Ingenuity Lab

I'm two weeks into my summer vacation and I've just about completed my first summer project. Last week, I sat in on interviews for a 7th teammate and my principal asked candidates a very important question. "What are some ways you will accommodate for learning and emotional gaps that students may show?" You see, this particular group of rising 2nd graders had their Kindergarten year cut short by the pandemic and then could have possibly spent their entire first grade year in the virtual learning setting. I'm already  looking to be either  trained in Youth Mental First Aid or Trauma Informed Care but it's going to take much more than that to meet these students where they are. 

One idea I want to implement is an Ingenuity Lab (ingenuity is one of our school system's core values). I decided I wanted to start our days off with creativity. So instead of traditional morning work, students will come in and grab their bin for the week and complete that day's challenge. This is very similar to morning tubs or morning missions as I've also seen them called. 

I made 24 bins. 2 of each type of material. I didn't have to purchase much, I already had most of the supplies I wanted to use on hand.  In each bin I included a ring of 7 task cards. 4 picture cards and 3 three-dimensional shape cards. I could have used more consumable materials like index cards, tape, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, etc. however I wanted something low maintenance considering the students will use these each day. 
Here's a list of the materials I used:

• 24 containers (plastic pencil boxes would be perfect)
• 24 plastic colored rings (metal rings could also work)
• mini cups
• puffy snowflakes
• straw constructor
• creative flakes
• hashtag blocks
• dough & toothpicks
• linking cubes
• foam base 10 blocks
• magnetic shapes
• wooden planks
• foam pattern blocks
• building bricks (Dollar Tree has Make-It Blocks that would also be perfect for this)

If you'd like to implement this in your own classroom, the materials are located here: Ingenuity Lab. 

Fall Language Arts Stations

The last of the Language Arts Stations are finally finished! Working on these during my Spring Break has given me such a feeling of normalcy and I'm so glad I was able to spend time creating this past week. 

I created 7 low prep stations that are aligned to the Virginia 2nd grade standards but most certainly can be used in Common Core classrooms as well.

Simply print and laminate station directions and task cards, cut task cards apart, run copies of the recording sheet and store together in a drawer cart or even large zipper bag.

Click here to download!

Back to School Language Arts Stations

I have been on a roll this week,  my Back to School Language Arts stations are complete! 

I created 8 low prep stations that are aligned to the Virginia 2nd grade standards but most certainly can be used in Common Core classrooms as well. These are perfect for end of the year (or summer) review for 1st grade or beginning of the school year review for 2nd graders.

Simply print and laminate station directions and task cards, cut task cards apart, run copies of the recording sheet and store together in a drawer cart or even large zipper bag. 

Click Here to download. I'm finishing up some Fall Stations now and hope to have those posted on Monday!

Summer Language Arts Stations

I finished up some summer themed Language Arts Stations. In the event that we are able to have summer school in July and August, I wanted to have some low-prep stations for students. 

I created 10 low prep stations that are aligned to the Virginia 2nd grade standards but most certainly can be used in Common Core classrooms as well. These are perfect for end of the year review for 2nd grade or beginning of the school year review for 3rd graders. 

Simply print and laminate station directions and task cards, cut task cards apart, run copies of the recording sheet and store together in a drawer cart or even large zipper bag. 

Click Here to download. I'm finishing up some Back to School Stations now and hope to have those posted this weekend!

Spring Language Arts Stations

I've spent the early part of my Spring Break creating language stations/centers for my 2nd grade classroom. Even though school has been cancelled for the remainder of the academic year, I'm going to prep these now so I'll have them ready for next spring. 

I created 6 low prep stations that are aligned to the Virginia 2nd grade standards but most certainly can be used in Common Core classrooms as well. 

Simply print and laminate station directions and task cards,  cut task cards apart, run copies of the recording sheet and store together in a drawer cart or even large zipper bag. 

Click Here to download. Wishing you happy and healthy Spring Break!

We Go Together Like... Postcards

On March 23rd, Virginia's Governor announced that all schools would be closed until for the remainder of the academic year. It was such a heartbreaking blow, I know I was hoping to at least return in June, if only for a few days. But now our statewide shelter in place is in effect until June 10th, and you are strongly encouraged to stay home unless visiting the pharmacy or grocery store. 

We've completed 3 weeks of Distance Learning and next week is our Spring Break, then we return to Distance Learning, except now we'll start to introduce new content. 

I wanted to send out another set of postcards, wishing them a happy and healthy Spring Break. 

I've uploaded a PPT template if you'd like to do the same. Download to your computer and add your text. 

I saved mine as a PDF and printed "Actual Size" on "Both Sides" "Flip on the Short Edge" and cut on the light gray line. 

Click here: Postcard Template

Postcards: Keeping in Touch

The last day I say my students was Thursday. They cancelled school on Friday so teachers could work on Distance Learning Lesson Plans, then by the end of the day the Governor had announced that all schools in Virginia were to be closed for at least 2 weeks. 

I thought it'd be a cute idea to send them a post card to let them know I'm thinking about them. 

I've uploaded a PPT template if you'd like to do the same. Download to your computer. Delete my Bitmojis and add your own or any picture will do. You may need to crop to make sure it fits. 

I then saved mine as a PDF and printed "Actual Size" on "Both Sides" "Flip on the Short Edge" and cut on the light gray line. 

Click here: Postcard Template

Super Bowl Weekend Kick Off

I've been having classroom Super Bowl Parties for years now. This year it will fall on a county early release day so I won't be able to do all the activities I'm use to doing. I also won't be making my famous Hawaiian Meatballs, our county is getting very strict about food in the classroom <insert sad face>. 

For Morning Circle we'll go over our Game Plan for the day. Then I think I'm going straight into Tackling Teamwork. I'm reading Game Day and using aspects of this Game Day Unit if I have time. 

After the read aloud, we'll complete our Kick Off. Teacher's Clubhouse has this Sports Jersey Glyph I purchased years ago. They recently revamped their entire unit with tons of great activities, The Big Game. 
We have to break for our quarterly PBIS Awards Assembly but when we come back we'll complete Sportswriter. There is a Teamwork writing in the Game Day Unit as well as Football Writing Prompts in The Big Game Unit that I'll use during this time. 

Since it's an early release day the students will eat lunch in the classroom. Scholastic Bookflix has Miss Nelson Has a Field Day, so we'll watch that while we eat our lunch. 

After Halftime we'll have our Scrimmage. I created a Football Jeopardy Game for students to play in teams. 

I'm using this Super Bowl Prediction Forever Freebie for my students to make their predictions. I shrank it down to four to a page and will use it to make a class graph. My students will also work on this Football Word Search as they snack on a special Super Bowl Trail Mix <a recipe I have yet to come up with>. 
Do you do anything in your classroom to celebrate the Super Bowl?

Winter Language Arts Stations

I've spent the early part of my Winter Vacation creating language stations/centers for my 2nd grade classroom. I've been itching to create and/or blog but school has been so crazy! We found out in November that we were getting a 6th teacher and they needed to be hired by Christmas and ready to start in January. That meant we had to split our classes, so I'm going from 25 students to 21. While I'm sad to see them go, I'm ecstatic about the smaller class size.

I created 6 low prep stations that are aligned to the Virginia 2nd grade standards but most certainly can be used in Common Core classrooms as well. 

 

Simply print and laminate station directions and task cards,  cut task cards apart, run copies of the recording sheet and store together in a drawer cart or even large zipper bag. 

Click Here to download. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season and a restful vacation!