March Madness: Sweetie Style

March was an exciting month for us! We had our big field trip, Spring came (and so did spring break!!), and we flew through a lot of material! Here's a recap of our madness:

1) Pronouns
We continued practicing our 5 week study on pronouns. Miss Priscilla Pronoun from Step Into Second Grade came to visit our class and help us remember how to identify pronouns.

I also found these beauties for whole group language lessons. We used them to identify pronouns in sentences. They are magnetic AND dry-erasable, so they are perfect for anything! I got these from a local education store, but you can order them from Learning Resources here.

2) Fractions
I hate that we only have 2 weeks to go over fractions because there is so much you can do when introducing them! We didn't have time to do a lot of the stuff I wanted to do with it, but we squeezed in as much as we could.

We started with Blair Turner's Interactive Notebook with some flapbooks to define fraction vocabulary.

We also used Fraction Friends and Fraction cookies from Amy Lemons' Fraction Fanatic unit. These activities were done in partners to save time and paper! Plus, creativity is more fun with 2 second grade brains :)

Amy's fraction unit also has a fraction hunt which my class LOVED! Cards were posted all over the room. The kids put their recording sheet on a clipboard and had to write the fraction for each card on their recording sheet. They followed directions perfectly and were really motivated to find all the cards and write the fractions correctly. I need to be doing more scavenger hunts like this because it got them up and moving and learning.

3) Chattanooga, TN Field Trip
Our school's 2nd grade does a BIG field trip every year to Chattanooga, TN, which I had the pleasure of coordinating this year. We left the school at 5:45 a.m. on a charter bus with 55 kids and 35 chaperones. We went to the Tennessee Aquarium, ate lunch at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, saw Ruby Falls, and explored Rock City. Then, each kid got their own $5 bill to spend at McDonald's on the way home. We finally got back to the school at 8:30 p.m. WHEW! A full day! We had lots of fun and no major incidents which makes this field trip coordinator happy. :)

4) Food Fight Parent Night
Last year, our faculty tried a new kind of PTA night called "Food Fight". This parent night was divided into 2 parts. Part 1 consisted of a free dinner of pizza, which is the "Food" part. The "Fight" part was Part 2, when the parents and kids go to the classrooms and have a friendly math competition. We had a sheet of problems that would be common in our 2nd grade classrooms and had all math tools needed available. It wasn't who could solve the problems faster, but who could explain their thinking the most explicitly, which is always harder for the parents to do because they aren't exposed to that kind of math instruction every day. The kids loooooove proving their answers to their parents and showing off their knowledge :)

5) The Very Hungry Caterpillar
I whipped up this little mini unit during one of our many weather days while parking myself on the couch :) We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and focused on life cycles while using reading skills and standards. This unit has comprehension questions, vocabulary quiz and cards, sequencing cards and writing pages, ABC order, and more. Not to mention we learned a little about caterpillars and butterflies along the way. It was such a great way to welcome Spring!

Here is a preview of the mini-unit. Click here or on the picture to view it on TPT!

Lately, we have been doing a study on fairy tales, which I hope to get up here soon! Our school started testing this week, so we've been on a small lockdown in our classrooms the past couple of days. We will survive!