Second Grade Perks: February 2013

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Amazing Winter Writing Prompts

I recently teamed up with Jaime from Bright Concepts 4 Teachers to do our own little product swap. She reviewed my Morning Basket Work which you can read about here. She reviewed the Jan/Feb edition but I have recently uploaded the March/April edition.

The product I reviewed for Jaime is her Winter Writing Prompts packet. And let me tell you it has got it all. It is common core aligned and covers opinion, informative, and narrative writing.

 
In her packet you will find :
 
3 different versions of grade level appropriate writing checklists and 6 different graphic organizers.
 
 
6 writing prompts There are 2 choices for each type of writing which is one thing I and my kids LOVED.


 Student and class writing covers

 
3 different versions of grade level appropriate writing rubrics
 
 
 The paper to write the final draft is included along with the template for this adorable craftivity.


 
So why did I and my kids love this so much you ask.....well my kids loved the graphic organizers to help them get their ideas down on paper. They also loved that they had more than one choice when writing. After we had covered all three types of writing I let them pick their favorite piece and we added the hot cocoa craftivity to it. We were supposed to share today but we ran out of time and they all reminded me more than once that tomorrow morning the first thing we have to do is share. They are so excited about their writing. You know this makes for one happy teacher!!
 
Thank you so much Jaime for letting my class try your product!


Thursday, February 14, 2013

ReadWorks.org and Morning Baskets for Spring

First, I wanted to tell you that I have uploaded my Morning Basket Work for March and April to my TPT store. It is the same as my January and February edition but for spring. If you missed the post about that and how I use it in my room click here.


The next thing on my list to tell you is that I stumbled upon this amazing site the other day called ReadWorks.org that has lesson plans for all kinds of reading topics. Just to name a few there is main idea, plot, setting, sequence, cause and effect, fact and opinion and the list keeps going. When you click on a topic it will take you to a page with lessons for each grade level. I loved this so I could differentiate. You pick the grade level you want and there are usually 3 lessons for each topic. It even has a tab so you can see which common core standard it aligns to. I LOVED it!!


Hope you can use it too! Have a great weekend!!

Friday, February 1, 2013

Sale and Addition Bridges

I went to a training this past week and was shown this adorable idea for centers or early finishers. The best thing about it is you can differentiate it. So all you need are 3 cut outs of something (I used hot chocolate mugs for January) and craft sticks and counters (I used white craft poms for marshmallows). Lay the 3 mugs out and take a handful of the poms and lay any amount on each mug. This tells you what numbers to write on your sticks. The numbers in the middle of the stick have to equal that amount when you add the poms. You also write A, B, and C on the sticks so they know how to lay them out. I feel like I did not explain that well so here is my example:


2 poms plus 5 poms equals 7 poms for A and C, 2 poms plus 7 poms equals 9 poms for B and C and so on. On the backs of the craft sticks you can write in a different color and make them harder. I just thought this was really neat. I made a template for some cuter mugs for January and set of for February. If you want to download these templates for free click here. In Feb. I was thinking of using the candy hearts instead of the poms. If you have any ideas for the other months let me know and I'll try to come up with a set for those as well. I was thinking clovers for March but not sure what to use for the counters. Hmmmmm???

Also, as if you didn't already know, there is a big sale going on at TPT (Feb. 3rd) and TN (Feb. 2-3). You can enjoy 20% off of my TPT shop and 25% off of my TN shop on these days. Plus if you use the code SUPER at TPT can you get another 10% off.

 
250SundaySuper
 
Were any of you lucky enough to get out for snow today??? I was!!!!!! Have a great weekend!!