Happy Valentine's Day!

Ah the day of love has arrived. :-) I'm happy to say that our class parties were done with a couple days ago due to parent-teacher conferences this week. That is enough of a Valentine's gift in and of itself!!!

One of the things we've really been working on with Common Core ELA is having students justify their answers and thinking. It's been fun seeing how well our students are doing with this. The kids are really growing and maturing in their thinking, and they are truly rising to the occasion. So much so, that justifying their answers has kind of carried over into everything else, and the students are now in a bit of a habit! Take a look at this cute drawing one of my students made for me:

How sweet is it that he not only said he loves me and called me the best teacher - instant A - ha, but he explained his answer and said WHY I'm the best ever (because I SOMETIMES fix problems - gotta love that)! Love that justifications are carrying over into everyday explanations. :-)

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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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TpT - SUNDAY SUPER SALE and Referral

So Teachers Pay Teachers has been quite a ride for me. I have been a part of this website for about a year now, and I am absolutely AMAZED at the growth my store has had. I started out very very small, and it's just blown up from there. I was shocked to receive my check in the mail this last quarter (first time to get an actual check instead of a PayPal deposit - when it's over $500 you get a check to save on the PayPal percentage), as it was enough to pay half of our house taxes for the year!!! How awesome is that??!! And all from just sharing resources I've created for my own classroom that I'm already doing anyway. I absolutely love that people are using the resources I've created and are implementing them and seeing success. That is a truly great feeling. I love sharing anyway, and TpT has been an avenue for me to do that and to make a little extra "stipend" money on the side. I would highly recommend any of you who've been thinking about joining and just haven't yet to take the plunge. Click HERE or click the link below or the picture below to sign up and start selling!!! It does take a little bit of time to build your store, but once you do, you'll be amazed at how fast it grows each quarter. 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Signup/referral:mrskilby

Speaking of TpT, they are having a Sunday Super Sale to coincide with Super Bowl on Sunday, February 3, 2013. Be sure to visit my store on Sunday, and you will be able to able to get 28% off anything in my entire store! The promo code is: SUPER. Click HERE or click the picture below to take a look around my store! :-)

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Ack Where Has the Year Gone???

I can't believe it's already almost February. Where in the world has the year gone??? I hope you've all had a great start to 2013 and to the Spring semester. We've kind of hit the ground running, and it's been busy busy busy! :-) We're already gearing up for conferences in a few weeks. I'm sure you've all seen this on Pinterest and "around", but I love this:

I plan on making a copy for parents to hand out at conferences. What a powerful visual to help parents understand why we teachers ask students to read for 20 minutes a night!!!

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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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