Place Value

Hey Everyone,

It's time for our Winter break and boy am I ready. One of the things I like best about my job is the breaks we get. Not for the reason you might think, time off, but because of the new beginnings. I love the fact that if something wasn't working quite right on Friday, you have a week off to figure out a new plan and start over. Isn't that the best????

We have been very busy since Christmas vacation so I thought I would share what we have been working on in grade 2. For those of you who don't know I have moved on up this year from 1st to 2nd grade and I am lovin' it!!! I started out in 2nd grade many years ago, but always wanted to teach first. I loved teaching first for 14 years but decided I was ready for a change. I had the opportunity to "move up" with my class this year and I'm glad I did!

Enough about that.......Here's what we have been up to....

Place Value

 We started place value before Christmas. We worked on the Smartboard. Students rolled the dice and put the numbers in the column below it to make a number. Simple activity, but great way to jog their memories on what we had already learned in first grade. They loved that it was interactive and the kids not at the board were writing the number on a sheet of paper. Once we had two numbers we talked about which one was greater and how could we show that with a symbol of  <  or  > .

 

We have also been working on writing numbers in expanded form.

In December I made these cute Place Value Christmas lights to use with our iPads. I gave each table 10 cards and they used the app Number Pieces to make the number with base 10 blocks. It was great practice for them. 

We used the Show Me app to take a card and then write the number on the card in expanded form. They loved it!

When we came back to school after Christmas break we used snowmen to show place value. I made these cute little snowmen to use in centers. They had to match the numbers with the place value blocks. I also used them for early finishers.

I also used these snowmen just like I used the Christmas lights above. 

We worked in groups. Each group got a stack of snowmen cards. They would take turns to pick a card and write the number in the middle of the sheet below. Then they would write the number that was 100 less on the left and the number that was 100 more on the right.

You can check out my Snowmen Place Value Unit by clicking on the picture below.

The 100th Day, Valentine's Day and PJ'S

We always think it just might happen BUT it usually doesn't. What, you ask?? The 100th Day ends up on our Valentine's party day. Talk about an exciting day! Then just to add a little more fun we decided to celebrate by wearing our PJ's to school. All I can say is,

Oh Boy!

There is nothing better than getting to wear your pj's and favorite slippers to school!

We started out on Thursday making our Valentine bags. Of course I headed right to Pinterest to get my inspiration. I was looking for something that would be easy since I did leave it to the last minute. 

I found these adorable Valentine Heart Bags that 1st Grade Fantabulous did a few years ago. They were simple, easy and adorable. This is what they looked like when we were done.

Aren't they the cutest???

The night before the party I made there valentines. Again, I was inspired by Pinterest. I found the sweetest valentines that you put on a glowstick. So cute! You can find them at Moms By Heart

 I didn't want to do color prints so I made my own version that I could copy onto red and pink card stock and then add the glow stick. I liked how they turned out.

Since we were arriving in our pj's I thought it would be fun to have a morning snack when the kids arrived. We had cereal to start our day with some bacon and eggs.

 My sister-in-law helped me make these cute little candies that look like bacon and eggs & sausage and eggs. You can find out how to make them by clicking here Rambling Wren 

We watched Froggy's First Kiss while eating our cereal and bacon & eggs. Don't you love the Froggy books? My kiddos do!

We made these adorable 100th Day hats.

We used 100 marshmallows with toothpicks to make some great creations. They loved this activity!

We ended our day by delivering our valentines and opening them.

Overall, it was a GREAT day!!

Second on Sale

It's a long weekend and Second Grade Teachers are having a sale!!! Head on over to TeachersPayTeachers and pick up those things on your wishlist that you have been wanting. No time like the present!!!!  #secondonsale

Or just click on the picture below: 

Happy Sales!!!!!

Trick or Treat Blog Hop!

I'm so excited to join Rachel over at The Classroom Game Nook and over 40 bloggers for a fun Trick or Treat Blog Hop!!!! We will be sharing lots of tricks with you along with lots of freebies. So keep on reading and then hop on over to the next blog! This blog hop will run from October 24th until November 1st.

My trick is all about Cause and Effect. I don't know about you but I think it is a hard concept to teach. I have found it easier to teach by making it hands on. I make cause and effect cards for my kiddos to sort. They work in groups sorting the cards and then they put an arrow in the middle to show how the cause leads to the effect. I copy the causes on colored card stock and I put the effects on a different colored card stock. When they need more of a challenge I will copy them on the same colored paper.

Now it's time for a freebie!! You can get a free copy of my Cause and Effect cards by clicking on the picture below. This product will only be free during the time of the blog hop. It will stop being free at the end of October. Get it while you can.

I also have a Cause and Effect Fire Safety activity. It's a great way to review fire safety while teaching cause and effect.

You can get your own copy by CLICKING HERE 

Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs, Oh My!!!!

This past week was a short week for us because of Columbus Day and a two day workshop but we got a lot done in those two days. This week I introduced nouns. We worked on nouns last year in first grade but I have a new student this year and after a long summer break some of my kiddos needed a review. 

I've been doing a lot more charts this year, especially Interactive Anchor Charts. My kiddos LOVE them, and so do I!!!!!! 

I love building the chart with them. They are so engaged! This week I decided to introduce Nancy Noun to them. 

Well......I purposely named her Nancy because it is my first name and let me tell you, IT DID NOT GO UNNOTICED!!!!! lol They loved that she had my name. So now that I had their attention I asked them what kinds of words are nouns. They quickly told me that nouns are people, places or things. 

Now that they are in 2nd grade I wanted to let them know that an idea could be a noun too. 

I told them that the word friendship could be a noun such as, This friendship is the best.  OR the word music as a noun such as, The music was so loud.

After we discussed the different kinds of nouns and gave lots of examples, it was time to show what we know. This is what our anchor chart looked like so far.

Now it was time for my kiddos to show what they know! I had 4 different colors of Post it Notes. I gave each student one Post it Note. Depending on the color they got, they had to come up with a noun to write on it. If they got a pink post it they had to write a person, yellow was place, green was a thing, blue was an idea.

After everyone finished writing their word, I had them share their word with their partner. Once they discussed it with their partner and made any necessary changes they met me back on the rug. Then each child brought their post it up, one at a time, read the word, and put it on our Interactive Anchor Chart. 

I also made a smaller poster size that we can refer to all year.

and I also made a smaller size that my kiddos can put in their interactive notebooks.

Next week we will be working on verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

OH MY!!!!!

You can purchase my Parts of Speech Interactive Anchor Charts which include the smaller posters too by CLICKING HERE

Ten for Ten

Hi All, I'm joining up with Rachel over at The Classroom Game Nook for her Ten for Ten monthly link up. This linky party is all about sharing ten things on the 10th of each month.