Second Grade Science Experiments, Math Manipulatives, Landforms, Oreo Spiders and FREEBIES!

I'm really excited because today, I am linking up with Deanna Jump and other bloggers for my FAVORITE chapter in this Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites book study! It's all about manipulatives, experiments, labs and models! I could go on all day about this one! Read on to see how I use this strategy in my second grade classroom! This post is heavy on the pictures, but I hope they will give you some great ideas! You can also pick up a few FREEBIES along the way!

When I think of manipulatives, experiments and models, science and math come to mind most often. 

I like this quote from the book Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites: 

When learning is active and hands-on, the formation of neural connections is fascilitated and information is much more readily remembered than information learned from an abstract viewpoint, where the teacher is doing the work, while the students watch. (Gregory & Perry, 2006)

In math, I try to begin each new unit with some concrete work with manipulatives to build the foundations before moving on to any pencil/paper tasks. The use of manipulatives and models also creates interest and gets students motivated to learn more! When a worksheet is necessary, I like to also have the students model with manipulatives at the same time! 

Comparing handfuls with greater than and less than symbols using counting bears.

Making ten- addition sentences with Skittles on a ten frame mat.

 Judy clocks to model time while using task cards.

Partitioning shapes and modeling fractions of a set of 12 jelly beans.

Making the transition from observing and identifying coins with play money to the paper task- using coins on top of the worksheet.

I am fortunate to have a classroom FULL of manipulatives and models to use as teaching tools. When I model concepts, the students can model along with me!

We made pipe cleaner number racks for subitizing and fact practice.

  These are just a few of the models and manipulatives we use and those that I could easily find a photo of for you!

What are your favorite math manipulatives? 

 Science is my favorite subject to teach! I try to bring hands-on experiments and inquiry into our themes every chance I get. As with anything, I wish there was MORE TIME! Here are some experiments that my class just loved! 

We planted amaryllis and paperwhites this winter. It was really neat to see the roots and the bulb. You don't have to have a green thumb for these. They grow without any TLC. This came as a planting kit and they had already sprouted without soil or water!

We do lots of experiments with candy and other fun seasonal items. Be sure to click on the links to grab some FREE lab sheets! Yes, they are a worksheet in a sense, but it is helpful for the students to draw and write their observations and conclusions. It grows more dendrites! 

Gummy bears experiment and lab sheet.

Candy hearts experiment and lab sheet.

At Halloween, we also experimented with candy corn. You can grab a copy of the lab sheet too for next year!

In some subjects it is also possible to build your own models! Talk about growing dendrites. Creating is at the top of the taxonomy!

 We built Oreo spiders as we learned about the body parts!

When studying landforms, we build salt-dough models on pizza rounds, paint them and label them.

The best of all worlds for me is combining both math and science concepts with models, manipulatives and experiments into a great STEM activity like this one!

Penny rafts STEM challenge.

My big TAKEAWAY from this chapter was that I need to keep doing more of these types of activities. I hope to work the same ideas into other subject areas. 

 Thank you for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed this post and can take away some new inspiration for implementing ideas for strategy 7 in your room! 

:)

Fun and Games for Learning in the Second Grade Classroom

We all know that research supports the use of educational games to enhance learning. The FUN FACTOR that games provide can't be beat! Maybe you have been thinking about making your learning activities more game-based, but are wondering where to start or how to fit them into your already busy day. Here are some great new ideas to put into action!

Why is using games in the classroom a best practice strategy? 

This quote from the book Growing Dendrites pretty much sums it up:

Games are not only perfect for raising the level of feel good-amines in the brain, but also, in the correct amounts, games can increase cognition and working memory. (Jensen, 2007)

Fun and Games in Our Room

This game of Blink is a favorite in our classroom. It is great for identifying attributes like shape, amount and color. Since it is a race-to-be-the-first-out game, it is also helping some of my students with visual discrimination and processing speed.

 My class really enjoys dice games in math.

I picked up these nifty little dice-in-dice at Lakeshore Learning. 

A game that was recommended in the book is similar to what we play with I Have, Who Has! 

My kiddos think this place value set is so much fun! 

They have to be good listeners and thinkers during this type of activity!

Card games are perfect for practicing math skills too.

This set includes a zero which is important in math.

In case you missed it, you can find the card set here.

 

You may be thinking that adding more games to your classroom will mean lots of extra work or spending some cash, but there are many games that can be played with things you already have like a deck of cards, index cards, or a Nerf ball. 

Here are some other easy suggestions from the book:

• Toss a ball. The student that catches it must answer a review question.  They receive 1 point for catching the ball and two points for a correct response.
• Create a vocabulary and definition game of memory on index cards. 
• Play Charades and act out vocabulary words.
• Play Pictionary and draw vocabulary concepts instead.

How can you work in time for games?

