Second Grade Polygons

Burned an hour this evening exploring www.lessonplanet.com . Our school has a month-long free trial.  I compared the results from this site to a regular Google search.  The results were very similar.  Lesson Planet has some original plans and many links to public plans. The four plans I liked best are available free online.  With that said...

This week, I am taking a really close look at the second-grade common core standards for Geometry.  Envision, while wonderful, great, etc.,  lacks extended practice & rigor with polygons & their attributes that standard 2.G.1 requires. 

I have found some great lesson plans. Several of them center around a really cute book, "The Greedy Triangle." 

Here are links to lesson plans that I am 'beefing up" to fit the TEAM model and common core. 

The Greedy Triangle - Exploring Polygons with Geo-boards
The Greedy Triangle Lesson Plan (graph paper)
Polygon Scavenger Hunt

This plan includes a great foldable,  Exploring Polygons with the Greedy Triangle .

Alexander Who Used to Be Rich...

Trying to kill two, three, four, birds with one stone! Here's a lesson that I developed this week to address a variety of elements: common core learning task, STEM across curriculum, TEAM lesson planning, LC mentoring, bench mark review to name a few. I snagged the "We Do" word problems directly from "Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday," . The money pictures I cut and pasted from Smart Notebook. I haven't actually implemented the lesson yet. I am hoping to video tape it for a STEM class that I am completing.

Alexander Who Used to Be Rich

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Lesson Plan

Alexander Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday

Second Grade, Common Core Learning Task

Standard:

2.MD.8 Solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ and ¢ symbols appropriately.

Student Objective Statement:

I can solve word problems involving dollar bills, quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies, using $ (dollars) and ¢ (cents) symbols appropriately.

Essential questions:  How will you find the total amount of given currency?  Why is important to know how to count money? 

Hook/Engage – Think, Pair, & Share: What can you do with money? How would you get money?

Activities & Sequencing:

Accessing Prior Knowledge (5 mins):

Money song, Quick Check coin recognition

Vocabulary: Dollar Sign $, Decimal, ¢ Cent Sign

Sequence of whole group, small group, & Independent work:

1.Set the purpose by asking essential questions. Read the story (5-10 mins).

2.Complete the “I Do” story problems by modeling, teacher & student. (10-15 mins)

3.Review expectations, small group/partner assignments and mathematical practices.  Students break into groups and complete the “We Do” tasks (10-15mins).

4.Transition Time/Money Fun Facts (2-3 mins)

5.Share time – choose sets of students to present their work. (5-10 mins)

6.Connecting across  curriculum- Author’s Assignment – writing about money (20-45 mins)

•Discuss what students could purchase if they had $100

•Create a story map reference the slide

•Write personal narratives

7.Close/End of the Day review – “I Do” task

vThis can be treated as an exit slip, if being used for formative assessment. (5-10 mins).

Fabulous Friday, Common Core Reading

Normally, we spend a chunk of Friday exploring common core formats as we prepare for PARCC assessment. So here's a run down of our Fab Friday... Our main selection this week was "Bad Dog Dodger." So we followed this up with three separate reading stories in small group stations. I nabbed these short reads & comprehension questions from Have Fun Teaching. To add rigor and make the tasks more engaging the following elements were required. 1. Students used a marker to highlight text that supported their answers. If partners disagreed about an answer, they had to use evidence and persuasive language to determine which answer was correct. 2. Students created a different Thinking Map for each story by drawing conclusions and siting evidence from each story: Alley Cat & House Cat - Double Bubble Map, Fish Tank - Circle Map, Carly the Carnary - Flow Map. Everyone did such a great job that we followed up with a snack of just for fun! kitty litter cake

Accountability Station

Some classes require a bit more love and attention than others. A.K.A. there are some discipline issues.  At Christmas break, I took some time to evaluate what was working and what wasn't. 

I use a twist on the traveling behavior stick.  It's worked really well for my class over the past three years; however, I realized that this year there needed to be a little something more.  So I shook it up in January by adding an accountability station.  This is a place where students can reflect and have a quiet moment to calm  down. 

accountability flow map

More PowerPoint presentations from Charity Dowell

Vocabulary! Vocabulary! Vocabulary!

Vocabulary, Vocabulary, Vocabulary...

I recently had the opportunity to hear Joanne Billingsley present "Vocabulary Magic".  Inspired by her presentation. I created the following vocabulary activity to go along with the literature unit, " I Like Where I Am."

Students are paired and given a deck of cards. The deck contains 10 vocabulary cards, 10 definition cards, and 10 picture cards.  Students sort the cards into three stacks. With partners they read the vocabulary words and match the pictures to them. Students then follow up by reading the definitions and placing them with the coordinating vocabulary words. Using the new common core mind set... I do not give the students the correct answers. Instead the students are encouraged to discuss the pictures and definitions making changes as they go through the activity. 

To wrap it up, students view a "trailer" that provides the correct answers.  Joanne added music and slides of "Did you know?" statements.  I don't have those in this example, but will add those elements to later versions.

This week second grade kicked off a Math Mania incentive.  Over the past year, I have attended many common core math trainings. One of the biggest ideas expressed was that we have to own it.  With this in mind we decided that fluency was imperative. After a little brain storming, here's what we came up with.

Math Mania

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December Stem Lesson

Instead of making Christmas crafts this year.  Second grade grew Crystals and studied the water cycle.  Planning began by creating a text set.  We selected the following books from scholastic. Included were below, on-lovel, and advanced texts.  

A Drop of Water
Rain
Growing Crystals
Down Comes the Rain
Water Cycle 
The Water Cycle

Next came the fun part. Identifying and refining the big project. We pulled the Crystal Tree idea from "Pinterest."   We also included a simple related experiment.  

This is result of dipping black construction paper into a salt water solution and then allowing time for the water to evaporate.

After just a couple of hours, this is what our crystal Christmas trees looked like.

We added a few drops of food coloring to  the tips before adding the liquid solution to give the crystals some color.

At the end of the school day our card board trees were almost completely covered.