The Simplest of Things

Well, we've finally finished up our units on double digit addition and subtraction with regrouping (a HUGE part of 2nd grade math) - YAY! Here is one of our math anchor charts:

Common core has actually made teaching regrouping just that much easier, as students are really delving deep and making their own understanding and connections. I love having "math talks" in the classroom and hearing students explain their thinking and reasoning. We are always discussing various strategies, and it's fun to see students hear other kids and how they may have solved a problem in a different way. 

Anyway, we've started our unit on place value to 1,000, and our lesson yesterday was focused on having students find number patterns and skip count by 5's, 10's, and 100's. At the end of our lesson time, we played a little game. First, I had a 5's/10's/100's spinner on the board. 

After having a kiddo come up and spin the spinner, I would make up a number pattern based on what the spinner showed. The students would then have to either continue the number pattern or find the missing number. They would write their answer in shaving cream on their desk, and then they'd discuss with a partner and justify their answers (love that my 2nd graders are using that word and know what it means!). 

 Such a simple activity I know, but it was motivating, fun, engaging, and it got the students talking and discussing. Sometimes we as teachers need to remember that it can be the simplest of things that can be the most effective. :-)

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Comparing and Contrasting

We've spent the last week working on comparing and contrasting during Instructional Focus. The standard(s) addressed are: 2.RL.9 - Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures. and 2.RIT.9 - Compare and contrast the most important points presented by two texts on the same topic.

I started out small, by first just going over what comparing and contrasting means and what it looks like. Here is our anchor chart:

Then, I had the students compare/contrast our school librarian and myself. We made a giant venn diagram (not one of my prettiest pieces of art, but hey, it works), and students wrote their thoughts on sticky notes and added it to the large venn diagram. Some of the answers were so cute. One of my personal favorites, "They both are good techers." :-) My heart is smiling for both the comment and the spelling!

Next, students were put in pairs and compared each other. After filling out a venn diagram, students had to write about their similarities/differences.

The following day, we read two books, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and The Three Silly Girls Grubb. Students then had to compare and contrast the different versions of the story. To do this, students filled out a comparison organizer and wrote about the similarities and differences. Check it out below!

The final activity we did this week was to read 2 different versions of informational text selections on bats. Students had to compare and contrast the two texts using the bat organizer. They then had to write about the similarities and differences. Here is an example of how this turned out:

Overall, it was a great set of standards to focus on for the week, and the kiddos loved the activities that went with it, and they seemed to really do well and learn a lot about comparing and contrasting. Another successful week down (two more to go until break, but who's counting???)! :-)

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IPICK Anchor Chart

Oh the many differences between 1st and 2nd grade... :-)  The list is long, but one major difference, at least in our school district, is the amount of time you have to set up you guided reading/Daily 5 time. In 1st grade, we have 6 whole weeks to get set up and go over expectations. In 2nd grade, we start in 2 weeks or less. AAGGHH! 2 week to go over Daily 5 and teach all of our minilesons???!!! Gasp. However, it can be done. Luckily, the 2nd graders know a lot more about expectations and learn a tiny bit quicker. For instance, I could skim over some of the minilessons like choosing a gathering spot, picking a signal, etc..., because the kiddos already knew those kinds of things.

Anyway, the students LOOOOVED the shoe minilesson (if you haven't read the Daily 5 book, you must must must - such great information) that preceded the IPICK lesson. They just thought it was hilarious that I brought in so many different kinds of shoes, and they about died of sheer delight when I showed them my husband's shoes, put them on, and asked if his shoes fit me (keep in mind that I wear a women's size 5.5, and my husband wears a men's size 12 - a bit of a difference, haha). This lesson was definitely a great hook for choosing books. We then made the IPICK anchor chart, and students got to practice choosing their books from our classroom library. Here is a copy of our anchor chart - more pictures of some of our other lessons to come later! Happy Thursday! Can you believe how fast the school year has gotten into gear???



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Cool Down Strategies Revisited

Remember how I posted that post at the end of last school year with the free anger management cards (I think end of April or beginning of May 2012)? Well, we went ahead and STARTED the year, this year, with having a whole lesson on anger management. If you missed that previous post, you can click HERE to go to the free download of those anger choice cards, or you can click the picture below.

