Field Trip & Animal Unit

Last Tuesday was FINALLY the day that my second graders have been waiting for since December (and the day I had been having nightmares about since March!)…our field trip to the Atlanta Zoo and Georgia Aquarium. The trip was more than wonderful and their reactions were priceless! Definitely worth every. single. bit of the planning! Most of our students have never been outside of the state and many have never seen outside of our small town. So to be able to provide them with this type of learning experience was more rewarding for me as a teacher than for those sweet kiddos! 

Here are a few pictures from our day! (I so HATE that I can’t show you their facial expressions…adorbs!)

We began at the zoo and saw lots of animals that we had been learning about for weeks. Here are a few of my fave.

Slide1 Slide2

Slide3 Slide4

The weather was perfect and the animals were very active. From there, we headed to Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta to have lunch and walk to the Georgia Aquarium.

Slide5

They about had a fit when they laid eyes on the aquarium!

We began our time at the aquarium with a behind the scenes look at the large exhibits that they would see later on. Umm…can I just say this was probably THE coolest thing that I have ever done on a field trip! My student teacher and I were just as amazed as the students were!

Slide7

Slide10  Slide11

We were so super close to these Whale Sharks. They are way cooler above the water than through the glass!

Slide9

We also got to see how they create the wave effects in one of the exhibits below.

Slide8

Next was the 3-D movie! It was so cute to see the kiddos try to reach out and touch things! Definitely a favorite! Even if we did get a little wet! Smile

Slide12

As if the day could get any better, next we were on our way to the dolphin show! They seriously go ALL OUT during this musical/dolphin showdown!

Slide13 Slide14

Then finally, we were off to explore the exhibits…which included a beluga whale due any day with a 500 pound baby! Let’s just take a second and say a little prayer for this lady! Ha!

Slide15 Slide16

Slide1  Slide2

They even had scuba divers come and wave to the kids! Precious!

Slide3

And this is what happened on the way home! I would say it was a great day! Isn’t that the sweetest thing you have ever seen??? Love this child!

If you are interested in any of the activities that we did during our animal unit prior to our trip, I have compiled everything into a 153 page unit…and it’s still growing! You can check it out below and pick it up at TPT!

Slide1

Slide2

Slide3

Can’t wait for our next trip! Happy Sunday, sweet friends!

Teacher Talk in Hotlanta {Atlanta}

I have been so extremely jealous reading everyone’s posts about blogger meet-ups! I swear…it is so lonely here in South Carolina! So when I got an email from Cheryl Saoud {Primary Graffiti} about a meet-up in Georgia, you can imagine my excitement! I couldn’t wait to meet some of these ladies that have been my blogging heroes for a good minute! :)

We met up on Saturday and let me just say, it was like a group of school girls chatting it up for hours! I swear we could have stayed there all weekend gabbing on and on….and on!

April 2012 010

We traveled to the Cheesecake Factory in style! I mean what else did you expect?!? Ha!

April 2012 011 

Can you imagine the conversations that we had?!? Definite teacher talk at its finest!

blog 1 lunch

Here is a little group shot! These ladies are seriously just as sweet in person as they are on their amazing blogs! You must check them out! You’ll love them as much as I do!

IMG_3297

The group:

Cheryl of Primary Graffiti

Dana from 3rd Grade Gridiron

Ashley from The Polka Dot Patch

Jenaya from Lesson Plan Diva

Deanna from Mrs. Jump’s Class

Erica from Erica Bohrer’s First Grade

Anna Brantley from Crazy for First Grade

 

Such a wonderful weekend! I can’t wait for another meet-up!

Ahhh….it’s almost FRIDAY! Can you sense my excitement? TGIF!!!!

Measure Up!

This is going to be a super short post tonight. We had our big field trip yesterday and it truly was a perfect day, but boy am I exhausted! My poor kiddos were too…bless their hearts! The zoo and the aquarium all in one day was some kind of fun! I will definitely have to post some pictures later!

Until then, I just posted my measurement unit to TPT. This unit includes 9 supplemental measurement activities perfect for 1st-3rd grade {some K people too}! There are several literature and science integration lessons that will get your kiddos hands-on with measurement. You can click on the pictures below to check it out!

Slide1

Slide2 

I hope that you all had a great day with your kiddos!

Animals Here, There and Everywhere!

It has been A WEEK! Oh wait…it’s only Monday! Well, shoot! Please tell me I am not the only one strugglin’ this week! Shew! Maybe all of this animal talk that we have going on in our classroom is bringing out the worst in us our animal lovin’ sides! :) This kiddos are cah-razy, but I really do think it has a lot to do with the fact that we are shipping out to the zoo and the aquarium tomorrow! We are all a tad excited (including me) to say the least! 

Here are a few things that have been going on in our zoo…oh…I mean classroom!

During our measurement unit, {they LOVE measurement} we researched dinosaurs to find their length from head to tail. Although they were completely amazed at their astonishing sizes, (we heard a lot of oooo’s and ahhhh’s) I really wanted the students to understand how large some of these creatures truly were. So, after our research, we headed outside with our tape measurers and chalk to measure out their actual size so that we could truly grasp and visualize how large they were.

Slide1     Slide2

I honestly could not even visualize their large size! We were all amazed!

