Catch-up, not Ketchup

I promised that I would show some of the fun things and "fun" things my class and I have been doing in the classroom this semester. Obviously, I can't post everything, but I'm gonna try to get a little of everything that I have at least thought about taking pics of...

I said that our Character Bottles got displayed in the library, well here they are! Our librarian is fabulous and I'm not just saying that because I had her son two years ago... She displayed these for two months and even found the books to go with some of these little creatures!

Shortly after our "Hurricane Day" we learned about Natural Disasters. Remember that lovely poster I posted a few entries back, well here it is on my bulletin board for Disaster Safety. The kiddos did any disaster they wanted.

Alright, if you don't know Vistaprint, you are missing out! I got this banner, and three others, made and customixed for free to use in my classroom. I also order busniess cards and other things too, more to come on that... I hang it up on my bulletin board for the first month and then move it to the wall outside my room for the remainder of the year. Last year I had Owls, and obviously this year I'm loving dots!

We also made rocks. This is one of my kiddos enjoying making sedimentary rocks with graham crackers and chocolate icing. We also made rocks out of starbursts and chocolate chips.

We did Pumpkin Investigations (the activity is available on my sites for purchase) in groups this year. They needed to get the circumference, the height, the weight, the amount of ribs, and... how many SEEDS! That's the fun and MESSY part. You should see all the pictures I have of my kiddos showing me their orange hands. My recommendation is to have two bowls of water for rinsing their hands and then wet wipes. Of course, I don't have a bathroom in my room, lol.

Now, I can't take credit for this at all, but I just have to post the pic of my kiddos in the Character Parade. We don't "do" Halloween in our school, but this is our excuse to have them dress up as characters from books for the morning... Changing back into the uniforms is a process; I suggest some busy worksheets for the others to do while you wait.

I found this wonderful activity from E is for Explore that had my kiddos sort and count Chex Mix. They even got an introduction to fractions and they loved it. They keep asking me when we can do more food math, lol.

We studied matter and created some awesome foldables that I recreated from a Pinterest post. They have three parts; one for solids, one for liquids, and one for gases. They had to list three facts about each and then glue cheerios in the boxes to show what the "molecules" of each look like. They got to eat the extras which they loved as all. These turned out FABULOUS!

One of the things I wanted to do this year was CANDY Elections. I made my own unit, but it's so unorganized, that I haven't put it on TPT or TN yet. My kiddos narrowed parties to Chewy or Chocolate and we went from all candies to 8, to 2, to 1. It was close and but we used a 270 map (link on my Pinterest under Tech: SS and Science) and had everyone, including some teachers and administration be different states. The winner: Kit Kat! Who can beat chocolate? We had this space to display the progress as it lasted a few weeks. Soon it will be the Flat Stanley board.

I don't know about you, but my kiddos hated Rounding, so I drew this posters and gave them each one to color and use for that particular unit.

For Christmas, we made Snowman Ornaments out of the large water jug tops. All my kids loved that we were recycling. All you need is a ton of water jug tops, hot glue, sharpies, and maybe a drill if you want to hang them from a hook... I drilled the holes to make it easier, but you could just glue ribbon too. I can't take comeplete create for this, because my friend who left elementary found the idea and saved me the caps. THANK YOU!



I glued three together, drilled a hole at the top and
marked their names and the year.



They decorated with colored sharpies.



I'd recommend gluing them all first to dry :-)




I had my kiddos sit at another table, 4 at a time since I didn't have too
many sharpies, to decorate.






Look, how cute!!!

Alright, that's all I got for now :-(

I will be updating more, it's my resolution, as well, as getting healthier, as always.

See you all real soon!

Kristen

Money practice!

Hello all,

I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and are still enjoying your well-deserved break. I will be updating a few more times this break to catch up on some things I did with my kiddos first semester.

One of the things my kiddos have had a lot of practice with this year is money. With our curriculum, its something new for my 2nd graders, therefore I've hit it hard to alleviate the problems they could get stuck in.

We've done coins books to introduce the coins because they really had difficulty identifying the coins at first. They are one page foldable books for the penny, nickel, dime, quarter, half dollar, and dollar coins.

I also used my idea for "Slap the Fact" to make "Slap the Value." There are two different presentations, one with coin combinations and one with bill combinations. They must identify the correct value and "slap" it first. My kiddos beg to play this!

I made Toy Store Ad posters that allows the students to design a toy and designate a price. They then have to show that amount two ways. I made this for coins and bills as well. Talk about differing the skill level.

We did Thanksgiving and Holiday shopping as well. They cannot spend over a certain amount, but can buy anything in the "ad." My kiddos loved this as well! Plus, I made a question worksheet so they have to read for information as well, so I'll probably make this for Summer Vacation and maybe Spring Break as well for a homework assignment. Won't my kiddos just love me? lol

               

Last, but not least, we proved we're masters of money skills by completing exit "comments" for our Facebook wall. Thy chose an amount and drew the coins or bills to show it... Again, that worked for any skill level within my class. Then we did Money review on the projector and individual white boards for Unit 4 within FL enVisions Math Curriculum! I make reviews for every unit to give my kiddos a healthy dose of review before the test. They are closely related to the enVisions curriculum, but I identifty the focus skill as well so anyone can use it.

I hope you get some ideas from this, and if you have any for me, let me know! There will be definitely more to come throughout the break :-)

You can buy any of these at my Teacher's Notebook or TeachersPayTeachers!
Kristen

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from me and my pups!!!