Hi Friends…. The past two weeks we have been working on Prefixes and Suffixes in our second-grade classroom! My kiddos were having such a good time brainstorming words with prefixes and then figuring out the meaning. They really had a strong grasp of the concept… I was pretty impressed. After our whole … Prefixes, Suffixes and a FREEBIE Just for YOU! Read More »
Superhero worksheets are a FUN way for kids to practice letters, counting, math, & more with their favorite super hero printables. Ages 3-9.
Use these vocabulary activities to enhance your vocabulary instruction to help boost your students' reading skills and comprehension.
Want to elevate your students' writings from the beginning. These brainstorming ideas can set your students up for better writings.
Learn how to plan and manage literacy centers through differentiated instruction activities, rotations, & behavior management strategies.
LOTS of FREE Printable worksheets for kids to practice math, literacy, science, & history with kids of all ages from 123Homeschool4Me.
Second graders need to have hands-on practice with ELA skills in a meaningful way. This post shares some fun 2nd Grade literacy center ideas.
The first few weeks of school are all about setting the foundation. We're establishing routines and procedures, encouraging a growth mindset culture, building classroom community, etc. I also like to spend some time laying the foundation for what students will need to be successful writers throughout the year, especially since writing is a focus that threads through all subject areas. In second grade especially, sentence structure is a great place to start. We review the 4 parts that every sentence has to have in order to be a complete sentence:
Find hands-on butterfly life cycle activities, butterfly science labs, and free printables to incorporate reading skills and get kids writing about science!
Need a creative idea for teaching money to kids? The Money Game is a fun hands-on way! Inspired by the Beth Kobliner Book- Make Your Kids a Money Genius
With my small group pull-out sessions limited to half-hour increments, I'm always looking for quick, engaging reading and writing activities to reinforce literacy skills. I used to think dice games were only for teaching math and probability, but I'm starting to discover that there are ENDLESS possibilities for using dice with literacy. Are you looking for a few ideas? Well... let's shake and roll! 3 Roll-a-Dice Activities for Reading & Writing My roll-a-dice resource collection continues to grow, but here are a few resources that I've added to my literacy toolbox that may be perfect for your students. 1. Roll-a-Story
These worksheets for main idea and supporting details are a great way to build reading comprehension in young students. Grab the free sample.
WOW! 300,000+ Second grade worksheets, free printable games, and 2nd grade activities to make learning math, literacy, history, & science FUN!
Fun ideas for teaching adjectives and descriptive writing that are just right for October and Halloween week in the primary classroom.
Engage your students with some this wonderful book study to correlate with the cute book We Don't Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins.
Are you classroom teacher looking for engaging ways to teach your students to comprehend stories? Read this post for primary ideas on how to get children to learn to visualize and build reading comprehension.
Classroom teachers have a ton of daily tasks to guarantee that students are engaged and learning. It's a tough job, and a stressful one, too. Teachers wear out easily if their classrooms aren't well managed. Creating a classroom that runs itself while you teach in smaller groups is the best way to keep students engaged.
Explore research-based instruction and data-driven practices in literacy education. Learn how to structure your lessons using the Science of Reading principles without feeling overwhelmed. Discover step-by-step guides, scope, and sequences for effective lesson planning. Download free resources for c
Engaging vocabulary review Ideas & activities that can be used with K-5 students! Five fun & collaborative vocabulary instruction ideas.
Simple tips for improving writing in your second or third grade classroom. These tips are a must if you want better writers!
