Fabulous Finds, Traits Tuesday Linky, and Spark Student Motivation Saturdays...

Mornin'!  A few things to share...

Fabulous Finds Friday, a bit late.

Engage New York

Courtney discovered this fabulous site with oodles of resources for building Math and ELA concepts. I have linked to the Second Grade Math and the Second Grade ELA skill units.  Check out the any resources on their site.

K-2 Informational Text Resource

The Everything Guide to Informational Text K-2: Best Texts, Best Practices by Kathy A. Barclay and Laura D. Stewart was recently shared with our staff by our district media specialist.  I ordered a copy and read it in a flash.  What does it have to offer?  Some highlights---The Common Core and Informational Texts, Intentional Teaching and Differentiation, Choosing Stellar Texts, Comprehension Strategies, Lesson Design, and Informational Texts in Units of Study.  To view more complete overview of this resource, click here.  I especially appreciated the annotated bibliography of texts. Worth the money!

Story Cove

In looking for texts and resources for exploring folktales and fables with second graders, I stumbled upon a series of texts and soon discovered there was also a website.  Story Cove's Folktales from Around the Globe is a site full of resources for teachers and online books and activities for kids. There is a fee for subscribing, but much is included and you can preview a book and its resources.  The individual books are also available at amazon.com at reasonable prices. Books and animations run on iPads as well. Check it out!

Feel free to share your fabulous finds by adding your link. Don't have a blog, please share in a comment!

Hop on Board--Traits Tuesday Linky

We are rekindling our Traits Tuesday Linky this May! Click our logo to learn all about it! Simply, share your writing ideas, resources, mentor texts, successes, student work, and MORE related to helping your students become authors.  ANYTHING GOES!  We would love for you to hop on board---we all have a school year full of goodies to share!  Don't have a blog, you can share in a comment!  Stop back this coming Tuesday, May 6th to join in the sharing! 

Spark Student Motivation Saturdays: Cootie Catchers!

 

OK, I am no spring chicken and I'm not a senior citizen, but I bet people of all ages have heard or seen a cootie catcher (Chinese fortune teller).  My second graders have, and they LOVE them!  I just recently started providing some math cootie catchers for my students to enjoy.  I found some on Super Teacher Worksheets, BUT they are EVERYWHERE!!  It's obvious why these little buggers are motivating!  Click on this sample I found online.  I know no pics are necessary, but I did decide to order this gem, The KLUTZ Cootie Catcher Book, for some last day of school fun!

Fly on over to Head Over Heels for Teaching to discover more motivational ideas!

Have a splendid weekend!

An InLinkz Link-up

Fabulous Finds Friday & Five for Friday

It's FRIDAY!  

Thanks for flying on over for our Fabulous Finds Friday Linky and Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaches!

Fabulous Find: Math Stretches

A couple of summers ago, I heard about Laney Sammon's book Guided Math. I just knew I had to buy it and read it for myself. Guided math was something I always wanted to do, especially since I had been doing and loving guided reading for 10 years, but I just couldn't quite grasp how to get it up and running in my classroom. Her book was great and I really liked her idea of Math Stretches. They are short, simple math activities the kids do to "stretch" their brain into thinking mathematically.

Well fast forward to about a month ago. I read (probably on a blog, or Pinterest) that Ms. Sammons came out with a book that focused just on Math Stretches and ordered it immediately (don't ya just LOVE Amazon Prime:). The book I ordered is geared to K-2 and it is fabulous!! Ms. Sammons has GREAT math stretches in all areas of math (number knowledge, algebraic operations, measurement, geometry, data). I have it ready to go when my students arrive in the morning, and we discuss the stretch at the beginning of our math block. She has everything laid out in this book and even when I have a sub, the sub can read the explanation and what the students are to do. Something I don't have to write in sub notes!

This is the K-2 book I have. She has them available in 3-5, and 6-8 also. 
 I HIGHLY recommend it! 

Two-Word Winter Poems

If you have never tried writing two-word poems with your kids, they are a great for any age!  What's so nice about two-word poems? The format is EASY, a two-word poem can be written about ANYTHING, and writing them is a great opportunity for students to use strong adjectives and verbs (personification, too--though I do not use that term with my second graders). Courtney and I just got done doing two-word winter poems with our kids.  The first step was for students to brainstorm any words/ideas that came to their minds when they thought of winter. The lists were long. To reinforce the use of adjectives, we worked as a class to generate some strong adjectives that could be used to describe various nouns that students had on their lists.  Students circled all of the nouns on their lists, and this was a reminder that adjectives could be used to describe those winter ideas (if they chose to include them in their poems).  We also talked about using strong verbs and describing those actions.  We have not worked specifically on the term adverbs as of yet, but this was an introduction to this concept.  The next step was for each student to choose a focus for his/her poem.  Some choices were snow (in general), fun in the snow, snowflakes, bundling up, a fireplace, and hot cocoa.  Finally, students were off and working on their poems.  The rules--two-words per line with a minimum of 5 lines. Oh--and their ideas must "fit together" and make good sense.  I did not provide a lot of guidance during the writing stage.  Students' creations were fabulous! They were perfect to accompany our wintery tree artwork.

Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: Mini-Lesson & Class Book

Many of you have probably seen this mentor text for teaching conventions (use of commas) in writing--Eats, Shotts, and Leaves by Lynne Truss.  I saw a need for more work with using commas consistently and correctly to separate words/ideas in a series within the context of student's writing, so I decided to use this text for a mini-lesson.  It's a fun, yet useful, presentation of how important it is to use commas correctly.  While it presents the use of commas in various ways, other than to separate words/ideas in a series, its illustrations help students understand the purpose of punctuation--to tell their readers how to read their writing.

