Sunday, November 13, 2011

Can you believe it!?!?!  This is our last full week of school before Thanksgiving Break.  We might be on the countdown to break, but this is a busy week for me-- conferneces 2 nights this week, hubby has meeting late on night,... phew!  Maybe by Friday we will be able to sit down to a family meal, but in the mean time, here are some Thanksgiving graphing activities.  I usually teach a mini-lesson as a while group activitiy before dismissing students for independent practice and centers while I pull guided math groups.  Please note, this packet is meant to be used over several days.  In fact, my plan is to focus on one type of graph each day.  We will make a graph together in class, they will practice on the worksheet with the given data, then the following day students will collect their own data to make a graph.

{CLICK HERE TO ACCESS GRAPHING ACTIVITIES}



If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Happy Teaching!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

I truly believe it is an honor to live and teach in the United States, and we need to thank our veterans and active military member for allowing us to have the greatest jobs in the world-- working with students.


Veteran's Day was formally known as Armistice Day.  After reading several non-fiction books about Veteran's Day, I asked my students to complete this timeline.  They really did love learning this week, and I am so fortunate to have families with veterans who are eager to talk to the students, share experiences, and answer hundreds of little second grade questions!


Click HERE to get the timeline activity


Happy Teaching,



Monday, November 7, 2011

Reading... on a STICK!

Here is a really handy thing I  L-O-V-E having at my finger tips-- Reading Questions on a Stick!  Coming from upper grades where we are really targeting state standardized testing and formatting questions appropriately, I am always trying to expose my students to the types of questions they will see/hear, even my current second graders.

These reading questions can be used with any types of literature, fiction or non-fiction, of course, some questions just work better with one type of literature over another, except for the reading foundations questions.  To use, I print each strand of questions on a different color of cardstock, then put on a ring and carry them with me to have reading questions at hand when meeting with students for guided reading groups or conferences.

To access the Reading Questions on a Stick, click here

Happy Teaching,

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Hello, Everyone!  So this is it, I am rolling out a new blog today, dedicated to all the wonderful teachers who share their thoughts, ideas, and creative lesson with the rest of us!

On another note, I just wanted to say that I am excited that nationwide, we will all have the same math and ELA standards.  How awesome is that!

So to start out, I wanted to share one of my favorite places to visit:  Mrs. Lemon's blog over at Step Into Second Grade.  She has some amazing ideas and so many freebies!  Go visit her and see what neat-o thing she is sharing today!

Thanks for stopping by Nuts About Teaching!