Planning to tutor over the summer? Here are tips for quick and easy planning! Hi there! It's Sarah! I've been tutoring kiddos for the last year and have developed a routine that makes my planning easy and my session flow smoothly. All of the kiddos I tutor are grades K-2 and in need of a boost in their reading skills...fluency, comprehension, and phonics. Warm-up I like to start with some reading that is simple or familiar. I'll either have the kiddo re-read a text from the previous session or read fluency sentences. I have my kiddos keep a composition notebook with past passages to go back and re-read. I use lots of guided reader books to find the just right text for my kiddos to read. These are also great books to leave for kiddos to practice between sessions. Fluency sentence strips from The Moffatt Girls are a GREAT help to boost fluency and confidence! They are also super easy to leave for practice between sessions. Fluency Reading Practice My kiddos have all had good sight word recognition and really need fluency work. I switch between leveled readers and text passages. I usually have kiddos read the text themselves first. After reading, we go back through the text and find words that were tricky and read them. Next, I have the kiddo read through the text with me or by themselves if they are confident. Using a leveled reader Using fluency passages and recording words read per minute (the kiddos love to see their growth!) Find these fluency passages HERE! Using text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Comprehension After some fluency practice with the selected text, I move into comprehension work. In our district, kiddos need to do a written response comprehension question as part of their reading assessment. I have my kiddos practice a written response question with every text and in every session. Comprehension with level reader I use these question stems to develop questions based on the text. Grab the question stems HERE! Completed written response, kiddos write in their composition journal Comprehension with text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Here I use a reading passage with several comprehension tasks for a 2nd grade kiddo. Find these reading passage + comprehension packets HERE! Phonics After the reading and comprehension tasks are complete, I work on some phonics task with my kiddos. One of my favorite tasks is doing a word family word splash. I select a word from our text. I like how this tasks shows kiddos that if they can spell a work like bat, they can also spell cat, mat, sat, etc. Writing short sentences with words from the Word Family Splash Word building and sounding out Extras I like to use phonics poems as an additional fluency tool. The kiddos glue them into their composition notebook so they can go back and re-read between sessions, continuing to build fluency with familiar texts. These phonics poems are from Susan Jones. I use our Literacy Bags in between reading tasks. Literacy Bags break up the rigorous reading and fluency practice we do for much of the session. You can find Literacy Bags HERE! I'm working with a few Kindergartners who need sight word practice. I use the K version of our Differentiated Reading Fluency passages. In K, the passages start as reading letters, then sight words fluently. It perfect support for my K kiddos! You can grab these HERE! Additionally, our Print a Standard packs have been a great support for targeting specific skills students need to work on. Each pack contains tasks for one standard and has several activities for that standard, so there are a lot of opportunities to help the student learn, practice, and master standards based skills. You can grab Print a Standard packs for ELA AND MATH HERE! Connecting with students and parents on a more personal level is the best part of tutoring. I love giving kiddos instant feedback and celebrating their successes! I also love that I can give them more choices to foster a love of reading. In the picture above, I'm showing several text selections. The kiddos I'm working with is able to choose the book he'll read with me for the session. I also love being able to help parents foster learning at home. I've found most all of my parents did not really know about their kiddo's reading level or reading abilities. This makes it difficult for parents to find the best "just right" books for reading at home. After I work with a kiddo, I leave the text piece we worked on for that session (a passage or a book) so the kiddo can re-read it with parents. I leave their composition notebooks with phonics poems for the kiddos to go back a re-read. I also leave the fluency sentence strips for practice between sessions.
My blog post contains Amazon affiliate links which means that I earn a few cents from anything purchased through my links. I use that money to purchase items for my classroom. Last year, I began starting our day with morning bins as a paperless replacement for morning work. I love the versatility morning bins. You can get as complicated or simple as you want. I try really hard to use materials that I already have in my classroom. Below I've listed over 50 ideas for you, most of which I've used in my bins for my 2nd graders. I'll add links where I can. Great places to find morning bin fillers- Amazon, Target Dollar Spot, Dollar Tree, your math closet, Michael's, yard sales. STEM/Building Things LEGOS- I have a big bin of LEGOS, and I try to find them at yard sales. Yard sales are great places to find a lot of things for morning bins. I will also say that the off-brand of LEGO-style building blocks is just fine for morning bins. They're a great budget-friendly