Pumpkin Fun

I feel badly that it is already November and I am just now getting around to sharing about our pumpkin math! Last week we had a very short week as we missed school on Monday for parent/teacher conferences.  Then we had a fun filled field trip to the zoo.  So in all we were only in class for 3 days...the week of Halloween!!  So I found myself asking, what can I do to keep these kiddos busy during a very different week.  I went to my tried and true sources for some ideas.

I love using Sunny Day's Pumpkin Science investigation!  You can find it here:
Pumpkin Science Investigation

I also love Abby's Pumpkin Activities from The Inspired Apple. You can get them here:
Inspired Apple's Pumpkin Stuff

The kids have such a great time with all of these activities.  They kept us busy for our 3 days and the kids were engaged and excited!

The other day in my browsing of Facebook, I came across this video posted by Box Tops for easily counting 100 box tops.

Post by Box Tops for Education.

I loved the video and immediately shared it with our wonderful PTO who spend so much time counting our box tops for our school.  Then the video got me thinking.  How could I use this for counting other things.  So I made a file folder that looked like this for each of my pumpkin groups:

They were very easily able to line the pumpkin seeds up in the boxes to begin counting by 100's.  I gave each group a large sandwich bag and told them to begin counting by 100's.  When they could no longer fill the grid, I told them to raise their hands and I brought around small snack bags and had them continue to count by 10's.  Then, when they couldn't complete a ten anymore, they set the leftover ones to the side.  Then they were able to easily count by 100's, 10's, and 1's!  It was also much more manageable for both the kids and me!  I highly recommend it!

Now thanks to the election we are now in the throws of teaching government.  So much fun! 

Until next time!

Anna Adjective

We have been busy reviewing our parts of speech.  It can be so boring can't it?  This week we have moved into adjectives.  In our experience, these are some of the hardest to teach.  They definitely don't know them from first grade either, so we straight up get to teach adjectives.  A few years ago, we came across the Suzie Adjective activity made by one of our favorites Hope King.  Check it out here!!!

Suzie Adjective

We loved this activity so much that we enlisted the help our our K-2 Literacy Lead teacher to come and visit the class.  Her name is Anna, so we renamed the activity Anna Adjective to fit her.

The kids LOVED her visit and we were so happy to have her.  The activities that go along with the visit are wonderful as well and we highly recommend them. Thanks Hope!!

Adjectives rule!
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Map Skills

I'm Back!

I sure have missed all of you followers (if we still even have any).  I actually have really missed blogging.  It just has been a little low on my totem poll with all my things going on.  I am setting some personal goals for myself this year and blogging is back on as one of them!  I hope to be blogging regularly and sharing what we are doing in our class.  

Like Heather said, last year was one of the roughest years I have had in a long time.  But one of the best things about teaching is that we get a fresh start every year.  There really aren't very many professions that have that luxury.

We have been in school a little over 2 weeks and things are going so wonderfully! I am absolutely in love with my class!

This week we are studying maps!  One of the first things that I like to teach is Cardinal Directions.  I use the Dr. Jean song about directions.  Then we create a compass rose that they get to cut and paste and then color beautifully!  For being such slackers last year, I am giving this away for free!  Hope you enjoy it and can use it in your classroom!

See you soon!

 

PTTD:Post Traumatic Teaching Disorder

Have you noticed we haven't blogged in like an entire school year?! We are suffering from PTTD. It was a ROUGH school year. We struggled, taught, and cried but we made it through.  Before this school year, Juli and I were very proactive in our teaching. We surfed blogs, created products for TPT, and brainstormed new ideas constantly.

THEN...this year happened. The group came to us with a reputation for being a tough crew. We are experienced we thought. We have had rowdy classes before we thought. We've got this we thought.

THEN...the first day of school happened. Wow! Okay we thought. We have all sorts of tricks and techniques we thought. It will take a more creative approach we thought.

THEN...survival mode happened. Exhausted, deflated, and at a complete lost, we went into survival mode. Blog surfing ended. TPT shopping ceased. I lost ten pounds and started struggling with massive anxiety. At winter break, I cried and begged my husband not to make me go back  - not that there was really any choice! All teaching desire had been drained from me. I would feel guilty at times and try to muster the energy to get back in the groove, only to face the class and reality they brought with them and retreat back into survival mode.

THEN...the school year ended! We survived! Barely but we survived! Juli has been traveling with her family. I have done the same. Slowly we are recovering. I have gained back almost all my weight in the month we have been out of school. I still fight anxiety, but not the extent I was during the school year. While I am not quite ready to start mentally planning my school year, the thought of classroom prep doesn't make my stomach hurt.

