Winter Holiday Resources

The Teacher 2 Teacher Blog has just put up my second guest post...check it out here and see the cool winter holiday materials available! I don't know about you, but it has gotten into the mid and lower-60s in the last few weeks here in New Jersey and that has made it really hard for me to get into the Christmas spirit! I'm not in BahHumbug / Grinch mode, but getting ready to buy my first house has put a damper on my winter shopping. :( Hopefully my post will help us all out! 

P.S. Our PBSIS theme this month is Caring - this cute Grinch activity is perfect for it. Click the pic to check it out!

Check out my Christmas / Winter Pinterest PinBoard!

Link to this post if you have something to share!

Young Thomas Edison

Next week's Journeys reading story is called Young Thomas Edison. My students were super excited to hear this because they live in the town of Edison, NJ, which was renamed for him in 1954! The village of Menlo Park, where Thomas Edison created one of his most important laboratories, is part of the township of Edison.

The story is very inspirational to young students because, as Amazon puts it, "Michael Dooling explores the origins of Edison’s scientific genius: his interest in mixing chemicals – sometimes with explosive results – his diligence in his work as a paperboy, and his difficulty paying attention in school." Every kid can relate to having trouble in school at some point, so it is easy for them to make a connection and feel inspired!

Just a couple of important facts:

• Edison earned 1,093 United States patents for his inventions.
• These three inventions are considered Edison's greatest: the electric light system,  the phonograph and motion pictures.

Check out a timeline of Edison's life. Download questions about it here.

Play Online Games here.

Visit the website for Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, NJ. You can book a field trip there, and children under 16 are free!!!

Those close to NJ may also like to visit Locust Grove Mansion, the Pennsylvania home and workplace to Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph.

Some great books to pair this story with are:

Thomas Alva Edison by Tamera Bryant


Thomas Edison: They Called Him Wizard by John T. Cunningham

For more Young Thomas Edison activities, visit my class website.

It's About Time!

Right now we're working on time in math. I have noticed that many students really struggle with elapsed time. Here are a few strategies I use that help them out:

• Use military time, and make sure to label your clock in it! This means that 12pm is really 13:00 (thirteen hundred hours), 1 pm is 14:00, and so on. It is much easier than having to remember to switch after 12:00.

• Label your clocks with minutes and important words (see picture above) and add key words. To the left side of the six, I suggest labeling "to, 'till the hour, until, before" and to the right, "past, after" 

• Use materials like a Judy Clock. They come with moveable arms that are connected to gears, so their movement is more authentic. Therefore, if you start the clock at 3:00 like the picture above, the minute hand will start to bring the hour hand along with it. That way when it's 3:30, the hour hand will be halfway between the 3 and the 4 (it's halfway to 4:00!) It really helps kids tell time close to the next hour (especially at 45 minute or more to the hour).
• Try these materials:
• Elapsed time flashcards

• It's About Time!
• Scholastic Time, Money, and Measurement
• Disney Time and Money Grade 2 (also find them at a dollar store or Target $1 bin!)
• Clock Bingo
• Lakeshore Elapsed Time Write & Wipe Boards (set of 10)

Try this elapsed time interactive from Shodor!

Select difficulty (easy Level 1 = only hours) and move the hands ahead by hours and / or minutes

Click the picture to download free telling time worksheets or create your own!

Check out my other math posts here.

Reading Strategy - Monitoring and Clarifying

I did a mini-lesson on monitoring and clarifying this week. I was pleasantly surprised when with the strategies my students gave for our anchor chart. Check it out!

One of the other resources I use for this is Explode the Code. It especially helps students who make visual errors when attempting to read words because it makes them look at the whole word and each of the sounds in the word. It's more of a phonics-based program, but it also has comprehension as you get into higher levels. I really like how it helps with syllabication, and thus, fluency!

Here are some sample pages provided by School Specialty. Please note the copyright! View by clicking on ONE of the images - they all link the same pdf.

Writing Anchor Charts

My class this year is by far my most advanced academically and best behaved, but their writing is a weakness. I would say one of my weaknesses was teaching paragraphing. I kept saying that students needed to change paragraphs when introducting a new character, having a change in setting, when an important event occurred, and when using dialogue between different "speakers." I kept pointing out how the authors of stories in our reading anthology changed paragraphs,  and asked students what the purpose of the paragraph change was.

Our CRT (Curriculum Resource Teacher - we're so lucky to have her, especially with the economy) also let me borrow her copy of Scholastic's Paragraph Power: 50 Engaging Mini-Lessons, Activities, and Student Checklists for Teaching Paragraphing Skills. My students slowly began to learn the difference between descriptive, expository, and narrative writing. They even began to include main idea beginning sentences and closing sentences, but they weren't really carrying the skill over from day to day...

I have realized why students are so poor at writing paragraphs now, and I think a big part of it is that we often use picture books or short stories in reading textbooks. You will often see that some books have one or two lines of text and no indention...essentially no paragraphs! We teachers also let their imaginations run wild and we don't want to overcorrect them because they finally write beyond a simple sentence in second grade...but they tend to feel that quantity is better than quality! Who hasn't experienced a student asking, "How long does it have to be? Is this enough?!" 

I also bought Teaching with Intention by Debbie Miller. Between that, Pinterest, and the Anchor Chart Linky Party I came across, my solution has been to create anchor charts and post them in the room. It's just not enough to put them on the Promethean Board and refer back to them occasionally! Our writing is slowly but surely improving. I am still having to force my students to pre-write though....hopefully it will  be less of a task in the near future!

Here are some writing anchor charts we have created as a class over the last few weeks.

Ideas for Beginning / Ending of a Story

Sorry it's so dark and messy!

Focus Trait: Organization

Paragraphing

How to Revise

Oops...I'll have to add some black to that yellow ink!