Five for Friday: Journals & Charts & Freebie!

I'm linking up with Doodlebugs for Journals & Anchor Charts & a Freebie, oh my!

Our grade level started using interactive math notebooks this year. I recently found THIS amazing resource from Blair Turner and it was worth EVERY penny! I really mean it too, because I'm not one to spend a ton of money on TPT products, I'll try to figure out a way I can make it/do it myself or ways I can make it fit my teaching style better, etc. But this is second grade math interactive journal perfection!

The kiddos LOVE adding to their journal. We do a version of Math Centers/Math Workshop and they LOVE when I tell them the teacher rotation will be their math journals.

I hope this will eventually be an independent rotation but for now they need my support so I use it as an opportunity to expand on/reteach my mini lesson while they cut & glue.

Our grade level has also started using (at the reccomendation of one of the 3rd grade teachers) interactive reader's notebooks. I bought THIS amazing resource from Nicole Shelby  to help with that.

I've been using it in small pieces about 2-3 times a week. So sometimes it takes a full week to complete an entry, but I'm finding it's working well because it isn't taking away from any of my "normal" lessons.

I also am using parts during reading group - i.e. summary entry was made after completing a book in a reading group so we could talk about that story in relation to what we learned about summaries.

One of my girlies says: so can I look at this page when I'm reading to make sure I'm thinking about what's important? I could of hugged her! YES YES YES, that's what these journals are for!!!!!

The toughest thing with the interactive notebooks is all the cutting... so I've started to really put the paper cutter to use when I prep for an interactive journal day!

I was inspired by Nicole Shelby's interactive notebooks and used her "What stuck with you?" bubblegum theme for author's message. My kiddos were even impressed with my artistic anchor chart... it made my day that they noticed my hard work :)

On the anchor chart note, I'm loving our addition and subtraction strategy anchor charts this year! Last year we included "count on fingers," "use manipulatives," etc. but this year my kiddos are more proficient with their math facts so we have included more "complicated" strategies! Our subtraction one isn't quite finished yet!

Finally, the promised freebie! Although this is not an "anchor chart" per say, it is certainly a chart that is a huge part of our daily routine. Each day we complete this "number of the day" chart for the number of days we've been in school. It has really helped my kiddos with their number sense, especially when it comes to 10 more/10 less! I have the cards printed and laminated then taped to one of the giant post it note chart papers so I can move it to the easel during morning meeting and stick it up behind the easel during the rest of the day. This would also work really well to gear kiddos up right before math! I hope you can find it useful in your room.

Five for Friday, 1 week until summer!

I haven't linked up to Five for Friday in a few weeks which is pretty rare for me this school year! If you want to see what I've been up to (my end of year checklist) go check out my post earlier this week here.

I'm also linking up with Teaching Blog Addict for Freebie Friday. Scroll down to #5 for a classroom volunteer freebie!

[one] Tie Dye!
Remember a few weeks ago when we tie dyed? Well last week at Challenge Day (field day) we rocked our shirts! We also rocked them (if we remembered) on our field trip yesterday (see #5). Challenge Day was such a fun day and hands down the most organized field day I've ever attended (comparing to 2 other districts)

The shirts came out pretty awesome and all 3 second grade classes looked just a little different which was neat to see!

[two] Author's Purpose
I LOVE teaching author's purpose mostly because this craft is just too cute! Although I 'indirectly' teach author's purpose all year, making sure the kiddos can say why they think the author wrote it or why the author made certain choices, the last 2 years towards the end of the year I've done a set of very explicit lessons where we make these on the first day. I found this craft here last year.

Author's purpose is also one of the only anchor charts I have laminated to use year after year. I love anchor charts when kiddos help make them either by giving ideas or literally writing on them, but no matter how hard I would try, I'm almost positive my kiddos would not come up with P.I.E. for author's purpose so I use it as a kick off to the craft instead.

[three] Father's Day!
I always feel bad for the dads because many times they get left out of the "cute crafts made by their kids" game because Father's Day is usually after school gets out. I still try to do a craft when we won't be in school for Father's Day (we made tickets for dad last year) but this year it was a must because we are in school the week before and after Father's Day.

I found this ADORABLE craft for dads on Emily's facebook freebie page. Go check out her blog, I Love My Classroom and follow her on facebook to grab this cute freebie (maybe for next year!). My kiddos were SO into this, making it look great for dad :)

[four] Field Trip!
We went on our end of year field trip yesterday to the CT Science Center... had SO much fun with my grade level partners. They're the best!

