Spring Word Search Freebie!

Good-bye April! As I was taking down my April showers bulletin board and putting up May flowers, I remembered I never posted my Spring Word Search freebie. Well, it is available now and just in time!

I always try to make the word searches cute with graphics for the kids to color and the fonts large and easy to read. This one is a little more challenging. Some of the words are found backward! 

 Flip that Word Search!

During word work time, the students circle the located word in the word bank (so it can still be read) and only trace around the perimeter of the found word in case time runs short for coloring.

You can download this freebie here if you like! :)

I hope you can use it with your class.

Mother's Day Project Idea

I am excited to share this cute project idea for Mother's Day! I am sure your mom's will fall in love with it and there will be tears! It's a lunch bag scrapbook the mother and child will finish together by adding special photos and keepsakes!

Click on the image to see it at TPT.

Star Student~ All About Me Posters!

Everyone loves a chance to be the center of attention! Do you acknowledge a Student of the Week in your classroom? A fun idea I have used with my littles is to give each child a turn to create a special poster as a take home project and display it on a Star Student bulletin board! This is also a great way to help the class to get to know each other better throughout the year.

Presenting... 

All About Me Tees! 

The posters come in black and white, so this one above was a work of art!

So who get to be my Star each week? There is no rhyme or reason to selecting who the Star will be. Everyone will get a turn. But somehow, the students always respond well if I tell them I am watching them to make my decision!

A Family Project

I send the prized poster home with the chosen "Star" along with directions for the parents, in a big bag or cardboard tube several weeks in advance. Open house in the beginning of the year would also be a good time to have the parents take the poster home and work on it slowly because they do take some time and are a super cute keepsake.

The students may decorate their poster any way they like and in my letter I encourage the use of crayons, stickers, craft items, glitter and all sorts of creativity! 

You can download this letter (editable) from my Dropbox here.

Of course our Star Student also gets special privileges like reading in the beanbag chair, the front of the line and all of that important stuff too!

Superstar Presentations

When it is presentation day, usually a Friday for us, the Star reads and explains their poster to a group of super attentive classmates. They love this time to shine!

 Afterward, the class may ask some questions and the child will answer them. This is a great activity to practice speaking and listening skills.

 I start shopping now for things I know I will need next fall. 

I love the option to bring it in and store it away for the summer rather than keeping it at home.

 Even better is to order online and have some items shipped directly to the school!

I just placed my order from Really Good Stuff for next year's Stars!

What great ideas do you have for celebrating a STAR?

This Week in Second Grade: Earth Day and Counting Coins

I might be one of the last to get out this Five for Friday post, because I just got home from...

1.) The big Ice Cream Social event! This year was a Fiesta theme! I was secretly hoping there would be some ponchos, mustaches and sombreros to wear for a photo shoot, but no such luck.

 Let's hear it for staff shirts, ponytails, jeans and comfy shoes on Fridays!

The PTO goes all out for this one~ there were coney islands, raffles, games, prizes, a DJ, karaoke and ice cream of course! We have several big events like this one spread out during the year. This is one happenin' place! My buddy went to school where I teach so he loves to help out at these events too. We got to work at the popcorn, pop and cotton candy tent. What fun! He refuses to pose with his mom for a picture but did a great job as official photographer! I'll take it!

2.) For Earth Day, my class took a paperless challenge! We did not use one sheet the entire day. It was a little challenging to fill a day this way, but we did it. Our school is a designated Green School. We document our activities such as this to submit in our report.

Here the kids were given dice in dice from Lakeshore to roll. They rolled two, 2-digit numbers, and used the calculators to find both a sum and a difference.

The day after, we went back to using paper but had some great discussions about the three Rs using this Earth Day PowerPoint and a cute and educational booklet from Aimee Salazar's Earth Day Unit.

3.) The class always loves a guest speaker. One of my favorite classroom parents works as an environmental consultant. She consults with companies and acts as a government advisor in the event of a toxic spill. She did some neat demonstrations for our second graders to show how a spill can effect the groundwater supply and how a clay barrier can help. She illustrated the drilling process for sampling using straws. 

4.) One of our sweet young students is battling cancer and is homebound right now. Our school has had several fundraisers to help the family. These thoughtful students regularly send videos to our Lucas. Each class delivered a special hello. On his birthday, the whole school gathered to sing to him via video.

5.) We are reviewing for MAP testing next week. We put together this adorable money sorting wallet project for a last hurrah and to review those zeros they seem to get tripped up with.

Adios Amigos!

Sing and Learn~ Science Songs for Kids!

I try to incorporate music in the classroom as much as possible. It makes my heart happy and creates a fun, positive classroom environment. We listen as we work, we sing along to learn and get up and boogie down for brain breaks! 

