summer school

Summer school.
Wait.
What?

Yep! Summer school! I have been back in the classroom for 2 weeks (thankfully just Monday-Thursday) for several hours a day. It's been great to be back on a schedule and to teach!

support for you

On these days when you're not sure how to proceed, I wanted to share some free things that I've added to my blog that you can send to your families or print to use at home. Please check out the freebies link at the top of the page. I have added 3 things there in the last week.

A new item that I had the chance to use for one day in my classroom before being shut down was this to practice 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, and 100 less. Prints great on colored paper and I did laminate mine, but that's not necessary.

Just provide your student with a paper clip to use the spinners and markers for the board. We played until we had 5 in a row. There are 4 different boards to download and use.

Best wishes to you!

Double Digit Addition

My second grade class has been busy solving two digit addition problems. They are such hard workers! I was blown away this week, watching one struggle and his team member leaned over his desk and walked him through step-by-step how to solve the problem. 

Number Sense {comparing numbers}

Number sense ... something so very important for our younger students to understand smaller numbers or else they won't understand much larger numbers.

Money!

As we wrap up this week before Spring Break (and try to cram every last bit of Easter themed activity possible!), we are also finishing our money unit in math.

We have been using these coin boxes to practice counting collections of coins and to support our money lessons. Second graders in Virginia are to count pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters to $2.00. The second part of our standards states that the second graders will compare amounts to $2.00. This is something that my students struggle with, especially the children who have a hard time correctly counting the amounts as they in some circumstances have to count 2 sets of coins and then compare them using greater than, less than, and equal to.

When I came to second grade from first grade (I did 2 years of first/second combo classes), I had a hard time finding materials to use to cover this, so I created my comparing money mini unit.

There are 2 sets of task cards with recording pages. This image is from one of the sets, which only require the children to look at a given amount and decide which is greater than, etc. The second set has 2 amounts to count before comparing.

Well, we still needed more practice. So this happened:
(and who can't pass up these cute unicorns?!)

here's the compare two sets of coins in which the amounts need to be counted first

 and the recording page for the cards (and there's an answer key included)

And if you click on one of the images from the unicorn set, you can download it for free! I hope your students have success at comparing money!

Double Digit Subtraction

A couple of posts ago I shared that my second graders were working on double digit addition and subtraction. Well, we are 4 full days into subtraction with borrowing. We do a quick review each day before beginning the lesson. 

Last week when I introduced this, we started using unifix cubes - our best friend!

First we built the number on top of the problem - 37.

When we saw that we couldn't take 8 away from 7, we borrowed from the tens and broke it up into 10 cubes.

Then we changed the numbers on the top of our problem to show what we have using the unifix cubes.

And now time to start subtracting! 

17 - 8 = 9

And 2 - 1 = 1

We have tried writing the problems on our own, but some of my children have sloppy handwriting and writing the problems on their own is challenging and frustrating, so I quickly put this together to help alleviate some of that frustration.

Check out this low prep double digit subtraction unit. 3 pages of just printables and 20 half-page colored cards with recording pages, perfect for a math center or use as part of your math groups!

Tracking Student Data

Four years ago in a faculty meeting my principal challenged us to find a way to have our students monitor their own progress. Having taught fourth grade for eight years before moving down to the primary grades (5 years in first, 2 years as a first/second combination, and now just in second), I knew it would be easier for older children to do this, but my first graders? Several teachers sat down and talked how we could do this. We knew the importance and that it would both motivate and challenge our students to work harder and push themselves in ways that we couldn't. But what were we to do with all of that data? Math standards from unit tests ... reading levels ... iStation reports ...

We decided charts would be the easiest for us to create. Our report cards are standards based for kindergarten through second grade, so a 4-3-2-1 vertical chart made the most sense to us. The first year we made math charts for first and second grades and had them in chronological order according to our pacing guide.

During the summer after that first year I wondered how I could add in spelling. That year I was teaching the combination class and the number of words on the tests were different, so I created different charts using the percentages that they could color in after the weekly tests.

With all that said, here's what we came up with.

These are my folders this year. (In my combination classes I had different color folders to keep them easily sorted.)

This is what the math standards charts look like. The SOL (Standard of Learning in Virginia) is listed at the top, along with what part of the school year we covered it. But our pacing guide changed over the summer after we had already copied all of our folders, so we left them for this year.

The green section was from one test - identifying ordinal positions and writing the ordinal position. I sometimes take summative grades that I use for my data folders in a large unit, but other times, in smaller units, I take just one for several parts of the standard.

