THANK YOU!!

I have to take a moment to thank all the helpers that come in to my room throughout the day. They go above and beyond to help students learn! And if they have even a spare second they are picking up lamination to cut out, grading papers and always finding small ways to make a HUGE difference!

My classroom cushions were falling apart. I temporarily fixed them with bright yellow duct tape before school started. (I am a dangerous woman with hot-glue and duct tape in hand!) and one of my paras noticed the issue. Without saying one thing to me, she went home that night and sewed brand new covers! Talk about a thoughtful lady! The new cushions look so cute in my reading area! I am so thankful for the kind-hearted adults that are wonderful examples to my kids every day!! :)

My Mathematicians!

We used a hundreds chart to make connections to number lines. Students cut up sections and glued them together in order to make a 0-100 #line. Pictured above you can see kiddos racing to 100 as they roll dice and then say aloud number sentences! (Ideas for this lesson are from the Georgia Department of Education: https://www.georgiastandards.org)

Students worked hard creating a base ten block animal. We then counted the blocks and practiced writing the numbers in numeral, expanded and word form. (This is also a great lesson for listening to directions and learning the importance of grouping numbers.)

Round 2!!!

Oh my! Summer came and went so quickly!!! Mine was full of sunshine, skiing and snow cones! Ha! I am (almost) ready for school to start! Just putting the finishing touches on everything before my kiddos arrive this afternoon. I can't wait to welcome my new students and jump right in to an awesome year! Here are a few classroom pics/updates. :)

Please ignore all the stuff in the background...I promise I picked it up!

I found this teal wreath on 90% off at Hobby Lobby last year and just never got around to doing anything with it. This year I decided it was time to put it on display (It was taking up precious cupboard space.) so I got out my hot glue gun and glitter. I just used supplies I found in my craft boxes and went to work. I love it! Funky and fun! :)

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!