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Five for Friday – April 21

Math, Social Studies, Writing April 21, 2017

The week after Spring Break is always tough. Hard to get back into the routine after an amazing week off! But, we did it and I’m back linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Here’s what we were up to this week….

My school does a large Earth Day celebration every year! It’s a lot of fun and the kids get to go to different rooms and learn about all kinds of things surrounding the topic of Earth Day!  I decided this year to also have my students do some writing about Earth Day and ways they can help make the Earth a better place.  Their answers were pretty cute! I especially like the above one – “if you ride in a car… you can pollute the air…and it’s your fault.” Too funny!  This writing prompt and five more can be found in my TPT Store – Earth Day Writing Prompts.

We learned all about coordinate grids in math this week. We started by watching a Brainpop video and then created the above anchor chart. To practice plotting points, the kids played this fun game called Gridlock from MathWire – it can be found here…

We finally finished our Map PBL this week. The final part of the project had students creating their island using some of the landforms we discussed. They also buried treasure on it and had to write directions for how to find it. Their maps turned out amazing!!! 

Where have I been? I’ve seen many people posting and writing about Epic books, but I never looked into it. I remembered yesterday trying to find something for my Earth Day class and it is wonderful! It’s full of so much information and fun books – I can’t wait to dive into it more!
On Monday, I presented to some of the teachers at my school about Differentiation in Writing Workshop. It went well and we had some great discussions.  Stay tuned because I’ll be doing a blog post soon on some of the ideas for differentiation in writing!
Have a great weekend!

Five for Friday – April 14

Math, Writing April 14, 2017

I’m at the tail end of my Spring Break and I can’t believe how fast it has gone! Why do weeks off fly by and weeks working go slow sometimes?? I’m linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday. Check out our week below… not as many educational pictures today since it was break…

This has been one of my spring break projects.  On Monday, teachers head back to school for a PD day, but the kids are still on vacation.  We have our Differentiation and Ed Tech Fair on Monday and I’m presenting about Differentiation in Writing Workshop. So this week I’ve been putting together the presentation so I’ll have everything ready to go Monday morning!
This blog post has been in the making for awhile. And, with Spring Break finally here, I had time to write it.  In my Graphing Project blog post, I blogged about an awesome project I do at the end of my graphing unit. Check it out…here…

I decided to use this week off to re-dedicate myself to my fitness goals. I really want to get into better shape and having the time off this week has provided me a chance to start some better habits. If you want to keep up with my fitness journey – check out my Instagram – jjohnsongetsfit.  I’m also on Fitbit! If you are interested in doing a Fitbit Challenge, write in the comments or add me on Fitbit – sunsfan328@gmail.com

We’ve also added a few things to our home this week. I’ve been eyeing these bar stools forever and we finally purchased them last weekend from Target. We also got some cool lights for our walkway! I love doing some home decor shopping!

And, what would spring break be – without some pool time! The weather in Vegas has been beautiful and I’ve been lucky enough to get out and read at the pool a few times this week!
Hope everyone has a great Easter weekend!

Graphing Project

Math April 12, 2017
I’m so excited to share my graphing project with all of you! I’ve used this for the last few years as a final project to our graphing unit and now finally have it as a product up in my TPT Store. 
Here’s how the project works…
This project can be completed in small groups, partnerships, or independently. I’ve always done it as a group project with groups of 3-4.  Each group gets together and first works on their planning page. The planning page is where they plan out what their survey question will be, decide what type of data they are collecting, and also decide on the graph they’ll use to represent their data.
Planning Page
Then, after the group completes the planning page they move on to collecting data.  I have a page for that in the packet where students may collect the data using words, numbers, tallies, etc.  I let my students ask our neighbor 2nd grade class the survey question as well as our class so they have more data. You also could go class-to-class and come up with some amazing data too!
After they collect the data, they compare it with the rest of their group to make sure they have the same numbers and then they create their graph.  They have three graph choices – Bar Graph, Pictograph, and Line Plot.  Each page is available in my product with two page options (one for 3 categories, one for 4 categories, and the line plot has two different pages depending on their information).

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Create-Your-Own-Graph-Project-3106829

Bar Graph Option
After completing the graph, each student comes up with 4 or more observations about their data.
Last, each group presents the information they learned to the class. We project their graph on the board and each student shares an observation or two.
My students always look forward to this project and I hope your students will enjoy it too! It’s now available in my TPT Store – Create Your Own Graph Project!
Create Your Own Graph Project
It’s also bundled with two of my other graphing products – Learning About Line Plots and Graphing in 2nd Grade…here – Graphing Galore Bundle
Graphing Galore BUNDLE
Happy Graphing!

Five for Friday – March 17

Math, Writing March 17, 2017

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!! I’m linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for another week of Five for Friday!

We recently finished Bend 2 in our Opinion Book for Units of Study. Students have been writing opinion letters about their favorite books, favorite characters, opinions of characters, etc. At the end of Bend 2, students edited their letters using a checklist and published their final letter. This week during Morning Meeting Share, students shared their letter under the iPad (then projected) with the class. After each student shared, two students from the audience gave a compliment. They did an awesome job! I love seeing how much progress they’ve made with their writing since August.

