Five for Someday

So it’s been forever since I linked up for Doodle Bug’s Five for Friday because I just can’t seem to get it together on Fridays these days!  So why not Sunday?  Here we go…

This Five for Friday is dedicated mostly to my student teacher for two reasons:
1} She rocks!  It’s so awesome to see how naturally teaching comes to her.  She is patient, creative, and hard-working.
2}  I hardly get to do any teaching these days.  I’m gradually getting some time back as we get ready for her to bid adieu in May, but the majority of the day is still hers.

1. My student teacher was in charge of our latest bulletin board.  She decided to combine our current lesson on action verbs with spring.  I had the felt watering cans hanging out in my closet for years.  They made the perfect finishing touch! I think it turned out absolutely adorable!



2. Besides lesson planning, teaching, grading, and all that stuff that goes along with student teaching that you have to do without pay, my student teacher also has to do an additional project.  She gets to come up with her own idea, and she went with classroom goal setting.  Each child met with her and discussed a possible goal.  What we thought was pretty amazing was that many of them suggested a goal on their own that we were hoping to guide them towards.  Throughout the week she checked in with them to make sure they were focusing on their goal.  We also wrote them down and taped them to their desks.



3. At the end of the week students who achieved their goal got to play “Minute to Win It”.  Ohmyword, did they eat this up.  I loved her idea of a reward for a few reasons.  One, they had fun whether they won or lost because playing was their prize.  Two, students who did not achieve their goal still got to have fun by watching and cheering on their friends, but definitely became motivated to try harder next week. 

{Students who completed their goal met with our student teacher and got a certificate to take home}

Students had two choices for their game.  They could sort M&Ms based on color or wrap themselves in toilet paper like a mummy.  We played the “blue print” video like the show does to show them how to play.  We even had the minute timer from the show playing on our projector.  It was a lot of fun and INTENSE!!!!!  Every single student who participated completed their challenge within one minute, so we took their picture to add to the Minute to Win It Hall of Fame!

{Focus!}

This will be an activity I keep up with one way or another even after our student teacher leaves!

3. Amy Lemons did a post recently on listing poems. Read all about her idea here.  I basically ripped her off borrowed her idea and played a video on clouds and rain and we created some listing poems of our own.

First I explained what a listing poem was using my {FREE} Poetry Posters.

{Click the picture to grab them for free}

Then we watched the video and brainstormed facts and opinions we had about clouds and rain.  I randomly drew names and let students decide whether they wanted to create a cloud or rain listing poem.  The kiddos worked so hard and the end result was absolutely darling :)

{The last line on the bottom raindrop says “Rain is like a tune”…LOVE it!!!!}

4. Ok, finally something I can take FULL credit for!  We started our Earth Day lessons from the my mini-unit “Heal the World”.  We read through the mini interactive books and discussed some of the problems our planet is facing.  Tomorrow, we’ll use the center on our projector and make the craftivity to display in the hallway.

{Click here to check out this unit on TpT}

5. And since I was slightly tardy to this party, number 5 is actually something I did on Saturday!  We went to the Phillies game with our families to celebrate my husband’s uncle’s 60th birthday.  It was a coooooold night for April, but we had a fun time tailgating and watching the game eating.  Because my husband and I met through my brother, our families often spend holidays and birthdays together.  I love how well we all get along and I finally get the chance to feel what a bigger family feels like! Score!

{What you don’t see in this picture: the sweater and sweatshirt I have on under my North Face, 2 scarves, 2 pairs of socks, and Uggs}

That’s about it!  I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday and has a great week! And thanks Doodle Bugs{as always} for such a fun linky!

~Halle

Heal the…errrr…Planet?

Hello Friends!  Happy Sunday!  {Or not…we go back to school tomorrow, so this is actually Sad Sunday for me}

Anyways…I’m going to try to make a long story short.

I made an Earth Day Unit.  A mini-one if you will…and I was so excited to call it “Heal the World”

{Do you hear Michael Jackson yet??… “make it a better place…”}

But then I did some extensive research a Google search, and I figured out that phrase is pretty much trademarked, and that the Jackson Estate will come after me.  And…Ain’t Nobody Got Money Time for That!

So I present to you…

Heal the Planet!

{Click the picture to grab it from TpT}

This unit is short and sweet because Earth Day is only one day.

Scratch that, Earth Day is every day…but if this holiday comes and goes as fast as every other holiday did this year, I have about thismuch time to teach it.  Way back when I made my Christmas Around the World Interactive Readers I discovered that they’re the perfect thing to hold my kiddos’ attention.  They read important information, and then they respond to it right away.  They have fun, and I sneak in a little learning!

Take a look-see:





Those are just a few of the pages.  Your students will either draw a picture based on what they read, or fill our information in a chart/table.

I also included a center:



Students read the scenario on each card, and sort them onto the correct mat: “Healing the Planet” or “Harming the Planet”.  Simple but effective.  Do you sense a theme?

Oh, and of course there’s a craftivity…because…why not?

I’m giving one of these away on my Facebook page.  So head on over and enter!  It ends tonight!

Click here to check it out on TpT!

Enjoy the rest of your Sad/Happy Sunday!

~Halle

A Lion and Lamb FREEBIE for You!

Hello friends!  I’ve been absent for a few days.  No good excuse other than life got BUSY.  I’ll spare you the details {at least until my next Five for Friday post ;)}

Today is the last day of February!!!  Thank goodness.  Bring on Spring is what I say.
Starting tomorrow, my second graders will be learning about the ever popular saying, “In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb”.



