Monday, February 20, 2012

Sharing the Love

Sunny Days in Second Grade is a really neat blog that has all kinds of useful information and giveaways.  I can only hope to be as crafty an organized as she is one day.:)  She is giving away a set of Cause and Effect game from Really Good Stuff.  Click here to enter.  Good Luck!!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

My Favorite Time of Day

I love when my third graders collaborate.  Each morning we begin our day with what we call Committees.  Students are divided into five groups.  The Morning Message group works together to write a letter to the class.  The Webkinz group takes care of our "class pets," Fluffy and Owlivia, on the Webkinz website and records their information in a notebook.  The Problem Solving group works together to solve an open ended math problem.  The Fact Finder group reads a nonfiction article and finds three facts within the article that tells a summary.  The Digging in the Dictionary group finds and introduces a new vocabulary word
After some work time each group uses the Elmo and projector to share their work with the rest of the class.  What a great way to start the day with communication and collaboration.

(Click on the links for some of the recording sheets we use in our committee notebooks)


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Tasty Tuesday

This year I found and began reading a blog called Second Grade Shenanigans. I have found many funideas on the blog but my favorite is her Tasty Tuesday writing activity. I bought her unit on Teachers Pay Teachers and it has been well worth the money. This is my class's favorite thing to do. They ask every Tuesday if this is the week we get to cook. With her unit the students complete a functional reading activity by reading a recipe. They then practice handwriting by copying the recipe. After that, they follow directions by making the recipe. Finally, they practice writing by writing a review of the recipe. Here are some pictures from the unit.