Today the kids rocked out this Going Green Song!

What is really great is that there are also free printable lyrics, so you can work in a reading activity as well!

I even have parents write and ask where to purchase the songs because the kids are just singing away at home too! I love that!

If you are looking for some groovy science songs to download on a variety of topics, you may want to check out Have Fun Teaching! You can listen to the whole song before purchase.

Make it stick! SING!

How do you use music in the classroom?

Great Earth Day Classroom Projects

How did Earth Day sneak up so quickly? In case you missed my previous posts, I wanted to share a blast or two from the past of a few of my all time favorite activities from my days teaching strictly science to K-5 students! April is Earth MONTH, so there is still time to get a project going!

Have you ever planted grass heads? These are some cute ones on yogurt cups! I usually asked my class to bring in a brightly colored sock. We stuffed them with soil and seed, cut the tops off and added buttons for eyes.

Here's a tutorial

Making pretty recycled, pressed paper is another one of my favorite Earth Day activities!

Making your own paper can be lots of fun, and it's a great way to teach the concept of recycling!

Here are directions for making your own paper.

In the past, I have made large, square-shaped papers and attached a Mother's Day poem. Then, we placed it inside a frame for the students to present as a gift.


Kids love to finger paint!
To brighten up your bulletin boards, you might have students write about ways to care for the Earth and mount this project above their writing.
Just have students trace a large circle on white construction paper. Give each a drop each of white, green and blue tempera paint and let them paint the Big Blue Marble.

How about starting an earthworm compost bin this month?

 Maybe you have a school garden that you could use it for.

The key ingredients are worms, soil, egg shells and coffee grounds. Surprisingly, it never smells like anything but coffee. The kids used to save a tiny scrap from their lunch to throw in each day (no meat). This one is decorated so cute!

source

You might also like this cute little freebie poem for Earth Day!

 Here is some interesting food for thought from an exhibit I visited over spring break:

I'm going to start! 

Let's make every day Earth Day! How do you try to go green?

:)

Second Grade Collaborative Pinterest Board

Hello Second Grade Teacher Friends! I'd love to have you come join me on Pinterest as contributors in a super sweet new collaborative board just for second grade sweetness! Pin your Common Core products, projects, videos, blog photos and more! It will be the perfect place for visitors to find all sorts of creative second grade stuff for their classroom! 

Click on the picture to see the new board!

 I hope to have it fill up very quickly!

Graphics by Pink Cat Studio         Fonts by Kimberly Geswein

If you want in on the fun, just email me and I'll add you!

Look for a notification from Pinterest. Just hit ACCEPT and you can start Pinning away!

 It's that easy!

Feel free to use the image with credits!

Have a super sweet day!

Food Fractions, Jelly Bean Math, and April Learning Activities for Second Grade

Easter week was full of fun food fractions and holiday activities!

1.) The kiddos were so sweet and many came in bearing gifts for me! One cutie pie made this bunny filled with goodies using a TP tube, scrapbook paper, a glittery pom and some jewels for eyes!

 I am filing this idea away on Pinterest for a classroom craft for next year!

2.) We wrapped up our fractions with a food theme unit this week! I love using the pieces from this Pizza Fractions Fun game as teaching tools. They look good enough to eat!

We also played a round of Scoot with these Food Fractions Task Cards. The class LOVED it! 

They can't wait to do it again!

3.) The class REALLY enjoyed a few yummy activities using jelly beans!

I gave each student a bag of 12 Starburst brand jelly beans. 

The students had to model and draw their fractions of the set and partition the rectangle to show halves, thirds and fourths. We also worked in a little mini-lesson on repeated addition, multiplication and division within the same activity!

Using our five senses, we created a list of adjectives that described our jelly beans! 

The students published a shorter list in computer lab.

 It is a great lesson on inserting an image and changing font size and colors.

If you would like the jelly bean picture for next year, I can send it to you without the watermark! 

4.) The class wrote a progressive Easter story. This is an older example where the children illustrated only one part of the story, but did not know what the others before or after had written. The students enjoyed seeing how the story and illustrations changed from writer to writer! I typed up the story beforehand and passed out a sentence strip to each child. This was published in Kid Pix Studio.

Other centers for the week included some fun with marshmallow bunnies fact families and telling time to five minute intervals.

Happy Easter!

:)

I Wanna Iguana Persuasive Writing

 Teacher, I WANNA IGUANA or maybe a cute little turtle... How about some colorful fish? Fish are very quiet and you wouldn't have to buy them any crickets....We know how you feel about crickets! 

