February 2013

Today's post is a catch-up post to tell you about 3 fun projects we've been working on in 2nd grade! First up, is a super cute writing project I do every year for the 100th Day of School.

I love the 100th Day of School because it is a great milestone for all of the progress that has been made during the school year. One of my favorite 100th Day activities is a writing project called “When I am 100 years old…” We begin with the phrase as a sentence starter and students' imaginations go wild! To spice up my students’ writing, I use an app on my iPhone called AgingBooth to transform my students into grandmas and grandpas! OH MY! We certainly get a kick out of this app!! Here are a few examples:

100th Day of School: Writing Activity with the Aging Both App

Aren’t they priceless?! {Student photos shared with parent permission}

We finally got some decent snow in Ohio, which means we got to do one another one of my favorite activities of the year—shaving cream snowmen! First, we read Snowmen at Night… loooove this book! {As an added bonus, you can project the digital version of the book for free at www.wegivebooks.org} After reading the story, students wrote rough drafts of their own snowmen at night stories and typed them using Google Docs. Next, students used construction paper to cut out all of the decorations they wanted to use on their snowman. And yes, the best way to give your students color options is to dump out all of your construction paper scraps all over the floor! :)

Next up, let the shaving cream craziness begin! There is not an exact science for this process… basically, just squirt about half a bottle of cheap, white shaving cream into a bowl. Then, squirt in a bottle of liquid Elmer’s glue. Finally, take a spoon and whip it up! Students used plastic spoons to spread the shaving cream onto the black construction paper. They decorated their snowmen with sequins, beads, and the construction paper pieces they cut out earlier. As a final step, I sprinkle some of that super-fine-sparkly-glitter-that-gets-EVERYWHERE-for-17-days-including-your-hair on top of each snowman! The snowmen will be very puffy at first, but if you do this in your classroom, warn your students that some of the puffiness will be gone the next day… just tell they their snowman melted a bit and they will not be as disappointed ;)

Here are a few of the final creations:

Last, but not least, we started working on our Valentine’s Day projects this week! My class is OBSESSED with technology, which is the reason behind my latest file, All iLove About You. The challenge was for each student to think of 12 reasons why they love their parents and then create a tiny app picture for each reason. Students got a kick out of creating the teeny tiny app pictures! And their reasons are priceless!! I think their projects turned out darling!

All iLove About You: iPhone Writing Activity

{I love this student’s tiny little pictures!}

{Check out #5!!!}

Tomorrow, we are going to mount their creations on 11X18 construction paper for them to take home! I hope their parents like them! For Valentine’s Day, here’s what I’m passing out {with candy attached, of course!}

SaveSave

because I’m pretty sure I failed my “once a week” goal during the first week of the year! Oops! :)

I have been lost in the land of benchmarks, RTI, grade cards, meetings, grad school, more meetings, tutoring, and sleep! Speaking of sleep, I should be in bed right now… but I just wanted to stop by for a moment to share about the big sale tomorrow. I’m sure everyone in blogging land already knows about it, but if not, here are the details:

Everything in my TPT Store will be on sale on Sunday AND Monday! Be sure to stop by to check out my latest Valentine’s Day creation, All iLove About You! My students are obsessed with iEverything this year… hence the reason for all of my iProducts! One of these days, I’ll post some of my non-techy creations! Maybe during a week where I don’t have 17 meetings… oh wait…

All iLove About You contains a variety of writing pages, techy design pages, printable Valentines, foldable cards, and even a craftivity. A variety of writing papers are included to meet the needs of K-6 students. Here’s a sneak peak of some of the included pages!