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Camping Theme Week

I've been having another great week with my students! We are celebrating camping this week, and it's been grand fun!

Camping Theme Week! Here are some ideas for turning your classroom into a camping area, and make learning and reviewing skills fun!


As with any unit of study, I start with plenty of good literature:


      


I happen to own some camping gear, so I brought that in to show the kids. I also encouraged the children to bring in flashlights and sleeping bags. They are having a blast during reading time. They crawl right into the sleeping bags and read with their flashlights. Don't you love working with kids with imaginations?

Another thing I found in my cellar: one of these little tents from when my daughter was little.  (Yes, I know, I really need to clean out the little kid toys from my cellar, she's 20!)

It's super easy to set up, and the kids absolutely love it! It set the scene for our camping theme, and it a great place for reading or playing a learning game!

Of course, most of our classwork at this point is review work, so we're working on writing camping stories, squeezing in camping ideas in math, reading, and even science and social studies!  
 
We're learning camping safety and loads about the animals in the woods!

Here's one of my most popular resources, the Buggy Syllables game, which my students absolutely love!  I love it because it's great practice for decoding multiple syllable words!  

Camping Theme Week! Here are some ideas for turning your classroom into a camping area, and make learning and reviewing skills fun!


The above resource is included in my Camping Learning Bundle! I'm real proud of this one! It has a ton of activities to practice literacy and math skills, and since it has the camping theme, it makes everything more fun! 
 
Camping Theme Week! Here are some ideas for turning your classroom into a camping area, and make learning and reviewing skills fun!

Looking for digital resources? Here are a few camping themed Boom Learning cards for some fun review! 
 
Camping Theme Week! Here are some ideas for turning your classroom into a camping area, and make learning and reviewing skills fun!

And last, but not least, here's a nice warm fire for roasting marshmallows!

Yep, the kids love this!  

See THIS POST for more pictures of Camping Week!

Do you have any other great camping ideas?

Camping Theme Week! Here are some ideas for turning your classroom into a camping area, and make learning and reviewing skills fun!


Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week!

In many ways, this has been one of the most fun weeks I've had as a teacher in ages!  Why? Because we're done with most of the "have tos" and I get to teach what I truly feel the children need, and will enjoy. 

Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!


I chose to go with a Seacoast Theme for this week, and I'm not sure who had more fun, me or the kids!

We were totally busy, and squeezed in the seacoast theme every chance we could!

Here are a few of the things we did:

1.  Towels!  We brought in beach towels, and the children sat on them every time we had stories on lessons on the rug. Each day, there were more beach towels and paraphernalia, it really looked like the beach! We even had a couple of "boogie boards" and a child sized beach chair! These came in handy during Independent Reading time, as well. Yes, you guessed it, we read loads of books with the Beach theme!
Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!


Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

2.  Games!  I managed to dig up several games with the beach theme that reviewed important skills we studied this year. Of course, instead of the usual tubs, I picked up some pails and buckets at the dollar store to store the beach themed games. Great stuff!

Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

3. Books, books, and more books!  Our wonderful librarian found some great books for us to share! Here are some of my favorites:
  

  

4. Floating Boats!  This was a huge hit this week, and something I managed to bribe motivate the children with as they're getting into their "summer mode". We made sailboats out of milk cartons, then today we floated our boats. First, they put their boats in the water, then we added "people" (balls of clay) It was interesting to see how many people they put into their boats without disaster. They were thrilled to bring their boats as well as the "people" home at the end of the day today. We called our bodies of water The Atlantic Ocean, The Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean. We figured the Arctic Ocean was mostly ice and probably wouldn't have sailboats. (Yes, I'm always finding excuses to squeeze in a bit of geography review as well!)
 
Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

5.  "Beach Day" Theme Unit: We did manage to squeeze in some real learning, mostly in the form of centers. This set has plenty of review materials for my second graders! You can see this unit by clicking the link below or click here: Seashore Bundle
 
Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

What themes do your students enjoy in your class?

Five Fun Ideas for a Seashore Week: Children absolutely love a theme week. It brings an enthusiasm for learning, and is fun for the teacher, too!

Dictation and Round Robin Proofreading!

Writing sentences from dictation is a very valuable skill!  

Dictation and Round Robin Proofreading: Writing sentences from dictation is a very valuable skill! Here are a few reasons why, and some suggestions on how!

It helps children practice writing sentences and helps them become more fluent writers. It models good grammar for them. It's a great way to catch common errors, and give immediate feedback. (Kids need that, according to brain research!)  It makes a great review for spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and even handwriting! It helps develop short term memory. Plus, kids love the challenge!

Dictation and Round Robin Proofreading: Writing sentences from dictation is a very valuable skill! Here are a few reasons why, and some suggestions on how!

I often give dictation sentences when practicing the spelling patterns each week. At the beginning of the year, the children can barely remember a simple sentence, but by the end of the year, they are writing complex sentences from dictation. I usually use white boards, that are much more forgiving than paper, although on occasion I use paper.
Dictation and Round Robin Proofreading: Writing sentences from dictation is a very valuable skill! Here are a few reasons why, and some suggestions on how!

Last week, I noticed the kids were getting a little lazy about checking their work for simple things like capitals and punctuation, and weren't even catching if they left out a word. I decided it was time to increase the challenge.  

