Week 7 Instructional Strategies & Ideas

Park View~ Here is your WEEK 7 Instructional Strategies and Ideas!  

WEEK 7 Working Memory 
Let's learn how we can help our students strengthen their working memory in the classroom. I love these ideas from Elementary Matters for supporting working Memory in the classroom!

You will also find math and reading resources with lots of fun links and freebies to help with lesson planning for Week 7.

There is even something special for our ART, Music, and PE classes too!

Executive Function: What is working memory?

Working memory is how students hold on to learned information. It plays an important role in concentration and focus. Students with weak working memories can have difficulties in many areas. Watch the videos below to learn more!

Check out the blog below and read about ways you can help your students strengthen their working memory.  

8 Tips to Boost Working Memory 

Amanda Morin & Understood.org

A Working Memory Video

ADHD and Working Memory

Working Memory FREE Downloads!

   

Stop by Mrs. Schroeder's Room to check out some October Instructional Goodies or click the image below to preview!

Week 7 Standards
Kindergarten:

          

K.G.2  Correctly name shapes regardless of their orientations or overall size. K.G.1 Positional words & shapes.

    

RI.K/RL.K1 With prompting and support ask and answer questions about key details in a text. 
 Weekly focus: characters

Reading Comprehension Strategies

1st Grade:

    

RL 1.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.

    

1.OA.5 Relate counting to addition and subtraction (e.g., by counting on 2 to add 2).

Second Grade:

 

RL 2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. 

  

NBT.2 Count within 1000; skip count by 5s, 10s, and 1000s,

Third Grade:

     

RI 3.7 Use information gained from illustrations and the words in a a text to demonstrate understanding of a text.

    

3.0A.1 Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5x7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 each.

Art: Students will love building a scene with colored straws and then covering it up and trying to draw it from working memory!

Music: Practice working memory with this music memory game!

PE: This giant memory game will be super fun in PE!  Just add motions to the plates and when a match is made... the group has to to that motion like: 10 jumping jacks.  

Happy Planning!

All About Apples

Friends~It is almost APPLE season!  I love this time of year.  The air is crisp and the applesauce smells sooo good in the crockpot. There is so much learning that can take place with this sweet fruit!

Bringing apples into the classroom in September is the perfect way to ease your students into learning. One of my very favorite apple fiction stories is Apple Picking Time by Michele Benoit Slawson.  

It is the sweetest story about a young girl and her time picking apples with her family.  It shows real perseverance.  Check out a video read of the story below!

 One of my favorite activities to do with this book is to create purple punch cards for my students just like in the book.  As they work throughout the day, I punch their cards with an apple hole punch. Like the one below.  You could also use the a moon shaped one like in the story. 

Then I reward them with a sweet apple treat at the end of the day as they turn in their cards!

Here are some response questions for you to use during a book talk to help second grade teachers hit RI.2.1 I can ask and answer W questions. 

 This standard will also work with the nonfiction books below!

I also love to use the fable of the Magic Apple to hit my 3rd grade reading skill, RL.3.2 I can recount fables and determine the central message. 

Below is a video read of the book to add to your lessons. 

 

This file is great for unlocking folktales from Pearson!  Be sure to click below and save!

I love to bring in some factual information about apples too!  This video is a great lead into the nonfiction word of apples.  

Here is another video that is great for the life cycle of an apple!

It is so simple to put a fun life cycle craft together. See the example in the picture below. 

I love the Book I Am an Apple for this project!  Students can use this book to walk them through the life cycle. It is also a great book to talk with students about beginning print concepts.  Take them on a picture walk and discuss the title, cover, spine, illustrations, and words.  

RF.K1 I can understand print concepts. 

or grab this download of the story The Magic Apple for Kindergarteners! 

My favorite book for apple facts is Apples by Gail Gibbons.  

Reading both fiction and nonfiction books on a topic will allow first grade teachers to hit RL.1.5 Ti can tell which books are stories.  

Hello 3rd GRADE!

Dear Parents,

    I can't believe this is my last blog news post for the 2016-2017 school year.  I want to thank you all for your continued support this year as I adjusted to Park View and MGSD.  It has been an awesome year and I couldn't have asked for a sweeter class of students and a more supportive group of parents.  

     I have so enjoyed watching your children grow socially and academically this school year!  You all have much to be proud of!  Please know that it has been my true pleasure to be your child's second grade teacher!  

