Story Elements with Olivia and Lily

I have compiled all the worksheets, posters, and flash cards to go with my story elements unit for Olivia and Lilly. My students have also completed the entire unit. They just loved the unit and really got to know the characters, and loved the books. This unit's main focus is understanding the who, what, where, when, and how. This does not mean the simple components, but it takes it more indept like point of view, details, main/minor characters, and many more concepts.

And it is finally up on the site!


TPT

Teachers Notebook

Testing Days 2, 3, and 4

I wanted to post this since last week but it was a busy and sickening weekend. Well to make my story short, I was sick starting Thursday, finally in shoes, and on the final days of my current course. Crazy huh? Nah I have had crazier weeks.

Testing week was a bit hectic but nothing out of this world. My students enjoyed every test treat they received every morning on their desks. They also enjoyed trying to figure out my word play.





My students were also excited that to get homework passes for showing their work an trying their best. They were so funny, as they did not let me forget to pass out the passes once testing was done that day.

Well testing is finally done! Well I am not to sure I am too excited about that. Since this is the time when students get rowdy and believe they no longer have to learn and pay attention. This called for fun thematic units!


Find all the different test treat labels here.

Test Week Day 1

To a wonderful start to testing week!

To my students surprise when they arrived to class today they found a little something waiting for them. They discovered a letter sent to them with a little treat for being there today. I always look forward to do these little something for them, in order to encourage them to try their best.

Free Download of:    Letter           Label

Today's treat was a plastic Easter egg with candy inside. The students were not allowed to eat the candy nor to open it until they got home today. The egg had a label saying: Don't forget to try your "Egg"stra hard! I did put the disclaimer out there that you do not spell extra with the word egg . My purpose was to play with the word extra to put egg into it for the egg that they received. My students loved their treat and were laughing at my "egg"stra joke. : ) You can find the letter and the egg label for FREE on my teacher store either on TPT or TeachersNotebook.

Even though in 2nd grade we do not give the AIMS test, we do however take the SAT 10. In order to get my students motivated, I showed them a song that I found online. They did not only love the song but they eventually started singing along. We were blasting our music that the assistant principal went to our classroom to ask me to lower the music as it was loud and could be heard outside the classroom. 

There are many different versions of this video, but I believe this one to be the best. Kudos to the person who recorded this version of the song, and who created the video. Best of all it was uploaded to teachertube.com which means that it could be showed at school, and it is not blocked. : )

When you grow up what do you want to DO?

It is fun to see what children want to be when they grow up, but is hilarious to read what they will be Doing. It is fun to see and realize what their perspectives of the world are.

When I grow up I want to buy drugs so my dog can find them.  

I explained to this child the difference about buying drugs and training drug K-9. And his new sentence was When I grow up I want to train a K-9 dog to find drugs.

We studied and created these drawing not only because career day may be around the corner but also because there is a contest for this. This contest ends Monday and I would really appreciate your votes for your favorite drawing from Pubelo Del Sol.

When I grow up I want to clean teeth.

My students were excited to participate in the contest, and to learn about what they want to do when they grow up.

http://www.lenovodreamtodo.com/contests/showentries/categories/photo/55/12892/1121/page:1

Testing Season

Testing season is here! Believe it or not I love this season. I love the pressure and stress that testing season has. I know I am strange but to me it feels like an accomplishment and I look forward to it. This is the first year that I do not give the AIMS test instead I am giving the SAT 10 test. Same concept right? 

Our school's theme for promoting the testing season is: Race to the top. 

so here is our bulletin board. We are racing to the top grade. 

We are racing to the top grade. I have a hill where kids who have test taking tips on the shirt are racing up. As they are racing they are passing letter grades. For teachers it can symbolize the labels school's get and to students their academic or test grade. I had a couple of cheerleaders, encouraging signs, and a couple of my students strategies for solving problems. On the top of the hill there is a kid with books and a sign that says I did it A+. 

 My students enjoyed brainstorming and creating their person. Most importantly they enjoyed the final product. 

Oh my, que cute!!!

For dinner today we had Wendy's. You may say who cares, but it has to do with today's post. My three year old had a kid's meal, which included the best toy that a kid's meal contains (at least in a teachers perspective). She got the Apples to Apples game that I just love. The cutes thing about the game is not that it is a mini version but the way the game is set up to play. I want to buy I class set.

This set up has given me several ideas. Now I just need time to execute and try with my class. Wish my daughter luck. Guess what we are having for dinner tomorrow?

