How to Structure Your Writing Block for Student Success: November Writing Prompts for Second Grade

Well here it is! November already! My new writing centers have been working out so perfectly, that I decided to keep it going for every month. The November edition is all set and ready for next week!

The kiddos LOVE them, so we have been using them on a regular basis. This time, I have a cute fall basket set out for the prompt cards. 

There are papers to use for a variety of the November themes like life long ago, scarecrows, owls and Thanksgiving. 

My class likes to color the little clipart pictures!

I can't wait to get started and see what they can do!

Recently, I had some questions from readers and those that purchased the October kit about how I structure my writing center time to include these prompts.

I thought you might find it helpful to see how I set up my writing block.

This is what it looks like:

• mini-lesson with a focus skill such as adding details or organization

• modeled writing of one of the genre from the prompt set

• prompt-picking/ paper selecting time (tables are called to the center then return to their seats to write)

• whole-group independent writing practice/individual writing conferences

• author chair for a few randomly selected students

Occasionally, I select a whole-class prompt and take this piece through all of the stages of the writing process from prewriting to publishing. This may be a piece I display in a class book, hang up, or use for an assessment.

I have seen TREMENDOUS growth in my students’ writing using this model. What I love best is that it allows me to conference with students daily about ways to improve their writing. 

The students thrive on that individual attention and feedback. 

If you think you may want to give these a try this month, you can find the November Writing Center Kit {here}.

Happy Teaching!

Classroom Storage Ideas for Centers and Crafts

It's a fact. Teachers have a lot of STUFF. It can seriously take over the room and bury us alive if we let it! I am back today to share another tip that really helps with classroom organization. My Weekend Warriors friends are also here to share some swell October Organizing ideas with all of you.

This post is all about...

When I found out I would be getting oodles of math centers and manipulatives with our new math series, I honestly had mixed feelings. I am excited to have all of these great materials, but I am pretty much out of storage space without new STUFF coming into the room. If you have storage issues too, you might try what I did!

 If you need to conquer the clutter...hide it and stack it up!

 For storage solutions for my math manipulatives, centers, craft pieces or just about anything... 

 I now look for stacking tubs with lids.

I purchased lots of these beauties at Lakeshore. They were a bit pricey, but SO worth it. They last for years and come in a variety of great colors. I picked up two different sizes. One set is shallow but wide enough to hold recording sheets, game mats and all center materials. Because they have lids, they stack and that saves space!

The other set is deeper and perfect for manipulatives, card sets and other things. 

What I love best about these tubs is the fact that they are so colorful and fun.

 My new bins are great except for the fact that you cannot see what is inside.
 It really helps to have some clear containers for things too.  

I like everything in its place and prepped way in advance.

Here we have my crafts for the rest of October and into November prepped and stored away in Sterilite containers from Target. All of my turkey project pieces are copied, cut apart and ready to assemble!

When our Fun Friday crafting begins, I simply pull out a project tub! 

My goal is to continue to add to my container collection and eventually label everything. It will be a work in progress!

October Writing Center with a Little Bling!

Halloween is a BIG DEAL for little ones, so I totally take advantage of their excitement! Our October plan includes a week of spiders, a week of bats, a week of pumpkins and a week of all other fun holiday things with good old Christopher Columbus in the mix as well. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw the photo of this SPOOK-TACULAR writing center I have ready for my kiddos to begin next week. 

To make this lots of fun for our very first writing center, the table is covered with some cute glittery fabric I picked up at Joanne's.

 I also plugged in some orange and purple holiday lights and wove them around items on the table.

Target carries these cauldrons and black pumpkins I have on display.

 I used a rhinestone kit to decorate them.

They are so me!:)

Inside the cauldron are a variety of prompts I think my class is going to LOVE! They include different types of writing tasks. Even though the kiddos have not had formal instruction on all of the genre included, like persuasive writing, I wanted to have them try their hand at it. They always surprise me with what they can do! 

Before we start, I will read each of the cards to them, so they can begin working more independently. I'm pretty sure they are going to be SUPER excited once they hear the tasks! 

