….and so there were 3

We are down to 3…3 days of school people….left for the whole. entire. year! Tomorrow is our last full day and then we have 2 half days next week! This week has been a blast and the kiddos have definitely been Living the Ice Cream Dream! This unit has been so much fun {actually even better than I had anticipated}. They have worked so hard and haven’t even let on that it is the last week of school. They are simply…awesome!

Yesterday, the kiddos were super excited about our popsicle meltdown to find out once and for all which popsicle melts the fastest! We split up into groups of four, wrote our scientific questions, turned our questions into a hypothesis, and set up our experiment.

I planned this activity towards the end of our day so that we could get all of our jitters out while we were experimenting, but we were running a tad late. We set the popsicles out at 2:10 {We dismiss at 2:30}. I thought it would be PA-LENTY of time. In fact, I was rushing to get the popsicles out of their wrappers because I didn’t want them to begin melting until they were placed into the cups. Welllllllll….it was 2:30 and those darn popsicles still were not melting! No even a drop! AYKM???? It was the craziest thing ever! So, today we had round two! {We began a little earlier today!}

And about 30 minutes later…we finally saw some results! Holy brain freeze! So why is it popsicles are running down their arms within two minutes on the playground???

After the experiment, the little scientists concluded that the darker colors do indeed melt faster than orange {our lighter color}. They completed their chart and graphed the time it took for each popsicle to melt.

Today during writing, we reviewed writing a comparison essay. Ever since I gave the students a little preview of our unit this week, they have been DYING to try the astronaut ice cream. Today was finally the day!

After the taste test, the students completed a Venn Diagram to compare/contrast this new treat to our good ol’ earth ice cream {as they called it}. Then they turned that information into a comparison essay.

We displayed our writing with the cutest astronauts you have ever laid eyes on! LOVE how these dudes turned out!

In other {nonrelated ice cream} news, we also had our featured author autograph session today. The kiddos’ published books came in last week, so today the students autographed their work! They were beyond thrilled to finally be able to take their books home! This was a great way to end the year and get them excited about reading and writing! 

Tomorrow is it! My last full day! We will be busy with our classroom superlatives, a whole lotta cleaning, and a little milkshake tasting!

Happy Thursday!

Attack of the Cherries and a Bleezer FREEBIE

Today, we were in heavy discussion about adverbs. We talked about adverbs answering the question how and modifying a verb. We also discussed that adverbs frequently end with –ly. My students’ suggestions were spot-on (you know…quickly, quietly, insincerely, nearly, precisely) until my one love bug suggested shelys! I said, “can you please give that to me in a sentence?” He said “she leads the class in the pledge.” Ummmm…can you tell I live in the south??? So, as we say in the south to excuse such a moment {I call those special occasions “moments”}…Bless. His. Heart!

After our lesson together, and once my sweetheart figured out that you can’t just add -ly to a word to make it an adverb, we turned our adverb fun into a very competitive friendly competition! Right along with all of the sweetness that we have going on in our classroom with our ice cream unit this week, we created ice cream shakes…with cherries on top, of course! The students wrote as many adverbs as they could think of on cherries. Then, they stacked them on top of their shake! Finally, just to be sure that we could apply this concept directly into our writing, the students switched shakes and wrote sentences using their friend’s adverbs.

This was such a fun activity and can easily be adapted to practice any basic skill.

  

  

In math, we continued enjoying all things ice cream as we reviewed making change. We read Bleezer’s Ice Cream Store by Jack Prelutsky. Then, the students worked in pairs to buy/sell ice cream in Bleezer’s store. They looked at the menu…

decided on a flavor, and paid Mr. Bleezer {their partner}. The buyer used a five dollar bill to pay for each scoop, {they bought one scoop at a time} and then the seller would give them the correct amount of change. Then, they showed their work here….

If you would like this free download, you can snag it {HERE}, or by clicking on the pictures above! If you would like to check out our unit that we will be working through during our last few days together, click on the picture below !

 

That’s all for me, friends! I am off to prepare for our writing celebration and pancake breakfast! The end is near my friends!!!!

Living the Ice Cream Dream and a FREEBIE

We are down to the last 6 days in second grade and I don’t know about you, but I like to squeeze in as much learning as possible. Not only for the kiddos…but for my sanity as well! There is just something about a schedule that makes the day go by so much faster! If you are in survival mode, this sweet treat may be just for you!!!!

To keep things light and fluffy this week {while getting in lots of review…shhh don’t tell the kids} we are getting into all things ice cream! Check out a few of the things that we will be doing this week while living the ice cream dream and scroll on down for a tasty freebie!