On our way home we checked out a cool butterfly exhibit!

[five] Volunteer Gifts!
Since I will be gone at the WBT National Conference most of next week, I had to catch my volunteers this week. Thanks to the brilliance of the 3rd grade teacher across the hall, these ended up looking WAY better than originally (she suggested wrapping them in tissue paper).

If you'd like a copy of the tag without volunteer names, find it here or on the picture link below. If you'd like me to add names leave your email address in the comments and I'll be happy to get in touch and get those tags to you ASAP :)

When you hear from my again I'll either be at the WBT National Conference or just home from it!!! So beyond excited :)

Daily Five Visit Part 2

As you may have already read, my grade level partners and I visited my former across-the-hall-neighbor and one of my favorite teacher friends Mrs. R. last week to see how she runs Daily 5. Click the picture below to check out part 1 of my post which talks about how Mrs. R runs her Daily 5 rotations and what the kiddos do during each rotation.

Today's post will share all the other goodies I learned in Mrs. R's room such as launching Daily 5. I have 7 take-aways in part 2 of our visit to Mrs. R's visit.

[one] I have felt TERRIFIED to lose basically all my wall-space to the i-posters that are anchor charts for each of the Daily 5 choices plus the CAFE strategies, etc. However, Mrs. R. being so very awesome, created the anchor charts during each Daily 5 launch lesson, but when the kiddos met their stamina goal, she replaced the big anchor chart with these small print-outs... Still available for the kiddo's reference, but since they had mastered the stamina and knew what it should look like, it didn't need to be so big and take up so much space.

[two] I loved Mrs. R's visuals for each of the launch lessons for Daily 5. One of the first lessons the Two Sisters say you should teach when launching the Daily 5 is 3 Ways to Read a Book. Mrs. R's version of this lesson created an awesome visual... she's so crafty!

[three] You can probably see in the picture above, the edge of Mrs. R's IPICK good fit books poster, so cute with the visual of the flower, picking a flower... gosh I just love everything Mrs. R. does! I also like her stamina chart better than many I've seen that usually look like a temperature gauge. Mrs. R's room is filled with so many cute teacher-made posters, I love it because the kids are usually involved in lessons that lead to teacher-made anchor charts/posters as opposed to printed out or purchased posters.

[four] Another GREAT anchor chart Mrs. R has was one she made during the shoe lesson the Two Sisters share in the Daily Five book to introduce how to pick a good fit book. The lesson goes along with IPICK good fit books. Disclaimer... Mrs. R would want me to share that the high-healed shoe is NOT hers ;) The picture isn't the greatest, but I loved this visual since I think the shoe lesson is such a cool way for kiddos to think about what a good fit book is. You'll also notice her EEKK! poster for Read to Someone.

[five] In my classroom I use a what? and why? for each of my lessons. I stole borrowed this idea from Mrs. R last year and am actually still using her old what? why? magnets when she printed new ones to match her room better. She uses what? to write very briefly what students will do. I use what? as more of an objective, i.e. you will be able to choose a right fit book. I'm not exactly sure at what point of the lesson Mrs. R uses her why? sticker but I use it [when I remember] as a closure or to set a purpose. Either way our focus is usually why do we need to learn this or why is this important. So anyway, after all that back-story, I LOVED seeing this poster Mrs. R made to go along with the what? why? system for each of the Daily 5 choices. I really should make one of these for the rest of the year because it would be relevant to my kiddos since they are used to what? and why? in my room!

[six] When I read the Daily 5 book, I felt terrible for leveling my books and being sure my kiddos knew which levels were appropriate for them. However, I felt much better when I saw that Mrs. R has her books leveled by colors. She taught all the lessons about choosing books and believes that those are still very important, but she has found it easier for the kiddos to be able to quickly choose books to read and color coding was the way she went about this.

[seven] Mrs. R uses extra time during Daily 5 rotations to hold writing conferences. Although I don't forsee myself using Daily 5 time like this, because I have WAY more time allowed in my schedule for writing, I LOVED her system for when kiddos need a conference and plan to use something like this next year during writer's workshop! So simple, yet I never would have come up with it on my own!

Well that's all for today! I can't wait to work with Mrs. R over the summer to create a reader's log/notebook and hopefully some other Daily 5 (and Whole Brain Teaching) goodies! My grade level team and I were so grateful that she opened her classroom to us we truly learned SO MUCH :) Be on the lookout for our brainstorming of Daily 5 and WBT over the summer!