T'was the Night Before Thanksgiving Play using Shadow Puppet app

We have been rehearsing our Thanksgiving play all week...and I must say, the kids are really good at their lines! They are so excited to do the play in front of their parents tomorrow at our Thanksgiving breakfast! But today, we did something different with our lines!

Each student drew a picture to match their line! Look at the attention to detail in their picture! They really matched their picture to their line!

The timer then sounded! The turkey was cooked! Mom opened the oven, she sniffed and she looked. 
do you see the timer??? 

 We all took our places, the food smelled so great, we started to dig in, but dad said to wait. 

That night we were nestled all snug in our beds, while visions of turkey legs danced in our heads. 

Then I took a picture of each picture and uploaded it into an app called Shadow Puppet

This app is SO easy to use!

Once I had all their pictures in order, the kids recorded their line to their picture!

Please click the picture or HERE to check out their play! It is sooo cute!

I would love to hear what you think! I couldn't be more proud of them!

One more day for me and then it's break time!

My Thanksgiving Week: freebies, ideas, and more!

I can't believe how close Thanksgiving is! I wish I had the whole week off, but I have to go Monday, Tuesday AND Wednesday! I do have 3 days full of fun things for my kiddos! 

It should be a great week!

I plan on:

Making butter and watching the virtual field trips on Scholastic

For the past 6 years my class has made butter for a Thanksgiving activity! It is SO easy to do!

I get the Glad Mini Rounds, one for each student.

I pour just a little heavy whipping cream in each container. 

 Put the container in a ziplock...just so it doesn't leak and spill!

The the kids SHAKE and SHAKE...for a VERY long time. The heavy whipping cream will turn thick and hard...into butter. When done, the kids are really surprised and actually LOVE the butter better than store bought! I have never had a kid hate this butter. I buy sweet rolls and we enjoy this yummy treat!

I also have them do a writing activity about it!

Download the butter writing activity HERE:)

Thanksgiving BINGO game by Aimee Salazar

You can get it for FREE here:)

How to cook a Turkey writing activity from Aimee Salazar's Write on Fall Edition.

The ABC's of Thanksgiving using the P is for Pilgrim book

As a class, we will brainstorm Thanksgiving words. Then students will pick a letter from a bucket. They are to write about something for Thanksgiving that starts with that letter and draw a picture. We will make a class book!

 Click HERE to get it:)

We are also going to read a poem about The First Thanksgiving. Now, I am not sure where I got this poem from or who made it. I think I might have found it on PT years ago! If it is yours, please let me know! This poem is designed to use pony beads and make a bracelet! I really didn't want to spend the money on beads this year so I made something else! 

This packet has the poem, plus printable bracelets students can make to retell the first Thanksgiving!

SO CUTE! I hope the kids love it!

Download it HERE for free:)

The last thing I am doing, and I CAN'T wait for it, is having a Ohana Breakfast! Ohana means family and I am inviting my families to come to the classroom and have breakfast with us Wednesday morning!

I have done this the past 3 years at my last school as a whole grade level. This year I am just doing it with my class! The kids are super excited and the parents are too!

I used Signup Genius for parents to sign up and also to say what they want to bring! 

So far we have:

pancakes

donuts

bagels and cream cheese

gogurts

muffins

scrambled eggs

pumpkin bread

sausage

fried rice

oatmeal

fruit trays

juice, water, and milk!

I am just hungry thinking about it!

The kids are putting on a little reader's theater for the parents.

I also found this in my old files from years ago! If it is yours, please let me know! probably another PT thing! Just click the picture to get it for free!

While the parents are there, we are going to have a photo booth! Thanks to Tania from My Second Sense, I bought the adorable photo booth props from ETSY!

A parent brought in a big box, and this is what we have so far for our photo booth!

I am going to get a sheet to cover the ugly blue chairs and hang a Happy Thanksgiving banner from the top! The kids are loving creating this box!

WOW, that was alot! It sure sounds like a fun week! I can't wait! 

There are lots of freebies in this post! I hope you find they are helpful for you in planning your Thanksgiving week! I would love to hear what you think! 

Before I go, I am having a little giveaway over at my Facebook page! It ends today at 5pm Hawaii time!

Have a GREAT week!

Student created text features assessment!

We are on our second week of text features and I really think the kids are getting it! With my hand gestures to remember each one added with Whole Brain Teaching techniques, I think they are going to be masters at text features.  

I used Beth Newingham's posters and created a Text Features workbook for the kids! 

I really wish I could share it. I tried to email Beth to ask her permission and didn't get a response:(

But I did purchase some nonfiction text feature posters from Common Core and So Much More and I REALLY like these! I have them printed, laminated and up in my room! 

I wish I would have bought this BEFORE I made my own using Beth's posters. This unit has a book the kids make. Oh well, next year:) The posters in itself are awesome!

Every day we are going over 2-4 text features. Students help me make the definition! I have been taking their definitions and placing them into an assessment.

This is what I got so far

Their definitions are pretty good...huh? I think this is a great teaching tool to use with other lessons as well. 

Is this something you all would like? Maybe the template? Let me know and I can make it happen!

I am off to eat some dinner and grade some papers...blah!

Have a great night!

Place Value Poster Project...TWO freebies:)

Happy Sunday Friends! Hope everyone has had a great weekend! During math, we have been working very hard on 2.NBT.3 which is standard, expanded and word form! I am pretty proud of my kiddos and how much they have learned! 

I wanted to give them an informal assessment on Friday so I made a fun poster project that they just absolutely had a blast with!

There are 12 numbers in this unit. Each number has matching cards for base ten blocks, word form and expanded form. 

 

They had a great time making their poster! One student even wanted music to listen to so they could have fun and work at the same time:)

Do you have to use this as a poster project??? Nope! You can make a few sets and place them in a center!

Right now, you can get this game for FREE over at my Facebook page! From now until Monday night it is a fan freebie! 

Also, last week the kids were really struggling with this concept! I gave each student a dice and I made up a game real quick!

The rolled the dice 3 times

once for the hundreds, then for tens, and then for the ones place.

I had them write the number down. Below that they drew out base ten blocks using the place value short hand as I taught them. Then they wrote the number in expanded form and finally word form!

So I made a graphic organizer to use for this activity!

Click HERE and get it for free:)

I hope you all have a great week!

Animals and their Habitats

Hey all!

I feel like life has just taken over and I can't accomplish anything I want to for this little ole blog. I promise I am still around! Today I met up for lunch with Angelia over at Extra Special Teaching and she said that it seems a lot of us are feeling that way! Are you? Just can't get caught up, can't catch a break! 

Well, time to figure out a way to fix that problem! 

In the mean time, I have made something I would love to share with you all!

My second grade students are working on animal research! And let me tell you, they are SO excited! They have started their research in the school library and now it is time to work on it in the classroom! 

Students will use the graphic organizers I created to gather and organize their research!

Then, they will use their writer's notebook to write their first draft. I will be using my writing time combined with my science time to work on the Writer's Workshop process. 

Then they will use the following pages to write their final draft. I am teaching nonfiction text features during literacy...so I am also wanting students to incorporate text features in their writing...such as

bold words

labels

captions

illustrations

table of contents

glossary

This page is for students to draw their animal in their habitat and use labels

I hope this is something you can use! You can get it HERE in my TpT shop!

Have a GREAT week!