Pieces of Rock and Valentines Freebie

Valentines Day is nearly here, so I thought I'd make a little freebie for the day.  It could be used as a heart map activity or simply a coloring page.  I'm going have my students give it to their parents as a card.  I thought they could draw picture of their family in the center of the heart.  We're learning about adjectives, so I may have them write adjectives describing their family in the puzzle pieces. 

Click below to grab your freebie.

I also wanted to share a rock activity we did before the holidays.  I can't believe it has taken me so long to share it.  I created it to cover one of our second grade Science TEKS.  In Texas, we follow TEKS instead of Common Core.  One of our TEKS is: Students should be able to observe and describe using a variety of rock examples, including pebbles, rocks, boulders.  I created this fan booklet to give them some perspective on rock sizes.  There is also a creative writing prompt (If I were a rock...) to get them writing about rocks.  I included an example story to spark those imaginations.

As always, the first 3 readers to leave feedback will get this rock activity for FREE.  Please don't forget to leave your e-mail. Have a very Happy Valentine's Day!
 

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.

Texas Symbols

My grade level teacher buddy just started a new blog and it turned out super cute. It's called Teach 2 Blossom and Bloom.  I'm so jealous because she creates most of her own clip art and everything she creates is really cute.  I do some of my own clip art, but I can't get too intricate because Photoshop and Illustrator are just soooo complicated!

My class just finished up a Texas Symbol lap-book that she created, and I love how they turned out.  This is the cover of the booklet.  Click here to head over to her new blog to see pictures of the inside of her lap-books.

I also  wanted to share a couple pictures my kiddos drew of the water cycle from awhile back.  They were just too cute with their little details.  They all draw palm trees.  That always makes me laugh, because I grew up around very different kinds of trees.  But living in Texas, they have palm trees in their schemas.

Plant Unit

I have had plants on my mind these last several days.  I knew we were going to be learning about plants after returning from Spring Break, and I really wanted to create something new for my kiddos.  I knew Spring Break would give me the perfect opportunity to put together exactly what I had envisioned.  I really like to make my units into booklets, because it keeps the prep work to a minimum, and my students  just love them.   I'm all about a fun filled unit I can simply staple together and go.  This unit is just that. We've already covered All About Books, so this just had to have an All About....Title.

For each plant part, there is an overview to teach that plant part, and a follow-up page for students to write what they learned about that plant part.  Basically, what did they add to their schema? I plan to read several trade books about plants, also.  Gail Gibbons has some great ones!

Here are a few of the goodies inside this resource:

Before learning about each plant part, students will write 

what they already have in their schema about that plant part on this schema recording page.

This unit also includes:

*  Plant Hokey Pokey (Song to Teach the Parts of the Plant)

*  A Cut/Paste Venn Diagram to compare a flower and tree

* Plant Thinking Map

* Plant Poem

*  Flower Diagram that students can label.  

 

If you are interested in this unit, you can head to my TPT store to check it out. Simply click below.

Butterfly Lifecycle

We have been learning all about life cycles.  We watched our class caterpillar form his chrysalis and then turn into a beautiful butterfly.  We actually missed the last part, but they still enjoyed observing our new class visitor.  We put all the butterflies for our grade level together in one habitat, and they observed them for a few days before it was time to release them.  We used the printable below to illustrate the butterfly life cycle.  Check out their butterflies below-love the colors!  I saw a similar idea at another great blog- First Grade Best.  She used construction paper for her butterflies.  Check hers out here.

Click image below to get the FREEBIE.