Our first Social Studies group project of the year...types of communities.  We read several books about rural, urban, and suburban communities.  

The City Kid and the Suburb Kid

           

Suburban, Rural, And Urban Communities

Students choose which type of community they want to design. Then working together they plan and create their community using only construction paper.

So proud of all their hard work and cooperation!

School starts in a week and my classroom library and writing table needed an update!  The shelves were a faded purple and yellow with mismatched book tubs...SO...I painted! YAHOO for what a new coat of paint can do!

I still have book tubs of all colors but I put like colors together and that helped give the library a more organized look.

I made a trip to The Dollar Store for some matching book baskets and tubs.  As you can see I had to make another trip for 4 more green baskets!  The matching color made this particularly ugly school provided metal book shelf look a little more inviting.

Thank goodness for Pinterest!  These crates from Walmart make the perfect seats for the 'too small' left over tables I was able to snag for my Writing Area.   I have hung pictures of the center the way it looks now as a guide for clean up.  I made the cushions from fabric remnants and the best part is the crate-seats scoot all the way under the table and out of the way!

Thanks to Pinterest My class had unbelievable fun while learning about contractions.  I found Contraction Surgery in several places on Pinterest so gave it a try.  We spread white paper across the tables of each of our 4 groups... Operating Rooms 1-4.  Students put on latex free medical masks and gloves.  They used scalpels  scissors to perform surgery on their patients words forming contractions.  After all four of their patients were in recovery they had to consult with another doctor, get a second opinion, on the result of their surgery.  I found inexpensive masks and gloves and bandages at Walmart.  Too fun for words!!!!!

             I'm working on teaching visualizing and inferring with poetry.   I used ideas from Debbie Miller's Reading With Meaning starting with reading selected poems from Georgia Heard's Creatures of the Earth, Sea, and Sky.  I wrote one poem on a chart and we inferred together.  Then working in pairs students read a copy of a poem from

Georgia Heard's book and inferred the animal the poem was about.  

   
The next day I read selected poems from Alma Flor Ada's Gathering the Sun.  Then students worked independently to record in pictures and words what they inferred and visualized after reading the poem.

Then I read Anne Mazer's Salamander Room aloud without showing the pictures and asked students to draw a picture of the boy's room.  We taped them all to the white board and talked about why they were different.  How our background knowledge and experiences (schema) were all different affecting what we visualized and drew. 

The next day I played several nature tapes while student drew what they visualized.  The following day I played the same tapes and students wrote words that came to their mind.  Finally on the third day students took the words and formed them into poems.

    

   

Publishing Party

I can't remember where, online, I saw this idea... but THANK YOU for such a terrific way to celebrate writing!  We finished a unit on non-fiction writing, published a How-To book and an All About book (see Lucy Calkin's Units of Study for Primary Writers)

The students covered their desk groups with table clothes, arranged cheese and grapes on a tray, and arranged plastic wine glasses filled with sparkling juice.  The room was decorated with hanging twinkle lights and soft music playing.  We invited another class as our guests.  The students shared their writing in small groups and then we toasted their hard work followed by eating and complimenting.  My students were so proud!!!!

              

Thanks to inspiration from Mel's Blog http://seusstastic.blogspot.com I decided to try a Math Workshop to take the place of the directed instruction suggested with our district's math textbook, Expressions.  I seem to have a wide range of skills and readiness for math.  Some kiddos needed extra instruction and practice to get it while others are rolling around on their desks because they got it 15 minutes ago.  So here's what I'm trying... I have grouped students based on need.  Each group rotates through Math Group, Partner Work, and On My Own.  I've made several games that reinforce math group lessons for Partner Work.  They are available for download on the Teacher Page of my class website. Mrs. Barr's Webpage   

I have revitalized my Daily 5 Writing Center.  I closed the center for a week and explained it was under construction.  Then all week long I added and labeled.  By the end of the week the kiddos were drooling over the center and couldn't wait to get their hands on it.  Monday I saw the best writing I have seen in ages.  I plan to remove and add things from time to time to keep it SPICY!  On the bulletin board behind the writing center I put writing ideas and pictures of what the center should look like before the kiddos leave it.  I also have a place to spotlight 

                   GOOD WRITING OF THE WEEK!   This has become SO popular I may have to change it to Good Writing of the Day.  YAHOO for all the great writing happening during Daily 5! 

              

I recently found a great way to explicitly teach the steps of the Scientific Inquiry  Process.  Our 3 big science units are Butterflies, Herps (reptiles & amphibians) and Weather.  Each unit takes 6-8 weeks to complete.  I was looking for something short and sweet so I could really focus on the steps and the kiddos would remember them.  

THUS..... WORMS!  I bought a dozen earthworms from a local pet store and placed them in a plastic container with dirt from my garden allowing them to "warm up" for a few days before the activity.  I wanted ACTIVE worms! 

                   

We started by completing an I WONDER chart about worms.  Then we read  Wiggly Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer and students added new information.  Next we worked in groups of 5 to complete MIND MAPS about worms.  Students write everything they know about worms and then circle and connect those statements that 'go together'. They must be prepared to explain how they go together.

We went through the steps of the Scientific Inquiry Process.

Finally it was time to actually WORK WITH WORMS!  Each pair got a nice big earthworm on a moist paper towel along with a packet leading them through the steps of the Scientific Inquiry.  

When we finished with our worms we placed them in our Second Grade Butterfly Garden to keep the soil healthy.

I saw this idea on PINTEREST and used paper to SPIFF up my poor old scarred file cabinet.  So silly... but makes me feel good!