Somewhere In Second

Woohoo-it's October! One of my most favorite times of the school year. The weather starts to change, the colors are bold and bright, and we get to start all the fall crafting! I was able to put all of my Halloween goodies out this weekend, too.

It wasn't 100 degrees yesterday either, which meant I was finally able to grab some mums for our porch. Bummed I can't find any white pumpkins though...anyone know where I can find some???

Oh, and we snagged this guy yesterday, too. 💁

It's never too early, right? 🎄🎅🤶

Not only do I love decorating my house for the holidays/ different seasons, but I love adding decorative elements to our classroom as well-it makes my kiddos so excited and really adds a touch of "home" to our space. Like this cutie my Grandma painted for me awhile back. He's certainly our favorite.

It's also a time to change out our classroom behavior chart! I'm telling you, the kids get so excited about this simple change 😹. Not gonna lie, I do too.

If you'd like to read more about how I handle behavior in the classroom, check it out here.

You can find this and my other seasonal behavior charts here.

This week we learned all about story structure and how to summarize a story using beginning, middle, and end. We of course started with our "fill in the blank" anchor chart.

I always enlarge my anchor charts using our school's poster maker, The students also have a small copy glued into their reading notebook. We complete the chart together by filling in the blanks. This saves me time on having to complete the entire chart with my students, however we are still completing the chart together, so the research behind making them WITH your students still applies here.

We started the week discussing sequencing and putting events in order. We read the story, "Pumpkin Jack," about a boy's rotting pumpkin but it's actually teaching about the pumpkin's life cycle!

So obviously, that's what we had to do for writing this week!

You can find this resource in my Reading, Writing, and Math Halloween set here.

After reading, we chunked the events from the story using beginning, middle, and end, and then sequenced them within each section.

You can do it visa versa, too, but when you have a lot of events (in this case we had 9), doing it this way is a little easier for them to manage.

We also watched, "Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat," via Youtube and completed a BME graphic organizer in our reading notebooks.

At the end of the week, we read, "The Witch Next Door," by Norman Bridwell. I had first anticipated to use this at the start of the week to model our BME skill, but then changed my mind when I forgot about these adorable witch legs we make every year!

After reading the book, students summarized the story using the PLOT. We discussed the plot and related it to BME-I typically teach these skills in isolation, however doing it this way allowed the students to see the connection of events between the two.

I mean, come on!

Grab this cutie in my TPT shop HERE!

Can you guess what I'm teaching next week?

I'm changing the way I teach this skill too, so check back next week to see what fun we're up to!

Hope you all have a great week! Please pray for us in NC to receive some cool weather this week. 🙈. I cannot take anymore playground sweat...

Hey, Friends!

We had a terrific first full week back at school since Florence. Luckily for us, it was Johnny Appleseed week! I was getting nervous during the hurricane thinking we wouldn't be back in time to complete our first (of many) lap books of the school year. Yup-while most people are worried about when their power is going to get turned back on, I'm thinking about lap books....🙈

Johnny Appleseed

My kids loooooved completing these! I think they told me everyday how much they loved them. 💗 If you're not familiar with lap books, it a way for students to publish their learning from a unit or particular skill taught over a period of time (usually about a week). They are a bit of work, BUT so well worth it. The students love seeing their hard work from the week in one place. Here's a look:

It's also a great way for students to see what can happen when you on something for a period of time longer than 15 minutes! Taking a blank lap book at the beginning and showing them what it will look like when it's completed, is a great way to get students motivated at the start of your unit.

Lap books are also a great way to practice listening skills with your students. Lap books take a bit of precision to assemble, and since you're completing little by little, it's important to follow directions explicitly to so all of your pieces will be where they need to be!

This is a photo from a few years ago-this year we completed a web-quest on Johnny Appleseed himself. Look at my kiddos! First time using our iPads, too!! So proud of them. 🍎🍏💻

We finished our week with some apple diagrams, apple eating, cider drinking, birthday party planning fun!

I'm going to this party...🤣👆

When I have my students walk around the classroom and share with one another, I'll play music through Amazon Music (free if you're a Prime Member).