option. Brain Flakes- You can often find a variety of these at the Dollar Tree. Keva planks- So, these are expensive, but Highlights magazine has a set in their classroom rewards catalog, and I've ordered two sets of those for free. Check those out, for sure. The rewards program is free and has lots of great stuff. Magnatiles/ PicassoTiles- These are an investment but so, so good. I think they're great for building 3-D shapes during a geometry unit, so I can justify the cost. I have yet to meet a kid who doesn't like building with magnatiles. Picasso Tiles are less expensive and just as great. I have a set at home and at school. STEM straws magnetic sticks Tumble Trax magnetic marble run- These is so fun! They're one of the kids favorite items. Also, I have a two sets for bigger runs. The kids love building tracks on the whiteboard. They come up with such clever ideas. PlusPlus/hashtag blocks -Some people are lucky and find these in the Target bins. I've never found them. I have a big set of mixed blocks, but there are lots of different sets available. These are an alternative to LEGOS. Kid K'nex Interlox Snowflake Disks Bristle Blocks marble run- This is a tough one to store in a small bin, but it's a great small group activity. I see these at yard sales. Games basic card games- Go Fish, Old Maid, etc. - Ask for donations for these! So many families have games that they aren't playing anymore. dominoes- Get the foam dominoes! Your ears will thank you. I got a set from the Highlights magazine prize magazine a few years ago, and they've held up great. puzzles- The Ravensburger jigsaw puzzles are my favorite! The designs and colors are great. Puzzles are one of those things that kids rarely do anymore, but they always love them. I always break them out when see that my crew is needing more opportunities for teamwork and communication. Uno/ Dos Pizza Party dice game- This is a really cute, fast game. It's really only for 2-3 players and uses the included dice and cards. Tricky Triangle peg game Farkle Flip- Just like the dice game but with cards, which make a great visual for kids. finger soccer Kanoodle- This is a great 3-D puzzle game. It includes a bunch of puzzle cards and is perfect for students to work on spatial relationships. decks of playing cards- There are SO many things that kids can do with cards. I use them in math all of the time. I like to give kids the freedom to do what they wish with the cards, whether it be playing a game or building. brain teaser puzzles Sensory Play Play Doh- If you spend $10 on morning bins, please spend it on Play Doh...or have families make it and send it in. Second graders love Play Doh, and it's so versatile. I laminate construction paper for the kids to use as mats. Play Doh Accessories/Cutters- Plastic silverware, cookie cutters, kids' kitchen tools, and sand molds are all great options here. I try to add seasonal items to the Play Doh bin- cookie cutters, rolling pin, pony bead sprinkles at Christmastime, shades of blue and white, snowflake cutters, and pipe cleaners in the winter, you get the idea. Kinetic Sand- You might find yourself playing with the kinetic sand right beside the kids. It's so relaxing. I give them small trays to put the sand on, and then I also add the Play Doh accessories to the tub. Pompoms with scoops, cups, and plastic tweezers Fidgets: A few times a year I borrow some of these from our instructional support department to try out with different students. By putting them in the morning bins, I can see what they gravitate toward and like without calling attention to specific students. Rocks, fossils, feathers, sea shells, etc with little magnifying glasses: If your school is ever getting rid of old science kits, go through them and grab stuff for your morning tubs. magnetic wands and various metal items like paper clips, magnetic chips, other magnets, etc. Art Materials stencils and paper Popbeads - I had Popbeads as a kid and got my daughter a set, and she loved them. I bought another set for school, and the kids really love them, even the boys. construction paper scraps, hole punch, and yarn pipe cleaners and beads- specifically letter beads and pony beads foam craft kits- I shop for these at Michael's after the holidays for the following year. You can get class sets for 70% off, which ends up being less than $5. coloring books/pages and Twisty crayons- The twisty crayons are special, and they LOVE them! I make a big deal about them being special, and the kids treat them nicely. dicut shapes, doilies, and stickers to make cards around the holidays- Does your school stick have a dicut machine? I feel like ours rarely gets used anymore, but the kids love those shapes! watercolor paints and paper drawing books and paper- I borrow drawing books from the school library, and the kids love them. stamps, ink pads, and paper Literacy Ideas letter cubes- You can buy these pre-made, or if you have a huge amount of Unifix cubes, you can easily make your own. I try to grab extra Unifix cubes if I see them on the discard tables in the faculty room. Bananagrams- Bananagrams is so good! It's like Scrabble without the board. It's versatile and easy to clean up. phonics dominoes- I have the digraph and blend dominoes in my room, and I'd like to add the compound word set. Found It! sight word games- Found It! is a sight word game that I created for my students. It's fast and fun. Students just need the deck of Found It! cards. I have a set for each Dolch list, so you can differentiate. Squiggle Stories- This is another activity that I created. Students use a squiggle in the illustration box to create whatever they want, and then they write a