Rain Forest Fun!

The 2nd graders have eaten me alive!! Just kidding...but it sure feels that way! I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted! I have been busy, busy, busy setting up a new room, planning for a new grade, and I've had about 5 TpT projects on my to-do list.

The biggest thing taking up my time has been creating two GLAD units on the rain forest and desert to fit the science CCSS. GLAD stands for Guided Language Acquisition Design. I went to a wonderful two-week GLAD boot camp last summer and learned a lot of great techniques and activities for teaching science AND reaching my ELD students, all while making science fun! 

I'd first taken a mini GLAD workshop 6 years ago when I was a brand-new teacher, but the boot camp this summer really inspired me.

We started off with a GLAD version of the classic KWL chart. What we know, what we want to know.

Another day the kids examined rain forest "observation charts" in their table teams:

These are simple - photos of the rain forest mounted on construction paper. The kids went to each one and wrote their questions, thoughts, and "noticings" on the paper next to it. Each student had their own marker color and had to put their initials next to their comment so I could make sure everyone was writing. 

These were fun to read as a class, the kids had great thoughts to share!

Another day I taught them this rain forest chant my teaching partner and I wrote, 

complete with movements for each line.

Notice that each part of speech is color-coded (nouns=blue, verbs=green, adverbs=red, adjectives=pink, prepositional phrases=orange). This is another GLAD strategy so that you can use this fun chant for more than just singing and moving.

I then introduced them to the important vocabulary words we are learning as part of the unit, which I created word wall cards for:

Next I read them my teacher-created big book about the RF:

To go along with my big book, I got the idea to create a student mini-book with the text from the BB plus additional activities.

We also worked on creating rain forest animal reports with this form I created and information about the animals that I printed off of the internet.

We also did a fun visualizing activity, where I read this book aloud. 

The students closed their eyes and I didn't show them the illustrations. They had to practice imagining the story in their head, then I gave them time to draw what they saw in their mind on paper. It was wonderful because the kids were completely silent the whole time! Then I had the kids summarize what they heard in their journals. One student took the time (2 days!) to write a very detailed summary, drawing and listing every single rain forest animal that appeared in the book.

Believe it or not, 3 weeks later we are still going strong with our unit! GLAD units are generally about a month in length because they are very in-depth. To wrap up the unit, we are going to revisit our input chart (the KWL-like chart from the 1st day), play a unit review game (played Jeopardy style in table teams), create our own rain forest chant, AND paint pictures of the animals and plants to put up on the huge rain forest mural we are creating in the hallway. 

To supplement the unit, we watched rain forest videos on You Tube and BrainPop Jr. on my iPad. I checked out all of the rain forest books I could find at the public library.

 I also got some amazing resources from Amazon:

And this wonderful Scholastic rain forest bulletin board set:

In fact, everything that I bought from Amazon to use for this unit (LOVE my Prime membership!) can be found on the little pink Amazon widget to your right.

I can honestly say that I (and my students!) have never had so much fun with science! I am working on compiling the rain forest materials I created to post on my TpT store, so keep your eyes peeled if you'd like to do this unit with your class too! =)

Summer Lovin'

It seems like FOREVER since I've had time to blog, so I thought I'd make a summer lovin' list to summarize all of the things I've been loving this summer.

#1 - Redecorating

This has taken up the majority of my time this summer, but I'm finally done, and boy, does my house look awesome!!

 Great room before: 

Ugly green walls from when we were into a "Tahitian" theme years ago.

Great room after:

We used "Balanced Beige" by Sherwin-Williams. Awesome paint, only took one coat! And I'm a tad-bit obsessed with that chevron pillow I scored at Tuesday Morning. =)

Next plan: to replace the ugly brown carpet with laminate later this summer, can't wait!

Office Before:

 Really weird tan-pink color. I hated it right after I did it.

 Office after:

Used the leftover paint from the great room. The original plan was to just do the great room, but I started getting carried away. ;)

 Entryway after: 

I unfortunately forgot to take a before picture, just imagine yellow-ish walls with lots of holes and a white door with lots of scratches and marks! 

I repainted the entry and hallways in Aesthetic White by Sherwin-Williams, as it coordinated really well with the beige color. The door got a makeover too with a new peephole installed and 2 coats of Balanced Beige on both sides. Love it!!

#2 - Exercising

It's been one year (and 50 lbs!) since I joined 24 Hour Fitness and faithfully went 3-4 times a week during the school year, but I really wanted to ramp it up in the summer. I've been going 6 times a week and added in some new classes, along with my beloved Zumba.

 #3 -  Reading

 Like many teachers, I have zero time to read for pleasure during the school year, so it feels like a guilty pleasure getting to read whatever I want during the summer! This series came highly recommended to me, so I finally got the series and so far, I'm hooked!

 #4 -  Creating

I had a special request on TpT to create a set of daily schedule cards at the beginning of summer, so that's been my latest TpT project posted. I've since added in other color schemes and am happy to create new ones to match anyone's classroom theme! I'm also in the midst of working on another big project, which I hope to have done very soon.

     

     

 #5 -  Teacher Workshops

I'm in the middle of a big GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) workshop. So far I've attended 2 days of training and will go for another week to observe the strategies being used with students (yes, they actually brought in students willing to attend school during summer! Something tells me they are probably all teachers' kids, ha!). I'm also going to be attending a Kim Sutton math conference in August. More to come about these later!

And just had to share, I was thrilled to find some awesome school supplies in the Dollar Spot at Target today! Check out my loot:

Self-inking stamps, a Suzy's Zoo (LOVE!) book, name tags, a "jingle stick" to use as an attention-getter in class, and the best part - dry erase pockets. Those things are so handy!

Five for (the last!) Friday

#1 - Field Trip to the Zoo + a Freebie!

 After 2 months of planning, I finally got to take my class to the Oregon Zoo this week. We had nice weather (thank goodness!) and I was able to get some great shots:

 To make the trip more educational (and to add a bit of friendly competition), I created a fun zoo scavenger hunt for the kids to do on the trip. The kids were really into finding more animals than their friends, then we compared results afterwards. You can see one of my students filling in an answer above.

You can get it for FREE by clicking on the pictures below:

           

#2 - Jamberry Nails

I'd never heard of Jamberry stick-on nail designs until I was invited to a Jamberry party last week. I'm a little obsessed with cute nails, so I was excited. At the party we got to do one nail on each hand, so I came prepared with a manicure on all but one finger! I got lucky and just happened to get a design that matched my polish. 1.5 weeks later and the nail decal is still going strong!

They had a buy 3, get 1 free deal, so I ordered these designs:

The top left design matches perfectly with my chevron-inspired bathroom and bedroom makeovers, which leads into...

#3 - Chevron Crazy

Seriously, Urban Outfitters has the CUTEST home decor. Just got these in the mail, can't wait to use them!

#4 - Telling Time

I came up with this cute little song set to the tune of "I'm a Little Tea Pot" to help my firsties remember how to tell time. It goes with body movements - using their arms to show the hour hand and minute hand. 

My team is piloting instructional coach rounds for the entire district (which they decided to spring on us the last 2 weeks of school, I might add!) so we were focusing on the GLAD strategy of TPR (Total Physical Response) when I came up with this.

#5 - Sweet Treat Awards

We aren't out of school until next week, but today we did our candy awards - the kids LOVED it! I got the idea from another teacher-blogger to lay down a "red carpet" with butcher paper so it was like a real awards ceremony. The kiddos showing off their treats:

 (FYI - it took them FOREVER to all cover their faces so I could use this on my blog, haha)

You can find the awards on my TpT store by clicking on the picture below: