Making Up for LOST Time! {FREEBIES}

Hi to all of my sweet bloggin' friends that have been patiently waiting for several of things that I have been DYING to post for all of you! I have just recently received my Scrappin' Doodles license for freebies and so we are good to go!

I have been having SO much fun in second grade but BOY is it a CHALLENGE to create everything {and I mean EVERYTHING} from scratch. I am so fortunate to have the same sweet kids from last year {they are so AWESOME} but I want everything to be new and exciting for them...SO...materials from last year are all a thing of the past! Good thing I LOVE a challenge...right?!? So, as promised, here are a few things that we have been working on in second grade. I also have many more ideas/printables to post...hang tight and I will get them all up here just for you!

Author's Purpose

Last week, my kiddos and I spent several days learning about why author's write books and analyzing text to find that purpose. After introducing the three reasons author's write books, three students took on "the role" of each purpose. They presented their scripts and the class had to decide the purpose of each script and character. They truly got a kick out of this little activity. So much in fact...that we did it...TWICE! :)  After the presentations, we made up little movements for P.I.E. The power of movement with these youngsters is priceless and they remember these words probably better than most adults. I will TRY my very best to explain our little movements to you!

Prior to assigning movements to each word, we analyzed the words for "chunks" or sounds that would help us to remember the meaning of each word.

Persuade: Using "sway" as our key word to help us remember this definition, the students stand up and sway back and forth pretending to change their mind and think about something in a new/different way. 

Inform: In this word, we found the word "In" and we recognized that it also looks a lot like the word "information". As we say inform, we pretend to put information into our brain!

Entertain: This word was a little tricky...but we found the chunk "enter" and pretended to enter into a state of being a STAR! We created a capital "E" with our bodies (hand sticking out above the head, hand sticking out in the middle, and our leg sticking out at the bottom...can you see it??? OK...just checking! HA!) As we created our "E" we used a little spirit finger action and shouted "Entertain!" It made everyone laugh and so the students concluded that we did our job of making everyone "feel" silly!   

I am so sure that I just confused the heck out of you but I promise you...it worked like a charm! :)

After learning the meaning of each word and analyzing text, I split the students up into three groups...each with their very own purpose. Each group had to write about the zoo {Animals = 2nd Grade Science Standard = Science Integration with Writing = YES!!!!}. One group had to write to persuade, one group wrote to inform (this group was a research group) and the last group wrote to entertain (they chose to write a funny story...similar to Madagascar!) I am hoping to get pictures of their writings up for you very soon. They were AWESOME!

These activities were very successful with my students and I now can't get them to stop analyzing text and identifying the author's purpose for writing. Love when they are so enthused!

Click on the picture below to download the posters {inspired by Pinterest} and scripts!

2nd Grade ROCKS! {Song inspired by the Biebs}

Every morning, we begin our day by singing our Welcome/2nd Grade Rocks song. I created this song to really get my students pumped up and ready to learn each day. There has only been one morning that we have not had time to sing {due to an assembly} and y'all it truly threw our entire day completely off! They are so in love with this song that many times, we just HAVE to sing it at the end of the day too! We sing it to the instrumental of "Baby" by Justin Bieber along with imaginary microphones! Yes, I even have some kids doing a little slide across the floor at the end of the song! Honestly...one of the funniest things that I have ever watched. But then, of course, they know it is time to get SERIOUS and get to work! They do a great job with this transition!  Click on the picture below to download the lyrics!

Coming Soon...and a FREEBIE

Next week, it is ALL about weather in science. My room will be transformed into the land of CHEWANDSWALLOW! If you haven't read "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" you may be a little lost here! But...I have decided to center my weather unit around this amazing little story. I am in the process of putting the finishing touches on this unit and I will be posting lots of pictures as well as the unit in the next two weeks! Just so you don't have to wait for the entire thing....here are the vocabulary cards that will be included in my "Cloudy with a Chance" Weather Unit. Click on the picture below to snatch this little download up!

One Last Thing...I SWEAR!

 {I told you...I have SO much to catch up on in the blog sharing world!}

It is FINALLY....FINALLY FINISHED and ready to go!

Wait...Did I hear a "Praise the Lord" or was that just me!?! 

First Grade Word Work will be posted TOMORROW to TPT! So...for all of your firsties

I hope that you are all having a well deserved LONG weekend! Happy Sunday Friends!