For the last couple of years, my students have enjoyed visits from Duende', our Elf on the Shelf. The whole holiday elf tradition is a blast, and I have really enjoyed the thrill of getting our elf ready each morning. However, I have come to believe that the elf tradition may not be the best fit for every class so I began to search for something different to prepare for the holidays in our Learning Cottage this year. I am very fortunate to have a group of students who are big time readers this school year, and I really wanted to do something holiday themed around their love for such an important skill. My aunt sent me a link about a book advent activity, and I knew that I had to do something like this in my classroom. I needed to keep the price low so I began searching for winter/holiday themed books at our local used book stores. I also grabbed a few books through Scholastic using their dollar deals and my book club points. I was able to get 25 books for ...
freebie
Math Checklists
Last year, I created simple close reading checklists for my students to use in the classroom. The goal was to help students slow down and think about the process of reading through a passage or text that was new to them. The process of going through "steps" really worked well for them. We only had to use the checklists for a few lessons before the students could mentally go through the process in their heads. The students could verbally talk be through the steps, and it was evident that they were applying the strategy when they looked at a text. A few weeks ago, we began our double-digit subtraction and addition units. The kiddos worked so hard, and really made me proud with their willingness to persevere through the math problems. However, I found that as we began to work on mixed problems(addition and subtraction together) that they would become confused. They were not looking at the math symbols nor thinking about if they should regroup/borrow or just solve. So, I ...
Science and Reading..A Blended Unit
Every year, I take a look at my classroom curriculum and see what I can add to it the following school year to help prepare my second graders for life in third grade. I am a big believer that the academic jump from second to third is one of the most challenging transitions in school. In TN, Science and Social Students are not tested skills for second grade, but we do have standards that we need to cover. I really wanted to amp up these two content areas this year, but I was unsure of exactly how to do it. I finally decided that the only way that I was going to be able to make it work was by combining my Reading and Social Studies/Science into one block. We are switching between S and SS in biweekly rotations. Our first unit was all about Life Science-living vs. nonliving, plant and animal needs, parts of a plant, and plant life cycles. My students LOVE Science(which is sadly not my favorite subject), but I have really enjoyed teaching it over the last two ...
