Snow Globes & Hot Chocolate

Happy weekend!  I felt that Monday through Wednesday flew by, but Thursday and Friday just dragged on for me!

On Monday I stayed late to hang up pictures of our melting snowmen. I guess I was in a rush and ended up stapling my finger instead of the paper!!  Ouch!  The staple went all the way into my finger!! I ran into another teacher's room (ironically her last name is Staples) and she helped me get it out. I was scared to use the stapler for half of Tuesday, but eventually I got over it! I'm extremely careful now! Please tell me I'm not the only one who has stapled her finger!

This week my class really focused on descriptive writing.  We wrote about what it would be like to live in a snow globe. I think one of my favorites was when one student described how he would bust of the snow globe! Another student wrote from the perspective of his mom. His mom saw him trapped in the snow globe and gave it a little shake to make all of the glitter fall all over him.

After the students finished writing, they had to create a picture of what they were doing in the snow globe.  Then they added snowflakes with some with paint and q-tips.  Here are a few of the finished products!

Check out Amanda's snow globes at Teaching Maddness.  I love the way she had her students make their snow globes.  Why do you always find the cutest ideas after you've just done something similar??

We also wrote how to make hot chocolate using A Cupcake for the Teacher's unit. We made hot chocolate in class to help the students figure out the directions. We also graphed what our favorite topping were for hot chocolate.

I'm linking up with Teaching Maddness: Flashback Friday. Check out what everyone else did this week too!

Snowing Rainbows

We've been making snowmen left and right since school started back up last Thursday! I mentioned my room was bare, but it's quickly becoming more colorful.

Today we visualized what it would be like if it snowed in colors instead of just white and created colorful snowmen.

Love the sticks for hair!

Another student added a bow.  

We also read Snowmen at Night and created a tear art picture.

I had the students write what they would do if they were a snowman at night. I read over their writing as I was hanging the pictures in the hall.

Ha! It's hard to read, but it says "If I was a snowman at night, I would go to Ms. Deal's backyard and have a party.

Another student said she would come party on my street.  So glad they love me (and want to wake me up in the middle of the night!)

Are you doing any snowmen activities in your class?

New Year, New Ideas, New Possibilities Linky Party

I'm excited to join the New Year, New Ideas, New Possibilities Linky Party hosted to Primary Possibilities! Hopefully everyone will be able to find some new blogs and teaching ideas!

Hi Everyone! This is Karen from Little Second-Grade Somebodies, and I'm really excited to be a guest blogger! I teach second grade math and science in a large urban school district in North Texas. Up until two years ago, I had taught primarily 5th and 6th grade (and I'm talking a good number of years). Then out of the blue our new administrator changed many assignments, and I was moved to second grade. I was NOT happy. But, once I got through that first year, I realized I really like the little people. I still have a lot to learn, but I think that I have been "re-mojofied."

 It's funny how everything comes full circle. Let me explain. When I first started teaching, I remember a professor leading a room full of teachers through an exercise on building schema through various activities like KWL charts, etc... Once schema is built then learners can make connections. Well the reason I'm stating this is that for the longest time after that I never heard another thing about schema and connections. But, now what do we hear about? You guessed it! Schema and connections. But haven't we been doing this all along? Sure we have.

So, I want to share with you a couple of activities from one of my TpT products that I use with my kiddos in conjunction with science instruction.  I love the idea of keeping science journals, but in second grade journals can sometimes be a mess. So I started creating journaling pages the kids can use that: 1. are organized and set up in such a way that little ones won't cram all of their writing into one square inch of paper; and 2. are designed to facilitate making connections and reflecting on learning. Initially this is a whole class activity, but after two or three times, and with some gradual release, the kids can complete them by themselves. When you read them, you will be amazed what they can tell you! Enjoy these freebies!

Thanks for having me as a guest blogger!

Happy Teaching!

Karen

Little Second Grade Somebodies

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Be sure to check out my guest post at Second Grade is Out of This World!

