The kids enjoyed making their notebooks. We talked about the kinds of questions we could ask about a story. Then the kids each wrote a question on a sticky note about our Frog and Toad story and played Ask then Switch. They went to a classmate, asked their questions, their classmate answered and then the classmate asked their question. The first student answered it and then the two switched questions and went to another classmate. In one of their literacy centers, they did an activity called sentence sort. Students sorted word cards into sentences from the story and then wrote their sentences onto their answer sheet. Here is a look:
The sentences are color coded. The students sort the cards by color and then put them in order. Students use their book to help them find the sentence from the story if they need to. I remind students to look for the word with the capital letter to begin the sentence and look for the word with a period or question mark to end the sentence. I use this activity with different reading stories during the year.
Next, we moved on to another Common Core Standard and skill. We put Character Traits into our Reading Notebooks.
We talked about character traits and how characters can change during the story. We read the story Wilson Sat Alone and talked about how what character traits we noticed in Wilson at the beginning of the story, the middle of the story and the end of the story. Along with Nicole Shelby's notebook activities, I am using Amber Polk's foldables. So we did this foldable to describe what Wilson was like at the beginning, middle and end of the story.
In literacy centers, I put a variety of activities. One center was an antonym matching activity. This activity is in my September Literacy and Math Centers Unit that you can see in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Here is a look at the game.
The kids had to match antonyms and then write the answers onto their answer sheet. I've attached this game for free if you want to take a look. Click HERE!
You can see the entire September Unit in my TPT store by clicking HERE!
This pack also includes a game that helps students practice punctuation a and another game to practice correcting sentences.
Here is a look at the entire unit:
Now on to math. Last week I started my unit on the Common Core Math Standards 2.NBT 1 and 3. Standard 1 about place value and helps students understand that the 3 digits in a 3 digit number stand for the number of hundreds, tens and ones. On the first day, we used the counting mat and sorted beans into circles of 10.
We counted by 10's to get a total. We learned that 10 groups of 10 make 100. Each bean is 1, each circle is 10 and the entire work mat is 100. The next day, we counted craft sticks. I put a big bunch of sticks on each table and the kids grouped them into groups of 10 with a rubber band.
Once we got them all bundled, we came together and bundled the sticks into groups of 100 and rubber banded them together. After we counted the sticks ( all 1,268 of them) I gave each student a base 10 work mat and base 10 blocks. We talked about how the ones unit is like 1 stick, the ten stick is like one bundle of 10 and the hundred flat is like a bundle of 100.
You can get these class lessons in my math unit "Clowning Around With Math." Click HERE! This unit has almost everything you need to teach 2.NBT 1 and 3. It has lesson plans, a student book homework, quizzes and projects. This is a three week unit, all ready for you!
I math centers, I put a variety of games so the kids could kind of review and practice what they already know. These were skills they were taught in 1st grade.
This is a missing addend game from the September Literacy and Math Center Activity Unit. You can download this game for free by clicking
We also practiced making addition problems with different combinations of counting squares. The kids had a group of 30 squares. They sorted them onto the counting mat. They counted one group then the other group to get an addition problem. Their total or course was always 30. Here is a look at this game. It came from some resources that we have from our State Department of Education.
Another game was 10's Go Fish. You play it the same way that you play Go Fish except to have a match, you have to have 2 numbers that equal 10. This is a great review for sums of 10. I also have the sums to 20 Go Fish game that we will play next week.
Whew! That was just a few things that we have been doing the past two weeks. I hope you found some ideas to use in your room! Leave me some feedback and let me know! This week is busy as well! Oh, and one more thing...I'm having a SALE to usher in the Fall Season. Everything in my TPT store is 10% off until Monday at midnight! Stock up on what you need and enjoy 10% off! I hope your year is going well!
Sharon