We know that the group we had was a once in a teaching career group - or at least we hope! To go into detail about the group would be fruitless as we are putting it behind us and the group itself doesn't deserve to be analyzed or discussed openly on the web. We are picking ourselves up and brushing ourselves off. We hope to blog, create, and share once again.  To any followers that have stuck around and are reading this, thank you! We hope this coming year will be full of new and creative teaching ideas and products. Hope everyone is having as an enjoyable summer as we are!

   AND

Happy Birthday Juli!

What a better day to return to blogging than to wish Juli a Happy Birthday! As you can tell from like the past ten posts - she has been holding up the blogging fort around here.  This school year has been somewhat different to say the least, but that is another post for another day. Just wanted to stop by and let everyone know that my amazing friend is celebrating her birthday today. In addition to be a great friend, she is also an awesome teacher, fun violin teacher, super mom, and recently added swimmer to her many titles. I do not know anyone who is busier than Juli, but was not at all surprised to hear she now gets up even earlier 3 days a week to go jump in a cold pool and swim for endless laps.  She is crazy! Join me in wishing Juli a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Place Value

I don't know about you guys but I LOVE Sundays!  Don't get me wrong.  I like Saturdays too, but my family is very busy on Saturdays.  It almost seems like it is another day of the work week.  We have soccer games, football games, and dance rehearsals on Saturdays.  But on Sunday, we have one thing to focus on.  Our family!  We begin with a carefree morning of quietness, coffee (husband not me), breakfast and lounging around.  Then we go to church and enjoy a morning of worship together.  Then we head home for relaxing, football games on TV, Sabbath rests (my personal FAVE), and playing.  Today we even baked cookies together.  This evening we will headed to our small group meeting with our dear friends.  We have the best time.  PLUS...I don't have to cook.  Each week two couples share the cooking responsibility for the whole group.  It is just a remarkable day.  I don't want you to think that it's all play and no work.  I definitely work, especially on school and TPT stuff.  And I still find a few minutes to make it to the gym.  But it just feels different!

So as I have been planning for the week, I thought I would pop in a show you what we're up to this week.  PLACE VALUE!  Aren't we always working on place value?  I'm being dead serious.  I literally feel like it is ALL.THE.TIME.  There is always lots to cover so we try to make it as fun as possible.  It is also a skill that is great practice through application in games.

So this week, we will be breaking out the Web Themed games that specifically cover 2.NBT.1 and 2.NBT.3.  I hope you pop over and pick up your own copy too!  I also have lots of other ones as well that cover Place Value.  Let's be honest, it is one of the most important skills we teach as second grade teachers.

I am also excited to be pulling the pumpkins out and teaching through pumpkins on Thursday!!

 Make sure to stop by and pick up all the Place Value packs available to you.  As always, the first comment picks up a copy of your own for your classroom.  (And as an added bonus, If you have a blog and post about your class using this packet, please send me the link and I will let you choose ANY product from my TPT store for free!)

Happy Halloween Week!

Fall and Frenzied

Wowza!  I feel like every time we get on to blog we are complaining about how stressed we are.  It has to be said though...we are STRESSED.  I hope that we aren't the only ones feeling the pressure.

Last year seemed to be quite stressful with the addition of all those extra kids.  Let's just say that it is a good thing that didn't happen THIS year.  I am quite certain my family would have me committed!  This is the most challenging year I have had to date in 13 years of teaching.  I can honestly say that I have never seen anything like it.

With that being said, I love my class.  They have lots of needs and they are exhausting.  But I love them.  They have fun personalities, they make me laugh, and they love to be at school (even if for most of them I am asking them to do near impossible things!)

This week we had a short week.  We took our kids to the zoo on Thursday and then had a half day on Friday.  Tomorrow we will not be having school so that teachers can get some much needed time in their classrooms.  I have scheduled parent conferences for tomorrow so I am looking forward to meeting with my parents and discussing their kids!

This past week we spent 3 and 1/2 days reviewing skip counting.  Seems like a simple enough task for these kids.  However, we pretty much can only do it up to 100.  Past 100 is hit and miss and all the way to 1,000 is laughable.  We spent lots of time evaluating and discovering number patterns this week.

So this coming week, we have decided to use my Fall Activities pack for the kids to review.  It should be fun for them and the fall decor is perfect for the weather we have had here in NC.  I love October so it seems perfect to embrace the fall weather while practicing our skip counting.

Be sure to head over to my TPT store and pick up a copy for yourself before Fall leaves us!  As always, first comment gets a copy for free!

Happy Fall!

Check out all the awesome stuff that you get in the pack!!! (There's much more, but I couldn't do a preview of ALL 51 pages that it includes)  The range is from 5-1,000.  It is a perfect pack to use to differentiate!!

And as I promised, click below to get yourself a fun little fall freebie!!