Calendar Keepsake

Calendar Keepsake
the perfect way to preserve wonderful memories from your year.








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Let students plan a class party

What an amazing year!  Now that the testing is over, but before you send the kids off for the summer you should take the time to enjoy your last few days together.  It's the perfect time for those projects and activities that didn't fit into your busy schedule.   And of course, leave some time for celebrating the wonderful accomplishments your students have made.  This blog link-up takes you to other blogs with ideas for activities and celebrations for the end-of-year.

 It's Party Time!!

One way to keep kids engaged is to get them involved with a project. Why not let them plan the class party!  You can let them come up with the theme, a color scheme and the games or activities for the party.  You can even let them decide on the refreshments. 
 Class Party

I've put together a simulated activity where the students have $200 to spend on a class party.  They have to make all the decisions on the food, drink and decorations. They’ll have to use their addition and subtraction skills to keep their order under $200!  Then it's up to you if you want to use some of their ideas for your real class party.

The Class Party, What a Plan is from my end-of-year packet…What a Great Year! You'll find even more fun and engaging activities memory books and student award certificates. 

 What a Great Year!

 Hope you all have a terrific summer. 


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Animal Project

Wild Days in Second Grade!
Engage your students, challenge them and then watch them learn with this fun whole class project about animal habitats.

Last week I had the chance to spend a couple of days with a group of amazing group of  second graders.  Their teacher, Mrs. Q's, had to be away for some training so I stepped in as their guest teacher.  It was the perfect opportunity to give one of my newest products, Wild Animal Park, a try.   
 Wild Animal Park

The first day we learned about different habitats by looking at web sites and reading informational books from the school library.  The kids took notes in their Habitat Field Guides.  The field guide had 5 pages, one for each habitat.  There is room to write notes about the plants, animals and adaptations.

Then the kids were ready to order the animals, plants and other things they wanted to put into their habitat area.  The group had to make some difficult decisions.  They only had $500 to spend so they couldn't order everything in the catalog.    I encouraged them to order some of the optional items (gift shop, snack shack and jeep ride) because they would bring in extra income once the park opened.  It was fun listening to their reasoning and negotiating with their group members. "We can order the elephant, but we may not have enough money for the jeep ride."  

The kids put their adding and subtracting skills to good use.  They had to add up their totals and then subtract it from 500 to see if they could afford everything they wanted.

Once I had checked all of their calculations we were ready to begin designing the wild animal park.  I took a large piece of white butcher paper and divided it into 6 equal pieces.  Before I cut the pieces apart I drew a path that would lead through each section of the park.  I also wrote the word "top" at the top of each piece so the pictures would be upright when we put it back together.  

Now the "caretakers" had to make plans and draw the animals, plants, buildings and other landscape features for their park.  I found it easier for some students to draw the animals and buildings on a separate piece of paper, color them and then cut them out to glue onto the map.  Meanwhile, some students worked on the plants and landscape for the background.

They did an amazing job!  I taped all the pieces back together when they were finished and mounted it on a piece of green butcher paper.  The park map was ready for display!  I added a few signs so visitors would know the name of the park, etc. 

This took most of the two days I was guest teaching in their class.  I'm going to be in their class again on Monday so the park will open and we'll start using the Daily Cards that tell about the income and expenses for the park.  Students will be keeping the financial records each day the park is open. More math skill practice!  Yea! 


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Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday is a weekly linky party to "Spark Ideas, Conversations and Collaborations Among Teachers",  hosted by Sugar and Spice

On Monday and Tuesday I had the pleasure of being a guest teacher in a second grade classroom.  They were a terrific group of kids and we had a great time together.  I love visiting classrooms and seeing how other teachers set up and organize their spaces.  Mrs. Q had two displays to prompt students to rate their learning and their effort. 

Do you have a rating scale for your students?  How effective do you find these types of scales?


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