Slide3 Slide1

Oddly enough, my student teacher planned a similar activity with whales…on the VERY same day! What can I say…great minds think alike! :)

Slide2 

The students stacked on top of one another to see if our class would be the size of a large blue whale…well…we were so NOT! Holy Hugeness! 

Slide8      Slide9

We spent several days discussing ocean animals. Each day, the students wrote about what they would do if they were the size of each creature. We finished off this little study with a fun comparison activity. We took a picture of each student looking like this:

Slide4

We then made their pictures and the sea creatures that we studied to scale (to represent their actual size). Here is how they turned out…

Slide5    Slide6

The students pictures are the super small specks! This was another great visual to help students understand relative size!

We finished off our week with several research projects. We have really been working on incorporating a variety of sentences structures into our writing. So far, so good! Here are several research projects:

The Bear Facts:

Slide13     Slide14

Slide12

How cute are these little sea dudes?!? 

Slide10    Slide11

Well, that’s all for me tonight! I better go get all geared up for our field trip tomorrow…from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.! PRAY FOR ME, Y’ALL! :)

iPoetry

Hallelujah…praise the Lord…the south has risen again! Oh…sorry…I got a little carried away! :) I am so excited to say that I am FINALLY finished with iPoetry! I went to a little blogger meet-up (I’ll post details later) with some super fab ladies in Atlanta…so I had a few hours to work while the hubs drove us home!

This is such a fun way to practice poetry and the connection to ipods/phones was a big hit with the kiddos! This unit will be perfect for the end of the year when those sweet little darlings are…SO OVER IT! You know what I mean! :)  Just in case you missed it, here are a few pictures of my students finished projects.

Slide3    Slide4    Slide5

And here is the unit…

Presentation1

You can click on the picture above to check it out at my TPT shop.

Happy, Happy Sunday!!

Giveaway Winner & Currently

Thanks to all who participated in my Spring Fling Giveaway and Congrats to….

Winner

Please email me so you can go get your shop on! :)

P.S. Thanks for all of the amazingly sweet comments you all left with your entries! Y’all are too much…REALLY! :)

And…better late than never…April’s Currently!

Slide1 

I can’t wait to share more animal fun with you tomorrow! We had a blast today! Hope you had a super Monday! :)

Sunday Rewind…{Animals and Poetry}

This week, we began our final science unit on animals.  I CAN NOT believe I just said final. Where did this year go?!? Wow!
When I heard that I was moving on to 2nd with my kiddos, I was super excited for many reasons, but mainly because I would finally get to teach animals. The students have been eagerly anticipating this unit as much as I have, and we are already having a blast!
This past week, we began with a little study of the six classes of animals. We did learn about these in first grade through a book study, {I had to get animals in somehow} so the kiddos were already ahead of the game. To review animal classifications, we created animal windsocks.  Each strip on their windsock identifies a different class and it’s description.
Slide7
Slide7  Slide6  Slide8
We also began discussing vertebrates vs. invertebrates. The students illustrated an animal that would fit under each category. Then, we used Q-Tips to create the backbone in our vertebrate animal.         
Slide11   Slide4   Slide12
Slide2            Slide3
This week, we will continue learning about all things animals! To bring a little excitement into this unit {as if it needs any} I just couldn’t help but make these adorable jeeps for the classroom. Found them on Pinterest {of course}.  The original idea came from Buzzing About in Second Grade! Be sure to check out this super cute blog!
Slide6
Slide10 

If you would like to incorporate some of these ideas into your room, stop by my TPT shop and check out my On Safari Unit



Last week, the students also finished their poetry unit, created their iphones {with their poetry apps} and presented! How cute are these phones? My student teacher did a fab job with this unit and the students were ALL…and I do mean ALL about iPoetry!
Slide5
Slide3   Slide4  Slide5

Click {HERE} to take a closer look at my iPoetry unit. 

Then our Friday ended with our 3rd nine weeks academic pep rally. Here is how my celebration went…
Slide1 
I guess that is what I get for being super competitive during our card sells this year! Ha! My little man was super nice. That may or may not have had a little something to do with the fact that I threatened to take his recess for the entire year if he was anything but nice! :)
Our faculty also prepared a flash mob to prove to our kids that we are in fact…still…super cool! Our students assured me that I’ve got moves! That means a lot coming from a 2nd grader! :) This was probably one of the highlights of our year! So fun and such great exercise! I was a huge puddle of sweat at the end! I think I need to do this dance a couple of times a day to prepare for the summer! :)
Slide1
My student teacher and I dressed like 80’s twins because our kids always say that we dress just alike. Remember…we only had 30 seconds to change…flash mobs do not provide you with the time needed for elaborate costumes…AND…I was just pied…notice the stickiness on my face!
Slide2
So glad that the hubs teaches at my school so we can share “special” {emphasis on the special} moments like this! Ha! Ha! :)
On that note…I am out! I will be announcing my Spring Fling winner tomorrow evening! Also, for all of you who have asked…I promise to get my poetry and measurement unit out ASAP {hopefully within the week}.  I try not to bore you with personal information, but I have had some med. issues here lately and so my computer time has been super limited! No worries…I am on the mend, but it has been super irritating!  I never want to share anything with you that is just thrown together, so as soon as they are completely finished, I will be sure to post them on TPT.
I hope that you all have a wonderful week of learning with your kiddos! Not many left, so let’s make them our BEST!!!!
Happy Sunday!