THUNDER CAKE!

This is an activity that I remember my mother doing for her students and myself when I was in 2nd grade! She always has the BEST ideas! It was perfect for our weather unit. We read Thunder Cake, by Patricia Polacco. I stopped half-way through the book when she said there was a secret ingredient in the cake. I let them think about it all morning. In the afternoon we tasted thunder cupcakes I had made. Then they guessed what they thought was in the cupcakes. 17 out of 18 said they liked it! We finished reading the story and they found out tomatoes were in the cake they had just eaten. 7 out of 18 liked the cake! They were so surprised! Hee hee!

I just had to take a picture of these guesses!! How sweet are my kiddos?! I said that they were right, there was LOVE in those cupcakes too! :)

Shaping up!

 I LOVE this game called, Geo Bands! I downloaded it from TPT and it is awesome! I modified the game to make it CL and did the activity Round Robin style. Each child has a shape on his or her head that they can't see. They can ask the group one yes or no question and make one guess as to what the shape is. They take turns going around their table group. When they guess correctly, they draw a new card! The game included suggestion cards and reference cards. My kids are so engaged and are dying to know what their shape is the whole time! :)

Geo Bands in ACTION! 

We went on a scavenger hunt around the playground to find shapes in our world to get our brains thinking about geometry!  

"Doughnut" You Know How Doughnuts Grow?!

We planted doughnut seeds and grew frosted doughnuts! Heee! Heee! It was a delicious prank! The kiddos gulped down the doughnuts so fast after they got back from recess that I forgot to snap a pic! :)

Springing into Spring!

We finished off our measurement unit with some kangaroo measurement jumps outside. (Adapted from a 2nd grade Georgia Math Lesson: https://www.georgiastandards.org) Students chose their own unit to measure and worked with a partner to record estimates and jumps. I was so proud of the way my students solved problems and persevered! In the middle of collecting data a student was figuring out how to count by 12's using her inch ruler and she looked at me and said, "Wow, we really have to use our math for this!" Ha! Exactly!