Dictation and Round Robin Proofreading: Writing sentences from dictation is a very valuable skill! Here are a few reasons why, and some suggestions on how!

I made sure each child at each table had a different color white board marker. After dictating the sentence, and having them repeat it back to me twice (that's our routine), I gave them a couple of minutes to write their sentences.  Then I had them pass their whiteboards around the table and see if they could find anything to correct on the new board. I let them check each board around the table until their boards came back to them with all the corrections.

The next sentence I dictated was amazingly more accurate for every child. As they passed their boards, they were finding fewer and fewer of those silly mistakes.

Of course, if there were children struggling, I'd never do this activity. I'd go to those students privately and give them a hand. But knowing that their classmates were going to see their work made them a whole lot more focused to do it right to begin with! It gave them some accountability. After our final round, instead of correcting mistakes, the children were enhancing the sentences by adding quotations or phrases to make it more interesting.

I'm not big on "peer pressure", but sometimes that's just what they need!


Dictation and Round Robin Proofreading: Writing sentences from dictation is a very valuable skill! Here are a few reasons why, and some suggestions on how!

Seashore Week!

Kids love themes, and what is a better theme for the classroom than going to the beach?
Seashore Week! Kids love a fun theme. It's motivating for them and holds their interest. Here are some ideas for spending a week at the "beach!"

No, we're not going to the seashore, I'm just trying to think of fun ways to get them working and learning these last few weeks.  

Here's what we're going to do during Seashore Week:


1. Literature! First of all, there will be plenty of literature!  Here are some books I've found with a seashore or beach theme: (Click the image for a link to Amazon to find more about the book!
                        

I have a feeling I'll find more great books as I go through my classroom library as well as my school library.  I like to read several examples of fiction as well as nonfiction to give the children a real feel for what we're studying. 

2. Music and Sounds! Next, to set the mood:





Here is a Youtube video of ocean waves and sounds: very peaceful! Great background sounds!

Or try this one! I'll be playing this one when they're painting or creating!

2. Writing! After all this seashore learning, We're going to have to do some writing!  I made up some paper with a seashore theme (see image at top of page!)  For this freebie, click HERE.
 
Seashore Week! Kids love a fun theme. It's motivating for them and holds their interest. Here are some ideas for spending a week at the "beach!"

4. Beach Towels! Of course, I really have to get the kids into the feel of the ocean. I'll be inviting them to bring beach towels next week. My plan is to let them take out their towels during Independent Reading time.  I'll play my ocean sound CD, and they can pretend to do my very favorite summer activity... reading at the beach!

5. Beach Themed Centers!  Here's my Seashore Theme Unit Literacy and Math Centers: click the image for the link!
 
 
Seashore Week! Kids love a fun theme. It's motivating for them and holds their interest. Here are some ideas for spending a week at the "beach!"

  Want a little more ocean fun? Here's some Science and Social Studies activities, many of which focus on water! Science and Social Studies Activities for Summer
 
Seashore Week! Kids love a fun theme. It's motivating for them and holds their interest. Here are some ideas for spending a week at the "beach!"
 

What ideas do you have for Seashore Week?  I'd love to hear your ideas!

Seashore Week! Kids love a fun theme. It's motivating for them and holds their interest. Here are some ideas for spending a week at the "beach!"

 

We're in the Money!

We started working on money this week in second grade! 

We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!

 Money is all about skip counting, so if the kids don't know how to skip count, it's going to be tough. Counting by 5s and by 10s is pretty easy for the kids, but I use a little trick from my past to count by 25s.



Brain research tells us that adding movement, as well as repetition helps the memory.



Did I mention that I was once a cheerleader?



This one dates back to the early 70s, but I think I remember my mother saying this one, so I'm guessing it dates back to about the 40s. Some of my girls volunteered to pose for the photographs. I usually call it a chant, not a cheer, so it doesn't scare away my little guys! These movements can be done in quite a manly manner, despite the daintiness you see in these lovely ladies.


A Chant for Quarters!


We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!
Twenty five! (punch arms up and left.)

We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!Fifty! (punch arms down and left.)

We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!Seventy-five! (punch arms up and right.)
We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!A dollar! (Punch arms down and right.)
We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!Everyone for money, (Arms out to sides.)
We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!Stand up, (bend forward, roll arms)

We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!
and holler!  (Put arms up high.)














The kids absolutely love it! (Yes, even the boys!) It makes a nice brain break, or just a warm up for math class. The kids get to move around and practice their skip counting by 25s as well.



Instead of saying "Everyone for money", we usually insert the name of our school.



With my musical theatre background, every time we get ready for math when we're working with money, I break out into the song We're in the Money from the musical 42nd Street. I have a couple of kids in my class that are musically inclined, so last Friday at snack time, I showed them this video:



Every single kid was absolutely mesmerized! They even asked to see it again. (A couple of kids watched it a third time, while waiting for buses!) Then, when it was time to get ready for science, they all started tap dancing. Of course I let them tap dance their way to get their science materials. You can't discourage a desire for musical theatre!

Once they understand counting money, here's a fun game to practice the skill: Coin Trading Game
We're in the money! Counting money is all about skip counting. Here's a little trick to help them remember counting quarters!

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