Stripes, Polka Dots, Safari, O My!

Happy Summer Lovely Bloggers!

Hope you all have had a chance to relax a bit! We have had an over abundance of rain and flooding here...so I am hoping for some serious sunshine in the coming weeks!

However, with all my time in doors I have had the chance to work on a new product for you all!

Introducing: Dual Language Classroom Jobs...in a variety of pack options!

Click on the spread to take you to my TpT store to see each of the options!

Some of you may be stripes folk...

Others perhaps prefer polka dots...

...or maybe some of you have a jungle themed classroom and would prefer the safari print!

I tried to cover a wide variety of bases here! Each pack does of course have all 24 jobs in both English and Spanish and comes with larger and small print options for use in creating a clip chart, popsicle stick pockets, a bulletin board, you name it!

Super Informational Writing!

My kiddos finished up some truly SUPER informational writing pieces during this spring. I wanted to finish translating the template and getting the pack ready to share with you all before I posted them...and now that I have a little more free time with school out...it is finally ready to go!

In creating their pieces my kids worked hard to select a topic of interest to them, research the topic in a variety of ways, and go through the writing process from beginning to end to publish a piece of informational writing in English. I am seriously honored to share some of their work with you today. I am so proud!

After immersing ourselves in a variety of informational texts and learning the why's and how's of how authors select their topics, each of my students chose a topic they either knew a great deal about and/or were dying to learn about!

Here are just a few they came up with:

My students were each required to create at least four chapters for their pieces as well as an introduction and conclusion. Here are some examples of the chapters written from the pieces above:

As you can see some students chose to print images from home to add...and others created their own illustrations! I left it up to them :)!

The voice of this student in this piece on volleyball just shines through. I love it! Check out the second page..."You should not wear any type of jewelry or braces".  Too funny! You can see this one used a marker to bolden "jersey" and "braces" as well as they were part of her glossary of course!

Each of the students were also required to add at least one "extra" in the publishing process. They could do this through including a Glossary, Index, Table of Contents, etc. 

Here are some completed examples that go with a book titled "How to Take Care of a Puppy":

I love her dedication page...just perfect for her topic!

I seriously wish I could share all of their work with you all! They were so excited to share them with one another!

If you are interested in creating informational pieces with your students, my newest pack includes all of the pages shown here and more for your students use! Of course, they all come in English and Spanish as well! Click on the image to take you to my TpT store!

First Free Friday!

That's right...it is my first free Friday...and by that I mean first Friday of summer! Our last day of school was Wednesday of this week...and while the weather has not quite been cooperating (60's in June?)...I am glad to finally relax a bit! Especially after such a busy week...check out what we did over our last few days as I link up with Doodle Bugs for "Five for Friday!"

1. On Monday we received a package from some very special friends in Spain! Paula from Learning in Spain and her students have become our class pen pals this school year and my students are thoroughly enjoying it. I was so elated to see their final letters arrived before we left for summer break! It has been such a wonderful experience for my students to see how valuable their Spanish is in communicating with kids from different countries and cultures! 

2. On Tuesday we prepared for our Super Second Grade Graduation! We had some reflection time and discussion surrounding our favorite activities and events from second grade. Then each student decorated our grad background poster by adding a statement sharing their favorite part of 2nd grade.

3. All of the parents came for our grad ceremony in the afternoon! Each student was presented with a cape in liu of a diploma as they graduated from "super" second grade ;)! They were also given a copy of a DVD we watched pre-ceremony with photos from our year! We also did a fabulous hat toss (which we practiced thoroughly with "eyes in the direction of the floor" ahead of time so there were no eye injuries!). So much fun!

Plus, my fabulous class and their families presented yours truly at the end with a scrapbook they secretly put together with a page completed by each student with photos and messages for me...SERIOUSLY ADORBS.

And...I mean common...the cover is too perfect!

And not only did they spoil me with this beautiful book...my class parents chipped in to buy all of the decorations and graduation treats. Check out what we got to dig in to post ceremony! Delish!

4. As a thank you to some of these wonderful volunteers who have worked with us in particular with reading in our classroom all year the students and I had a little something we put together for them as well!

Each envelope contains a few stationary cards put together with ribbon and with messages from the kiddos along with a Barnes & Noble gift card for our volunteers!

5. Finally, we finished out our week on Wednesday morning with a little yearbook and memory book signing. These fab memory books were created by Mynda Rivera and you can get a copy here. As second grade is the first year we really dive in to cursive, I took advantage of the opportunity for a little extra practice for the students with this handwriting style. Each one had to sign their name in cursive...in true signature fashion. After the 27th time, I'd say they had it down!

Such a fun week. Kind of bittersweet as I will not be in my own classroom next year. However, I am thoroughly looking forward to my position as a dual coach to get into all of the classrooms and gather and support our staff with a variety of great ideas to share with ya'll in the future! Happy beginning of summer!

Currently and Father's Day Freebie

We finished up our Super Father's Day activity this morning for the kiddos to take home and share with their padre's mid-month! 

We talked about similes and read the book "I'm Quick as a Cricket (Veloz como un grillo)" by Audrey Wood. Then we got to work writing a few similes and other statements about our super dads.

Here is one completed in English...

In Spanish...

(He even cut out a photo of Dad to make it more authentic ;))

And one even made for a brother :)!

Snag this quick Father's Day freebie in both English here (Created by Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten). And in Spanish (my translated version) here.

Now to link up with Farley @ Oh' Boy 4th Grade for this month's "Currently"!

And finally....duh duh duh...this year's class t-shirt revealed! We received them just in time to sport them on Field Day this past Friday! You def. couldn't miss us! Love it!