Fall Fun

This post it a little bit of this and that from the last few weeks.   A few weeks ago we learned about Johnny Appleseed.  First grade does a great job of teaching our little ones about John Chapman, but we couldn't help but do a few cute Johnny Appleseed activities in second grade also.  We used this adorable apple writing paper to write facts about Johnny Appleseed. You can get this apple paper and so many other cute Johnny Appleseed writing papers from Dina at the Constant Kindergartener.  I simply added his name to the leaf and numbered the lines.

 

 

 

We also made crock pot applesauce, and they used the template below to write a How-To.  You can get the template I used below.  There are enough spaces for 7 steps.  I used Cara Carroll's Recipe and my kiddos LOVED it!

Then we had to follow up with a giant apple diagram.  I had seen these all over Pinterest and just had to have one!   I believe the original idea came from What the Teacher Wants!  Check it out here.  You can get the giant labels I used below:

 

 

 We also made scarecrows.  I love making scarecrows, they always come out super cute.  This year, I decided to create my own pattern that you can grab for free below. We read a passage from abcteach about scarecrows, and then they wrote 3 facts that they added to their schema on the schema template.  If you do a google search for abcteach scarecrow passage, it comes up as a freebie.

 

 

Click the image above to get the scarecrow freebie.

It's hard to believe that Halloween is just a few days away! Yikes...where has the year gone?

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Here is a quick picture of our Frankenstein door for Red Ribbon Week.  My 2nd graders are super proud of it.  Our campus is holding a door contest this Thursday, so here is a peek at mine:

The super cute Frankensteins and Brides of Frankenstein are a craftivity by A Cupcake for the Teacher.  I have a monster themed classroom, so our door theme just had to be monsters!

 

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumkins...

 I originally posted this last year.  I added a simple fence post template at the end, and for some reason the date changed and it posted today!  My blogger must be haunted, because it's acting totally crazy!!!

The last couple weeks have been all about pumpkins, which ties in nicely with our All About Writing Unit from Lucy Calkin's Units of Writing.  So, The Pumpkin Book by Gail Gibbons, was at the top of my list of read alouds.  They made so many great connections to our nonfiction conventions that were taught at the very beginning of the year.

I'm sure you have seen the silly pumpkins on Pinterest that are super popular right now.  Well, they were too cute to pass on.  The pumpkins are from Doodle Bugs Teaching.  Please go check them out here. My class had a blast making them and they look adorable in the hallway. The toothy grins have definitely caught the eyes of passer byers in the hallway.   My student teacher created the cute hallway display below. 

My student teacher is super creative.  I love this friendly scarecrow!

 

My student teacher also did a fun Pumpkin Diagram with my class.  They reviewed the parts of a pumpkin and then made their own pumpkin and labeled the parts.

We also wrote facts about pumpkins.  They added a lot of new knowledge to their schemas!

You can get this Freebie by heading over to a previous post.  Click here.

*** I had a request for a fence template similar to the one in the picture above.   If you are also interested in creating a fence display, here are 2 pages that can be copied on brown paper, and then put together to create a simple fence.  You will need several copies depending on how large you would like the fence to be. You can click on either image below to download.

Reading Street- Desert Stories

In our grade level, we pull a lot of great literature from here, there, and everywhere.  One of our go-to resources is our Reading Street adoption. Our last 2 stories had a desert setting, and this really got our students thinking about this fantastic habitat.

Our first story was a drama titled, The Strongest One.  They really enjoy this repetitive story of a little red ant who set out into the desert to find out who the strongest one is.  I was super excited when I happened upon a great second grade blog called, iintegrate technology.  She has fabulous second grade resources to go along with the Reading Street adoption.  I love the 10 Important Sentences template she created.  You can check it out here.  She even posts her documents in a Smartboard file, so you can modify them as needed.  We used the Smartboard to check our work. 

In The Strongest One, a little red ant stops and talks to a variety of things/animals along the way.  We visualized and illustrated each time little red ant stopped and spoke to someone new.  I think they came out super cute.  They put a lot of effort into their illustrations, and I think it really helped them remember the story better!

 

 
The following week, we read, A Walk in The Desert.  They were able to make a lot of great connections to The Strongest One, especially in regards to the setting.   We integrated science, and talked about animal adaptations.

We also recorded what we added to our schema about deserts on the freebie below. It would go well with any read aloud about the desert.

Henry and Mudge...

Last week we read Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night.  My students always love this story! They are able to make so many great connections to Henry and Mudge.  Thought I'd share a few of our activities.

This activity is from my Mental Imagery 6pk.  You can check it out here.

 The bones in the activity below are from Teacher Created Resources.  Click here to head on over to their site to check out this great freebie.  They actually go along with the story Clifford, but worked perfectly for Henry and Mudge.  I just added some Mudge clip art and the title. You can get the title below.

I had to post the picture below of my sweet Emma's mental images.  Oh my gosh...her pictures are super cute!  This template is not in my mental imagery pack.  It is a template by Debbie Miller.  She discusses it in her book, Reading with Meaning.  Which is a MUST read!!!

They also use the template above to write a friendly letter to a character in the story.  My students use this template weekly in their reading journals.  You can get the template for free below.