math centers = loud

Yes, it is loud! I don't mind it so much, because I know MOST of the kids are learning something important, but DANG it is loud! Sometimes it's hard for me to teach a small group it is so loud.

So.... I took a break from math groups (and blogging... if you didn't notice!). I don't know if it's the last month of school or just the pure loudness of math center time, but I needed a break from the everyday routine of it all. So we have scaled back... and I mean waaaayyy back to once a week. I feel bad because I know whole group doesn't always work out for all my kids, but I have a few stinkers this year that will not stop talking LOUDLY! 

Anyway, I really do enjoy math rotations when they are being performed correctly and when I can meet with small groups and really get that "bang for my buck". As I mentioned before, I am beginning to feel the summer itch in these last few weeks of school, and to be honest the games in math rotations have been "rotated" one too many times! So, when I was recently asked by Casey at the Second Grade Math Maniac to check out her "Take Home Math Kits", I was hoping they would be a good fit in my math centers. Her packet includes a TON of games at all different levels, so I picked out a few that would support a skill that my kids need major practice... MATH FACT FLUENCY! 

Most of my kids are decent with their facts, but as 3rd grade approaches I am scared for them. It is no joke.. and if you are a third grade teacher you know what I am talking about. Casey has some great games in her kit. 

This kit is actually designed for kids to take home games to practice, but my kids aren't real fond of "homework", so they worked out perfectly in my centers. There are games with a similar format that deal with a range of skills from telling time to shapes to subtraction facts. 

My kids especially enjoyed playing paper plate subtraction. 

**Picture coming soon!!**

(Of course, I left the camera I took the pics on at school!)

Anyway, I would totally recommend this product and she has it on sale right now! Click here to check it out. 

If you have any ideas on how to keep my math groups quiet, so I can stop feeling guilty and get back into the groove of math rotations... please leave me a comment! 

rule breaker

I don't know about you but I have trouble following the reading series straight through. I mean sometimes there are stories in Journeys that I could use at different times because they go well with science and/or social studies. Of course I want to try and plan cross-curricularly as much as possible, so I am kind of skipping around in Journeys.

Not drastically... just skipping a story here or there. I can always go back to those stories, and we will for sure cover the skills, but we just swap the stories up. No harm done!

So, this week (after a little shifting) we are reading a realistic fiction and a biography. We started working on biographies the past week and a half with Helen Keller. It seems like perfect timing with MLK now, next we will jump right into Black History Month early.

The story we are reading this week is Luke Goes to Bat with a companion story about Jackie Robinson. I am trying include a close reading component at least once a week to practice finding information in the text. So, I used the companion story (Jackie Robinson) and made up a little directed close read for it. Copy it front and back and use it small group, whole group, or let students do it by themselves.

Click the picture above to download the freebie. 

We are learning about MLK this week, and we started our mini-unit with a little activity I like to call:

Drink and Draw

You may have been to something called Sips n' Strokes- which is basically like a painting class with wine (can't go wrong there!). Well, I changed the name and threw in a juice box and now we have Drink and Draw. We use a directed drawing (like this one) and have a good ol' time.

It is really fun!

Off to bed... ready for the 4 day week! :)

Did you know? (with LOTS of FREEBIES)

Did you know that January is National Braille Literacy month?

I didn't either... until I started doing some research on Helen Keller. We are studying her in our reading series and shockingly the kids are super into it. We have done a lot of non-fiction this year, but we haven't focused on specific people for past research so I am excited to start reading biographies and autobiographies.

So, as we are learning more and more about Helen Keller it seems obvious to expose my second graders to Braille and give them a little taste of reading with Braille. I found a wonderful kid-friendly site about Braille called Braille Bug. This site includes info about Braille (Louis Braille, history and games) and also links to the Helen Keller Kids Museum Online (which has some awesome pics and descriptions of her life).

I am definitely about to print out some Braille names for all my kiddos. Here's mine:

Click the picture above to do your name!

You've more than likely seen a few other posts I've made on Pebble Go. Well, Pebble Go just happens to have a great biography section (that I will be all over during Black History Month!!) and there is a section on Helen Keller. So, I've made a guided Web Quest for my kids to do during some tech time. If you don't have time for tech (or access to it) I also made a Text Reference page on Helen Keller. My kids are tackling Text Referencing as much as possible.

You can click the pictures above to get your free copies of these activities. (If you are in Journeys, like me, I am hoping these will be helpful to you!)

During our research on Helen Keller we are building a timeline of her life and learning what makes an event in some one's life significant. Because of the significant interest in this topic we are extending our unit on biographies and autobiographies and we are going to write our own autobiographies. We are starting with a bio-poem. If you haven't heard of a bio-poem before, it is a great way to get the kids thinking about their life.

Above are the guidelines for a bio-poem. Click the picture and you can download this for your kiddos. So, we are going to start with this poem and then in our writing journals we are going to write about different things in our life. I made up some labels to help the kids organize their pre-writing in their journals. 

Each child will receive all these labels and we will work on filling out their writing journals in an organized way! You can download these by clicking the picture above (compatible with Avery 5160 label). 

I hope to post more this week about how much progress we make in this and other topics!

 Have a great week!