My students love learning about space! They are so curious about how the universe works and the awe they have at the size of things is exciting to watch. Our Reading Street story a few weeks ago was an informational text about space. My students were very excited! I love teaching informational text, but vocabulary is often the hardest part of non-fiction to teach. Yeah, it's easy to get kids to memorize definitions for a test, but to really get students to deeply understand and make connections with vocabulary words is another story. I have about 40% ELL (Engligh Language Learners) in my classroom so this makes effective vocabulary instruction even more critical.
Lucky for me space vocabulary lends itself well to acting out and physical movements related to content is one of my favorite ways to teach. We had students ascending and descending from desks, orbiting around friends, and investigating tools! Once I felt like my students really understood the astronaut space vocabulary, I wanted them to demonstrate their knowledge with a writing prompt. Vocabulary writing can be a great assessment tool. I wanted to spice it up though and what better way to do that than with a craft! I came up with my Astronaut Vocabulary Writing Craftivity.
First students wrote about what they would do if they were an astronaut on this space themed handwriting paper. Then they made an astronaut out of a paper plate, one of the best craft materials in the world I think. I gave them some black construction paper, crayons, and start stickers and the end product was not only adorable but a great way for me to assess their learning.
To celebrate the end of October and the beginning of the most wonderful time of the year, I am hosting a 10% off sale in my Teachers Pay Teachers store through Tuesday, October 28th! Happy end of October! Go here for the sale Mrs. Grisham's TPT Store
I've been MIA for awhile which means it is back-to-school time, the busiest time of the year for all us teachers for sure!! I've transitioned to a new school district so added onto all the typical back-to-school chaos, I'm learning a new system. It has been exhausting to say the least, but despite all the craziness I am LOVING my new school and I'm pretty sure I have the best group of 2nd graders in the world :)
This is a First Week of 2nd Grade post, however we are now in the 6th week. Oh man! From now on I hope to post at least once a week!! Maybe one day I'll be one of those great bloggers who posts every day, a girl can dream, huh?
The first week of school was full of teaching routines and procedures (we are still doing mini-lessons and practice of expectations daily), fun get to know you games and activities, and I even was able to sneak a little district required assessment in there.
We started our first day reading the book, "Do Unto Otters: A book about Manners" by Laurie Keller.
Students then broke up into small groups to write down what they thought our rules should be on sticky notes. Don't Sticky Notes make everything more fun!! (P.S. they are a great formative assessment tool too!) I wanted my students to know right away that I value their opinion and that group work and participation are expected in our classroom culture. They came up with some pretty great ideas and we were able to group them into about 5 "Promises to Each Other". Then all the students signed that they agreed to these promises.
Math started with math tool exploration!! Not only is this what best practices say should be the first step in using math manipulatives, but kids think it's fun and I score major brownie points. Yay!!
They loved just playing with the math tools, but the next day we got serious and used Amy Lemons Tools or Toys math sort lesson from her Let's Get Started (Beginning Math Activities) unit. I just love anything she does and my kids loved this lesson. They learned the difference between a toy and a math tool, and we were able to set up our math journals at the same time.
We also did her Mathematicians lesson. We talked about what Mathematicians do and the kids actually were full of ideas! I was pleasantly surprised at how much they already knew about math and what mathematicians do! Then each made their adorable little Mathematicians and wrote a sentence or two about what Mathematicians do. I LOVE craftivities that incorporate content areas, writing, and art and this is a perfect example of the greatness that integration can provide for students. Thank you Amy! I just love the way they look on our cupboards and I've had many parents comment on how their child is now saying they are a mathematician. I call that a win.
We also launched Reading Workshop and my students loved getting access to lots of quality books in their book boxes. The first day I put all of our book tubs on student desks and then had students rotate the tubs abound so all kiddos could see what kinds of books were in each tub. Students also started learning how to pick their own books for their book boxes and worked on building up their stamina. They sure are a chatty bunch and aren't yet use to the cognitive demands of 2nd grade, but we built our independent reading stamina up to 4 minutes the first week which I think isn't too shabby.
A favorite first week activity is always decorating Writer's Notebooks. Students love the idea of having their very own notebook where they can write or draw whatever they want. I gave them access to stickers and magazines and let them work. This is fun and I get a little insight into my student's personality.
We played a fun get-to-know you game that requires no materials. I learned this game during my days as a summer camp counselor and it's so fun! All the students stand in a circle. I start by saying, "My name is Mrs. Grisham and I like to kayak," while moving my arms like I'm paddling in my kayak. All the students repeat, "My name is Mrs. Grisham and I like to kayak," while doing the same paddling movement. We then go to the next student who says what their name is and something they like to do with an accompanying body movement. Students repeat and then go around the circle, always starting with Mrs. Grisham and then saying all the students names and interests so as to repeat names and likes many times. This takes about 20 minutes, gets the kids up and moving, plus we all start to learn names and find out about student interests. I had students who liked to ride horses, play ping pong, all kinds of sports, math, reading, writing, shopping, checkers, and a whole bunch of other really cool things I would have never known if it wasn't for this fun and easy game. Try it out!
The last thing I want to highlight is the adorable book "First Day Jitters" by Julie Danneberg.
I read this book on the first day of school and the kids loved the surprising ending!! We then used the First Day Jitters writing FREEBIE from Fun-n-First. The students writing was so gosh darn cute and I got a little insight into what their writing ability was.
We had a great first week, although I always feel like there a TON of cute ideas that I never get to. Share your fun first week ideas below. Happy day!