With so much to teach, it is easy to run out of time to work in a game. Consider scheduling a block of time on Fun Fridays for your game rotations. It is one way you can be sure that game time is a top priority!

Don't forget about the importance of games just for fun during inside recess time. They are great for learning how to be a good sport and how to work cooperatively. 

The top pick in my room is Mouse Trap!

 But... my students don't actually play the game, they just build the contraption and watch the steely marble go, just like I did when I was seven!!!

Bridges Math Activities in Second Grade: Five for Friday

TGIF! Life is good on Friday nights! I'm linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching to share my Five for Friday picks for the week! This is a good fit for a post this week, because, as you will see, it was a little bit of a smorgasbord of stuff!

1. We'll start with a personal accomplishment from the week!

Can I hear a loud AMEN?!!! The ACT test is over! Do you remember taking it? For years there has been so much hype for this high-stakes test! What a relief to just be done with it. Good grief! Now the wait for the scores... My high schooler is pretty confident he rocked the test! Fingers crossed. Being undecided about college plans, we hope to keep all options open!

2. We've been working on measurement in our classroom. In our Bridges in Mathematics series, the unit begins with the students creating their own cute little inchworm rulers. The class enjoyed a roam the room, worksheet-free activity as they measured a variety of classroom items with them. Later in the week, we moved on to standard units with inches, feet and yards.

In our number corner workout, which is a whole separate thing from the math series, we are collecting quarters, making deposits and withdrawals in our "bank", regrouping to the hundreds place in subtraction, studying solid shapes and talking about quarters as fractional parts of a dollar. This is just part of our March Number Corner display.

3. We also began our reading response notebooks this week. If you haven't tried using them, this is a super simple way to get students responding to text following a read aloud or independent reading time. The kiddos are really excited and proud of their new books! Our author study with Tomie dePaola books has been a perfect starting point!

4. It is writing assessment time so I crammed in one last lesson on types of leads. No time to be Pinterest perfect this week friends so our Types of Leads Poster Set is displayed on the whiteboard!

5. You may be wondering where all of the Read Across America fun is in this post! We did work in one little Dr. Seuss activity during our testing week! We enjoyed watching Horton Hears a Who! Most of the kiddos had never seen it before so they LOVED it!

 I have EXTREME teacher guilt about the lack of Oobleck and red and white striped projects this year! Wish I could say we had done more, but the timing was really bad this week! 

We are planning fun things throughout the month with our author unit, so that will be another post! 

 Thanks for stopping by today!

I always enjoy peeking into other teachers' rooms to see what is going on there and to get some new ideas.

 I hope you enjoyed having a look into ours too!

:)

Second Grade Comparing Numbers and Place Value Math Activities and a FREEBIE!

Hello Everyone! I am popping in to let you know that I am blogging over at Primary Powers today to share a favorite ready-in-a-minute math activity using number cards! It is perfect to fill those few extra minutes here or there and a great one to use when you sense the class is getting restless! I also have a little FREEBIE for you all to get something like this ready for your classroom too if you like!

 Click on the picture below to head on over!

 I hope to see you there!

A Peek at OUR Week in Second Grade! Five for Friday in February

Happy Friday! I hope your week was great! I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching to share some highlights of our really fun, but short week! It was a completely mixed up one for many reasons, so I'll start with the end of the week and work backward!

It is always a great feeling to finish our monster of a monthly bulletin board! It's a combo for Valentine's Day and our 100th day! 

The look we were going for was sweetheart candies. The colorful papers we had were perfect! The heart shapes have doilies behind them. Where the word love would be, we added a cute heart shaped sticker!

The class did a great job with some close reading activities about groundhog burrows. They got to use their new close reading bookmarks for the first time. It was REALLY helpful for them to have one to keep on their desk, so they didn't have to keep looking up to see the poster that I used to display on the SMART Board. We printed them on colored cardstock in lots of fun colors. The kiddos are really excited to have this special tool to keep!

Our penguin unit wrapped up this week with the completion of some penguin reports! This cute flip book report is just one activity in an awesome unit from Primarily Speaking. It is just the cutest thing ever! The class LOVED it! It was nice to see that they took such pride in their work. 

 This was a fun activity we did with Judy clocks and dice. All clocks are set to a given hour. Then, they roll two dice and move the minute hand to that number on the clock. The students draw clock hands to show the time as needed and compete in a game of tic-tac-toe. They love to play against the teacher! 

All of our students participate in some sort of community service each year. We call ours Coins for Critters! The whole school participates in this fundraiser. During the fundraiser, we read many books about rescued animals. This was day one but our jars are filling up quickly! The second graders have to count and roll all of the coins. The donations go to the Humane Society.

The first two days of the week, school was closed. For my friends who experience the seasons through the photos I share...this is the view in every parking lot! We have mountains of snow! 

You can imagine how life gets complicated with this much snow to dig your way through!

