Five for Friday - February 15th

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs for her Five for Friday link up party again. 

1. I purchased three new books and stuffed animals for my classroom library. I gushed about my love for $5 Kohl's children's books here. I was excited to add a few more Dr. Suess books to my collection. I made a Horton birthday chart for my Suess inspired classroom that you can check out here. Now I have the stuffed animal to match!

2. Speaking of books - we had our Scholastic book fair this week! It's always a lot of fun for the teachers, students and parents. I received several books from my "wish list" and now I have a huge stack of new books to add to my classroom library next week. A teacher can never have too many books!

3. 2 Digit Addition Roll to review 2-digit addition problems. It was a great way to review 2-digit addition before starting our 2-digit subtraction with regrouping unit this week. You can pick up the template for free here. I put the students with partners and they took turns rolling dice to fill in the top numbers. They loved the excitement of not knowing whether or not they had to regroup until they filled in the top four squares. 

4. Highlighting money amounts in old Scholastic book order flyers to learn about money amounts using a dollar sign and decimal point! I get so many of these in the mail. I can't stand the thought of throwing all of them out so I try to use them for various activities! They loved hunting for different money amounts. 

5. We made owls to go along with a book we read about a baby owl being rescued and taken to a bird sanctuary. Students wrote about what they would do if they saw a baby owl fall from a tree. I laid out all kinds of scrap paper and let them create their own unique owls. I used this template and they had so much fun creating their owls and imagining what they would do to take care of one. 

We had a busy, busy week in 2nd grade! 

Valentine's Day Fun in 2nd Grade

"Do you know how people fall in love Miss Schneider? Cupid shoots his arrow at a boy and girl and that's how it happens." - direct quote from one of my 2nd graders during our Valentine's Day Party this afternoon. I think some of them have been bitten by the love bug.

It was a busy day in 2nd grade - 

I made these Valentines to give my students.  I used the smiley monster font from Kevin and Amanda's website and I found the stickers at a local store. I purchased both the pencils and bubbles from Target and tied them together with yarn. They were super quick and easy to create and my students loved them. What 2nd grader doesn't love a new pencil and bubbles? 

"You're sharp Valentine! I'm bubbling over with thanks for all your hard work!"

I bought plain white lunch bags at Target for the students to decorate. I laid out several hearts of different sizes and colors. The only requirement for the bag was that they had to write their name on it so their classmates knew where to deliver the Valentines. I love how they all turned out so unique and creative. A heart octopus and scuba divers? I never would have thought of that! Their bags were bursting at the seams with Valentines when they left school this afternoon. 

We started our party with Valentine's Day Bingo. Each student received a Bingo board and a list of Valentine inspired words. I copied their boards on pink paper, because the game is obviously more exciting with bright colored paper. Students were instructed to write each of the words in random order on their own bingo boards. (See my example below.) 

They used candy conversation hearts to mark the words I called off. It was a fun way to review horizontal, vertical and oblique lines, as well as practice how to spell some difficult words. (I think teachers can find something educational in any activity and the students don't realize they are actually learning at the same time!) Although they had a lot of fun playing bingo, I think their favorite part of the game was when I said, "Okay, you can eat the game pieces now!"

We ended the party with grilled cheese hearts, strawberries and Rice Krispie Treats. I could go on and on about my amazing room mothers and their cute ideas - the grilled cheese hearts were a hit!

Happy Valentine's Day! What did you do to celebrate?