September morning tubs are a fun and engaging way for Second and Third graders to learn important skills. These tubs are easily prepped!
Homeschooling second grade was a blast here. We declared our second grade homeschool school year Our Year of Magic! Because we had been homeschooling for a few years, I felt more confident and inspired. I wanted to focus more on the fun and magic in learning. Instead of just getting through our work each day....
WOW! 300,000+ Second grade worksheets, free printable games, and 2nd grade activities to make learning math, literacy, history, & science FUN!
GRAMMAR UNIT 7: CONTRACTIONS It is time to teach contractions ! My students have come so far with their grammar skills in units 1-6. Our language has improved so much as we have been learning about nouns , adjectives , verbs , adverbs , capitalization , and punctuation .
Are you looking for Writing lesson or bulletin board ideas? These no prep writing crafts are ideal for your literacy lessons!
All About Adjectives is a NO PREP, printable pack designed to suit Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2. It is important that students develop a strong knowledge base of adjectives early on to help improve their descriptive writing skills in later years.This pack contains 34 different adjective printab...
Practice grade 2 math with FREE printable 2nd grade math worksheets. Turn second grade math worksheets into a FUN Mad minutes game!
Chapter book read alouds for the elementary classroom. My 1st and 2nd grade kids love some of these read alouds. Come find your new favorite!
Telling time past the hour can be challenging for primary kids but it doesn’t have to be a struggle for you or your students. Learn simple ways and effective strategies to make telling time easier for primary kids.
One of the important concepts we teach in early elementary is about the great big world we live in. Students will learn about the world beyo...
FREEZE is the math movement game of every elementary teacher’s dreams! It combines academics, social skills, movement, AND fun into one amazing activity.
Grab a TON of FREE Math Mania Games to strengthen your students' addition & subtraction! Snag easy printable math games for 1st & 2nd grade!
Read a few ideas for your past and present or then and now unit. There are free lessons and activities as well as other fun hands-on, engaging ideas.
If you have been following our blog, you might have seen our post about our favorite teacher hack, earlier finisher packets! If you missed it, don’t worry, I will sum it up real quick for you. Essentially, despite teaching different grade, Emmy and I realized we were both having the same Issue. Kid
These first day of school tips and ideas for teachers are perfect for back to school! Grab your freebies for second grade today!
Teaching setting of a story to your first graders in an engaging way with these different activities. Build comprehension skills by teaching this story element.
This free addition and subtraction activity turns learning math facts into a game!
Number fact fluency is important to develop in first and second grade. Without automatic recall it's hard to move on to more complex skills.
I'm going to share with you some fun and engaging ways to teach sight words. I mentioned in this post, that I LOVE teaching sight words!! There are numerous reasons, but one of them is the essential fact that learning sight words is just a hop, skip and a jump away from reading fluently! Edward William Dolch, in 1948, created a list of words that he believed to be essential for all students to learn first! Many teachers have found this to be true. Unfortunately, not all words can be sounded out.. so confusing! But, when you teach your kiddos sight words, and the simplicity of recognizing them by sight, they stand a better chance at becoming fluent readers! Here are 25 Ways to Teach Sight Words: 1. Word of the Day Consider a word of the day or week. Students can write a sentence with the word and add it to the class chart before, during a lesson or even as an exit ticket. 2. Sight Word Search These Kindergarten Sight Word Searches are a great review of the sight words. You can find these sight word searches here. 3. Sight Word Songs Click the picture to watch! My students LOVED these!!! 4. Sight Word Practice Pages I blogged about these here. 5. Sight Word Make a Match on Starfall This can be played individually on the computer, on an ipad, or whole group with an interactive board. 6. Use a doodle sketch or whatever you call these... These would be perfect to review sight words during small group time. Anything that keeps your students engaged and is hands on is perfect for reviewing sight words. 