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!

Classroom Decor Set~ Birds on Burlap~ Beautiful!

Our classrooms are our home away from home. We spend lots of time and money to make it a special, inviting place to be. We clean, we organize, we rearrange furniture, we decorate, we make it our own, right? I just love having the chance to help teachers create the classroom of their dreams and one that will say, "This is me"!

Have you been thinking Spring? Well, picture birds on burlap!

 One special teacher knows just what "look" she is going for in her classroom. She requested a one-of-a-kind decor set in a nature theme inspired by this picture she sent me:

  

 So... we had a picture to work from and the fun began choosing the various color schemes, graphics, backgrounds and frames for her set. 

These are the pretty birdsnest colors she picked for her design. 

All of her accents were created to match.

They are mixed in for pops of color for her banner, alphabet, signs. labels and binder covers

 along with the birds and burlap backgrounds. 

Here is a preview of a few of the many pieces in the finished set:

You can purchase this decor set here if you are interested.

If you've thought about a new look or new theme, I'd love to design one with you!

Because creating the perfect set takes some time, I normally accept custom orders through the summer months. Please email me if you are interested in more details and to add your name to the list!