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!

 

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!


Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

This post is going to be short and sweet, as today was the class Christmas party.... and we all know Christmas parties make tired EXHAUSTED teachers! We had a lot of parents who were such awesome helpers, so things ran smoothly! The kids loved decorating sugar cookies and looooved our hot chocolate bar!

I am here to announce the winner of my newest pack, SNOW Much Fun! Congrats, Jenny P.! I just emailed a copy of the pack! I hope you enjoy it!

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I am very jealous of everyone who started their Christmas break today :) Tomorrow is our last day.  Let's hope we can survive gingerbread houses!

Snowflake Symmetry, Snowman Life Cycle & More!

I guess Amy and I are secretly hoping for some snow, because it is ALL about snow in our classroom!! And our kids are really enjoying it :) Now if we could just get a snow day here in a couple weeks...

 

We did a lesson today on symmetry. I started off by showing them pictures of real snowflakes on the Smartboard. They LOVED them! We discussed what they noticed {they all had 6 sides, both sides were the same, etc}. This led into a great discussion about symmetry. They brainstormed other items around the room that had symmetry and practiced drawing lines of symmetry on the snowflakes. Then the kids got to make their own symmetrical snowflakes {idea originally from Cara Carroll}. I just love the way they turned out :) And this fits in perfectly with our Everyday Math unit about lines, shapes and symmetry :)

 

We read Dream Snow by Eric Carle. After reading and discussing, we told our kids to think of anything they'd want to draw. They would then need to describe it because we would be hiding it under the snow! They then read their description to their small group, and their friends had to try and guess what was hidden in the snow! They loved this and did an amazing job! We reminded them that the goal was to get their group to guess what was hidden {and if their friends couldn't guess it, they would need to add more descriptions!} This was a great reminder and informal assessment on their descriptive writing :)

 

{The picture above was written by one of our ELL students! We were so proud of her!}

 

We also learned about the states of matter by observing 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. I wish I could tell you what all we talked about, but I honestly can't remember because Amy and I just kept bouncing ideas off of each other. I will say that after the lesson, we both felt like we had had an AWESOME discussion with our kids and that they really got it!

 

After observing and discussing, our kids filled out The Life Cycle of a Snowman sheet I made {pick up your free copy HERE!}

 

 

 

And lastly, I wanted to leave you with a picture of some of our Snowman Glyphs! Enjoy :) And don't forget to pick up a copy {HERE} for your snowy unit!

 

 



Paint Chip Synonym Snowflakes!

Today we worked on synonyms! We read this adorable book to introduce the concept:

 

 

Then we brainstormed lots of synonyms and made an anchor chart to record our learning. We discussed how synonyms are the same/similar. We also discussed how they are different shades of meaning. We demonstrated this with a paint chip. The colors are not exactly the same, but they are similar!

 

After a great discussion, we gave each child a card with a word on it. They had to find a friend with a synonym to their word. This person was their partner. They got a paint chip from us and had to write their two words on the paint chip. Then come up with three more synonyms on their own. They did a great job!

 

 

 

The kids had a lot of fun and I think it will really stick with them :) We did the writing for our snowman glyphs today, and tomorrow we will make our craftivity! I can't wait to post pictures :)

Let it snow! PLEASE! :)

I just cannot seem to get back into the groove ever since Christmas break. Partially because we have to do all of our winter testing (no fun). And that full moon that seemed to last ALLLLLL week this past week didn't help either. I am loving the nice weather we are having, but it does NOT feel like January at all. I have secretly been waiting and waiting for some snow days.... but since it doesn't seem like that will happen anytime in the near future, we had a snow unit at school for the past week and a half!

This is a long post! So grab a coffee and enjoy :) 

After reading some books about snowmen, we made this "Snowmen are.." chart. Always good to review adjectives :)

We learned the three states of water by observing the The Life Cycle of a Snowman. Uh, have I mentioned that I. LOVE. PINTEREST?? (this photo is not mine-from Pinterest)

I didn't do it exactly like it says in the link above... I bought Sonic ice and formed a snowman in front of my kids and put him in the skillet immediately. I turned the heat WAY up and we watched and discussed what was happening. Who knew that watching ice melt and turn to steam would be SO. COOL. The kids loooved this activity. Then I had them write what they observed and how the snowman changed. They had to determine if he was a solid, liquid or gas.

We made snowman glyphs one day. The kids had to answer questions such as, "What is your favorite snowy day activity?" "Do you like snow?" etc.

We read

and I had the kids pick any item they wanted to hide in dream snow! They had to draw it, then they got a piece of white paper to tape on top of it. They had to write 5 descriptive sentences about their item that was hidden in the snow. Then they all got up to share, and we all got to guess what was hidden. They did AWESOME! I forgot to photograph my class' writing/pictures, so here is one from Amy's class! So cute!

 It's a horse! Super cute and EASY activity to do :)

We worked on synonyms this week too. I was inspired by Pinterest yet again! We spent a few days discussing synonyms and doing some group activities, then my kiddos used paint chips to come up with three synonyms. We talked about how the words are similar, and the colors on the paint chips are similar. Then I made Synonym Snowflakes to display their work. **NOTE: Do not let your kiddos use black magic marker to write on paint chips. It smudges. Pencil would have worked juuuust fine :) I learned that the hard way!**

For my observation I did a lesson on symmetry. I (bravely) brought my iPad to start the lesson, and the kids were going nuts! :) I showed them photos of real snowflakes and we discussed what they noticed about them, which lead into talk about symmetry. I used the "mirror" in photobooth to show that symmetry is a mirror image, and they thought it was THE. COOLEST. THING. EVER! Then we made Cara's Symmetrical Snowflakes. I just LOVE how they all turned out! :) And they were all different, just like real snowflakes!

I read them a few books about snow and snowflakes and we completed this chart together, and then they did one independently:

The past three days we focused on characters (and how they change), setting, and summarizing the beginning, middle and end of a story. We read

I just love this book, and so do the kids :) We made this anchor chart together after reading the story a couple of times:

At the end of the week, we wrote directions on how to build a snowman, and made snowmen with snow paint. This was my first experience with this stuff (equal parts glue and shaving cream). I don't know if all of my kids put enough of the paint on... I really wasn't sure what to expect!! So we will see what they look like when I go in tomorrow morning :) Yet another learning experience for me!

Not gonna lie, it's gonna be a little hard going back to school tomorrow, but I am excited to teach about tolerance and MLK :) If you read this whole thing, THANK YOU :) Have a great week!