7. Spelling Practice on ABCya.com This is a fun game to practice whole group, small group or individually with a smart board, computer or ipad. 8. Another fun interactive way to ask your students how to spell a word. This game is also on ABCya.com 9. Playdoh Sight Words This photo came from Mrs. Bremer's Class blog. She found a freebie to use for making sight words out of play doh. Fun!! 10. Sight Word Necklace This idea came from Kinder by Kim. She says to wear a sight word necklace and as your kiddos enter the room they have to tell you the sight word. Great idea! 11. Literacy Centers There are so many fun ways to incorporate sight words into literacy centers. This activity is in my Fall/Halloween Math & Literacy Centers. 12. Interactive Sight Word Sentences If you have an interactive board-- this is one of the easiest centers to make! I would simply insert a picture per page, and separately type up the words in the sentence. Then, I made sure to mix them up and save the entire flipchart. 13. Sight Word Sentence Building Pages This particular page is from my Apple Unit. 14. Simple Sight Word Books I LOVED making these books! The student had to put the sentence in the correct order, match the picture, then read it to a few friends, to me or silently. 15. iPad Sight Word Games and Resources There are so many iPad sight word games. Just try googling it and see what happens!!! 15. Morning Messages Before each reading lesson, we always had a morning message. I would pick a few students to come to the board and circle/underline some of the sight words that were found in the sentence. 16. Using Sight Words with Crafts PS- I cannot for the life of me remember where this idea came from.. if it was you, feel free to comment below! 17. Tree Maps Tree Maps help teach your students/child how to write a paragraph. It all starts with the sight words. "Bats can fly. Bats have wings. Bats are creepy!" 18. Flashcards Let's not forget flash cards! Repetition is key.. so there is nothing wrong with bringing these bad boys out here and there! 19. Sight Word Songs to Review a lot of Words Click the picture to watch! 20. Homework Checklist of all Sight Words to Parents This comes from my Read like a Rockstar Pack. 21. Sensory Bin This would be so much fun for building sight words. Stick a little recording sheet at the center and call it common core (haha). Picture is from Mess for Less. 22. Sight Word Sticker Books This was another idea that came from Mrs. Bremer's Kindergarten blog. Give them a sticker for each word they can read. Over time they will be able to fill the entire book! 23. Water Color Sight Words This comes from Sharing Kindergarten. Kids love to paint, so this center is a no brainer for student engagement. What a fun center!!! 24. Magnetic Letters We can't forget those magnetic letters! This is a perfect hands on activity for those kinesthetic learners. 25. Websites: Pinterest & the SightWords.com Lastly, I almost always have to mention Pinterest.. I am such a visual person and it helps me to get ideas, inspiration, tips, tricks, etc.. with the millions of pictures. I just started a board for Sight Words. Be sure to follow it! Make sure to check out www.sightwords.com. They have so many games and resources for FREE-- yup that's right FREE!!! I hope you found some great ideas to implement into your own classroom. Be sure to check out my newest sight word unit below! Thanks for stopping by!
I was first introduced to the idea of creating Animal Dioramas when my son (who was a first grader at the time), brought home a shoebox and a basic instruction sheet from his teacher to create a diorama of any animal and its natural habitat. Being a mom, I was so excited about the opportunity to help my son create something he was so excited about! Being a teacher, I knew that I had to do a project like this with my own students, but I had no idea where to start. I shared the idea with my second grade colleagues, and they all loved it! We worked together to create a basic letter to send home to parents, but struggled to find just the right way to show students exactly what the project is and how to do it. (I don't know about your class, but I have to break everything into very small steps for most of my kiddos!) So, I decided to create a unit that would have everything you could ever need for doing a project like this. Trust me, if you want to do this project with your class - this unit will save you SO much time and make your life so much easier! To start off, our science focus for the entire month is ANIMALS! We spent time reading about animals and life cycles in our science books, and this week we are learning all about animal habitats. I found some really amazing videos on habitats on our district portal, but you can also find some really cute and informative videos here (around 3-5 minutes each): Animals and their Habitats Habitats Home Sweet Habitat Earlier this week, I sent home a letter to parents to let them know that we will be starting our dioramas soon! I also asked parents to send shoe boxes to school with their child, if possible. You may want to send home your parent letter 1-2 weeks before you intend to send home the assignment. I like to send everything home with the student on a Friday, so they have the weekend to start gathering supplies and begin working on their project. I usually