I love basketball. I’m a huge basketball fan and my husband is also a college basketball coach. I decided to bring a little March Madness fun to my classroom in the form of story problems.  This story problem set includes 16 problems. Most of the problems are addition and subtraction, but there are a few multiplication and division.  This can be found in my TPT store…here…
Oh…editing…such a difficult concept for 2nd graders. While in my first entry post for Five for Friday I mentioned we edited their rough draft letters, we still struggle. So, I decided to have a Morning Meeting Activity and Message focused on editing. Students first answered the message writing down things to look for when editing. Then, students worked first individually and then with a group on editing a letter.  We’ll keep practicing until we get it!

This week in reading we worked on the prefixes – re, pre, and bi. In small groups, I had students do the quick activity above. I gave them a word. They then underlined the base word and circled the prefix. Then, they wrote the definition and used the word in a sentence. Finally, they drew a sketch to go with their sentence. This was a quick activity, but provided practice on prefixes, which was the goal.

  
Oh our planners! Check out my blog post from this week on my Planner Challenge! It has greatly improved the kids writing and spelling in their daily planner entries. Check it out…here…

Basketball Bonanza Story Problems

Math March 16, 2017

With March Madness beginning today I have a new, fun product up and ready in my TPT Store. Since I’m a big basketball fan and my husband is a college basketball coach, I thought it’d be fun to create some math story problems centered around this tournament time of year! So…here are….the Basketball Bonanza Story Problems.

This product includes 16 basketball themed story problems. The problems are mainly addition and subtraction, but there are few multiplication and division problems.
There are two recording sheet options. The basic recording sheet provides space for students to solve all 16 problems. The Pick 4 Recording Sheet has students pick 4 problems of their choosing to solve. They write the number in the square and then solve their problem in the box.
Check out the Basketball Bonanza Story Problems in my TPT store! They are ready to go for some March Madness fun in the classroom!

Basketball Bonanza Story Problems

Five for Friday – March 10

Math, Writing March 10, 2017

Oh my goodness! I got hit with a cold/flu bug and boy did it do a number on me.  I missed Five for Friday last week because of it and have spent this week trying to get rid of it.  Anyone else in the sickness boat?? Anyways, enough of the pity me time, I’m back for another Five for Friday. We’ve been very busy this week so I’m linking up with Kacey at Doodle Bugs Teaching to show you what we’ve been up to….

This is totally how this cold/sickness has felt! I got sneezed on last week by a student and I have many more coughing.  I can’t seem to shake it this cold/flu!!  This stupid cough won’t go away. Anyone else in the same boat???

We started learning about adjectives this week. I decided to use a bubble map from Thinking Maps to help us organize our adjectives. In the middle bubble, students wrote a noun. Then, around that they added more bubbles with adjectives that described that noun.  Great way to organize it and keep it simple.
We also started graphing this week. For our first day we did a review/re-introduction of basic bar graphs.  The graph above and many more can be found in my Graphing for 2nd Grade packet in my TPT store…here…

I absolutely love Kahoot! I’ve been using it every Thursday for a review of our weekly vocab and reading skills. I’m very lucky because students in my class are 1-to-1 with iPads. So, each student gets to play and participate. They literally cheered yesterday when I said we were doing a Kahoot! It’s engaging and a great way to review content!
We’re still working on our Map PBL unit. We had a little detour with International Week/a billion other things, so we’ve gotten a little behind. This week we learned about different landforms. Students recorded the definitions and drew a picture of the landform in their PBL packet.  My friend above is the most amazing artist! So talented and only in 2nd grade! His drawings were done quickly, but are beautiful!
Have a great weekend! My plans are rest, rest, and more rest! I’m hoping to be fully rid of this cold/sickness by Monday! Wish me luck!

Five for Friday – February 24

Math, Reading February 24, 2017

It was a super short week, but a busy one! We had Monday off for President’s Day and on Tuesday we had no class, but Student-Led/Parent Teacher Conferences all day! So for a 3 day week it was a busy one! I’m linking up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday.

My latest Grammar Fix It is now ready!  I just completed Grammar Fix It – Verb Tense Agreements.  My class has been working on verbs a lot and it was time for a formative assessment.  You can use Grammar Fix It as an around the room activity, scoot activity, or throw it in a station.  I decided to use it as a formative assessment.  I put each sentence on the board one at a time and the kids had to re-write the sentences correctly on their recording sheet. Then, I graded it using the little page below.  We use Standards Based Grading for writing so I have a rubric for each area.  Check out my new Grammar Fix It…here…
This week we started working on asking questions in reading. We talked about the importance of asking questions while you read and why good readers do it.  I got this lesson from Reading with Meaning by Debbie Miller. Love that book!!!
All day Tuesday, I had Student-Led/Parent Teacher Conferences.  Check out  my blog post that I wrote all about it…here…

I love incorporating math games into our Morning Meeting activity. Yesterday we played the game I learned from CGI training called Race to Zero.  The goal is to be the first team to get to zero.  I broke the class into two teams.  Each team starts at the number 999 and has three dice they can use. Then, the team decides to roll one, two, or all three.  Whatever number they roll, they can make any number from it. For example, if they roll 612, they could make 612, 621, 216, 126, etc…. Part of this game is strategy and rolling the right number of dice depending on the size of your number and making the right number that will help you get to zero the quickest.  After they roll and create their number, then they subtract from the number they had left.  This game keeps going until someone or some team gets to zero! Great way to practice subtraction, place value, problem solving, and strategic thinking!

