Olympic Pride

On the final two days of our Sports and Games mini-unit, my students learned about the Olympic Games.  They were excited to learn about the history, but were also engaged as we completed science and math activities.  It was especially interesting to see the students make connections to their Foss Science units of Air and Weather and Balance and Motion.  As a literacy extension, the children learned about the goals set by athletes hoping to make it to the London 2012 games, and the commitment it takes to achieve these goals.  The students completed a writing assignment about what event they might like to compete in, and what they think it would take to be part of the Olympics.  Some students even created new events, complete with rules and diagrams. 

Download "If I Were and Olympian" writing prompt here.

As a final piece, the students created a patriotic decoration they could display throughout the summer: Memorial Day, the 4th of July, and during the Olympics. I let each student choose a piece of construction paper for a background, and the rest of the paper came from our scrap collection. The students were given minimal directions, and had creative freedom to design a "Olympic poster".  Many of the students included the Olympic rings and the torch into their designs.  When the posters were complete, each student chose 12 strips of paper that I had them glue to the bottom.  Since I wanted the outcome to be a surprise, I did not tell them why - they all thought I was crazy!  After this step, I had them curl the poster into a tube and glue.  We then added a string hanger to the top, and all of the kids figured it out: a paper wind sock.  I love mystery projects, because the kids have to listen carefully to directions if they want to get to the final product.  These turned out great.  We sent them home with their writing piece, and many of the kids even attached their writing to the final project.  I told them to display them with pride, and one of my students replied, "Olympic Pride!"

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Who has a question? Comprehension Questions for Higher Thinking

All year my students have been completing "think and respond" questions at the end of their weekly stories.  A while back, I started to notice in our reading group discussions that the students were learning how to answer questions, but were not always thinking beyond the questions.  I designed a worksheet for the students to complete individually, that forced them to think about their stories from a different angle.  We then used these questions for our reading group discussions.  For the first couple of weeks, the questions were very simple and did not require much thought.  When we had our final discussions of the year, I was so pleased with the higher level thinking questions my first graders came up with for the group!  Their comprehension of the events and understanding of the author's intent has come so far since September.  My goal is to come up with more activities that encourage this kind of thought for next year, and engage the children in a way that makes them feel confident and proud.

You can download the worksheet here:
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Nature Hike Scavenger Hunt

After a couple of weeks of report cards, assessments, and packing up, I'm finally back to blogging!  I have so many new things to share, it may take a couple of weeks to get it all posted!
This is our last week of school, and each day has a theme.  Tomorrow is Camping Day.  We are going to make s'mores in the sun, read about camping in our state, and go on a nature hike.  To make the hike more engaging, I just created a scavenger hunt worksheet.  This year, our science units were Air and Weather, Plants and Animals, and Balance and Motion.  For the hunt, I asked questions that would encourage the kids to think about topics we studied.  After the nature hike, the students will use the items they found to create an acrostic poem, and a short essay about everything the saw, heard and felt.  It should be a good time, and a great way to help them stay on task when they are so excited for vacation to begin. 

Nature Hike Scavenger Hunt Download

Happy Hiking!

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Mastering Multiples

My second grade math students started learning the basics of multiplication today.  We first started with with skip counting, and then moved on to some multiple riddles.  We practices making groups and then using the "count by" strategy.  The area that seemed to give my students the most trouble was setting up an equation.  I created this visual to help them to further understand what each part of the equation represents.  To practice, I have chosen several riddles from the book "The Grapes of Math," and will have the students set up equations using this chart.  I printed extra copies so that the students can use one while they complete their assignments; just until they are grasping the concept and feeling more confident. 

You can download the worksheet here.
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More Looking for Long Vowels...Digraphs!