I've never even considered getting a class pet. I can't imagine having to clean cages or change water and all of that good stuff. But we sure had fun as the kids tried their best to persuade the teacher to get them one!

Our latest persuasive writing unit was based around this adorable story!

I just love this unit by Natalies Nook! 

The kids had so much fun with the activities and the printables are just so darn cute!

The kiddos were very clever and gave some terrific reasons for getting the pet on their wish list!

So, in the end, it was decided that although the kiddos' letters were very convincing indeed, a class pet would be hard to care for and lonely over vacations. Whew!

Instead, we got a new class pet that doesn't make a mess, smell or require crickets to eat! 

Hello Jasper Jaguar!

Thanks Ms. S for our new friend! 

This was lots of fun!

Here's another easy and spur of the moment thing to do for persuasive letter writing~
Put a candy (or any non-food item incentive) of your choice on each student desk in the morning and have the kids write to tell you why they deserve to have it!
 I love to see the students focus on all of the positive things they have been doing at home and at school!
:)

Easter Egg Project and Poem for Second Grade

This pretty egg for a bulletin display was created by brushing corn syrup and food coloring on cardstock paper. The students created their own poems and typed them in computer lab! 

Are you coloring eggs this year?

April Math Centers and a Freebie

In case you missed my post from last year, I wanted to let you know about a cute math center that would be perfect if you are looking for some last-minute Easter activities for the next few days or even to use after returning from the holiday.

My firsties used to need a lot of practice with fact memorization! 

They learned them in the context of fact families.

 I used this activity with a yummy Peep theme as a center! They LOVED it!

 The set includes 42 cards, so you can switch them up and use it for several days.

 Each marshmallow bunny card has 3 fact family numbers. 

The kids took turns picking a card from an Easter basket which just made it even more special. 

Then, they had to create four related facts from their bunny card and write them on the recording sheet. 

If this is something you might be interested in, you can find it at my TPT store here. 

This fun bunny center is great for reviewing telling time to five minute intervals. 

It's a card matching center and also includes some good old black and white practice pages you could use for morning work or homework.

You can download this freebie here if you like!

It's always nice to hear from you and get some feedback at my shop on freebies too! 

The Water Cycle: Teaching Resources and Water Cycle Poem

It's time for April showers! Our class has been learning about the water cycle and welcoming in Spring with a rainy day theme! Meet our friend, Randy Raindrop!

We painted him with watercolors and added a bit of clear glitter! 

Randy is easy to draw.

 Just add a face on your master and copy. Then, color in the cheeks with pink crayon.

I also retyped a cute poem about the adventures of Randy the raindrop for our poetry binders! 

You can grab a copy here!

Subtraction with Regrouping Classroom Resources!

Subtraction with regrouping is hard for some of my second graders. Here are some fun activities and resources I have found to introduce the concept!

First, we always start out by using real world examples and posing a problem that would create a mental image of borrowing a ten. I like to use the example of having a party and some extra guests arrive and you need more of something... It is usually a food example like cookies. Kids get cookies! Yes, we send someone out to the store and get more! My special cookies come in packs of ten. One pack of ten is what we buy. Now we have enough to be eaten (or taken away). The store has one fewer, but we have ten more!

source

The Good Neighbors' Cheese Feast is a great story to begin a regrouping unit.

When The Good Neighbors decide to have a cheese feast, the mice discover that they do not have enough cheese to make their dishes. The mice's story models the subtraction with regrouping process so the kids can visualize it and make the transfer later with base ten blocks.

We are spiraling concepts this year in math, so we introduce something and come back to that skill later and build on it. We started this portion of our intro to subtraction with regrouping using some super cute activities from Amy Lemons.

We made these mini books and chanted and memorized the poems to help us remember when to regroup!
Check out this cute video for some dance moves to go with the poems!

More on the floor? Go next door and get ten more!

We tackle this first with modeling using using base ten blocks or Unifix cubes. 

If you have a SMARTBoard, this is a great free visual from the SMART Exchange you can use for demonstrating while the kids model with blocks.

Someday I would love to have a chart to use like this one from Lakeshore. It is definitely on my wish list!

 Side note: Here's a great tip I learned at a math workshop and it works wonders!

Whenever using manipulatives, let the students play with them for a minute with the understanding that afterward, they are MATH TOOLS! This really cuts down on reminders and keeps kids on task during the activity. 

I laminated these workmats made from folders. They have lasted for years. I almost wish they would fall apart so I can make them cuter! 

 This Vimeo does a good job of showing the break apart concept.

I hope you can use some of these resources to help your class too!

How do you introduce regrouping? 

Feel free to leave an idea or link in the comments!

Thanks for sharing!