Our second grade team does rotations for social studies and science. I was not thrilled when I drew out gravity in the summer when we were figuring out our schedule. My mind has been going crazy trying to figure out how to teach it. I decided that the first place to go was Magic School Bus- I love them! I found this on Youtube, and although movies are BORING all of the time, clips are not. I introduced gravity with a little bit of the episode. We only have thirty minutes for three weeks to teach each topic.
I really wanted to try my heart at STEM teaching. I've been researching it, and it should always start with a real life problem. I decided I would put together a mini unit so I could teach it. This one is about Aiden and his problem with different balls. I can't wait to use this unit. I will start using it next week!
I am starting to put my products up for FREE for the first 24 hours so I hope you catch it in time!!! Tell me what you do to make teaching gravity fun for your kids! I'd love to hear!
I posted earlier about how much we have on Johnny Appleseed week. We start out the week by just looking at different apple poems, short passages about apples and Johnny Appleseed, and introducing who he is. I then introduce them to this book:
We then talk about tall tales, and decide whether or not the tale of Johnny Appleseed is true, or some of it is a tall tale. It depends year to year how much writing they do individually and how much we do together. In my Johnny Appleseed packet, there opinion, informational, and narrative writing options. This year we decided to do informational. We brainstormed sentences of supporting details together after reading the book.
We then decided on a main idea sentence together. We haven't had a lot of exposure to writing informational since we have been focused on personal narratives, so it was good to have a lot of structure for them. We worked at a supporting sentence together, and then I gave them the option of using the supporting sentences we wrote together, or use their own from the knowledge they read in the book.
They turned out so cute!!
Later on that week we also did apple tasting, learned about how apples grow from the apple tree (using the book below which is amazing!)
and made the fantastic trees also. What a great week. We did make caramel apples, too. The kids wore pots on their heads, cut off jeans, and flannel plaid shirts. What a fun celebration!
Click on any of the pics to get the packets on TpT. I've bundled them together to get them both, or you can scroll below on the bundle to see them individually.
I'm hosting a giveaway here because my collaborative blog of Utah Bloggers opens today and we are thrilled! So enter at my facebook page Head over to www.busybeesactivities.com to enter to win a $50 giftcard to Amazon and Teachers Pay Teachers!
One of my favorite holidays to teach is Johnny Appleseed day. I've created two units that I absolutely love. My first is my Language Arts with a bit of Science. My apples unit is more science and math. I'm in love with both of them! I also just bundled them. Click on the pics below to purchase individually, or click here to purchase them bundled!
Last year my students had such a good time with Johnny Appleseed day! We got to come dressed up in flannel, with a pot for our head! (I can post this handsome guy because he is my son and was in my class!)
While doing other apple stations from these packets, one of them is making caramel apples. In the morning I let each of the students unwrap some caramels to add to the crockpot. Add a couple tablespoons of water, and by the afternoon, the caramel is perfect.
Here is one of my students doing the Apple Jacks Math. I adjusted it this year to be more focused on place value since we are hitting that really hard right now. I'm excited for my students to do this new place value Apple Jacks math.
If you have never celebrated Johnny Appleseed day, try it this year. There's so much to learn about apples and why we celebrate this holiday.
We have been reading a read aloud Snot Stew by Bill Wallace that is so much fun! The kids have loved the book. I've been trying to figure out something to do that would tie it all together. Eventually I'll put together a comprehension packet, but I've never read it before this year. I've been reading about Directed Drawing over at Step in Second Grade. She's been doing a couple of different ones, and this has been caught my heart. It looks like fun and I have been wanting to try it. So today, after finishing the book, we did a directed drawing of a cat. Here is the beginning works of the cat:
Our next task is to trace the pencil with black marker, then color. Afterwards, we will answer a question from the book, "Are you more like Toby, or Kiki the cat?" I cannot wait for these to be done. This proved to be something we could fit into a ten minute period of time. The next task will take a little more time, but what a great project!
I decided to skip the part of tracing with black marker. I think in the future I will, but I wanted to able to finish up and do the quick write, too. I asked them to decided whether their were like Kiki or Toby (two cats in the story). They came up with wonderful reasons! This was a quick way for me to see handwriting, the ability to answer questions, ability to give a reason, and usage of capitals and periods. LOVE THIS ACTIVITY! Try it and show me what you can do!