story about it. It's fun to see how different kids use the same squiggle. Mad Libs seasonal stationary and envelopes - I save envelopes from junk mail and ask my families to do the same thing. When we have a specific purpose for writing, I'll put out the colorful, fancy envelopes for them. blank cards and notecards- One of my hacks is to have my friends and family save cards that they receive, and then I chop off the part with writing. The kids write on the blank side. Super easy way to reuse cards that would end up in the garbage can. magnetic letters fact flashcards- Target often has these sets of flashcards on different topics, and they all have interesting facts on them. I have space, dinosaurs, states, and presidents. They're a dollar a pack, and the kids like them. mini white boards and colorful Expo markers- My students each have a black marker, so they love when the colorful markers come out. I have a set of mini dry erase boards that are about the size of a small sentence strip. I can't find them to link them, but they're awesome! I use them in guided reading a lot but like to put them in morning bins a few times a year. Math Ideas hexagon/ Tangram puzzles printable math games- Pick games that you've played before. I love this bundle of math games from Games 4 Gains a few years ago, and they're perfect. pattern blocks geoboards and rubberbands flashcards and task cards- I have flashcards and task cards for pretty much every math unit. I try to put them in the bins toward the end of the unit when we're reviewing. pattern links- To be fair, I kind of hate these! BUT the kids love them. They love to make ropes and patterns and whatever their little minds conjure up. I just hate untangling them. play money- They love the play money. If you have money task cards, toss those in, too. My own kids have a play cash register, and I always bring it into school around our money unit. Students LOVE playing with this. base ten and Cuisenaire rods- They love to build with these. Again, if you have some task cards for base ten blocks, toss them in with the blocks. Abstract Creations- aka: Random Stuff dixie cups/ plastic cups- They love to stack them! index cards, tape, and hole punch straws of various sizes and modeling clay or Play Doh foam balls and toothpicks- I love those small foam balls that are out around the holidays. They're usually sparkly and so fun. They're usually with the vase fillers at Dollar Tree or Michael's. popsicle sticks with Velcro dots- They get so creative with these! The sticks are a great job for a volunteer to make for you. cardboard tubes- Collect them from paper towels, toilet paper, mailers, etc. They're fun to build with and even use with paint. Amazon link to all of my morning bin favorites! I hope this gives you some good ideas for your own morning bins. If you have any more great ideas, please leave me a comment below. I'm always looking for new ideas. You don't have to spend a ton of money! Look around your classroom. You probably have a lot of great stuff available that your students don't have the opportunity to use regularly. I also ask for donations, shop the sales, and use some of my requisition money each year to buy a few new things. Thanks for reading!
Each classroom brings students of multiple learning styles and backgrounds. It is our job to provide opportunities that reach all of the many different learning styles that come to us. For this reason, it is
What are Bossy R Words? R-Controlled Vowels are often referred to as the "Bossy R" because the r bosses the vowel to change its sound. The vowel and the
8 Awesome Literacy Games That Will Help Kids Learn to Read.
Integrating art and content in the ELA classroom. Tips and resources.
Learn how to play the Kaboom game in your classroom to make practicing math facts, sight words, and more a blast for your students!
Discover the ultimate guide to scheduling your literacy block! Maximize time with whole group reading and small group instruction. Explore strategies for differentiated learning to meet the needs of all students. Get your free Suggested Literacy Block Organizer now!
These 2nd Grade I Can Checklists are written by The Curriculum Corner. Provided are free checklists, posters, tracking pages & more.
Kids will have fun looking for nouns all around them in this Grammar Activity for Kids. Simply print the Noun Hunt printable and head out for fun learning.
Let's dive into some new options to teach vocabulary, for those who have the time and energy to pursue them. In this post and podcast, I'm sharing ten ideas for making the study of vocabulary something students might even look forward to.
Explore these fun and informative ideas to build a strong classroom community in primary grades! From student jobs to team building activities, foster a sense of belonging in kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade. These classroom community lessons to build friendship, respect, and kindness will help you create a learning environment where students thrive. Grab the FREE classroom community activities and respect scenario role play task cards to get you started!
Learn about countries for kids with Around the WOrld Country Coloring Pages! These coloring sheets are easy way to explore 19 countries!
An alphabet arc can help develop students' letter knowledge, sequencing, automaticity, and more. Read on to learn how to use alphabet arcs.
FREE Call Backs and attention getters for the kindergarten classroom! Great classroom management tool!
Hoi, Welkom terug bij leren met Anita en Suzanne. Vandaag een leuk en leerzaam spelletje namelijk Boggle. Je kunt met deze download alle kan...
Past, present, and future.