Friend Venn

I had so much fun with my kids yesterday! They were fairly quiet, probably because they were tired! 

I always have the students complete an activity about resolutions for the new year. This year we made these foldables.

They had to write a school, home, and personal resolution. Since I teach at a private school, we also added a resolution that regarding our relationship with the Lord.

Some of my favorites were:

• I will not chew my nails.
• I will have a new hairstyle everyday.
• I will run a marathon.
• I will sleep more.
• I will invite Heather over to my house everyday.
• I will deepen my relationship with the Lord.  (Yes, a 7 year old wrote that!!)

We started our graphing unit by making Friend Venn Diagrams.  I found the idea on Just Add Clip Art.

You can get the prewriting activity and Venn template here.

Jessica from Second Grade Nest is having a HUGE 500 follower giveaway. It ends tomorrow, so be sure to hop on over there to enter if you haven't already! There are 5 separate giveaways.  My Winter Blends Literacy Centers is up for grabs on the 3rd giveaway.

http://www.teachingmaddeness.com/2013/01/friday-flashback-read-this-book.html

New Year's Resolutions & Giveaway Winner

Happy almost New Year! 2012 was a bit of a rough year for me personally, so I'm hoping that 2013 will be a lot better! There are a couple of New Year's Resolution Linky Parties, so I'm linking up with Jen from The Teacher's Cauldron and Amanda from Teaching Maddeness.

Blogging Goals: I want to blog more consistently and share what's going on in my class. I'm hoping to blog at least 3 times a week.  I also want to make sure to comment on more blogs.  I love getting comments and I want to spread the comment love!  I have found so many more great teaching blogs recently.  I have read teaching blogs for the last 2 years and discovered even more since I started blogging.

Personal Goals: I want to get my running groove back! I used to be able to pop out 3 miles like it was nothing.  I even completed 5 marathons back in the day! It seems that once you stop running, it feel so hard to get back going. I have the Couch to 5K app on my phone and I'm hoping that motivates me to get moving!

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Congratulations to Cherie Mae Ong! She won my 50 Follower Giveaway and received a copy of my Winter Blends Literacy Centers.

Cherie, make sure to check your email because I already sent you a copy.

If you didn't win, this packet is on sale until midnight for $3!

Compound Words & Sale

I've had a lot of free time on my hands since Christmas, so I decided to start planning when school starts back up in January.  It hasn't been fun free time because my dad has been in the hospital, but he seems to be doing a lot better today. 

I was able to make one new packet for compound words.  I LOVE teaching the kids about compound words and was looking for some more activities to complete with them.  

I plan on the playing "I Have, Who Has?"game with them. 

There are also two center activities.

    

Can't wait to use it with the kiddos next week!

I'm also throwing a TPT sale from today until December 31st.

Be sure to enter my 50 Followers Giveaway if you haven't already!

Off to play on the laptop some more! I'm headed home today and my flight has been delayed by over an hour. I have claimed an outlet....I'm not moving until it's time to go!  

Blends + a Giveaway

Right before Christmas break, we started to learn about beginning blends.  

I made 4 characters - Gretchen, Drake, Brad, and Crissy.  Each table had to work together to write words for each beginning blend.

Side note about the activity - I loved seeing how the students decided who would write on the poster. Some tables figured out quickly a fair way to share the responsibility. Other tables, not so much. :)

Since we covered this topic right before break, I wanted to reinforce it when we return in January. I made a Winter Blends Literacy Centers that covers r-blends, l-blends and s-blends.

The first activity is similar to posters we completed in class. Students will sort the words onto the correct character.

         

There's also a Penguin Real or Nonsense Word Sort and an Igloo Word Match Up.

        

Since I recently reached 50 followers, I wanted to host my first giveaway. The winner will receive a copy of the Winter Blends Literacy Centers for free. The giveaway enters Sunday night 12/30 at midnight EST.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway