Non-Fiction Writing: Steps 2 and 3

We started our Non-Fiction writing unit a few weeks ago and things have been going wonderfully!  The students have very much enjoyed learning about their animal and are very proud of themselves as Non-Fiction authors.

As a second grade, we are visiting the aquarium on Monday on a field trip.  One of the second grade teachers came up with a list of 5 animals that we will see at the aquarium (and that the students were able to easily research).  The students chose their animal so that we had 4 students in each group.  We are going through the entire research and writing process with them.  I model each step with our "class animal" and then the students complete that step on their own.

Step 1 was to read over our sources with our partner.  You can read more about that here.

*Sorry about the random round circles.  My normal photo editing program was not working correctly.  Had to improvise!

They are just working so hard, that I had to share their photos!

Step 2 was to take notes on their research.   We used the note-taking templates that I made.  My original plan was to have them use sticky notes and place them in the boxes (they fit perfectly).  However, I could picture the sticky notes falling off and getting lost pretty easily.  So I just had them write in the boxes, which worked great!

 There was one page for their animal's appearance, one for habitat and one for diet.

Step 3 was to share their research with their group.

Stay tuned for the next steps in our writing process!  And keep your fingers crossed that we complete them before the school year ends!

Polka-dotted Vocabulary Words!

We finally have a nice day here after a lot of rain.  My husband requested my help in the yard, but I told him I was doing work inside.  Shh...don't tell him I'm still in my pjs at 2:15!

Today I want to share with you my newest project.  It started back in the fall, when I created some Common Core Math Vocabulary words for 2nd grade.

I was recently asked to design some ELA vocabulary words that coordinated with the Math ones.  Sure!  I put together a set of over 100 cards that match the polka dot theme of the Math Vocabulary cards.  I had such a fun time putting this set together!

Each card has a border that is color-coded to a different Common Core strand.  It has the vocabulary word in large, bold letters.  Additionally, each card has a bright picture to define the vocabulary word.

The words can be hung on the wall to create a word-wall for students to use as a reference in the classroom.  The cards also fit inside a pocket-chart for easy access.

I love the bright colors!

I'm kinda partial to the cute graphics as well...

Can you use these in your classroom??  Click the picture below to grab your copy today!

 Hope you are all enjoying your weekend!

Non-Fiction Research

We are ending our year with some Non-Fiction writing in our classroom.  The second grade is going on a field trip to the aquarium, so the students chose a sea animal to research.  We borrowed some books from the library and, with help from our technology teacher, found some pretty cool facts online.  We used the following websites to find kid-friendly facts about our animals:

World Book Kids

World Book Student

Animal Fact Guide

Kids' Biology

Today we started off by reading our sources with a partner.  The kids did a great job reading with their partner and discussing their new learning!

Our next step will be to take notes on the research that we have done.  Then we will be putting our notes into sentences...paragraphs...books!  We'll be non-fiction authors before we know it!  I'll be sharing pictures as we continue our project.

Liquids!

As part of our Gems-Net Science Kits, we are exploring solids and liquids.  We finished up solids, which you can read about here, here and here!  The students had a great time with all the hands-on experiments.  Now it's time for liquids.

We learned that the properties of liquids include transparent, colored, translucent, viscous, etc.  Big words for second graders!  They are soaking it all in, though (haha, get it?).

Today we learned about liquid levels in a bottle.  We explored what happens when a container is tilted, placed on its side and then upside down.

We recorded our results on the template provided by the kit:

Then we answered the question, "How do liquids change in a container?"  A major part of these kits is writing in response to their discoveries.  My students are definitely becoming better writers!  The vocabulary they use is just as impressive.

Here's a picture of one our liquids rolling around!

Happy {almost} Friday!

Put a Poem in Your Pocket!

April is Poetry Month and today is Put a Poem in Your Pocket Day!  Ok, I just found out about the poem in your pocket thing today.  I had never heard of it before!

The end of April is also coming, which means May and Mother's Day is right around the corner!  I got a jump on things and created some Mother's Day templates for you to use in your classroom.  You can integrate Poetry Month and Mother's Day.