    
This week in math we continued to work on measuring area.  Yesterday I had students create a specific area to show them that there is more than one way to model most areas.  For example, 16 square units – could be 8×2, 2×8, 1×16, 2×16, 4×4….  I loved pulling out the square tiles for them to play around with. I think the concrete item helped some of them understand the concept of area better and how it is measuring the surface space.

Real-Life Measurement Story Problems

Math February 21, 2017

We have been working on our measurement unit over the last week or two in second grade.  One of our standards includes real-life story problems involving measurement situations.  So, for our weekly story problems (I love doing story problems every Friday!) we focused on real life problems involving distance.

On Fridays, I will often have two story problems for the kids to solve. The first one, we go over, and a few students share out. The second story problem is a similar type, but different numbers and that one I use for a formative grade.

I have to brag about our story problem from this past Friday! My kids rocked it! It combined measurement and multiplication.  I have four different strategies to show you and every child was able to explain what they did and why they chose that strategy! It was definitely a proud teacher moment…

Here’s the problem: Jenny ran 6 miles each day for 14 days. How many miles did she run?

Cole decided to draw out the miles for each day. I love how he labeled each day first and then put 6 dots under each day to represent the six miles. He then counted the dots to get the answer of 84 miles.
Keegan used skip counting to solve the problem. She skip counted by 6, 14 times to end up with 84. She was also able to write the multiplication equation to match!
Carter used repeated addition strategy to solve the problem.  He added 6, 14 times.  As you can see he kept adding down, until he reached the final answer of 84 miles.
I love what Drake did to solve it! He explained it perfectly, but didn’t write down each step which is why you can tell I did for him with the green marker. He used a combination of break apart and repeated addition! He first added 6, 5 times for the five days and got 30 miles.  He knew that five more days would also be 30 more miles – which is where the 30+30 came from and that would get him to 10 days. Then, he did something that I was so proud of! He knew that if he added another 30 miles that would be another 5 days, but that would mean she ran for 15 days and she was only supposed to run for 14 days. So, Drake knew that 5 days would be 30 and if you took a day off, that would be 24 miles, which is where he got the final number in the 30+30+24.  I love how he broke it down and compensated to make the numbers work for him! Amazing!!!
Do you use story problems a lot in your math class? Comment below with how often and any ideas you have! 

Five for Friday – February 3

Math, Reading, Writing Workshop February 3, 2017

Crazy that it is already February! January flew by! After missing last week, I’m back to link up with Kacey over at Doodle Bugs Teaching for another Five for Friday. Check out our busy week below…

So I don’t have Amazon Prime, but I do now see what all the fuss is about.  We were low on class snacks and one of my parents graciously offered to order some from Amazon Pantry/Prime.  And much to my pleasant surprise – three huge boxes like the one pictured above, arrived with snacks.  Right to the school! We will probably be covered on snacks until the end of the year!

I posted my newest product to TPT this week. Check out the strategies we used for division and also my Division Story Problems on my blog post…here…
We love coding! I even enjoy coding with the kids! We’ve been working on code.org’s different lessons and it is amazing! I love how the kids can move along at their own speed and the lessons continue to get more challenging as the go! We’re going to have some code geniuses by the time the year is complete.

We had our second field trip of the year on Monday. We went to a theater at UNLV and watched the play Charlotte’s Web. It was so cute and the kids really enjoyed it since we read Charlotte’s Web as a class in November.

We’ve been working on our third Writing Workshop Unit – Opinions.  This book from Lucy Calkin’s Units of Study has us working on writing letters to share our opinions on books. Above I modeled an example using the book – Seriously, Cinderella is So Annoying! If you haven’t read that book or checked the books out where the fairy tale is told from a different point of view, I highly recommend it!
Hope everyone has a great Super Bowl weekend!

Division Story Problems

Math February 2, 2017

This week we began learning about division. My kiddos have done an amazing job! They’re really seeing the connection and relation between multiplication and division.

We’ve spent time practicing and learning the different strategies in the chart below….

And after practicing we worked on more story problems. I love using story problems as a way to practice math operations. I think it’s important for kids to see math in real-life situations and I think for some students it really helps them understand the concept better.
I love seeing all of the different strategies being used while working on their story problems yesterday. Each student has found a strategy that works for them and they are successful using the one they picked.
These story problems are now available in my TPT store – They are titled Division Story Problems.  Check them out! They’re perfect for advanced 2nd graders and really hit the Common Core Standard for third grade – 3.OA.A.3.