It was a fantastic week in Second Grade! I learned a lot from the Worksheets Don't Grow Dendrites book study, especially Mrs. Jump's post. I was inspired by so many of her ideas, and I have been testing quite a few of them. We made a poster similar to hers to start our plant unit. Check out the way she uses it... Seriously, she's a genius!
 |
During center time, we did some research on plants using Brain Pop, Jr. Each student added an idea to our Bubble Map. When we get back from Spring Break, we'll review what we learned and add it to our chart.
We've also been working on Fractions. There are SO many amazing resources out there. Of course, I bought Mrs. Lemons' unit, which is where the cookie fractions came from. These were a great resource throughout the unit, and we loved practicing with her other resources.
Click here to buy the unit, and check out her other materials. She's amazing!
On the second day, I reviewed with my Fraction Chant (FREEBIE!). I put it in a PowerPoint format, so you could see what we did, but I really just created a drawing on the board each time. We used TPR (Total Physical Response) as we danced and marched around the room chanting. When we got to partitioning each shape, we stopped and did it with our bodies while looking at the example on the whiteboard.
I've been hearing, "Circle, Circle... Partition into fourths!" for days. It makes me so happy! :) I assessed their understanding of partitioning objects into equal parts using fraction pizzas. I saw these on another wonderful blog, but I can't remember whose! If it was you, please let me know, because I'd love to give you credit.
Finally, we talked about Fractions Greater than One. We played Counting Beyond One as a whole class, then in small groups. I could tell that some friends needed a little more help, so we did the sort in small groups, to be sure everyone understood. Click here for the FREEBIE.
We finished the unit with Bridge Maps, to encourage higher level thinking skills. They had a blast doing these, because they knew it was a little bit tricky. We sure love a challenge!
Of course, we also celebrated Read Across America, which is one of my favorite holidays of the year. We read so many books by Dr. Seuss, and I introduced student-led Book Talks. The children have already done an amazing job with them! I've really enjoyed hearing them convince each other to try out a new book.
Together, we read The Butter Battle Book and talked about how our little problems can sometimes become GIANT problems when we don't just let things go. We did the letter writing activity from my Butter Battle Book Activities (click the image for a freebie).
My school is awesome about conservation, so we wrote our letters in our Reading Notebooks to save paper. There is a cute little page you can use if you don't have notebooks in your classroom.
In math, we re-read The Lorax, which is my all-time favorite Dr. Seuss book. Then, we made a class graph of our Favorite Truffula Trees. After a brief conversation about conservation, we decided not to throw away our paper when we made a mistake. Instead, we would turn in over and try again, erase, or find a way to make it work.
I'm going to miss my sweet second graders during spring break this week, but my house is going to get a much needed coat of paint! :)
Happy Spring Break!
No comments:
Post a Comment