Because of the snow days, the fun for Groundhog Day was spoiled. My plan book is also a hot mess, but with all the carry over activities, lessons for next week are almost done!

 So that was a recap of our short but sweet week. 

:)

Winter Math Center Activity for First and Second Grade FREEBIE!

Hello Everyone! Today I am guest blogging over at Primary Powers! I have a cute little penguin-themed math center to share with you! 

Head on over to read more about it! 

Your class will LOVE it!

:)

Math Fact Fluency Scoot Activities for First and Second Grade

We all know that kiddos learn best when they get to move around more during the day. They really need it!

If your kiddos are stuck inside or are getting a little wiggly, you may like a scoot activity. Here are my littles playing the superhero subtraction activity I shared at Primary Powers a few months ago.

I used this as an around the room activity. Notice the blank boxes where she skipped around...The students have to hunt for the task cards a bit. They are placed around the room on tables, desks and taped up here and there. 

You can grab that freebie {here} if you missed it!

These are our new math fact fluency scoots.

 More for other skills are in the works!

This one is not new, but it is available too!

Don't they look fun? I think my class will love them! Each one has 30 cards, a recording sheet and a self-checking answer key to keep in the tub. After the scoot activity, they can be used as any task cards for a center or for those speedy finishers!

Hope you like them! If you do, just click on the pictures to see them at my store.

Happy teaching!

Fraction Fun with Cookies : Teaching Resource for First Grade

Are you looking for a fun and engaging way to teach beginning fractions? When I was teaching first grade a few years back, I made this item for my kiddos. It continues to be a popular little mini-unit at my TPT store. Many teachers who have purchased this have used it for their observation lesson with great success! It is perfect to introduce the concept of equal groups and fractions of a set with the book, The Doorbell Rang. 

Right now, in second grade, we are taking the concept of equal groups to a new level by introducing arrays.

 I expanded this item to include some teaching posters that show cookies arranged in rows and columns for beginning multiplication and division concepts too. 

The students create a booklet that follows the pattern in the story, where more friends arrive at the door and the 12 cookies Ma baked must be shared equally. 

This photo of my first graders making their books is a few years old, but you can get the idea! 

These are the booklet pages:

My favorite part of this whole activity is having the Principal come down, in an apron, to deliver a batch of fresh baked cookies! ;) 

He's a good sport!

To read more about this item you can find the full description here.

Happy teaching!

Number Corner Set-Up Photos~ Our Calendar Math Powerhouse!

Today's photo tour post is dedicated to all of my Bridges in Mathematics friends who have just been handed your brand new series and the loads of great materials that come along with it. I hope you will get some good ideas for your room too, even if you don't use Bridges!  

Getting set-up for Bridges number corner activities and math workplace stations can be confusing at first. I'm a visual person, so to get ideas for my set-up, I searched the web for photos of how other teachers set up their rooms. I am here to pass on some classroom photos for others who are searching too.

This is my September number CORNER for second grade (a work in progress), which actually is more like a HALF WALL. 

The biggest black pocket chart EVER needs its own bulletin board. 

Because this chart is now the focal point in my room, I went to work adding a pop of color with a poppin' patterns calendar set to match my room theme. 

I replaced the month header with a colorful one and placed small calendar numbers in front of the white cards. Once turned over, the numbers hide behind the larger card.

The letters from this easy bulletin board titles set came in handy for this colorful sign I printed on Astrobright paper.

 Make Way for Number Corner!

Room Arrangement Tips

• You will need quite a bit of room for displays, materials and for a gathering area, so rearrange the desks and tables to create an open space. 

• Two bulletin boards are helpful. One is for the jumbo pocket chart and the other to hang the Daily Rectangle grid. You can see the red and blue tiles on my grid. 

• Below the grid, consider using a shelf to store your teacher number rack, student whiteboards, workplace bins or any materials you will need handy during number corner. 

• There are many items to prepare for displays, vocabulary work and activities for each month. These will need to be hung as well. I have mine on two whiteboards next to the pocket chart.

• It is recommended to have a chart stand for your calendar grid observation charts and monthly skill charts that need to be created on large paper. I typed mine up and will someday enlarge them as posters so they can be saved and reused. Plus, I had to add some clipart from Melonheadz!

 These charts change every month, so I am hoping that having a master in digital format will make editing easier.

Super Teacher Tools

Because many daily activities require that you record using a dry erase or wet erase marker, it is helpful to have a magnetic marker holder and whiteboard eraser. 

I also purchased magnetic sentence strips from Lakeshore for the calendar collection titles and date. 

My favorite purchase is the small black storage ottoman from Target that I use as my teacher stool/ binder rest. I love that I can be down at the students' level.

 I'm sure my number corner will evolve as I figure things out and see how they work for my class.

 I will keep you updated!

 Now if I could only make sense of my binders... 

If you have Bridges, you know what I mean!

Have a happy rest of the week!