Five for Friday - February 28, 2014

Wow...where did February go?  Crazy to think that March starts tomorrow!! I'm linking up today with Doodle Bug's Five for Friday.  Be sure to link up with her blog here...

 

This week in Math, we learned how to add 3 digit numbers.  Here's our anchor chart we created to show our various strategies...

 

 

We also worked on three digit subtraction.  We started with place value strategy and then some students wanted to learn break apart.  I love all of these kiddos being excited about learning new strategies.

 

 

In Writing, we finished up our President Reports.  We researched George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Barack Obama.  Here's one of the kids working on their Abe Lincoln report. I didn't get a chance to snap a picture of their finished All About Presidents book, but they turned out great!

 

 

 

In reading, we worked on standard RL.2.4 - looking at words and phrases in poems, songs, rhymes, etc.  I used have fun teaching's RL.2.4 packet and her response page for poems along with some rhymes I typed up.  The kids did an awesome job finding the rhyming words, repeating phrases, creating a mental image, and deciding what the rhyme was about.  Check out have fun teaching's packet here.

 

 

In writing station, my kids love to make cards and notes for friends and family.  Here are two sweet notes I received....  these are the moments when you remember why you teach!

 

 

 

Be sure to link up with Doodle Bug!

 

 

Counting to 1,000 Idea - 2.NBT.3

One of the standards in 2nd grade specifically 2.NBT.3 is that students are able to read and write numbers to 1,000.  Now, this seems like a large task and can also seem a bit monotonous.  I didn't want it to become that way for my kiddos so I came up with a challenge for them. The challenge is they have to take their blank hundreds charts and write the numbers from 1 to 1,000.  Then, when they are finished they get to turn it into a book with a cover that they get to decorate and take home to share with their families. I know this doesn't sound overly exciting to us since we're adults - but the kids ate it up!  The other thing I did is limited the time we spent on it each day. If we spent a half hour on it every day the kids would get bored and it would never get finished.  Two to three days a week after we've cleaned up math stations we have about 4-5 minutes until we start math. During that time students can work on their counting to 1,000.  Funny enough they even ask to work on it when they have finished their math work early.  Below are a few pictures of my student's book - he was the first one to finish...

 
Happy Counting!

New Favorite Kid's Books!

I came across these books on Pinterest and recently bought them for my unit on Point of View and Comparing and Contrasting Fairy Tales and had to share them!  I loved them and so did the kids! These authors did a wonderful job of updating fairy tales.  These books work great for the RL2.6 and RL2.9 standard, but they are also just great to have in the classroom.  I highly recommend purchasing them for your classroom library.  I purchased the three below and they also have a few more - one for Snow White, Rapunzel, and Jack and the Beanstalk.  I'll be adding those to my Amazon cart ASAP!

What are some of your favorite new kid's books?  Share in the comments below...

Addition and Subtraction Strategies

We spent 2 full weeks working on adding and subtracting double digit numbers with borrowing and regrouping. This is definitely a tough one. Having never taught this in first grade, this was definitely a learning experience for me and for them.  But, on a happy note, my kids aren't freaked out by it.  I used my CGI (Cognitively Guided Instruction) training from my previous district, we worked on strategies to make it concrete and they're getting it! 

The three strategies we're focusing on are....

Place Value - using sticks as the tens and dots as the ones - great strategy for kids who struggle.  Helps them to see it out like the base 10 blocks - great way to take it from manipulatives to no manipulatives.  Below, the student took the nine ones from the top and the one one from the bottom to make a ten - see the arrow.



 

Empty Number Line - starting with the larger number on a empty number line and counting up by 10's, then 1's

 

 

 Break Apart Strategy - this one is my favorite - see 2 different ways below of breaking the numbers apart...

 

 

Here are our anchor charts that we made for Adding and Subtracting Double Digit Numbers with borrowing and regrouping - each strategy is listed with an example.  I let students practice all of the strategies then they can pick the one that works best for them.

All About Penguins Book

Our most recent National Geographic Kids focused on penguins lend itself nicely to a little penguin unit study.  We researched penguins using a Brainpop clip, reading our awesome Nat Geo which provided a lot of great info for my 2nd graders, and using a few nonfiction easy readers.  After reading/watching, we'd add facts to our penguin circle maps. Then, after our circle maps were full of wonderful penguin facts we then moved them into a tree map to organize our facts.  For our penguin tree map, we had four branches - looks like, lives, eat, and predators.  The kids organized their facts under the specific branches to make writing their penguin book easier.  I decided to focus the kiddos instead of just letting them write. I'm finding on report writing at 2nd grade level in a highly ELL population, we're really struggling at knowing what to write, how to sequence, and how to focus on important information, so I'm using this writing assignment as a way to scaffold their learning.

Here's our tree map and planning...

 

Below are some pictures of their finished books.....

 

**Sorry for the sideways pictures, BlogSpot and my computer weren't working with me :-).

Adding 4 Numbers - 2.NBT.6

 Last week we spent a lot of time practicing adding four numbers. We started with single digit numbers.  Then, we added in some small double digit with the single digit numbers. Then, we went for it - and mixed single and double digit numbers of any size.  The kids did a wonderful job with this and I was so excited to see them using the strategies we had been working on with addition - looking for combos of 10, doubles, place value, empty number line, and break apart. My kiddos that get break apart have taken it and run with it - and I love it! These are the moments that teachers live for - seeing kids take strategies you've taught and seeing them apply to it to other situations! I'm so proud of them. 

Anyways, for some of activities that I used with my class - I have created a TPT item in my store - Adding 4 Numbers Activities.  Check it out here...

 

 

And, here's some kiddos working on they're Roll and Add Game found in my TPT pack above.

And, here's an example of the Story Problems included...

 

 

Be sure to check out my Adding 4 Numbers Packet in my TPT store!  Thanks!

 

 

 

 

Comparing Numbers 2.NBT.4 - And a Freebie!

I've been meaning to post about this standard and post this freebie for a few weeks, but life got in the way.  So, better late than never...

A few weeks ago we worked on comparing 3 digit numbers - specifically standard 2.NBT.4.  The kiddos did really well with this standard so we only needed a quick few days of practice and they were good to go.  Below are some ideas and pictures from our work...


Here's our anchor chart we created with vocab, symbols, and a few examples. I love creating these math anchor charts and adding to them throughout the lessons. I find the kids referencing them at later times and love that they are referring to them and using them!

 

 

We then practiced on white boards.  We started with 2 digit numbers and then moved onto 3 digit numbers.

 

I found a ton of great activities from Sunny Days Common Core Essentials Packet - that can be found here.  My kiddos loved playing the Compare and Capture game.

 

And, here's a little game I created for students to also practice comparing 3 digit numbers.  This game can be found as a freebie in my TPT store...here.
Here are a few pictures from the kids playing...

 

 

 

Hope these ideas are helpful! Be sure to check out my Roll and Compare Game freebie!