Lapbook Fun

I came across the lapbook idea a few years back and felt it would be very useful in my classroom. Lap books are file folders that record student learning on a topic. I use lapbooks the most in Science and Social Studies. Basically, I teach one small component of the topic a day and then the students complete the activity that goes with it and glue it into their lapbook. At the end of the unit the students then have a record of their learning. We use the lapbook to review what we have learned.

We recently completed a mini lapbook on butterflies. I always let the students do their own cutting and gluing, but I know the books would turn out neater if I did the cutting and gluing ahead of time. I fight with myself all the time because I know that kiddos need to take ownership of their work, but my micromanaging teacher side wants them to be uniform and neat. As you can see,  my "let the kids have ownership" side wins every time! Lapbook downloads are available from Hands of a Child in a million different topics.  These would also make great home projects if you want your child to do some extra learning over breaks.

Here is a picture from the Hands of a Child website that shows a very nice lapbook on Beavers.

They can be very large and use two folders taped together, or small using one folder depending on the time available. I usually try to do two a year, a small one at the beginning of the year, and then a larger one in the spring. Overall, I like how the lapbooks provide another way to make learning memorable for the kids

Homeworkopoly

This is a fun little incentive for kids who bring their homework back to school finished and on time. It works exactly like the game Monopoly. Each kiddo rolls the dice and then moves his/her picture around the board the number of spaces that were rolled. Landing on Chance or Community Lunch box allows the student to pull a card from the corresponding bag. The cards have extra privileges that the students can redeem during the week. The Brain Bender space gives the students a fun thinking activity instead of their normal morning work, and landing on the "Take a Seat on the Bus" space gets them to the prize box.

While this is fun and encourages kids to do their homework each week, it also serves another purpose. In today's world of "everyone wins" (our city sports teams don't keep score until they are like 10) I have realized that many kids have trouble with losing. They need more practice with sportsmanship and learning how to be gracious losers. So, not every spot on the board wins the kids a prize or incentive. Really, out of 4 rolls (a month of homework) most kids will only land on something "good" one time.

I am actually pretty amazed with how well my kiddos have handled landing on the dud spots. So far no tears or outbursts. Actually the only kids who have been upset are the ones who didn't get to play at all because they forgot their homework. I bet they don't forget two weeks in a row!

You can download game pieces and instructions at Homeworkopoly.com.

Monarch Shirts!

Each year I have my class paint shirts that go along with our class theme. The kids love this activity and enjoy wearing their shirts on Fridays and on field trips.

We completed our shirts on Friday and let them dry over the weekend. Today I let each kiddo put on their shirt for some fun class photos. Enjoy!

"Picnik Show"

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Mystery Reader

Everyone loves a great mystery, especially second graders. Every Friday in our room we have a guest mystery reader. The mystery reader can be a mom, dad, granparent, aunt, uncle, or any other member of a student's family. Parents sign up to be mystery reader ahead of time and keep their date a secret from their students. Then on Friday, my kids wait with anticipation to see who is going to walk through the door during storytime. It is so much fun for the kids to see their family member walk in unexpectedly!

Our first Mystery Reader was Mr. Marquez. What a great job he did reading aloud the book "The Wolf who Cried Boy". Thank you Mr. Marquez!

Monarch of the Week

Congratulations to Daniel our very first Monarch of the Week!

Each student will get to be Monarch of the Week during the school year. The Monarch of the Week has  fun activities they get to do each day of their special week.

• Monday- The student brings in pictures that they get to share on the ELMO (document camera) and 3 show and tells to share with the class.
• Tuesday- At the beginning of the year each student made an All About Me poster that they will share on the Tuesday that they are Monarch of the Week. The pictures and poster go on the bulletin board.
• Wednesday- The student's family members or friends come to school to eat lunch with him/her.
• Thursday- The student gets to switch seats so that they can sit by a friend all day.
• Friday- the rest of the class makes the student a special Monarch of the Week book. 
• All week- The student is line leader, gives hand sanitizer before lunch, and is the special teacher helper. 

Students are chosen to be the Monarch in a random drawing. If a student completed their work neatly, followed class rules, and went above and beyond to be a good citizen, I put his/her name in the drawing. This is just one more way that I encourage kids to be the best that they can be. I believe that all children can and will behave if placed in an environment where they are valued and encouraged in a positive way. All kids love to be the center of attention and Monarch of the Week gives them the opportunity to shine!

Picture Day!

Today was picture day. For teachers that means that although pictures only take 30 minutes or so, the whole morning is thrown off.

My morning was nothing short of crazy. Kids come in looking spiffy in their nice duds and perfect hair, but, they spend all morning worrying and complaining. "My shoes are to small", "My headband won't stay up", " I can't find my picture money!", are just a few of the comments that I heard by 8:10 this morning.

After 2 phone calls home for missing money, a shoe change, and a fixed headband (thank goodness I have a daughter!), we were back in business.

In honor of picture day and in my teacher attempt to try and add some curriculum into our morning, we read the book Picture Perfect.

This is a hilarious book written by a class of second graders whom very cleverly depict their school photo mishap. Basically each students explains why their school photo did not turn out. Answers range from "My brother gave me a black eye", to "I got into my mom's makeup".

The reading of this book led to a lively discussion with my own kiddos about other things that could ruin a school picture. We then wrote and illustrated our own book using the ideas they came up with. I will be uploading our book this weekend so you'll have to check back! Let's just say it's a good thing we did this project after we had our pictures taken!

Great Thinkers Wanted

This year I decided to use the space on the wall to extend my teaching. The Think Tank board is one example of an interactive bulletin board in my room. Each week I will place a different task on the board. The students have the whole week to solve the task and write their answer on the back of one of the blue fish that you see in the little container on the bottom left of the board. After they write their answer down, they write their name on the front of the fish and staple it to the board. On Friday, I take all of the fish off of the board and check the answers. The fish that are correct go into the fish bowl that you see on the blue shelf. Once every couple of weeks I draw out 5 fish and those students will get to eat lunch with me in the classroom. The board also serves as a quick assessment tool so that I can see who is understanding a particular concept and who will need a little reteaching.

The Think Tank tasks can cover grammar skills, math, reading strategies, or anything that I want to review. My goal is to put up tasks that require students to use problem solving skills. I find that word problems in math are especially challenging for second graders. For some reason they shut down whenever they have to "think" past basic computation. Hopefully the Think Tank will help turn my students into fearless problem solvers!