Here's an overview of the mini-lesson:

Read aloud text.  Students will laugh! Stop to discuss why the text is so funny.  Students will realize how one small thing, a comma, can change how a simple sentence is read. Reassure students that they do not need to know all of the different ways commas are used in the text. Yet, let them know they will need to use commas correctly to separate words/ideas in a series.  Ask students if they remember a page in the text where the author used this skill.  Revisit these pages. Tell students they will get a chance to use commas in this way in the creation of a class book. Project pages from the text that are specific to the skill being taught.  Then give each student a prompt such as, My __________ loves to...  Model using the prompt to write a sentence with the use of commas.  Example: My grandson loves to drink chocolate milk, play Batman, and listen to me read.  After students have finished writing their sentences, tell them to close their eyes and picture what is happening or being described.  Then allow students to illustrate. Compile student work into a class book for future enjoyment and easy reference.

Here are some pages from our class book...

Math Bags

One night, when reading the many wonderful blogs I visit, I came across First Grade Buddies. I read how they incorporate Math Bags during their math block. Now I spend A LOT of my nights and weekends printing, laminating, and cutting activities for my math workstations, and was looking for something that was simple, but still reinforced the math skills my students need. Their Math Bags were just what I was looking for. They have created math skill activities that my students can do independently. I love how the directions for students are easy to follow, I love that I don't have to use colored ink, I love that they reinforce skills we have worked on in the classroom, and I love that they meet Common Core standards.  They are a win, win with me!
  

I purchased the 2nd grade set, but I  know they have them available for Kindergarten and 1st also.  I purchased the seasonal Valentine's Day version too!

New Clipart

Another snow day this week meant some extra time to create some new clipart!  

Check them out in my Graphics by Sarah Beth TpT Store!

Feel free to link up your fabulous finds! Have a wonderful weekend!

Winter Masterpieces & MORE BRRR! Oh--Five for Friday, too...

What is Five for Friday? Hugh? Oh, now we remember! It has been SO LONG...

 

Weighing in a bit EARLY because we are off today due to the sub-zero temps and wind chills here in Illinois. BRRR!  Some extra time to blog today--time that may not be available tomorrow... 

WINTER MASTERPIECES

Thought we would share some WONDERFUL winter art ideas in keeping with the cold...

We may have shared this fabulous website in the past, but Courtney and I cannot say enough how great this creative blog is---Art Projects for Kids by Kathy Barbo!! Love the kid artwork posted on her sight and the step-by-step directions she provides.  Here are a couple of Kathy's projects our kids have created--

Snowman on Skis

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!  I get warm fuzzies each time I pass Courtney's bulletin board with her kids' masterpieces. These snow friends have character!!  Materials list--black paper, glue, and pastels.  Click here to learn more!

Abstract Winter Trees

SIMPLE but striking is always nice!  Our classroom paparazzi took a few pics of our abstract masterpieces.  My kids love to use watercolors, and they have become experts at mixing just the right color for their needs--beautiful.  We followed the directions pretty much to the T, but triangle templates were not necessary after modeling how to draw a tree.  Click here to learn more!

SCHOLASTIC's STORIA APP

Courtney and I have latched on TIGHT to Scholastic Storia--using it almost daily! If you haven't checked Storia out lately, take a look! Scholastic now allows the app to be loaded on multiple devices and enables teachers to create bookshelves.  As you probably already know, Scholastic offers oodles of nonfiction/informational texts for purchase in book orders.  You will be surprised at the number of these texts that are also available as Storia eBooks--many interactive.  Courtney and I have been using texts during core reading as well as during intervention time.  

 

MENTAL MATH SNOW FRIENDS

Our kids' mental math snow friend craftivities turned out great! This is just one activity we did when exploring the POWER of mental math.  Our kids are becoming addition mental math wizards!

You can find this craftivity and other materials to use with your kids in my packet, Snow Friends Mental Math. Just visit my TpT store!

 
 GUIDED READING & GUIDED MATH ROTATIONS: TO DOs

I have effectively differentiated instruction for my students for 20 years now--but as the expression goes, "Things get better with age."  I am sure many teachers use "to dos" to help guide their students.  I have found this a powerful tool to help build student independence--and I just started doing it religiously this year!  I found some great picture fonts from kevinandamanda.com that help students know if tasks should be done alone or with a partner/s. To Dos are slipped in plastic sleeves and put in work areas.  Also, I adore Kimberly Geswein's font and The Enlightened Elephant's cloud page border. Here are some examples of to dos that I use with my kids.

MATH DISCUSSION FANS

Problem Solving discussion fans are something my students use during guided math rotations.  They provide an independent, yet guided opportunity for kids to talk about math. My students have become great users of this tool! Check it out in my TpT store!

BE A WORD BUILDER EXTRAORDINAIRE!

I created the following word building activity sheets to give my students extra practice with various letter/sound patterns.  The letter/sounds chosen were specific to my students’ needs throughout the year.  I wanted to provide my students with more meaningful word work practice than simply letting them choose from different ways to write their spelling words.  My students also needed extra practice with chunking word parts.  Be a Word Builder Extraordinaire! has fulfilled these needs.  This product is newly listed in my TpT store!

Please enjoy a free sample of Long e: ee - Set 1 to try with your students!

Don't forget to fly on over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to read more Five for Fridays!

All the best for a warm & cozy weekend--even if you aren't freezing!