Math Stations!

Teachers are always looking for new ways to improve/adapt what they naturally do in their classrooms. Luckily at JBE we are given lots of different opportunities to participate in professional development. The most recent PD that I have joined is one focusing on implementing stations (centers) into the math block. Although I have always used math centers as part of my normal routine, I have picked up some wonderful organizing techniques as well as a refreshing sense of "you can do this" lol :)

Step one was reorganizing my math board. This is what the final product looks like.  It is actually a drip pan from Discount Auto Parts that I covered with fabric to make a cute magnetic board. The student's station numbers are glued on and their names are on magnets so they can be easily manipulated. 

 

Step two was putting all of the math stations I was already doing into one centralized spot. I changed out what was originally in this bookcase in order to house the centers. Inside of each lid I hot glued Velcro directions explaining my expectations for the center. The directions allow students to have something to reference when they are playing the game and the Velcro allows me to change out the directions easily when I rotate centers.  In addition, I placed a topic card on the top of each tub. The card has the skill the students will be working on printed on the top and a dry erase circle in the center for me to write the name of the game.

 

 

Step three was allowing the students to play! They loved having the choice of which station they got to go to and which partner they wanted to work with. Everyone was engaged and on task. Although the stations covered basic review material they allowed for the additional spiral practice needed to reinforce skills.

 



 

Introducing Informative/Explanatory Writing!

We have recently shifted to teaching informative/explanatory writing. This simply means that while we are busy reading nonfiction we are going to also be writing about what we are learning. Informative/explanatory (the old expository) writing does just what it sounds like...provides the reader with information. Luckily JBE is a fantastic school that is constantly providing professional development so that all of its teachers can stay up to date with the current shifts in education. Here are a couple of ideas that I got from a recent Core Connections training.

To begin, I showed the students an example essay about Halloween (that is around the time we started our unit).  I wrote each part of the essay on large strips of paper, cut them up, and passed them out to students. Together, we worked to "build" the essay by putting it back in order. The nifty part was that as we "built" the essay the students sized themselves for importance. For example, our focus statement, or "King of the Essay," stood on a chair because he was the most important and told what the entire essay was about. Next, I had my first main idea stand beside him and the two details that supported the main idea kneel . We continued building this way with our second and third main ideas and details. Finally, I had my conclusion statement, or "Queen of the Essay," stand on a chair at the end of the line because she restated the focus statement and therefor also summed up the entire essay.

Here are some pics of us building the essay...I didn't have a panoramic camera so I couldn't capture the whole thing in one shot but I'm sure you get the idea ;)

 

 

Although answers can vary, the following is the minimum expectation for an informative/explanatory essay in 2nd grade:

Focus Statement

Main Idea

Supporting Detail

Supporting Detail

Main Idea

Supporting Detail

Supporting Detail

Main Idea

Supporting Detail

Supporting Detail

Conclusion Statement

 

From there, we took what we were learning and tied it to text. With the new common core standards almost everything is text dependent. Students MUST be able to go back into a passage and pull out the important information and then summarize it into the above format.

 

We looked at an essay about Woodpeckers. The students discussed the different text features (as a review) that were found in the article. We then read the article discussing how the author had structured, or organized, the text.

 

 

Finally, I passed out bags of sentence strips, dry erase markers, and cut out details (from the text of course!). The students worked with a partner to determine what the main ideas in the article were (using the sub headings) and then wrote them onto their sentence strips. Once they had completed that, they read each detail and placed it below the main idea that it supported. This allowed me to see who could pick out the main ideas and who was able to recognize which details truly showed support and which did not belong (this was acceleration for our upcoming unit on identifying the main idea in a nonfiction text). Here is what the final product looked like...

 

 



The Gang's All Here!

This is a sneak peek of what will be in the JBE yearbook this year. All of our 2nd grade students dressed to impress with their school shirts on. Adorable!!!

 

 

 

Pumpkin Party

Well I know this is coming out VERY late but I just found these pics on my camera (whoops!). We had an awesome (and extremely energetic) party on November 1st. It was our first official party of the year and I think the sugar was almost too much to handle!! Nonetheless, we had a great time and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves! Here were a few pictures from our rotations.

Station #1: Scrapbook Page

I tend to take a TON of pictures throughout the year. Each holiday, students create a scrapbook page to document special events in our classroom. At the end of the year I put all of the pages together and make a year-long scrapbook for each kid in the class. It is so fun to look back at all of the memories we make in one short school year!

 

 



 

Station #2: Spider Toss

This is always a hit! I stole the idea from one of my colleagues last year and they kids love it! It is super simple too which means I love it just as much as they do ;)  I stapled a "spider web" to one of the doors in my classroom. Students take turns tossing spider rings into the web. The student that sticks the most spiders to the web wins!

 

 

 

Station #3: Halloween Bingo

This station is exactly what it says it is. Students used m&ms as game pieces on their Bingo boards.  Winners got to pick a prize from the treat bucket. Special thanks to my wonderful sister, Sadie who drove an hour just to volunteer in my class and run the station for me!

 

 

 

Station #4: Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe

Students used two different colors of Candy Corns as game pieces.  They played tic-tac-toe and could snack on their game pieces in between.

 

 

 

Poetry,Popcorn, and Pajama Party

Today we had our "Poetry, Popcorn, and Pajama Party."  This worked out great because we have been exploring poetic elements and alliteration as part of our figurative language unit. Today the kids got a chance to perform their favorite poem for the class. They chose a poem, copied it, and practiced it for fluency. We all enjoyed some yummy popcorn while the kids took turns reading their poetry from the "teacher's chair." Here are a couple of pictures. The kids seemed to have a blast!

 

Fun With Matter!!!

Over the past two weeks our class has been learning about matter. The students have had a lot of fun reading, researching, and investigation the three forms. These are a couple of activities that we did...

 

The Disappearing Snowman

I made this guy over the weekend and had him up and put together when the students came in Monday morning. They were given a research sheet and recorded the changes that took place throughout the day.

 

 

8:00 A.M 

                          

11:00 A.M 

 

                                         

1:30 P.M

                                         

The Next Day

(We put what was left of our snowman outside and marked the water line on the container. We checked it over the next few days and noticed that the level was going down. The students were able to infer that the water was evaporating.)

 



 

Oobleck!!!

 

 

 After our science test we decided to have a little (messy!) fun. My wonderful H.S. aide mixed up an extra large batch of oobleck while the kids were at special area. She then portioned it out into cups so that every student would have their own.  That afternoon, I pulled groups to my table to explore the mystery substance. All the kids predicted that it was a liquid when they were given their cup. When they touched it though, it was hard. Most of the class then changed their mind and said it was a solid. This is what happened when they actually dug in and started investigating. They begged me to put the recipe on here so that they could make it at home, so....here it is!

 

Oobleck Recipe

2 cups of cornstarch

1 cup of water

food coloring