give students 3-4 weeks to complete the project at home. My student dioramas are due on May 6th, which gives me plenty of time to have them present their projects and have them on display for our Open House the following week! After that, I'll be happy to send them home with the students. This is what I sent home with the students to kick off our Animal Diorama and Research Report Project! (Of course I stapled them together so the pages didn't go flying all over the place when they went outside, but for the purpose of this photo - I laid them out so you can see them!) That's it! Easy-peasy! Just send the directions for the project, the animal research report poster, the student grading rubric, and the presentation outline home and have your students work on their projects on their own time. My second grade team and I decided to have one day where we all will keep our classrooms open or an hour or so after school so students can come in and work on their projects, use classroom supplies, get help with research, etc. We will be doing the majority of the research in the classroom, and will be writing the research reports as well. I just prefer to do that part with the students, so I can guide them through the writing process. The majority of our research will be done on the internet during our computer lab time. I've found these websites to be VERY helpful and easy for kids to find the information they need for their reports! A-Z Animals Kids National Geographic - Animals San Diego Zoo: Animals A-Z While we are in the computer lab, I had the students record their research information on this sheet: Once the students had recorded all of their information, we spent the next day taking their key ideas and putting them into complete sentences about their animals. I also have a simpler version if that works better for your class! From there, the students would write their final draft on a separate sheet of paper (also included in the unit). You can find all of these pages, grading rubrics, parent letters, as well as a how-to instructional presentation to show your students how to do the project HERE! Now, the only question is... what will your students create?
ALL ABOUT FRIENDSHIP Friendship and conflict solving skills are so important to teach our kiddos. Our job is to teach them important social skills. They need these tools to ensure successful relationships with their peers and adults. It is tricky, but it can be done! I am sharing some
Check out this list of 5 easy to implement addition fluency activities. Super easy to add to your lesson plans today in K-2 classrooms
Massive list of classroom jobs for elementary students in preschool, kindergarten, first grade, or second grade - such great ideas for classroom jobs!
Lemon juice secret writing! Make DIY invisible ink and sen secret messages. Plus learn the science behind how these messages are made!
Hello and welcome to the WEIRDEST SCHOOL YEAR OF YOUR CAREER. While last year ended with quite an unexpected twist, not something anyone could have predicted,
Hey hey hey! It’s BACK TO SCHOOL season!! Oooooh, I’m just so excited for a brand new school year, so I thought I’d help you start your year off with a bunch of free greatness to use with your class! I’ve included freebies from some AMAZING teacher mamas, so scroll on through to check ou
Look forward to a great summer with these instructions for fun and silly giant summer sunglasses.
Spring No Prep Kindergarten 130+ Page Worksheet Book Here is our no prep Spring edition. It’s full of tons of different workpages and activities to practice basic concepts skills such as coun…
Learn a changing matter experiment you can easily do at school that is perfect for 2nd grade. This properties of matter ice cream in a bag science experiment is a delicious demonstration of temperature changes matter that students can eat at the end!
Science journal activities for budding scientists. Have your students keep a standards-based science journal like a true scientist.
Ideas for teaching addition strategies in 1st grade to set students up for fact fluency success! Plus get 5 tips for making fact fluency fun!
This Animal Report can be used for ANY animal. It is a great way to help elementary students research and write about animals. Students participate in
Take a closer look at engaging fluency practice with this free ocean fluency activity sample. Themed fluency practice activities can help fluency skills.
Ideas for teaching addition strategies in 1st grade to set students up for fact fluency success! Plus get 5 tips for making fact fluency fun!
Friday letters offer so many insights into your students and keep parents connected to your classroom. See how I teach students to manage them themselves.
Do you teach your first and second-grade students to learn how to write a paragraph? In this post, I share ideas, lessons, and activities for students to learn how to write their own paragraphs in a structured way. Before I dive in, I wanted to let you know you can watch or listen to all […]
