Saturday, February 1, 2014

We're Having SNOW Much Fun in 2nd Grade!

I am hoping that all of our snowy fun the past two weeks is going to bring us a couple of snow days here in Oklahoma.. :) If not that, please let it at least be warm enough for outside recess. We are all sick of this eternal indoor recess!!

These past two weeks we used a lot of ideas from my Snow Much Fun! pack and we did have "SNOW" much fun!

We worked on synonyms {or, as Common Core calls it, "shades of meaning"} using paint chips! Students worked in pairs to come up with synonyms for a word given to them. We discussed how the colors on the paint chip were similar but not exactly the same, just like synonyms!


 
We worked on symmetry and made Symmetrical Snowflakes {idea courtesy of Cara}. The kids really loved seeing close up pictures of actual snowflakes on the smartboard!


 
We read Dream Snow by Eric Carle, and then had our kids hide an item under some snow. They had to use very descriptive writing to try and get their group to guess what was hidden under the snow! They really surprised us with their creativity and their awesome writing! There is a fancier printable version of this activity in my Snow Much Fun! pack :)
 


 
 
We made our cute Snowman Glyph Craftivities!

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Snowman-Glyph-Craftivity-464337

 
We read The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler and had the students make these cute little booklets to write about the characters, setting, beginning, middle and end.

 
We also sequenced the story as a whole group before the students did it independently.
 
 
Last but not least, we learned about states of matter by demonstrating the life cycle of a snowman.  I originally saw this idea on Pinterest, through Louise and The Frugal Teacher. We tweaked the idea a bit so that we could do the lesson in about 45 minutes. You'll need an electric skillet and a snowman :) We got ice from Sonic and it worked perfectly! The kids are able to see the solid, liquid and gas.
 



 
After we discussed what was happening, the kids filled out this record sheet {click HERE for this freebie!}


 
Photo from last year.
 
Next week we are going to start our unit on penguins, one of my faves!!! I am still hoping for a day or two off, though :) :) And we will also need to throw in a little 100th Day Fun {if we are in school all week!}





Happy weekend :) And happy February!


3 comments:

  1. Is the Life Cycle of a Snowman a freebie? I love it!
    Kirsten

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  2. Goodness gracious! I clicked the link you put and found it haha dont mind me!
    Kirsten

    ReplyDelete
  3. How did you get the Sonic ice to stick together to form the snowman? I didn't have any luck today with mine. Thanks

    ReplyDelete