Interactive Animal Research

It. is. done.  O.M.G.  I can't believe it.  It feels like the kids have been working on this forever.  Let's blame the snow days and the 'I need to change this a bit,' I forgot my camera to take good pictures or I watch too much TV instead of working.

The kids really liked it!  I tweaked it a billion times, I added a few things, and by now, I am happy to say it was a success.  We are saving them for conferences, because, well, they are that cool.

Animals are always a big hit when it comes to research. Making it interactive added a nice touch to the entire process.

Interactive Animal Research Project

The kids began by choosing an animal they did not know much about. This way when they reflected on their learning, they realized how much one can learn from other sources.

Two file folders get transformed into an interactive animal project. Kids choose an animal, get books from the library and use all the templates to create a draft.   Then use the interactive templates to complete and glue to their file folders.  If you do not want to use file folders, you can always use construction paper or glue right onto any other interactive notebooks you may have.

Sticky notes, nonfiction text, folders, scissors, glue, crayons and color pencil are the magic ingredients. 

Draft templates and more nonfiction reading included :)

Final animal reports using strong beginnings, details, facts and a closing sentence.  Informational writing at its best. 

How you do teach informational writing?  

It is on sale until Friday HERE. 

Good Bye Boring Words. Time to Smile :)

You know THE words, right? Sad, mad, nice... Second grade writers can do better than that! Your students can too :)

My students writing can only get better by addressing some boring words. I had done the 'dead words' around Halloween time, but I could not look at the tombstones year round.  I wanted something I could keep up for a little bit longer.
I began thinking about my vocabulary bulletin board, and this is what happened after getting help from a few friends.

Synonyms are a must when it comes to making your writing come alive. 

My student teacher helped me put them up for you to see.  I wanted to show you more than one word at a time :)

Don't have a bulletin board?  How about using a binder to house your synonym posters? 

In there, you will find...

I did not create 1, but 3!

Chalkboard lovers?  Find it HERE. 

Polka Dot Lovers?  Find it HERE.

Chevron Lovers?  Find it HERE.

Would you super love to win one? Which one is your favorite? 

Pin your favorite. Don't forget your e-mail and your pin link. I will e-mail it to a few friends :)

Our Writing Process Pencils (freebie for you).

There are many times, when whatever you created for one class, does not work the next. My husband wonders why I continue to work as hard as I do, even though I have never changed grade levels. The truth is, I like to do new things and when things do not go well, plan B is not an option.

My writer's workshop is not going smoothly. I have observed them closely. I have stopped my teaching to see where I fell them. Sure enough, it happened again. I went over the steps of the writing process waaaayyy too fast. They continue to ask me the same questions.over.and.over. I blamed them for a bit, but then I reflected and admitted that it is all my fault for getting to the teaching part before training was over (HUGE mistake).

So, this past week, we stopped our writing time and went over every step. I then decided to create something new.

 A quick tool my students can use to follow the writing ,and for me to know what they are working on.

My blue chart from last year (new pictures of the kids) was not as successful :( 

I printed the front cover using white card stock. I used regular white paper for the middle pages, and color card stock for the back cover. We hole punched them and added a little ring.

We went over each step of the writing process. I wanted them to have a future model, just in case they forget what it looks like.

Now, they put it close to their writing making sure they do what they need, before asking for a conference.

Not only that, but when I walk around I do not have to ask them what they are working on, I can just look at their pencil. 

Their pencil is placed in their writer's workshop folder. 

Is it working? This past week it did :) Everything sounded and looked the way it was supposed to.

Are they playing with it? No. I am hoping they don't.

Do I still have kids who do not understand the process? Well, yes. But only 2 :)

Would you like a free copy?  I hope you do :)  Find it HERE.   Let me know what you think!

Share Your Opinion!

On Monday, I began teaching Opinion Writing and all I can say is...it was A-mazing!!!   I guess we had been doing narrative writing for too long, because the kids rocked it. I am sure they were glad to try something new.

I decided to talk about something the kids were familiar with: Their favorite book character.

I wrote about him :)

On Tuesday,  I was observed (unannounced). The kids had created their hook and shared their opinions by then. We supported our opinion with facts and details.

Some of the charts we created.

The last picture is the final product .

My post observation went extremely well. I was very pleased with the grades and comments given by our interim principal.

I took it step by step. Modeled one thing at a time. Kids wrote. We shared. We edited. Repeat. Their first drafts were beyond fantastic!
We will do some editing, revising and write a final copy tomorrow. The rest of the week I have a variety of topics for them to practice with. After that, they get to use their brainstorming list we created on Monday.

In order to teach Opinion Writing, I created this product.

I love it. I really, really love it! I did some tweaking after teaching it. I did not wanted to put it out there without trying it out. Thanks to my amazing bloggy friend for reviewing this for me.

If my kids can write as well as they did, so can yours :) Find it HERE. 

Time to pick  someone who could LOVE this as much as I do.
Let's see... if you guess what my hubby does for a living I will send it to you for free!  I love guessing, don't you?  I think only one person who knows me personally can answer this. We will give her a serious talk if she spoils my guessing game. LOL.
Tiny hint: He wears a uniform to work.  Start guessing!

How do you show your feelings? (freebie)

This week during Writer's Workshop, we worked on showing our feelings by using specific actions.

I had faces ready for them to use. The kids worked in small groups and began brainstorming one characteristic that could describe how you look, or what you do that matched that facial expression. Each group had the chance to write one word and rotate through the rest of the classroom where the other cards were located.

After each group had the chance to participate I made this:

The next couple of days, we reviewed our chart and talked about expressing our feeling through actions and specific details. They had to write some 'feeling sentences' to practice.

Some of my favorites:

I had a very red face when my sister pinched me.
My mouth was wide open the day I saw my new dog.
In the morning my face was really, really red because my mom woke me up.
My legs were shaking on the first day of school.
When I got a new toy I was jumping up and down.
The day my brother cut up my pompoms, I yelled loudly because I could not use them anymore.
Seeing a big black bear, makes my body shake without control.
I had tears down my eyes, the day my brother went to the beach for a whole week.

Here are the faces....in case you like them :)

So...how do you show your feelings?

Writing Quote Freebie

Made these for my Writer's Workshop folder.  I will be happy to e-mail you, one, two or all of them. Just leave your e-mail.
Google docs is not cooperating :(

I'll be announcing the winner of my Grandisimo giveaway tomorrow.

Erin (my blog designer) from Creating and Teaching, created an incredibly cute calendar pack. Go check it out!
 


Night, night.

Animal Research

This week we were able to publish our animal research projects.   The kids really enjoyed that!  I was thrilled to see how excited they continue to be, even though we have 5 days left!

I have to confess... These reflections were my favorite part.  The kids will read, learn, discover... but the power of reflecting about their work and learning is far more important (in my opinion).  If I can have them reflect on their learning goals... the sky is the limit!  What do you guys think?

You can find the Animal Research project here.