Biography Book Reports

Biography Book Reports Due:  Februrary 13, Monday

Below you will see a sample of a "peek through" board.

These are bought and not kid made.  I want the students 

to use a large posterboard to create their own "peek through"

board for their report.

Happy Reading and Have Fun!

Metric Measuring

I introduced to the kiddos centimeter, meter, and 

kilometer in a recent math lesson.  At the end of the

week we partnered with Mrs. Simpson's class to play

a round of Race to Measurement.  Students drew a 

card and read the question and determined which unit

of measure would be used to complete the task.

Fun game and great reinforcement!

We've Got Rocks in Our Heads

Our reading story last week was a biography titled,

Rocks in His Head by Carol Otis Hurst.

Before reading the story,  I handed the kiddos different

rocks, minerals, and fossils to study, touch, and talk about.

When the explore time was over, each group had to

sort their rocks.  They were very creative....they used

color, shape, size, weight, shiny and dull to help them.

They loved the rocks!

Symmetry Lesson

After reviewing the definition of symmetry and doing

a little book work, I put my kiddos to the test.  The ruler

represents the line of symmetry and students had to create

a symmetrical design with a partner.

A few days later, the kiddos designed their own

symmetrical butterfly for morning work.

Introduction to Division

To introduce the division concept, I read 

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins.

This story does an excellent job of explaining

that division is sharing equally.  We then took

CookieCrisp cereal and acted out each page of

sharing from the book.

12 cookies are shared with 2 kiddos.

Students drew on their desk with pencils and 

equally shard the cookies with 2 people.

(They loved writing on their desks.)

12 divided by 2 = 6 cookies each

12 cookies divided by 4 people = 3 cookies each

12 cookies divided by 6 people = 2 cookies each

12 cookies divided by 12 people = 1 cookie each

Then we took this knowledge to a worksheet of division.

The kids learned to draw a picture.  

Below is a picture of their work as they worked

through a worksheet!

  Awesome learning :)

Compare and Contrast

One of our Reading/Language SPIs is comparing

and contrasting.  Upon return from Christmas vacation

I decided to test the kiddos brains for 3 days.  Boy 

did they do great!

First, I partnered students and they completed a

Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting themselves.

Second, they cut out and created snowmen that

overlap and transferred their information to the 

snowman.  Third, I modeled how to write a paragraph

using myself ad Mrs. Simpson as an example.  The

kids then wrote their own paragraphs.

What a super cute display!

HAPPY WINTER!

Christmas Party

We had a wonderful Christmas breakfast on 

December 20.  The kids enjoyed a lot of grea

goodies, games, and fun.  The priceless presents

turned out to be a fabulous way to celebrate!

I truly enjoyed watching the kiddos open and 

read what their classmates had to say about them.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

Trying to tie in SPIs with a little Christmas fun.

We read IF You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura

Numeroff.  Students then helped me complete a chain 

of events chart.  Then, they were assigned an event

from the story to illustrate.  The fun didn't stop there.

We then moved to the halls for more space to color

an old timey film strip ( not sure the kiddos had a clue

what it was they were even creating).  Students then

sequenced the events from the story.

What a great learning activity!

Christmas Musical

I got a few good shots of my class.

Hard to do when you are in the bleachers yourself....LOL

Caribou and Migration

Trying to make sure I could tie in the state

standards and also a little Christmas fun can

be difficult, but I managed with a little help.

Thanks to an idea on another teaching blog.

www.stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com

I checked out this book (Amazing Animal Journeys) 

about migrationfrom our library.  We read and harvested

a ton of information about caribou.  After reading,

students discussed and shared what they had learned.

It was then transferred to a graphic organizer.

It couldn't stop there, so we made a super cute 

reindeer or caribou to top it off......(last picture).

Social Studies....Landforms

We are studying and learning about physical 

features of the Earth....landforms.  So far we have

covered 5 land formations and 3 water formations.

We will continue after Christmas break covering 

the remaining land and water formations.

The students created a wonderful foldable with

a definition for each that they formed together

with my help!  AWESOME Learning going on :)

Science Lesson

Mrs. Simpson and I partnered together to show the

kiddos exactly how a fossil might look.  Mrs. Simpson

taught an excellent lesson on fossils and how they

are formed.  Meanwhile, I was mixing up a salt dough

for the fossil making process.  Students were then given

one object and allowed to make a fossil.  They dried

for 48 hours and it was very neat to see them all.