Resources for April!

I'm so glad to see the calendar finally turning to April! 

March has always been a long month, but April has a whole lot of fun learning to be had! 

Here are links to blog posts for many of the events happening in April!

I've got plenty of April Fool's fun ideas in THIS blog post!

• 8 Ways to Spice Up April Fool's Day

Looking for Science and Social Studies ideas for April?  

• What to do with Leftover Jellybeans

Easter is right around the corner. Here are a couple of blog posts to help you out! Easter Stories, Books, Music, and Fun Resources and An Easter Warning and an Easter Tradition.

Don't forget spring! Although we have snow predicted for this weekend here in New England, spring truly is trying to work it's way through this nasty weather! Be sure to check out these Spring Resources!

Plus, baseball season is starting up! If you have any baseball fans in your classroom, you'll have to checkout Baseball Fun!

For ideas and resources for Earth Day, see THIS link.

 

Many of my friends and coworkers agree, March was a very long month, but it's April, and there's a whole lot to look forward to! Maybe you can start the month winning some great stuff!

What to do with Leftover Jellybeans?

Do you have leftover Jellybeans?  

If you don't, I'll bet you can get some real cheap!

My students and I have been having some fun observing jellybeans that have been soaking in different solutions.

We started by recording our predictions on what might happen.

Then we poured the solutions in and watched.

A day later, we recorded our observations.

The conversations between the groups were priceless! 

They were drawing conclusions and making logical comparisons. What an awesome group of scientists I have!

We have a couple of days before the final observation at the end of the week. It should be interesting to see their final conclusions!

This experiment is part of my Science Experiments and Social Studies Activities for April.

 

I have one of these for each month in an effort to squeeze in Science and Social Studies topics into my second grade. We have so much focus on literacy and math it's tough to squeeze in the subjects that the children love the most! These collections are my attempt to make the life of a primary teacher just a bit easier!

With these Science and Social Studies activities, I can find the time to do some fun stuff, without wasting much class time or prep time. 

Besides the jellybean experiment, there's another experiment on how to make an egg float, the lifecycle of a frog, a close read on Earth Day, and a mapping activity based on major league baseball teams. (The latter is a mini-version of Baseball Geography, which you can see more about HERE.)

You can save by purchasing bundles:

Spring Science and Social Studies Bundle 

A Whole Year of Science and Social Studies Bundle

Baseball Fun and Learning!

I'm so excited that baseball season is finally here! Baseball means spring! 

 After a tough winter, anything that means spring is OK by me! 

 

I've been doing a lot of baseball reading this week, in honor of the opening of baseball season. Here are some favorites: 

• H is for Homerun: a Baseball Alphabet
• My Baseball Book
• Goodnight Baseball
• Play Ball!
• The Lucky Baseball Bat
• Babe Ruth Saves Baseball
• The Berenstain Bears Go Out for the Team
• Baseball Ballerina
• Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia
• Pete the Cat: Play Ball

Baseball and April bring another opportunity: It's National Poetry Month! What a great opportunity to write Diamantes!

Why Diamantes?  Because they are shaped like diamonds!(Get it? baseball diamonds?)

Or check out this resource, with plenty of examples and options!

Speaking of shapes... a baseball diamond could be called a square or a rhombus, but did you realize home plate is shaped like a pentagon?

Have you noticed, when we connect learning to sports, all those little boys perk up?  (Many of the little girls do, too!)

I have a resource I'm VERY excited about called Baseball Geography! 

These are all task cards based on the locations of major league baseball teams! I had such a blast putting this together, and so far my students can't get enough! Plus, they're really getting to know the locations on the US maps!

Here are a couple of other baseball-themed games I've got:

Baseball Antonyms combines a couple of popular games with antonym practice. 

Plus, I have a couple of BINGO games with a baseball theme:

Home Run Two Digit Addition gives the children practice adding 2 two-digit numbers, along with a little strategy. 

 

Home Run Two Syllable Words is a similar BINGO game, but this one gives the children practice reading two-syllable words. 

The students LOVE these BINGO games! 

Come to think of it, they love any time I combine learning with sports!

And, of course, there's one more! A bundle of all of the baseball-themed activities:

How do you integrate sports into the learning process?

The Brain, Baseball, and Geography

I read a lot about how the brain learns and remembers. Why? Because I find it absolutely fascinating. I also want my students to learn, so I'm always searching for ways to help them remember what I've taught.

I've found that kids learn best when they get a little bit at a time, frequently, rather than one big lesson all at once, then never to see it again. (Unfortunately, our present Math program does the latter.)

There's plenty of evidence out there to prove that frequent review and practice are the best way for children to remember what they're learning.

There's also plenty of evidence to prove that connecting learning to the passions of the children helps the learning process as well.

So, what does this have to do with baseball?  That's the passion that I connect to learning geography!

I write a letter every morning to the children, letting them know of anything special happening that day. I also post the learning targets of the day. Then I usually put in some fun little questions and/ or graphics:  you know, to motivate the kids to read the letter!

This movie shows the
insane loyalty of Red Sox fans!

Here in New Hampshire, we are die-hard Red Sox fans. Those of us who grew up in the Boston area have developed a loyalty that we just can't shake. Since the official start of baseball season a couple of weeks ago, I've been writing a little "Red Sox Geography" question in the morning letter, complete with a map and labels.

It might look like this:

or like this:

I admit, I'm as almost as passionate about geography as I am about the Red Sox. If the little ones aren't baseball fans when they come into my class, they certainly are by the time they leave!

I make sure we have plenty of maps around, and the children scramble to be the first ones with the answer! It's just a little bit every day, but they become familiar with the names of the states, the bodies of water, and the cardinal directions. 

The timing is good, since their reading skills and their mapping skills are strong enough for these activities by April, and since we won't get out until the last week of June, they'll be getting almost daily practice!

Want to know more about brain-based learning? See Ten Brain Based Learning Strategies or 10 Key Brainy Points.

See also this resource with Geography Baseball Task Cards!

 How do you use their passions to get them interested in schoolwork?

 

Celebrate Spring With Games!

I am so ready for Spring!  

Here in New Hampshire, the temperature seems to have trouble getting past the 40s, and there are still patches of snow everywhere, including my garden!

But Spring is in my heart, as well as my classroom.  

Here are some of my Spring Products that you'll find my students using!  

Earth Day Vocabulary Match is a fun way to review words related to Earth Day and protecting the environment.  There are several variations of play!

 

Spring Flower "Go Fish" Game is a great way to practice the prefixes un-, dis-, re-, and pre- as well as the meanings of these prefixes.

Here's another game with prefixes, with suffix practice as well!

Rainy Day Prefixes and Suffixes gives the children practice finding the base word of words with prefixes and suffixes.  The children can focus on just prefixes, just suffixes, or combine the two!

Two Rainbow Games:  Nouns and Adjectives, Verbs and Adverbs is a great opportunity to practice making up adjectives to go with nouns, and making up adverbs to go with verbs.  

Mental Math Addition and Subtraction Game With a Spring Theme allows the students to add or subtract multiples of ten mentally.  

I have a whole lot of sports-related products, and baseball season is upon us!  Here are a few baseball-themed games:

Baseball Antonyms is a simple matching game for antonyms.  It can also be played as an "Old Maid" game, which the kids love!

Home Run Two Digit Addition is a BINGO type of game to practice two-digit addition skills (with or without regrouping).

Looking for more sports-related resources? See HERE!

How are you celebrating Spring in your classroom?