Why does writing in complete sentences seem like such a grueling task? I'm sure you've heard students say, "Do we have to write in complete sentences?" Learn effective teaching strategies to help even your most reluctant writers. These tips will guide your students to be successful writers. Students are being held to more rigorous standards. Most teachers not only require students to write in complete sentences when writing essays, but also when answering text-dependent questions for reading comprehension, math problems, and content area activities. With this requirement in all subject areas, students need to master the basic tools to writing in complete sentences. Why go back to the basics? A shocking fact: 27% of 12th graders in the U.S. perform at grade level in writing. Many upper grade teachers think students already have the fundamentals of sentence structure ingrained in their brains. They quickly learn this is far from the truth. Although subjects and predicates are introduced in the lower grade Common Core Standards, most upper elementary students need these skills repeated to be successful writers. Middle school and high school teachers also reach out to me for help with the basics to get quality writing out of their students. What are the steps to writing in complete sentences? Taking time to thoroughly explore complete sentences can only benefit your students for future lessons, writing activities, and standards-based goals. Here are 5 steps to achieve one of their writing goals. 1. TEACH Knowledge is power! Explain that every sentence needs a subject and predicate. I like to provide a visual for students to help their long-term memory. The anchor chart below shows a visual of PB and J. Subjects and predicates go together like PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY. Refer back to the PB and J throughout the year for reminders and motivation. A COMPLETE SENTENCE needs a subject and predicate. A SUBJECT is who or what the sentence is about. A PREDICATE is what action the subject does or links the subject by telling what the subject is. 2. MODEL Model examples like the ones below for your students. This will set the foundation for lessons on fragments and run-on sentences. 3. NOTES They can't remember everything! To help students remember the lesson and have a reference for future writing assignments, they should keep a writing notebook. Whether it is written notes, interactive notes, or printed mini anchor charts, students can use them throughout the year to remind them of the lesson. It gives students a permanent record of what they learned. 4. PRACTICE Practice makes perfect! In order to get to the next (most important) step, students should practice what they learned. Practice helps students identify subjects, predicates and complete sentences. Just like learning to ride a bike. You might not get it the first time, but practice will help you get there! It is a step in the right direction. Don't stop at this step! Practicing grammar lessons in isolation has proven to be ineffective! Read on! 5. APPLY Make it real-world! Why shouldn't we teach grammar lessons in isolation? Grammar is best taught in the context of student writing. It is more effective when students learn through writing! On the Pennington Publishing Blog, they list 16 Reasons Why Daily Oral Language (D.O.L.) Doesn't Work. Although it is necessary for the previous steps, students will learn at a deeper level through authentic context. They need to APPLY their knowledge and WRITE! Get your students writing and discuss the complete sentences within their writing. I hope you learned some effective strategies for your students! Resource for teaching complete sentences: Connect With Me! TPT Store Facebook Pinterest My Blog
Prefix is a word part added in front of a base word to change the meaning...
We are starting our unit on Bears! Last week we read many versions of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Part of our work on the story included this story map. It is made for kindergarten students, but would be appropriate for first grade too. They drew pictures to show their ideas and then I labeled the drawing or wrote the dictation about what what happening in each part of the story. First, the kiddos worked on the setting and characters. I love this colorful busy picture that includes all sorts of details. She put the beds outside the house because she wanted to include some of the items from inside the house in the picture. This little boy drew just the house, but added the different sized bowls and had me label them. This was a great characters picture. So darn cute! Then on another day, students did pictures for the beginning, middle, and end of the story. First, we did an activity together where we ordered picture cards and talked about different parts of the story. It was great to hear the kids verbally retelling the story in their own words. That is one of the things that is great about doing an activity like this - a great way to really listen carefully to the oral language of students. I love the picture of Goldilocks in this one. Her hair is great! I was so excited when this little sweetie used the word "discovered" in her dictation to me. Woo hoo! Great language! I thought my sweet little students did a great job with this activity! And I was happy with how much they were enjoying the many versions of the 3 bears stories. And, now that they have done a complete story map with a very familiar story, I can start doing these with more challenging literature. OK, here is your freebie, just click on the link under this image to go grab it in my TpT store: Story Map FREEBIE by Katie Byrd I hope it is a big help in your classroom! Please leave some love in the comments if you are using it with your class. Happy Teaching!
