Dr. Seuss Week

It goes without saying that Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite authors. And fun fact, we share the same birthday! Since Monday was Read Across America Day, we decided to study Dr. Seuss and his books all week!

We started the week by writing Dr. Seuss a birthday card. 

 Each week, my second grade team creates a PowerPoint in Google Slides. This works well because we are all easily able to edit and add to the slides. Then we just follow the slides throughout the day.

 To celebrate Read Across America Day, a guest reader visited each classroom. Kathy Davis, Laveen School District's, Executive Director of Academic Services, read Edward the Emu. 

 We ended the day with a birthday celebration, to celebrate my 25th and Dr. Seuss' birthday.

 On Tuesday, we read a Biography on Dr. Seuss, created by Samantha McClure. This books was great because it reinforced what we learned about non-fiction text features.  After reading the book, we did a directed drawing, and students wrote three facts about Dr. Seuss.

On Wednesday, we read Oh, the Places You'll Go. Students organized their thoughts using the graphic organizer below. Then they wrote their final drafts on hot air balloons. The super cute hot air balloon craftivity was from Saddle Up for Second Grade. Since we are in the middle of our measurement unit, I ended up having my second graders measure the yarn. I love when I am able to apply math skills in real world situations! 

CLICK HERE for a copy!

 Dr. Seuss week wouldn't have been complete without creating oobleck! First we read Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Then, students wrote the recipe for Oobleck on a recipe card. Next, students used the recipe card and measuring tools to make the concoction. 

In math we read The Foot Book, by Dr. Seuss. Then, I introduced the ruler! After some exploration and direct teaching, students worked on a fun foot activity. Each student traced his/her foot and used a ruler to measure the length in centimeters and inches. 

 The next day, we learned about yardsticks. Students made their own yard stick, then worked in groups to measure how tall they were in inches. 

 On Friday, I introduced another tool used to measure length, the measuring tape. Students worked in groups to find out how round their heads are. They then created tables to record their data.

All in all it was another great week! Only one more week until Spring Break! Where is the time going!?

Water Travels in a Cycle, Yes It Does!

This four day week flew by, probably because it was one busy week.

My team is trying to be really cognizant of incorporating reading and writing with other content areas. This week we were able to combine reading, writing, and science. 

Students have been learning about different non-fiction text features. 

So, to apply our knowledge, we made a non-fiction book about the 

Water Cycle. 

 First, we made the table of contents.

 Then, we did a close read. 

As we implement the common core ELA standards, we have been trying to up not just the Lexile level of passages, but the text complexity in general. 

 Once we annotated the passage and used context clues to make meaning of unfamiliar words, students completed the vocabulary graphic organizer. 

Later in the week, we re-read the passage with the intent of using our new knowledge to make a diagram (another non-fiction text feature!).

 Last, each student made a Water Cycle bracelet. 

After the bracelets were assembled, we used one of my favorite Kagan strategies, Mix-Pair-Share, to verbally explain the stages of the 

Water Cycle. 

To assess learning, students wrote a paragraph describing the stages of the water cycle. I loved how students who knew nothing about the Water Cycle, and who weren't even able to read words like "evaporate" and "condensation" at the beginning of the week, were able to accurately talk and write about it.  

To get a copy of this Water Cycle product, click HERE.  

...And so our weather unit continues,  up next week, clouds! 

One last thing...

I wanted to share, our Water Cycle song & dance! Love these Sweet Peas!

Author Visit: Brooke Bessesen

Today was so much fun! Children's author, Brooke Bessesen came to our school to talk about her books, the writing process, and protecting the Earth! She was an amazing presenter, and the kiddos loved her!

Brooke Bessesen has written Look Who Lives in the Desert, Look Who Lives in the Ocean, and Zachary Z. Packrat.  Her books are compelling, creative, and unique. They are factual, but also contain literacy skills such as rhyming. I think what I admire most about Brooke is her ability to embed the important theme of "protecting and saving our Earth" into her books.

For this visit, Brooke teamed up with Author's for Earth Day, a coalition of authors who support conservation through literacy. Author's for Earth Day participants fund conservation organizations as directed by student votes at their hosting schools.


Once we found out Brooke was coming, we needed to research her five not-for-profit conservation organization "nominees".

National Resource Defense Council

Viva Vaquita!

The Nature Conservancy

Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots

Conservation International 

After we finished our research, we were able to learn a little bit about the voting process. Students first, had to vote for the organization they felt most passionate about, and then submit their "ballot".

Last, we were able to entwine reading and math because we graphed the results.

As you can see, Viva Vaquita! had the most votes. This was also, the most popular organization school-wide, so Brooke will be donating the $750.00 to this important cause!!


I love when I am able to connect all subjects and create a real-life, meaningful learning experience.  It was fun for me to see the students so engaged and passionate about protecting our beautiful Earth.

Thank you, Brooke for being so inspiring!

For more information about Brooke Bessesen and/or Author's for Earth Day, click on the links below!

http://www.brookebessesen.com/index.html
http://www.authorsforearthday.org/

And So It Begins!

Hello!

I am so excited to be joining the blogging world. It is here that other amazing teachers constantly inspire me!

It took me awhile to start this blog. This may seem silly, but I couldn’t for the life of me think of a name for my blog. I am a bit of a perfectionist, so it had to be just right or I couldn’t continue with this venture. Finally, late one night it came to me, Second Grade Sweet Peas. It was perfect! So, the next morning, I contacted The Cutest Blog On the Block, and they helped me design this blog. They were amazing to work with and I would recommend them to anyone!

I love my blog design and I love my blog’s name. First of all, I always refer to my kiddos as sweet peas. Second, I am fascinated by the language of flowers and knew the meaning of Sweet Peas was a perfect representation of my feelings about this blog.  Sweet Peas are a delicate and wonderfully fragrant climbing flower. They represent simple pleasures.

By Aftabbanoori (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Since I am so new at blogging, I have so many questions. So I have some question for you all! How do you maintain your blogs? Do you set a schedule or blog whenever there is time in your schedule?

Testing...testing 123 :0)

Im just making sure everything is working how it should! You can delete this post anytime! :0) Enjoy your new blog design!