I tell them they can share with as many people as possible until the song is over. They walk around the classroom, pair up by putting their hand way up in the air, and look for a partner to share with. They both read their writings, give a positive comment about their partner's ideas, and repeat. It's a great way to allow all of your students to share when time is of the essence!

Even and Odd with Steven and Todd

If you follow me on Instagram, you've probably seen my Even Steven and Odd Todd craftivity I've been DYING to have my students complete!

Earlier in the week at the start of our unit on even and odd numbers, we watched a Brainpop Jr. video (btw, if you're not using Brainpop at your school it's a must!! Talk to your admin about purchasing it-for real the best!!). Used an anchor chart from my even and odd FREEBIE set on TPT found HERE, and practiced dividing numbers through "fair share," (one for group 1, one for group 2), to visually model what makes a number even and what makes it odd! This Pinch and Sort activity worked wonders for my second graders! I swear by the end of the day, they were already commenting every time we mentioned a number, if it was even or odd 😋.

The second day, we started by reading the book, Even Steven and Odd Todd, which I purchased from Amazon for around $4.

As we read, we charted the numbers represented by each character. Steven had 10 fish, 6 cats, 2 gerbils, etc.

I had my students come up and write the numbers as we heard them throughout the story.

They had a bit of trouble coming up with 13 quickly, so we again modeled how to figure out if a number is even or odd by drawing fair share dots in each circle.

Students were amazed when we looked at the number of letters in the word, "EVEN." It has four letter and four is an even number. Then we looked at, "ODD," and yup, you guessed it. Three letters which is an ODD number! They couldn't believe it. 😛

We then figured out if WE were Even Stevens or Odd Todds by writing our name on strips of paper. Students counted the letters in their name, and decided if the number was even or odd. I kid you not, out of 21 students, I didn't have a SINGLE ONE put their name in the wrong column!!

Then came the fun part. Each of my students have what we call a, "Secret Number," which is the number they are given at the beginning of the year which corresponds to their mailbox, cubby, supply box, behavior clip number, book box, etc. They used THAT number to determine if they would be completing EVEN STEVEN or ODD TODD. We did a quick discussion on how to figure out if a TWO DIGIT number is even or odd-literally took 30 seconds.

Since I was (and still am) needing to finish up my beginning of year testing, I laid everything out for their character in two different locations.

The only thing I put at their desk was their Steven or Todd face template, their t-shirt, and the recording sheet. I showed them my example and they were off! As they finished one part of their character, they simply came to their table and retrieved another. *We work at tables instead of desks in our classroom, so I don't like to overload them with papers or a ton of materials while we work. I don't like them to work on the floor when we cut, so using this method really worked!

They turned out so cute and they keep asking me when they can take them home!! Sorry kids, these guys have to decorate our room for a bit with all of their cuteness!

*It was Friday afternoon and I only had time to snag one of each picture. This testing is killing me!! I think I'd rather walk on hot coals than try to administer four different assessments with each student in a period of 2 weeks...

I can honestly say, I have NEVER had a group of students understand even and odd numbers as much as my students showed me this week! Remember to snag the FREE RESOURCES to practice even and odd with your students, as well as adding these cuties above to your lesson. 💁

Wishing you all a great week ahead! Me for one am so excited it's October!!! I'm all about the Halloween themed activities at school. And my countdown to Disney can begin-17 days to go! Woohoo!

About Me

Hey there! I’m Jamie, a second grade teacher from Pittsburgh, PA, currently living my best life with my superhero husband and our two cairn terrier kids, Benson and Oliver in the beautiful state of North Carolina. It has always been my dream to be a teacher of little ones, and I am so grateful I get to do what I love everyday. I started my teaching journey is 2008 and to say time is flying would certainly be an understatement! Everyday might not be good, but we certainly find the good in everyday! I’m here to share my classroom and teacher life with you-blogging about some fun and new ideas, activities, and resources for you to {hopefully} find useful and can take back to your already amazing classroom. :) Thanks for stopping by-I’m so excited you’re here! I can’t wait to share my journey with you all!