Ps. The good thing is she never eats it all before getting full.

Perimeter and Area Idea

I did this evaluation project with my class and my students enjoyed it. 

The sames are the same for both perimeter and area the only difference is  the product and last step. 

I know this idea is not new and someone else may have already posted it somewhere, I know there is something like this in the investigation math series, but I have modified it so that students can partition the rectangles how the common core states. 

1. Take a piece of paper and fold it into eights. 

2. Cut out all eight pieces. 

3. Take one rectangle and fold it into fourths and trace. (Do not say anything about four) Ask: What is the area/perimeter of the rectangle?

4. Take another rectangle and fold it into sixteenth. (Do not say anything about sixteen) Ask: What is the area/perimeter of the rectangle?

5. Ask: Why do we have a different area/perimeter if it is the same shape and size? Discuss how many products that we buy have different measurement on the same product.

6. Fold all the rectangles into sixteenths. 

7. Cut out different shapes, that have different areas/perimeters using the rectangles. 

8.  Students are to find area/perimeter for each shape. The they are to arrange them from greatest to least or least to greatest. 

For area: I used sentence strips to order them. Next to each shape the students wrote the area using the square unit label. 

For perimeter I had students order them on paper so that students could also show the method that they use to find the perimeter of the shape. They are also to label each shape using units. 

This is also a great idea for a bulletin board. My students really enjoyed cutting the shapes out and ordering them. 

Project, Project, Project 3

Project 3:

This one is not done nor close to being done. I am in the process of creating a document that test every concept that I was able to see that can be tested from the 2nd grade common core (Language Arts and Math). Being a linear thinker I need to see things in a check list form.

The way I will be using this document is by giving the students the checklist. Then I will give them each test. In order for students to check off a concept they first must pass 3 test on that concept, to ensure that they weren't just lucky that day. I have created/will create 4 tests for each concept. I will not give all 4 test in one day or even week. I will spread them out so constantly evaluate the concept. In the boxes below the the concept name the student will write the test date and if they passed or not. When they have passed 3 test they will be able to check off the concept.

What is a passing grade? That is up to you. For me it will be no more than 1 question wrong per test. If they do get only 1 question wrong they will write their score on their check list and then try to see if they can figure out the correct answer.

Here is an exclusive preview of the document. So far I have all the checklists and tests for the concepts in the first 2 pages, which has equal to 58 pages so far. Yikes this will be a large document.

Please leave comments of what you think of it so far. Suggestions?

Projects, Projects, Projects 2

Project 2:

I have completed all the worksheets, posters, and flash cards to go with my character study for Olivia and Lily. My students have also completed the entire unit. They just loved the unit and really got to know the characters, and loved the books. This unit's main focus is understanding the who, what, where, when, and how. This does not mean the simple components, but it takes it more indept like point of view, details, main/minor characters, and many more concepts.

I would love to place it on my teaching store for others to be able to use, but I do not know how to put it together. That is where I need your help? What is the best way to organize all the different components of this unit? What will work best for you? For those who take a couple minutes from their time to share their opinion's and thoughts will  be entered in a drawing to win this unit. I will be conducting the drawing next Friday, April 13th.

My thinking:

1: Each worksheet, poster, and flash card will be individual files and zipped together.

2. Creat 6 documents (one for each W and H and in each file everythign that goes with it) and zip the file together.

3. Put it all in one big document

4. Put the poster's together, flash cards together, and worksheet's together.

5. Create 2 documents. One for Olivia and one for Lilly.

How would you like to get the document to use?
Example Pages:

Projects, projects, projects 1

This week has been hectic and with testing around the corner it is just going to get worst before we get to relax. The kids though, oh my they seem to energize with the stress teachers feel. WIth all that energy students will need a lot to do with lots and lots of projects.

Project 1:
From our PD there was great information that as educators we sometimes do but not intentionally, wich means that we specifically do not teach what is expected. Like Kathy Garner's TA's purpose, not to do things uncoiciously but actually knowing step by step what you are doing. As an educator this will not only benefit you to understand what you are doing, but also it will benefit your students as you teach them exactly what to do.

My great team asked me to create some poster doing especifically this. I have created posters that list especifically what is expected from students when talking, working, listening, and thinking. I was trying to come up with a cute name for it but could not decide on one. I thought about LWT2, but I wasn't too happpy with it, because when implementing it students first think to themselves, then talk and listen, folllowed by working.  Well if you can think about ja good name please let me know. You wiill be able to get the posters in my teacher store or just download from here.