Monarch Lesson

We are in the midst of our large Monarchs, Milkweed, and Mexico unit, which spans 2 quarters!  It is a great unit that covers many science concepts for second grade.

The other day we discussed the importance of milkweed and the creatures one would find in a Milkweed Ecosystem.  We then went on to create a mural of the milkweed patch, including everything you may see.

Here is how it turned out:

After they created a creature or plant, they created an information card labeling it's importance to the ecosystem.

Paraphrase Activity

I know it has been a loooong time since I have posted something.  I actually decided to take  a break from my school blog because I wanted to spend more time with my family and between this blog and my family one, I just wasn't making that happen.

I figured I would pop on real quick to say hi, see how you all are doing and share an activity with you.

A few months ago, I introduced a new activity to my students.  I hadn't tried it before and was curious how my second graders would do.  I found this idea on Pinterest.  The idea was to have children summarize a story and then paraphrase what they wrote onto smaller cards.

Here is how it worked in my room:

I read the story, The Mitten.

Without telling them the other parts of the activity, I had them go off in small groups and summarize what I just read to them.

 

I then showed them a smaller card and said they now had to fit that summary onto the new card and couldn't use the back.  I had a lot of smiles and shocked reactions but we went on to discuss how they might be able to accomplish this.  We talked about how to reword their writing(paraphrase it) so it could fit without losing the main details of the story.  I then sent them off in their groups to get to work.

They came back to the carpet and I showed them the final card which was significantly smaller than the original one.  After more smiles and shocked reactions, they went off one more time to paraphrase the story even more so it fit this card.

 

 

After we came back together and discussed the activity, we took all three cards and put them together so they could see how their main summary compared to the paraphrased ones.

 

They really enjoyed the activity and I was very proud of how they did!

Mock Election

With the upcoming election on everyone's mind, I took a moment to speak to the children about the actual election process.  We talked about how to vote, voter's rights, and why every vote counts.  I also made sure to remain as neutral as possible when speaking about the candidates.  I did not want to have some lovely parent emails waiting for me later. :)

The children were really fascinated with the process and to my surprise our conversation about the process lasted well over 30 minutes.

After we talked, I we held a mock election so the children could practice this process.  Our voting topic was Favorite Pet.  If I had more time, I would have created a voter ID card for each child.  I saw a cute idea about that on Pinterest.

We then held a secret ballot on my iPad, using the app TallyPad.  It is a great app to help keep track of class votes, surveys, game scores, etc. I covered the actual numbers so the children couldn't see the count.  They went into the "voting booth" and cast their vote. 

And the winner was.....

DOG!

However, cat was a very close second.  I took that as an opportunity to discuss how close this election is going to be and reiterate the importance of everyone voting and making sure the votes are counted properly. 

Good luck to both candidates on Tuesday!

TPT Sale!

I recently added some new products to my TPT store and wanted to celebrate by having a sale.  I am offering 15% off today only! Be sure to check it out!

Teachers Pay Teachers

Well, I finally did it.  I started selling some items on Teachers Pay Teachers.  You can visit it here or on my side bar.  I have a ton of old freebies on there including a Thanksgiving Venn Diagram that you might want to check out!

I am hoping to add some more items very soon, so be sure to follow me on TPT to get my latest uploads. :)

Book Pumpkins

Many of you may have seen this before.  If you haven't heard of it before, the basic gist is that you read a book with the class.  Then you and the class decide how to turn a pumpkin into a character or representation of that book.

We used to do this as a school project at past schools, so I spoke with my librarian this year and she was totally on board with trying it out.  I am not sure how much it will catch on though since it turns out that third grade does this as a book report every year (oops).

This year we decided to do Bunnicula.

"Ah, ah, ah" (in a spooky dracula voice)

The kids were so proud of it and love the fact that the whole school gets to see their hard work.

Fire Safety Week

This week, as many of you know, was fire safety week. 

In our class, we did the usual fire safety talk and I read one of my favorite books for fire safety: 

At the end of the week, I was able to convince my brother who is a NYC EMS/Firefighter to Skype with my class so they can ask him questions.  My kids came up with some great ones and of course I was proud of my little brother as he spoke with each child and answered their questions. 

It's amazing how technology allows things like this

to bring our worlds just a little bit closer together.