Author's Purpose and April Deal

We reviewed author's purpose last week and I am almost 110% positive that you have seen these FREE activities floating around Pinterest but just in case I wanted to share them with you. We do these every year and my students just love them. I hate spending the whole week only reading stories from our reading series. It always makes me stop and think when I hear my students get so excited when I say we are going to read (fill in the blank) because it is not from their reading book. I need to have them sitting on the carpet while I read great literature to them more often.

First we made these author's purpose pencils to review what each purpose meant. You can get the pencil template {HERE} for free and the pieces to glue in {HERE}. You can buy the flaps in this shop to glue to the front but I just made mine.

The next day, we read Where The Wild Things Are. They had to decide if the author was trying to persuade, inform, or entertain us and then complete this cute craft and write about why they picked what they did. Get the templates free {HERE}

The following day we read I Wanna Iguana and again decided what the author was trying to do. Then they got to pick an animal they want for a pet and write to persuade their mom and dad why they should get that pet. You can also get that free {HERE}

In math we finished up multiplication and completed the whale word problems from {HERE}.

If you stop by Educents you can pick up the deal I have going on right now. It is a packet of April themed ready to print practice pages. I use these during my small groups. I put them in Smart Pal sleeves and let them use dry erase markers (less copies). It's just a quick and easy way at the end of small group for them to show me if they remember a particular skill that I previously taught. Click {HERE} to see a preview and complete list of the skills included.

Fraction Fun and Adjectives

This past week we have been working on fractions which my kiddos always seem to do really well with. We made these fraction kites. You can get it free {HERE}

We also made these cute fraction pizzas. I kept seeing them all over Pinterest for sale but why buy and make copies of what your kids can make? I gave them something to trace the circles with and then let them pick how many pieces to divide their pizza into. Next they cut out their toppings and decided which pieces to put which toppings on. 

They had to write the fraction for each topping they chose to use on an index card and glue inside.

We made these tab it books in small group. They came from Simply Skilled in Second.

In ELA we covered adjectives. My favorite thing we do each year with this topic is popcorn adjectives. This was something I bought (I think). I only found the copies in my files but more than likely it came from TPT. You can always do this without templates though and just have the kids draw popcorn pieces and boxes.

First, we brainstormed adjectives for our big popcorn pieces.

Next, they got to eat popcorn while writing their own adjectives using their senses,

Have a great night!

Daily 5 Spring Cleaning

I am a HUGE fan of Daily 5. Not only does it save me hours of preparing centers but the kids love it and they get so much time to just read. Towards the end of the year though I start feeling like there needs to be some changes to bring back that first of the year excitement that is slowly dwindling away.

I am linking up with Deirdre from A Burst of First for a Daily Five linky. Each week you will be able to find great tips on how to spruce up your Daily Five routine. This week we'll be focusing on Word Word. 

Since this is the first week I want to show you how my kids Daily 5 items are organized. 

These are our Daily 5 bookmarks. I used the colors of my groups and they each have one in their book box. If I say go to the 2nd square on your bookmark they know right where to go. I just go in order (1st square, 2nd square, etc.) throughout the week and start back with the 1st. 

I found the idea of how to print them on another blog but this is what I did:
1-Find a set of daily 5 posters on TPT {there are tons of free ones}The ones I used came from {HERE}. 
2. Click print and change pages per sheet to custom 1 by 5.
3. Check the bubble that lets you select the page numbers to print. Enter the page numbers in the order you want your bookmark separated by commas. For example your first bookmark might be 1,2,3,4,5. If you slide the bar under the preview picture it will show you what your bookmark will look like. 
4. Now just print however many you want with that choice on top. 
5. Change the order of the pages printed so a new choice will rotate to the top. For example, now you might put 2,3,4,5,1. 
6. Slide the bar and preview then print again. 
7. Continue doing this until you have all the bookmarks you need. 

Super simple. Attach to construction paper and laminate!

Here are our book boxes. Each one has the student's number and on the wall behind is a piece of masking tape with their number so they will know where to put their box when we clean up.

So on to word work. I put over the word work table each week a copy of the vocabulary words with definitions and our spelling words. I get copies of these {HERE}. If you use the Wonders reading series this site is AWESOME! They have other spelling and word work pages for each week of the Wonders series that I will sometimes include at the word work table. The students have to always make flash cards with their vocabulary words first then they can move on to working with spelling words. I rotate my word work choices about every 2 weeks. I just have a big box under the table with all of my word work items. Some things you would find in this box are stamps, play dough, toothpicks, beans, craft poms, stencils, magnetic boards and letters, letters they can string on a necklace, and different spelling word choice cards. When it gets warm I'll prop the door open and let them write them with sidewalk chalk outside. 

Make sure you read my previous post {HERE} to find out how to get an item of your choice from my shop for free plus enter to win $50 in Educents credit.

Now go stop by A Burst of First for more Word Word ideas! 

Educents Store Launch Plus a HUGE April Freebie

Have you ever visited Educents and seen some of the amazing deals they have going on daily? Well now you not only can browse these deals but seller's have started opening shops on Educents as well. Over 500 sellers have already opened stores and there are more to come.

Right now you can enter to win a $50 credit with Educents now through April 12 by entering the giveaway at the bottom of this post.

Each seller is offering a freebie in our shop to give you a preview of the quality of our work. My freebie is going to be HUGE so make sure you stop by and pick it up. I love having themed centers in my classroom so with this being April I am offering my "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" math centers for FREE. Now this is not just some little few page freebie. This sucker is 152 pages and is loaded with adorable spring clipart. 

It contains 12 centers (3 for each of the math CCSS subtopics including geometry, measurement and data, numbers and operations in base ten, and algebraic thinking). Some of the centers even come with an easier and harder version. Each center will contain a task card, the center activity, an assignment page, and a fabulous math facts game for students to practice addition and subtraction. These centers are based on 2nd grade CCSS but could easily be adapted to fit 1st or 3rd grade standards as well. 

Click {HERE} or on any of the pictures above to grab this freebie.

There is one more fabulous thing I want to share with you. Educents is having a contest to see who can get the most followers. If you will click {HERE} to go to my shop and click on the heart at the top to follow me I will give you a product of your choice up to $5.00 for free. Just email me with the product you want along with your Educents username as well as the number follower you are when you click the heart.  secondgradeperks@gmail.com 

Now don't forget to enter the giveaway below for your $50 Educents credit!

Educents Marketplace $50 in Edubucks Giveaway #3 - Second Grade Stores