Depending on how well they do on the summative assessments correlates with what is colored in on the chart.

When students do not show mastery of a skill, we pull something that matches the content and place in the back of their folder. That work is used to drive our intervention time one to two times a week as needed.

This is what the spelling sheets look like. At times it has been a real struggle to get the charts colored in each week due to time constraints. This afternoon when I was having mini conferences with my students to color in their charts from our test, several were excited that they had improved this week's score from last week's. It made me smile!

Here's a link to get the spelling charts to use in your classroom. There are 3 completed ones - with 10 words, 12 words, and 16 words - as well as a blank one to edit as you need.

Do you use data folders or charts? Pros and cons of them? Do you include something different in yours?

I will be honest - it's a lot of work at the beginning, but once you have it finished, you shouldn't need to change it (unless your pacing guide changes!) and not only is it a motivator for your students, but a great piece of information to use in parent conferences.

Until next time,

Two Digit Addition and Subtraction

We are well into our two digit addition and subtraction unit! This is such an exciting time in second grade - harder math and cursive! 

We've been using the activities in my double digit task cards and printables unit.

It's divided into addition with and without regrouping.

 And also divided into subtraction with and without borrowing.

There are 6 sets of task cards and recording pages.

There's also 8 printables, all divided to use as you teach each part of this unit.

We will start estimation in the next week or so ... I will have an update for you with our activities.

But for now, a freebie only on the blog!

Included are 8 printables for two digit addition and subtraction!

What are your favorite go-to resources for teaching two digit addition and subtraction?

Math: 10 More, 10 Less, 100 More, and 100 Less

We are working hard through our number sense unit this month. We have covered rounding, comparing numbers, and using base ten blocks through the thousands. This week we are working on 10 more, 10 less, 100 more, and 100 less up to 999.

Yesterday we began with 10 more and 10 less using a hundreds chart. We started with two digits numbers and then moved to three digit numbers. This mini unit has a set of task cards with recording page and 7 printables. If you aren't sure about purchasing the unit, download this one page freebie which is similar to what is in the packet.

This will finish up our number sense unit, just in time to take our second quarter math assessment and have a couple of fun math days before Christmas break!

1,000 Followers Announcement!

Some people think of Monday like this .....

Hopefully I can turn your Monday around!

Last week I reached 1,000 followers in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

I wanted to thank YOU with a gift! We have been working on alphabetical order to the second and third letter in order to work on guide words, so I created this Christmas tree package sorting activity to practice. Included are 6 trees with presents to sort with the correct tree. I put 2 trees in a bag, making 3 centers. I have also included an alphabetical order cut, sort, glue printable, and a guide word cut, sort, glue printable in this freebie. Click here or on the center picture below to download!

One of my reading groups is working on my Rudolph reader this week.

And we are continuing to work on number sense in math. Today we began rounding. About half of my class "got it" in the first couple of numbers. Hopefully tomorrow we will have light bulbs going off everywhere! I have a rounding activity in my Christmas Place Value Unit, but I also created 2 sets of task cards and some printables in my Rounding to the Nearest Ten Unit.

I have 12 more school days until Christmas break! Here's to the countdown!

Christmas Math Centers

After two years of a first/second combination, I am back to teaching just one grade level - second! As much as I loved first grade, I love second, also. They become more independent and my class just loves read-to-self!

Tomorrow we begin our place value unit for the next three weeks, which puts us in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I had to make our task cards cutesy! 😃 Here's some of the things that we are going to be working on.

identifying the place value of a given digit

identify the value of a given digit

rounding 2 digit numbers to the nearest ten

identifying numbers larger than or smaller than a given number

greater than, less than, and equal to

10 more, 10 less, 100 more, 100 less

tens and ones

greater than, less than, or equal to

My students this year really benefit from getting up and moving around, especially since our math time is after recess and lunch. I try to have at least one activity a day to have them up and moving. Having these task cards with accompanying recording pages is going to be perfect!

This all comes from my Christmas Place Value Unit. It will be on sale on November 27 and 28 for the TpT Cyber Day Sale!

Click here or on the TpT sale picture to shop my store!

But wait! Need some extra activities to review rounding? Check out this new unit!

set #1 of rounding task cards

set #2 of rounding task cards

rounding printable

rounding printable

And a Cyber Monday freebie for you! Two activities similar to the place value task cards in the Christmas Place Value Unit for free! Click here or on any of the images to download the Christmas Place Value Freebie!

Included are 2 sets of task cards (one page from each is pictured below) with recording pages and answer keys.

I hope you have a great week back after Thanksgiving! Here's to the Christmas countdown!