Mixed up Sentences

It's finally completed! This product has been in the works for a long time. Mixed Up Sentences for the Year (formerly called pocket chart sentences) now includes all 12 months! 

Right now it's discounted to $5 for the first 5 buyers, AND it's on sale for 20% off until July 27th. Grab it while you can!

Biography Lap Books

Is it just me, or do your students cringe when they need to complete a nonfiction writing project? It seems like they just want to write about princesses, jedi knights, themselves, etc. Going back and consulting the text when writing is the last thing they want to do! 

Well, with the new standards being what they are, there is a greater emphasis on writing. This writing needs to be "College and Career Ready", and elementary students are being asked to write at a higher level of rigor than ever before. As I've heard people say, "Nobody cares what you did over summer vacation; students need to write effective expository writing." And of course, this type of writing is the last thing our students want to do.

Until.... you tie it into a lap book! 

For whatever reason, when students use "teacher" supplies they are immediately interested. File folders, pens, post it notes, you name it. Let them use something like that and you've got their attention!

I had my students write biographies about famous people. I selected books at their reading level from Reading A-Z, and had them write a biography about what they had learned. We really stressed going back to the book to look for information, after all, the book is there to help!

We had three headings: Early Years, Adult Life, and Fun Facts. Guess which one was their favorite to write about? 

Fun Facts, of course!

This was an in depth project, and some students needed much more time to complete it. I had early finishers complete their person's "Claim to Fame" and a timeline of important events. The main focus was really on writing the biography. 

The front cover was decorated with their person's name, and pictures that represent things they read about in the book. 

You could even take it a step further, and have students give presentations about what they learned from their famous person. That was the original plan, but we just ran out of time!

Click the image to check it out in my TpT store. It's on sale for 20% off until the end of the week!

Learning is a Buzz.. All About Bees!

Oh, bees. I LOVE teaching about bees! I didn't know anything about bees until I started teaching 2nd grade and we had a nonfiction story about bees in our basal reader. I thought the kiddos would be bored stiff and that it would be like pulling teeth to get through, but boy was I wrong! They are so interested in learning about bees and looking at the real pictures of bees. The engagement is there so what better time for a research project? 

We do a lot of research about bees, and end up making a bee portfolio to show what we have learned. The paper bag stores all of the completed papers and the students get to take it home when the project is completed. Something about writing on a paper bag instead of a regular piece of paper is so engaging to the kiddos. Hey, I'll do whatever it takes to keep them interested in learning!


This project covers several writing standards - Narrative writing, Acrostic poems, Expository writing (not pictured), Letter writing, and life cycles (also not pictured). 

Narrative Writing - You are the Queen Bee of a hive. Write about a day of your life as queen bee. 

Narrative Writing - You are a worker bee. Write about a day in your life as the worker bee.

Acrostic Poems.

Several different acrostic poems are included.

Letter Writing - Write a letter to a beekeeper.

We bring in a beekeeper that does this amazing presentation for all the 2nd grade classes, which makes the letter writing more interesting. The kids love her, and they think it's especially cool that she knew she wanted to become a beekeeper when she was in 2nd grade - and then she did! 

This fun project is on sale for 20% off until the end of the week. Click the picture to check it out!

Silent Directions

I used to despise making crafts, foldables, and things like that with my students. I hated giving up the order and calm (haha) of the regular school day to have organized chaos. The kiddos were always so excited that most of them barely listened, or needed more help because they couldn't figure something out and it all just gave me a headache. I realized I needed to find a way to make this work since I couldn't easily give up making crafts teaching 2nd grade! 

Fast forward a few months - I started trying new ways to get the kiddos engaged like acting more things out and one day it hit me. Why not mime the directions? I now call this "Silent Directions". 

To make this work, you need to be consistent about giving directions silently. Do not back down on this, or it will not work! Then take on the role of a mime and have fun being silly while modeling how to do the foldable, craft, etc. Depending on how complicated the steps are I will model it more than once, and the kiddos are always really good about helping each other. I think they get really excited when they realized they followed directions, and can now give silent directions to a partner to show them what to do! 

P.S. - If I'm modeling this more than once I will usually use a different piece of paper and/or materials. There are always some students who are absent, or you know cannot follow directions if their lives depended on it and then you can either use it as a back up, or give it to them instead of having them make their own.

Now with Silent Directions we have our foldables done in 5 minutes or less, and everyone is ready to go and I don't have a headache. I recently did this with a craft so I could kill 2 birds with one stone: writing step by step directions and then following their own to make a snowflake. 

This whole lesson took place over the course of a few days. We talked about how to write step by step directions, practiced, and all that good stuff ahead of time. We made the step books one day, from following silent directions of course, and then decorated them. 

Day 2 - I modeled how to make the snowflake using silent directions while the students wrote the directions down. The only talking I did with this is to tell them when to move on from step 1 to step 2 to step 3, etc. The different steps are all on a different tab, and I encouraged them to draw models, too. Anything to help them remember how to make the snowflake, since I would not be helping them make the snowflake the following day.

We made the snowflakes the following day for 2 reasons:

1. I wanted them to forget how to make the snowflake so that they would have to follow the directions they wrote. (At the end of the unit I had them reflect on their directions and parts that helped or needed more details.)

2. Halfway through making the model snowflake I realized I didn't have enough beads to go around, so I had to go to the store that night. OOPS!

Day 3 - I gave the students the materials and let them follow the directions in their step book to make their own snowflake. I walked around while they made it, but I didn't help them. A lot of students asked me for help, but in this case I didn't help them.* I reminded them to read their own directions or ask a partner to borrow their directions.

This took a looooong time, a lot longer than I had anticipated. I planned for about 30 minutes, but it ended up taking about an hour from start to finish. I was really impressed with my kiddos - they were so helpful and kind to each other! I had one student who put the beads on in the wrong order, and I overheard another student say "That's okay. All snowflakes are unique and beautiful, and I think yours looks cool." Makes my teacher heart happy!

Next time you make something with your students give the silent directions a try! Let me know how it goes. Good luck!

*I did end up helping 2 students after the fact. There's always someone with some kind of disability or processing issue that will need some kind of help. #teachersunderstand