Winter Wonderland!

Fall is my favorite season, however around the last week of November, I start ITCHING to put up my winter decorations! I love watching the student's faces as they come and walk in December 1st and see the room has transformed from a Fall Harvest to a Winter Wonderland! I love this time of year! Here are a few pictures of the room and some centers we have been completing! 

Below is one of my favorite clock centers. I think I found it on whattheteacherwants.blogspot.com. I made 12 different clocks with different times on each. The SOL for 2nd grade is telling time to the 5 minutes.  Each clock corresponds with a letter on the recording sheet below.  I then place the clocks scattered on the walls of the classroom. I try to make them tricky so students have to really look for them! Then students record the time on the clock on their sheet! Its super simple but so much fun for the students! I love that it gets them moving around!

We completed a unit on geometry. Students were able to practice using various shapes to make winter designs. This is a picture of a wreath below!

The holidays are just not complete without Holiday Fast Fact Musical Chairs! Each chair has a fast fact equation on it such as 9+8, 6+6 etc that the students need to know efficiently. When the holiday music plays, students walk around the chairs. When it stops, students must correctly say the answer to their equation and then sit in the chair. We have judges walking around making sure students correctly answer! It is really a big hit in our classroom!

We had many centers that involved mooseltoe ( thanks to Cara Carrolls TPT unit), the grinch, and other holiday fun themes! During this time of year it is so crazy that I continuously forgot to bring out my camera and snap away! That is added to the list of my New Year Resolutions! The week before Winter Break students started a Chris Van Allsburg Author Study. We read each of his books that were available at our school. Students retold each book including the Author's Purpose. On the day before Winter Break we listened to the reading of the Polar Express! Then in the afternoon students drank homemade hot chocolate and received a golden ticket to come on board the polar express. After students watched the movie!! It was a nice way to end the week!!

Last but not least, Santa definitely made a stop in our room!!! My donorschoose.org page finally got funded!!!!! Meet our new wonderful amazing multi-spot rug!!!!!

50's Day

In our class, students celebrated the 50th day of school with many fun activities!! Students dressed as if they were in the fifties, chewed old fashion bubble gum, listened to 50's music and even had Root beer floats! During Math, all the centers, lessons and calendar time involved the number 50. Students had to skip count to 50, complete 50 jumping jacks, skips, hops and even bubbles. They even wrote word problems with the number 50 involved!! During writing students wrote a comparison between the women and men of the fifties and the women and men of the present. They were adorable! This was such a fun day!! Enjoy some pictures below!

Long Time No Post!!

It has been awhile since I posted pictures of whats going on in our classroom. Here is Thanksgiving in a nut shell! It's been a crazy few months with the classroom hard at work! Enjoy!!

 Thanks to Cara Carroll for this awesome center. Students had to make fact families with the turkeys. Each feather had a different equation on it. Students had to match the right equation with the right turkey! Super fun!

 Another center we completed during November was this Clock Turkey. Students used a clothes pin to mark the correct digital time to match the analog clock.

 During November, we learned about American Indians in Social Studies. This is one of my favorite units to teach! Students really enjoy learning about the three different tribes; the Powhatan, the Lakota and the Pueblo. After students learn about the Lakota and their houses, students then make their very own teepee!

At my mom's school ( she's a school nurse) this amazing teacher retired this past year. She was kind enough to let me literally RAID her files, belongings, and life! This outstanding MATH MAT was among those things. You would have thought I gave the students a million dollars! They are in LOVE with this Math Mat! The mat says equations like 9-4 and the students have a few seconds to step on the answer. My kiddies love it!