Here is the latest addition to my long vowel activities.  This activity can be completed independently or with other students.  There is a separate worksheet for each long vowel sound and digraphs, which makes differentiation fairly easy.  I designed the activity to meet the needs of my first grade students in the Words Their Way middle vowels category; however the activity also lends itself to enhancing and supporting the skill sets introduced in our class reading curriculum.  My goal with these activities is to make my students more aware of what they are reading, and to help them practice both the silent 'e' and digraph spelling patterns.  My next step is to design another level of activities that requires the students to apply what they have learned in both reading and writing.  Let me know what you think, and if anyone might try using these with their students.
Here is a sample~

You can download all 5 vowel sheets here

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Great Pyramids Spelling

Here is another spelling activity that my students have been doing most of the year.  I had heard of spelling pyramid activities before, but my first graders needed a visual in order to complete the activity correctly.  This double sided worksheet has worked great.  Since using this, they are also able to spell in other shapes as well; such as a diamond and reverse pyramid. 

You can download the Great Pyramids worksheet here .

I am still working on some more long vowel search activities, as well as another word building and changing activity.  As soon as I pull something together, I will post it for download.  If anyone has an ideas for improvements, I would love to hear them!

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Spelling Tests!

So many spelling tests and so little time!  As I continue to work through the Words Their Way methods, I wanted a way for both my students and I to get the most out of our weekly spelling tests.  I first tried basic writing paper, but found that I needed something that was easier to look at and grade.  I then tried a few different spelling test forms I found online, but none of them seemed to give me everything I wanted.  I decided I wanted something that would be easy to correct, provide students with additional practice space when needed, and a parent/guardian component.  Since I couldn't find what I needed, I made one!  So far, I love this form.  I have even had the form printed on different colors for each group of kids and their sort.  Doing this has helped me so much to stay organized.  The best part is, I know if parents & guardians are seeing the test each week.

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Looking for Long Vowels

This is an activity I designed to help my first graders recognize and decode long vowel/silent 'e' words when reading.  The students either use their current guided reading text or decodable book.  As they read, they search for words, and as they find them they write them down under the correct vowel.  I have found that the students pay more attention to what they are reading, rather than quickly skimming over difficult or unfamiliar words.  Since the long vowel/silent 'e' is an important element in first grade, this has proved to be an excellent activity for extra practice.

You can download the Looking for Long Vowels worksheet here

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Winter Literacy Work

Here is some of our new literacy center work (I needed a little spark to keep them working hard this time of year).  My students love "making sentences" activities, so we have done a series of four different winter themed activities.  Here is the final one:

Download Winter Sentences here

Another activity that I have added is Word Building Boggle.  I know that many teachers have created versions of this type of activity; however none of them seemed to fit the needs of my students - so, I created one of my own.  In order to make the activity even more individualized, I fill the boxes with letters from the students' current story activities.  It takes a little bit of time, but I sat down and did about five themes for each group all at once - no sweat.  My students have completed the activity twice, and have not only enjoyed it, but done quality work.

You can download Boggle here

I hope that some of you can use these, or copy them to fit what your students need.  Even though I love finding activities created by other bloggers, I truly enjoy making my own as well :)

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Valentine's Making Sentences

My student's really enjoy "making sentences" activities, so I made a Valentine version.  The basic words are simple, since the "holiday" words are a bit more difficult.  I will also encourage my stronger students to write a few sentence in which they add their own descriptive words.  Happy Valentine's Day!

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Winter Word Work

Here are a few new activites that I came up with to perk up our literacy centers.  Since my students always enjoy "making sentences" activities, I decided to make some that had a theme. 

Snowy Sentences

Snowy Sentences 2

I created a few more that I will share soon.  So far, my class has done the first one, and they did a great job coming up with interesting, and complete, sentences.  Have fun!Pin It

Math - What's the Decade?

Yesterday in my 2nd grade math class, I introduced the concept of rounding to the nearsted ten.  I was suprised how confused many of the students were, even while using a number line.  I woke up at 4:45 this morning with an idea: a game to practice rounding.  This is what I came up with:

The first student draws two cards from a deck, and makes a two digit number.  They then write that number down, as well as the nearest decade number, ten, to practice their rounding skills.  The students played with a partner, and I found that the peer support they received while practicing made a huge difference.  Each student had their own worksheet, but they wrote down both player's numbers.  The kids had fun and did not want to stop.  I think I will use this for a math warm-up activiity once in a while to keep skills sharp.  This game could also be played with dice, or by drawing three cards.

You can download the free worksheet herePin It