     Below are some fun Bubble Science activities from last week!  We had so much fun experimenting with bubbles!  

Our field trip to the library was such fun!  I am in love with these pictures of the class at Pelican's! 

Monday we will begin working on our class stores. Students will help in creating materials. Thank you to all that helped by sending in supplies!  

Tuesday is Fun Day-Field Day (Be sure to send you 2nd grader in comfy clothes, tennis shoes, and sunscreen.)

Wednesday will be our class store shopping day! Students have been working to earn $ to shop in our class stores!
Thursday will be our last day in 2nd grade together! 

Not our last day forever-

surprise to come!

Please remember it is a half day for students!  We will be autographing pillowcases and spending some last minutes together as a class!  

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday and BE SURE to CHECK YOUR CHILD'S FOLDER!!!  HINT, HINT! 

Shark WEEK!

Dear Parents,

     We had a fantastic week of learning in class.      We spend a week learning and researching about sharks! The students first started with a KWL which allows them to organize their thinking and record their learning about a topic.  We read Sharks by Gail Gibbons while filling in our anticipation guide. 
Check out this fun video below! 

This week was the quietest week during our research and writing time.  The students were totally absorbed in researching their chosen shark. They created their own Wixe presentation and we invited Mrs. Voncanos's class to join us to learn all about sharks!

We also had a super fun time on our field trip to Patterson Farm.  The class did a wonderful job representing Park View!  We planted beans, fed some sweet goats, went on a hayride, and picked some delicious strawberries! 

The students are working hard as we finish testing.  Their reading assessments are just about done and next week we will begin their Math and Writing assessment.  I am so very proud of how well the students are doing.  They are growing leaps and bounds! 

*Your second grader should have brought a math review packet home to review.  We will be taking the assessment over a few days so please take the time to review the sheet with your child.  

Important Dates:

May 29-No School Memorial Day

May 31st-2nd Grade Walking Field Trip

June 2-2nd Grade Cookout 

Donations: A letter came home on Friday about Bubble Science.  Please check your second grader's folder for a list of supplies needed for our experiments.  Thank you so much for always helping to supply our fun filled learning in class! 

Fun Run and PEEP Adoption!!

Dear Parents!

Happy Spring Break!  I wanted to share some of the excitement from our week...
Thank you so much to all that made donations to our Fun Run!!!  The class loved having the opportunity to help our school to update our playground and media center with the funds that were raised.  

We also spent Thursday adopting Marshmallow Peeps! The students LOVED being a Peep Parent as they went through the learning centers set up in the classroom like weighing and measuring their peep, writing peep sitter directions, and even responding to a letter from Principal Peep about their peep's behavior at school!  

 There were even TWINS!

 We made peep nests and read books to them at naptime!

A very special THANK YOU to Mrs. Cherry and Mrs. Holmes for making our chocolate fountain a yummy success for our PEEP Kabobs!

PEEP Credit: This is optional fun!

Students were challenged to take care of their peep over break and bring back some PEEP Care Proof like a journal of what they did with their peep over break, drawn pictures/diagrams or photos about their peep adventures.  

These are just examples of ideas!  They sky is the limit.  Students choosing to participate will be rewarded with a fun prize the Monday that we return. 

(Also, if your peep has an accident, feel free to adopt a new one:) 

Have a fun and safe spring break!

Molting and Life Cycles

Dear Parents,

     It was a BIG week of learning fun in 2nd grade.  We spent the week focusing on cause and effect and how nature provides us with many natural examples! 

     This week we explored the life cycle of the praying mantis.  We are even hatching several egg cases in room 203!  The students read books & explored videos of the life cycle.  We worked to understand the cause & effect relationship between the 3 stages in the incomplete life cycle of the praying mantis.  

CHECK out this cool site that we explored to learn more about these amazing creatures!  Just click the image below!

The students created their own diagrams of the life cycle and the wrote a How to about their diagram.

 

 

We even molted like a mantis does in their last stage!  

(Just old school white glue but they were amazed!!!) 

In math, we continued to focus on word problems with a special emphasis on compare problems.  I am so proud of how the students are able to identify what type of problem they are solving and then are able to set up the problem and apply a strategy. Here is a video tutorial we watched this week to help us with compare problems. 

Here is a math homework sheet if you are interested in practicing at home. Just click the link to download. (If you need a paper copy, let me know.)

Important Dates: 
Spring Concert 3/10 (Book Fair)
Fun Run 3/12 
Peep Day 3/13