After reading the book When Sophie Gets Angry, Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang, we talked about things that might make us angry. Students then discussed what they could do when they got to the point where they were angry. Next, we talked about how it is completely ok for students to feel frustrated, angry, upset, disappointed, etc... We are, after all, human, and humans have a range of emotions. However, we talked about the fact that even if we feel angry, frustrated, upset, etc..., we can't deal with those emotion in a way that will hurt or bother others or ourselves. The class brainstormed some ideas of how they deal with their anger "appropriately" (after discussing what appropriate would look and sound like), and we talked about how you might use different strategies at school and home. After sorting out which strategies might be good to use at school, we made an anchor chart.

 I then introduced the quiet spot, and went over my expectations for when a student feels they need to go to the quiet spot to calm down. I placed a laminated copy of the above discussed anger choice cards, and students will use a dry-erase marker or vis-a-vis pen to mark which choice they picked in order to calm themselves down. They will be expected to discuss this with me later when they return or when we have a break (which strategy they chose and how it helped them calm down). I also went over the calm down sensory box that our school counselor graciously put together for us (includes a glitter jar, marbles hidden in clay, buttons to sort, and letter beads to string onto string), and we discussed those expectations as well. All in all, this turned out to be a great reminder lesson for these kiddos, and I feel like students will not be intimidated or feel threatened or scared to express their frustrations in a calm and safe manner. Fingers crossed anyway! ;-)



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1st Grade Story Elements

We are working on story elements for instructional focus this week. For the tutorial group (our sweethearts who just need an extra boost and support), we started out by making and going over our anchor chart (you will notice we aren't focusing on plot or story events just yet for this week - we hit that more in sequencing or during shared reading/guided reading).

 Next, we split up into 2 small groups, and we went over this fairy tale sorting activity as a small group (just the characters, problem, and solution for this activity). We took some popular fairy tales the kids knew, and I read the cards aloud and had the students help me sort them into the correct column. This was a nice introductory activity where we could kind of work all together. If you'd like a copy of this activity, just either picture, and it will direct you to where you can download it, or you can click HERE. To prepare, all you have to do is download, copy, paste the boards on large construction paper, laminate, and cut out the cards. For older kids I would let them do this sorting activity in pairs, trios, or small groups, but for the younger kids or kids who need extra help, you can just do it all together.

 

Look for more story element activities later this week! :-)

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Instructional Focus - Sequencing

We do something called Instructional Focus each day at our school. I'm sure a lot of schools/districts do this, as my old district did this also. Anyway, I absolutely LOVE Instructional Focus, and I really think it's a super beneficial part of our school day. Each day, we start our day with IF. We are lucky enough at my school to have IF partners, as this is a school wide program. The specialists, classified staff, and other non-classroom teachers are pushed in to partner classrooms. The whole school is involved and engaged, and that sets a great precedence for learning. We love it because we get to focus on skills that are weaker, the specialists/partners love it because they get to see what we're working on in the classrooms (and some can carry it over and integrate it into other areas), and the kids love it because they get to work on engaging and relevant activities first thing in the morning. 

Each week we alternate between a math or a reading goal, and we set a Smart Goal for each week during PLC time (professional learning communities). Because we have partner teachers come in, my previous coworker and I started our current format for IF, and my current coworker and I are continuing to follow it. Basically, our push-in partner teachers are the library and PE teacher. So, my coworker and I split up the students based on flexible grouping (based on pre/post test data), and we have an "enrichment" and a "tutorial" group. The students may move between groups at any time due to data, anecdotal records, or informal observation. The library and PE teacher take the enrichment group and extend the lessons to meet the students' needs. My coworker and I take the tutorial group to go deeper and more intense with whatever skill/indicator we are working on. We provide all lesson plans/materials/explanations to our helper teachers for the enrichment group, and even though it is a lot of work, it is 100% completely worth it. Our helpers are amazing, and it gives us a chance to really focus and zone in on the kiddos that need extra help.

Anyway, our skill last week was sequencing. Last week I planned the tutorial group, and my coworker planned the enrichment group plans for IF. She focused on beginning, middle, and end flow maps and sequencing within stories. I focused on first what sequencing was, and then easing into sequencing within stories. First, in the tutorial group, we made an anchor chart that explained what sequencing was and when students would see it.