We have been trying for YEARS to get clean desks. Finally this year I have found something that really has been working. I created characters that are messy. Their names are Messy Mike and Messy Millie. My kids think it's hilarious! Whenever they see someone's desk get out of sorts, they are quickly reminding them not to be Messy Mike or Messy Millie. They are so funny! I decided to put my ideas together to show what we really do and I am so excited about this product. I will post pictures soon to show how this is working. This packet included:
*A story you can read with your students about Messy Mike and Messy Millie. *An organization solution for your students *Monthly Clean Desk Club Posters in color and black and white *Monthly Clean Desk certificates
Click on the pic to find the packet. Let me know if you have questions and I want to hear how you are able to find a solution!
Friday was the 14th anniversary of September 11th. I've always struggled with how to teach my students something that I've experienced and they haven't. My first year of teaching was in 2001, teaching first grade students. I remember getting to school early that morning, turning on my tv while I was preparing, and seeing what was going on. I didn't even know what to think. I had several other teachers in my room that morning as we all watched in horror at what was happening. Soon enough our students showed up and we had to put on our best teacher attitude and face the day. We soon got direction from our superintendent not to talk to the students about what was happening, and if they brought it up, just to assure them we were okay. I don't know what the right thing to do was. None of us had ever faced something like that. We got through that day, and the days following, but with first graders, it was a hard thing to put into words. Perhaps for anyone.
Fast forward fourteen years later. Here were are facing another anniversary, and I have never known how to teach these students about it. They weren't even born yet, and the parents may or may not have talked to them about the significance of this date. Our school did something amazing:
Each classroom went out into the hallway as patriotic music played over the speakers. One of sixth grade classes, who's teacher is retired from the Air Force, walked through the hallway holding the flag, as the rest of us sat with our hands on our heart, listening to the music. The students didn't know why we were doing it because it was soon after they arrived for the morning. But the reverence they felt as that flag passed them, with the teary-eyed teachers, was unforgettable. It united us in a way we needed to.
I then showed the students this video I found on Youtube. It's perfect. We then talked about how we don't give up, and our country didn't give up. We talked about courage, and our nation, and how are lucky to live in a nation that doesn't give up. We talked about our everyday heroes that live in our neighborhoods and help up daily.
The day turned into one of my favorite celebration days. I am grateful for what we have learned from this horrific day, and how important it is to teach our children about this day, so they know how important it is to never give up!
It happened again today- we needed to add our stickers from our smiley faces for the week and I hadn't made my 100's chart for it. So during recess there I was, frantically putting it together. So here's a freebie, and lots of different reasons to use a 100's chart. This is a fantastic way for your kids to visualize what 100 looks like, how to use a 100s chart, and anything from skip counting, math skills, and so much more. Download, enjoy, and then let me know the ways you use a 100s chart. I'll update the freebie with your ideas, too! Enjoy! Click on the pic below for the freebie.
I think as teachers it's hard to fit it all in. This post is bit more personal, but I have just been reflecting since the beginning of school eleven days ago about life. We as teachers take on a lot. We take on students we love, students we learn to love, hard standards given to us by the state, common core, assessments, standardized testing, scheduling conflicts, etc. There is so much we face at school every day it's exhausting. I know we chose this path, and I know it's hard. I hope I'm not the only one that barely keeps it together the first six weeks of school! I have a list a mile long of errands I need to run, but after school gets out we have soccer, football, piano, and the list goes on! By the time we actually pull it together and are together as a family again, it's 9:00 and we are exhausted. I try my best to read to my kids before bed, but we don't always make it!
I think we need to give ourselves a little break and celebrate the small successes we have from day to day. Last night my husband was at a meeting, my daughter was at Young Women's (for our church) and I actually had a night with my boys. We got to turn off the tv, read some books (they wanted to read their own, which isn't always the case) and I got to do some laundry, and clean up their closet (something I never got to over the summer! We needed to get out the too small clothes!) It's amazing how much more relaxed I can be when I can meet the needs of my family while feeling like I can breath a bit.
Here's to the working moms out there, the teachers that sacrifice so much in their own lives to meet the needs of their students, who actually feel more like their own children. Cheers to you! Celebrate the small things in life to keep you going from day to day. As for me, I will take my own advice and know that I can do hard things!