     

     

And a little math (a little idea adapted from my sweet friend, Amanda Nickerson!)

You can snag a little freebie from this unit by clicking on the picture below!

Or…you can snag the unit HERE!

Included:

• Parts of Speech Word Sort and Writing Activity
• What's the Scoop on Similes Writing and Craftivity
• Cherry Stack Craftivity (Can be used with a variety of skills)
• Astronaut Ice Cream Craftivity and Writing Activities (Compare/Contrast)
• Design a Flavor Writing and Craftivity
• Ice Cream in a Bag Experiment and How To Writing
• Scooping Up Math (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division Practice)
• Popsicle Meltdown Science Experiment
• Ice Cream Acrostic
• ABC Order

What are your plans for the final week(s) of school?

It’s the End of the Year as We Know It

I am ALL kinds of excited {thanks, Abby} that this week is over! It was way too much fun and filled with every type of celebration imaginable! So much fun that I slept until 12:30 today. Something that I haven’t done since…oh…say…college! However, I didn’t apologize to a single soul because it was so, SO needed! If you can keep up, here is how last week went down! {Warning…there may or may not be 100 pictures in this post!}

Although the end of the year is buzzing with excitement, we are still in full learning mode. We just make it as enjoyable as possible so the kiddos don’t actually think that they are learning! Clemson University traveled to our school to pump our kids up about science. They taught our 5th/6th graders at the beginning of the week, and then the 5th and 6th graders took over the teacher role with the youngsters. In a matter of 2 hours, our kiddos completed 10 different science experiments.

     

  

On Tuesday, it was all about field day…and 12 pies in my face…AND a wrestling match! {Oh My!}

We made cute hats {my end of the year gift for the kiddos}. They look so forward to making their hats, plus they are super cheap! I would say it is a win…win!

I definitely have some athletes on my hands and field day was going so well…

    

Until…tug of war! We lost! I pulled a muscle…or two! I was sad, but I had to lead by example for my kiddos! Maybe next year! Ha!

I am pretty sure that they forgot all about getting creamed in tug of war when they creamed me…literally! They have been working so hard to earn their "Oh Snap” reading points. As we celebrated our final nine weeks, I had 12 {Yes….12} earn enough points to put a pie in my face! They got me good…really good! I guess I will do just about anything to get my kiddos excited about reading!

Now this wouldn’t have been so bad if I could have ran straight home to shower! Life would have been grand! Too bad we had our Pups Wrestling Match that very same day and this girl forgot a change of clothes! I will just say that it may be a LONG while before I can enjoy the smell of whipped cream again! 

Speaking of wrestling match, here are a few pictures. My husband started this program at our school to provide some incentive and motivation to get our boys excited about learning and achievement. Each week, they spend 20 minutes in “man talk” and then they split for wrestling practice. It has been such a great way to hold our boys accountable and let me just say…they are all about some wrestling…and really good at it…kinda scary good! :) Here are a few of my boys in action!

Like I said…scary good! I am sure my husband is hoping and praying for these boys to make it to his high school team…ASAP!

Finally, on Thursday night, we had our gigantic academic celebration at school. My second grade team decided to go all out in a Magic Tree House themed display. We made it complete with our friends Jack and Annie, a safari jeep, and real animals {including an alligator and albino snake}. We talked this celebration up all week long and had quite the turn out! Our kiddos were so giddy with excitement! They could hardly wait for 5:00 to arrive.

It’s amazing what can go up…and come down within 24 hours!

Welcome to the Magic Tree House!

  

A few of our animal friends…

       

Our Dino Dig was a hit!

Our good friends, Jack and Annie!

Takin’ a ride in the safari jeep!

The kiddos awesome work displays! {Tip: refrigerator boxes make crazy amazing displays!}

  

Our awesome 2nd grade team!

Oh wait…did I mention my husband got a mohawk at our celebration?!? He lost a competition with our kindergarteners! And as if that wasn’t bad enough…they got to dye it pink for field day! He was all about it! Me…not so much!

And some how in the mix of all of this craziness, we were able to read and respond one last time to our pen pals! Thanks, Amy Lemons for letting us get to know your sweet loves this year!

  

What a week! If you are still reading up until now…bless. your. heart! This is what I get for only posting once this week! Now I am off to enjoy this 3 day weekend! Then next week, we will be living the ice cream dream! If you need some activities to get you through the next week, I will be posting this to my shop tomorrow!

Have a great weekend, sweet friends!