Swinging for Success

Welcome to the second grade product swap and blog hop! EIGHTEEN wonderful second grade bloggers have joined together to swap and review each other's products. Best of all, we are giving away all of the products to one lucky winner!

If you are looking for the start of the hop, head over to see Casey at Second Grade Math Maniac to start hopping. As you check out all the fabulous products, make sure to follow each blog on Bloglovin' as well. There will be a Rafflecopter at the last stop. This is where you can enter to win all of the products being reviewed!

I got the chance to review Shelly from Smiling and Shining in Second Grade's Common Core Math Assessments:

Common Core Math Assessments for Second Grade

Here's Shelly's description from TpT:

This Common Core Math Assessment packet for 2nd grade includes at least 2 assessments for every common core math standard. Also included is a colorful page with the name and description of each standard and a simple black and white standard page description.

When I first got this pack I was amazed at the different options for each standard. I printed the color version of the standards description along with all of the pages and put them in sheet protectors in a binder.

Here you can see the different versions of some of the assessments. I love how the standard is clearly labeled in the top right hand corner of each page.

I initially thought to use it simply for assessments. I looked at standards that I wanted to review and printed out copies as a traditional assessment.

See how there's a simple border around each page? I found that the border left the perfect spot to record the grade on that assessment.

I love that this resource allows me to see which standards my class rocks and which ones I need to review with individual kids. This got me to thinking of another way to use it.

As part of my math work stations, I meet with 2-3 kids each day. Since I've put them in their group based on their math areas of strength and weakness, this is the perfect opportunity to give kids targeted instruction in what they need! Since everything is in sheet protectors, I had kids use their dry erase markers to work on the sheets together. Since I have them working on the same standard, but different problems, there was a lot of math talk happening.....teacher heaven!

This is definitely a resource that you can use in your classroom immediately. Just print and you're ready to go! With the end of the year coming up soon, this is a great way to make sure that you're kiddos have mastered each standard in second grade...which will make report cards easier in May/June!

Now, click the button below to head over to Lori at Owl in a Vowel Tree

Also, don't forget that I'm participating in the Spring Cleaning Sale! Everything in my store is 20% off through Monday!

http://www.georgiagrownkiddos.com/2014/03/spring-cleaning.html

Click here to check out my store

Brandi

Brandi 6:00 AM 1 comment

I'm popping in for a quick post today to let you know that K-3 Connection is having a big giveaway that I am a part of! There are some great prizes that you could win!

Head over to K-3 Connection's blog for your chance to win!

Brandi

Brandi 6:00 AM No Comments

We've moved out of nonfiction for a little bit and are focusing on making inferences. This is a hard skill for so many kids and I wanted to make sure I introduced and explained the skill well and gave my kiddos ample opportunities to apply and practice it.

We started by making this anchor chart to explain what an inference is and some sentence stems to use when discussing our inferences.

After that, we played "What's in my purse?" which was inspired by Abby from The Inspired Apple.

The next day we worked on some pages from this freebie from Have Fun Teaching.

click the pic to snag it from TPT

My kids were good at determining who the narrator was and where the story was taking place thanks to these worksheets.

Next, we continued inferring with task cards. I used this differentiated set from Teaching with a Mountain View:

Inference Task Cards, Pictures and Text, Common Core Diffe

I started with the picture cards with question prompts. We went through the first few together, then I gave each table group 2 cards. As a group they discussed the cards then scooted around the room.

They loved explaining what they thought was happening and why. I love that there were leading questions for some of my reluctant friends, while my super enthusiastic kids were off and running with what they saw.

By this point my kiddos had a good grasp on the skill so I wanted them to apply it more to text. I broke out these task cards from Rachel Lynette:

Inference Task Cards: 24 Short Story Cards for Grades 1-2.

We worked on writing responses as a class then I put the cards in a literacy work station.

This is a skill that we'll constantly refer back to during Reading Workshop, but I feel like my kiddos have a good foundation in this important skill.

Brandi

Brandi 9:00 AM 3 comments

Have you heard of Student Treasures? It's a FREE school publishing program. I've been at 2 different schools that use it and it's great!

Here's how it works: You sign up online and they send you an order form for the school. Teachers can sign up for a class book or individual books. Each time I've done it, I've done the class books because my kiddos are in 2nd grade. The upper grade teachers usually get individual books.

For the class book, each student writes a page in it. This year we did ours with our 2014 One Word writing, which I talked about HERE. Each student wrote about their one word for the year that they would use to guide and inspire them. We took this through the writing process and students published this piece.

After it was published, I had the kids rewrite it (I think they were sick of the word by then!) one more time for me to proof. Finally they were able to write for the book. After everyone wrote their piece and traced it with marker, they illustrated it.

Here is the final product:

I love that it's a nice hardcover book. The kids feel so accomplished! Parents have a chance to order the book and the best part is the teacher gets a book for free! Our class book is now the most read book in the library!

I tell the kids all the time that they are published authors now so they have to make sure their writing is always their best! They love it and are more into writing now which is so heart warming!

Brandi

Brandi 6:00 AM 5 comments

I'm back again to share what we were up to this week.

We were all about geometry in math this week. We explored plane and solid shapes. Here's some of the activities we did to get hands on with our learning:

For word study we've been examining adjectives. We put a few lessons together, then I was inspired by this post from Angie at Mrs. Olson's Lucky Little Learners. We didn't watercolor, but I love how they came out.

My kiddos are rocking their timed tests for addition and subtraction. I have a love/hate with these things but I know my kids need to master their basic facts. I give more than a minute, because some just feel that pressure and freak out! How do you handle basic fact mastery?