Team J's Second Grade Fun: October 2015

Five for Friday - October 16

I'm back for another Five for Friday! Love this quick rundown of the week. Link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching here!

I love teaching inferring! There are so many great ideas and activities to help make it concrete and great resources to help make it fun! We started off inferring about pictures on Monday and then on Tuesday we watched the Pixar clip "For the Birds." They thought the clip was hilarious and had a good time inferring about what was going on.

Later in the week, in addition to inferring about text (Charlie Anderson), we also made inferences about why I had certain items in purse. They thought it was so cool to be able to see what was in the teacher's purse and some of their inferences for why I had it were pretty amusing.

All About Nouns - We've been working on nouns the last few weeks. We began with basic noun info, the difference between common and proper nouns, and the difference between singular and plural nouns. Then, students completed Nouns Around the Room, which can be found in my TPT store here. I love activities that get them up and moving and it's a great formative assessment!

This is a teeny, tiny sneak peek. I love, love, love teaching math. Part of why I love teaching math is having had the wonderful opportunity to be CGI (Cognivitely Guided Instruction) trained. I was trained in my old district a few years ago and my current school is going through training now. I gave the problem above the other day and students solved them on their white boards. As I went around the room, I noticed at least 10 different strategies/ways to solve it. And, they were all correct! I love that my students are able to think flexibly with numbers and they're not stuck in a box. I'm saving their awesome strategies for a little CGI weekly series post I'm planning on starting soon!

My husband is a huge, huge Cubs fan. And, he is ecstatic over their amazing win against Cardinals and advancement in the playoffs. Since he's a fan, I've slowly become one too and I have to admit the games are pretty exciting to watch! Excited to see them take on the Mets in the next round of the playoffs! Go Cubs Go!

Have a great weekend!

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Clip Chart - Reward Idea

In my classroom, I still use the Clip Chart. While I know some people are against it, I find that it works for my kids and they have responded well to it. I do have two kids on a separate plan because the all day system was too much for them. Their plan is broken more into subjects and scheduled times.

Anyways...this year with the Clip Chart I wanted to have some way to reward kids that got to purple or outstanding on the chart. In the past, students put a jewel on their clip. They still do that now, but they also get two extra very easy and cheap rewards!

One - I put this frame on their desk. I got the frame from Michaels - I think it was a $1. They get to have the frame on their desk all day as a way to show how awesome they did the day before. The kids have loved this! The neat thing too is that when other adults stop in the classroom, they notice this and comment on the child's good choices and behavior so they get even more positive reinforcement!

Two - They get to pick two GoNoodle brain breaks the day after they got to purple (also the day they have the frame on their desk). You would be surprised - but they ate this up! The best thing of all it only cost me like a $1 for the frame and that was it. And, I use the frame each time so really I ended up spending hardly anything!

To see how I use the Clip Chart in my classroom, check out this blog post here...

How do you reward kids for reaching the top of the Clip Chart in your classroom? Can't wait to read your ideas!

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Five for Friday - October 9

This sure felt like one loooonnnggg week. But, it's Friday and I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for Five for Friday. Link up here...

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures from the weekend, but this past weekend Andy and I took a last minute trip to AZ. Again we were gone less than 48 hours almost lol. He was going down for work and I came along for the ride. I was able to see a friend or two in Phoenix and then hang out and stay with my family down in Tucson. It was so nice to see my family and friends! I definitely miss AZ and am excited to go back out in December!

I know with all of the bad flooding in the south I should not complain. But, we had a very rainy day...and it was on a Monday...which made for a very long Monday. In Vegas when it rains, we tend to get downpours. We were stuck in the lunchroom which is a different building on campus for an extra 30 minutes due to that downpour. The kids were quite crazy because we don't see rain too often. And, I'm grateful for that!

My kids are rocking and rolling on math stations. I was so excited to add some new games from our envision program this week. They definitely make the kids think and I love games as a way to practice math. I'll post more on my math stations soon.

We're getting ready to introduce vocabulary station. I like to introduce the station tasks one at a time and ideally have the kids practice whole group. This way everyone is exposed to it and I can monitor the activity. This week, we took our reading vocabulary words and wrote a story with a partner. They did an awesome job and even came up with the idea of underlining their words before I told them too!

We had our first field trip yesterday. We wen to Channel 8. The kids loved it! I loved it! I always think it's fascinating to learn about other careers and the news station has a ton of neat jobs. The tour guide was fantastic and even let the kids play around with the green screen area that they use for weather! It was an awesome field trip!

Have a great weekend!

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Five for Friday - October 2

Two posts in two days is a miracle! But, I can't pass up another Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs Teaching. Link up here.

The Band-Aid activity - What a great activity and one I wish I used every year! I have many students who need different things in my class. For example, two students have a separate behavior plan from the Clip Chart and earn rewards at the end of the day. Of course for second graders, this gets the question of - why does he get to do that? In addition, to many other differentiation things going on and kids looking questioningly at each other why they are doing something different than their neighbor. So, I took the Band-Aid lesson about fairness and differentiation from many different blogs and combined it to what I thought would work for my class. I was hoping for a powerful conversation and had a good conversation. Not powerful, but not bad. The kids were more amused by the Band-Aid then questioning why they all got them in the same spot when that wasn't where their injury was. We'll keep at it. Maybe next years group will understand it better.

I am so excited with how Writing Workshop has been going. Last year I didn't use it at first and missed it. I tried implementing it mid-way through the year, which worked but this year I started at the beginning. As I was walking around today and conferring with students I was so proud of how far they've already come and so excited to see that they were already writing a ton and excited about writing! So glad I decided to use this model to teach writing again!

Our school is huge in to holidays. We also have amazing room moms who help us decorate our rooms and plan our parties (love having them). This year it was even better because I had a team of 5 moms from my class decorating my room. It was done and amazing looking in an hour. I appreciate all of their hard work and the kids loved the cool decorations!

We're in the middle of our next Project Based Learning project. I still need to blog about our first one. Our second project is focused on maps. At the end, the students are going to create their own island and bury treasure on it. They then have to create directions to help people find the treasure. The kids are super excited about it and I'll have more info on this soon too - along with the TPT pack I'm using for the Treasure Map part.

Last weekend, Andy and I went to Chicago for a whirlwind of a trip. We were there less than 48 hours, but I got to go to my first Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Wrigley Field is a place like no other. I've been to many different types of sporting events, but the atmosphere around Wrigley Field before and after the game was amazing! We had a great weekend and even though the Cubs lost, Andy got to see them celebrate clinching the Wild Card spot. He's a huge fan so that was awesome for him to be there and be a part of it! What a great weekend!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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