Stories from a Second Grade Classroom: Teacher Resources

Showing posts with label Teacher Resources. Show all posts

Monday, February 18, 2013

Valentines Day 2013

Our school chose to celebrate Valentines Day on Friday, February 15th. We had a school dance, Jump Rope for Heart, and of course class parties! Here are some fun pictures from the day.

We were so blessed with parent support for our party! Look at all of those goodies! We did manage to eat some healthy fruit.

Delivering our Valentines to our friends.

Candy Heart Math Activities

Our monster sacks! These were perfect for all of our gifts of LOVE!

Teacher friends - The candy hearts math graphing activity and ADORABLE monster sacks came from the great Teacher Wife. I use this pack every year!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Friday was our 100th day of school, and it was a day of celebration for our hard work thus far in 2nd grade. We had a fun snack, played math and spelling games, and presented our 100th day projects. This is a special family project we do every year. Students must creatively display 100 objects to show their understanding of counting to 100. I was SO proud of their hard work and creativity! This activity aligns well with the common core speaking and listening standards, as well as the math standards.

If you would like the parent letter and rubric for this project, click HERE and HERE.

Our fun snack and visors to wear ! Students also received bracelets and dog tags for their back packs.

How did you celebrate the 100th day at your school?

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Author Studies

Throughout the year, I love to incorporate author studies during my guided reading block. In my classroom, I try and implement an author study at least once a nine-weeks. It takes a lot of planning and collecting of resources, but it is so worthwhile! The students are very curious and motivated to learn about the author's lives and their reasons for writing about specifics topics. Here are some recommended authors that fit perfectly with this curriculum: Jan Brett, Cynthia Rylant, Robert Munsch, Mo Willems, Kevin Henkes, Patricia Polacco, David Shannon, Tomie De Paola, Dav Pilkey, Laura Numeroff, and James Marshall. Again, these are just a few of the amazing children's authors out there.

One of the most rewarding aspects is seeing the children seek out these authors on their own, and excitedly check out books they actually WANT to read. I often will hear "Look Mrs. Phillips .... I'm reading a book by ____ !"

Click HERE for a handout with tips and tricks on implementing an authors study in your classroom !

When studying the author, my students complete an "Author's Portfolio" full of activities. This will be graded with a rubric and counted as a major reading grade. The work is done both independently and collaboratively (with reading buddies).

Click HERE for an example of a cover sheet and HERE for a grading rubric.