In the pack, I made sure to include not only mothers, but grandmothers and aunts as well.

There are pages for your students to draw pictures of a special woman in their life.

They can create lists of words to describe their mom, aunt or grandma.

Acrostic poems are definitely my favorite!

You can pick up Mother's Day Poems in my {TpT} or {TN} shops today!

You can also grab Bitten by the Poetry Bug in my {TpT} or {TN} shops!

Happy Put a Poem in Your Pocket day!

Friday Journals

This post can now be found over at The Colorful Apple.  Click here to visit!

Bitten by the Poetry Bug

Are you buggy for poetry??  April is National Poetry Month!  I love me some poetry so I put together a packet to help you teach poetry in your classroom!

There are posters with examples of 5 different poems (written by me!).  I'm a poet and I didn't even know it!

Also included are posters to hang on your wall with a variety of poetic devices.

There are poster definitions of each type of poem.

 And poem templates for your students to create their own poetry journal!

Check it out in my {TpT store} or my {TN store} before Poetry Month is over!  Don't worry...they'll still be available after April!

Reader's Notebooks

This post has been moved to my new blog, The Colorful Apple.  Check it out here!

Santa Clause Came!

Ok, he didn't.  It's October.  But my kids were convinced.  Everything was about Santa today for some reason.  I didn't want to tell them that they still had over 2 months until he made an appearance.

We received our pen pal letters today.  I have an aunt who teaches second grade in California and we decided a few years back to have our classes be pen pals throughout the year.  It's so awesome and the kids love it.

We got our first set today and I hadn't mentioned it to my student at all.  So I showed them the package that it came in (which my aunt always decorates and I forgot to take a picture of!) and asked them what they thought was in it.

"Letters from Santa Claus!"

Um.  Nope.  Sorry kid.
And since when does Santa write letter to children?  I thought it was the other way around?

Anyway, we moved on and started writing our letters.

I created this poster to help my students understand how to set up a letter:

Get it here for free!

While we were writing our pen pal letters, a large box was delivered to my classroom:

This box with such a pretty bow, prompted students to shout, you guessed it, "Santa Clause came!"

Nope.  Sorry kids.  That's a birthday present for Mrs. S.  

This is what the inside of the box looked like:

Yummy cupcakes!  My brother dropped off 6 of my favorite flavor for me and my friends.  He is a pastry chef and he works for a company called Sweet Indulgence.  Yeah, he makes cupcakes and candy for a living, how awesome is that??  Check them out - they make ahh-maazing stuff!  My IPhone photo does not do it justice!

Sooo, 2 Santa Clause shout-outs in one day?  It's going to be a long two months till Christmas!

And now I have blog news.  Every once in a while I check my blog stats.  I am always curious which posts get the most attention and where my readers are coming from.  This helps me become a better blogger!

More often than not, my readers come from Pinterest.  Today, however, a lot were coming from this site:

I had never heard of it before, so I checked it out.  I then realized that they did a whole blog post on one of the posts I had written - so cool!  Check it out here.  It is my most popular post and it is about using dancing to teach subtraction.

RAiSE Up Your Writing Skills

Our district started an initiative called RAise Writing.  It stands for

Restate

Answer

include:

Support with Evidence

Extend

The goal is to have students use this strategy when answering a constructed response question. 

Today, I asked the students, what is your favorite season?  Here is our practice response:

Notice the colors?  They correspond to each part of RAiSE:

We have the students go back and underline each part of their response with the corresponding color.  This way they take ownership of their writing and make sure that they used each part.

They did a really good job with it today!

And for today's laugh of the day...

I have a pretty large room, so during Reader's Workshop I let the students choose any spot around the room to read...

...and this is where I find ALL of them:

Yep, squished on that small area.  Cracks me up.

And guess what?  I won the Classroom Decorating Contest!!

Thank you so so much to all who voted!  I'm so excited!

You still have two days to enter my Hobby Lobby Giveaway!

TGI{almost}F!