My latest bulletin board

So this is my latest bulletin board. We were learning about how to save our planet in Social Studies and we just had our musical themed on saving the world, so this was a great idea.They had to come up with 3 different ways to save earth. I found this idea on the internet for earth day and I decided to try it out with my kiddos.

Going back to prehistoric time...

3 weeks ago we were reading the story " Meet the Super Croc" and my team and I decided to do an excite to write day with our students. We put down the blinds to make the class dark, put on dinosaur sounds, and projected pictures of dinosaurs on the board. The students then were asked to close their eyes and pretend they went back to when dinosaurs roamed the earth. We started with a brainstorm, where the kids wrote down whatever came to their minds while hearing the sounds and looking at the pictures. Later they put their brainstorm together by forming a draft. Last they got started on their neat copy. The kids really enjoyed this activity and they were all very engaged throughout the lesson.

Learning about what causes day and night/ Science

We used the globe I had in my classroom with the IPhone flashlight for the kids to understand the idea of day and night. We had 2 volunteers to demonstrate. Well done!

 

Science Fair April 2013

So, my class and I decided that we were going to do the Solar System for the science fair, It is a great opportunity since we are not learning about it in second grade this year. We read books, watched "The Magic School Bus", and watched "Brainpopjr" to get an idea of the planets. I divided my class into 8 groups of 3. Each group was assigned a planet to research. They also had their own science fair journals to record research and observation. Later, we made paper mache planets. Although it was really messy and hectic for me, the kids really enjoyed it. To top it off we decided to make hats to wear to the science fair for when we present out projects. It was a success! It was amazing how much my kids learned about planets! Here are some pictures...

Learning about plants...

When teaching the life cycle of plants, there aren't as many activities that are available to do. Again, I went through my favorite blogs and found a lot of nice ideas that I did with my students in class. It was a great way to support their learnng because they had fun.

Here is also another activity we've done while we were learning about plants. Their called "Sprout houses". I gave each student a ziplock bag with wet cotton and a about 2 kidney beans. We later taped them to the window and watched them grow. Students then started to observe and record their observations in their notebooks about the whole experience. They were so excited to watch it sprout!

 

Objectives board

I usually struggle writing my objectives for every class I have everyday. So I thought of this idea so that I can write them all once in the morning and forget about writing them before every class throughout the day. I also printed these colorful subject signs to encourage me to write them everyday.

Introduction to basic multiplication

Towards the end of the year in grade 2, we begin to teach multiplication to our students. I did a lot of research through my favorite blogs until I found this creative activity. The kids picked whatever they wanted from their homes and brought it to school to use for their activity. It was a success!

Math board games

Last year I grouped my students up, and they had to make their own math board game. They made it from scratch and even made up all the rules on the back. They were very creative!

Marshmallow Math (place value)

I took this idea from a teaching blog. It's brilliant! The kids really enjoyed learning place value with this activity.

Contractions (Grammar)

Whenever I teach contractions I always make sure I do this activity with my kids. It's fun and it's an easy way for them to remember contractions. We call them "Contraction Buddies".  

 

Adjectives

I couldn't have thought of a better way to teach adjectives. WIZARD OF OZ! I showed my kids the Wizard of Oz. Of course when the wicked witch of the west appeared, I thought that would be a great idea to use for adjectives. So I drew witch shoes and legs as a template for the kids to label and describe the witch. They enjoyed it very much, despite the fear they had when they first saw the witch in the movie. Another activity for adjectives through the Wizard of Oz could be describing any of the characters in the movie.

Busy Bunny...

This is a great way to motivate young students to write. I got this idea from one of my co-workers at school. When she first introduced the idea to me, I was amazed. She did Busy Bear, and so I decided to do Busy Bunny. The bunny is a stuffed animal that I've bought from Ikea. Every Thursday I choose a student to take home Busy Bunny and write about what adventures they have had all weekend. The bunny is then brought back with the student on Sunday and we read about the adventures together in class. I send home the bunny with a journal in a fabric sack. Each student writes about a page in the journal every week. At the end of the year all the students will have written in the journal and its a nice keepsake.What a great way to encourage your students to do some writing over the weekend!

Door Displays

Here are some door display that I've made throughout the years.

Science group activity (Different Environments)

A great way to get students to work in groups and learn about different environments.