Lollipops, Piglets, and Penguins…{Sunday Rewind} & Flash Sale

When we were not backpacking through genres or knee deep in penguin research, we were busy with several other things this week.

Monday, it was a big Chinese New Year Celebration!!! We read a news article out of our Weekly Reader Magazine and reviewed Main Idea and Details. Then we made these cute little dragon masks.

On Monday, I also introduced our very first genre: Fantasy. We read Tacky the Penguin which sent the kiddos into hysterics. Since they enjoyed Tacky so much, and since we were all about penguins last week during our research, I decided to have the students write a fantasy about Tacky the Penguin during their independent writing time which takes place while I am meeting with guided reading groups. They also created a cute little Tacky craftivity. Thanks Reagan Tunstall for a little inspiration with your adorable little Tacky creation.

Here are just a few of my favorite:

In math, we began division. These kids are running me ragged in math. I am telling you what…some days I just don’t even know how to keep up with them. They are totally brilliant! Let’s just pray that next years littles will be just as smart! :) If not…how does that motto go…oh yes…modify and adjust! Ha!

So, we began reviewing the relationship between addition and subtraction through fact families. We had several snowball fights in the classroom which were super fun after the first round where I forgot to lay the ground rules of no snowballs in the face. I mean…they have some serious arms! Sheesh! After that, we were good to go. Here are some freebies that you may want to pick up. Click on the pictures below.

Both activities include addition and subtraction fact families.  {So here is how a fact family snowball fight works. The students write their first equation- addition or multiplication to find their three numbers. They write their three numbers that will create their fact family on a piece of white paper. Then the students wad the paper up into a snowball. When the teacher says “Snowball Fight” the students gently throw the snowballs. When the snowball fight is over, each student chooses one snowball and returns to their seat to create the four problems in their fact family.}

After we reviewed the relationship between these two operations, we began learning about the relationship between multiplication and division. They picked up on the connection immediately. So, we had a few more snowball fights, and then we made these cute little fact family lollipops. Several teacher bloggers made these same fact family candies - peppermint style around Christmas, and I was super jealous that we were not working with fact families around that time. So, I tucked that baby away for later. Instead of peppermints, we made sweet lollipops.

 

And finally, we just wrapped up our U.S. Regions and American Tall Tales social studies unit. This week, we headed straight for geography. I hit on this topic just a little around Halloween when we created our pumpkin globes, but we need some touching up in this area and a little more instruction with reading a variety of maps.

I found THE CUTEST idea on pinterest which led me to this amazing classroom website. You must check out Mrs. Maddens Second Grade Class Website. She has some wonderful ideas. Thanks to Mrs. Madden’s Class, we began this geography unit with a bang! I read Chester the Worldly Pig which is a story about a pig dying to be something special. When everything seems to fail, his new owner notices that his spots are….what else…in the shape of the seven continents. I mean…how cute is that AND why have I never even laid eyes on this book before?!? Then, we just had to create these cute little Chesters.  This week during independent writing, the students will write about an adventure {to tie into our genre study} that Chester goes on through all seven continents.

Now…it’s time to begin it all over again!

And as a little THANK YOU for all of your sweet comments on my products over at TPT, I am having a FLASH SALE beginning right now until midnight tonight! You guys are seriously full of sweetness and I truly, TRULY appreciate all of your support and kind words! It just makes my day…every time! :) Thanks so much for being such an encouraging bunch of bloggy friends! Y’all are the BEST!  So, enjoy 20% off…get it while it’s H.O.T.!

You can check out my store by clicking HERE! 

Happy Sunday!