 Then, we started the week we just practicing sequencing in the context of technical writing (connecting to our snowman writing). We had the students write the steps for making toast, something even my ELL students could connect to, and then the students were able to make an example.

 Next, we took it a step further and started talking about sequencing in context of reading stories. I read the story Duck on a Bike, and we gave each student a card that had the story event already listed (the students drew a quick pic to match the event). When I read the story a 2nd time, the students listened carefully for their event, and the placed it in order up on the ledge. We then taped the events down in order.

On Wednesday, the Tutorial group got to read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar and sequence the events on their own on sentence strips (I didn't have a chance to take pictures the rest of the week). Then, on Thursday, we read The Three Silly Girls Grubb, and the students filled out sequencing flow charts all together. And last, on Friday, we read short story called The Toss. I copied pictures of the story events, and the kiddos had to sequence the pictures and orally retell the story to their partner. Then, they 4 squared the events using time order words (literally take a piece of copy paper, fold it into fourths, and the students write 1 sentence per box using time order words, then they draw a picture). I wish I'd taken a pic of the 4 square, because they turned out pretty well! I was impressed with how well the students did with sequencing, and of course, we will continue to work on the skill in both shared reading and guided reading (and read aloud). Both the tutorial and the enrichment groups did well with this skill, and it was a very highly productive week for us! :-) Pin It

Making Tracks

Were anyone else's kiddos sugared up from the V-Day parties yesterday??? Class parties in the middle of the week should be outlawed. ;-) Anyway, I hope everyone had a great V-Day. The hubby was so sweet and actually made dinner for me last night (a very welcome present I assure you). He even set the dining room table and put out our wedding china. Steak, green beans, baked potato, and homemade cheese garlic bread for dinner and a yellow cake from a box for dessert. It was the cutest thing!

Anyway, one of the bright points of today was shared reading. I love teaching children how to make tracks and show their thinking as they read. We've been doing lots of modeling throughout the school year with making tracks, and we'd done a couple introductory lessons; however, we hadn't quite gotten as far as having the kids try writing their thoughts out yet. Today, as we were reading our shared reading story, At Home Around the World, the students got to share some of their thoughts and tracks (this is a nonfiction informational text about different kinds of homes around the world).

As we started to read the story, the kiddos had so many tracks that they were sharing aloud, that I decided to let them try writing them out. We'd made our anchor chart in a previous lesson and I had it up front for students to reference. I was curious how my students would do with writing out their tracks, and I was pretty impressed for their first time! The students loved this activity, and even though this was their first time recording their tracks, there was definitely significant pre-teaching involved in the week before through mini-lessons, creating an anchor chart, making connections, and heavy modeling. Here is our anchor chart. I found myself wishing I'd taken a picture of the one I'd made with my class last year, but alas, I didn't, and I couldn't remember exactly what I'd included, but this seemed to suffice.

While the students were reading, they then made tracks on post-it notes (do you love that I just happened to have house shaped post-is that went perfectly with the story???). Then, instead of having the kids stick their tracks in their books, we put them all up on chart paper so we could read over them together when we were done. I had the students put the page number of the page that "inspired" them, write their track, and put their initials - as you can see, most of them did that, but there were  few that "modified" the directions, haha. ;-)

The students were so enthusiastic about sharing their thoughts, and it was super cute to read aloud their tracks. Like I said, I was pretty impressed at the quality of the majority of the tracks, especially as this was their first time independently doing this for the year! As you can see from the writing, I've got quite the range of students in my class.... ;-)

Some of the tracks above: "I learned that some people's houses are made of snow." "This reminds me of my home." "I saw a wide house." "I didn't know that people can stay warm in an igloo."

"I didn't know that houses have wheels on them." "I know that houses go underground." "I didn't know that people can live in igloos.

"I made a tipi in school." "I wonder if they're cold."

As is the case every year, this was a great lesson to help the students "dig deeper"and really think about the text they were reading. I love that all of my students, including my ELL kids were able to share their thoughts through words and pictures and be proactive in their reading!

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