September Math Centers

I know, I know... the end of September is next week. This month really caught me off guard and flew by! I'm just now uploading my September Math Centers to my little shop, but if you're like me and are going to drag out your apple fun a little bit longer, head on over to check them out. 

Here students will choose one number from each basket. They will then subtract their smaller number from their bigger number to find the difference. I have also included one-digit numbers.

Don't the apple baskets make it more fun?! 

Here students will sort each equation by whether the difference makes the equation true or false. I also included simpler equations that I plan to use with my struggling kiddos.

I also included a place value center, a word problem center and a measurement center. Each center can be differentiated to fit the needs of your kiddos.

Head on over to my TPT shop to snag this product for 50% off! I figured that's the least I could do since I uploaded these centers so darn late! Ha!

Noble Nouns {An Updated Product and Freebie}

One of my first products got a MAJOR overhaul and I'm absolutely thrilled! Since we have been reviewing nouns, learning about collective nouns, and working on how to spell plural nouns correctly in our writing, I decided to give my Noble Nouns product a more modern facelift and try out my new and improved packet with my kiddos! I completely updated the graphics, fonts, and content of this packet. Let me tell you this update was way overdo and totally needed! I'm actually kind of embarrassed that I had the other one up in my store looking the way it did for so long. I know some of y'all can relate! Yikes!

If you already own the original, you can download the new one for free under your purchases tab. If you don't already own it, here is a little peek into the product.

Here is one of my kiddos using his plural noun notes in his language journal to help change a singular noun to a plural noun. This read the room activity can be found in my Noble Nouns product along with the plural noun posters. I took the posters and shrunk them down so students could glue them into their language journals. 

This little one is doing another read the room activity {I love having my kids up and moving! All the "centers" in my packet I use as read the room activities. You may certainly use them in centers though. :)}. She is reading the room to find collective nouns, then recording her collective nouns in a mini book I put together.

I did include a possessive noun activity in my packet, but I haven't gotten to it yet with my kids. Once I do I'll be sure to post that activity in action!

Head over to my little shop to snag this product! While you're there, check out the preview to download a freebie noun sort!

I'm leaving this product at it's original price through tomorrow. After that, it will go up to reflect the HUGE update {38 pages to 65 pages}!

Five for Friday

It's my favorite time of the week...time to link up for Five for Friday with Doodle Bugs!

This week we wrapped up our regions and rivers of Georgia unit with this fun edible map activity...

I had my kids use the candy and graham crackers to show the different regions of Georgia and blue gel icing to show where our rivers are. Learning is so much more fun with food don't cha think?!

 We also continued to work on the different ways to show a number. My kiddos completed this little craftivity to show their understanding of this concept...

This was my example. Theirs were on larger pieces of construction paper, so the scoops actually stacked on top of one another. I left today without snapping a picture of a student's work. Dangit! If you would like a copy of this to do with your class, you can find that here. 

Graphics by Krista Wallden

Fonts by Cara Carroll

This week we got a class pet.

Meet our Beta named Bubbles. He is hiding in the top left corner. Can you spot him? That's where he's been hangin' lately. Ha!

I'm putting my little shop on sale over the Labor Day weekend! You can visit my shop here for 20% off all weekend!

I just uploaded this seed ideas mini unit that I've been working on with my students the past couple of weeks. If you'd like a closer look, I did a blog post on it last night. You can find this mini unit in my shop and on sale!!

This weekend I'll be spending time with my sweet family. We'll be celebrating two family birthdays, so I picked up cupcakes from my favorite bakery today to bring to the party!

How good do those look?!

Have a great long weekend! Enjoy! You deserve it!

Seed Ideas: Strengthening Narrative Writing One "Seed" at a Time

We have been hard at work on narrative writing. We've been reading A LOT of mentor texts, generating ideas for writing, and working on narrowing our big ideas into smaller "seed" ideas. 

I used Our Tree Names Steve to show my kiddos how events in a narrative are ordered {sequenced} to form a clear beginning, middle, and end. I also love this book because it really grabs their attention and I can show them how writers use emotions and feelings to hook their readers.

