact family photo to our album. Here are a few completed page examples:

I love how the baby in this one is babbling about "facts families".

My students really enjoyed mixing art and math...and now we have a great book to add to our library to help assist them in continuing to review these facts!

Leprechaun Crime Scene Revisted

Just one a quick one to share today. Last year, I shared with you all my "Crime Scene Investigation" pack to be used with your students when those mischievous leprechauns come visit your classroom!

If you are looking for something to get your students working on writing, inferring, and using great evidence- you've come to the right place ;)!

The pack includes a crime scene investigation cover page for each student, a "describe the scene" writing page, a page for students to document "photos of the evidence", and a page for them to draw the "suspect" based on the evidence and write how they came to this conclusion. 

We had soooo much fun with this activity last year, and I think that I led several of my students to truly believe I was turning in their reports to the police to catch this mischievous individual who destroyed our classroom and left behind all of those green footprints! For more ideas, you are welcome to check out my previous post from last year's class here.

Roll a Fairy Tale

Today we went as a school to see a performance of "Into the Woods" at a local high school. For those of you that are not familiar with the show, it is a show comprised of a mix of different fairy tales. Thus, I found it to be a perfect opportunity to embark on a short fairy tale unit in class!

We spent the past week and a half learning about fairy tale characteristics and analyzing several fairy tales in search of examples of these elements. 

Your Spanish lesson for the day :)

Cenicienta = Cinderella, Blancanieves = Snow White, Juan y los frijoles mágicos = Jack and the Beanstalk

After the show today, we then worked to learn a new activity that I will be placing in our "Work on Writing" center, called "Roll a Fairy Tale".  The purpose of this activity is for students to select the various story elements necessary to write their own fairy tale. The kicker is the story elements will be determined by the roll of a die!

Here are the pages necessary for the activity:

1. The elements sheet (it comes in English too :)). Students will roll a die four times, once for each category to determine which they will use to create their fairy tale.

2. They will then create their story on this writing page complete with a fairy tale intro! (It comes in Spanish too :))

I copy the pages back to back so that the students can refer to the planning page while they write. I also ask my students to circle the elements after rolling the die so they remember what they need to use.

Here are some examples of my own students' writing from today in class. They did a great job for their first stab at it!

(Once upon a time there was a boy names Bob and his mom Ally, the queen. They lived in a castle and his mother told him to do everything that she told him to do. His mom then told him to go outside to pick flowers and when he went outside he saw a magic wand and he used it to make all of his dreams come true and he lived "happily ever after".)

I had to include this next one too because it just cracks me up...ohh a second graders sense of humor..

PS. One of my native English speaker's wrote this one!

(Once upon a time there was a princess named Mrs. Toots-a-lot (I kid you not this is what he wrote ;)). But an old woman wanted the princess for herself because the princess was very beautiful. One day the princess saw a magic ninja and the ninja did not like the old woman either. So both took all of the food from the old woman and the old woman died. Then they lived happily ever after!). 

Grab a copy of the activity for your classroom for free by clicking on the image below.

Math Vocabulary Cards

Just finished creating word wall cards up through the remainder of the school year and thought I'd share this latest creation with all of you! In previous years, I had just used the good ole' sentence strips and a sharpie, but this year I thought I'd dress them up a bit.

These can be used for introducing vocabulary terms as well as a resource for students on your classroom "Math Word/Content Wall". I know I see my students refer to them all of the time, which puts a smile on my face!

The cards are aligned with the second grade Common Core vocabulary and come in both English and Spanish! Click on the image to check them out :)! All you have to do is print, cut, and laminate!