November to Remember

Now that the school year has gotten well underway, students and teachers are buckling down preparing for unique ways to meet learning targets and benchmarks, as well as getting ready for two of the biggest celebrations of the year--Thanksgiving and Winter break, of course! Along with autumn winds come festive seasonal lessons and projects. 2nd grade students designed and created a very unique scarecrow and story to match. Students were to create a scarecrow from a given or self-made template and write a story with a problem and a solution. I was so impressed with all of the unique plots and story lines! Check them out:

Of course, you can't have a scarecrow without a few crows flying around. Using the Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge teacher resources, I found an arts integrated lesson that incorporated drama, visual art, math, science, and reading. First, my students read Aesop's fable, "The Crow and the Pitcher" from the Pearson Reading Street class anthology. We then watched a YouTube version of the same story. Students used a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two versions. Throughout the week, students designed and created crow sock puppets following the instructions in the lesson plan found here.

On Friday the lesson came together in an engaging multi-disciplinary center time.  
Center 1: Readers' Theater (Drama/Comprehension/Retell)-Students used their own puppets to act out and retell the story.

Center 2: Partner Reading (Foundations/Details/Story Structure)-Students read the story and discussed important details. Students also analyzed the overall story structure using a graphic organizer.

Center 3: Estimation (Math/Science)-Students worked together to predict and estimate how many pebbles would be needed to allow the water to rise to the designated line. Students then tested their hypotheses and recorded the data from their results.

My students were entirely engaged and thoroughly enjoyed each aspect of this week long lesson! They couldn't wait to take their crows home and share what they had learned.

Coming Soon: Eric Carle Author/Illustrator Study Inspired Social Studies Lessons

Arts in Autumn and Hands-On Math

Mrs. Scrivner's Stars have been rocking since August! We have been working hard and learning lots through home projects, hands-on learning, and arts integrated lessons. As October came to an end, we celebrated Red Ribbon Week with fun dress-up days.

Wacky Hair Day

Crazy Socks Day

October 31st Superhero and Mustache Day

We also had a home project this month. Students created a timeline of their lives to coincide with the Reading Street story Abraham Lincoln by Delores Malone. Students were given the assignment and then assessed according to a teacher-created rubric. Snag the rubric for FREE from my Teachers Pay Teachers shop. We also began comparing and contrasting holidays and traditions in the United States with holidays and traditions in other countries. We learned about Dia de los Muertos through Jasmine Orellano's wonderful powerpoint. Next, we compared/contrasted using Open Wide the World's freebie here on TPT. This lesson was enriched through visual arts as the students planned out their own calaveras skull masks and designed them using glitter, feathers, beads, flowers, markers, and more!

During this semester, our school began a partnership with artists at the Huntsville Ballet Company . From October to November, AAA 2nd grade was fortunate enough to have dance instructor Susan Kelly collaborate, model, and teach an ELA lesson through movement and dance once a week. The students and I have learned so much through this partnership. Here are a few sights from the lessons. 

     

Finding Beat and Rhythm while Mirroring Partners

Creating Story Plot Vignettes Together

We've also been learning how to play our violins in Strings class with Ms. Peck.

Lastly, here are a few pics from some of our hands-on cooperative learning math lessons, a reader's theater with song, and candid shots from the classroom. 

Thanks for visiting our class blog! Check often for updates and freebies. Coming soon: Kennedy Center Arts Edge lessons in action and winter activities!