These two books are great for showing students how to write about small or seed moments. Don't you just love these books?!

After looking at the difference between a big idea and a seed idea, and generating ideas on a heart map and various other graphic organizers, I had my kids choose a special memory to turn into a seed idea. We made this anchor chart...

What I loved about having them write their ideas on Post-Its is it really helped me to see who was grasping the "seed" idea and who needed a little more help with narrowing their topic. I read each idea aloud and had my students tell me if that idea was too big or a seed idea. The ones that were determined to be too big, had to try to narrow their idea further before adding it to the chart.

After all of them finally picked a seed idea, I had them cut and paste these apple/seed cutouts into their writing journals. They wrote their seed idea on the apple and their details on the seeds.

{Obviously this is my example. Ha!}

Next week we will work on organizing and adding to our details before we start writing our rough drafts. 

If you'd like my seed idea mini unit, you can check it out on TPT here. 

Phew! It's always busy, busy, busy in second grade! I'm off to grab dinner! Have a great night friends! Tomorrow is Friday!!

Five for Friday

It's Friday! PTL! It's also the end of the third week of school. I can't believe next week will be the fourth week of school! That means we are already halfway done with the first nine weeks. Crazy! 

I'm three weeks in and this is my first Five for Friday link up this school year. I've been slacking, but y'all know there's no tired like teacher tired at the beginning of the year! Can I get an AMEN?!

Let's get started, shall we?!

I'm just loving my classroom this year! I love, love, love the red and navy nautical theme! I'm usually the one that changes their theme each year, but I like this one so much, I think I'll keep it! You heard that here first! I'm going to count on you to hold me to that! You can find my classroom tour here.

This week we did a little good fit book lesson, from the CAFE book, and y'all the kids just ate this one up! I told them that I needed them to help me choose a shoe to run in after school. I pulled out my hubby's shoe first. They thought that was just ridiculous! We talked about how that shoe may not be a good fit because it was too big. Next I tried on one of my little girl's tennis shoes {not pictured}. They thought that one was even more ridiculous! We talked about how that shoe was too small. I then pulled out my high heels. They helped me realize that I could not run in my high heels even though they fit perfectly. :) Finally, my tennis shoes... well those we decided were not only a good fit, but also fit my purpose. Thank goodness right?! We then read Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians {that book is just too stinkin' cute} and talked about how to choose a good fit book.

We also talked about the difference between a nonfiction text and a fiction text. My kiddos sorted books by whether the book was nonfiction or fiction. Then we made a Venn Disgram, as a class, to compare the similarities and differences between nonfiction and fiction. You can find that Venn Diagram here if you would like to use it too!

I have to write.everything.down! I was having a difficult time with planning for some reason and I finally sat down and made a schedule for myself. My schedule only really makes sense to me, but I needed it bad! Here's a look at my planning and copying schedule...

 I know it's so silly that I had to actually make a plan for planning... Ha! Does anyone else do this? I keep my "planning plan" right next to my teacher table on my homemade bulletin board. This way I can quickly see what I need to do to pull myself together!

To review making tens, and to preview the concept that 10 tens equals one hundred, I had my kids do a fun little activity with snap cubes this week. This is not my original idea, one of my fabulous teammates found this idea floating around somewhere and shared it with us. 

You have the kiddos place one snap cube in each of their pockets. Then, as a team, they work to make as many tens as the can with their snap cubes. {I have my kids broken into table teams and they work with their table for most group activities.} Once each team has made as many tens as they can, I ask them to bring me their groups of ten. Then I ask who has leftover cubes and I have them combine their leftover cubes with the leftover cubes from other teams to make tens. Then we talk about how many tens we made and how many are leftover. At the end of the week {I kind of got off track. That's why my days are all over the place. Ha!} I showed them how to take our data and create a bar graph to show the number of pockets our class had. 

The kids really got into it! They tried to wear more and more pockets each day. I even heard them telling each other to make sure to wear something with a lot of pockets the next day! Too funny! Having fun and learning is a win, win. My teacher heart is happy!

Well I think that was the longest Five for Friday post EVER! Have a happy weekend friends!