You can find the prompt cards in this new set by clicking on the picture below!

There are enough cards here to have each child choose a different task each day throughout the month but it's not necessary to do them all since we are starting a week into October.

I also made a few different writing papers for the students to use to mix it up a bit. Some require writing a list, so there is list paper. One task is to write a letter to a friend, so that stationery is included too. Other papers have cute bats and pumpkins on them that they can color if they finish early. 

Some things they will just write in a spiral notebook, like the acrostic poems, because I want them to set up the letters and I will have plenty of other writing samples to look at.

It's not too late to begin if you want to set up a center of your own or have something like this for Halloween week only. The center is easy to prep which is nice during this busy time of year! You can just do the prompts as a whole-class journal topic too if centers are not your thing.

So my classroom is mostly decorated, but I need to get moving on my house. I can't believe how October just snuck up on me. I live in the neighborhood where I teach, so tons of kiddos will be coming to trick-or-treat and see me! Today is a great day to start pulling out my outdoor bling! 

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you got some fun ideas here to welcome October into your classroom!

:)

Fall Sequencing Fun! There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Leaves!

Happy (almost) Fall one and all! The leaves have not changed colors here yet but other signs of fall have arrived. The heat is running in the morning hours but it's still warm enough in the afternoon for the swarming BEES to go all crazy, chasing the kiddos (and the teachers) at recess! Anyway, I've had lots of requests from my sweet friends for more sequencing sets so I thought I'd make a fun activity for a favorite Fall read aloud! 

I just LOVE this book!

If you are new to sequencing sets, all you do is print the picture cards, ordinal number cards and number cards on cardstock and laminate them. They may be used as retelling sticks or placed in a pocket chart for center time or a whole-group activity.

I have displayed them on a whiteboard to rearrange as we read the story and also as a cut and paste onto construction paper sequencing activity. My second graders will use the writing pages to complete a written summary using transitional words and phrases.

Lucille Colandro's Old Lady... series of books are perfect for thematic units!

 I hope you will love this set my friends! 

Happy Teaching!

Hershey Bar Fractions

Do you have a favorite unit of all time? If I had to choose, I would say that this sweet one tops them all! It's fraction fun in a chocolate bar theme without the mess!

This pack contains all of the printables you may need for a really fun fraction unit that your students will surely remember!

At the end of the unit, I always give my students a little sweet treat to reward them for their hard work! 

You can see more of this item at my Kidsrcute TPT shop!

What is really sweet, is that it is on sale for one more day!

If you have already purchased this, be sure to download the update!

Have a super sweet day!

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!

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! 

Snowman-Themed Compound Words Center and a Fun Font

This big snowstorm has motivated me to do some creating in winter themes! This is a new center that I know my students will love during Daily 5 (which is more like Daily 3 lately) for the month of January! There are four weeks of card matches here and a recording sheet too. I anticipate that it will be a 20 minute long station rotation which will be perfect with our full schedule.

I am going to have them work in small groups cooperatively on this one. It may prove to be challenging for a few of them. I can see matches like rainglasses and suncoat making sense to some of my kiddos!

What I like about this design it is that it won't use up a lot of ink to print. And don't you just love Nikki's graphics! You could print the set and then photocopy it on blue or any colored cardstock. That would be cute too!

I used all of my own fonts for this item! There is one that I favor lately for directions and descriptions but it wasn't quite dark enough for titles so I created it in bold. This is what I used in the headings and on the cover. The font is called Second Grader! The medium and bold versions are available at my shops.

I have seen a few of my fonts on some wonderful items out there! I get so excited when I spot them and am glad to know that they are coming in handy! If you have created anything using one of my freebies or commercial use fonts, leave me a comment and a link so I can check it out and others can too!

Tonight I am going to start on a winter poetry collection and hope to get some Tacky the Penguin activities ready for the week we return. I just love Tacky!

If you think you may like either the font or the compound word center or both :), please leave me a comment below. I'll randomly select a few names to win a copy this weekend so you can try them out! Be sure to leave me your email too!:)