We’re going to learn about it’s meaning using this YouTube video.  Did you know that the saying “In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb” is actually rooted in astrology, not weather?  I didn’t either.  Until I viewed the YouTube video at least.

Then we’re going to brainstorm as a group words to describe “lion weather” and “lamb weather”.  I made mini-posters with some commonly used adjectives on them and I will display them in the front of my classroom after our little group think. 



After that we’re going to make some predictions.  We loooooove making predictions in second grade.  I don’t know when that happened, or how I got them to looooooove making predictions, but it did and I did.

Then, during the whole month of March, we’ll be tallying our Lion and Lamb days.  {My little lambs probably don’t know this yet, but it’s looking like we’re going to get a snowstorm next week.  Yes!  Next week in MARCH.  I’m so mad.  But I also kind of like that it goes with this whole Lion and Lamb lesson}.




At the end of the month we’ll graph our results and be thankful that it’s April and spring is officially here and we can go on Spring Break!  Yay!

If this whole lesson sounds like something you’d like to do, click any of the pictures to grab this FREEBIE from TpT.

Tomorrow’s Friday!  Have a great weekend!
~Halle

Is Spring Break Over Already?

Well, D-Day is upon us. We go back to school tomorrow, after 10 wonderful days off.

Part of me is excited, because I do much better when I'm on a routine. I got a lot done during spring break, but I also spent my fair share of time watching the Today show {love Kathie Lee and Hoda J} and breaking in our new couch. I actually think I get more done when I'm working! Weird, I know.

We do Terra Nova testing immediately upon our routine from break. This is a first {testing right after break, not testing in general}, and I honestly can't say whether I think I'll like it or not. On one hand, it's easy to plan for, on the other hand, how do we make time for fun spring and Earth Day activities?!!!? We'll see I guess.

I have a freebie for you today: My Spring Break Picture Quilt. It's good for anyone returning to work like we are tomorrow. For everyone else, well, there's always next year! My kids will work on this right when they come in. {We don't have "regular" morning work at this point of the year…we change it up every day}. We'll then use it for their Spring Break writing. It's a fun pre-writing activity, and of course it looks cute.

Grab it Here

I hope you like it, and I hope you can find some way to use it!

Also, Amy Lemons is having a sale today in here TpT shop, 15% off on April 15^th! I already loaded up my cart with tons of her adorable units and packets!

-Halle

Time to Grow

Hello there!


 
How is it April and where have we been?  We've been asking those questions ourselves a lot lately.  And well, we can't tell you how it's April already (this year has just flown...), but we can tell you where we've been.


 
We've been busy.  And overwhelmed.  And stressed.


 
And it looks like this little blog is just gonna need some more time to grow than we had originally planned.


 
And coincidentally enough, it's spring, and spring is a time for growth.  It's also a time for spring break, which gives us time to water our little blog, and watch her bloom.


 
Are you still with us after all the flower analogies?  If you are, we'd like to show you a Pinterest inspired Bulletin Board Halle found the time to do right before spring break.  And she's in looove with it.

 
The idea comes from Dragonflies in First.  I love so many things about this bulletin board.  The frogs.  The bathing suits.  The books.  I think I mostly love the books.

 
You can find the idea here.  Love this blog!!!


 
I was so immediately taken with Dragonfly's idea, that I sprang right into action, not noticing that she made up frog templates and everything, which you can find here.  That would've been so much easier.  So please, should you decide you loved her bulletin board as much as I did, save yourself the trouble, and purchase the bulletin board set from her Teacher's Pay Teacher's shop.  I did fudge the title a little, and changed it to "Spring into a Good Book" to make it more applicable to spring :)

 
This was a 2 day project for my class. The first day I handed out a large sheet of green construction paper to each student. I then made 4 tracers each of a frog body and frog head. I have 4 groups of desks, so each student in a group started off with the tracer then passed it on when they were done. (We have been using tracers/supplies like this since the beginning of the year, so they work great with them by now). I had them hold their paper length-wise for tracing. They also cut two strips of paper length-wise, then cut those in half and folded them accordion style for arms and legs.

 
Does that sound confusing? It looks confusing now that I look at it, but again- you're going to be using the templates from Dragonflies in First, so it doesn't matter!


 
Once I approved their frog bodies, they got to pick a square of scrap-book paper for the bathing suits. I didn't have any clear cut instructions or templates for them to follow. Just this wonderful piece of advice, "Just hold up the paper to your frog, and make it fit!" Those had to have been the most vague directions I've ever given to a group of 7 and 8 year olds, and you know what, like 17 out of 20 of them did perfectly fine with those instructions! I only had to help a few! (Note to self: Be much more vague with instructions in the future).

 
And PS, their bathing suits turned out a-feaking-dorable! Loved the one pieces. Also, loved the boys with enough guts to go with speedos over trunks. Too cute!

 

All but a few (those few who had trouble with the bathing suits, even after my clear-cut directions) finished their froggies in about 35 minutes. I told them that the next morning they would be making books for their froggy friends, and that they needed to make their book covers look as realistic as possible. I had pre-printed rectangles and hung mine up as an example, and they were good to go. Love this time of year…they're so much more independent!

Their book covers were out of this world, as you can see in these photos! I just was so impressed with their efforts on this project, and I let them know it! They in turn were very proud of themselves. And, they're loving all the teachers poking their heads in our classroom telling us how much they love their bulletin board.

I've said previously that I love bulletin boards that aren't particular to a certain holiday because I can keep them up longer. I'll keep this one up till probably mid-May, when I put up our End of the Year board.


 
Hopefully with things slowing down soon, we'll be able to take care of this little blog some more. If not, there's always next year…{isn't that a teacher's motto?}


 
Have a good one!